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foreign with me please to Romans chapter 5 this morning we continue we continue with Paul's amazing letter to the church
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at Rome at Rome this morning we'll be looking at verses 6 through 11. and I'm going to read those verses I'd like to ask John Luke if you pray for the ministry of the word this morning
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Romans 5 beginning in verse 6. for while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the
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ungodly for one will hardly die for a righteous man though perhaps for the good man someone would even Dare To Die but God demonstrates his own love toward
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us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the Wrath through
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him for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life and not
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only this only this but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation
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I think you can tell just by the reading of this passage that it is packed it is very full it's one of the densest of Paul's very dense writing in Romans and unfortunately we we won't be
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unpacking it to its fullest extent but before we get into the to the meat to the heart of what he's saying here I want to deal with uh more of a hermeneutical issue an issue of how we
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read and study our Bibles because oftentimes we're guided in our own personal hermeneutic by what we see and hear in Preachers what we read in
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commentaries mostly what we hear with preachers and so I want to touch upon this phrase in verse 6. where Paul says that at the right time Christ died for the ungodly at the right
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time it reminds me of a sermon that I heard many many years ago it was on Galatians 4 the fullness of time and it was a very typical
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example of short-sighted modern exegesis where we think of the past in terms of our own time and we superimpose our understanding of
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our modern world upon the ancient world and it was reason that the fullness of time or the right time for Jesus to come and to die had to do with the
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conveniences of transportation and communication that were available to Paul especially for the spread of the Gospel and this particular person waxed
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eloquent about the Roman roads and how extensive they were and how broad they were and how relatively safe they were and so how easy it was to
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travel having spent a night in Newark Airport I missed the Roman roads in addition to those roads there was the Greek language Greek language and that had spread around because of
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Alexander's conquests and so much of the ancient near East and the Mediterranean world all communicated in Greek and so the Greek language provided Paul and the
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gospel writers in the other New Testament writers the communicative vehicle to spread the gospel and so this was the right time and I remember listening to that and
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saying well that's plausible that sounds good yeah right and then of course we entered into the 90s and then the 2000s and then I thought well why didn't God wait for the internet I mean you just think Paul would have
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gone viral like nothing you know and you could just imagine all the the Instagram videos of people videotaping Paul being stoned and of course nobody's stopping
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to help but like just like today you know you got to get your you got to get your your uh your followers up can you imagine the if you think about it
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transportation seriously a night in Newark is miserable but still to think of where we can go now in in almost a blink of an eye and then Communications with with the
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with the technology we have now we can communicate with people all around the world instantaneously world instantaneously so why isn't this the fullness of time
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well that only shows that that previous exegesis was wrong that had nothing to do with the Roman roads it had nothing to do with the Greek language but it had
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everything to do with God's Redemptive plan and the reason I'm bringing this up is it's another plug for understanding your Old Testament Old Testament because Paul understood his Old
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Testament as did many faithful Jews of his own day faithful Jews like the old man Simeon man Simeon who was looking for the consolation of
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Israel and he had been assured that he would not die before he saw the Lord's Christ and how did he know how did the Magi know that it was time to head West and find
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the one who was born King well they know because of the Prophecies of Daniel of Daniel laid out for them the progressive and successive empires of the ancient world
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culminating in what could only be the Roman Emperor Roman Emperor and so we read in Daniel chapter 2 that in those days the days of
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those kings the god of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed so when Paul in Galatians 4 speaks of Jesus being born
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were brought forth in the fullness of time or again using that same phrase in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 10 or here in Romans 5 verse 6 when he says the right
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time which is literally the the just the right time it is not because of Transportation or communication or the advancement of the Roman Empire it's because God's prophecy
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had run its course and the Babylonians had given way to the medo-persians who had given way to the Greeks who finally were trampled underfoot by the Romans
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and now it's time in the ancient world the kingdom of man had reached the apogee of its height of its Glory of its power now it's time for that stone cut without
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hands to roll down the mountain and to crush that Godless Idol to dust now it's time for the god of Heaven to set up a kingdom that would never end
