Pastor Grant Brown's sermon titled 'The Love of God' focuses on the profound love demonstrated by God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as depicted in Romans 5:6-11. The sermon begins with a reading from Romans, highlighting the helplessness of sinners and the timely intervention of Christ's sacrifice. Pastor Brown then shares the story of John Bunyan, a notorious sinner who realized his sinful state and the burden of God's wrath. This story serves to illustrate the universal sinfulness of humanity, as outlined by Paul in Romans, and the need for divine intervention. The sermon explains that both Gentiles and Jews are under sin and cannot achieve righteousness through their own efforts. However, through faith in Jesus Christ, sinners are justified and reconciled to God. Pastor Brown emphasizes that this justification and reconciliation are acts of God's love, planned since eternity and executed at the right time. The sermon also underscores the continuous nature of God's saving work, assuring believers of their salvation from past, present, and future wrath. The love of God is described as deep and abundant, resulting in doxology and a life of obedience and rejoicing in Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes with a call to action, urging listeners to repent, believe in Jesus, and experience the peace and reconciliation offered by God.

I'll now ask the congregation to stand as we hear the word of the Lord. From Romans chapter 5, beginning in verse 6. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in 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 of God through 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 only this, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

May God bless the reading of His word. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, in the moments that follow, please deliver me from error.

Give this congregation humble hearts, ears to hear, eyes to see the beauty in Your Word. Keep us attentive and humble us and fill our hearts, Lord, with perfect, wonderful thoughts of Christ. Oh Lord, where would we be without Christ? We're so thankful for him. Make us more thankful.

Make us trust him more. Cause us to love him more. As a result of this, your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. You may have a seat.

In his youth, the young man named John Bunyan was known as a blasphemer in the village that he grew up in named Bedford. Bunyan would regularly amuse himself and his fellow adolescent miscreants. They would amuse themselves with vulgarities and blasphemies. He was actually known in his youth to make sport out of vulgarity. Just how bad could he make?

Word sound. Indeed, the young Bunyan was actually so vile and so profane that at one point, a woman of the city of Bedford, a harlot of Bedford, a woman who did not fear God, upon hearing young Bunyan play with blasphemy in the manner that he did, she began to tremble in fear in watching him do that. A woman who did not ordinarily fear God in the least feared God as a result of this young man's great blasphemy. She actually told John Bunyan, it is recorded, that I have never heard such an ungodly man. I've never trembled at sin like I am now in hearing you.

This low life of a woman reproved John Bunyan. That's just how bad John Bunyan was. And it began to terrify him. Because he began to realize through this reproof and others that he was a sinner And stood condemned before the thrice holy God and that the wrath of God hung over him as if to crush him He was a tinker by trade and so he would throw this giant anvil over his back, and he would be known to walk from village to village, but oftentimes in Bedford, crouching under this great burden of his anvil. He was a Tinker.

He would repair pots and pans. And he began to think of that anvil as just a smidgen of the great burden of his sin. And how it was crushing him to the earth. He became terrified of dying. The Apostle Paul, in this letter to the Romans, wants to be sure that you understand that you are in the same position As Bunyan was.

In Romans chapter 1, Paul makes it clear, Gentiles, those who are outside of the Old Covenant, they're under sin. And they are under the wrath of God. That's Romans chapter 1. And then in chapter 2, Paul looks the other way at those snickering Jews on the other side of the room who are snickering at those rotten Gentiles, you know, those rotten Gentiles under sin, so sinful. And Paul points at them and he says, hey, you're just as sinful, You're just as wicked as they are So shut your mouth Your enemies of God just as the Gentiles are your lawbreakers just as the Gentiles are The wrath of God in Romans chapter 2 Paul says hangs over the Jew just as well as over the Gentile.

And then in Romans chapter 3, lest anyone be confused, Paul doubles down. For all Jew and Gentile have sinned and fallen short to the glory of God. No work of the law, no amount of trying hard enough or being good enough can erase the condemnation that all of us, that each of you, have merited in your sin. That is your problem this morning. It's the same problem that the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10 was up against.

