Romans chapter five, and let's read verses one through eight. Our topic tonight, verses six through eight, very important verses in the Bible. And I'm very excited about the sermon tonight. Great information, great passage, very important, and it only will serve to compound and build upon everything that we've learned so far. Romans 5 verse 1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope may give not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you that Christ did come and did die for our sins. Thank you for the salvation that was made available. Help us tonight to Rejoice in this reality, learn more about it, be more firmly grounded in it, and just pray that you'd have your way in our hearts and our minds and our lives. We want to be faithful servants to you. Lord, we pray that you please build this church, have your way in bringing people here who love your word. who want to learn, who want to serve, who want to be faithful members of the body of Christ. That's what we need, it's what we desire, and we pray that you would just give the increase as we continue to work, as we continue to labor in Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Now, Romans 5, verses 6 through 8 is a clear demonstration of God's love. It's not shallow talk, it's not empty, it's not, I sure love you, then what were you doing last night? None of that garbage. It's not empty, it has meaning. As we continue through the Book of Romans, we now arrive at verses six through eight. And these verses naturally build upon the foundation laid in the preceding verses. These are gonna mean so much more to somebody who's gone all the way from chapter one to here. Otherwise, again, you're just jumping into the middle of a conversation, and praise the Lord. There's nothing wrong with just studying these three verses. It's a good thing to do, but it just has so much more meaning when you've gone all the way through it. In Romans 5, verses 1 through 5, the Apostle Paul established that we have been justified by faith, and all the preceding benefits go to people who have been justified, right? Very clear. So again, I just want to state it again, want to say it again. If you think you're being saved any other way, that's up to you. It's a bad choice, but that's up to you. And the problem is that all the wonderful things we've been studying and all the great benefits that come from being justified by faith do not get applied to you. You don't have a ticket. You don't have a job. You're not part of the family. You're not with the in crowd. If you did not get justified by faith in Jesus Christ, you don't get any of this. Sorry. I didn't make those rules. God did. Now in verses 6 through 8, He reveals the depth of God's love that makes this justification possible. This passage stands as one of the clearest presentations of the gospel in all of scripture. It's unbelievably simple. It's unbelievably clear. It is hard to mess up. And praise the Lord for it. You want salvation to be difficult to mess up. You don't want it to be so complex. I heard a pastor say one time, if you were leading you to the Lord, you never would have got saved. What happens is people get saved with the simplicity that is in Christ, then they suddenly want to make it more complicated than it actually has to be or needs to be. And that's a mistake. Now look at verse 6, Romans 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Well, what time? When? In due time, when it was necessary, when it was ready, when God felt like it was the time. Now, the opening of verse 6 presents us with a sobering assessment of our natural condition. The phrase, without strength, speaks volumes about our spiritual state apart from Christ. Now, it should tell you a lot about your ability to save yourself, or to keep the law, or to do something for you to attain salvation apart from Christ. It's just not happening. Now, this is not describing a partial weakness or a minor limitation. It portrays complete helplessness. And if you can't admit that, you're never going to get the help that you need. And that's the problem with trying to help someone, let's say, in drug addiction or alcohol addiction. You know, I told you before, I have someone, a family member, who was struggling with alcohol for 15, 20 plus years. And it finally put him in the hospital, was about to kill him, and the doctor comes in and says, you know why you're here? And he said, yeah, I have pneumonia. That doctor said, no, sir. You are here because you drink yourself here, and if you won't admit that right now, we won't spend one more second helping you. And that's it. You've got to be willing to admit your helpless condition. If you are a sinner, and according to the Bible, all have sinned, you have no way of getting yourself out of that other than trusting in Jesus Christ. Now, we are utterly incapable of saving ourselves or contributing anything to our salvation. So here's where the person comes in and says, well, isn't trusting in Jesus contributing? No, it's not. God said, my son died. He made a way available. I'm telling you, go that way. And you obeying God and going that way doesn't lend you some sort of credibility. All you did was obey. and you should. Christ died for the ungodly, precisely because we could never make provision for ourselves. You're not going to do it. The term without strength in the Bible clearly expresses