Good morning. Alright, brethren,
we're going to be in Romans 5. Romans 5, and we'll be looking
at verses 5 through 11. 5 through 11. And if you remember, last week
we were looking at some of the blessings of justification. The blessings of justification.
And we saw that not only are saved sinners given faith, When
the Lord saves a sinner, he does the work in Christ. And one of
the blessings of being justified by Christ is that he's pleased
to give his people faith whereby they know him and know what he's
done. So, in that, in faith, through
faith, which is a blessing of justification, we gain access,
we gain further access into the many spiritual blessings that
our God has for his people. so that another blessing that
we have of justification is peace. We discover, we have revealed
to us that God is now at peace with us in his son Jesus Christ. And then God gives us various
trials where he exercises that faith in the knowledge that he's
pleased with us, but we go through trials and in the trials He brings
about another spiritual gift, another blessing, which is patience. We learn patience through the
trials. And then from patience, we grow in experience. We get
more settled. We grow in maturity in the Lord. And then that patience and that
experience leads to hope, hoping in God, trusting him, believing
his word, and resting there, and he promises us that you that
hope in him, not yourselves, but hope in him, will never be
ashamed. He promises you that, that you
that believe him, you'll never be ashamed for hoping in him,
because he's the one that's given that hope. It's not of your flesh,
The flesh hates the Lord. The flesh is at enmity against
God. The flesh doesn't believe God,
but the new man created in us does believe. That's why you
know you're a sinner, and why you know that Christ is the Savior,
and why you hope in Him, why you believe that if you're going
to be saved, it's by the Son of God. So today I want us to
continue with these blessings of justification where we see
in Christ our Savior the Lord showers us with spiritual blessings. He showers us with spiritual
blessings and it's all in his great salvation. Our title is
Love Made Known. Love Made Known. Alright, so
I want to begin with verse 5 here because this really informs this
message here this morning. He says, and hope make it not
ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So, as a result of this
justifying work that our Savior has done through the many blessings
that we have in Him, the blessings of our justification by the Son
of God, we experience the love of God. We experience, he makes
known to us the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts
by or through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. So, this
love of God for his people, it's founded in the covenant of grace. It's founded in the covenant
of grace. Naturally, due to who and what
we are, naturally due to the foolish things that man teaches
in salvation, we have this tendency to look at ourselves to know
whether or not God loves us. We look to ourselves to see what
we're doing and how we're feeling on any given day and what's going
on in that sense. But truly, the love of God has
founded in the covenant of His grace. which He established in
His Son, which He fulfilled all things for us in that covenant
by His Son when He went to the cross, so that everything necessary
to make His grace effectual to us, to ensure that God shall
be our God in kindness, in love, and in mercy, was all done for
us, for His people, by the Son, by Jesus Christ. He, as our representative,
fulfilled everything on our behalf in the covenant. to ensure that
all the blessings that come along with the covenant are yours.
You that believe Him and hope Him. And so, the love of God,
the love of God is witnessed by His people in the covenant
of grace. That's where we know and understand
the covenant, or the love of God. Outside of Christ, those
who don't believe Christ, you that don't believe Him, that
love your sin, that love what you are in the flesh, that love
what you're doing and holding on to, there is no love witnessed
of God. Many people have they have various
thoughts and views of God and they hope that by their works
or being a member of that church or organization that that's where
their love is seen. But we see that the love of God
for us is witnessed in the covenant of grace which is founded upon
the Lord Jesus Christ who came to this earth in the likeness
of our flesh and willingly went to the cross to bear the sins
of his people, to put away the sins of his people, to finish
that, to be done with that enmity and to put it away. And so, our
God is going to be glorified in the hearts of his people.
