Lesson 17a

Okay, question one. Look up John 1, John 4, 10. Who started this love environment? Who did this thing? You hear a lot today about, you know, well, we're just Christians who love each other. And so, like, I was talking to your brother when he went to Israel with you, and you guys were standing in line, I think in Bethlehem, and there were a couple of guys from the church in Houston that were debating doctrine, and some guy came along and said, we don't do doctrine here, we just love each other.

So 1 John 4, let's start with 7. from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God is love. The word is is what is known as an essence verb. You could say love is God or God is love.

By this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. And in this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.

So who started this love environment? It's God who did it. So any discussion amongst believers about love has to start with God. Because that's who he is, and that's what he is. And we're going to find out hopefully as we go through this lesson. His character of love is infinite. It doesn't matter whether who he loves is worthy of his love or not. He just does it.

But as we've discovered in chapters 3 and 4, his righteousness has to be satisfied too. before He can demonstrate His grace towards us. And that's why verse 9 here was manifested in us that God sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. If He doesn't send Him, we don't know. We don't know.

Okay? And I've drawn that love circle on the board a lot. Anybody know what that is? I don't remember the verse. I can do it. I'll think off the top of my head. Draw a circle. And on the top is 1 John 4.10, that God loves me. And coming down to the 90 degree, it says that I love Him. Why? Because He first loved me. Go down to the 180 and it says, I obey Him because I love Him because He first loved me. Go all the way over to 270, is that right? He rewards me. for obeying Him, because I love Him, because He first loved me.

You have to complete the circle. It goes back to Him. You see that? That's called the love circle. And that's what we want to talk about in Romans 5, when the Spirit of God sheds abroad in our hearts a love for God. So, there's a purpose in verse 6 through 8, if you were able to discover it.

I'll read it and we'll see if you can pick up on it. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one would hardly die for a righteous man, but perhaps for a good man someone would dare to even die. But God demonstrated his love towards us that in while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

So what's the purpose? What's the focus here? You see it? He is establishing that his love is unmerited, that we receive it not to any meritocracy at all, but it is appointed unto us even in the state of sin and helplessness. Okay, anybody else? Notice here that what's happening is that the focus on these verses is God's demonstration of His love towards us. See that? So the purpose is to say, well, more than just saying He loves us, He's demonstrating and showing us how He did it, or what He did because He did love us. We went through the verse, I think it's 5, that says that the Holy Spirit freely gives the love of God to all believers and he sheds abroad that love in our hearts.

What he does is, by doing that, he makes us consciously aware of it in a direct inner witness, and especially in times of trial and need, especially at those times. By the way, how deserving are we? That's a great term, ungodly. It doesn't even bother to use the word sinner, we're just ungodly.

So no matter what, the condition of man, it doesn't change the fact that God loves us and he wants to demonstrate to us that he does. What else, what other could he have done that would have demonstrated what he did about his love more succinctly than what he did do by sending his son to die? Now, Grant, go ahead. I'd say nothing. There's nothing he could have done greater than Yeah, I don't think so either.

Also, the giving up of the Holy Spirit, that's where the love is revealed to us. Well, let's just say for a second, let's make an assumption that Christ never comes. Do we know if God loves us? So, by the virtue of the fact that the Father sent him, and for the purpose that he sent him, we begin to understand and know that, gee, God loves us. So, with that being the case, question three, how does Newell state man's total moral inability? He says in verse six, for Christ, we being met helpless in our sins at the appointed time, helpless.

What does that mean? Nothing we can do. We have total moral inability. It's stated here in actually a gentle term. It's not an aggressive term, it's kind of a gentle term. That man is weak, he's sickly, and he's incapable of doing anything about his moral standing.

He can't do anything. And as we progress on through five and go into six, we're going to see why he can't do anything. Now that doesn't mean that man doesn't believe in his own heart that he can do something, but the truth is he can't do anything to save himself. He can't do anything about the situation that he's in before God sent his son. You mean he can't raise his hand or go forward? Can't go forward or back? He's sliding all the time.