inability. You are incapable of saving yourself. The spiritual weakness was not a temporary ailment, but a fatal, eternal condition. It's not, well, we're just trying to get past this. We're hoping that this cold goes away. It's not a temporary cold. It's eternal. You are condemned. and you need to escape that condemnation, the only way to escape that condemnation is through Jesus Christ. We are spiritually powerless, unable to please God. The best of your works are as filthy rags, unable to free ourselves from sin's bondage. You know, one of the key characteristics of someone who's in bondage is that they need someone to get them out of it. and that someone is Jesus. We are utterly unable to bridge the gap between ourselves and a holy God, so we need a mediator, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the Bible describes us as ungodly. This is not suggesting that we are non-religious. In fact, that is part of the problem. I'm not ungodly, I'm a Catholic. Yeah, you misunderstand. I'm not ungodly, I'm an independent Baptist. That is not the solution to your ungodly problem. In fact, it's going to get in the way. To be ungodly means to stand in active opposition to God's character and will. You are deliberately against God. Now at times, not all the time, but at times, the Bible makes a distinction between the sinner and the ungodly. The sinner, that's your average everyday sinful man, woman, child, whatever. They're going to hell because they've sinned against God. But then there are those overachievers who set themselves squarely against God. and God identifies them often as ungodly. Either they excel in sin, they excel at being rebellious and perverted and depraved in various ways, or they excel in just being against God. The high-level atheists like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, these men have actively set themselves against God. They may be moral enough to get along in society and may not necessarily do anything terribly wrong. Of course, they are sinners, but in the eyes of the average man, they seem to be doing great. But not to God. The ungodly person lives with self at the center rather than God. making choices that reflect rebellion against the Lord. God made provision for sinners because sinners lacked the strength to make provision for themselves. Our condition was so desperate that God's intervention was our only hope. Let me rephrase that. Is our only hope. There's no other way. Never has been and never will be. You can hold out hope all you want, it'll just be a false hope that's going to end up landing you in an eternal hell. I wouldn't condemn my own soul to hell in that way. Now, God's timing. Despite our desperate condition, Christ intervened in due time. This phrase reveals that Christ's sacrifice was not a hasty reaction but the culmination of God's eternal plan unfolding at precisely the right moment in human history. And now I'm trying to teach this as clearly and technically correct as possible, but those ideas, God's plan or God intervening at a specific time, get taken so out of context and get misused and abused in so many ways, it's ridiculous. Things happen to people. I guess it's just God's plan for my life. You don't know that at all. You just, you want to be careful with that stuff. Now, Jesus Christ showing up in due time, that is part of God's plan. But God said, no, no, to me are all my works. He knows his plan and what he intends to do. And he's going to follow through and carry through with those things without fail. And Christ showed up at the right time. What time was that? When he showed up. That's the right time. God acts according to His perfect wisdom and timing, not our impatient schedules or our perceived need in the moment. Lord, I need it right now! You know, just calm down. You know, as our children get older and they start to recognize things that are out of place or things that shouldn't happen, And they know that it's something that we may not like or may not want. Now they're starting to respond to that, but it's so overreacted. It's such an overreaction that it's like, well, just call. I get it. You're right. The example is the other day, Shiloh was sitting in the yard, and she was picking grass and leaves up, and Bethany saw her. And man, you would have thought, Shiloh was killing herself. Mama, she's picking things up. Now, she was right to tell us that she's picking foreign objects up and possibly putting them in her mouth, but it didn't require the reaction that it got. That's how we act with God. Don't you see? On the boat, on the ship. Now, if I was on that ship with the Lord, and you're rocklin' came along, I'm screaming and yelling like a little child. I have no doubt about that. On a ship? Look, my wife and I have sat through hurricanes. We have sat through tornadoes. We have, you know, in Uganda, we got hit with a couple of earthquakes. Been just fine. On a boat in the middle of the ocean or the sea with a storm like that coming along, I'm not gonna be fine. But we turned to the Lord. Don't you see we're about to perish? Don't you see I need you right now? And the Lord just, just settle down. Chill out. in due time. I don't know what that means. Could you, like, give me a date and time? No. I cannot. Or, I will not. That's probably the answer. He acts according to His wisdom. Throughout the Old Testament, God had been preparing