the word and this is a passage
that has been a blessing in my life and it's always one of those
ones that you can use a lot in open-air preaching because it's
the gospel and in just a nutshell just a few verses but I'd like
to look at Romans 5 just because of how it's been It's unfolded
to me, and I want to read verses 1 through verse 11. I don't want
to go any farther than verse 11, but it's so beautiful about
what Paul says here about justification by faith and the benefits that
follow in 1 through 5. In the second part of our message,
I want to read 6 through 11, talking about how that he justifies. So let's look at this, therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given to us. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now 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
than being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement or the reconciliation. I want to preach in two parts.
First of all, one through five, it's the Paul is moving through
the benefits of justification by faith, yielding to peace with
God, yielding to access to God. He had made the point in chapter
four that Abraham was justified. He was declared righteous. by
a righteousness outside of him. And he made that point. And then
he's going and then he made a promise. And we'll get to that in a minute.
And it's in 424. But Paul's moving through benefits
of justification by faith. And one benefit is peace with
God in verse one. He had already made the point
in three. how we are sinners, and in 510 here we were enemies
to God, but now we have peace with God because we're declared
righteous by our righteousness that's the righteousness of God,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing of our
own, only of Him. And not only do we have peace
with God, we have access to God. Access is a word meaning to bring
in or to introduce. It's a picture of being led into
the presence of a dignitary. being ushered into the king's
throne room, the king of kings, in the throne room of him. It's
the word that means a privilege of approach. And it's used two
other places in the word of God. In Ephesians 2.18, he says, for
through him we both, Jew and Gentile, we have access by one
spirit unto the Father. And in Ephesians 3.12, he says,
in Christ, We have boldness and access with confidence through
the faith of Him. So we see we have access through
the Spirit of God, and notice it's accessed by faith. We know
that faith is a gift of the Spirit. It's a birthday gift. The new
birth grants that faith, right? And so it's given to us, that
access is given to us by the Spirit. And the access is given
to us through the faith of Him, through His obedience on the
cross, through His faithfulness and through faith in Him. And
it's access into this grace. It's access to God, but it's
access into this grace. And we know that that is by the
Holy Spirit, because by grace are you saved through faith.
So we have access into this grace by the Spirit of God when he
when he grants us the new birth. And so what is grace? Grace is
the sovereign, unmerited favor by which he freely and effectively
bestows salvation upon his elect. through and only through the
perfect work of Christ without works, without worthiness on
our part, justified freely by His grace, Romans 3, 24. Nothing
He saw in us, nothing was to be good to be said of us. but he was free to justify us. He didn't see anything worthy
of justification but he justified us freely by his grace without
a cause in the elect because of being justified by God's righteousness
imputed to us. And that's what I said in 424.
Look at 424. But for us also, not only Abraham,
but for us also to whom it shall be imputed, it shall be counted.
That's an accounting term. That's a forensic term. It's
imputed to our account in the record of God, the throne room
of God, court of God. If we believe on Him that raised
up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, who was delivered for
our offenses and was raised again for our justification, we're
justified with that righteousness of Christ imputed to us, to those
who believe, accessed by faith into this grace, justified, declared
righteous through that faith, By which we stand, by which we
stand. Are we standing on our own? No,
no, we're not standing on our own. He makes us stand. He said
unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
We stand by grace. We stand by grace, we stand by
God's power and his ability. And then we have in 2B, we have
rejoicing, that exceeding joy here in the last part, rejoicing
in hope, rejoicing that exceeding joy because of the hope of the
glory of God. And we can even face tribulations. We can even face tribulations.
We can glory in tribulations. Verse three, knowing that the
end result is more hope. You know, I talked about peace
with God and access into this grace and then this hope that
we have that the Spirit of God gives us in our heart. You know,
Henry Mahan said this. He said peace is a particular
blessing and access into this grace is this state of favor
implies all blessings. We have every spiritual blessing
in Christ Jesus, don't we? And yet with that hope, we can
glory in tribulations knowing that the end result is more hope. As Mahan also states, we do not
rejoice in the suffering or in the trial itself. For most trials
are grievous and difficult, but we rejoice in the effect of the
trial. All of our trials are appointed
of God and are for His glory and for our good." You know,
Peter would agree with that. He said that in the time being,
you're in heaviness through manifold temptations, but he speaks in
that same passage of the joy that you have. looking at the end result. The
end result is more hope. The end result leads to hope.
