Chapter 5. Now, I believe there's
21 verses in this chapter, and I intend to read them all. And
then after a while, after we have our other hymns, I want
to come back and try to preach from, which I know I can't make
it, but the first 11 verses. I'm going to try to read with
very little comment, if that's possible, and I ought to know
better. It must be already on. Yes, goodness,
I thought it was off. Romans 5, verse 1, 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, in trouble, in trials. And only the Lord's
children can do this. We glory in tribulations also
knowing that tribulation works or produces patience. And patience results in experience
and experience produces hope. And hope makes not ashamed. Because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. And beginning at verse 6 and reading through verse 10,
we have a four-part description that answers a particular question
that demands to be answered. And the question is simply this,
and I have taken this question as my title, though it may not
appear to be the case when I get into some of these other verses,
but the question is this, for whom did Christ die? For whom did He die? And these
verses define that for us and do not leave us to guess. We're
told very plainly and clearly. Now, we are born believing that
Christ died for everybody, but I'm telling you that is not the
case. I'm just about to prove it. Carl, if you'd ask those
folks to come on in, I'll stop for a second. Goodness alive,
it's Miss Pearl, and she's got her hat on. All right, ladies,
we're in Romans chapter 5, and we've come down to verse 6 in
our reading. The question is, for whom did
Christ die? All right, here we go. See if
you can find yourself in these statements. For when we were
still or yet without strength, still without strength, when
we had no strength at all to do anything for ourselves, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly. Have you ever been ungodly? Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure
perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God, unlike
ourselves, God commends His love toward us in that while we were
still 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,
have I ever been God's enemy? And I cannot be His friend if
I've never been His enemy because I'm only fooling myself. Something
mighty, radical, miraculous, and glorious must take place
to change an enemy into God's friend. 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. 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. Wherefore,
as by one man, Adam in the garden, sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned." Then you have a parenthetical statement that continues for
several verses. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
though sin was not imputed, death still reigned from Adam to Moses. That is, when Moses, it was through
Moses that we received the law. Death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over them that had not sinned after the similitude, the same
manner as Adam. As Adam's transgression, who
is the figure, Adam is the figure of Christ that was to come. But
not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through
the offense of one many be dead, if through Adam's offense the
entire human race be spiritually dead, much more the grace of
God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ,
has abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death
reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ." End of the parentheses. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, namely the Lord Jesus, the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's
disobedience, Adam's disobedience, many were made sinners, So by
the obedience of one, namely our Lord Jesus, shall many be
made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. We might understand what sin
is and who a sinner is, but where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. That as sin has reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. by Jesus Christ our... Now for me, I read that chapter
pretty record time, y'all, but that wasn't what I wanted to
do. I wanted to stop several times, but I'll work on some
things here now in the first 11 verses and we can cover as
many of them as we can and leave the others for another time.
Now I think I had a question there when we started this morning
in our reading. If I don't take care of that
now, then I'll be up against the time I think I'm supposed
to stop, and then I won't like myself. So let's go back to that
question just for a second. There are many ways to address
it. For whom did Christ die? Many, many ways. Many, many passages. This morning I want to do it
like this. Our passage in Romans 5 has told us clearly for whom
the Lord Jesus died. In verse 6 it tells us that the
people for whom He died have no strength of their own, without
strength. Then it says, as plainly as English
words can talk, Christ died for the ungodly. That's just plain
so. He died for the ungodly. Just
between me and you, now this is our secret. There ain't no
godly person except the ungodly person whom Christ saves and
makes them godly. I know. All my life I thought
I was godly until I found out I wasn't godly because I found
out who Christ is. And naturally, I found out who
I was. Then in verse 8, it says, while
we were yet sinners. I can give you a dozen texts
right out of the four Gospels that Christ came into this world
to do what? To save sinners. And I mean a
sinner in all capital letters. I don't mean somebody who is
just a little bit of a sinner. I mean full-blooded, dyed-in-the-wool
sinners. Then in verse 10, if when we
were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. When Christ died, He died for
those sinners, for those without strength and without hope. And
in verse 11, He died for God's enemies because the Lord saves
people who hate Him and they then love Him. And the rest of
us pretend we love Him and just keep right on on the same road
we've been on all our life. If, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. All right,
we've got to do this quickly. I'm going to put me a piece of
paper here so I can find my place when I come back. If you'll turn
to John chapter 6, we're going to do all of this just in the
Gospel of John, is probably of the four Gospels, my very favorite
one. Now answering the question, for whom did Christ? The sixth chapter of John is
put together around a miracle that we call the feeding of the
5,000. And the basic essential message
of John chapter 6 is that Christ is the bread of life, the bread
of life. And now after this miracle, and
these folks come to Christ the following day, that starts at
verse 22, and they come and talk to Him about this bread, this
bread of life. And our Lord begins to speak,
and when you get down to verse 33, I'd like to read you a few
verses back to back. Now remember, Christ is the bread
of life. His flesh and His blood is the
only spiritual food for our souls. We feed on Christ. That's how
our soul lives. All right, verse 33. For the
bread of God is He, the Lord Jesus, which comes down from
heaven and gives life unto the world. And look what they said
in response. Then said they unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And our Lord said to them, I
am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never
hunger. Talking about spiritual hunger.
