Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker discusses the importance of faith in the process of justification and salvation. He explains that Abraham's faith in God was credited to him as righteousness. He emphasizes that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation and that through faith, our sins can be forgiven. The speaker also mentions the concepts of sanctification and glorification, which are ongoing processes in the Christian journey. He suggests that in later chapters, the focus will shift to practical ways of living a sanctified life. Okay, today we're going to be in Chapter 5, but in order to get to Chapter 5, you've got to go three verses back up in Chapter 4, because Brother Jim did a great job last couple of weeks in Chapter 4, and I'm going to begin the first half of Chapter 5 today, hoping to get through the majority of it, but if not, I've got next week, so I'm going to do the other half next week. So if I don't get through with this half this week, I'll just pick up where we stopped and pick up next week, so anyway, but in order to understand Chapter 5, you've got to back up into Chapter 4, because in Chapter 4, Brother Jimmy's been talking about justification by faith, and the character about whom he has been talking is Abraham, and of course we understand that Abraham predated the law. So when Abraham was running around with his sons, and then his son's sons in Canaan, there was no law, and Abraham, as you all remember, came from Ur of the Chaldees, which was a polytheist, they were multi-gods, and he believed in the one God, he was a God-fearer, as Brother Jimmy has said on several occasions, that meant he believed in a single God, he was not a polytheist, and later on, when he was in Canaan, Chapter 15 of the Book of Genesis, he said, and Abraham believed God, Abraham trusted God, Abraham put faith in God, and when Abraham put faith in God, that was accounted for his righteousness, because the only way that we can come into the presence of eternal God through redemption, either in the Old Testament or the New Testament, is by faith, and that's the only way you'll ever get into the Kingdom of God. You have to faith it. You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, sacrificed at Calvary, died, buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day rose again for our redemption, he paid the death of his, he died on the cross for our redemption, he rose for our life, and he is now living at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, and we become his child by that one principle, the principle of faith. So in order to understand 5, I'm going to go to verse 23 of Chapter 4, three verses moving into Chapter 5, now it was not written for his sake alone, his being Abraham, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us, so what he's saying is, it was not faith just primarily for Abraham, but it was also faith imputed to us as well. So he's making the transition that the only way in the Old or the New Testament that you are going to become a member of the Kingdom of God is by faith, that's the only way you're going to get there. So he says, but also for us, it shall be imputed to us, imputed means given, it shall be given to us who believe in him, who raised him, God, who raised Jesus from the Lord, from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. And so he ends Chapter 4 by making mention of the word justification, which leads into Chapter 5. Chapter 5 is going to deal with justification. Now remember, we have a systematic theology in the New Testament, and in that systematic theology, there is what we call a study of salvation. And in the study of salvation, there are basically four points. The first point is sin. All are born into sin, and that is a singular word, it is sin. We are all sinners because we were born in sin. And so the first part of salvation is you understand, number one, that you're a sinner. The second part is what we're talking about now, justification. If you are born a sinner, if you are born in sin, then therefore how do you get out of that sin, and how do you get relieved from that sin, and how is that sin removed from you? Well, the only way that sin can be removed from you is to have a person who is much more righteous than you, a person who is much more in the idea and the providence of eternal God than you, a person who has lived the life on this earth as you have lived this life yet without sin, and a person who gave eventually his life for you in order that you might have redemption through that which was a necessary commodity for redemption, blood. And you remember that the scripture says on occasion, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Therefore somewhere along the way somebody's blood had to be shed, and we're going to go back and pick up a little bit of the Old Testament in a moment because this is a very important 14 days for the Jewish people right now, a very important time, and we'll talk about that in a few moments. And so to be justified then is to have your sins imputed, to have someone to impute to you an opportunity to relieve you of your sins, and that relief comes as we demonstrate faith in the only one who lived a perfect life, who died a perfect death, who was raised in a perfect resurrection, and who now lives in perfect kingdom with his father and making intercession for us, namely Jesus Christ the Lord. And so justification comes only through Jesus Christ. Now later on in this book we're going to move into that third phase of the plan of salvation or the study of salvation, and that is to become sanctified. And when we are being sanctified we are being every day saved. In fact, somebody said that salvation is kind of like this. When you're saved you can only