Back. Oh, I mean, at a revival, can you go forward and raise your hand? I want to be saved. It's interesting that at a revival you raise your hand, you want to be saved. What are you doing? You're acknowledging your inability and you're depending on somebody else. That's the whole point. I think, is your question total depravity of man that he's so morally bankrupt that he cannot know that he needs to be saved?

No, it's just that what they do nowadays all come forward and receive salvation. See, usually they've already received salvation, they've already believed. It's not a matter of them going forward, which is something they try to do. For salvation, because it's all grace.

So, man is morally bankrupt. He's spiritually bankrupt. He has no spiritual inclination towards God or towards holiness. That's why the term ungodly. Ungodly is a great term, I think. And the second problem he has is that he doesn't have the power to do good even if he wanted to. He's an enemy. He's an enmity with God, which means he's not going to change his mind. He's strong in one way, sin. Yeah, that's right. That's it. So here you have a man who's helpless. Men don't like to be talked about them being helpless.

God sends his son, for what reason? To die for these helpless ungodly creatures. That's what he came to do, to die for them. They couldn't do anything about their condition, so he sends his son. God doesn't demand a return or a response. It's an absolute grace that he does this. He does it for the ungodly. Without that, man is stuck.

Do you see that? In the Old Testament, God showed his love with a promise, right? Yeah. He demonstrated that love. promising to provide. Well, let's look at Abraham. God said to Abraham, I'm going to make you a great nation. I'm going to bless all nations through you. I'm going to give you land and that kind of thing.

Was God showing him the fact that he loved him by doing all that? Or was he saying, hey, I've got a purpose and I'm going to use you to do it? And so Abraham believed God and he was accounted righteous. How much of that promise, those promises, would demonstrate that God loved Abraham or loved man?

All of them. Yeah, but not to the degree that Christ, the degree that you would understand that God is love. You don't understand in those circumstances, even with David, God loves David, but you don't understand that God is love and what this agape, unmerited love is really all about.

Because there were always consequences. See that? And there was this program, the Jewish system, the Mosaic system that was put in place to cover the sins of the people. and to give them an opportunity to believe God and be declared righteous by Him. Everybody gets saved from Adam forward by believing what God reveals to them. But God didn't reveal His love until Christ, to the extent that it was there, and that what His character was about, you know.

And that's what these verses really are all about, because notice Question four, keep going, I'm building. How would you define the word for in verse six? And the Greek word is hupere. Verse six, for Christ being, for Christ, we being helpless in our sins at the appointed time, God, Christ's appointed time died for the ungodly ones. The word for There are several things.

One is that if you look at John 11.50 it says it means in place of or instead of. Are you with me so far? Here's an issue though. Could you die for your own sins? Why not? Because I'm a sinner. I'm not worthy.

In 1 Corinthians 15.3 It says, for I delivered unto you of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.

What's the for mean there? It means that he did, the for means for something. He did something for something. So that's substitution. Not yet, not quite. Or on our behalf, which the substitution is Matthew 5, 43 and 44. You have heard that it is said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray on behalf or for those who persecute you. So all three of these definitions happened at the cross. All three of them. It wasn't just one of them.

He died in the place of us. He died for a purpose to pay the penalty for our sins and our guilt and he did it on behalf of us no matter how bad we were. You see that? It's all what he did to demonstrate to us that this word hupere is a really important Greek word. Let's say that all he did was die in place of us. Is that enough? for you? I didn't read John 1150, but it says, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people and that the whole nation not perish. Is that important? Yeah, it's really important.

And this is spoken by a Pharisee, right? They're going to crucify Christ so that the whole nation doesn't perish because they think Christ is messing things up. So, the question that comes up in my mind for these three, this word, who perished, when Christ did this work, did he get it all done? Did he cover it all? But did he leave anything for you to do?