There's a chain there. It says, worketh patience, in
verse four, and patience, experience, and experience hope. And hope,
verse five, maketh not ashamed. It will never disappoint us in
tribulations, or even at the judgment. The Old Testament concept
is not to make haste, to not make haste, to not be in trouble.
It reminds me of 1 Peter 2, 6 when he quoted Isaiah. He said, He
uses the word confounded. He shall not make haste. He shall
not be in trouble. He shall not look for another
answer. Because Christ is the answer.
There's no other answer. And so he'll not make haste.
He'll not be in trouble. Timothy said this, not Timothy,
but Paul writing to Timothy in the in the book of Second Timothy,
he said, I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded that he is able. See, that's what Paul is talking
about. He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day. And some translation says that
he has committed unto me. But it amounts to the same thing,
which I have committed unto him against that day." Now, what
follows this is the expansion on this concept, on that concept
of hope. Paul says, and hope makes not
ashamed in 5.5, makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. This is how the hope makes not
ashamed because of the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Let's review that. This hope
will never disappoint us. Paul said in another place, he
said, we have an everlasting consolation. We have a good hope
through grace. This hope will never disappoint
us. It will never let us down, never put us to shame or dishonor
us. This hope is the confident expectation of what God promised
us in his word will come to pass. Don't you like that hymn where
the hymn writer says, I will see him face to face and tell
the story saved by grace. I just love hymn writers when
they put it so clearly like that and they touch the heart and
the emotions. Christ said, I give them eternal
life. I give them eternal life. They
shall never perish. You know, it wouldn't be eternal
if it was temporary. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." He had said
earlier, he said, he that heareth my word, believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life in the future, I mean in the
present, shall not come to condemnation in the future, but is already
passed from death into life. past, future, and present. Then Paul states why because
of the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given to us. That's another ministry of the
Holy Spirit. He not only grants us access
by granting us faith in the work of Christ. The Bible says He
seals us the day of redemption. That proves the love of God.
But here He sheds that love of God abroad in our hearts. It's one of His ministries. It's
shed abroad in verse 5. What He means here is that the
Spirit is assuring us of God's gracious love so that we glory
even in suffering, being filled with the hope of good things
to come. I like that illustration that
the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 10 that the first
century believers would visit someone in prison and then they
would suffer the confiscation of their goods by the authorities
because they identified with that one who was in prison for
the faith of the gospel. But he said they were willing
to endure that knowing they had a better substance. on the other
side, better substance in heaven, being filled with a hope of good
things to come. The love of God here means the
sense of God's love to us. It doesn't mean our love to God.
Even though you could say sometimes we do, you know, most of the
time you can say we do love God, sometimes we're disobedient,
but this is the sense of God's love to us. That sense of God's
love to us is shed abroad in our hearts. It's communicated
to us with abundance. You'll never see the assurance
of your faith looking at yourself, because we're gonna always fail.
But you look out of self, look to Him. It's the assurance of
God's love to us. That's what I was trying to get
at. It fills our hearts with the persuasion of God's love
to us. It's poured out. He floods it into our hearts
with the knowledge of his love. That's the inward spiritual work
produced by the Spirit of God. It comes in abundance as we read
his word and as we hear the preaching of the word. That's why it's
so important to be here, to hear the preaching of our pastor.
This is the only way that we will know the treasure that God
has given us, reading the word and hear in the preaching of
the message of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Robert Haldane
said this, it is certain that it contributes more to our consolation
to have our minds fixed upon God's love to us than upon our
love to God. Our hope does not depend on our
love to God, but on our sense of God's love to us. John would
agree with that, wouldn't he, the Apostle John? We love Him
because He first loved us. We love Him because He first
loved us. Loved us in eternity. That love
is communicated. The Holy Spirit grants us faith,
as I said, in the new birth. He seals us to the day of redemption.
He communicates that love, verse 5, by the Holy Ghost. It is the
Holy Spirit who pours out to our heart of the believer the
sense of God's love fully, convincing him of it, witnessing this love
in his spirit. Romans 8, 16 confirms that. He said the spirit bears witness
with our spirit. that we are children of God.
