WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:06.559 Alright, so if you would stand with me, we will open up to Romans chapter 5. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.839 And if you don't have a Bible, Brian, Mr. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:14.400 Barnes is coming on down the aisle and he will he will bring a Bible to you. 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:15.359 It's our gift to you. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:28.239 If you don't have a Bible, please uh keep it, and uh or you're obviously you can borrow it for the morning, either way, but um that's our uh gift to you. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:34.240 And so this morning we're in Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 6, and I'll read the text. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:41.840 For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:49.359 For rarely will someone die for a just person, though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:56.159 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:04.239 How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath? 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:15.200 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:24.959 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:29.519 And you may be seated. 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:31.200 I already prayed. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:02:04.079 Okay, this morning we're in the we're continuing in the book of Romans, and the way I like to look at the book of Romans is, and it it has its not it's not perfect, but that book that Romans is divided into five sections. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:05.760 I call them the five S's. 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:17.520 There's other ways to look at the book of Romans, but just to get us framed in our context is the five S's uh sin, salvation, sanctification, uh, sovereignty, and service. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:19.919 And and those are one way of looking at the book. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:21.120 They're not perfect. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:33.520 It divides it into chapters one through two is sin, three through five is salvation, six through eight, sanctification, nine through eleven, sovereignty, and twelve through sixteen, service. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:41.840 It's this is this is Paul's um, it's a uh sort of a treat on the faith. 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:43.680 He is writing to the Romans. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:46.159 He's never visited, he wants to go to Rome. 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:57.120 Um he is yet to be told that um uh that he's going, but he's in writing from Corinth, and he has uh this group that's in Rome. 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:03.520 Maybe it's a church plant of Jews who've gone there, but he's got he's writing to both Jews and Greeks, or Jews and Romans. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:05.520 So he's at he's got a mixed church. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:20.159 So there's um he's at the center of the known world, and Rome is uh there's a center of sin and licentiousness, and then there's also this a group that knows this Jewish, the heritage of the Jewish faith. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:23.840 So you have these cultures in a little bit of a collision, right? 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:31.360 So much going on in these two groups of people, but so we're gonna see some components of that in the text. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:47.520 So as he's uh bringing together this uh the book of Romans, which is uh is a a sort of this uh uh thesis of the Christian faith, he's gonna start out very methodically. 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:52.080 So we've been through chapters one and two, we've looked at sin, because we don't start the gospel. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:04:08.960 A couple of the key verses in Romans will hear it and we think we say it every every week, but Paul says in chapter one, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is a power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Greek. 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:18.000 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:36.079 So as we go from chapters one through two, Paul clarifies and he makes very clear that he's not talking to just the Romans, that uh he says, There is no none righteous, no not one. 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:40.480 Uh there is no there's no favoritism or partiality with God. 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.480 He's not partial to one group or another. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:44.800 Sin is across the board. 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:51.439 So if you look around you in the room, all of us are not just susceptible to sin, we we are born sinners. 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:54.480 That is a fundament of the Bible. 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:02.959 That may look like different things, and it may it may look like a vastly different thing in our lives. 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:12.079 But God really sees, looks at our hearts, and so he knows the thoughts and the motives of our hearts, not just the way that these things are wrought out. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:20.160 So Paul levels the playing field in chapters one and two and into three. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:31.519 It's not just the grook, he is not the group, the grook, the Jew, uh, but it's also uh sin is ubiquitous. 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:33.199 It's across the board. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:39.920 As we've gotten into through chapters three and four, we see salvation is for everyone. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:45.199 That means you cannot sin too much for God, right? 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:56.000 And it has, it surprised me in the past, but I've had conversations with people who've said, uh, I've I've sinned too much. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:08.560 Um trying to explain that there is that that by definition, this is not about what we bring to the table because it's not about what what we're bringing. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:13.199 But God is offering his grace to all. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:22.560 So as we got it, we got went into Romans 4, we saw Abraham, and that grace is by faith, and it is not by any work of man. 