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and would never be given to another now it's time for the Lord's Messiah to come that's the right time that's the fullness of time and and again it's a
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reminder when we listen to what what seems plausible seems plausible perhaps it seems plausible because it fits with our world view
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with the age in which we live but it has no more connection with the biblical texts biblical texts than some of our songs that are sung in the name of God
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and so and so this is a hermeneutical sidebar scripture interprets itself interprets itself and we should never rely on Modern ideas
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of psychology of logistics of communication what we think God is thinking without running that understanding
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through the filter of scripture and many times we'll find that we're wrong and scripture is right and the answer is it's right there in the text
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of scripture of scripture so we need only read it to see how closely it all holds together but let's get into the meat of what Paul is writing here every time
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he uses some variation of the right time the fullness of time in his letters Paul is speaking of some aspect of the wonderful and gracious gift of God in
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Jesus Christ Jesus Christ it's always about God sending Jesus Christ in Romans 5 that perspective is love it is the same love that he mentions in
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verse 5 when he tells us that hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to
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us this is his own love verse 8 but God demonstrates his own love this is divine love this is something that of course poets
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and theologians have written on for millennia how does God love what is love to God well to Paul if you read in his letters
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love and the love of God you will see first of all that it is always trinitarian first of all God love is from the father
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in whom that love originates for God so love the world that He Sent His only begotten son here God commends his love in that while we were yet sinners Christ
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died but the love of God always involves the second person of the Trinity always involves the son who is the object of that love for us
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this is my beloved Son obey him obey him trust in him give your all to him Jesus is the object of the Divine love and we
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are in him but how is that love conveyed through the Holy Spirit who was poured out into our hearts Jesus himself
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promising that I will not leave you as orphans but I will come to you and the father and I will send the spirit and we will dwell with you and never leave you that is
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that is Divine love trinitarian always the father Son and the Holy
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but that's kind of a almost dry theological description of love what can we say about God's love well the word here used in verse 6 and
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back in verse 5. I'm sorry verse 8 and verse 5. is a word I'm sure you're familiar with in the Greek it is agape
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a word that is the subject of poor exegesis and even worse preaching you I am sure have always all heard that Agape is God's love the Agape is divine love
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the problem with that is it's the same love that demons loved the world and left Paul and the gospel that is agape in second Timothy chapter
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four in fact if we're careful in our reading we'll see that Agape is often used um in ways that do not give glory to God
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and often used with interchangeably without other word that that Phila oh you've heard that word I'm sure that it means if affection just simple affection
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no they're actually synonyms in the Greek both in the Bible and in extra biblical Greek and the problem that we have here have here is that human
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words human language is really not capable of encompassing Divine love that most languages in history fail to
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have a word that actually captures all that is involved in God's love the closest that we come to is actually in the Hebrew
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in the word now that word caused a great deal of struggle for translators of the Bible miles Coverdale
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in the 16th century translating the Bible into English invented his own word you're all familiar with it loving kindness and he used that word coming up with it
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developing it putting two words together because as one writer says it was difficult to translate into English the word because it really has no precise equivalent
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it it is a word that combines not just emotion or even a good feeling toward but it combines other aspects of God's
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nature relative to the object of his head his love first of all it involves condescension because the object of this love are
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always beneath the one who loves it involves compassion because the object of such love are undeserving of it
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they are not only lower in the scale of being they are also by some means undeserving and Unworthy of that love
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it also involves concern because without this love the object of it will perish it's not just an option
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when we read about it in the Old Testament the love of God for Israel it's not just that he has chosen Israel all the nations but it is also that without that love Israel like all the
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other nations would perish finally though it also involves the Covenant because hasid is God's loyal and
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steadfast love to the people with whom he has made Covenant so so this one word has compassion and mercy and concern and
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faithfulness all wrapped up in it and Coverdale said loving okay loving that is loving that is true loving but it is also kindness because it's not just a feeling it's an
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action we can say is God's will toward his people in action for God commends his hassed in that while we were yet sinners
