For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Friends, that is the gospel.
That's the gospel of God's substitution. Look at the last five words of
this verse again and stand in amazement. Christ died for the
ungodly. The Son of God, who is God, died
for the ungodly. The only one who could redeem
this soul-sick, depraved man was God Himself. How far has man fallen? So far
that God Himself must take my place. In this verse, men and women
born of the flesh are described as sick, actually dead. Men and women whose disease is
so far advanced that they're all together without strength. When we were yet without strength. My father was a small man, but
he was always a strong man. I think the word that most used
was wiry. He's wiry. But I remember when he was on
his deathbed, dying, weighed probably no more than 70 or 80
pounds. He was without strength, had
no strength. All drained, all gone, them days
over. And that is a picture of you
and I outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're without strength.
We can't save ourselves from the horrific disease that we
have. And the sad part is, is we would
not if we could. I'm sure the Apostle Paul here
considers the newly born infant described in Ezekiel. You're
familiar with the passage. There was an infant deserted
by its mother before the necessary acts of tenderness had been performed. This child's laying in a field,
deserted, left unwashed, unclothed, unfed, and a victim to certain
death. Well, that's a picture of us.
That's a picture of sinners, depraved sinners. Under the most
painful circumstances, this helpless infant was abandoned and in a
hopeless condition. That's how our father Adam left
us, in a hopeless condition, in a fallen state, full of sin,
dead in trespasses. And like the nation of Israel,
the book of Isaiah describes our condition most truthfully. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
1. Hold your place here in Romans, but turn with me to Isaiah chapter
1. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 4. This is speaking of the nation
of Israel, but it's a picture of all sinners. All sinful nation. A people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger, and they're gone away back. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
to the head, there's no soundness in it. Just wounds, bruises,
putrefying sores that have not been clothed. closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. But friends, there's
even a darker side to the picture of our condition. You say, well, I don't know how
it could get much darker than that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Our condition is not only our
misery, but it's our fault. It's our
fault. In other diseases, men are grieved
at their sickness, but this is the worst thing concerning our
case. We love the evil that is destroying
us. In addition to the pity that
our condition needs, and we do need pity, All the blame goes to us. For
we're without the will to be made whole. That's right. Our cannot really means we'll
not. I know that we do not have the
ability to make ourselves whole. That's plain. No man can come. No man has the ability to come
to Christ. But let me tell you something,
ours is the willing ignorance of refusing to look. Not like the blind man who cannot
see, that has need of sight, but ours is
willing ignorance not to look. Not to look. I'll not have that
man rule over me. But he's high and lifted up.
Can you see him? No, I'm not looking. I'm happy
with the way things are. Oh, I tell you, we don't have
the ability to make ourselves whole, and our will is not to. That's right. But salvation has
never, ever been through the ability of the sinner. Never
has and never will be. It's a work of sovereign grace. It's God's work. When we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Our salvation, in a nutshell,
is just this. Christ died. And He died for
the ungodly. The Christ of God, though He
had no part in our fall and in the sin which came from it, has
died to redeem us from its penalty. The penalty of sin and the wages
of sin is what? Death. Death is what we deserve. Do you think that most who call
themselves Christians actually think that they deserve death? God's people do. I would say the answer to that
question though is no. Most men think that though they
might be sinners, salvation has come by some will of their own. Men by nature don't really think
themselves to be that bad. And they definitely don't consider
themselves ungodly. You go up to a man on the street
and say, you're an ungodly man. You may have a fight on your
hands. But you tell a redeemed, saved,
unworthy sinner that he's ungodly, and he'll say, yeah. But I've been made righteous
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That woman who went to
Christ, whose daughter was grievously vexed with the devil, she said,
Lord, help me. He said, it's not meat, it's
not fed, it's not proper that I give the children's bread to
dogs. And she said, yes, Lord, I'm
a dog. I'm a dog. I agree with you. I take sides with you against
myself. I am a dog, but yet the dogs eat the crumbs from the
master's table." He said, I've not seen this kind of faith. Brother Mahan preached a message.
I think it was Marcella that told me. You know there was a
cartoon out by Disney, I believe, All Dogs Go to Heaven. Brother
Mahan heard that and he said, that really is a movie? And he
preached a message. All dogs go to heaven. But they're
dead dog sinners. Dead dog sinners. You know what the word ungodly
means? It means to be destitute of all. A-W-E. and love towards
God. Destitute. And that's what today's religion
has been reduced to, my friends. It has been reduced to destitute
of the awe and wonder and amazement of God Almighty. There's no amazement. There's no wonder. There's no
awe for a sovereign God. For men have made themselves
a god of their own imagination." You know what they've done? They've
attempted to drag God off His throne and make Him one such
as themselves. That sounds a little harsh. That's
not harsh enough. That's exactly what men have
done. Endeavored to strip God of His glory, His sovereignty,
title of Almighty King and have endeavored to bring Him down
low, one with whom they can feel good about themselves with. That's
exactly what religion has done. Most don't preach an Almighty
God that works all things after the counsel of His own will.
