goes along with my thoughts. You know, sometimes people can
be critical of a preacher, but none as much as the preacher
himself. And you get to thinking sometimes,
you know, you preach three times a week and you get to thinking,
well, saying the same old thing and using the same phrases. And it's the Lord who makes the
things new. We preach the same old thing,
but the Lord makes it new. But I've talked to several pastor
friends that'll say something like that, you know, that feel
like I say the same thing every time. And we all use, each preacher
has their phrases, you know, and you just get to where you
have a way you say things. I'll listen to somebody else,
and I'm used to them. I know how they're going to say
certain things. And I was thinking that this
week, and this afternoon, I had my message, and I thought, I'm
going to look and see if Spurgeon preached on this passage out
of Romans 5. And so he had a message called
the old, old story. I was thinking all of these thoughts,
you know. kind of being critical of myself. And he had a sermon
called The Old, Old Story. And so I pulled it up, and I
want to read this to you. This is what he said. His point
in his message was that some people think the gospel is, because
we preach, it's repetitious. They think it's monotonous and
it gets old to them. And I don't think God's people
feel that way because the Lord keeps it keeps renewing us in
our heart, keeps it new, but it'll get old to a carnal man.
But he made this statement, he said, he was looking over his
notes and he said, I could not help fencing that I had not advanced
a single inch upon any new domain of thought, but was preaching
the same old gospel in the same old terms as ever. And it kind
of, I don't know, it just made me feel like, okay, I'll quit
being so critical of myself, I guess. I know when my pastor
used to say things like that, I'd tell him, well, don't come
up with something new. I don't want to hear something
new. Keep preaching what you're preaching. But I do want to be
simple. I do want to be simple. It's
midweek, and I know you worked all day, and I want to be simple.
Let's read. I just want to read one verse
here in Romans 5, verse 6. He says, for when we were yet
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now I mainly want to preach from
this second part of this verse. When we were yet without strength
in due time, and here's what I mainly want to focus on, Christ
died for the ungodly. I've titled this Good News for
the Ungodly. And this is the main point. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly. Now here's our points. Who died?
Christ died. Why did he die? See that word
for? Christ died for? That word indicates
substitution. Christ died as a substitute,
a substitute. And then three, who did he die
for? Christ died for the ungodly. And then fourthly, we'll see
what did he accomplish? Now, first of all, who died?
It says, when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died. The Lord Jesus is the only begotten
Son of God. That's who He is, the only begotten
Son of God. Look at Matthew 3. Matthew chapter
3, look at verse 16. It says, And Jesus, when He was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And lo, the
heavens were opened unto Him, And he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, John did, and lighting upon him, and
lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am. Well, please. He's the beloved
Son of God. Go with me to Matthew 1. Matthew
1. In Matthew 1, he's the When we hear
he's the Son of God, now some people preach that and they say
that means he's lesser than God. No, he's equal with God, he is
God. Matthew 1.23 says, Behold, a
virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son and they shall
call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. He is God, God with us. One more
place, go to John 1. Who died? The beloved, only begotten,
beloved Son of God, who himself is God. Look here now, John 1.1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. Jehovah's so-called, so-called
Jehovah's Witnesses. Their Bible says, and he was
a God. They don't say he was God. Their
Bible says this, and the word was a God. No, the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. Okay, verse 14. And the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth." Who died? Christ is the Word. He's the
Son of God. God Himself. He's our Creator. He's the life. He's the light
of men. The word God became a man. He's the God-man. He was made
flesh and blood and dwelt among us. Now what does Christ mean? Christ died. What does Christ
mean? It's the same word as Messiah
in the Hebrew language. Same word, Christ and Messiah.