Yeah, that's a really important part, because you'll hear today, and we've heard, that there's still something left for you to do. You have to pray, you have to confess, you have to go to church, you have to whatever. But the work between the Lord Jesus and the Father was completed. There was nothing left for you to do. So now, back in chapter 4, when we were talking about salvation, is by grace through faith. It has to be that way because the grace of God is what afforded the salvation because he took care of the entire issue, all of it.

There's nothing left for you to do except believe. So you believe, which is a non-meritorious act. You can't go to God and say, oh, you owe me because I believe. No. What you believe and who you believe is where all the merit is. And as we said before, that guarantees your salvation. Why? Because it puts all the focus on God Himself. There's no focus on you. It's all on Him. The guarantee is Him.

So if He said to us, well I've got 99% of it done and I'm leaving 1% for you to do it just because I want you in the game. You've got to have skin in the game. Wrong. then it's not of grace. If there's just a smidgen of something for you to do, it isn't of grace. Do you see that? And so you have to be careful, I think, when you're talking as a non-believer about salvation, that you keep it on a grace basis.

Because we want to do something. We want to contribute. We want to, at some point, say, well, I know it's all grace. And it has to be that way. The big reason it has to be that way is that that's the only way you get the guarantee. Do you see what I mean by that? If it's all of God, then the guarantee is Him. If part of it's me, then part of the guarantee is how I perform. Nope. It's got to be all of Him. It has to be. And that begins a principle that lasts through our whole life. Everything is of God from now on.

Everything may not look that way, but it is because we live under grace. Mike, it seems like in verses 6, 7, and 8, they're really emphasizing that word, hupere, because it occurs in all three verses. Yes, it does. In place of, on our behalf. Yes, it does. It's a very, very, how do I say this, it's a gracious word, and it's designed to show the grace. Hupere is a terrific word.

So, the verse says that even for a good man one might die, but for a righteous man, what's the difference between a good man and a righteous man? Did I stump you? A good man thinks he's doing right. A righteous man does right all the time. How about this?

A good man means he's a particularly good man. It means he has justice. He's righteous. But a good man means that he's a nice guy. You see that? He's a noble person. one with a generous heart. He has goodness. A righteous man means that he has regards for justice and right. He can be sternly honest, but nobody is going to die for a guy like that. But a good man, they might. Somebody who is generous and good-hearted, right?

So is that what you base your salvation on? I got to get to be one of these I have to learn to be a good guy. The denomination I grew up in, that was what the whole thing was about, to become one of these good guys. Doesn't that go back to your trying to do something to earn your salvation? Sure does. So, good man or righteous man, good man, neither one of those guys qualify.

Because question five said, whose idea was it that Christ was to die for us? Whose idea was it? It was God's idea. Why? Because man would have never thought of anything like that. No, they wouldn't have. And notice how God didn't wait for man to figure it out.

Any of you get a text message from God back 2,000 years ago saying, hey, Mike, would it be okay if I died for you? No. No. Mike, do you think that verse 7 is calling to our attention that Christ did so much more than either of these. He died where we were sinners, ungodly, helpless, strengthless, even his enemies. I think the theme here is to demonstrate the intensity and the unlimitedness of God's love for us and to show that we are How would you, if you're going to write a few verses to show the unworthiness of the recipient of your grace, how would you describe it any better than it's described here, but describe it in a general way? It's not really a slap in the face, but it specifically states that Christ died for man at his worst, not his best, at his worst. Man's love needs motivation to deserve it. God doesn't need that motivation. He just is love. If I'm going to do, out of myself, love somebody, then you've got to give me the motivation to do it. I'm telling Donna that all the time. Is she working? No. Mike, also, kind of looking back and putting everything in perspective and how it builds, No, not one as good. We're, you know, an open grave. We're terrible.

Romans 1, giving over your own sins, everything, you know, he's led us up to. And now he's saying, even for a good man, would you, or writes, you know, here's who you are. And even if you were a good man, So, I mean, it's kind of, you put it in perspective where we're at, you know, what he said we are, and then, you know, you'd hardly even die for a good guy.