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Christ died Christ died something happened something happens whose origination whose origination motivation and completion was entirely
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in God in God not in any of us the objects of that love God didn't look down into the world and see a handful of lovable people
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ultimately they're cute but if I don't come down and die for them those cute little people are going to die no and it's such a silly and
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almost Blasphemous notion therefore his own glory and the glory of his grace he looked down upon Wicked
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people and poured forth his love in action on the cross the cross so this is what Paul is talking about the love of God this love of God is what made certain
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that the right time would come there was never any doubt even in the midst of his deepest despair job was able to say I know my redeemer lives
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this was the grounding hope for all the faithful who had been called by God knowing that they had loved him them with an everlasting love an unconquerable love
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but most of all a love that would not let itself down Paul speaks of This Love In First Corinthians 13 this is the love that never fails
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and so what better thing to put our hope in than that which never fails and never will fail will fail so this is the love that made certain
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calls this love unmotivated and when you first hear that you think unmotivated God clearly was motivated to love but what he means and he goes on explains it and and the way he explains it I like
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the word he's using because he's saying it is unmotivated by anything within the object and our understanding of love as humans
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as Fallen beings is always very motivated often falsely motivated or motivated by that which is false
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but but our love is motivated by something there's something in the object of our love whatever it may be that draws that emotion out from us
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but Paul is going to make I think so abundantly clear In this passage that there is absolutely nothing within the object of God's love that that even remotely begins to draw that love out
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from him from him and yet it doesn't just draw out from him he says in verse 5 it is poured forth that phrase is a phrase of abundance
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it's a phrase that's used in the in the drink offering in the levitical system it is not a stingy distribution is a tidal wave
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of love of love unless we think we are such wonderful people to deserve that Paul goes on to give us some adjectives in this passage first of all we're
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helpless literally we are without strength weak to the point of impotence
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now folks this means there's also no inward ability to believe there is no free will in Fallen man with the ability to exercise itself
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toward repentance and righteousness man has free will that there can be no denying but he only has the ability to exercise
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that will according to his nature and his nature is fallen and corrupt and by Nature he is without strength he is
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now that conjures an image again of someone in need of pity someone in need of strengthening someone in need of of of help because he is helpless but Paul goes on
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and he says at the right time Christ died for the ungodly now this is a direct connection with what Paul had said about Abraham back in
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chapter four that Abraham put his hope and he put his trust in the one who justifies the ungodly and so Paul's drawing the theological
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connection between Christ's death and justification so over here he says Christ died for the ungodly over there he says God justifies the ungodly but let's look at that word
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ungodly again it's a negation it means without God without any relationship to God
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there is nothing connecting us to God when Christ died for us Jesus death brings justification to
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those who are without God and not to the self-righteous to those who think they have something before God Christ offers nothing
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to those who think that they are righteous in their works in the law or just in their good behavior good behavior Christ offers nothing
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because the physician did not come to heal the well but rather the sick and Christ died for the ungodly but we're not just
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weak we're not just without a relationship with God that that's that's not quite enough because he goes on to say that in verse eight
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verse eight God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners do you see the progression here we're not just
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neutral and so many people want to be neutral in terms of religion and God that's good for you no nobody's neutral
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we are active sinners we commit sin we are Lawless and we disobey the law of God we disobey the law of our own
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conscience we are we are yes we are dead in trespass and sin but we're the most active of corpses we are alive to unrighteousness and in
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bondage to sin so so Paul is is really describing a pretty hopeless situation here but he's not done yet okay he's not done yet because we might
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think well you know what that's kind of my thing my thing my sins are be you know it's it's what I do no Paul goes on and he says we are
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enemies verse 10 for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son enemies
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we oppose God in Rebellion in Rebellion that that is Paul's description helpless ungodly Sinners enemies Rebels we have taken up arms against God God
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recognizes neither atheists nor agnostic he's already said it's the fool who says in his heart there is no God well that's his opinion of atheists and those who say well you know what