That is, he'll never hunger in vain, but he will hunger for
Christ all his days. Shall never hunger, and he that
believes on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, Christ is
continuing to speak to these persons, that you also have seen
me, and believe not. Yet they said, Evermore give
us this bread. But they do not believe in him,
nor trust him. Here's verse 37. All that the
Father gives me shall come to me. What on earth is He talking
about? He's talking about those people
in old eternity, in the covenant of grace. It's called the election
of grace. God chose a people and gave those
people into the care and keeping and hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here He says, You won't come
to Me, but all that the Father gives Me shall come to Me. Him
that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. You can just go
on and mark this down as being so. Everybody is not going to
be saved. It was never God's purpose to
save all men without exception. Let's go on a couple of other
verses. Verse 38, where I came down from heaven not to do my
own will, but the will of Him that sent me." Here it is. This
is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He
has given me, all the persons that the Father gave to the Son
in covenant grace, all that the Father has given me, I should
lose nothing not one single solitary one, that I should lose nothing
but should raise it up again at the last day." Verse 40, and
this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which
sees the Son, talking about spiritual sight, seeing with the eyes of
the heart, the eyes of faith, Everyone which sees the Son and
believes on Him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at
the last." Now, that's not obvious. That is not everybody. I do not
know what it is. But I've saved the best for last.
And if you'll flip over to John chapter 17, I can give you an
analogy and a difficulty that you cannot unwrap except you
say, God saves whom He pleases. It doesn't please Him to say
that. I just know you're wondering
where am I going in John 17. Verse 9. John 17 is the high
priestly intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator
and He's talking to His Father about His disciples, both the
present disciples and future disciples. And in verse 9, He
comes to this statement. I challenge you with this statement.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I pray for them, referring to His disciples. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world. Now you want to tell me that
Christ died for a world that He does not pray for. I tell
you that can never, ever He's going to save a world of sinners,
but He's not going to save everybody. But everybody He intends to save,
He does save, and those are the ones for whom He died. I'm just
giving you that ninth verse and say just help yourself. Tackle
that any way you want to. Tomorrow is going to read the
very same, and the next day, and the next day, and the next
day. If God is pleased, we'll find out who He is. We'll say
God's Word cannot lie, and we'll bow to You'll look in that same
chapter over to verse 24, John 17, 24. The Savior is still praying. He's praying like you and I have
never and can never pray. Any prayer that you and I utter
has this clause affixed to it whether we put it in there every
time or not. Not my will, thine be done. Right? Absolutely. Not so the
Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus prays, Father,
I will. Let me read it to you. John 17,
24. Father, I will that they also
whom you have given me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the
foundation of the world. All that the Father gives to
the Lord Jesus will be with Him. He prays to that end. Father,
I will. Okay, back to Romans chapter
5. Why don't we put the kids in the nursery? I'm not all right
with it. I apologize for doing that, but
we just don't put up with disruptions. We just don't. Now in Romans
chapter 5, The first thing I want to point out this second time
around is in verse 1. In order to understand the subject
of Romans 5, which is justification, it is also the subject of Romans
chapter 4 and the second half of Romans chapter 3. So Paul
has been on this one exact subject since about the 21st verse of chapter 3, all
of chapter 4, and now into chapter 5. And the passage in chapter
5 begins with the word, therefore. And always ask yourself when
you run into this word, what is this word, therefore? What's
it doing here? And it is to tie the two chapters
together. And if you'll read the concluding
statement in verse 25 of chapter 4, you'll see that the subject
matter of both chapters are the very same. Speaking of Christ
and His death, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. So it is justification by the
Lord Jesus Christ that is the subject matter of chapter 4,
and it concludes the chapter that the resurrection of Christ
secures forever the justification of all of His people. So Paul
begins chapter 5 on the basis of that assurance, therefore
being justified. Everybody for whom Christ died,
He justified all at one time. Being justified. And then we have an unfortunate
arrangement of words in verse 1 of chapter 5. So let me offer
a solution and you may receive it or reject it. That's up to
you. But I'm here to tell you in no uncertain terms that Christ
is our justifier. Chapter 4, verse 25 is death
and His resurrection. Christ is our justifier. And we do not help Him justify
us. He does it all. All the glory
belongs to Him. Now, I'm grateful to Robert Hawker
for suggesting this arrangement of the wording of verse 1 of
chapter 5. You can look it up for yourself.
Here it is. Therefore, being justified through
our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we have peace with God. Therefore, being justified through
our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we have peace with God. Here's all I'm trying to say.
Faith is not our Savior. It is faith's object, who is
Christ, that is the Savior. We live in a confusing religious
age in which everybody and his brother thinks faith is what
saves them. My soul, what difference is faith
then if it's looked upon as a work? What's the difference in faith
and keeping any of the Ten Commandments or all of them? None of which
any of us can keep. We sure like to think we can.