And it means he's the anointed of Jehovah. Before creation,
God chose his son to give him all preeminence, to magnify him
above all and give him all preeminence. Lord chose his son to be his
righteous servant. At his baptism, the Lord anointed
him with the Holy Spirit, manifesting to all, declaring to all when
he spoke from heaven that he is the Christ of God. That's
who he is. We saw Isaiah 42, Verse one,
behold my servant, the Lord said, behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth, I've put my spirit
upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles,
and he shall not fail. He shall not fail. The Lord chose
his son, he anointed his son to manifest God. God's spirit, he's invisible,
and he chose his son to come and become a man, to manifest
the invisible God to a people that are flesh and blood. God
hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, who he appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the world, who being
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.
That's who he is, he's the image of the invisible God. Everything
God declares about himself, we behold in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Christ specifically refers to
his union as God and man, being God and being man. When we speak
of Christ, we're talking about Him not being only God, and we're
not saying He's the only man, we're saying He's the God-man.
That's what we mean when we speak of Him being the Christ. And
this entire Word, everything in the Word of God is concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. In all the law, He's the righteousness
of the law. He's in all the types and all
the shadows of the law. The prophecies all speak of Him,
all declare His coming, what He would accomplish. The whole
Word is concerning Him. He's the fullness, all fullness
of heaven, earth, all fullness dwells in Him. He's the light
of men, all fullness dwells in Him. We get all fullness of grace
from him. Everything God has for his people
is from Christ. Life and grace is in him, through
him, and to his praise and glory. All God's creation, his holy
angels and his holy people, will now and forever spend eternity
praising and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who died. That's who we're talking about
now. That's who died. Now, why did he die? Romans 5,
6 says, when we were without strength in due time, Christ
died for, for somebody, as a substitute, in the place of. He died in the
stead of somebody, a people. He did it to manifest God's righteousness. That's why he did it. God is
holy. That means God is absolutely, totally, You and me, we know
that, we hear that, we've been taught that, the Spirit of God's
given us hearts to believe that God is righteous, but we really
don't know just how righteous God is. We see through a glass
very dimly, and we know very little, but here's what we do
know. Go with me to Exodus 34. When God made Moses, when he
showed Moses his glory and he declared his name, Listen to
what God said, Exodus 34, look here in verse six, Exodus 34
and verse six. The Lord passed by before him,
Exodus 34, six, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty. Now salvation is by God's grace. Unmerited, nothing in us, it's
by His grace, it's His mercy, it's by God being longsuffering,
All the days that we didn't know Him, we were dead sinners taking
His name in vain. God was long-suffering. Even
now that we do know Him, He's still long-suffering to us. Salvation
is by God being abundant in goodness and truth. It's by God keeping
mercy for thousands. A number no man can number, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin. That's salvation. All by God's grace and mercy.
But when the Lord declared he will by no means clear the guilty,
when he declared that right there, it means he is just. It means
he is righteous. It means everybody that he saves
shall die under the justice of God. They shall die because God's
justice demand. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and God is holy. Therefore, he will not
clear the guilty. He said in Ezekiel 18, for the
soul that sinneth, it shall die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Now here's the question of all questions. We're talking
about why did he die? He died for, he died instead
of, for somebody, as a substitute. Now this is the question of all
questions right here. How can God be just and the justifier? How can he be a just God and
a savior? That's the question of all questions. That's the most profound question
ever asked. That's it. Nothing can top that
question because that's the very pinnacle of all wisdom revealed
in the answer to that question. Man could not have thought this
up. It never would have entered our mind. This is God's wisdom
right here. God set forth his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and it's only in him. There was no other way than
God himself coming, taking flesh like his people, and God the
God-man becoming the substitute for his people. There was no
other way God could be merciful and forgive his people and not
clear us because we were guilty. No other way could be both. Go
back with me to Romans 3. Romans 3 and look here in verse
24. Verse 23 tells you why this had
to be. It says, For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. He sent his son to
be the propitiation, the sin-atoning sacrifice. Atonement had to be
made to God for the sin of His people. We had to be made at
one with God and the only way that could be is for a sacrifice
to be offered to God in our place. The God-man came to die for somebody. He came to die in the place of
somebody as a substitute for a people that God chose and gave
to Him. That's what He came for. In John
10 11, he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. He gives his life for the sheep. He said in verse 15, John 10
15, as the father knoweth me, even so I know I the father and
I laid down my life for the sheep. Christ came to die for a particular
people. He came to lay his life down
for a people. He said to the Father, you've
given me power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as thou has given me. And he came to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. The Lord God remitted the sins
of some past sinners, some sinners of the past, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, many more. He remitted their sin. God was
forbearing. Christ hadn't come yet. How was
God just to remit their sin, call Abraham, give him faith,
and declare Abraham justified? How was God just to do that?