Why do you think he has to spend so much time convincing the reader about the condition that man is really in? Because man has an attitude that he's doing okay. And I think it goes back to the old man, too. When we say he wants to do something, when you think you have to do something, who is that? That's the old man striving to have existence. Sure.

You know, we're coming up to Romans 6 where we have the separation, the crucifixion. Still, the two natures are there, and he's always wanting to do something. That's only what gives him existence, or presence, or power, is by doing something. As you say, everything from the cross on is grace-based, and the only way he gives any existence is by doing something.

That's right. So that's when the old man sticks his dirty head up, is, I've got to do something. So think about this. And that's the way man is structured. That's the way the sin nature functions. You know, I have to do something. But as you slowly go through these verses, you do arrive at a conclusion, well, there's nothing I can do.

Which is a real plus, because it puts you on a grace basis. so that when the next step of spiritual understanding comes, which is identification, there's nothing you're going to do there either. You're going to be the recipient of all of God's grace and you're learning now as a believer to just receive the grace. Now we have a tendency to think, well, at least I've got to be appreciative of what God has done or I have to demonstrate that I am appreciative rather than just receiving and we don't realize that the grace has a greater effect on me and you than any other single thing. Chester Macaulay said grace is the greatest motivator in the world and it is. There's nothing that motivates you more than God's grace. It's like a love circle. It's a double negative, but you can't not not respond. And you respond in grace. Again, Mike, I think the thing building here is the contrast. You have so much contrast here.

How despicable we are in our own nature. And now he says, well, even for a good man, even if there was one you could find out there, one would hardly die for him. But Christ died for us. He died for us. That's how rotten we were. And yet he went ahead and he died for us. He did it anyway.

You know, I mean, to start putting it in human perspective, I think, you know, if you found a good guy out there, even though we know that there's no not one, even if you did, you wouldn't die for him. No. But Christ died for us, you know, what's in one, two chapters, one, two, three, you know, he died for us. And that's the contrast I think is being set up here. I think, though, that like those of us who are parents, we sometimes say, well, you know, I'd probably give my life for my spouse or my kids.

Instantaneous decision. But it wouldn't be of any spiritual value. What have I done? I died in their place. I don't know. People that go in the military and put their life on the line, they're really, you know, what are they doing out there? They're not earning a paycheck. They're really putting their life on the line for somebody else. And oh boy, do we deserve these army guys and military guys that die for us, right?

I want to read something from John Darby. In sovereign grace, God rises above the sin and loves without a motive except what is in his own heart and nature and is part of his glory. Man must have a motive for loving. God has none but in himself and commends his love to us and his is emphatic as to this very point, in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us, the best thing in heaven that can be given for the vilest, most defiled and guilty sinner. That's really a cool paragraph, isn't it?

That sort of sums it up. Question six. So what kind of a conclusion can we draw in verse 9 from verses 6-8. Verse 9 says, much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. So, you can sum up this way. Christ died for me while I was a sinner, or I was ungodly. much more than, now that I'm justified, I will be saved from the wrath in the future.

We're getting into what Newell calls the much mores, and the much mores are based on this premise. If God did the really big thing for you, won't he also do the lesser thing? Do you understand that? If he did the big thing, Is he going to shortchange you on something less than that? No, he's not. No, he's not.

And so the conclusion that we can draw here, that much more was done for me when I was a sinner, how much more will God do for me now that I'm a member of his family? It's like the larger always includes the lesser. If you were in my family, I'd probably do more for you than if you weren't. Except the body of Christ is one family. Isn't that cool? We're all members of the same family.

That's really a neat part of it. So the conclusion here is that the larger always includes the lesser. So sometimes you'll find that you'll have a minimal thing in your life that you just think God won't be interested or He wouldn't he wouldn't deal with, but he's already done the big thing. Christ died for us, so why wouldn't he do the little thing, the lesser thing? He would, that's the point. So we're talking here about biblical reconciliation. What is biblical reconciliation? Let's talk about what's the word mean in and of itself. Can you go back to being in favor?