They've made Him to be inferior to themselves. I know. I was raised in a church
like that. I had no fear of God, no awe
of God, no wonder and amazement of God Almighty, because I had
been taught that He was a little pygmy God. He's trying to do
something and can't, depending upon your will to let Him have
His way. That's blasphemy. God is perfectly holy and perfectly
righteous and incapable of being anything less than a sovereign
potentate. People say that God's in control,
but His control is limited to their passions and their will. Nonsense! A God that's not in
control and not a mighty potentate is no God at all. He's a figment
of men's imaginations. Men and women born of the flesh,
which we all were, all are, are nothing more than ungodly, ungodly. Christ, that name, that name
given to our Lord, that's an expressive word. It means anointed
one. Anointed. Who anointed Him? God did. And that expressive
name means, it indicates that He was set upon a divine errand. A divine errand of mercy. to
save His people from their sin. His name is Jesus and He shall
save His people from their sin. That good news mentioned in Matthew
1.21, it says not that He might save, not that He wants to save,
Not that He'll save you if you let Him. What does it say? He shall save His people from
their sin. Bill, are you a sinner? Do you
need to be saved from your sin? If you are, that's mighty good
news. Christ died for the ungodly. He shall save us. Not that He'll try. Not that
He will as long as you allow Him to. Not that He will save
you if you're agreeable. But He shall. Save the ungodly. His people
from their sin. His divine errand of mercy is
commissioned by supreme authority. Those men in the Scriptures that
were sent on an errand by the King, they weren't ignored or
they'd die. The Lord Jehovah said of old,
I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one
chosen out of the people." Psalm 89, 19. And again, he said in Isaiah
55, 4, he said, I have given Him for a witness to the people,
a leader and a commander to the people. And yet men stand and
say, won't you let Jesus have His way? That don't sound like
a leader and a commander to me. Now let me ask you, and I ask
you sincerely, this is a matter of life and death, dear friends.
We're not just playing church here. This is not a social club.
This is a matter of life and death. Do you who are yet without
Christ agree that you're ungodly? Or does that offend you? Oh,
there was a time that offended me. Ungodly? I may not be all that I should
be, but I'm certainly not ungodly. Oh, yes, I am. God showed me
I was. Well, the truth of the matter
is that all, that little word all, A-double-L, All that are
outside of Christ our Lord are ungodly. And they deserve nothing
but hell and wrath. That's right. Turn with me to
2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. Look at verse 4. For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, And for if God spared not the
old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing the flood upon the world of what? The ungodly. And turning the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. Let me ask before I read further,
will God then excuse your ungodliness? My ungodliness? He spared not
the angels. He spared not the world in Noah's
time. And He spared not the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why would He spare us? Verse 7, And He delivered just
Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing
and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their
unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly. Well, I thought you just said
all ungodly. Well, let me tell you something.
If they're godly, they're made godly. Made godly by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why didn't Noah drown in the
flood? He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's the
only reason. Why wasn't Lot consumed with Sodom and Gomorrah? God. Abraham intervened in prayer
and said, if there's just one righteous, just man in that city,
would you spare it? And he sent two angels to deliver
Lot out of it before he destroyed it. Let me tell you something,
friends. God intervenes. That's the only way a sinner
is saved. God intervenes. It's a divine intervention. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust. Do you know what that word means?
