We'll read again tonight in the book of
Romans.
We read it last night, but we didn't
say anything about it.
So we'll look at Romans in chapter 5.
And again, a thank you to the Christians
here in Mount Sterling who posted the conference
again for the blessing of God's people and
for the preaching of the gospel.
Romans in chapter 5, and we're going to
read it again at verse number 6.
It says, For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly.
For scarcely, or with difficulty, for a righteous
man will one die.
Yet, peradventure for a good man some would
even dare to die or be bold to
die.
But God commended his love toward us, and
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.
And Lord will bless to us the reading
of his precious Word.
At the end of a long weekend, and
a weekend when we're concentrating to the utmost,
we're going to be very simple tonight in
these three verses.
We're going to look at the concern of
mankind, what it is to be without strength.
We're going to look at the great contrast
between what men are willing to do and
what God was willing to do when it
comes to verse number 7.
And we're going to look at the great
commendation of the love of God on display
in verse number 8, where God commended, God
demonstrated His love toward us, and that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
I was interested today as I was looking
at this, at the noon hour, that there
are three words that are in each one
of these three verses, and it's the word
died, and it's the word yet, and it's
the word for.
And those are very important words when we
come to these to these three verses, and
they're found in each one of the three.
When we come to verse number 6, it
says, for when we were yet without strength.
The great concern, and really, it is a
reality tonight, if you've ever done anything of
physical labor, or been in any physical danger,
that it comes to the point where you
have to use your strength, and it wears
you down, and you get to the point
where you have nothing left to give.
You have nothing left to offer.
There is no more in you to go
one more step.
There is, there's no more energy in you
to lift one more pound, and you find
yourself to the, to the very point where
you cannot go another inch.
It's pictured to us in Psalm 107, where
there is a man who was wandering in
the wilderness, and there is he wanders in
the wilderness, and he wanders from God, and
he's looking for a city to dwell in.
He comes to the end of himself.
He is down there on the, on the
desert floor, and he cannot go a single
inch.
Then he cries unto the Lord in his
trouble, and the next man is a man
who is bound in affliction and iron, because
he transgressed the Word of God, and he's
bound in those shackles, and he's trying to
get free, and it's a picture of sin,
and he's trying to break those bands, but
he cannot, and he finds himself upon the
ground without help, and no one to help
him, and no more strength.
When it comes to the salvation of the
soul, when it comes to the forgiveness of
sins, when it comes it to getting into
God's heaven, the reality is that natural man
has no strength to get the end result.
It isn't that we have a little hope
or a little glimmer of a chance by
our, on our own to get into God's
heaven.
Humanity tonight, without exception, is without strength to
cleanse himself of a single sin, and without
strength to get themself one inch or closer,
one inch closer to God's heaven without strength.
That should concern us tonight.
For all of us that have been saved
by God's grace, there came a moment in
our experience when we understood just that, that
it is not by my might or by
my power, but is according to God's Spirit.
We come to understand that it wasn't about
our intellect, and it wasn't even about our
believing.
It was a great reality that I am
lost, and I am blind, and I am
without hope, and I am without strength.
But our text says this.
It says, for when we were yet, when
we were still without strength, yet without strength,
it says, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly.
At the right time, Christ died.
So the great concern is this.
You have sinned against God.
Your sin has separated you from God.
God in His righteousness will never allow one
sin into His holy heaven.
How will you ever be there?
How will you ever get there?
How will you ever avoid the judgment and
the wrath of God for your sin?
If you're without strength.
And in that condition, you see, the cure
for the concern of being without strength is
very simple.
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
Christ died.
While we were yet without strength, and not
while we were almost to the door, not
when we had made great progress in the
cleaning up of our life, but in the
reality of the fact that I am burdened
and bound by sin, and I am a
slave to sin, and I am without strength
to free myself.
In that time, at that point, Christ died.
Christ died.
You see, for the great concern of men—and
it should be your great concern.
Maybe I should ask, is it a concern
at all that if you died in the
condition you're in without strength, separated from God
by your sin, that you'd be in a
place called hell?