And what Paul is saying, this eternal hope that we have will
never disappoint us because the Holy Spirit is communicating
that love towards us, and then he goes on to explain how God
proves his love. This ironclad proof is expressed
in the next few verses, and that's the second part of my message.
What Paul is saying here is that the love of God is proven. It's
proven in Romans 5, 6 through 11. How did he How did he prove it? Well, first
of all, you've got to look at our plight in verse 6. For when
we were yet without strength, you've got to look at our plight.
You've got to look at our condition. You've got to see your condition
before God before you can see the answer. Satan had us blind
towards the gospel. We were dead in trespasses and
sins, dead in our spirit towards God. We had no righteousness,
nothing that would recommend us before God. You see, you've
got to have a righteousness that God will accept. God accepts
no man's righteousness. Man thinks comparatively, doesn't
he? He thinks he's not as bad as
his neighbor. He thinks he's not as bad as the guy he hears
on the news. He thinks he's not as bad as
that preacher who failed. He thinks he's pretty good. but
he has nothing to recommend him to God. He's a good guy according
to him and his own estimation, but he's spiritually bankrupt
before God. Because of our spiritual blindness,
we had closed our ears to the hearing of the gospel. When we
came into a gospel preaching church, someone would invite
us to come in. I remember it. I couldn't wait
to get out. I couldn't wait to get out, to
go on doing my sinning, and so on. We just, there was nothing
that we had. All of our righteous religious
deeds, the Bible says, are as filthy rags before God. If you
believe that, then you are close to the kingdom of God. If you're
outside of Christ, if you believe that you are spiritually bankrupt
before God. The Bible says we were headed
for an eternal lake of fire. Because the Bible says that we
were already under a sentence of God's wrath. Not one day we'll
be under God's wrath. We're already. People quit reading
John 3 with 316 or 317 saying that God so loved the world and
that Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world.
And they quit reading there. But 318 says because the world
is already condemned. because they have not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And it's the condemnation
that light came to the world and men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. That's the condition
of man. That's being without strength. And 336, we're already
abiding. The wrath of God is already abiding
on us. That's the verse. That's the
nature of that verb. It's already abiding over us
in John 336. We were by nature the children
of wrath. In other words, by nature, you couldn't tell any
difference between us and anyone else because we were shaking
our fist at God. Even though in God's eternal
plan, he had destined us for salvation, you couldn't tell
it at the time. Also, we were guilty under God's
broken law. We had broken every one of God's
laws. We were under the curse of the law. For whosoever shall
keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's a guilty of
all. And so we had offended God. And you've got to see yourself
as being offensive to God, that you have offended God before
the Lord will save you. Christ came to honor the law
and magnify the law, to show the law is spiritual. And we've
broken God's laws, all of God's laws, either in word, in thought,
or in deed. And what was our sentence? The
wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God. I will by no means clear the
guilty, he said. And he said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And what made it worse in our
condition was that we couldn't even see it, the condition we
were in. We're thinking that God is going
to grate on a curve, you know, that he'll let us in one way
or another. No, no, my friend. And we're
sinners by birth, we're sinners by choice. Light came to the
world, men love darkness rather than light. That's what it means
to be without strength. Isaiah put it this way. The whole
head is sick, the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the
foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds,
bruises, putrefying sores. They have not been clothed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. We were like the people
on that Malaysian flight headed for Beijing. and didn't know
that in a few hours it was gonna be in the deep. And straight
south and straight into the deep, the darkness of the deep. And
the lost man is headed for the darkness of the wrath of God
in the eternal lake of fire. And so that is our condition. That's what it means to be without
strength. But look in verse six. In verse six, but in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. In the fullness of time, Galatians
says, in the fullness of time, God sent his son made of a woman
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of sons. It was in God's appointed
time and not before. Even when Christ came to the
world, he said, my time is not yet come because he had to finish
that work. to knit that, as they say, to
knit that robe of righteousness, to work out, is a better word
of putting it, work out an eternal and perfect righteousness to
give to all those whom he would save, working out a perfect righteousness
that would be given to us, that would justify us. He obeyed the
law completely. It was in this process that he
established and fulfilled what Daniel 9.24 said, that he came,
that Messiah would come to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
an everlasting righteousness. That's his active obedience,
being obedient, humbling himself, becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on the cross like Philippians 2 said. I always
do what pleases the Father, Christ said. And then Paul gives us
a perspective in verse seven, a kind of parenthesis here, talking
about the righteous man and the good man. Gil says these are
not righteous men before God. These are not a good man before
God. This is a righteous man in the eyes of the people. This
would be a good man, one who was a beneficent man who was
very, very bountiful in his charitable distributions to the poor and
his giving to the charge of sacrifices in the temple. And someone would
come to his need and they may have to pay the ultimate price.