be saved one time. You can't be saved multiple times. You can only be saved one time. Whosoever believeth on the Lord shall be saved once and for all. That is a term that means it can't happen again. It can only happen one time. It's an error's tense which means it happens once and that's it. In fact, I just did something that cannot be repeated. I clapped my hand. If we had a sound odometer in here, a sound meter in here, and if that sound meter had picked up my hand clap, I could have tried a thousand times or maybe a million times and never replicate that sound. That sound you heard only happened one time. That particular sound will never happen. I can clap my hand a million times again, but that particular sound will not happen again. It happened one time. It was an error's sound. So what happens in redemption is you can only be saved whosoever call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you get out of being saved? You can't. It's impossible. Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace over all victorious in his bright increase. Deeper yet it floweth, fuller every day. Oh, deeper it groweth, steeper all the way. Made upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. That's like a river glorious. We're going to talk about peace today because in chapter five, the Apostle Paul talks a great deal about to believe in Christ Jesus gives peace and that peace is given by God. So what we're saying here is basically we are moving into sanctification. Now, sanctification is like this. When will that ever stop in your sanctification? Never. It's another verb in Greek. It means to continually go on. We call it a punctiliar. And you are going to keep on being saved. And the reason you're going to keep on being saved is because the Holy Spirit lives in your life and the Holy Spirit is giving you everything that you need to have in order to live a godly life, a righteous life, and the Holy Spirit is going to, do you get it? Now, one time you were saved, but now you are being saved. And every day the Holy Spirit lives in you. So that's the process of salvation. As that Holy Spirit is living in you every day, he is sanctifying you, which is the third part. He's sanctifying you. He is making you prepared for heaven. Now, do you remember toward the latter part of Jesus' life in the book of John, we talked about the fact that Jesus kept telling his disciples something they did not want to hear? He kept telling them something about a word, glorification. And he kept saying to them, gentlemen, I am going to be glorified. And when I am glorified, then you will understand the process that my Father has sent me to do. In other words, the word to be glorified means to die. And he kept telling his disciples, I am going to be glorified. I am going to die. Ladies and gentlemen, there's going to come a time either we are going to die in this world and as children of God we are going to be glorified into the kingdom of God, or should we, like Barbara keeps saying, she's going to hang around until he comes. I hope she's right, because if she hangs around until he comes, I want to hang with her, John, if I can, you know. And so she's saying, all right, but what if we're here when Jesus comes, steps into glory and says, that's it, bring them on, and whoop, all of a sudden we have a rapture or a snatching up of the church. At the moment of that snatching, we are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, and the dead in Christ shall rise first and we, you, I remain, will be glorified. So, the last part of your plan of salvation is to be in heaven, and that's where we're going to spend eternity, in all of heaven. And so, that's what the apostles talked about here. Now, he's working through justification. As we get toward chapter 8, 9, 10, 11, you're going to start seeing how he's going to get very practical. He is less theological, beginning in chapter 9, than he is in chapter 8. And as he gets less theological, he's going to become more daily practical. And as he becomes practical in chapters 9 and following, he's going to start telling you how you can get your sanctified life all in line with what's going on in the kingdom of God. And so, he's going to spend the last chapters telling you how you can get sanctified in order that you might live in the kingdom of God, as you ought to live in the kingdom of God, and then eventually, toward the end, he's going to say, and guess what? The last step is, bye, glorification. And so, you have the four points of redemption. We call it soteriology. It's the study of salvation. And those are the points. So, today, we're talking about justification. Now, I said something a minute ago, and I've told you before. The Apostle Paul was not only a magnificent person in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was an outstanding Jew, in fact, probably one of the best Jewish men that ever lived on the face of the earth. And if anyone could have been justified by the law, Paul would have been the one. He was just that kind of a person. Tremendously knowledgeable, extreme intellect, ability to put things together. He knew the theology of the Old Testament so well that he's now beginning to bring that theology of the Old Testament into his writings. And that's where we get this word lausanne, justification, sanctification, and glorification. It comes from the Old Testament. You see, all of the Old Testament people could only get into the kingdom of God by what? Faith. But many, many of them thought that they could come in by law. And do you remember what the scripture says about law? It says, no one has ever been saved by the law. The law was simply a school teacher to bring us to the place where we could focus on what was the most important thing, and