He's going to be glorified in the hearts of his people and
he's going to shower them with spiritual blessings because of
his great love for them in eternity. All right, so it's all founded
in God, all right, and founded in His covenant of grace. So
I'm gonna start reading a couple verses. I'm gonna begin in Ephesians
1, and these verses are familiar to you, but it's Ephesians 1,
verses 3 and 4. And as we read this, listen for
His love. Listen for the love that God
has for His people. He says, Ephesians 1, 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. That's where our blessings are
found, it's in Christ, our blessings of justification in Him. According
as He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love." In love. So, what we see there is that
God chose us before the foundation of the world, which tells us anything, good or evil, that
it was apart from us. It has nothing to do with us
and our actions. It has everything to do with
His love for His chosen people. He loves us. It's within Himself. It's contained within Himself,
not looking out to us to see what we would do or wouldn't
do. He loves us because He loves us. He's a God of love. Ephesians 2.4 Look over at Ephesians
2, 4. He says, but God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. So there again,
we see the motivation of God's love, the motivation for his
love is found within himself. That he's chosen to love you
that now believe him, that hope in him, that trust him, that
have nowhere else to go but to him. You've heard his word and
you believe him. So that love is found not in
your actions or deeds, but in himself, in his son, and what
he's accomplished for his people. And we're told why. Because God
is love. God is love. That's 1 John 4.8. And then we also read in 1 John
4.19, We love him, we now love him, because he first loved us. So it's all contained in our
God. So the blessings of our justification
in Christ is that God now, we witness or see these blessings,
if you notice, now what he's doing is he's revealing to us
his love for us in Christ. Because Christ justified us,
now he's making this known to us through the gospel. These
are the blessings of our justification. He doesn't keep us in the dark
to these things. And we find, you know, that it's
not just Jews who had the law revealed to them that are his
chosen people, but it's Gentiles scattered throughout the world.
And I would quote that verse, John 3, 16. Just because people
abuse it and misuse it, don't shy away from that verse. It's
a beautiful verse. It's a wonderful verse to meditate
upon, that God so loved the world, his people scattered throughout
the world, you people of Dutch descent, that God loved you and
chose you out. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." That's a beautiful, beautiful
promise. And you see how there's nothing
put on you, but he's worked that faith. He's shown you, I'm a
sinner. I can't work this righteousness
for myself, but he's provided the righteousness for me in his
son, Jesus Christ. and he's given you that faith
whereby you hope in him, you believe him and hope. So the
Holy Ghost is how we have this revealed to us, right? The love
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, meaning that
God promised us the Holy Ghost. Christ promised us that he would
send the Spirit to make this known in your hearts. That's
why you know the things you know and believe the things you believe. You're hoping in him. You're
not trusting to your own works. That's of the flesh. You're trusting
that God's word is true and that Christ really did put away your
sins successfully. It's accomplished. It's worked.
And you hear that and you believe it. And so he's the one that
makes the love of God known to us. He's revealing his love to
you. that he's the one that gives
spiritual life because we come forth in the flesh dead, dead
to these things. We come forth thinking that,
you know, of some God of our imagination and thinking that
there's things that we do to please that God and that we have
to do to earn his favor and his righteousness and so he gives
us spiritual life to know, no, that's not what God is seeking
after. It's not for you to figure out,
it's for God to reveal it to you and to make you to know what
he's done for you in his Son, Jesus Christ. And so that's how
we know these spiritual things. And he's the one that, when he
gives life, he brings us under the gospel, he gives us faith and to receive the things
that God is revealing to us, to believe the things that God
is revealing to us, and to trust in Him, to believe on Him. And that's what Paul was saying
over in 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, if you look there
in verse 13 and 14, he says, but we But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren. Be loved of the Lord. How do
we know that we're loved of the Lord? Because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit, meaning that the Spirit set you apart for this work,
for this purpose. He set you apart for it and belief
of the truth. That's how you know God loves
you. because He's separated you, He's called you out of this world
and all those just happy to go on in their death and in their
darkness, but He's separated you out and brought you under
the Gospel and caused you to hear, to see and to know your
great need of a great Savior. And He's revealed it to you.
in giving you faith to believe Him. See verse 14, whereunto
He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So, the calling that He's given
you, that He's brought you under the gospel, and given you a hope
in Him, it's a proof of His Spirit. It's a proof of the love of God
being shed in your hearts. Because otherwise, you wouldn't
know these things, you wouldn't believe these things, you wouldn't
trust in Him, and it's His love for you. And so, you know, I
stress that point because I know that, you know, in religion,
you've had so many people put stumbling blocks in front of
Christ. So many people have said, wait
a minute now, whoa, whoa, whoa, you believe Christ? Well, hold
up, you've got all these other things. Scriptures don't put
those stumbling blocks in the way of the believer, in the way
of the needy sinner. You that know that you're sinners
and know that you have no hope but in Christ, He says, come,
you that believe Him, come, trust Him, rest in Him. He's done that
for you. He doesn't put these stumbling
blocks. That's religion that puts all these other things,
these markers and things that you have to do for yourself and
go through to have any hope in Christ before you can hope in
Him. All right, so this gospel is summed up here back in our
text in Romans 5-6 now. It's similar to the verse of
Romans 4-25, which is a summary of the gospel, which says, who
was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification.
