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I don't know if tonight you'd call it even a sermon. I'm not really trying to teach anything today. All I simply want to do is think about the great love that Jesus Christ has for us, that he would lay down his life. And as we come to Easter now, we start thinking about what Christ did. You know, there are some views out there. I don't know if you're a studious and curious about this. Some people say that Christ died on Wednesday evening and resurrected Sunday morning. There's another view that he died Thursday evening and resurrected Sunday morning. And then you have the Roman Catholic view that he died on Friday and rose again. You don't have three days and three nights by that calculation. But anyway, if you have some thoughts, I'd be curious to know what you think. I've gone back and forth on those two ideas, whether it was a Wednesday or Thursday, that Christ died for us, that it doesn't matter so much. That's not the most important thing. Most important thing is that he did die for us, that God did love us, and he looked down favorably upon us and gave his life for us. Romans five, verse number six says, for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The title for the sermon tonight is Christ died for the ungodly. You know that term ungodly is about you and me. We were the ungodly that Christ died for. And you know, just a quick reminder that when God created this universe, when he gave us this earth to live upon, when he created man, Adam and Eve, there was no death. You know, after six days of creation, the Bible says that God looked upon his creation and that it was very good. The fact that it's very good points to us that it was a perfect creation. Adam and Eve were perfect creations. The garden they lived in was a perfect creation. You know, God gave so much liberty to Adam and Eve. He said, you can eat of every tree of the garden, except one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Imagine having all the freedom to do what you want, eat what you want. You know, work, I don't know what hours God gave Adam to work, but he would work and he would have dominion over the whole earth and over all of creation, all the animals. And yet the subtle serpent came, the devil came and spoke into the ear of Eve. And you know, just very quickly, you know, God says in Genesis 2 16, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. God made a promise. Look, if you eat of this one tree, Adam, Eve, this is the boundary. Do not cross this boundary. There is this one tree. And if you eat of that tree, you will surely die. For in the day that thou eatest, thou shall surely die. That very same day, we know that the serpent got into the ear of Eve and she looked upon the fruits and saw that it was good fruit. She ate of it and then she gave to her husband and her husband ate of that fruit as well. And the Bible says they surely died. They did die that very day. Now they did not die physically. We understand that, but they did die. They died spiritually. When they understood themselves as sinners in the sight of God, they died spiritually. And when you die spiritually, you know, there's this idea that you need to be made right with God. You know, within the nature of every man, there's a desire to just be right with their creator, to understand one day in judgment to their creator and know that all is good. And so Adam and Eve tried. They went and they sowed fig leaves. They took the, you know, the leaves or the figs and they covered themselves with the fig leaves and they tried to look righteous, tried to look covered up. They covered up their nakedness. They covered up their shame as it symbolically represents the shame of their sin. And when God calms, boy, it's not sufficient, is it? The works of man, the efforts of man is not enough to cover up sin. You know, God told Adam and Eve, they will surely die. And though they didn't die physically, God had to fix it for them. And there was a physical death that day. God took an animal, probably a lamb, not sure, we don't know, Bob doesn't really lay it out for us, but probably a lamb and he killed that animal. There was bloodshed on that day when Adam and Eve sinned. There was surely a death that took place. And then God created coats of skin from that animal to clothe Adam and Eve, showing that the only one that can make them right with God is God himself. God has to step in, God has to shed blood and cover the shame of man, God's way. And so from the very beginning, we have the death of a animal, which symbolically we all know represents Jesus Christ, represents what Jesus Christ will do for us. And so when we get to Romans, Romans five, six, we're just going to go through this chapter. Okay, I'll try to be quick. And I just want you to think about the love of God. Romans five, six, for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Like I had mentioned brethren, we are the ungodly. Christ came and died for the ungodly. I mean, just try and process that in your mind. Christ of course is God, the creator of all things. And he would come and die for us, come and die for the ungodly. You know, Paul tries to think about this