God's Gift to the Ungodly (Romans 5:6-11)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:07.040 Please remain standing. And let's turn our attention to Romans Chapter Five, verses 2 00:00:07.190 --> 00:00:16.510 six through eleven. Actually, I'm going to just start reading at the beginning 3 00:00:16.510 --> 00:00:22.300 of that chapter, and but the sermon will be on verses six through eleven 4 00:00:22.339 --> 00:00:30.660 in particular. So there's Romans five. Therefore, since we have been justified 5 00:00:30.739 --> 00:00:36.890 by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through 6 00:00:37.049 --> 00:00:41.689 him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we 7 00:00:41.890 --> 00:00:47.570 stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More 8 00:00:47.649 --> 00:00:52.280 than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 9 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:58.920 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put 10 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:03.280 us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the 11 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:07.870 Holy Spirit, who has been given to us for while we were still weak, 12 00:01:07.909 --> 00:01:11.909 at the right time, Christ died from the ungodles for the ungodly, 13 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:17.750 for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good 14 00:01:17.829 --> 00:01:23.500 person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us 15 00:01:23.659 --> 00:01:29.659 in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, 16 00:01:29.739 --> 00:01:33.810 therefore, we have now been justified by his blood. Much more shall 17 00:01:33.849 --> 00:01:37.650 we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if, while 18 00:01:37.689 --> 00:01:41.969 we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, 19 00:01:42.010 --> 00:01:46.930 much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by 20 00:01:46.969 --> 00:01:52.239 his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord 21 00:01:52.280 --> 00:02:00.280 Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. You may be seated. 22 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:20.180 So this hymn that we just saying, my faith has found a resting 23 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:23.460 place, has this chorus. I need no other argument, I need no 24 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:28.259 other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, in that he died for 25 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:34.210 me. It's sort of reminds us of the simplicity of the Christian faith. 26 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:39.849 There is the Cross of Christ, and that's it. It's all about that, 27 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:45.960 it all surrounds that. Everything that we believe, everything that we hope 28 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:53.120 for, everything that we are is connected to Jesus dying on the cross, 29 00:02:53.159 --> 00:03:00.030 rising from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins. When you consider the 30 00:03:00.150 --> 00:03:07.389 Cross, the Empty Cross of the risen Christ, what kinds of things come 31 00:03:07.509 --> 00:03:12.069 to your mind? I would say that there's lots of great things that could 32 00:03:12.069 --> 00:03:15.979 come to your mind. Given what I've said about how interconnected the theology of 33 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:20.740 the Bible is, given how personally connected we are to the cross, there's 34 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:25.219 lots and lots of things we could think about. There's the historical things as 35 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:31.050 well, the cruelty of the soldiers, the corruption of the leadership, the 36 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:38.050 agony pain of Jesus's death. There are many good ways to consider the cross. 37 00:03:39.250 --> 00:03:44.680 In this passage in Romans five, six through eleven, God puts the 38 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:49.680 cross forward and shows it to us in a very particular way as a sign 39 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:53.400 of his love. As a sign of his love. We read that. 40 00:03:54.680 --> 00:04:00.550 I'm in Verse Eight, but God shows his love for us in that wall. 41 00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:06.189 We were still sinners. Christ died for us. That's what the Cross 42 00:04:06.229 --> 00:04:13.500 is about. Paul says it's a demonstration, it is proof of God's love 43 00:04:13.939 --> 00:04:19.139 for us. It's maybe not the first symbol that you would pick if you 44 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:26.610 were picking a symbol for love, a torture device, a cross, but 45 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:31.449 that's what he says. This is how God shows us his love. Remember 46 00:04:31.449 --> 00:04:35.889 also that this passage, verses six through eleven, is coming after verse five. 47 00:04:36.529 --> 00:04:45.480 Remember that suffering produces endurance and versus endurance produces character. Character produces hope, 48 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:50.680 and hope doesn't put us to shame, because God's love has been poured 49 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:55.269 into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. That's 50 00:04:55.269 --> 00:04:59.990 verse five. We know this because the Holy Spirit has been poured into our 51 00:05:00.110 --> 