Well, let's say that... I'll pick Courtney. Let's say that Courtney and I were at enmity with one another, which we are a lot. Yeah, normal week. We're at enmity with one another. And you come along and say, well, I'm going to reconcile those two idiots. What are you going to be doing? Is that buying out of the slave market? Remove the enmity. What's that? Remove the enmity.

So you're going to come and you're going to remove the enmity between us. Okay. Now, if Courtney happens to be God and I'm not, then who gets reconciled to who? You get reconciled to God. That's right. There's no sense in which I should ever entertain the thought that God is going to reconcile himself to me. Who do I think I am? That's not going to happen. He is reconciling us to him.

So we're reconciled to God by God's having Christ meet in his death all the claims of the throne of grace. All of them. His Majesty, His Holiness, His Righteousness, and His Truth. Christ meets them all. So, when you receive the reconciliation, how do you respond? You join in God. He took care of the barrier.

This is a thing which the world cannot do in spite of the fact that the mercy of God is active towards it in connection with the Gospel. The one thing the world can't do, I'll say it anyway. Any of you guys watch this dog and pony show with John McCain? Is there anything about that that reconciled John McCain to God?

Or any of those people? But in their minds they were doing something. What? What were they doing? They weren't depending on God. That's for sure. They were doing their thing. thinking that, you know, I didn't watch very much of it, but a couple of three times I heard some preacher pastor in his prayer, and it all was about reconciliation and accept them into your presence and all, but no mention of this issue with Christ dying for him, and whether he believed it or not. So, when God gave His only Son, He had the world in view and the love of the world was behind the gift. This reconciliation brings to all the ministry of reconciliation of 2 Corinthians 5. Believers are really brought to God in righteousness and love with every stain and discard removed and every fear banished forever.

You know, the job that we have been given, we are ambassadors of the Reconciliation. What does that mean? If I said, okay, you're an ambassador of the Reconciliation, go get after it. What do you do as an ambassador of the Reconciliation? You're coming from God and sharing others here. Yeah, it's a pretty simple process. What am I telling people? We're back to Courtney and myself. You come to me and you want to reconcile me to God. What are you going to tell me? That all of the barriers that God had against me have been taken care of.

There's nothing left. All you have to do is turn and believe him. That's all it is. That's really all it is. You don't have to do spiritual push-ups. You just have to understand that God took care of every encumbrance, every hurdle, every closed door, everything between Him and you. And all you have to do is accept that, believe it, and you're reconciled to the God of the universe. And He's done that for everybody. Every human being. The whole race. Isn't that cool?

That's what an ambassador does. So what's an ambassador? If I'm the ambassador of Courtney and he sends me to you, I'm supposed to tell you only what he told me. I don't get to opinionate. And that's what the word of God is. That God has reconciled unto himself. Everything that was offensive to him, it's all done. to their dying breath, it doesn't count for them. No. No. You know, it's interesting.

I'm sitting in the hospice yesterday with my friend, and I'm the only guy in the room, and I'm there about a half hour, and I'm just sitting there praying for him. And I'm fairly certain, although you can't be certain about anybody but yourself, I think, that he knows the Lord, you know. And I don't know if that information would cause him to settle down because he was really anxious and he was sort of out of it, you know. He'd fall asleep and then he'd start to come awake and he'd fidget around and his arms were up in the air and, you know, different thing. He'd try to talk but he was talking gibberish. So I prayed that God would just, you know, that he would just rest.

And I, you know, there's so much wrong with this guy, I'm not sure his body can rest. You know, he's got Parkinson's and diabetes and his kidneys don't work and he's in a lot of pain, so I don't know. Okay, question eight. How am I doing time-wise? Am I getting close? Ten minutes? Wow, we might finish early. We might finish early, I like that.

What's the difference between anger and wrath? Anger is the result of I, and wrath is a judgmental, one subjective, one subjective. Anybody else? Anger and wrath. What's the difference? God has wrath against what? You? Sin. What's he got against you? What's he got against you? Here's the point that I'm trying to make. Anger is something that I would have and the punishment would be personal.