Because before God made the world, Christ became the surety for
his people. He became the only one that God
looked to as the righteousness of his people before the world
was ever made. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. So who died? Christ died. The
son of God, the word, the life, he came, the God-man. Why did
he die? He died as a substitute. He died
for somebody. He came into this world knowing
who he came to lay down his life for, and he knew he came to lay
down his life. He knew he came to die. He came
for a purpose. All right? So that brings us
to this question. Who did he die for? Who did he
die for? Back in Romans 5, 6, you just told us he died for
the elect. But who are they? Who are the
elect? Who are these chosen people God chose? Who are they? Here's
who they are, verse six. Christ died for the ungodly. That's who the elect are, the
ungodly. The sheep that Christ died for
are the ungodly. They're the ungodly. That describes
all people though, doesn't it? Isn't that everybody? Yes, everybody's
ungodly. Listen, God said in Psalm 14
2, He said, The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand, if there
were any that did seek after God. They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. That ends this notion that God looked down through
time to see who would believe. It says, The Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and see God. There were none. There were none
righteous. There were none that sought God.
There was not even any good men, he said. Yes, this describes
all people. All are ungodly. But it takes
the Spirit of God to give us spiritual life and Christ to
be the light, to give us discernment, to know that we personally are
the ungodly. To make us say, I am the ungodly. To make us each personally confess
to God, I am the ungodly. If you look in the first few
verses of Romans, you'll find that the Holy Spirit gave Paul
these words to write to believers. He gave these words for those
God had sanctified. to those Christ died for. So
when you read here, the we and the us he's talking about, it's
believers, it's people that God's given faith to believe on Christ,
and everybody that God's given faith to trust Christ will confess,
I am the ungodly. By nature and by practice, that's
who Christ died for, the ungodly, that's who I am, and you that
know him and believe him, you'll confess to God and admit, that's
me, I'm the ungodly. Christ died for us, it says there,
when we were without strength. What does that mean? It means
we were the ungodly. That's what it means. Every true
believer confesses, my nature is what my nature is, the old
nature I got from Adam is ungodly, and so therefore the only practice,
the only thing that I can do from my old nature is ungodly. And so of every sinner on the
top side of this earth, but it's his people that have confessed
it. The Spirit of God makes us know we're the ungodly. See,
Christ didn't die for righteous people. He didn't die for good
people. He died for the ungodly. Look
there in verse 7. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. If a man's a righteous man, a
man would die for him. Yet per venture, a little worse
than the righteous man, a good man, some would even dare to
die. But it gets way worse than that. God commended his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
the ungodly. Go to Matthew 9, Matthew chapter
9. There's folks in this world,
they're just modern day Pharisees And look here what the Pharisees
did. They saw the Lord. They watched Him all the time.
They were looking for something to accuse Him all the time. And verse 11 says, Matthew 9,
11, And when the Pharisees saw, He sat down with some sinners,
some publicans and sinners, and they said to his disciples, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? They wouldn't dare
be caught around publicans and sinners. Why do you eat with
publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard, he said
to them, they that behold need not a physician, but they that
are sick. That's what it is to be ungodly.