It's no comparison to what the Lord did, but Christ died for
sinners. Verse eight, God committed his
love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. We were sinners. We were ungodly.
Verse six, we were enemies. And verse 10. But here's the
proof of God's love. That's that's the big idea here.
The proof of God's love. He did so because his immeasurable
love of God. God commended, he recommends
his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died
for us. It was an immeasurable love because
he said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. I've loved
you with an everlasting love from before eternity, from before
there was ever a sinner, there was a savior of sinners. Oh my. And then he said it was
an electing love because Peter says we're elect according to
the foreknowledge of God. That's the love of God from before
time. That doesn't mean that he looked
ahead, that means he loved ahead for knowledge of God, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. In Romans 8, he said, Whom he
foreknew, whom he foreloved, he predestined. to be conformed
to the image of his dear son. It was an immeasurable love,
because if you could measure his love towards his darling
son, then if you look, we don't have time to look there, but
look at it, mark it down, John 17, 23 and 26, God loves us the
same. He says, you have loved them
as you have loved me. Wow, I can't even get my mind
around that. Can you imagine the love for
his darling son? And he assures us in his high
priestly prayer that God loves me as he loves his son. It was
a love that came to seek and to save those that were lost.
that those that were given to Him in that covenant of grace,
that counsel of peace. He came to seek and to save those. It was a free love, as I said
before. He was not motivated by anything He saw in us that
would cause Him to love us. He loved us freely. He loved
us without a cause. Hosea 14.4 is good on that. I will love them freely. I will
love them without a cause. It's in the counsel of His own
will. I like that song to the tune
of O Danny Boy that said, he looked beyond my fault and saw
my need. Oh, that's a great song. I will
ever lift mine eyes to Calvary. where he died for me. The grace
that caught my falling soul. He looked beyond my fault and
saw my need. And really that's what the next
part of the verse says when we were yet sinners. I was under
God's wrath. I needed peace with God. When
we were yet enemies in verse 10, we were reconciled to God.
Christ died for us. That's the substitutionary atonement
for all those who came to save. Let's look at the sacrifice of
Christ that the scripture says Christ died for us. That means
he died in our place, in our room instead, as the Puritans
used to say. He came to do his father's will.
That's the key. In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
4, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 4, it says, For it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. That was
the problem. None of the old sacrifices would
do. They were just shadows. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body you have prepared for me. And then in verse 9 of
that same chapter, then he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. He taketh away the first, the
old covenant, that he may establish the second, the new covenant,
sealed with his perfect sacrifice, sealed with his blood. And I
like verse 10 of chapter 10 of Hebrews. It says, By the witch
will, by that same will, by the will of God, we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That word for all is inserted,
but it means for all time. Once for all. Once in time, he
came. not for all people, but for all
time. By that same will, we are sanctified
by the offering of the body of Christ once for all. That's what
it means when Christ died for us. In doing the Father's will,
Christ came into the world as our brother. Hebrews 2.11 says
this, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
uh in doing the father's will he came as our brother in doing
the father's will he came as the second adam the last adam
i wish we had time to go into that but it's it's on in in the
rest of five the first adam failed to glorify god and the last adam
came to glorify God completely. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the last Adam, the second Adam. Christ came to answer for the
sins of all those who became sinners in Adam, and he justified
us before God. And in doing the Father's will,
also he had to be our substitute who was sinless. He had no sins
of his own to answer for. John 129, John said this, John
the Baptist said this, seeing when he saw Jesus, he said, Behold,
the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. You see,
he was referring to that Passover lamb. that spotless lamb, like
the Passover lamb who is examined from the 10th day to the 14th
day in the houses of the children in bondage for four days. He
was pent up and he was examined and he had to be perfect. And
he was killed and his blood was painted upon the doorposts of
the Israelites in Egypt. And that was the lamb that pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in six ways that
this lamb of God perfect lamb of God the Lord Jesus Christ
was without sin. He says he was separate from
sinners in Hebrews 7. He says in him is no sin in 1st
John 3. He knew no sin in 2nd Corinthians
5. He did no sin neither was guile
found in his mouth in 1st Peter 2. Which of you accuseth me of
sin? The Lord Jesus Christ said that
himself. Which of you can accuse me of sin? In John 8. In all
points he was tempted like we are, yet without sin, Hebrews 4. Isn't
that interesting that in six ways it declares the fact that
he was without sin. Let's look at the strongest,
most beautiful scripture about his work as our perfect lamb
of God, the substitution of Christ and satisfaction of Christ. along
with the Father's will in Isaiah 53. Let's just pick a few verses
here. Isaiah 53. You can turn there
if you want to. Verse five. He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes
we are healed. You see, it was substitution.