In due time, the lake of fire.
Is that a concern tonight?
Is it a reality tonight?
My good life cannot take away a sin.
You know, I find it interesting talking to
folks, and it's all about the good life.
And it is good to live a good
life.
You'll save yourself a lot of headaches by
doing what's right, but you'll never get into
heaven.
Because the reality is this.
If a person was going to get to
heaven by the keeping of the law, they
would have to keep it absolutely perfect their
whole entire life, which is impossible.
And then the good things you do after
you sin, you know, if you didn't do
those good things, it would just be more
sin, wouldn't it?
It would just add on to the reality
of guilt and to the reality of punishment.
And so once a person commits a single
sin, they are eternally separated from God if
they're never saved, if they're never cleansed of
their sin.
And people tell us all the time that
I'm doing the best that I can, and
I'm going to do better, and I'm going
to turn over a new leaf, and I'm
going to excel in my religion.
Friend, that'll never do.
It'll never do.
Because the very best that you can do,
remember, God requires perfection.
And since we have all failed, if we
do anything less than perfect, we only add
to the amount of sin.
And what we do that is right and
good can never take away the sin of
the past.
But while we were yet without strength, in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
I was speaking to an older woman one
day, and we had the Bible on the
table there, and she had claimed to be
saved in a garage in North Dakota, but
there was something missing in her.
She didn't have the assurance that she was
saved.
She didn't have an understanding of, really, the
work of Christ.
And so we were looking at this verse.
And the dear woman there, she had had
a stroke, and she was in a wheelchair,
and the Bible was laid right in front
of her.
And I had her read this verse.
And I said to her, I said, you
know, if a letter came, like the old
preachers used to say to us, and it
was addressed to the ungodly, would you open
it?
Could I ask you that question tonight?
Fill your mailbox.
There was a letter addressed to the ungodly
resident with your address.
Would you open it?
Or would you put it in your neighbor's
mailbox?
She's looking at the verse.
Just a sweet old lady.
100% sweetness.
You know how sometimes I'm a little old
sweet ladies are.
She's like, oh.
I don't think I would open it.
Friend, this is who the verse is written
to.
This is who the verse is written to.
The only one who's going to get any
good out of the verse of Romans 5
and 6 is the ungodly one.
For while we were yet without strength, in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
And I called her by name, and I
won't use her name.
And I said, that's very revealing.
That's very telling, because that's who the verse
was written to.
And she says, oh.
Oh.
She was clueless what it meant that Christ
died for the ungodly.
You see, that is the remedy for the
great concern of being without strength.
When we come to the next verse, we
read this, and it's a great contrast.
And it is really fascinating to consider.
It says, for scarcely or hardly for a
righteous man.
That means a man who does what's right.
Very hardly would a person die, give their
life for that person.
And if you stop and think about it,
why would someone give their life for someone
else?
Why might you give your life for someone
else?
Well, if it's a man who is a
righteous man, you'd have to deem that that
man's life is worth more than yours.
Maybe almost a man that is equal with
yours.
Would you give your life for a man?
You see, you'd have to value that their
existence on this earth is of more importance
than your own existence.
And so it's hardly going to happen that
a man is going to give his life
for a man who just does what's right.
Who just does what is expected.
And then perhaps by boldness one might die
for a man who's not only does what's
right, but does what's good.
He goes above and beyond.
Maybe that might happen.
Maybe.
I'm going to make a hesitation here.
There have been thousands that have died for
you and I in America to have our
freedom.
Don't ever take that lightly.
There have been thousands that have died for
us to give us what we have now
as far as a nation.
We are no better than them.
We didn't deserve their sacrifice.
What was their motivation then?
What was their motivation that they would go
into the battle?
That they would go to war?
That the soldier would dive upon the grenade
to save the lives of the others?
It's only this.
It's only for love of others.
It's only for the love of others.
And you see that is what we're getting
to then in verse number eight.
You've got the love of God.
And so the contrast is what men would
not do for another man or they could
not do for another man.
That while we were yet without strength in
due time Christ died for the ungodly.