This is a man who he's so sick. He's terminally ill and he he
does not want to be made whole and even if he even if He can't make himself all and
even if he could he don't want to be whole That's how sick we
we are by nature. We can't make ourselves whole
and even if we could If it meant being with God and giving God
glory, we don't want to be whole. That's us by nature. That's how
sick we're talking about. Those that are whole don't need
a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what
that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repent. Christ saves by mercy. Hear what
he says there? He said, I'm gonna have mercy.
I'm gonna save by mercy. Undeserved, unearned mercy. I'm gonna save by mercy, not
by a sacrifice. That means we cannot do works
to save ourselves. We can't do any works that are
gonna contribute to our salvation. And even if we could, the Lord
won't receive them. Not to save us. He won't. He's pleased with good works
that he works in his people, but not for salvation. Not for
salvation. We can do nothing to save ourselves. We were without strength, ungodly,
spiritually dead sinners. Christ did not come to call people
who are righteous. He didn't even come to call good
people. He didn't come to call people
who first clean up their act and polish up the outside to
make themselves acceptable to come to Him. That's not who He
came to call. That would be trying to sacrifice
before you came to Him. No, no, that's not who He calls
sinners to repentance. Now, is that you? Is that you? Are you the ungodly? Are you
somebody who are so sick that you can't do one thing to save
yourself or even contribute? If not, if you say, well, I wasn't
that bad. I've always believed I wasn't
that bad. Then I got no good news for you.
Paul has no good news for you in our text. The Holy Spirit
has nothing. Christ said, I didn't come to
call good men. I didn't come to call righteous
folks. But if you are the ungodly, then I got good news for you.
Christ died for the ungodly. If you know you're ungodly, you're
blessed of God because only those blessed to the Spirit of God
know it. Well, what did he accomplish? Look back now at our text. What
did he accomplish? Romans 5. Now let me ask you
some questions. I'm gonna get you turned to some
scriptures real quick, so I want you to see these. First go to
Isaiah 53. Has God made Christ wisdom to
you? You know, that's what 1 Corinthians
1.30 says, of God are ye in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All right? Has
God made Christ wisdom to you? If he is, if he has, this is
what you know, this is what you believe right here. Isaiah 53,
11. It says, it's by his wisdom that
he justified us. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
If Christ has made wisdom to you, you know he alone justified
you. All right, go to Hebrews 1. Has
Christ been made righteousness to you? This is what He accomplished
now. Has He been made righteousness
to you? If so, you know that He put away your sin. He made
you righteous in Himself. Look here, Hebrews 1.3 says,
Being the brightness of God's glory, the express image of His
person, upholding all things by the word of His power. Now
watch this. When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Romans 8, 33, to be
righteous. If he's made righteousness to
you, then he's your only righteousness. To be made righteous and to be
righteousness in him is to be justified of all our sin. Romans
8, 33 says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect
is God that justifies. That's why Christ came. God was
in Christ. He justified his people. It's
Christ that died, yea, brethren, that's risen again, who liveth
to make intercession for his people. Now look at Hebrews 10.10.
Has Christ been made sanctification to you? Hebrews 10.10 says, he
said, He said in verse nine, lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. And verse 10 says, by whose will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all time. Look here at verse 14. For by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
That's what, be holy, to be sanctified, to be holy, doesn't mean you
just do your best and put on a good show outwardly. You gotta
be perfect. Perfect. You gotta be perfect.
And that's what Christ did for us. He perfected us forever. Has He been made redemption to
you? If He's been made redemption
to you, then you know He was made a curse for us. And by being
made a curse for us, He redeemed us from the curse and the condemnation
of the law. Look at Hebrews 9, right there,
verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Did you see
what all of these scriptures have in common? Christ Jesus
had accomplished this justification, this redemption. He had accomplished
making His people righteous before He entered into heaven and sat
down at God's right hand. That's why He sat down. He accomplished
that. He justified us. He made us righteous. He redeemed us. He accomplished
it. And he sat down because the work was done. That's what he
meant when he cried, it is finished. Now, if he's your wisdom, and
he's your righteousness, and your holiness, and your redemption,
then this is your song. This is what you can sing right
here. Boasting excluded. Pride I abase, I am only a sinner
saved by grace. I'm the ungodly who Christ died
for. That's what you can say if that's
what he is to you. But you say, I still see my old
nature. I see what I am and I see my
sin. What about that? Things I want
to do, I don't do. Things I don't want to do, that's
what I do. when I would do good evils present with me. Can you
say that? That's what Paul said. That's
what all his people say. Well, look back at Romans 5 and
look at verse 9. Romans 5 and verse 9. Look here.