the most important thing would be justified by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the Old Testament, they had a, actually, a very strong theology on each of these subjects, God, Christ, Holy Spirit. They talked about the Spirit a lot. The Spirit appeared in chapter 1 of the book of Genesis, verse 2. I mean, yes, the Holy Spirit was all over the Old Testament. Do you remember when the Holy Spirit would come and go, when God would send the Holy Spirit on these people, and they were full of the Spirit? De Saville, a guy that pushed some poles one day and had long hair and got it cut. You remember him? Do you remember how the Spirit came and went on Samson and on the kings, and how the Spirit came and went? The Holy Spirit was all over the Old Testament. Now, in the Old Testament, there were several sacrifices that were required, not required, were offered. That's a bad word. Forget that word, required. Offered's a better word. That were offered to the children of Israel in the period of time between the place where they could get all of their sins forgiven once a year. Now, let me help you understand what I'm talking about. This coming Thursday, the 15th, is Rosh Hashanah. Now, Rosh Hashanah is New Year's in the Jewish faith, and this is a very important time. Ten days from 15 until 24. Very important time in the Jewish faith. In the old Jewish faith, it was extremely important because of the Temple. Now, without the Temple, it is still very important because the Jewish people use it as an opportunity to do what they think they need to do in order to be acceptable of God. Now, on the 15th day, this coming 15th, is the first day of the month of Tishri. Now, the Jewish months are different from ours, and they move differently in our calendar. In fact, it is the month of the first day of the civil calendar. And interestingly, the Jews work on two calendars. We work on one. They work on three. How would you like to have a telephone that had three calendars in it instead of one? Wouldn't that be a hoot? Mine's bad enough with the one. But they work on a religious calendar that begins at Passover. And their religious calendar begins at Passover. They work on a second calendar that begins this coming Thursday night, Rosh Hashanah. It is the civil calendar. And then, because they live in a world where we live, they also work on our Gregorian calendar which we use every day, given to us by Pope Gregory. And now we use the Gregorian calendar, and that's why we use Ad Assamaneh, A.D. That doesn't mean after death. It was a Catholic inclusion. That means hereafter, Ad Amus Domine, which means a glorious day, okay? So we move on the Gregorian calendar. But they have two calendars. They have three. We have one. Now, on this coming Thursday, on the 15th, they will celebrate Rosh Hashanah. But what's very important about that celebration is it gives them an opportunity for ten days to have what's called the Ten Days of Awe, A-W-E. It begins on the day of Rosh Hashanah, and it ends ten days later on the day that we call Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. So this week, going into next week, is a very, very important week for the Jewish people. Because ladies and gentlemen, during the time of the Old Testament, even during the time of the Apostle Paul, even during the time of the Lord Christ, this was still in progress. If a Jewish person really had faith that if he could spend ten days, the Ten Days of Awe, if he could spend that ten days confessing his sins to God, they call him Yahweh, confessing their sins to God, to the Father, to Jehovah, if they could spend that ten days, and if they had faith that during that ten days, Jehovah would gather up all of those sins that they were committing, and he was getting ready to put them on something that was going to die ten days later on Yom Kippur. Now, the Jewish people had these ten days to demonstrate faith, and they could get all their sins together, and all of their sins could be put on one little bitty lamb on Yom Kippur. Now, if you had faith enough to do that, if you had faith that your sins would be eradicated, if you had faith that your sins would die when that lamb died, that if you had that kind of faith, God would accept that faith, and guess what God would do? He would remove their sins. They had ten days to do it, called the Days of Awe, and as they had those ten days, and by the way, beginning Thursday, the Orthodox Church will be doing this very diligently. The conservative Jewish synagogues will be doing it most assuredly. The Reformed somewhat, but the Orthodox will be doing it very heavily because they still believe that you can put your sins on a place where God can forgive them at a particular time. Now, when there was a temple, and the temple was there until 70 AD, when there was a temple, there was a Holy of Holies, and there was a holy place, and when there was a temple, they could still do Day of Atonement, and on the Day of Atonement, they chose two little lambs. One lamb was called the Lamb of Sacrifice. He was going to shed his blood. The other lamb was called the Scapegoat. It is he that will carry all of the sins of the people on his back, if they spent time confessing those sins and believing that God could put all of those sins on this little lamb, and believing that God could eradicate their sins when that lamb died. If they had that kind of faith, and they put all of that on that lamb, on the day that lamb died, their sins would be eradicated. That was a promise of God in the Old Testament, the eradication of sin. And so, as they went through the ten days, and they got to Yom Kippur, which by the way will be on the 24th, the 24th of this month is Yom Kippur, and on that day, that is when the priest came, slaughtered