His sin, his utter inability to rid himself of condemnation. The wrath of God abides on all sinners, including you. Unless God has dealt with your condemnation for you. Unless His wrath has been propitiated, satisfied through the shed blood of His Son in your place on the cross. And praise God, there is such an unless for sinners.

There is good news at the end of Romans chapter 3. Jesus Christ was placed on a cross. His blood was shed to justify sinners. Which sinners? Which sinners get declared righteous before God, get justified?

Romans chapter 1, all Gentiles are under sin. Romans chapter 2, all Jews are under sin. Romans chapter 3, all are under sin, but there is hope for who? The one who has faith. All who have faith.

Romans chapter 4 verse 5, to the one who does not work, to the one who does not seek to earn salvation, but rather trust in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross to make them right with God. Though they be ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. Peace with God is possible. And Paul now in Romans chapter 5 works through that peace. Where does that peace come from?

And Paul says, look there in Romans chapter 5 that this peace is a work of God in saving sinners and it stems from the love of God. Look at Romans chapter 5 verse 1. Peace with God has been accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. How?

How is that possible? Why? Verse 5. Because the love of God. Because the love of God has been poured out.

Because the love of God has been poured out. Because the love of God has been poured out. And our passage this morning in Romans chapter 5, verses 6 through 11, begins to unpack that idea of the love of God, the marvel at the love of God that would secure pardon and peace for ungodly Jews and ungodly Gentiles. And by the blood of His Son, would take God who is thrice holy and sinner who is thrice evil and reconcile. And so our text this morning is to unpack the love of God.

Number one, the love of God is demonstrated in the giving of His Son. Number two, the love of God is deep and more abundant than what you could ask or think. And number three, the love of God always results in doxology for the sinner made saint. This morning we seek to examine the love of God towards sinners like Paul, like John Bunyan, and like you. So first consider the love of God demonstrated In Jesus Christ, the Son of God, when he, as Paul says, died for the ungodly.

Look at verse 6. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God demonstrated his love.

How? In that while you were yet a sinner, Christian, Christ died for you. I want you to notice three aspects of the love of God demonstrated to you in verse 6. First, it was demonstrated to you while you were still helpless. While you were still helpless.

While we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly, Paul says. And that phrase still helpless in verse 6 refers to the condition of the sinner. The sinner cannot help himself. The sinner cannot help herself. The Sinner is helpless.

Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 tells us exactly how helpless the sinner is. And you, Paul says in Ephesians 2, as a sinner were dead in the trespasses of your sin. That's helpless. Spiritually dead, spiritually depraved, you are in a position, spiritually, that you cannot get out of, friend. You cannot get out of yourself.

Notice that Paul does not say, while we were mostly helpless, right, he does not pull a line from the princess bride and say, mostly dead, mostly helpless. He doesn't do that. The sinner is not in any position to fix themselves. The sinner is not in any position to help themselves. They are helpless.

They are utterly incapable of bringing about peace with God. They are shackled in their sins, weighed down in their sins, and they are powerless to rid themselves of the burden of their sin. The picture of helplessness is really the picture of a dead man. Dead people cannot perform CPR on themselves. You do not ever see that happening.

A dead people do not make themselves alive. They require a power outside of themselves to do that. So we have an AED in the back. In the event that someone has a cardiac event and flatlines, their heart stops beating, we are to use that. That person whose heart stops beating is helpless.

They are not crawling to the AED. They are not even crying out for help to the AED. They are helpless. They cannot help themselves at all. And they require the power of another, the will of another, the kindness of someone else outside of themselves to help them.