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:35.279 Last week we went through, started chapter 5, the first five verses, and we saw we're we're getting into the benefits and the blessings of grace by faith. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:46.639 And uh we saw the this sort of the virtue building blocks last week of endurance and character and character hope. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:52.160 And that passage wraps up uh with this, verse 5. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:59.519 This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.480 This passage this morning continues right on through. 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:11.600 So we're really just looking at a pretty small snippet, right, of the bigger passage and of chapter five. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:22.240 Um they're great verses nonetheless, and and so as we go into verses six, the six through eleven is roughly two little snippets, right? 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:31.360 We're only talking a few verses, but we're gonna look at uh Paul is going to dive into God's love as God's love has been poured out. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:45.360 He's going to show us the God's proven love in 6 through 8 and then 9 through verses 9 through 11, um, the salvation, the confidence we have in salvation from God's wrath. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.480 So we'll dive into the passage. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:57.279 It starts out, for while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:26.879 Paul is going to line out that uh God's love is not uh common, and he's going to he's going to show us of how how convinced we can be that God's love is uh that is been proven and that we can have a confidence in uh his faithfulness. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.759 While we are we were still helpless, Paul says. 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:39.039 New King James says, without strength. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:42.799 I'm not sure where you, when and how you got saved. 00:08:42.960 --> 00:09:00.320 For those of you who know Jesus Christ in this room, um, some of you know uh a darkness that is, you know, whether that is internal or just the sin of darkness, but uh we didn't and don't start out clean. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:09.279 And God's intent is that we don't clean ourselves up, that we don't try and get our get our lives together. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:24.159 And it's actually that God, if it as Jesus says in a certain amount, um, that those who are spiritually impoverished are really blessed because we recognize that we're spiritually bankrupt. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:29.519 As that is the that is uh the fundament of the Bible is that nothing. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:31.919 We're helpless without strength. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:41.120 We have no power to be right or to be uh to have right upstanding all by ourselves. 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:43.279 We are born in sin. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:45.919 Then Paul says at the right time. 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:46.879 What does that mean? 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:50.720 At the right time, Christ died 2,000 years ago. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:53.919 So God operates outside of time. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:10:05.200 And through the course of Scripture, from Genesis, we see that Jesus has been proclaimed and prophesied to come. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:07.440 And this is a big topic, right? 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:15.120 But but the the fulfillment of Scripture, Jesus uh uh fulfills the scriptures in his coming. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:32.159 So from his virgin birth to the 70 weeks prophecies in Daniel, the timing of his birth, to um to fulfilling uh prophecies of the coming uh Jewish Messiah. 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:46.720 So at the right time is God's timing of bringing Jesus to the cross to fulfill the scriptures and to become the one and final sacrifice for our sins. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:48.960 And what happened then? 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:50.960 Christ died for the ungodly. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:11:00.639 Not for the righteous, not for those who know their scripture, not for those who've gotten their lives together, but for the ungodly, Christ died. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:05.679 So 1 Corinthians, Paul describes this a little bit better. 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:16.080 And again, I and I've just I've mentioned this a little bit already, but in 1 Corinthians he says, Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:17.360 Do not be deceived. 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:29.120 No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, nor thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:40.080 And like I said, you know, Jesus said if a man looks on a woman and lusts with her in her heart, he's committed adultery with her in his heart, right? 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:46.320 God's in God's in very concerned with our heart, not just our outward actions. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:12:03.120 If you can imagine your life before Christ, and you can imagine the uh or recall, um God didn't wait until we're having a good day spiritually to send Christ to the cross. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:09.919 He sent Christ knowing everything we've done, the place where we are, and everything, even in the future. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:32.879 If we look at the news, I keep thinking, um, what is it to have the love that God has for us and to see the depravity of man and that that his love still abounds. 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:39.679 And so Paul's going to Paul's gonna dive in. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:42.879 Um he'll give us an example. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:52.080 He'll say, for rarely, verse 7, for rarely will someone die for a just person, though for a good person, perhaps someone might even dare to die. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:58.639 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.240 For rarely will someone die for a just person. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:16.159 And this is a, or your Bibles might read, righteous, so this is the upright, this is the person who's that morally upright or per person who has leaving uh uh leading a good life, leading sort of this good, righteous life. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:24.480 But then he says, it's rare that someone would die for that righteous or just person, for a good or this is sort of kind, benevolent person. 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:27.919 Perhaps someone might even dare to die. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:46.480 One of the better examples I can think of is maybe the secret service, where you would think that someone's in the line of duty and willing to lay their life down, willing to dive in front of another so that they would die instead of another person. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:58.320 Jesus says in John 15, um, no one has greater love than this than to lay down his life for his friends. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:08.080 And Jesus will go on to describe what friends means in that passage, but uh we weren't we weren't friends of Jesus when he died. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:18.960 What he's saying is even more, we were, as Jesus says in Matthew 12, that he is not for me as against me. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:38.240 Paul goes on and says, uh, but God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:15:01.600 First John, um, John says in in in 1 John love consists in this, not that we love God, but that He loved He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice, or your Bibles may read, propitiation for our sins. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:08.480 So that that's the that's a big word for atoning sacrifice or acceptable sacrifice. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:15.200 So God gets our sin and we get his righteousness. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.720 He is he is the sacrifice on our behalf. 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:29.120 And so to remind ourselves what that means, um one of the better examples I can that I can think of is going back to the book of Leviticus. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:33.840 So, and you could turn there if you want, but I have I'll just read a couple excerpts. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:42.240 But in Leviticus, so uh the Jewish people uh God is God has all authority, right? 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:48.320 He makes the rules and he developed a sacrificial system for the Jewish people. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.759 That sacrificial system was not the end all, right? 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:55.440 It was just uh a shadow of things to come. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:02.960 It was um really to be ultimately be fulfilled by Jesus Christ Himself. 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:28.639 There was the sin offering, and in for in chapter four, we read, and this is in several cases, both for the anointed priest or for the assembly, uh, if the anointed priest sins bringing guilt on the people, he is to present to the Lord a young, unblemished bull as a sin offering for the sin he has committed. 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:36.000 He is to bring the bull to the entrance of the tent meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull's head, and slaughter it before the Lord. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:53.039 The same for the assembly, if they've committed sin, uh bring it before the tent of meeting when the sin when the sin they have committed in regard to the commanded becomes known, the elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull's head and it is to be slaughtered before the Lord. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:17:01.679 So what's happening in this sacrificial system, because we we read these words, but these are the the uh what does sacrifice even mean, right? 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:08.880 But but you would go and bring your unblemished sacrifice because it wasn't about how perfect you are, right? 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:10.880 It was about the perfection of your sacrifice. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:14.400 It was about being having a perfect and unblemished sacrifice. 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:24.880 You would bring you would bring your the animal, lay your head on the animal's head, lay your hand on the animal's head, and you were you are there was a transfer of your sin. 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:33.759 Now, this is in without getting into all the theology, but you try you were essentially uh transferring your sin to the animal. 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.799 That animal was dying on your behalf. 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:39.440 And there was there was association. 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:44.079 You saw the animal die before your eyes because of your sin. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:45.839 So pretty intense. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:48.799 So every time there was sin, an animal died. 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:52.000 For rightness to happen, an animal died. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:53.920 Now that wasn't. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:11.279 Um if I can just make sure we uh we we bring those pieces together, but um the author of Hebrews will say uh will remind us that this was not the final solution for sin, right? 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:24.079 He says, since the law has only a shadow of good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshippers by the same sacrifices that they continually offer year after year. 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:32.160 Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered since the worshippers purified once and for all would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:35.839 But in the sacrifices there was a reminder of sins year after year. 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:40.960 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:59.839 It was never God's intent that these animals would take away the sins, it was a temporary solution for sin until the timing of God in his scriptures of the coming Messiah, as Paul says to Galatians, the fullness had of the time had come. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.079 The fullness came to completion. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:16.559 And so as Christ says that he uh in 1 John, he became the propitiation for our sins, that's Jesus. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:25.839 So instead of the animal in the sacrificial system, now we have Jesus, and it's not the blood of that animal, it's the blood of Jesus Christ that was spilled. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:29.119 And it and this time it was spilled once and for all. 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:43.920 So Christ said, so so Paul says, how much more then, now given that uh we he proved his love in that while we were sinners, he died for us. 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:46.079 He was to sacrifice for us. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:57.680 Transitioning now to this question of wrath, how much more since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from wrath. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:25.279 Paul's saying, how much more then, since we have now been declared righteous, or that specifically that what God has done, uh, as is as Paul says in Colossians, he erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that is against us and opposed to us, he has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:32.400 Since we have been, he's taken our sins as though they're written on a list. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:34.640 He didn't erase those sins. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:36.960 It's like us, uh, say you're on trial for murder. 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:43.920 Lord, you know, may not be, but on trial for murder, and there's the handwriting, right, of all the things you've done. 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:46.480 And he doesn't erase those things. 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:53.200 He does, according to scripture, he erases them, but what he does to erase them is he puts them up on the cross. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:00.720 He has taken away the handwriting of requirements, as the scripture says. 00:21:01.119 --> 00:21:13.519 So, how much more if he's done those things and made as though there is no record of our sin, how much more will we be saved from uh through him from wrath? 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:15.119 What's this wrath? 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:23.440 Certainly the wrath that we would we would incur from our uh for the penalty of our sin, right? 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:32.240 Some say, well, and I would agree it's it's uh from the wrath of the great tribulation, but that's sort of another whole another ball of acts. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:34.000 So, but it's saving from wrath. 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:47.680 So we can be confident, Paul's saying he was we're so confident in his in the salvation, in our being made right before him, that we can be confident that we will also not endure wrath. 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:56.880 And again, this the passage is full of repetition, but Paul is really driving home this confidence we have in God's love. 00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:11.920 He says in verse 10 for if while we were We were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:15.359 Are you getting a recurring theme? 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:26.480 We were enemies, if before we were in Christ, we were de facto enemies to God. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:28.960 If we're not for him, we're against him. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:30.640 And that goes this morning. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:38.079 If you don't know Jesus, you want to be on the right side of the fence, if I can say it that way. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:42.319 If you're not for him, you're against him. 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:52.400 But the good news is that even in even as enemies, God's grace is available to us. 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:20.799 So can you um can you think if you had an enemy and you're trying to show grace, can you think how you could have a grudge or um how you might have a weird disposition towards that person? 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:37.359 In this case, God's God uh sent Jesus while we were still enemies, and we can trust that he doesn't hold a grudge, but as Psalm says, as far as the East is from the West, he has cast our sin away from us. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:47.759 The death of his son was the ultimate proof that having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:56.559 But let me say that this is not, as I think I grew up, the reconciliation is not an automatic thing. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:23:58.799 It is, and that it will happen. 00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:04.000 But Christ died and he didn't die, and we're not all just automatically saved, right? 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:15.359 And this is really important because I think that the world, the the lies of the world want us so complacent with our sin that it's like, oh no, Jesus took care of that. 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:23.039 Or maybe we just have to now now that Jesus died, we just need to be good, and maybe God will get us into heaven, right? 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:29.440 But it's very important that we all recognize that it's a decision. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:54.240 We are all we all have that decision individually that He wants us, He wants our repentance from our sin and our surrender to Him and He wants us to accept that gift of the cross individually. 00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:09.200 Wrapping into the end of verse 11, not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received this reconciliation. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:14.079 What does Paul say he wants us to do? 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:17.519 We can rejoice in reconciliation. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:24.960 And so there's two, we're left with with, I think, two things in this passage. 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:29.359 Uh it's not just that we've been reconciled, but we have reason to rejoice. 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:36.480 We aren't just sort of made right, hey, handwriting requirements are out of the way, right? 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:41.920 It's not like the judge says, uh, I've got this, uh, I've no more charges. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:43.680 Murder charge dropped. 00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:46.559 Um I think you're you're fine, right? 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:49.599 Because he can't, a judge can't just dismiss your charges. 