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