concept in verse number seven, he says, "'For scarcely, for a righteous man, will one die.'" He goes, for someone that's righteous, it's very rare that anyone would die for just a righteous man. Like think about the best men that are out there, the best, most godly man, it's very rare that someone would die for that godly man. It continues there, "'Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die.'" Look, he's just like, "'There's very few people that would die for a good man.'" And that's true. You know, when I look at this church, I love you brethren, I love you very much. Brother Callum, I love you by the way, but I would not die for you. I'm sorry to say, I once had that question asked of me in this church, "'Pastor, you would die for me, wouldn't you?'" Like, no, I wouldn't. What benefit would there be for me to die for you? I can't pay for your sins. You know, I love you brethren, I would not die for you. And I look at you and I think some of you guys as the most faithful people, faithful men, even more faithful than I am in so many ways. And they say, look, just you get the best righteous man, the good man, some would maybe, you know, some might say, well, I'll lay down my life because this good man can achieve some good things in life. The only people that I would die for in this church building is my wife and my kids. And they're not the most righteous and godly men that are out there, right? I would die for them because they're my flesh and blood. And you know, of course I would take the bullet for my kids or what have you. I would lay down my life for my wife, of course. I'm not doing that because they're righteous or good. I'm doing that just because I love them and I'm called to be the head of the house and to protect them and take care of their needs. I would die for them. But it's very rare that anyone would truly just say, yeah, I'll die for human being, even the best of us. It's very rare for us to say that we will die. And so it continues there in verse number eight. But, so we're not like, God is different to us, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Amazing. While we were yet sinners. We wouldn't even die for the best men here. We wouldn't die for the righteous or a good man. Very rare people, very rarely anyone would do that. So how much greater is God's love that he would not just die for so-called righteous or good men, but that he would die for the ungodly, that he would die for sinners. I mean, I don't understand that praise man. Like I said, I wouldn't even die for the good man, let alone a sinner, let alone the ungodly. Why would I lay down my life for the ungodly? What kind of love would someone need to die for sinners and the ungodly? And this is the love that God has. It's so amazing. We understand love to some extent. I, like I said, bravery, I love you. And I deeply love my wife and my children, that protective nature, but die for the ungodly, die for sinners, people that are offending me. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't die for these people. And yet God would look down upon man, upon you and I, the ungodly, and love us so much to die for us. Not only did Christ die for us, he took our sins, we understand that. Verse 29, much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were enemies? We were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Wow, when Christ came and died and he shed his blood, his blood justifies us. Someone took the punishment for your sins and my sins. And that was Jesus Christ, the son of God took our punishment. And so God looks down upon us, sees the blood of Christ upon us, spiritually speaking, and we're justified. Justice has been served. Death has been taken by the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And because we're justified by the blood of Christ, we don't have to face his wrath. We were enemies. It's so amazing. We know how God feels toward his enemies. And yet even as his enemies, he loved us. He died for us. And then it says in verse number 11, and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Nicholas, if you don't mind, you might just check in. I think someone's trying to deliver food. Would you have a look? It says not only so, but we also, in verse number 11, not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Amazing how God not only has died for us, justified, no longer facing his wrath, God says we can have joy. We can rejoice in what God has done for us. And then we get to verse 12, which is about Adam. Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So as much as we might like to blame Adam and Eve, oh, Adam and Eve, how dare you ruin it. You took of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You messed it up for us, Adam. Yeah, but we've all sinned. We've all committed an offense toward God. We've all broken his laws. We've all been his enemies. We've all been ungodly. We've all, we all are sinners. So to blame Adam, look, Adam is, we understand the sin nature was passed on to us generation after generation. But we're all sinners. We all deserve God's wrath. You know, we don't deserve to rejoice in the salvation and the atonement that God gives us. But God looked down at his enemies and loved us so much and died for us. You know, I don't know why, you know, Christianity used to be straightforward for me when I was a child. You know, God died. The son of God died on the cross for me. You know, is that Nicholas? Can you just answer that? God died for me. You know, I think about, you know, the fact that Christ, the son of God came to this earth and died. You know, the Bible in many ways as a child is kind of simple and straightforward. Yeah, God died. And then you get a bit older and then people challenge you and stuff. Well, how can God die? Well, you know, there are people that don't believe God died. They'll say, well, yeah, Jesus died on the cross, but that wasn't God. That was the man, Christ Jesus. And yet Christ is 100% man and yet 100% God I don't know why people have this hard time understanding. Well, if God died, well, who's running the universe? The son of God died. The heavenly father is still in charge. The Holy Spirit is still working, you know, his works. Jesus Christ, the son of God is the one who died for me. And if God did not die for you, I don't know who died for you. Say, I was just a man. Well, then any man could die for you, could he not? No, God died for me. Christ died for me. Christ is 100% God, yet 100% man. A paradox that I don't need to dig in deeper. I simply accept it by faith that my God died for me. The blood that was shed that gave me atonement was the blood of God. The Bible says that God purchased the church with his own blood. It's not just the blood of man that was on the cross, all the way from Jerusalem, from the whipping, the crown of thorns and the beatings, the blood that he shed from Jerusalem up to Golgotha and crucified, and whatever blood and the spear that was put to his side, the water and the blood that flowed out, that's the blood that gives me atonement. And I don't understand this part of it all, but I believe it to be true. Somehow Jesus gathered his blood, went to heaven, went to the Holy of Holies upon the tabernacle and the ark that was there and sprinkled his blood upon the mercy seat of heaven. And that blood of Jesus Christ in heaven today still testifies of God's love to me, still testifies of his atonement for my sins. Even today, the blood still speaks, you know, that we are saved and covered by this love of God. Amazing, amazing love that he will die for me. Let's continue. It says in verse number 13, "'For until the law, sin was in the world, "'but sin is not imputed when there is no law.'" Some people start to really mess things up there and they say, well, does that mean people before, because before the law, the law is Moses. When the Bible speaks of the law, it's speaking of Moses, when he received the commandments of God in Mount Sinai, that was the beginning of the law. Before that, there was no law as it were. Some people think, what does it mean then that the sin was not imputed upon them? Does that mean people before the law was, you know, did they just get a free pass? They, yeah, they were sinners, but did they just get a free pass and not die and go to hell? Did they just go to heaven? No, the Bible continues here. Verse number 14, "'Nevertheless, death ranged from Adam to Moses.'" People still died in their sins from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's sin transgressions, who is the figure of him that was to come. So even though we've not done the same transgressions as Adam, right? I've not taken on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as it were, but we've all sinned and we all deserve this death, okay? And the law is what imputes sin upon us. You say, well, that's horrible. God's law is horrible. Why wouldn't God do that? No, no, it's there for a purpose. It's there for the right reasons. And we'll have a look at what that is shortly. It says here in verse number 15, "'But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. "'For if through the offense of one many be dead, "'much more the grace of God and the gift of grace, "'which is by one man, Jesus Christ, "'have abounded unto many.'" So by the way, he starts using Adam as a type, a picture of Jesus Christ, just in the same way as Adam's sin and that sin nature has been passed upon all of us, so too is Christ and his righteousness passed down to those that are in Christ Jesus. It's the same principle. One is physical, the other one is spiritual. If we are physically descendants of Adam, we have all received this sin nature, this transgression. But if we're descendants, as it were, of Jesus and his righteousness, then we receive the righteousness of Christ. At verse number, so I'm not sure if I read verse number 17. Let me read that again. "'For if by one's man's offense death reigned by one, "'much more they which receive abundance of grace "'and the gift of righteousness "'shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. "'Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment "'came upon all men to condemnation, "'even so by the righteousness of one, "'the free gift came upon all men "'unto justification of life.'" Notice how many times the Bible refers to the free gift, the free gift, free, it's free. Salvation is free. God's