Children, that is why you will hear time and time again, your pastors tell you, look outside of yourself. You cannot fix your problem, but there is someone who can, someone who did. His name is Jesus, and he is far infinitely greater than any AED. If you cannot make your heart beat again when it stops, If you cannot bring yourself back to life physically, if you require the power of another, the will of another, the kindness of someone outside of yourselves to help you, how much worse off then are you as a sinner dead in your sin, powerless to save yourself? How can any sinner who is helpless be free of the burden and the power and the condemning weight of their sin?

With man, it's impossible. But not so with God. For there is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ who died for the ungodly. While you were spiritually helpless, God did something.

When you could not help yourself, when you were incapable, when you were powerless to be at peace with God, when you were dead in your sins and unable to be free from the burden of your sin, when you could not come to God but only found yourself further and further separated from Him as a result of your iniquity, when you were helpless, God came in power and rescued you. That's amazing. You know, you contribute one thing to your salvation. The only thing that you bring to the table of having Peace with God is your need. You want to contribute something?

You bring your sin that needs conquering. You bring your sin that needs atonement. That's the only thing you bring. You bring your burden that must be conquered and severed off your back. You bring the problem and God is the solution to all of it.

He's the solution to all of it. You are helpless as a sinner and Christ died for you, helpless sinner. While we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Notice the second element, the second aspect of the love of God demonstrated in the sending of His Son to die for the ungodly helpless ones. Notice that it was at the right time.

Do you see that there in the text? For a while we were still helpless at the right time. Christ died for the ungodly. I need you to think on that. This is glorious.

The coming of Jesus was not something that was spontaneous. It was not some kind of last-minute, last-ditch effort from God the Father trying to save mankind. No, no. It was planned completely foreordained by God not to try and save mankind, but to accomplish salvation for mankind. To accomplish reconciliation for sinners and indeed the whole world.

This was a promised coming, a sovereign coming. The coming of Christ to die for sinners was God's plan, God's design, and it was executed down to the exact millisecond of Christ's birth. Amen to that. And the exact moment of Christ's last breath on the cross. It was planned and ordained and came to pass at the exact triumphant hour of Christ's resurrection.

God had planned the exact day and moment of Christ's ascension. This was not plan B. No, God's plan from the beginning. In fact, before the beginning, before the foundations of the world were laid, Ephesians 1 tells us, God's plan hasn't changed. And the coming of Christ and His death for the ungodly has been and still is and will always be God's sovereign will and method unto salvation.

It's where it's always been. In eternity past, there was a covenant between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You can go to Ephesians 1 for this. And that covenant in eternity passed before the foundations of the world were laid. Those three members of the Trinity, one God and three persons, made a covenant together that mankind, though plunged into sin by the first Adam, would be rescued by the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

Indeed, this second Adam was promised even from the moment of the first sin in the garden, where God promised to bring from the seed of the woman a snake crusher. One who would completely reverse the curse. One who would restore fallen humanity to their creator God and make peace. It was the promise to Abraham that from him all the nations would be blessed, that indeed the whole world would be won through the promised seed. And Galatians chapter 3 tells us that that seed promised to Abraham was Jesus Christ.

It was promised time and time again in the Old Testament, prophecy after prophecy after prophecy that a time would come that at the right time a savior, a messiah would come and do and accomplish the work of redemption. And all the messianic promises, all these messianic prophecies were fulfilled at the right time. And beloved, the right time came when God the Father sent Christ the Son who took on flesh to ransom us by dying for our sins. The love of God is demonstrated by the fulfillment of prophecy. Next time you consider prophecy, consider the love of God.

Paul says in Galatians chapter 4, we were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. We were helpless. But when the fullness of time came, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. When you were helpless, God, knowing all of your sin, knowing all of your failure, knowing all of your secret iniquity that is not secret to Him. God knowing every evil thing about you, God knowing your pride, your lusts, your evil habits, your lies, your darkest secrets, all the ways in which you disobey, even the hidden motives that you yourself right now currently don't even understand.