When Christ bore the sins on the cross, was it punishment? Was He being punished? The answer is no, He wasn't. And the wrath of God is against what? Sin. Not Christ. Sin. So He wasn't angry at the person. His wrath is against the thing's sin itself. Okay? Anger and punishment are against the offender, but wrath was upon Christ was against the thing's sin. And that puts me on the cross. Not yet, but you're headed that way. Christ bore the wrath which God's being and nature always and forever sustains towards sin. And what is sin? What does the word Hamartia mean?

God himself is the mark. So anything short of the mark, we've already coined the word for it. It's ungodliness. When you're ungodly, it means you missed the mark. And because of that, God has righteous wrath against all of the missing of the mark. And not only that, but the nature that we all share is in a permanent position of missing the mark. It can't make the mark. You see that? So it's not personal between the father and the son. The issue is sin. The sinner cannot come near to God He's got to die. You and I could not be in the presence of a holy God as a sinner, not because God hates us, but because God is holy.

I've asked this question in almost every class I've ever taught. If the Lord Jesus on the cross, the only thing he did was to pay the penalty for Cheryl's sins, and she accepted that. Does she have a right to go and stand before a holy God if that's all he did? He didn't do anything other than that.

What do you think? I think so. I got a yes and I got a no. Yes or no? No. What's that? He had to die unto the sin. He had to die unto the sin. If that's all he did, Cheryl is still a sinner, right? If that's all he did was pay the penalty for Cheryl's sins, but he didn't do anything else.

No Romans 5.12, no Romans 6, no Romans 8, no Galatians 2.20. Cheryl is a forgiven sinner.

Does she have the right to be in the presence of a holy God? Absolutely not. Why? Because she's still a sinner. She's not a saint. She's not separated to God. So in the next weeks to come we're going to talk about how did God get, what was the program that God implemented to get Cheryl so she could stand in the presence of a holy righteous God? He had to declare her righteous didn't he? What's that? He had to declare her that she was righteous. Not only righteous but Cheryl had to die. Pardon? Cheryl had to die.

She had to be separated from the thing in her that is not acceptable before a holy God. You see that? So the sinner can't come near to God. I might be a forgiven sinner, but I'm still a sinner. You see that? Next week we'll get more and more into depth to that. She has to be placed in Christ and sealed. You have to have a standing in Christ to be accepted in the presence of God.

So Christ died, he is forsaken of God under God's wrath because he was bearing the sins in his body on the tree of the whole world, all sins. He was there to satisfy God's righteousness, not mine. So it was that sin being placed on Christ, judgment and wrath fell on him. So it is also that the believer has not been appointed under wrath.

You hear that? You and I haven't been appointed under wrath. The wrath has already fallen on Christ. I've got to read something else. God indeed permitted man to inflict the terrible sufferings of crucifixion upon his son, but those sufferings were not the cup that the Father had given him to drink. The cup was the cup of divine wrath against sin, and it involved his being cut off out of the land of the living under the hand of divine judgment. You see the difference there? You alright with that? Did you pick up on what he's saying?

Okay. Last question, what does it mean to be saved by his life? Well, I read two things. It refers to our complete and final salvation also than his present life in which he intercedes for us. Yeah, that's right. Our salvation is in another life. It's not this life. By this life I mean human, the life you were born with. Our salvation is in the resurrected life of Christ. That's where the salvation is, and that's where the wrath won't be accrued to us because of our position in Christ, because He's already taken.

And that place is you, right at the right hand of the Father. That's exactly right. And you have, verse 11 says, And not only so, but we exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. we exalt in God. Why? Because of our position in Christ and what's true of him is not true of us. Next week we get to attack the doctrine of the two men. primarily your completed work on the cross, that you have done everything to take every barrier out of the way between us and your dear son, the Lord Jesus. And we're so thankful for that. And we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.