one of the little lambs, took the blood, took it into the Holy of Holies, spread it all over the Holy of Holies seven times around, got it totally blood-covered, and when he had it totally blood-covered, then he came out and he took the little other lamb, and with bloody hands, he put his hands on top of the head of that other little lamb. The other little lamb had a little piece of red cloth tied to his horns, and he put his hands on top of that lamb's head, and the blood would run down on that little lamb. And when he put his hands on that lamb, ladies and gentlemen, the way the theology went was, God would take all of the sins of the Jewish people who had been praying for ten days and would put it on that lamb. There was a lamb who died on the cross. John called him, Behold, the Lamb of God, who is going to eradicate the sins of the world. Behold. And that little lamb, when his bloody hands were put on him, the Jewish people had faith that all of their sins were being put on that lamb. By the way, one day you said, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I can't save myself. Lord Jesus, would you save me, please? Hello? There it is. When you said, Lord Jesus, would you? Yes. And on that day, all of your sins were taken, and they were transported, and they were put on Jesus Christ, who had been on the cross. And on the day he died, all of the sins of the world, of people who had demonstrated faith, were put on that lamb. That's happening this week. Now, Paul knew that. And Paul also knew something that was happening in the book of Hebrews. And I want you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews for just a few moments. This is why I'm glad I have next week, too, because I need to help you understand this. What I need to help you understand was that the Jewish people on Yom Kippur had new birth every year. Let that sink in a minute. Now, back to the sacrifices. I'm going to take a kind of side road. All of the sacrifices, the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the vow offering, all of those offerings were available to the people for their particular individual sins during the year. And should a person during the year feel a very strong impression that they needed to have some of their sins forgiven, they could always go to the temple and they could always do one of these sacrifices. And if you go to the book of Leviticus, chapters 1 through about chapter 6, you can read all of these offerings that were there. You can read that they were for intentional and unintentional sins. But they were available between the time of Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur. What do you do while you're waiting for all your sins to be eradicated? You keep on sinning? Or do you think maybe God might like for you to get forgiven of those sins? So they had all these sacrifices. And the sacrifices were available to do several things. One of the sacrifices was to celebrate a vow that was paid. Another sacrifice was a Thanksgiving sacrifice. Another sacrifice was a peace sacrifice. Another one was a burnt sacrifice that was totally eradicated at the altar for sin which was intentional. So all of these sacrifices were available between Yom Kippur. And the Jewish people used them readily because they had to use them in order to be sure that they were prepared when Yom Kippur came. And then when Yom Kippur came, on that day of sacrifice when the little lamb would have all of the sins put on him, that all of their sins would be eradicated. So in the book of Hebrews, beginning in the ninth chapter, beginning with the first, in the 22nd verse, according to the law, almost all things are purged with blood and without the shedding of blood, verse 22, chapter 9, book of Romans, there is no remission. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves, with a better sacrifice. What is a better sacrifice than a little lamb with a little red stinging on his horns? Jesus Christ the Lord. So the writer of Hebrews is talking about a better, now what he's talking about is, he's talking about this blood is going to sanctify us in the portals of heaven. So he goes on in verse 24, he says, for Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, the temple made with hands, which are copies of the true, but he entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not that he should offer himself often, please understand that word, not that he should offer himself often. Ladies and gentlemen, how often did the little lamb die? Every year. That's what they're talking about here. Not that he should offer himself often, not often at all, but for Christ has not entered into the holy place, he's making a hand copy of the true into heaven, not that he should offer himself often as high priest enters into the most holy place every year with the blood of another, verse 26, he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, hang on, but now once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and it is appointed unto man once to die. But after that, the judgment, Mark verse 28, for so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. Look at verse three in chapter 10, but in those sacrifices, there as is a reminder of sins every year and it's not possible, that's over. And so Christ has died for us and he has given us sin removal for eternity. So that's what the Hebrew letters say, it's talking about the same thing. Now you go back to where we are and we pick up this word, this passage on justification. Now that you know that the Jewish people were justified every year and now that you know that you were justified once when you asked Christ to move into your heart and you know that the Holy Spirit abides in you now, now let's come to look at how this justification