00:05:04.829 hearts. We experience God's love. This is what Paul says in Verse Five, 52 00:05:05.069 --> 00:05:08.860 and then in verses six through eleven, he steps back from that and 53 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:14.180 explains an aspect of that love, a historical aspect of its that love. 54 00:05:15.259 --> 00:05:18.779 In other words, the reason we feel God's love is Christians. The reason 55 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:25.889 we know that closeness and his companionship, his friendship, his desire and care 56 00:05:26.050 --> 00:05:30.329 for us, his kindness, is because of what Jesus has done on the 57 00:05:30.449 --> 00:05:38.079 cross, because of the cross of love. To say that the cross is 58 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:42.360 a sign of God's love, I think is a real remarkable thing. To 59 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:49.509 say that, in the Great War between good and evil, between a perfectly 60 00:05:49.709 --> 00:05:56.870 good God who would send his son into the world, this glorious, holy, 61 00:05:57.110 --> 00:06:01.910 perfect king, send this son into the world a champion, a noble 62 00:06:02.750 --> 00:06:10.459 one who is perfectly merciful and honorable and loving, and that this one would 63 00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:16.579 then be seized in the evil hearts of Men and crucified on a cross, 64 00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:26.290 that that would become the symbol of God's love is a testimony to his power, 65 00:06:27.610 --> 00:06:31.129 his sovereignty, His grace, his ability to take even the greatest evils 66 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:35.439 of this world, even the crucifixion of the Son of God, and turn 67 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:44.399 it for the greatest good, the greatest act of love. That's why we 68 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:48.149 need no other argument. That's why all we need is the cross of Christ. 69 00:06:51.029 --> 00:06:56.430 To understand this better, it's helpful to go back in time, to 70 00:06:56.629 --> 00:07:00.660 flash back all the way to the very beginning of the world and remember how 71 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:06.819 God first entered into a relationship with man. At the Cross we see this 72 00:07:08.939 --> 00:07:15.569 war breaking out, evil man crucifying the son of God, that war between 73 00:07:15.769 --> 00:07:21.649 God and Man, that enmity, enemies on both sides. It didn't start 74 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:28.490 that way. When the world began, man and God, we're friends, 75 00:07:29.610 --> 00:07:33.360 not because man had made himself so good, but because God had made him 76 00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:44.430 good. God had lovingly, intimately, carefully particularly crafted human beings and placed 77 00:07:44.470 --> 00:07:49.029 Adam in particular, the very first human, in this garden, a blessed 78 00:07:49.189 --> 00:07:59.060 place full of provision and beauty and care, real intimacy with God. God 79 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:05.100 even provides for Adam and giving him eve and together they have. They share 80 00:08:05.259 --> 00:08:09.860 this humanity the image of God, and are called to worship God and serve 81 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:16.569 him and obey him as his servants, as his creatures, and they do 82 00:08:18.209 --> 00:08:26.639 until man chooses an act of treason, of rebellion. Adam and Eve sin 83 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:33.159 against God by doing the thing that we confessed earlier, by doing the one 84 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:39.840 thing that God had commanded them not to do, despite the fact that God 85 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:43.309 had made them good, the fact that they were in a good and wonderful 86 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:46.750 case place, that they had the protection and care of God, that he 87 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:54.509 promised them eternal life if they would obey it, chose not to. They 88 00:08:54.629 --> 00:09:01.500 chose a an act of rebellion, even a Satanic Act. They chose the 89 00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:05.620 side of the evil one. They chose to listen to lies, they chose 90 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:09.250 to go against the one who would make them, made them. They chose 91 00:09:09.289 --> 00:09:16.690 to become enemies of God. And they are, as we say, theologically 92 00:09:16.730 --> 00:09:24.480 or they they fell. They fell. When we say they fell, we 93 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:30.960 don't mean that they stumbled. This is the kind of I fallen and I 94 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:35.399 can't get up kind of fall, the kind of fall that sometimes people have 95 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:41.350 that ends their lives. You break a bone so bad that infections sets in 96 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:48.509 that you cannot recover. That's what happened to Adam and Eve. They became 97 00:09:48.269 --> 00:09:58.899 weak, they became sinful, corrupt, they they were broken, and we 98 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:03.740 know very well all about that because we experience it every day. We know 99 00:10:05.059 --> 00:10:09.769 the flesh and the corruption in our own lives. We know about illness, 100 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:18.610 we know about disease and grief and sorrow. We know about slavery, to 101 00:10:18.769 --> 00:10:24.720 sin, the demands of the law, fear of the wrath of God. 102 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:30.480 We know about death. We know what it means to be scared of hell. 103 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:37.950 We know about lies, murder, adultery. We know about stealing and 104 00:10:37.789 --> 00:10:43.789 idolatry. We know what it means to have broken families and broken friendships, 105 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:50.580 to have divisions in the church, in the country. We know about strife. 