That's a good summary verse of the gospel, verse 4-25. But let's look at 5-6, because
here's another one. He says, for when we were yet
without strength, when we were full of offenses, in due time,
the appointed time of God, Christ died for the ungodly. All right, let's look at this
gospel here, contained here. Who died? Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. the Son of God came in the flesh,
like you and me, and he fulfilled all righteousness before the
Father, and he went to the cross willingly and laid down his life. Now this testimony is revealed
to us in the Scriptures of Christ, and is borne witness to by those
we read of in the Scriptures. For example, we have John the
Baptist, and John the Baptist in John, verse one, chapter 1
verses 33 and 34, he said, And I knew him not, but he that sent
me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw him bear
record, that this is the Son of God. And John tells us what
that means over in verse 29, John 1, 29. It says that John
seeth Jesus coming unto him. And he's got some of the disciples
standing around with him, serving, you know, ministering to him.
And he saith, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world. revealing to us this is Christ,
the one promised of God, the Lamb of God, meaning that he
came as the sacrifice. He's the appointed sacrifice
chosen by God himself to put away the sins of his people.
bear their iniquity, to bear their sin as their substitute,
to put away the enmity, to put away their sins, to put away
the wrath that God has for the unbeliever and the ungodly. So Christ died as the substitute
of his people in their place. It says in Romans 3 25, whom
God hath set forth a propitiation He's the very means of our forgiveness. He's what God sent to obtain
eternal redemption for his people through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. Believe
him. Those that have faith in his
blood, believe him. He puts no other thing before
you. And if he's created that knowledge
and that hope in your heart, if he's the one that put it there,
if he's the one that has revealed that to you, you that believe
him and hope in him. He's the one that's made that
known to you, giving you that faith in his blood. So, then
we're told how he died. He died by the death of the cross,
meaning he was crucified. And now we're told something
about his people, that Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. And we know that
our God hates sin. He's holy. He's perfect. and he cannot bear sin, and yet
that tells us that, of his great love for us, that Christ died
for the ungodly. You that have nothing to recommend
yourselves to God, you that have no goodness in yourself, that's
who Christ died for. You that have nothing but the
righteousness of Christ, that's who he died for. And so it shows
us that we did nothing to earn or warrant this salvation. It's
all freely done for us in the covenant of grace by our God's
love for us in Christ, in Christ. So that's what he does for us,
all right? Now it shows us the greatness
of God, or to show us the greatness of God, Paul shows us two types
of men. He says in Romans 5-7, first
he says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. And why would
someone die for a righteous person? They're righteous. Let them die.
They'll stand before God and receive their inheritance. There's
no need to stand in their place. And then he says, yet for adventure
for a good man some would even dare to die. A good person who
does much good among his community and does good things and generous
things and has talents and abilities to help the people that maybe
the other people don't have, someone might die for that person. But God, we see the greatness
of God in that we're ungodly sinners and yet Christ did this
work for us. He laid down his life for the
ungodly, and so Paul is saying, us, we're neither righteous nor
good. And yet, God's own son came and
laid down his life for us, who are no good sinners, who have
nothing to earn God's favor. Look at verse eight, Romans 5.8.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. And so when no one else would
give up their life, Christ came and he gave up his life to save
us. You think about that. Who of
us would die for some criminal who earned the death penalty,
who earned his sentence in jail and earned his cruel death because
he was such a great sinner? Even if he would come out of
jail and be a good person, who of us will lay down our lives
for that person? None of us would do that, but Christ did it for
every one of his people who are undeserving sinners. And so,
this is the testimony of scripture because it's to show us how great
God's love is for us and to leave no room for doubt, to know that
he really does love you, that believe on him, that trust him,
that have no hope and confidence in your flesh and in yourself.