happened. Verse chapter five, now the therefore, and the reason I had to read the three verses in front of the therefore relates to those three verses. And when you get to therefore, you always stop and see what it is therefore. And this one is here to show us the relationship between the justification of Abraham and our justification. That's what the therefore is there for, is to show us that the only way Abraham could achieve relationship and redemption with the eternal God is that he demonstrated faith, that he believed God and God counted that for righteousness. Therefore, if that's happened to Abraham, then what's going to happen to us? Now it's kind of interesting. In next week's lesson, we're going to look at a man who did not have faith. And in chapter four, we looked at a man who had extreme faith. And both of these men were born of God, physically. And the one we're going to look at in chapter five is Adam. And the one we looked at in chapter four is Abraham. Abraham believed God. Adam did not. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? And why Paul would bring Adam up in the end of this chapter in next week's lesson is basically on Adam. Because later on in the book of Corinthians, Paul's going to do these words, for by Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. In that Corinthian letter, he says, by the first man all became sinners, by the second man all can become saints. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? So now in chapter five, he's going to talk about another Jew by the name of Adam. And we'll study that next week. But let's see what he's talking about here. So therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, let's take a minute and look at this. I want to read something for you that I have on your paper. It's your first paragraph. I want you to look at it with me, and I want you to read it with me. This is a statement by Martin Luther after having studied Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians. And this was a statement that Martin Luther wrote. I want to read it for you, and I want you to read it with me. Just look at it with me. Martin Luther wrote, the most excellent righteousness is that of faith, which God imputes to us through Christ without works. This righteousness is heavenly. We receive it from heaven. We do not have it of ourselves. It is worked in us by grace that is apprehended by faith. And by it we rise above all the laws and all the works of man. I am indeed a sinner. As far as this present life and righteousness is concerned, I am a child of Adam. We'll talk about Adam next week. Where the law accuses me, death reigns over me, and wants to ultimately devour me. I love that. That's what death does. Death reigns over me, and eventually wants to devour me, and he wants to get rid of me. But I have another righteousness, and live above this life, Christ the Son of God, who knows no sin or death, but is righteous in eternal life. By him this body of mine that is dead will be raised up again, and delivered from the bondage of the law and sin, and will be sanctified with my spirit. Justification is the believer's assurance of final salvation. The transitional word, therefore, is important to this verse. Therefore, we now look at justification. Let's look at justification in verse 1. There are several words in here that you need to mark. The first word you need to mark is peace. Being justified with God, we have peace with God. Now, ladies and gentlemen, in the writings of the book of Paul, every time he started a salutation, he always said to them, grace and peace be unto you, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit. Always grace and peace. Never peace and grace. Always grace and peace. And the reason being is, without unmerited favor, grace, we have no peace. No peace exists. And so the Apostle Paul always began by saying, and grace and peace to you, be to you from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So, these words are very important. Grace is, and by the way, this peace with God is an Aristotelian-like salvation. How many times are you going to get peace with God? One. And this particular verse says here, and it says in here, faith, justified by faith, and we have peace with God. How does that peace come to us? It comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we get peace. Unmerited favor, grace, gives us the peace of God, through whom we also have access by faith into the grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope and the glory of God. Now, this word access is an interesting word. What the Apostle is saying here is, we who have been redeemed by unmerited favor, not of our own works, but the works of Jesus Christ, we who have been redeemed are being translated into, we presently have access right now with God. Ladies and gentlemen, you are not going to have access with God. We already have access with God. On the day we were saved, we have an opportunity to be in the presence, not only of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, but we also have access to the throne room. Actually, this word is a throne room word. It means that when you were saved, you were ushered into the exact throne room of eternal God. Now, every day, any day, any time, we have access to that room. We can go there any time. We can go there in prayer any time. We can go in the presence of the Father any time. We can get the ear of our person, Jesus Christ, who is our attorney sitting by our God. We get his ear any time. The Holy Spirit dwells in us. We have the Holy Spirit any time. I have a question. Why are we so defeated? Why do we live such a defeated life? Why do we feel, why do we live outside the access of the throne room? Why do we live outside the access of Jesus