This is a powerful statement, one that needs careful consideration.
Therefore, being justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith
we have peace. If you would hold your place
here and let's turn to Colossians chapter 1 for just a moment and
look at another statement that will shed light on this one and
help us greatly to appreciate what is being declared in Romans
chapter 5. In Colossians chapter 1 verse
20, Colossians 1.20, let's see, it's just over past Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians and then Colossians, I believe is the
order. Colossians 1.20, having made peace, that's what Romans
5 once said, by faith we have peace with God. Having made peace
through the blood of Christ's cross, By Him, by the Lord Jesus,
to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were
sometimes alienated and enemies," these are the people that Christ
saved, aliens and enemies, "...in your mind by wicked works, Yet
in spite of who and what we are, yet now has He reconciled. He's reconciled these very same
persons. How did He do it? In the body
of His flesh through death to present you holy, H-O-L-Y, holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. That is to say,
leaving no sin, put them all away. Yet we'll go to our grave
confessing ourselves to be nothing but sin. Now we'll go back to
Romans 5 again. Now this string of things that
the Apostle has strung together in verses 3 and 4 and 5 are very
important and for us to recognize Let me just read you the statement
beginning at verse 3. And not only so, not only do
we glory and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but not
only so, we glory, we rejoice in tribulations, in troubles,
in trials. These things are designed to
cast us onto Christ, to wean us from this world. being too
much at home in it. Also, knowing that tribulation,
troubles, trials, heartaches, works, results in or produces
patience. Patience results in experience
and experience results. All of these things are used
by God to make Christ more precious, to make us seek Him more Finally,
verse 5, "...and hope makes not ashamed, because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us, the Spirit of God making manifest to us the precious love
of God in Christ, shed abroad in our hearts." Verse 6 again,
"...for when we were yet or still 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, in contrast to men,
God commends His love toward us in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. I've got to stop and answer a
question. Who is this us and this we that Paul keeps talking
about? And if you don't figure that
out, you cannot possibly understand to whom these statements refer. And the only way to know that
is to go back to chapter 1 in the book of Romans and find it
for ourselves. And in verses 6 and 7, the apostle
tells us to whom this letter was first addressed. among whom
are you also," his readers, also, the called of Jesus, the called,
the called. If I'm not mistaken, that makes
that word called, it used to be called a verbal noun. I don't
know what it's called now. And then in verse 7, it says,
"...to all that be in Rome," but it's not everybody in Rome
altogether. but it is to a group of persons
who live in Rome, and he further describes them and therefore
limits the number in Rome to which these statements are addressed.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, God loves sinners where,
in, through, and by Christ, beloved of God, called saints. called saints. That is to say,
saints who have been called, which is what we had in verse
6, the called of Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about just the
general call of the gospel. I'm talking about the irresistible
call of God's grace. When the Holy Spirit comes in
power to our souls and effectually calls us to come to Christ, we
come. Yes, we do. Let's see, Psalm
65 verse 4 says, blessed is the man whom God chooses and causes
to approach unto himself. You've got to have both of them.
You can't leave one of them off. All right, then it says, all
saints, I'm leaving out the italicized, Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we run in chapter
5 or throughout the book of Romans, when we run into us and we, we've
got to find out who he's talking to. And if we indeed are in Christ,
put there by the grace and power of God the Holy Spirit, then
we can say that Romans chapter 5 is written to us as well. Romans
chapter 5, "...much more then, 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 being reconciled we shall be saved by His Now, I
can't get past verse 10 without talking about those enemies again.
I'm trying to help us find out if we've ever been God's enemy
because most people don't think they ever have been. I guess
everybody thinks that at one time or another. But if you'll
turn to a famous verse of Scripture, Romans chapter 8 and verse 28,
I'd like to draw a little parallel between the two statements. Chapter
5, verse 10, when we, Paul and his readers, were enemies. Romans chapter 8 verse 28, And
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. And the question is, when did
I begin to love Him? And why? It is the result of
God saving our poor souls, filling us in Christ with His love that
we may be said to love Him. And here's the other secret in
Romans 8.28, everything works together for good for certain
people, people that truly love God as the result of His saving
us and who are the called according to His purpose. The same language
we ran into in Romans chapter 1. The called according to His
purpose. Ninety-nine out of a hundred
will read it called according to His purpose. But that ain't
it. Called is not a verb. Here it is a noun. The called. The called. To them that love
God to them who are thee called according to His purpose. All right, I'm going to finish
up back in chapter 5, reading verses 10 and 11. 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. Not only so, but we also joy
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. If you want a good way to define
atonement, just change it into three words, keeping the same
exact letters, at-one-ment. At-one-ment. And another way
you can identify it, In the previous verse, you have the word reconciled
two times in verse 10. The word atonement is precisely
and exactly the very same word. For the Lord Jesus to be our
atonement means that He has reconciled us. All right, thank you.