It was in our place and it was satisfaction. It was success. We are healed. You see how that
paints that picture of substitution and satisfaction? That's what
it means when he says Christ died for us in our passage. All we like sheep have gone astray.
It says we've turned everyone to his own way. Verse six, the
Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Look at verse 10.
He says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It says that twice
in that passage that it was God's idea to put him upon the cross.
He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall see all
those that he will save and did save. Why? Because he is on the
right hand of the Father right now. but he saw them in eternity. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Notice when
it says his soul is the sin offering. That's referring specifically,
I believe, to those hours on the cross when he suffered all
the hell that his people deserved. when he was doing that business
with the father, as you could say, making that suffering. I would say this, he was taking
that stroke that justice made, the stroke of paying that debt
that we owed. He made his soul an offering,
not just his body. But it was soul suffering. I
hope I made that clear. And verse 11, he shall see the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. You see substitution
and satisfaction by his knowledge, by knowing him, by his knowledge,
shall my righteous servant justify many. For he shall bear their
iniquities." All these preach salvation, satisfaction, substitution. It says, he shall justify many
why or how he shall bear their iniquities. Isn't that good? All those whose iniquities were
born are justified, are justified. In our verse, in verse nine,
in verse nine, much more than being now justified by his blood. Direct reference. In my idea,
to that same scripture, he will justify many, the Greek word
for justification here, justify many, a successful substitute
for us as sinners. We shall be saved from God's
wrath through him. I must hurry. There are only
two types of people in this world, those either sentenced to God's
wrath are those who are saved from God's wrath. They're not
sentenced to God's wrath in the future. They will be sentenced
to God's wrath, somebody would say. No, they're presently sentenced. They're walking under a sentence. The hammer's over their head.
They're just waiting for the hammer to fall. When the last
stroke, when the last beat of their heart, they stand before
God, they'll hear that words depart from me into an everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And he goes on, he
says, for I never knew you. I never knew you never had that
relationship with him. We're reconciled in verse 10.
For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son. So are you reconciled before
God? We're friends now, we're not enemies because of the work
of Christ, the mediator who died in our place and got the job
done, as one of our brothers said, got the job done and was
successful in making atonement for our sins. In verse 10, he
says that we are saved by his life. That preaches his ongoing
work, that preaches his work of intercession for us, that
preaches his success, that he ever lives to make intercession.
In 511, he says, let's look at 511, not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement or the reconciliation. rejoicing in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom we've received that, rejoicing in the
atonement, rejoicing in his work, his success, rejoicing in the
fact that we're not under the wrath of God anymore. If you
talk about rejoicing, that you're freed from the wrath of God.
You're saved from wrath through him if you're under the blood
of Christ. Rejoicing in this hope, you know,
he says in Hebrews, he says, let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering for he is faithful who promised. He promised us that strong consolation. Rejoicing in the peace we have
before God, rejoicing in the access that we have through his
high priestly work into this new and living way, we're told
to draw near to God. All this because the love of
God is poured out into our hearts. I like what Jonathan Edwards
said in his treatise on religious affections in part three. He says, the way of salvation
by Christ appears glorious to God's people. that God should
thus manifest himself in the work of redemption. They have
a sense of the exceeding fitness of this way of salvation that
is adapted to the necessities of their sinful, guilty, undone
souls, and yet is infinitely glorious and honorable to God. That's why we rejoice in all
the work of Christ. As we read the Word of God, we
need to read it. We need to hear the preaching
of the Word of God, especially passages on redemption accomplished
through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you. Lord
bless.