Even the sin that you yourself don't right now know that is in you. God understood all of that before the foundations of the world were laid. God understood your wickedness before you even existed. God knew the depths of your depravity before you ever took a breath. And while you were helpless, before you were helpless, bound up in your sin and powerless to escape the judgment and wrath of God of your sin, knowing all of that about you, all of the evil, God decreed and God promised in eternity past that in the fullness of time, at the right time, Jesus Christ, His Son, would come to earth, die in your place to bear the wrath of God that you deserve and to make you right with God, knowing everything evil about you.

You want to talk about love? That's love. He died for the helpless as a fulfillment of prophecy at the right time. And Paul says, for the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly.

The literal wording here is Christ died for those who are godless or just as accurately Christ died for the profane. Christ died for the profane. Those who are not holy. Those who have profaned the holy, holy, holy one. Christ died for that person.

Christ died for God haters, Paul says in Romans chapter 1. Christ died for those according to Colossians 1.21, who were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. Christ died for those engaged in hostility against God. That's people like you. Did you know that apart from regeneration, apart from God saving you, that you were a God hater?

Well the Bible tells you so. You know sometimes I have precious, and I really mean precious saints that will come to me, come to my office, come pull me aside after service or after Sunday school. And they will tell me that they cannot remember what life was like before God had saved them. God had saved them early on in life. They had professed faith in Christ when they were a young child.

And indeed, God had made them born again. But they didn't have stories like those saints that had been saved later on in life who had given themselves wholeheartedly into this life of sin and God miraculously took them while they were on the side of the road and had 13 needles sticking inside of them and they regenerated. They don't have a story like that. And I have precious saints that come and tell me that they still have a very dramatic story about their conversion. They don't have a good testimony.

And I tell them, and I tell you now, and I will keep telling you, yes you do have a good testimony. You have an incredible testimony if you belong to Jesus. You don't have to remember what your heart was like as a child. You don't have to remember that. The Bible tells you.

And the Bible fills you in. By nature, you were a God hater. You were engaged. You might have been engaged in deeds that on the outside might look just fine. But within, you were absolutely trying to topple God off of His throne.

You were just as wicked as all the rest. It just didn't come out. But it was in there. And God sent Jesus to die at the right time while you were helpless, knowing all of that about you. God sent Jesus to die for you, the God-hater, the enemy of God.

And Jesus died for you. And you became born again because of His power. That's a testimony. That's a testimony. If you are a Christian, if God has saved you, it took a miracle.

And that's what Paul goes on to say in verses 7 and 8. Look there in verses 7 and 8, for one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man, someone would dare even to die. No one gives up their life to die even for good and righteous men. For the best of men, it hardly ever happens that someone would die in the place of another. Paul says, but you and I, Paul's audience, each of us in this room, you aren't good or righteous.

That's the point. You are the opposite of those things. You stand condemned in your sin. You are not good, no not one. You face the wrath of God.

You are His enemy according to verse 10. If you would skip down to verse 10 you would see clearly you are His enemy according to verse 10 and that's why you should be blown away when you hear that Christ died for the ungodly. It should shock you because almost never does the good man get saved even when he's good. Almost never does someone come in and sacrifice themselves for the good man even though he's good. But God, but God demonstrated His own love towards you and that while you were still a sinner, the farthest thing from good, the opposite of good, While you were godless, while you were profane, while you were an enemy of God, Christ died for you.

This is off the charts grace. This is unmerited kindness, saints. This is a great, great love. Children, do you not cherish as I do the stories of the valiant prince coming to save the princess from the evil villain? Come on, give me some hands.

I like it. That's it. Man, parents, you gotta be reading some better books. I got one for you. Children, I think you're with me.

We love, don't you? When the valiant prince comes to defeat some fiendish enemy, do you not cheer when your parents read to you about how this good and brave prince defeats this evil villain and the evil enemy is slain and punished and the princess goes free. Don't you cheer? We cheer at our house. Yeah!

Justice is served! Rightly so. Not another wrong cheering about justice. We cheer. I have all girls, so we kind of...