Ungodly. Reserve the ungodly unto the day of judgment to be
punished. Now, does it sound like from
these verses that God will tarry with the ungodly until they decide
to come? Decide to straighten up their
ways? Decide to follow Jesus? I have decided to follow Jesus,
they say. No, you didn't. God decided. And you came. You didn't will to come, but
He made you willing. You had an ability to come, but
He gave you the ability. He drew you by His grace. Isaiah 13, 9 says, Behold, the
day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger. Does that sound like the God
that you hear, that other men preach? No, I mean, He loves
everybody. No, God's coming with wrath and
fierce anger to lay the land desolate. and he shall destroy
the sinners thereof out of it." That don't sound hopeful, does
it? That doesn't sound hopeful for the ungodly. It's not unless
God intervenes. Christ died for the ungodly. That's our only hope. That's
our only hope. Hosea 14-4 says, I will heal
their black backsliding. I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from Him." Oh, believer, if you're
here this morning and you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ,
His anger has been turned away from you. You were once ungodly,
but now you're made godly. You're made perfectly righteous,
perfectly holy in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
alone. Because Christ died for the ungodly. Oh, He's no unauthorized Savior. He's no amateur deliverer. But
He's an ambassador clothed with unbounded power. None can stay
his hand and say unto him, what are you doing? I will, they shall,
he says. What a sovereign potentate. And it is this ordained and appointed
Savior who has died for sinners. Christ came into this world to
save sinners. Remember this, dear friends,
and consider well who it was that came to lay down his life
for you. For such a one as you and I are. The text says he died. Can you
not hear with your heart what I'm saying? He died. This is
not fiction. This is a truth. 1 Corinthians 15, look at it
with me for a moment. I won't turn you to many more,
but 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Look at Romans 8. Turn back to Romans 8. We're
working our way back to our text anyway. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. There's none to answer the question,
who is He that condemned? There's none that can condemn
any for whom Christ died. Christ died, my dear friends. He laid down His life for us. Christ died by divine justice,
and rightly so. What? If it's by divine justice,
it was rightly so? Well, what do you mean? Well, on Him lay our iniquities, and therefore on Him must lay
the suffering. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him, Isaiah 53 says. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him. He hath put Him to grief. Why? That's what you deserved. That's what I deserved. Christ
died for the ungodly. He died under circumstances which
made His death most, most terrible. He was condemned to a felon's
cross He was crucified among a mob of fools and he hung between
two notorious sinners. Oh my, there were few there that
day with sympathizing eyes to gaze upon him. Those who watched
him, they gazed with malice and hatred in their hearts and they
ridiculed him in contempt. Well, if you're the son of God,
why don't you come down from there? He saved others. Why don't
he save himself? Oh, what contempt! What malice
in their hearts! He was mocked and scoffed by
a hateful throng of people. And they were incredibly cruel
with their ungodly blasphemy. There he hung, bleeding from
many wounds. Not only the wounds in his hand
and in his feet, but there was a spear pierced into his side. The Scripture says he was beaten
beyond recognition. He didn't even resemble a man.
A crown of thorns put on his head. Oh, my friends, if you
can get the picture, he was a bloody, beaten, very young, in my place. He was under every circumstance
of harsh pain. My, I get an ingrown toenail
and I'm the biggest baby in the world, but Christ, oh my, what
pain. What cruel treatment. Spurgeon once said his death
was of all deaths the most deadly death. Mere words can't describe the
scene of this day. So I claim to you with emphasis
With all the sincerity that me as a sinner can muster up, Christ
died. He died. He laid down His life. No man
took it. He laid it down. Voluntarily
He laid it down. Why? For His people. For sinners like you and me. ungodly. He said in John 10,
no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down in myself. I've
got power to lay it down and I have power to take it in again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. For the foundation
of the world the Father gave Christ and people and they were
in his heart from the day he was born until this day of death
by crucifixion. And when our Lord cried, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That was the blackness of
the darkness of His intervening death. God turned His back on
God. Who's sufficient for those things?
God forsook His only begotten Son. He died for the ungodly. He died
in the place of wretched, wretched sinners, good-for-nothing sinners.
He didn't die for the righteous. Or should I say, those righteous
in their own eyes, those that are okay, I'm okay, in their
own sight. Matthew 9, 13 says, I'll have
mercy and not sacrifice. He said, I've not come to call
the righteous but sinners, ungodly men and women to repentance. Well, brother, I just don't believe
I'm ungodly. This message is not for you.
It's for the ungodly. Are you back in Romans 5? Look
back to Romans 3 real quick. Verse 12. They're all gone, out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Isn't that what your Bible says?
Do you believe the Scriptures? If so, then there's none that
doeth good, no, not a one. And in our state of sin, every
one of us gone, gone out of the way. Unprofitable, ungodly, yet. What does our text say? For when we were yet, without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Oh, I pray this morning that
God will grab your heart and shake it. Shake your heart, oh,
that you might see the glory of the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, that God might show you your
just recompense of reward. The wages of sin is death. Death. And in the book of Hebrews, chapter
2, verse 3, it says, The writer asks this question,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? The great salvation I proclaim
to you this morning, dear friends, is that Christ died for the ungodly. For when we who all elect of
God all that trust in Christ, who are yet without strength.
This was our condition, without strength, no ability to save
ourselves, no way, no will, no righteousness, no desire, no
need, no work suitable, no life, no godliness, just ungodliness. in due time, chosen before the
foundation of the world, but called to Him by grace." What
in due time? In the time that God purposed.