Christ, who's available instantaneously, any time? He's yours. God's listening to you. He wants to talk to you. He wants to hear from you. God wants to know you. And so what Paul is saying is, he is the king. We are his joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If you think that God listens more to Jesus Christ than he does to you, you're wrong. If we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, if we have been adopted by God, which we have, if we have been adopted, we are as important, if sometimes more important, even than Jesus Christ to God. Let me show you why. Adoption in the Old Testament most of the time was adult adoption. Very seldom was it children's adoption, because the Jewish people have a law that if a person died and left a child, the next brother was supposed to take that child. So in Jewish law, there should have been no need for adoption. But on occasion, there were times when people needed to adopt somebody, and that somebody most of the time was not a child. Do you remember when Abraham had no children, and he wanted a son, do you remember he wanted to adopt one of his workmen, one of his servants, and God would not allow it? Most adoption was done to adults. Now here's the interesting thing. In the process of adoption, there was a law attached. And the law that was attached to adoption was this law, if at any time you want to disown an adopted child, you must first of all disown your own child. So if an adult was adopted, and there were other children, that particular adopted person could not be disowned unless he disowned the other children. Does that tell you something about what God does for us? Do you think he would disown his own son if he adopted us? And so he adopted us, and he adopted for the hope of glory. He's preparing us to get with him. He's preparing us for glory. Now look at verse 3. And not only that, I mean good, this, that's wonderful to start with. And then Paul says, and not only that, let me tell you what else happens. We glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. And perseverance produces character. And character produces hope. Now hope does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. The Holy Spirit has been given to us. And he's being poured out in our hearts. That's our part of sanctification. That's where the Holy Spirit will train us what to do as we live in the kingdom of God. And hope does not disappoint. Now there are five of these three. Faith, hope, and love. Paul says in chapter 13, book of Ephesians, hope, ladies and gentlemen, is that activity. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the Hebrew letter says. But the evidence of things not seen. May I ask you a question? Have you lost your mind? Have you all lost your minds? Do you mean to tell me that you are banking all of eternity on something you can't see? Are you going to invest everything in the future in hope? Hope is a substance of things, faith is a substance of things hoped for. Are you sure you want to bank everything for all of eternity on faith? Hoping that what he said he could do, he could perform? Later on, by the way, in the book of Hebrews, it says that very thing. What Jesus said he could do, he did perform. And so we have hope, and that hope builds character. And that hope helps us to become sanctified, the hope of the fact that we will someday be in heaven. It says in verse 5 to verse 6, for when we were still without strength, in just the nick of time, I love that word, just the nick of time. Interestingly, have you ever gone through the word of God and just looked at the word but God, but God? Have you ever looked at all of the but God in the Bible? You know, it goes along and says, and everything was falling apart and the Hebrew people were dying, but God, or the kingdom of God in the New Testament, the churches were dying on where they were, but God. And now look what it says here in verse 6, for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't die before time. He didn't die after time. He died just at the right time. He died between what had been trying to be done by the blood of animals with what is going to be explained and is explained in the book of Hebrews by the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious Son of God. In due time, he gave the sacrifice, only the sacrifice that God would accept. That sacrifice was not accepted for a year. That sacrifice was accepted for eternity. Now Paul reverts in verse 7 to the law. It's kind of interesting. In verse 6, he talks strictly about grace, for in due time, Christ died for us. Ladies and gentlemen, that's pure grace. That's unmerited favor. Do you know what all of us really deserve? We all deserve hell. None of us deserve kingdom of God. All of us, because of our sinfulness, our past sins, but all of our past sins have been remitted. You remember what he said in 2 Corinthians 5, 17? If any person be in Christ, he is a new creation, not a new creature. Some people like to say he's a new creature. No, he's not a new creature. He's a new creation. When God makes you new, he recreates you. He blows your old heart apart and he puts in you a new heart. He puts in you a heart of faith. He puts in you a heart of life. He takes your old heart. He's going to talk about that in this passage. He's going to talk about where he went in your heart later on in this passage. He's going to talk about going into your corrupt heart and taking your corrupt heart and blowing it apart and putting it in the place of your corrupt heart, a heart of life and a heart of love and a heart of Christ. And so he's saying here, you know, in due time he died. Now he goes back to the law and in the law he says, for scarcely for a righteous man, one would die. You know what I think about