He said much more then, being now justified by his blood. That means he had already done.
We're justified by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only
this, we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus, by whom we've
now received this reconciliation, this at-one-ment that He accomplished. See, God's not gonna pour out
justice again on His people, because He already poured it
out on the Lord Jesus, and He justified us. and the context
is teaching us. This is why God sends trials.
You notice our text said for when we were without strength.
Before that, that tells us something came before that, and it's saying
this is why God sends trials, and this is what he teaches us
through trials, and this is why he makes us rejoice in the trial
for what God has taught us through the trial. Because the Holy Ghost
sheds abroad the love of God in your heart. In the trial,
God reminds you what you still are in yourself. You are still
the ungodly. In everything that's of Adam,
you're the ungodly. But he renews you in spirit and
sheds abroad the love of God in your heart to keep you knowing
Christ Jesus died for the ungodly. and we're gonna be saved from
wrath by his life, by him being at God's right hand, him being
our righteousness with God and our advocate with the Father.
Every trial is to renew us to know that. That's why the message
don't get old to us, brother. That's why we can hear the, you
know, I can sit here and I'll see something and think I found
something and it's just so, just lighten me up and I'm just so
excited about it. And then I'll go look in some
old notes and preached on it 10 or 12 years ago. But it's
just something I thought I just now saw today. Or it could be
something from a year ago. It's just he keeps it new in
your heart. We forget it. We forget, but he keeps it new.
He keeps it new. He keeps it new. See, he doesn't
love us because of something. He loves us because he loved
us freely. and He justified us freely, and
He called us freely, and He made us to know that His love for
us is in Christ who He loves. His whole purpose of saving us
was to glorify His Son, and He's gonna keep you glorifying His
Son. And so He brings you there, and He says, my little children,
He says, don't sin, don't sin. He says, but when you do, remember,
remember, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous and he is the propitiation. He's the sin atoning sacrifice
Who's already made atonement for it's already reconciled us
and so he's gonna keep you knowing he can keep you knowing that
about him He said I will heal their backsliding You're gonna
backslide you reckon you'll backslide if you backslidden since he called
you the first time He said I'll heal their backsliding. I will
love them freely. I And he's just to do it in Christ,
and he's going to keep doing it. So, after every trial, you
know why we join it? We say what David said. He said,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn
thy statutes. Well, what statutes? There's
only two. The Lord said, this is my son,
believe him, trust him, cast all your care on him. And he
says, and you love one another, and you forgive one another and
be merciful and long-suffering to one another just like I keep
doing to you for Christ my son's sake. That's what he keeps us
knowing. Keeps you believing his son and
keeps you loving one another. That's why we rejoice even when
trials come. We say, Lord, thank you. It's
been good for me. You reminded me I'm the ungodly. And Christ died for the ungodly.
Oh, that's good news. He died for the ungodly. All
right. Father, thank you for this word.
Lord, thank you for keeping it new in our hearts. Thank you
for keeping us looking to Christ. Thank you, Lord, for keeping
love in our hearts and constraining us by your love for us so that
we love one another and we keep being merciful. You keep showing
us what mercy is for Christ's sake by continually being merciful
to us and you keep us thereby loving our brethren. being merciful
and forbearing and helping one another for Christ's sake, just
like you keep doing to us. Lord, thank you for saving sinners
like us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.