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there may or may not be a God but you know I'm neutral no you are his enemy if you fail to give God the obedience and the glory that is due your maker
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the creator of the universe the sustainer and governor of all things and the one who gives you breath then you are not just a neutral creature
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envisioned this creature that Paul has just described just described can you imagine such a creature being able to bring himself into a right relationship with God
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can you imagine him even being willing if he were able but he is neither able nor willing and this is where we all stand
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before the grace of God saves us saves us before Christ dies for this ungodly helpless Rebel rebellious sinner
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let the truth indict and condemn you this morning
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because there is no salvation for those who do not realize their utterly hopeless condition before God that is the only condition whereby we can open our arms and freely receive
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what God is giving to us that is the love of God and even though there is one Hebrew word that kind of gets it no English words no
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Greek words there really is no word in the human vocabulary that can singly Encompass the love of
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God which is why he has written us this love letter this is why he sent us his beloved Son and this is why he pours out into our
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hearts his love let the truth condemn you that it might save you
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he reconciles you know God could have set us back into the condition we were in Eden and he could have communicated with us as he did with Adam before the fall he could have taken away the curse on
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work so that our labor might be more joyful more fruitful and I think most of us would have been glad enough for that
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but he reconciled he made us his sons and daughters and his friends
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he has brought us into his family and he has United us to him by giving us his spirit his spirit and so and so Paul says we have peace with God too
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often reformed theology stops with the Theology of salvation soteriology in fact too often the modern Evangelical Church that's what it's all
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about is getting people saved getting people to come forward sign the card raise their hand be baptized and then let's move on to the other Sinners that need to be
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saved and again there's nothing wrong with salvation I'm very happy for it but is that it we we contemplate the death of Jesus but
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how often do we contemplate his resurrection life resurrection life we've all been affected by the teaching that says that Jesus is in heaven
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and he's going to come back someday and set up his kingdom but we're not going to be here then so he's going to take us out because we're really just a plan B anyhow we we
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between Christ is gone but his spirit is with us yes we don't really know what to make of
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Paul understood that what Jesus did did not stop either at the cross or the empty tomb and as we're going to see as we progress through Romans Paul envisions every
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believer living a life that is infused and empowered by the Resurrection Life of Jesus that those who are baptized for instance are to to rise and walk in newness of
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life so he'll write in chapter six for we have become United in him if we have become United with him in the likeness of his death certainly we
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shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection a little bit later in chapter six even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus
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we have not grasped this we have grasped I think theologically especially within the reformed tradition we have grasped the understanding of the substitutionary atonement the the penal
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sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross he died for my sin and therefore God has removed my sin as far as East and from the west and he remembers it no more that is glorious
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truth but what now and I think all of us all of us who are believers have had the what now question how do I live
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what do I do what am I supposed to be like am I just waiting till I die and go to heaven is that is that all this is about
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what we know it's not all that this is about so we together as churches we develop our own what it's all about our own programs our own ideas of what
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we're supposed to be doing but all of them seem to be lacking the integral element that Paul has and that is the Resurrection Life of Jesus in me
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in Galatians he says for I have died and I no longer live but the life that I live I now live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for
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that's what it's all about and Paul in this letter brings it out with a little phrase that I don't think we we really grasp when we read it it's two words much more
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much more much more I would like to develop a Theology of much more of ecclesiology of much more an eschatology of much more
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Paul has has written wonderful things God has commended his love to helpless ungodly sinning Rebels and we might think that's enough and
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Paul says much more he says in verse 9 much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the Wrath through him
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verse 10 for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved
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by his life and he continues as the chapter moves on as he talks about Adam and Christ the last Adam verse 15 but the free gift is
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not like the transgression for If by the transgression of the one the many died much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus
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I think Paul in writing this intends for this much more to be experienced now experienced now not in heaven not in the Great by and by not when that trumpet sounds
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but now but now consider yourself dead he says Rise to walk in newness of life he says Christ has done these things much more he will
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do because of the power of His resurrected life chapter 5 verse 17 for If by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one
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well when does death reign now right much more those who receive the abundance of Grace and of the gift of
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righteousness that means us who believe will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ
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there's more to this folks much more much more I would recommend using a concordance using Bible Gateway Google through and look at all the much more
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but you know Paul doesn't even stop with a much more verse 11 of our passage this morning and not only this the Greek language did not have exclamation points but can
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you not hear them Paul's perhaps his most theological letter again written to a
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church that he had not founded but one that that more clearly and and more comprehensively sets forth his theology than any other of his letters
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written to the churches that he did found this was as it were his magnum opus his his great work and in it he lays out my gospel his
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gospel and as he writes just as you could see hopefully the progression of his of his indictment against humans helpless ungodly Sinners enemies
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so on the reverse can you can you feel the crescendo of emotion as Paul contemplates what God has done for us in Christ much more and not only
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this he says in verse 11 and guess what he uses that word again we also boast in your English it probably says Rejoice or exalt but it is the exact same word
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boast that he condemned his fellow countrymen back in chapter two for boasting without any cause in their own treatment of the law their own obedience he used the same word when he said well
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maybe Abraham had something to boast about but not before God and that is only because the Jewish writers of his day had Abraham boasting before Isaac about his relationship with
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God I don't think Abraham ever boasted before God before God but here we can boast Paul says there is something to boast about he's told us in verse 3 we boast in our
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tribulations okay we boast in the hope of the glory of God and then finally here in verse 11 we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ we do not boast in our own works
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we do not boast in our own sanctification we do not boast in our discipleship programs discipleship programs even as Believers we have nothing to boast about but God in Jesus Christ but
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that's the point we can boast we should boast we should exalt we should boast against the devil we
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should boast against unbelief we should boast against the wickedness of the age in which we live not in an arrogant way that draws attention to ourself but boasting in the
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one thing that is worthy of it God in Jesus Christ there's no room or reason for doubt
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and and many of you have doubted and many of you maybe are doubting or you know someone who doubts their salvation if you look at yourself even as a professed believer if you look
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at yourself at yourself there's a lot of reason for doubt in fact you would be deceiving yourself if setting your confidence in your own Holiness and your own sanctification and
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sanctity you did not doubt it says as John said if we say that we had no sin we deceive ourselves but there's no
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basis we're putting hope in yourself and if you will put your confidence in the hassed of God the love of God that he has so visibly manifested in the
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cross and throw yourself upon that love receiving it poured out into your heart through regeneration by the Holy Spirit
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then there is no reason there is no cause for doubt the sure Foundation of our confidence is not our own ability but it is God's unconquerable has said
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his unconquerable love the love poured out within us through the Holy Spirit who was given to us let us pray
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we cannot adore you adore you our gratitude Falls pitifully short pitifully short but we do pray that by that Holy Spirit
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through whom you have poured out your love into our hearts that because you loved us first we might love you and that that love that you have poured
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out into our hearts might overflow to one another one another and overflowing to one another might even overflow to those outside the body that they might know that we are the
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Disciples of Jesus Christ by our love but not our love Your Love Your Love poured into us through your Holy Spirit
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we pray father that the knowledge of your great and unconquerable love might conquer all fear and doubt within our minds and our hearts
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that we might know ourselves to be in Christ and if there be any in our families in our midst our midst any in our sphere of communication that
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do not know you through Jesus Christ that the confidence that we place in you and in your love
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might draw them even to jealousy as Paul sought to drive the Jews to jealousy bring them to repentance and through repentance to Salvation For Your Glory
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Your Glory and obviously for their good we ask in Jesus name amen please rise for the benediction
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again from Romans 15 now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grants you to be of the same mind with one another according
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to Christ Jesus that with one Accord you may with one voice glow