106 00:10:52.659 --> 00:10:58.580 We know who we are in our flesh and our sinfulness, and that 107 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:05.330 fall, that disease, that grief, that sorrow, was not contained to 108 00:11:05.490 --> 00:11:11.090 Adam and Eve, is now connected intimately to their humanity, so that as 109 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:20.399 they are fruitful and multiply, they multiply like an infestation of Scorpions or mosquitoes, 110 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:22.919 the kind of thing that you if it was in your home, in 111 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:28.080 your house you would eradicate. You would say this is a problem, this 112 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:33.429 is not good, and God, who is perfectly good, would not tolerate 113 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:39.509 it. He told them before they sinned that in all his goodness, the 114 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:48.220 wages of sin were deaf and wrath and curse. And that's exactly what happened. 115 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:56.899 But God, after their fall, did the most amazing thing. He 116 00:11:56.100 --> 00:12:05.370 made a promise to his enemies. He went to his enemies, to Adam 117 00:12:05.450 --> 00:12:11.409 and Eve, these people that had just broken everything, destroyed everything, and 118 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:16.600 he said, I'm going to save you, and I'm going to save you 119 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:22.600 through the birth of a son whom you will bear, who will crush the 120 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:30.389 head of this evil one who has deceived you and whose side you have joined. 121 00:12:31.990 --> 00:12:41.750 That promise is fulfilled in Jesus. That's why, when the Bible talks 122 00:12:41.830 --> 00:12:48.460 about Jesus coming to deliver us from wrath, like in First Tet Thessalonians one 123 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:52.779 hundred and ten, that Jesus delivers us from wrath, it's a very real 124 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:58.259 kind of situation. In Our fallenness and in our sin, this promised one 125 00:12:58.379 --> 00:13:05.570 is born and he comes in and he rescues us. Now this is all 126 00:13:05.610 --> 00:13:11.450 hard for us to understand because of what Paul says in verses seven and eight. 127 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:16.879 He says we all know, he sort of gives this argument that we're 128 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:24.480 all very familiar with. One will scarcely die for a righteous person. This 129 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:31.990 is the sort of you know. Imagine there's someone and this person has not 130 00:13:33.149 --> 00:13:37.309 really done anything bad. Will You die for them? Will you give your 131 00:13:37.470 --> 00:13:43.659 life for this person who hasn't done anything bad? Well, most people won't 132 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:48.100 scarcely die for that person. But what if that person is good? It's 133 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:50.580 not just someone who hasn't done anything bad, but this is a good person, 134 00:13:50.059 --> 00:13:54.740 someone who's really done great and honorable things. Paul says. Well, 135 00:13:54.980 --> 00:13:58.809 maybe in that case people would be willing to give their lives for someone, 136 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:05.250 a hero, a saint, someone who is really exemplified themselves in the world 137 00:14:05.289 --> 00:14:09.490 and among men as as someone worthy and good. Well, maybe for that 138 00:14:09.690 --> 00:14:16.039 person we would be willing to give our lives. But Jesus does something really 139 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:22.360 different. He doesn't give his life for good people. He doesn't even give 140 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:26.710 his life for just righteous people. He gives his life for ungodly people, 141 00:14:28.389 --> 00:14:37.350 for enemies. There was a story that I saw reported a few days ago 142 00:14:37.470 --> 00:14:48.019 of a man who, during the Paris attacks a few weeks ago. Was 143 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:50.620 it one of the venues? Working at one of the venues there, and 144 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:56.769 as the terrorists came in and were shooting people and firing rounds all over the 145 00:14:56.889 --> 00:15:03.129 place, he, who worked at this venue, went in and was showing 146 00:15:03.169 --> 00:15:09.360 people where the exits were, there were backdoors and secret sorts of things, 147 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:13.120 as stages and places tend to have, and he was getting people out, 148 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.039 took them to safety and other buildings and then would come back into the building 149 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:20.509 and take them out again, and back and forth and back and forth, 150 00:15:20.549 --> 00:15:28.230 and many people he's I guess he was remaining somewhat anonymous, but people have 151 00:15:28.309 --> 00:15:31.590 been trying to find him and they found him and people are saying I am 152 00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:37.580 so thankful, I owe my life to this good man. Look at what 153 00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:43.259 he has done. Well, this man, he didn't know anything about the 154 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:46.059 people there in that venue. He just knew that these were innocent people. 