It's not a manly cheer. We do cheer. We like that, And yet here is Paul telling us of a prince, telling us of a king who gave his life not for the beautiful princess, but for the villain, for the evildoer. So that the evildoer would actually be forgiven and go free and made into a beautiful princess. That's different.

The prince gave his life for the villain to make the villain into a princess, when that's the last thing that the villain, that the enemy, deserved. Are you with me, kids? That's a different kind of story. That's a unique story. That's a wonderful story.

And the innocent, bold, and magnificent prince was made to suffer and die for the evildoer's life. I mean, here's a prince, here's a king who gave his life to take those who were his enemies and to make them his friends. Children, you and I, We are the villains in this story. We are the ones in this story who were saved despite our villainy. Dear children, you need to hear me.

The story of God's redemption is the redemption of evildoers like you. Wow. Charles Spurgeon, He writes, this is the glory of His love. That while we were rebels against His government, He redeemed us. While we were far off from Him by wicked works, He sent His Son to die and bring us near.

Free grace indeed was this, not caused by anything in us, but springing freely from the great heart of God. God demonstrated His love towards you, Christian, that though you were helpless at the right time, Christ died for you, the ungodly." I think that's quite a story. What a story of the hero dying for the villain to make the villain his friend. In fact, to make the villain his princess. That's great love That God would give himself for his enemies to secure chapter 5 verse 1.

Justification by faith and peace with God forever. He did that for you Christian when you were his enemy. So it doesn't get any better than that, does it? Isn't that just what we want to say after hearing these verses? At least that's what I want to say.

I read the verse, I go, wow! When I was helpless, when I was an enemy of God, Christ died for me. There's no way the love of God can get any better than that. That's amazing. Doesn't get any better than this.

And Paul, here in the next verse, he actually puts his arm around you, he puts his arm around me in the study, and he smiles and he tells you, actually, yes it does. It actually, amazingly, does get better. I'd be great with just verses 6 through 8. How much better does it get, Paul? How much better?

Verses 9 and 10. Much more. Much better. Much more. How much better?

Much more. Look at verse 9. Look at verse 9. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through 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." So this can be a little confusing. I want you to just think through Paul's argument. It's actually not confusing. Stay with me. Paul is saying consider the condition that you found yourself in when Christ died for you.

Consider that condition. You were ungodly. You were his enemy and yet God demonstrated his great love towards you while you were his enemy and he died for you, while you were his enemy. When your condition was helpless and hopeless, look at what God did for you. How much more then, how much more will God take care of you?

Will God lavish His love upon you? Will God continue His work in you when you're no longer His enemy, but His friend, His very own child? You get the argument? That word justified, you see that word justified in verse 9, that word justified means to be declared righteous. And that happened at the cross when Jesus shed His blood for those who would believe.

God secured the salvation for His people when Jesus was crucified on the cross. And so sinners who are declared saints, who are unrighteous, They are then declared righteous in God's sight because two thousand years ago God the Father placed the sins of his people on God the Son and God the Son Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin so that those who repent and believe in Him would become righteous in God's sight. That's justification. A gavel comes banging down. God declares this man, this woman, sinner, no longer saint.

Saint in my eyes, righteous in my sight. It's an amazing declaration. And that word reconciled there, there's another word there, reconciled. We see that a couple times at the end of our passage. It's an emphasis in this passage, reconciliation.

It deals with verse one, peace with God. That word reconciliation means to be made right with God. It means for hostilities to cease. Peace has been secured between God and man for the Christian. If you've laid down your rebellion and you've trusted in Jesus, God did that because you couldn't do that yourself.

Even the gift of, even the belief is a gift, the gift of faith. You were helpless until God came in and made you regenerated. If you've trusted Jesus, you're no longer an enemy with God. You're reconciled. You're right with God.

You're at peace with God. You're a friend of God. And it was all God who worked that reconciliation. Those two phrases, justification and reconciliation, you can't divorce them. For those who are justified, they're declared righteous, no longer an enemy, but a friend.