And then men wouldn't die for one another
but God.
You see the contrast between what man couldn't
do and wouldn't do.
God did.
God accomplished it.
But God commended His love toward us.
There's the motive.
Christ didn't come to the cross of Calvary
because our existence is greater than His.
That's foolishness.
But He went to the cross of Calvary
and He died upon the cross and His
love is on display.
The love of God on display that He
would die for an ungodly one.
One who is opposite of Him.
One who is a sinner.
He Himself holy.
He Himself God.
Died upon the cross for the ungodly and
for the sinner.
While we were yet without strength Christ died.
What does verse eight say?
While we were yet sinners.
Sinners.
While we were yet sinners Christ died.
There's the cure, isn't it?
What men couldn't do.
They couldn't take another person's place under the
judgment of God.
Another man can't bear another man's sin.
But what men couldn't do.
God did.
But why?
Why?
Why would Christ die?
For the sinner.
Why would Christ die for the ungodly?
Because He loves the sinner.
And He loves the ungodly.
You see the demonstration of the love of
God when Christ died for the without strength
ungodly sinner.
It's beyond comprehension.
That He would come from the very heights
of glory and He would come down to
this earth and He would live His life
doing miracles and the signs and wonders proving
over and over that He is God manifest
in flesh.
But it also proved over and over His
love of God toward mankind.
It proved over and over His compassion to
the sinners and to the sick and to
the wounded and for the ungodly and for
the unrighteous and for the sinners and for
the lepers.
And over and over as He moved among
men, He constantly affirmed His love to the
publican and His love to the Pharisee.
And God is no respecter of persons and
in this gathering in this auditorium tonight I
can say on the authority of the word
of God that God loves you the same.
He doesn't love anyone in this room greater
than any other one in this room.
He doesn't love anyone in this room greater
than He loves the man in the deepest
part of solitary confinement on Rikers Island, New
York.
The love of God is undeserved love.
It is unmerited love.
It is the love of God.
And friend, this is what you need tonight.
Oh, if you could only find God who
loved you, right?
One who would love you enough to die
for you.
One that would love you enough even though
you were not good and you were unrighteous.
Someone that in some way somehow would find
it in their heart to take your place,
to die for sin, to bear our sin
in His own body on the tree.
I often think of the teaching the Lord
Jesus was giving about agreeing with your adversary
quickly while you were in the way with
Him.
Lest at any time we deliver the officer
and the officer deliver you to the judge
and you be cast into the prison.
And you can't come out.
That's until you've paid the last farthing.
You know, the point is if a person
misses the opportunity, they can't pay the last
farthing.
There is no working from that prison to
get out.
But the only way that the price for
that man could be could be paid for
is if someone loved them and paid it
for them.
We have here God commended His love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners.
Yet sinners.
Still sinners.
What's the remedy?
You've seen the contrast.
What men could not do, God did.
God did.
Christ died for the ungodly.
Christ died while we were yet sinners.
And the verse goes on to say this,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us.
For us.
God leaves the invitation open and the message
goes out to the whosoever.
It goes out to the reader of the
book of Romans.
It goes out to you, my friend, with
a Bible on your lap.
And you can read that and you can
learn this, that while I was yet a
sinner, Christ died for us.
I know tonight that He died for me.
100%.
A vile, guilty sinner.
But while I was yet a sinner.
You see, Christ died.
And because He died upon the cross, friend,
you can live.
And that's the beauty of a substitute.
That He was willing to go and to
take our place.
He was willing to carry our sorrows.
He was willing to carry our shame.
He was willing to suffer in our place.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins.
The just for the unjust that He might
bring us to God.
Being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit.
The great love of God on display.
And so get this three simple points tonight
as time has gone.
The great concern is that you are a
dear soul without strength.
And you need to be saved.
The great contrast of what we cannot do
for ourself or another man could do for
us.
God did.
What was it that God accomplished?
That while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us.
Drink in the truth of Romans 5 and
6 tonight, my friend.
For while we were yet without strength in
due time Christ died for the ungodly.
We'll pray.