that? Every time I read this passage, I think about all of you wonderful guys who served in the military. I think in particular about all of you wonderful guys who volunteered for the military. Many, many of them were drafted, but I'm thinking of the ones who had such wonderful love for the United States of America and had such wonderful love for our freedoms and for our Constitution and for our way of life that they were willing to volunteer and die. When they volunteered, they didn't ever know when they'd come back again. But they loved this country so much. Barbara and I were watching television the other night and there was a retired Marine, he was probably in his late 90s, and he said, at 16, I lied and went into the Marine Corps. I wanted to fight the people who were destroying our wonderful nation. And I was willing to die if necessary for my country. And he said, you know, I don't know why I'm still sitting here. And behind him were pictures of all kinds of his buddies who were dead. And he said, all of my buddies gave their life for me. And I'm sitting here today alive because they died. Now that's what Paul's talking about here. He says, could there be a time? He's going back to the old law. Could there be a time that there's a person who's good enough that each of us would think about dying for them? Or he goes on a little bit. He says, or perhaps a little bit more rather than just a righteous man. Perhaps there is a good man. Perhaps he's not totally righteous, but he's good and he's moral. This is a story on morality. He's good and he's moral and he's doing the right thing. He's taking care and he would fight for us and he would see to it that our nation, would you die for him? Maybe, maybe for a righteous man, I might die for a good man. I might even dare to die if he was good and moral or if he was righteous and was willing to die for his country or for me. And then Paul stops a minute and he says, but God, but God, God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet enemies, we were God's enemies. We were God haters. We were not in love with God. And while we were in that condition, enemies of God, haters of God, outside the commonwealth of Israel, as Paul would say, outside the faith, when we were nothing but trash. In fact, the apostle Paul, when he gave his litany of who he was, he said, and I count all that I was as trash for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I counted nothing but trash. Folks, do y'all realize when we were nothing but junk, Jesus died for you? As Barbara and I often say, that's pretty heavy, folks. That's pretty heavy. When you were his enemy, when we hated God, when we could care less about the kingdom, when we could care less about the church on the corner, when we got mad when somebody would come and try to share Christ with us and say, get the blank out of here, I don't want to talk to you anymore. We were enemies of God. I was an enemy of God. I was a hater of Baptists. I hated you folks. In fact, I had a priest who told me to watch out for you folks, because if I got caught, they might grab me and cut me up and feed me to the dogs. I'm scared to death of you folks. I hated Baptists, because I was outside the kingdom of God. I was outside the commonwealth of Israel. I was outside the kingdom. And so, when we were enemies, trash, Christ died. Whoa, then he says something that blows my mind. Much more. What in the world can be much more than Christ dying for us when we were his enemies? I mean, Paul just really kind of blows you away if you read him carefully. He says, but when we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood. Okay, pause. Just a moment. What is the sacrifice that is eternal and not annual? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, is the eternal sacrifice. And he says here, much more having been made justified by his eternal sacrifice. And if you go back to the book of Hebrews and read it again, you will find out he says, and Christ did not die often for the sins of the world. Christ did not die annually for the sins of the world. Christ died once for the sins of the world. We used to sing a grand old gospel hymn. We don't sing many of the gospel hymns anymore. We used to sing one. We used to say, free from the law, O happy condition. Jesus has died, and there is remission. Cursed by the law, bruised by the fall. Grace has redeemed us. Say it once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive it. Once for all, O brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, your burden will fall. Grace has redeemed you. Got it? That's you. That's faith. I was trash. You were trash. You were filth. The apostle Paul called it cow dung. That's how bad he thought about it. We were nothing. And once and for all on the cross, it says here, and he died us by his blood, we shall be saved. Much more, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. Wow. That's much more than him even dying for us when we were an enemy. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, he's going to do it again. He's going to use the much more again. He said, and while, and if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more, we shall be reconciled. We shall be saved by his life. Ladies and gentlemen, if Christ had not risen from the dead, everything would be over. You see, the resurrection was the proof. What Jesus said to his disciples, if I go away, I will come again. And I will receive you unto myself. That where I am there, you may be also. You see, ladies and gentlemen, without the resurrection, there is no life. There had to be a resurrection from the dead. And at that resurrection from the dead, we live now. There's a great British, a British Bible scholar by the name of Major Ian Thomas. He wrote a great book entitled the saving life of Christ. If you haven't read it, you need to read it of the saving life of Christ. And in there, he talks about the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, but the resurrection gives us the assurance of heaven. And so what he's saying, here's that very thing. We are saved from the wrath. If we were enemies, we will reconcile God through his death of his son. How much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. You see, there are two laws in there. The two laws are this sin and death. And the other law is life and liberty. Without Christ, it is sin and death, singular sin. All have sinned. That's not your individual sins. That's not your everyday little sins. That's the fact that you were sin, sin and death. And the only thing that could be compensated for sin was death. And yet in Jesus Christ, there was life. And the same God that gave us new life, gave us new liberty at the same time. You got it at the same time. Have you ever seen that written in a document that we call the Constitution? You ever seen that? He who gave us life gave us what at the same time? Liberty at the same time. So he that gave us new life, same God, gave us new liberty at the same time. And so we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we can shout hallelujah through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received forgiveness. Reconciliation. Total salvation in Jesus Christ. Now, there was another song we used to sing some. And this is what God wants for us. He wants us to be so close to him by the fact that we have access to him. And by the fact that we can go into the throne room and talk with him. And by the virtue of the fact that we are invited to come as often as we would like to come. And God the Father would love to visit with us as often as he would visit with us. I remember an old song we used to sing that said, I miss my time with you the moments we're together. We need to talk. We need to talk so bad. I miss my time. God does that. God misses his time with us. We miss our time with him. We have access to him. And he doesn't want to bless us this way. There shall be showers of blessings. This is the promise of God. There shall be seasons refreshing, sent from the Father above. Showers, showers of blessings, showers of blessings. We need mercy drops. Round us are falling, but for the showers. You see, in this particular passage, he's saying, God is not going to send mercy drops. If you will place yourself in the access of his availability, if you place yourself in the relationship of the wonderful Holy Spirit who lives in us, if we will quit trying and start trusting God to do it through us. Now, I'm going to close going back to a song that Leah played. It's the last verse of Like a River Glorious. In the last verse it says, I'm just singing in my mind. The last verse says, Every joy or sorrow cometh from above, traced upon our dial by the sun. Those who trust him fully. Have you ever seen that? Those who trust him fully. No doubt. No, not even a thought. But those who trust him fully, all for us to do. You see, he wants to do everything through us, folks. He doesn't want to do it around us. He doesn't want to do it in somebody else. He wants to do it in you and me. He wants to do it every day. Those who trust him fully, all for us to do. Those who trust him wholly, find him wholly true. Stayed upon Jehovah's hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised. What? Complete peace. Perfect peace. Complete peace. Folks, that's what this chapter talks about. Now, next week, we're going to find out who got us into trouble. Somebody got us into trouble. And that somebody's name was Adam. Adam played the fool. And Adam did not trust God. Adam trusted Eve. Adam trusted Satan. That's the wrong one to trust. He did not trust God. He was not like Abraham. It's kind of interesting. Over here, we looked at Abraham. Over here, we're going to look at Adam. And we're going to find out how Adam got us into this problem. And how Jesus Christ got us out. Isn't that wonderful? God bless you. Leah, Doug, thank you all for being here. Leah, thank you for the praise. Appreciate it. God bless you. And God bless you all. Now, go talk to him. Spend some time with him. The moment you're together, how sweet they'll be. Spend your time with him. Because he wants you to come into his throne room. You are a joint heir and I with Jesus Christ. Come on in. Amen. Heavenly Father, we are not deserving of any of this. God, we've seen today that we're nothing but junk. We have nothing to offer you. You have everything in the eternal life to offer us. We have nothing we can give you. There's nothing in us that we can do anything of any good. Father, even your son told us of himself. He could do nothing. If Christ couldn't do anything unless the Spirit worked through him, how in the world do we think we can do anything unless the Spirit works through us? And so, Father, help us to understand that it is in Jesus Christ and the gift of the power of the Holy Spirit who lives and abides in our life that we are able to become conduits of your love, simply conduits, Lord, in order to let the word of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of the eternal God flow through us to the glory of God the Father. Thank you, Father, for loving us when we were trash. And thank you for forgiving us when we were trash. And thank you, Father, for making us now righteous saints in your sight with a Father in heaven, a brother Jesus Christ sitting next to him, and the power of that Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Praise be to the eternal God in whom we triumph. And we say that in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. See you next week.