And so they are reconciled to God. One naturally follows the other. So this is Paul's argument. When you were hostile to God, God came into your life, He broke down that wall of hostility. God converted you.

He made you born again. He regenerated you. He saved you. And now there's no longer hostility, but only peace between you and God. You changed, God never changed.

But your relationship with God is now completely different. Once an enemy, now a friend, a child. And if this is how God treated you when you were his enemy, when you were hostile to him, if God sent his son to die in your place while you were like that, which is amazing love, how much greater then will his love be for you, will his treatment of you be, Will His care of you be when you are now reconciled to Him as His friend? Even greater, if you can imagine that. Kind of hard to imagine.

I think Paul is addressing what many of us, what many of you deal with, myself included. I know Jesus died for me. I know He's forgiven me. But what about the wrath to come? I'm so sinful.

I feel guilty. I feel condemned. What about future judgment? What about my sin now? I just feel like I'm just Guilty.

Well, this is what Paul is addressing if you're justified when you're God's enemy If God treated you like this when you were godless, when God saved you from the present wrath when you were his enemy, why on earth would God stop saving you now that you're his friend? If he's going to treat his enemies like this, Now that you are His child, why on earth would He stop saving you now that you are His own? Why would He just quit on you now, even though He bought you at the cost of His Son's life? He's not going to stop. That's the point.

He's not going to stop. Far from it. Far from it. You know Paul says in Romans chapter 8, just a couple chapters from our passage that and in Galatians chapter 3 and in John chapter 1, just give them all to you, that as many as received Jesus Christ by faith have been made children of God. So when I use the word friend, I can make that synonymous with the children of God.

You are actually an adopted child of God. When you get declared righteous, God the Father looks at you and He no longer sees the old Grant Brown, He no longer sees the old sinner, He sees the righteousness of His Son. And He says, I see My Son in you. You are My Son. You are My daughter.

You're mine forever. He adopts you into his family When you were his enemy Romans 1 told you you could look there if you'd like Romans 1 told you that you found yourself Under the wrath of God Romans 1 18 right you're under the wrath of God Judgment and condemnation was rightly yours both in the present and in the future. If you read Romans chapter 1 you'd see you have present wrath and you're storing up future wrath. So when you get to Romans chapter 5, that's what's on the minds, that's what should be on your minds. Okay, okay, I'm reconciled to God presently.

Does that have anything to do with the future? I hear about this future wrath, future judgment. When you were dead, God intervened. And Paul says in Romans 5 verse 9, God reconciled you at the cost of His Son's life. He saved you from your past and present wrath that you were under when you were hostile to him.

He then abolished all of the hostility. If that's how he treated you as his enemy, how much more will he save you from the wrath of God to come when you are now his child? I keep saying I want you to get the point. You see what these verses are including? These verses include the past, the present, and the future.

Having been justified, having been reconciled, God did this all in the past when you were hostile to him. He's continued to do it presently. And then that phrase you'll see at the end of our passage, We shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. We shall be saved in the future as well. Past, present, future.

God has saved you Christian in the past. God is saving you still presently because of his son. And God will continue that saving work all the way to glory because he will not waste a single drop of his son's blood. That is what the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ accomplished for you. Saved by His death in the past, saved by His life right now, you woke up this morning believing because of the wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb and saved all the way to glory because of His resurrection.

So Christian, you do not have any business walking around wondering about the wrath of God, wondering if it might be hanging over you. That wrath has been fully satisfied for you by Jesus at the cross. At the cross, God the Father poured out every drop of His wrath upon Jesus' Son, so that there is none left for you to bear, because Jesus Christ bore it all for you." There's no wrath left for you to endure, Christian. You getting that? None in the past, none presently, and none in the future.