It's to push out any doubt out of your mind that God really
does love you. And that's why he's revealed
this gospel to you and shown you this favor. Because all we
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one of
us, to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him,
right, while we're off doing our own thing, the Lord laid
on him the iniquity of us all. All his people. Put it there
on Christ. So he sacrificed his only son
while we were yet sinners, still sinners in ourselves, enemies,
not only sinners, but enemies even of God. Hating and hating
one another and not believing Him and not, you know, sinning
against Him in heart, thought, word, desire, deed, action, everything
about us was sin against Him. But he did it. Ephesians 2, 3
says, we were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Children of wrath. And that's
what Christ, that's when he laid down his life for us, we were
children of wrath. Much more than, Romans 5, 9,
being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through him. And so, we see the love of God
in that he He sent His Son, He gave His Son, He spared not His
Son for His enemies, for those who don't deserve Him. And so
He loves us in Christ. He put us in Christ and He shows
us His love for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the wrath
of God is certain for this world. The wrath of God is certain for
this world. In 2 Peter 3.10, He says, but the day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night. And we saw last week, we looked
at how that, what he's saying there is that when the appointed
day comes, when Christ shall return to the earth to gather
his people and to punish the wicked, it's going to happen
quickly, suddenly, right? Unexpectedly, Christ is going
to appear and return. And so, Peter says in that verse
there, 2 Peter 3.10, but the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, he sent his only
Son to put away the enmity, to put away that wrath for his people,
so that we've already experienced the wrath of God in his Son. Christ bore that wrath, so that
now we won't bear the wrath of God when he returns, when all
the rest of the inhabitants of the earth bear the wrath of God. Alright, so he's done that for
us. Look at verse 10 now, Romans
5 10. 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, saved from wrath, by his love, or by his life. So we have peace with God because
God is at peace with us now. in this son. He's at peace. There's
no more wrath hanging over our heads. There's nothing waiting
to take us out. Romans 8, Paul wrote Romans 8,
34 and 35. He asks, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of God in Christ? Okay? So, the Lord's done that. So, actually Romans 5.5 says,
so the love of God, because Christ did this, the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. And then go to verse 11, Romans
5, 11, and not only so, but we also, joy in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. And so what the apostle does
there when he says, and not only so, he's summarizing for us all
the blessings of justification. that the love of God has toward
us for Christ's sake. That is, he gave us the gift
of the Holy Spirit. He showed us what we are. He
showed us the wrath of God. He showed us that we're sinners,
that we have nothing to save ourselves with. And then he revealed
Christ to us. He brought us under the gospel,
causing us to hear that gospel by faith, giving us that heart
and willingness to receive the things that were being said,
to agree with God against ourselves. Right, Lord, I'm the sinner.
I've done nothing to recommend, but you sent your son. And He's
a God of love. He's revealed that to you. He's
not playing games with you. He's not revealing this to you
just to dangle life in front of you and say, but you can't
have it. You're not worthy. No. If He's revealed this to
you and shown you you're a sinner and you know that He's the Savior,
believe Him. He's calling you to believe Him,
to trust in Him, to rest in Him. There's nothing more you can
do to earn it or make it any more effectual. He's revealed
Christ for this purpose, and so Christ has made atonement. He's worked that at-one-ment
for his people, made us one with him, and we stand before holy
God without fault, holy and unblameable in his sight because of Christ
and what he's done for us. that know these things, that
you rest in Him, that you believe Him and trust Him, that He's
a God of love and faithfulness and kindness and merciful to
show you these things and to make these things known to you,
not to just leave you in the dark to these things. Otherwise,
if you were left in the dark, we have no hope for those that
that are left in the dark. We declare it to them in the
hopes that the Lord will call them, but it's the Lord's work
to make it known in the hearts of his people, as he's done for
you that believe him. So I pray the Lord will bless
that. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and your grace and kindness to us and
your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for the love
that you show to your people and your Son, Jesus Christ, and
for making these things known to us. Father, we pray that you would
comfort your people, Lord, that are struggling and wondering
if you've done this for them. Lord, that you would give them
peace in their heart to know that you've revealed it to them
because you are their God and their Savior. We pray that You
cause us to rest in Christ, our Lord and our Savior. It's in
his name we pray and give thanks. Amen.