In the time that Christ came in sovereign grace and mercy
to us. At the appointed time of love.
Isn't that what the Scripture is saying? He came in the fullness
of time. Christ called us and saved us
by His grace. and we're justified freely by
His grace. True redemption, my friend, is
only in Christ. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. When?
When it pleased God. That being justified by His grace,
Titus 3-7 says we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. And back in our text, verse 6,
Christ died for the ungodly. Now make sure you know that when
the Son of God determined to die for men, that He viewed them
as ungodly. Oh, that's what makes this amazing
love, Eric, amazing love. How can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me? Ungodly! Well, I need to hurry, but I don't
want to leave out the meat of this. Bear with me just a moment
or two. The Bible does not teach that
Christ died for the good, does it? For those that are well,
Christ said, have no need of a physician. And if a man by
nature is just with God, then why should the Savior die? The
Scriptures say He died the just for the unjust. That's marvelous,
wonderful, sovereign grace, isn't it? But the just dying for the
just? Well, that would be a double
injustice. It would be unjust that the just
should be punished at all. It's the sick that need a cure
from the Great Physician. It's the sick. It's the sinful. It's the ungodly. The cause of His death, pain,
and suffering is the cause of sin. He came to pay the debt
of His people. His people who were sinners and
ungodly. Therefore, we conclude that Christ
died for men who deserved not only death, but eternal death. and that only He, Christ our
Lord, could substitute Himself for us. He's the only one. Religious men and women say they
believe in salvation by grace, but what they confess is they
don't believe that at all. They believe that there's enough
good in them that they can make the right decision to believe
on Christ, but that's not what the scriptures teach. Okay, look
at verse 8 in the same chapter and I'll wrap it up. But God
commendeth his love toward us in that while, what? We were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. The Apostle Paul reiterates
what he said in verse 6. He commended His love for us.
You know what that word commended means? I thought you might find
this interesting. I did. It means to approve, to
show, establish. It means to put together. It
means to unite parts into one. He makes us, listen, He makes
us one with Himself. Now His righteousness is my righteousness. His holiness is my holiness. And His state in heaven is now
mine. Ungodly and made perfect. Oh, God proves His love, and
He puts us together with His Son, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. What did that cost? Well, let
me tell you, it didn't cost you anything. It's free. But it cost
God His precious Son. That's what it cost. Verse nine,
much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from what? Wrath. Whose wrath? God's wrath. through him. Oh, I imagine if Paul would reiterate
this, he would say much, much, much, much more being now justified
by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. Now you can only be saved from
the wrath of God. It says it right here, through
Christ. We were blood washed You know,
when I, well actually there used to be a quote religious group
that had that name. But when you write it down, blood
washed, you can divide it up, blood was shed. God's blood was
shed. In verse 10, for if, when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much, much, much, much more being reconciled, we shall what? Be
saved by His life. We're ungodly, undeserving enemies. Does your Bible say enemies right
there? Yeah. Enemies. Enemies of who? Enemies of God.
That's what we were. enemies, and yet reconciled to
God. But it was by the death of His
Son. Being innocent, death could not
hold Christ in the grave, and He rose again in power and glory
and majesty. And the Scriptures say He told
His people, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And where I'll
be, you'll be also. Oh, is that good news to you?
Well, it is if you're ungodly. We're saved by His life. He's
alive. He's not dead. He has the keys
to death and hell and we're saved by His life. Revelation 1.18
says, I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I'm alive
forevermore. And I have the keys of hell and
of death. Verse 11, And I'm none, and not
only so, But we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have now received the atonement. Now here's what
I want you to see. This is what I pray that we'll
all see. This is what you must see if
you're to have life. The ungodly are made godly. through, by, and only through
Christ. Now, that'll bring us inner joy.
That's what it says, we also joy in God. That'll bring us
inner joy through our Lord Jesus Christ. And through Him, dear
child of God, we have now, right now, received the atonement. You know what that word atonement
means? Exchanged. I couldn't believe
that. I pondered on that. Exchanged. It means exchanging values. Now
let me leave you with this thought. I was ungodly. But Christ exchanged
me. Exchanged me for Himself. into perfect righteousness. He
that knew no sin was made sin, became sin, took my sin that
He might give me His perfect righteousness. That's a great
exchange right there. That's atonement. Exchanged. He took my sin, He died my death,
and He was made to be sin for me. And I tell you, if that's
not good news to you, then you're yet without Christ and without
hope in God in this world. But what a wonderful, amazing,
marvelous message to those whom God has revealed the gospel.
That is Christ and Him crucified. Christ died for the ungodly.