155 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:54.009 They needed to be saved and he he took care of it. Jesus didn't 156 00:15:54.009 --> 00:16:00.970 do that. Jesus came to save the terrorists. Jesus came to save the 157 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:06.639 ungodly, the enemies. He didn't come to save the people that were doing 158 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:11.360 all right and just caught caught up in something. He came to save the 159 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:18.159 people on the other side. He came to save us in our sins, 160 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:26.470 and Paul tells us how he does and it's so important because when we look 161 00:16:26.509 --> 00:16:30.669 at the cross, we don't just see a fallen soldier, the great champion 162 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:33.340 of God on the battle field and look to him and say now there was 163 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:37.379 a brave man, there is someone who went out and fought for what was 164 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:41.980 good. That's not how we see Jesus. He wasn't just a brave man 165 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:49.129 who fell in the battle and fell for the right side. God says that 166 00:16:49.250 --> 00:16:56.490 he was a sacrifice, like the Old Testament sacrifices, one who was offered 167 00:16:56.690 --> 00:17:06.200 up to God, who was bled so that that blood would atone for our 168 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:11.519 sins, so that's God's wrath would be propitiated so that he would stand in 169 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:19.309 our place. He wasn't just an example, he was a substitute, a 170 00:17:19.589 --> 00:17:26.470 sacrificial substitute for our sins. That's what the Cross is. It's an altar 171 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:33.259 with the lamb of God on it, dying and bleeding for the very people 172 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:44.490 who are crucifying him. And that's what he does and in that very effective 173 00:17:44.690 --> 00:17:49.809 sacrifice, in that death, in dying for the ungodly, in that sacrificial 174 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:57.569 way, our INS are cleansed because it's not just a lamb or a dove 175 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:07.000 or a bowl that's on that altar. It's the son of God, it's 176 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:15.630 the Lord. God, in his humanity and his divinity, sacrificed for us 177 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:23.589 so that all of his perfect righteousness would be imputed to us and that all 178 00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:27.660 of our sins, all of them, all of that ungodliness, all of 179 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:34.980 that rebellion, all of the treason and sedition, would be forgiven. But 180 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:42.170 Jesus doesn't just wipe the slate clean and make us innocent. He reconciles with 181 00:18:42.410 --> 00:18:48.769 us with God, and he does it not just and not primarily in this 182 00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:56.680 passage, in changing our hearts, but in changing God's heart. It's not 183 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:00.319 that God makes us good people and then God then turns to us and says, 184 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:03.960 all right now that you're no longer my enemy. is we can be 185 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:07.359 friends again. You stopped fighting against me, so we can have peace. 186 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:15.589 No, God makes peace with us while we are still enemies, while we 187 00:19:15.710 --> 00:19:22.829 are still God ungodly, while we're still sinners. He totally satisfies that and 188 00:19:22.990 --> 00:19:26.579 that's why, when we say I need no other argument, I need no 189 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:30.500 other plea, we don't look inside ourselves and we say, wow, I'm 190 00:19:30.539 --> 00:19:34.660 so glad I've deeply and truly repented, or I'm so glad that I've cried 191 00:19:34.740 --> 00:19:40.849 enough tears or felt enough sorrow or born enough grief. No, we say 192 00:19:40.930 --> 00:19:45.890 I'm so glad Jesus is born my sorrows, Jesus is born the grief that 193 00:19:45.970 --> 00:19:51.849 Jesus has taken, the sins that God made the move, and God did 194 00:19:51.890 --> 00:19:56.079 it perfectly, because it wasn't depend on us any longer, only on Jesus, 195 00:19:56.119 --> 00:20:02.400 and that's why we only need him. And in that peace that we 196 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:08.390 