You could turn with me in your
copy of your scriptures, if you have it, to Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5. And this is a bit challenging
for me. As an expositor, I believe that
everybody under the sound of my voice must hear my doctoral
dissertation every time I stand before them. And so it's going
to be incredibly quick, incredibly loud, and I promise you it will
be incredibly intense. Because there's so much that
I'd love to share with you. Foundationally, I want to share
with you the glory of God, that as God has lifted us up and raised
us with Christ and seated us in the heavenly places to the
right side of the Father as Christ is. Friends, we as the people
of God, we should live to the praise of his glorious grace
and we should live together as the beloved to lift him up into
the fame of his name. So as we prepare to hear the
word of God, let us please go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you so
for your grace in Christ. We thank you for your love toward
us sinners. And that while we were your enemies,
Christ died for us. May you be exalted in the teaching
of your Word today. And may you please, if it be
your will, O great God, to effect salvation in the hearts of all
who hear. Celebration in those who are
yours already. And Father, may it just be a
forever exultation as we worship you in spirit and in truth. In
the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. I want you to focus for
just a moment on Easter. Easter, of course, has a wide
history. It's not necessarily always been
a Christian holiday, but in the history of the church, being
Christians as we are, we like to take charge of everything
that is not godly. And if possible, we like to put
a godly face upon those things which might be pagan, such as
the date that we have chosen for Christmas. and Easter and
other things of that nature. And so in that we rejoice and
we have opportunity this week that we call this the Holy Week. Holy meaning set apart, sanctified
for the use of God. And so as we come today in culmination
of this Holy Week, I would suggest to you, church, that we indeed
ought to have every week as a Holy Week. Every day is a holy day. Every moment of our lives should
be, as Christians, set apart for the worship and the purpose
of granting God great praise and adoration. Something's often
amiss in the Easter season. Though it is a wonderful time
to be with family, a wonderful time to enjoy camaraderie and
fellowship, a wonderful time to worship, because of what God
has done for us, oftentimes we fail to see the reality of why
he's done this and to what extent he has done this. And so in the
two or three hours that I have remaining this afternoon, I want
to take you through a journey of Romans chapter five, starting
in verse six. I will read the text and I'll
make a few points and then we will pray. Verse six, while for while we
were still weak, At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for
a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare
even to die. But God shows His love for us
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore,
we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we
be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if, while we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have
received reconciliation. Oh, how I wish that we could
just settle down and that the world, as Pastor DeFore has said,
could just sort of stop for a few minutes and we take time away
during this week. How glorious it would be when
the saints of all generations can forever sit around the throne
of God and hear the Word of God face to face. Never to have to
go back to work or go to the doctor or eat or even bathe. We will forever be in the presence
of our Lord and we will forever be able to worship and learn
his immutable and eternal ineffability. He cannot be contained. And so,
therefore, what we see in the scripture here is just a small
picture of a glorious reality of who God is and how he's revealed
himself in Christ Jesus. I want you to look at several
key things as I bring the points to light today. First, is that
we While we were weak, it says here in verse 6, at the right
time Christ died for the ungodly. Let me unpack that for you. We
see now that there is a weakness among us. That at one time we
who now are justified before God were weak. And then at the
right time, meaning that the death of Jesus Christ, that the
incarnation, Jesus creating the womb from which He was born,
He came into the world that He created and behold, the Lamb
of God that takes away the sins of the world, as John the Baptizer
remarked. This Jesus came not into a place
of turmoil and to an opportunity that seized Him and defected
His purpose, but before the world was, Jesus' purpose to come at
the right time. To die for those who are ungodly. Why? Because we who are in Christ
at one time were not in Christ. And at that time, we were ungodly. We did not deserve the love of
God. And we were unable to affect
change. We were unable to do anything or say anything or be
anything that could turn the love of God toward us. As a matter
of fact, as the prophets of the Old Testament teach us, that
the righteousness of man is filthy rags before the holiness of God.
There is no action or attitude or affection that can rightly
point God to us that He would say, oh, I must save this one,
for he is worthy. For there is only one man that
is worthy to be praised, and he is the God-man, Jesus Christ.
Fully God, fully man. We call that the hypostatic union.