Every last drop of the wrath that you deserve, Jesus paid for. So when you read words like these in our passage of the love of God, Or you read words like Ephesians 5-2, Jesus loved you and gave himself for you. You need to stop when you read those words and marinate in that. You need to bathe and soak yourself in a pool called awesome hot gospel. The best sauna.

Soaking that. And when you're up against trials in your life and things get cloudy in your heart and mind you need to remember these truths in the midst of trial, that Jesus sought me when a stranger. When I was an enemy, when I was helpless, God broke in and He saved me when I was a rebel. How much more then will He be to me, my Savior, now that I am blood-bought? So you need to run to him afresh in the midst of tribulation run to him afresh in the midst of doubts he is a shelter he is a refuge in times of trouble you have a great high priest Christian This is the deep well of the mercy and love of God.

He loves to give good gifts to his children and he gave the greatest gift of them all to you, Christian, His very own Son. Paul will go on to say in Romans chapter 8, He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? So who can bring any charge against God's elect? God's the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns?

You answer that. Who can condemn? Nobody. The answer is nobody. When God is the one that justifies.

If this is how God treated you when you were hostile, how much more now as a citizen of His kingdom will He save you and care for you and keep you and shield you and protect you and very much bring you all the way safely home to glory? That's a deep, deep love. Really it's far more abundant than what we could ask or think, isn't it? But you know, it goes both ways. The wrath of God was satisfied at the cross by Jesus for those who would repent and place their faith in Him.

But for those who do not, for those who will not submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior, You need to hear this. The wrath of God burns very hot against you. The wrath of God is being stored up against you. There is no peace between you and God. You are at enmity with God and you will burn in hell forever under God's righteous indignation unless the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin.

So what will it be this morning? Will you be as the rich young ruler, and go away sad, and be the poorest of the poor, because you will not let go of your sin and your trinkets, and bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or will you go home happy, like that poor, blind Bartimaeus, who ended up spiritually the richest and having everything that mattered Because you have Jesus Christ and you have all of His blessings of justification and reconciliation with God. What's it going to be this month? I exhort you, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

You will be saved. Repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Turn to Him for salvation. Place your faith in Jesus Christ. Obey the call.

Obey the call to be obedient. Place your faith in Jesus. I don't want you to leave here unsure this morning. I don't want you to leave here unsure this morning. I don't want you to leave here and tell yourself, well, peace, peace, when there is in fact no peace.

Do not leave here until you know peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Grab one of the elders. Grab one of these church members. Ask one of us to sit down and speak to you further about sin, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, eternal life, and obedience to Jesus Christ. The obedience of faith.

Don't leave here unsure, please. Don't leave here. You know, the devil wants more than anything for you to think very, very often about anything else but the wrath of God. If you find yourself thinking, although I don't like those thoughts, those are not pleasant thoughts, I want to think on something better. Be wary.

That's not what the Bible, that's not what God tells you. God says that the wrath of God hangs over you and that the wrath of God is coming for you. But there is a pleasant thought that there was someone who came and dealt with that wrath in your place. Don't leave here unsure if you are right with God or not. The love of God is demonstrated in the sending of the Son, Jesus Christ, to die for those who deserved it not.

It is deeper than any other love in this world, in that there is no condemnation ever for the one in Christ Jesus. And lastly, for the child of God upon whom this love has been lavished, the only response can be doxology. And that's what Paul does here at the end. Paul writes in verse 11, and not only this but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation. We exalt, that word exalt simply means to boast or to glory in.

It could be translated rejoice. We rejoice in God. Before God saved you, your condition was that of one who had fallen short of the glory of God. But now because of what God has done for you look at the end of verse 2 in chapter 5 Because of what he's done for you you had fallen short of the glory of God you were under his wrath But now look in verse 2 you exalt in the hope of the glory of God That's a big change That's a big change from Romans 3.23 to Romans 5.2. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But when God brings about peace, When God does a miracle, now the glory of God is the very thing you rejoice in. That's huge. I don't want you to think that all this talk about justification and peace with God doesn't result in praise and adoration and obedience. You leave here thinking, I've got Jesus, can live my life the way you want to live it. Apart from obedience to His word, you don't got Jesus.