are given, we now have reconciliation with God. Instead of being his enemies, 197 00:20:10.789 --> 00:20:21.269 where his friends, where his beloved, even his pride? Paul goes 198 00:20:21.390 --> 00:20:25.220 on to say that not only he keeps piling this on, not only do 199 00:20:25.299 --> 00:20:30.019 we have all of this justification and reconciliation, but we can know that the 200 00:20:30.180 --> 00:20:34.019 coming wrath of God, on the day of the Lord, we don't even 201 00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:40.970 need to fear that the justification that begins on the cross is completed, even 202 00:20:41.730 --> 00:20:48.170 to that end, that there's power not only in his death but also in 203 00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:53.839 his life. You remember what Jesus says, for example in Matthew and eighteen, 204 00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:57.839 when he gives the Great Commission because of his resurrection, because of his 205 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:03.480 life, he says, all authority in Heaven on earth has been given to 206 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:11.829 me. Go there for and baptize and teach. Or you can think of 207 00:21:12.029 --> 00:21:15.150 the power of his life in terms of Hebrews seven hundred and twenty five, 208 00:21:17.269 --> 00:21:22.099 because Jesus lives now, because he resurrected from the dead and didn't remain dead 209 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:29.099 on the cross but conquered it overcame our sin. Hebrews seven hundred and twenty 210 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:33.970 five says he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to 211 00:21:33.009 --> 00:21:41.609 God through him, since he always lives, since he always lives to make 212 00:21:41.690 --> 00:21:48.000 intercession for them. Or consider Jesus his life. In Romans Eight and eleven. 213 00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:53.559 There's this pledge that's given. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus 214 00:21:53.640 --> 00:22:00.240 from the dead dwells in you, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus 215 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.470 from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead 216 00:22:04.509 --> 00:22:08.829 will also give you life to your mortal bodies through his spirit, who dwells 217 00:22:08.869 --> 00:22:15.670 in you. You See, not only was Jesus a sacrifice for our sins, 218 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:19.339 but his resurrection from the dead and the outpouring of the spirit in love 219 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:23.859 guarantee he's for us that when the day of the Lord comes and when God 220 00:22:23.980 --> 00:22:30.529 comes to finally judge all of his enemies and send them to hell forever and 221 00:22:30.650 --> 00:22:37.369 ever, we, who have been bought for and redeemed by the blood of 222 00:22:37.410 --> 00:22:45.920 Christ, will live, will live forever and ever even as our Lord lives. 223 00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:57.160 That is the love of God. That is the love of God, 224 00:22:57.319 --> 00:23:00.869 and that is why, when we look on the Cross of Christ, we 225 00:23:02.069 --> 00:23:07.069 see love, lots and lots of love, because there I am, a 226 00:23:07.549 --> 00:23:17.059 sinner, corrupt, fighting and enemies with God, reconciled to him through this 227 00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:26.500 gift of Christ, in Jesus's death, you have been given what Charles Hodge 228 00:23:26.900 --> 00:23:36.170 calls the highest possible or conceivable proof of God's love for sinners. And you 229 00:23:36.289 --> 00:23:40.450 are a sinner, I'm a sinner, we all are sinners. Were all 230 00:23:40.609 --> 00:23:47.200 born of that same corrupted flesh of Adam and eve. So let us turn 231 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:52.599 to Jesus Christ, in the faith that say yeves. We turn to Jesus 232 00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:59.589 and receive him as he is offered to us. We don't look anywhere else, 233 00:23:59.670 --> 00:24:02.950 we don't look for other arguments, we don't try to find things in 234 00:24:03.069 --> 00:24:07.710 ourselves to rescue us and save us from this corruption. We look at the 235 00:24:07.829 --> 00:24:11.220 Cross of Christ, we look at the son of God, whom God has 236 00:24:11.299 --> 00:24:17.740 given to save us from our sins, and we say that that's enough. 237 00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:22.420 God has said that it is God has given it to us. What else 238 00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:26.769 do we need? Nothing, nothing else. We don't need anything else, 239 00:24:27.890 --> 00:24:33.930 and so we receive it gratefully and with joy and with the rejoicing that is 240 00:24:33.049 --> 00:24:37.880 described here in verse eleven. More than that, we also rejoice in God 241 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:42.160 through our Lord, Jesus Christ. We don't have to wait till the end 242 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:48.279 of time to know that we have joy and cheer and hope. We have 243 00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:55.910 it right now, because we are those who have been forgiven. So, 244 00:24:56.630 --> 00:25:03.269 beloved of the Lord, put your faith in Jesus and you will enjoy justification 245 00:25:03.470 --> 00:25:11.859 and rejoicing and sanctification and reconciliation and peace with God and joy in him now 246 00:25:14.380 --> 00:25:18.259 and forever. Let us pray