How is it so? It's a mystery. But we, by faith,
see it. And by God's grace, we worship
Him for it. So Christ died for the ungodly,
not for the righteous, not for those who could affect righteousness
on their own, but those who were powerless to do anything. And
then Paul, as he's teaching here in verse 7, he makes a remark,
not to be brawled out in such detail, but he says, for one
who scarcely died for a righteous person, though perhaps For a
good person, one would dare to even die. And the point is now
in verse 8, but God. You see, the whole aspect of
this Easter celebration is to celebrate the love of God given
to us without our warrant, without our merit. We do not deserve
God's love, but God, who is rich in mercy and in love, calls us
to be born again to a living hope in Christ Jesus through
his resurrection from the dead, says Peter in chapter 1 of his
first epistle. So, but God shows his love for
us in that, verse 8, while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us. Since therefore, Christ died
for us, since therefore we now have been justified by his blood,
much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Have
you ever contemplated, friends, What is it that Christ has effected
on the cross? First of all, Christ's death
is powerful and meaningful because He willfully and obediently desired
to die and lay His life down for the sheep. And secondly,
we must understand that if Christ had not been holy and righteous,
His death would have no effect. There would be no purpose in
it except that it would be a great martyr to be mourned. But Christ
was no great martyr. Christ was and is the eternal
God of the universe who spoke and all that there is left into
existence. And as Paul teaches the church
of Colossae, he says, in the fullness of God was pleased as
well in Christ. John, the gospel writer, says
that we have seen God's glory, glory as of the only Son from
the Father, full of grace and truth. And from this fullness,
we all receive grace upon grace. Do you understand how affectionate
God is toward those who deserve not His affection? And that Jesus
Christ came, obediently lived a life of holiness and righteousness,
perfectly fulfilling the law of God, perfectly obeying everything
that the Old Testament had commanded, and willingly and perfectly obeying
even unto death on a cross, as Paul says, to have this mind
among you in Philippians, which is yours in Christ Jesus. that
Jesus, being equal with God, not take equality with God, something
to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, a slave, obedient unto
death, even death on a cross. And so, friends, if you see nothing
else today, see that. That the love of God is caused
in you, not the cause of you, but in spite of you. And to this
is a reason to celebrate. From this is a reason to pray
and pray We have been justified by His blood which He shed. Much
more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. Do you
know what Easter really teaches us? It's that God Himself has
saved us from Himself. That's what Easter is really
about. That the God of this universe
who is holy and righteous and He is just, He cannot forgive
me. Because I am wicked and a sinner.
And the only way He could forgive me is to take one man who was
righteous and holy and to take my guilt and place it on Him.
And that man is Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God that takes away
our sins. We understand that we were once
enemies with God, verse 10. And now we have been reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. much more now that we are reconciled
shall we be saved by His life. Verse 11, more than that, we
also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom
we now have received reconciliation. Do you see the amazing love in
which God has loved us? And the amazing way in which
God has reached down into the chasms of the history of man
sovereignly, subjecting Himself to hostility, being tempted to
the point of shedding blood and willingly dying to save sheep
that are unable to save themselves. Friends, as you celebrate Easter
this week, as you celebrate the death and the burial and the
resurrection of Jesus, do not forget the life of Jesus. Do
not forget the new life of Jesus. Because it is that life that
gives us life. It is Christ alone that saves
us from the wrath of God. And friends, there is nothing
in our being that makes us worthy of such love except that God
is merciful and kind toward us. Be reconciled to God. Make no
mistake. God is the effectual cause of
all of salvation from grace to glory. But friends, we are not
off the hook. We must repent and we must believe
the Gospel. We must exercise faith. Realizing
that the fullness of our faith is truly a gift from God. And
in that, and from that, and because of that, we celebrate to the
praise of His glorious grace. Would you pray with me? Father,
it is amazing to just look into Your Word. Oh, how I long to
be able to come, and to hear, and to learn, and to teach the
Word of God. Father, I pray that as we've
taught and shared just briefly today, and the sermons from yesterday
and three days prior, Lord, that they would just resonate in our
hearts and plant in our souls, and that the heart of each of
us would be good soil wrought by the Holy Spirit of God, and
that we would celebrate life in Christ. that we would rejoice
knowing that indeed we are forgiven, not of our own doing or our own
worth, but because of your mercy and because of your love. Jesus
died so that we could live. Father, help us to see fully
that Jesus is not just a possible Savior, but a certain Savior. Help us to worship through this
Easter season. In Christ's name we stand before
you sinless. And in His name we pray. Amen.