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:51.680 The charges have to be covered, right? 00:25:52.240 --> 00:26:02.640 Um in this case, the judge has taken those charges and he's said, uh, okay, you're guilty, but I'm gonna take the charges, put them up on the cross. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:09.759 And then the judge turns around and sacrifices himself on the cross for those sins, right? 00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:15.359 We can rejoice in this reconciliation. 00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:21.920 And I love it, I think I love the best that how Paul puts it. 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:41.759 He says in 2 Corinthians 5, for the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:46.960 Paul's saying we have we've been reconciled, we have confidence in his love. 00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:49.759 Let us no longer, where does that leave us? 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:54.640 But let's not no longer then live for ourselves as though nothing else ever happened. 00:26:54.880 --> 00:27:01.359 But let us uh let us live for him, the one who died for us and was raised. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:08.240 And even more in 2 Corinthians, so we see reconciliation over and over in this passage. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:12.720 We were reconciled and we've received this reconciliation. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:24.319 To the Corinthians, Paul says, uh, with this reconciliation, we can now minister and declare that reconciliation to others. 00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:35.440 Further into 2 Corinthians 5, he says, Everything is from God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:46.319 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, as he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:53.519 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us, we plead on Christ's behalf. 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:55.680 Be reconciled to God. 00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:10.799 So the application here, it's not just that we can have this great confidence in God's love and confidence that we will not experience the wrath of God, but we've been given a ministry now. 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:15.519 Now that we've been reconciled, we have a ministry of reconciliation. 00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:25.200 Paul says, I plead, he says, we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:32.640 So this morning we can go forth not just rejoicing, but we can go forward knowing that God has a ministry for us. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:48.319 A ministry where, you know, we don't we don't need to feel obligated or kick against the move of the Spirit necessarily in this ministry of reconciliation, but we can ask God, well, use me. 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:50.960 I don't need to force it, you know. 00:28:51.200 --> 00:29:10.240 Um, but we can be attentive to God's Spirit when He He's bringing that person across our path or uh in a relationship or a conversation where maybe God has reconciliation to do in other people's lives, and He wants to use us. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:26.000 It's not we don't we're not obligated, but He wants to use us and He wants us to rejoice, and that rejoicing would be infectious and it would lead us really to be a light to others in declaring that reconciliation. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:44.480 This morning, if if this if you are finding yourself helpless and without strength, if you are maybe questioning how could God think enough to save me save me? 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:57.599 Um if you haven't personally given your life to Jesus, if you haven't confessed your sin, uh that is right here at your at your ready. 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:00.240 There is no better time than right now. 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:04.559 It's not clean yourself up, it's not, man, let me get out of this mess. 00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:08.079 God wants our surrender every day, each day. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:20.799 And for those who don't know him, he wants He wants um He wants you to respond to the word of His Spirit in your heart to come to Him. 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:36.400 As we go to prayer, um I'll give that opportunity for those who if the Lord is prompting your heart, um, if you pray for me. 00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:37.680 Pray with me now. 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:47.759 Father, we thank you for your word and thank you for the truth that your love is not minor or fickle. 00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:56.720 It is not turning or fading, but that in your perfect timing, Christ went to the cross. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:00.640 And that that sacrifice is once and done. 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:15.759 And that we can respond to your love, we can be confident in both our uh in both our justification before you, but also in being saved from the wrath that is to come. 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:30.640 If God is prompting you this morning, it's as simple as he says, confess to your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that the Lord raised him from the dead, and you'll be saved. 00:31:31.519 --> 00:31:33.200 Confess your sins to Savannah. 00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:39.839 God uh his grace is is as grace means it is free. 00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:55.200 Ask the Lord for for for forgiveness of your sins and uh this life in him and the confidence of his salvation is is uh available. 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:01.759 Father, we pray for your word this this morning that it would embed deeply within us. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:13.680 That you would put it there, that it would be uh there for application and use and for for building us up and maturing us in you. 00:32:16.400 --> 00:32:35.680 Father, that you would fill us your spirit to use us here in your body and out this week, that you would fill us um to be a light to those who don't know you, to those in the body who need um to be reminded of this reconciliation and the confidence we have in you. 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:45.119 Pray for your blessing on this fellowship, and uh, we give our lives to you, Father, um and pray all this in Jesus' name. 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:45.920 Amen.