You got something way different. You got yourself. You got your sin. This reality results in doxology. The glory of God becomes everything to you.

What you would once have fallen short of, now you rejoice in. That's exalting. You see, you don't, Christian, you don't get to go around life sulking and moaning and groaning. If that's you, stop. The text says you exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says in verse 3 of chapter 5, you exalt in your what? Look at verse 3, you exalt in your what? Tribulations. And the reason you can exalt in your tribulations is because you start to get what he's saying. Because even in the tribulations, God shows you more of his love.

You get more of Jesus. You get to experience more of his love, the harder life gets. You get to be more like him. It's a win. You know, I can't remember who it was, but they said, what was that line?

I'm totally going off my notes. But they said, oh yeah, it was the story of Lazarus. And you know, Lazarus was raised to death from from from the dead by Jesus and you know he was going around telling everyone about Jesus and the Roman soldiers goes up to Lazarus says stop it stop talking about Jesus stop being so happy about Jesus we're gonna kill you And Lazarus looks at them and says, what? Been there, dead man. That's not an original story.

I'm borrowing it from someone. What are you going to do to him? Kill him? Death's already been conquered. Go for it.

I'll just be with my Lord Jesus Christ. That is victory accomplished by Jesus. That's what Paul is saying here. You've got the victory. Past, present, future.

You can exalt. You can exalt. So when you think of your sin, when doubts come in, when tribulations rise up, when things in your life seek to snuff you out, you need to strike up the song of the reconciled. You need to strike up a song like this, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there May I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

Ere since by faith I saw the stream that his flowing wounds supplied, redeeming love has been my theme, past, present, and future, and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. That's exaltation. That's doxology. That's a life of obedience to Jesus Christ who is Lord.

You get the love of God, the love of God hits you, you leave changed. That's the song of the reconciled. A life spent on obeying the commands of God because His love compels you to do so. A life of rejoicing, a life of exalting in Jesus no matter the circumstance. Why no matter the circumstance?

Because God has so conquered. He has so changed each and every one of those circumstances to be for your good and for his glory in his great life. You can exalt. So we began with John Bunyan. I want to end with John Bunyan.

Bunyan, rebuked by the woman of the city, terrified of the wrath of God, knowing that he was surely condemned to hell, and that any minute fire would fall from heaven and consume him. Here's what John Bunyan wrote, I feared that the day of grace was past and I was forever a castaway. I deserved to be so blasphemer that I was. My sins were unpardonable. There was no amount of grace sufficient to cover my foulness.

There was no electing love sufficient for so wicked a man as I knew myself to have been. But just when I was at my wit's end, it was then when I read the words, you are my love, You are my love and nothing shall separate you from my love. And then further, guided by divine grace, I read the words, My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for thee. And at this reassurance, I could not tell how to contain myself till I got home.

Sufficient for thee I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand. I saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse. My righteousness is Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ is all, all of my righteousness, all of my sanctification, all of my redemption. And Christ and I are one.

His righteousness mine, His merits mine, His victory also mine. Oh Christ, Christ, there is nothing but Christ before my eyes. Now have my chains fallen off my legs and I am loosed from my afflictions and irons. Oh, had I a thousand gallons of blood within my veins, I could freely spill it all at the command and feet of this Lord Jesus my Savior. And if You didn't get to hear all that because I messed up.

You come get my notes. That's the testimony of the justified. That's the song of one reconciled to God. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God.

That we should be called the sons of God. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have put such a song in our hearts, that your love has been poured out, that we can call you Father, and you call us your beloved children. What a miracle that every single Christian has been part of, has been privy to, in justification, regeneration, reconciliation, peace with God. Thank you for Jesus.

Help us Lord as we now consider his body and blood shed for us at the table. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for watching!