grace is free. There is nothing you and I can do, and we know this. We could not deliver ourselves. We could not save ourselves. We can't even pay God back. If we could pay God back, we could pay it. No, no, it's impossible to pay back. Some people say, I'm forever indebted to God. It was never a loan. Salvation was never a loan. Okay, it's a gift. And you know what? The moment you've received a gift, it's yours. It's rightfully mine. The righteousness of Christ, his shed blood is rightfully mine. I received the free gift. You know, Jesus looked down at me and said, that man's gonna die in his sins. He looked down at you. That man, that woman, that child, they're all gonna die in their sins. Unless I step in with my great love and grace and die for them and pay for their sins and give them my righteousness, give them my blood, the blood of God that washes their sins away. Man, what a transaction. Nothing new for us tonight. We understand this. Tonight, we just wanna obviously share with the Lord's table. We just want to remember that Christ loved us so much, much more than I love you. I wouldn't die for you. I already covered that. Christ loves us so much more. The love of God is so much greater than we could possibly understand. And he did that. He laid down his life. God died for us. He took on the punishment, took on our sins and he gives us a free gift. It's just so beautiful. I don't know, what other religion is there, out there? There are faiths and religions and gods out there that are equal to what Jesus, there is nothing, nothing compares to Jesus Christ. What religion has the greater love of God than God laying down his life for us? Wow, what a beautiful message. We're gonna be going out this Saturday, door-to-door soul winning, Saturday soul winning, mega marathon, if you can be there, we're gonna go knock some doors in Caboolture, let's go there because we wanna tell people about the great love of Jesus Christ. You know, we want others to receive that free gift of salvation. Free, it's free. Do they have to join the church? No, it's free. Do they have to give money to the offering? It's free. Do they need to turn from their sins? No, it's free. Do they have to do the good works? It's free. It's paid for by the blood of Jesus. Look at verse number 19. For as by one's man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That's Adam, he's disobedience. We're all made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. The obedience of one, brethren. How can salvation be anything but faith alone? Oh, but you still have to. No, I don't have to obey anything. It's by the obedience of one, Christ's obedience. You know, he obeyed the laws of God. He lived a righteous life. And even more so, he was obedient unto death. You know, when I stand before God, when I see God face to face at the judgment seat of Christ, God sees me completely obedient, 100% obedient. Because of the obedience of one, Jesus Christ. That's why we don't come into condemnation. That's why you can't lose your salvation. Your position before God is 100% obedience. 100% obedience because of the obedience of one. Man, Christ made it so easy for us. So easy. He's done all the work. He's shown us the love of God. He laid down his life. He obeyed his father perfectly. And he says, I'm gonna give all that to you. All that obedience gets given to you if you're in Christ Jesus. He would go back to the law, verse number 20. What's the point of the law? If the law imputes sin upon us, why do we want that law? Because it says in verse number 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. See, without the laws of God, we're still sinning. We still deserve death. But when you're able to point someone to the laws of God and say, look, you've sinned, boy, yeah. You know, it abounds like, whoa, yeah, I am a sinner. Whoa. You know, I remember when my wife got saved. We were young and I gave her the gospel. She knew she was a sinner and knew she was trusted in the Roman Catholic Jesus instead of the right Jesus or the Bible. She called upon the name of the Lord. And then she would read her Bible as time would go on. And as she would read God's laws, she would say to me, I didn't realize that was a sin. Oh, well, that's a sin too. I didn't know that was wrong. Wow, right? The laws of God make sin abound, makes you understand your position as a sinner before God. Instead of just, oh yeah, I'm a sinner. It's like, oh no, I've actually, I've, I have, you know, been born false witness. Oh, I have coveted. I have taken the Lord's name in vain. You know, I have stolen. I've done these things. I'm a sinner. I'm being judged by God's laws. And we know that. We know that the moment you can actually understand and receive your sinful condition, that's what opens you up to go, well, I need my savior. Who's going to help me in this situation? What's the answer? That's what the law of God does. It's the school master that brings us to Christ. It serves a purpose to condemn us and to understand our need of Jesus. Verse number 19, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, oh, sorry, I was reading verse number 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, look at this, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. You know, I thank God that I grew up in a Christian home. Mum gave me the gospel when I was four years old. Simple faith, faith of a child. Yep, I just want to be saved. Jesus, you did it for me. Thank you, Jesus. I want it. That's it. The simple faith of a child, right? It's you, Jesus, not of me. And so I, thankfully, you know, it doesn't guarantee success in life, but it's a good start to be saved early in life, to be in church and to be challenged by the Bible and doctrines and sermons and to grow up in that environment. You know, I thank God as much of a sinner as I am, I thank God that I'm not as sinful as many. But the thing about that is, it doesn't matter how much your sin abounds, God's grace abounds so much more. You cannot sin your way out of God's grace. You've got to turn from your sins to be saved. God's grace. Are you trusting your efforts or the grace of God? Oh, but you're still doing this. All right, maybe I am. Maybe I'm still struggling in life with my sins, but God's grace abounds. God's grace is greater than my sins. I'm going to heaven, not cause of how well I'm handling my sins. I'm going to heaven because of the grace of God. You know, I don't know. I don't know what it's like. Some of you probably saved later in life, done horrible sins potentially, huge regrets about some things you've done in the past. And when you're confronted by the grace of God, probably your joy is even greater than mine. Probably thought, man, I'm done, I'm finished. I can't do enough good to get me out of this problem. And then you're confronted with God's grace and it is greater than your sins. Man, I don't know what that would feel like. I'm thankful that I'm saved. I'm thankful that I haven't really messed up my life in a significant way. But even if you have messed up your life in a significant way, even if you have great sins, and you ought to be broken about that, I'm not saying just go ahead and continue sinning, but you need to understand that God's grace is greater than your sin. And I don't know, again, what is a greater message than this? You come as you are, and God loved you. He laid down his life. The Bible says in verse number 21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life. But look at this, by Jesus Christ our Lord. We know that it's righteousness that we need, and God's grace gives us that righteousness, but it's a righteousness by Jesus Christ. It's not your righteousness. I must be going to heaven, look how good I am, no. No, you need to be confronted by the law of God. You need to understand your sinful condition. You need to understand that you're deserving of death and the lake of fire. And then you can understand the love of God. You can understand the love of Christ, that he would look down upon you as an enemy of God, as an ungodly sinner. And he says, but I love him so much. I love her so much. I'm going to taste death for every man. And so this Wednesday night as a church, I'm pretty much done here, brethren. The title for the sermon was Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly. I want you to just think about those words. Christ died for the ungodly. That's me. That's you. You're ungodly. We're ungodly, right before you're saved. And Christ looked down, God looked down, you know, and said, I'm going to die for him. I'm going to die for her. And so, you know, Christ does not make it complicated for us. You know, he simply break the bread, drink that grape juice, remembering his broken body, remembering his shed blood. He says, this do till, this do in remembrance of me, till he comes. That's all. I mean, Jesus makes everything so easy for us. Everything's so easy. What's so hard about breaking bread and drinking some grape juice? I mean, I enjoy that grape juice, to be honest with you. It's quite tasty. It's quite nice. The whole salvation message is very tasty. It's very nice. I'm so thankful that I have a God that loves me and that loves you, that loves our community. And I know there are haters of God. I know there are reprobates out there. And I understand all that, but they're a minority. The vast majority are people that need their savior. The vast majority of people here are still able to put their faith on Christ Jesus. And man, if it's not us bringing the message, who's going to do it? I'm so thankful that I'm in a church that loves the Lord, that loves his sacrifice, that loves the lost, that loves the gospel message. And they're actively going out and preaching the gospel to the lost. So with the message tonight, brethren, I hope you're able to get out there on Saturday. If you can't, of course there are other days of the week and get out there, but it'd be so great to be able to get out there and just remember the love of Christ. And again, as we share tonight, I want that to be on your mind. I was ungodly. I was a sinner. I deserved death. I deserved sin. I deserved hell. And yet Christ came and tasted death for me, gave me a free gift. His grace is greater than my sin and he gives me his righteousness and gives me an eternal home in heaven. What a great savior. What a great love that God has for you and I. Let's pray.