the world for the coming of His Son. The law had demonstrated man's inability to achieve righteousness through works. The prophets had foretold the coming Messiah who would suffer for His people. The Roman Empire had established roads, common language, and relative peace that would facilitate the spreading of the gospel throughout the world. All these factors converged at what Paul calls due time, the perfect moment for Christ to die for the ungodly. Now, we only know that now because we can look back and see that under the Roman Empire, there was just massive expansion in technology and the ability to travel across the world and do all sorts of things that really would have limited the furtherance of the gospel without miraculous intervention by God on behalf of people. But because of the Roman Empire, you got the Apostle Paul, who had the freedom and the liberty to be able to travel from place to place and preach the gospel without fail, without problem. Now, biblical teaching reminds us that God does what He does at the time He designates. We may long for Christ's return to restore the world and end suffering, but God will accomplish this at just the right time. You should desire His coming. The Lord even tells you that He's going to give you a crown because you look forward to His coming and you want to see the Lord return. But when's He coming? We don't know. So act like you don't know. Live like you're going to be here tomorrow, but hope you're not. And the Lord will come when the time comes. This teaches us to trust God's timing in all matters, knowing that he acts neither too early nor too late, but always at the perfect moment. Look at Galatians chapter 4. Hold your place in Romans. We're going to be right back. Galatians 4, verses 4-5, verse 4, Now that is an unbelievably concise way to explain that that man utterly failed under the law, which was essentially the purpose of the law, was to demonstrate your sinful condition, and leads to Christ, and Christ came at a perfect time. And the Bible summarizes it so well, in such a clear way. In verse 7, Romans 5, verse 7, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended this love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This contrast is unbelievable, it's incredible. Scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. Between the righteous and the good, the Bible is sort of indicating there these are people you might be willing to die for, but even that's going to be unbelievably rare. And so, in verse 7, the Bible establishes a profound contrast between human love and God's love by examining the limits of human sacrifice. You're only going to go so far. In the entire scope of human experience, what is the highest expression of love that one person might show for another? It is when someone willingly gives their life to save someone else. What do we always say? I would die for that child. I would die for my wife. I would die for this. I would die for that. And that's supposed to be an indication of the extent to which you love and care for that person. And so in our minds, again, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. Because lost people say this, saved people say this. They all have in their mind that one of the greatest things you could do for somebody is die for them. And then they look at Jesus who died for them and say, eh, I could take it or leave it. It's amazing. They all know it. They look at the military. And while we've had enough time of people insulting our military and not showing any respect for what they have to go through and what they do on our behalf, people who are slightly more patriotic, and people who are definitely more patriotically minded. They look at the military and people who would give their lives for our freedom and our safety. We look at our police who would put themselves in danger, deep danger, for our benefit, and we greatly respect that and admire that, and we should. We lift them up as heroes. and we should, because the greatest thing you can do for people, when you give your life, you don't get it back. Just about anything else in life, you can give back. There are just a few things, you give it, you can never get it back. Your time, and life itself, it's not coming back. There is no way to recover it. Yet the Bible observes that even this supreme human sacrifice is exceedingly rare, and only occurs for those deemed especially worthy. Paul mentions two categories of people for whom someone might consider dying. Two! First, there is a righteous man. one who lives according to strict moral principles and fulfills all legal and moral obligations, a good man, a good woman, someone that lives so upright that it impresses you and is noteworthy. For such a person, Paul says, one would scarcely die. Scarcely. For a righteous man, The idea is that few would willingly sacrifice their life even for someone who is technically perfect in moral conduct. That's a scarcity. Now when you're in the military, you're a police officer, you don't really have a lot of choice for who you would die for. You just don't know when it's coming. It's unfortunate. And it's sort of a random reality to life in the military or on the police force or as a fireman. And regardless, that fireman runs into that fire not knowing who's in there. Might be a good thing that he doesn't know who's in there. He might say, you want me to go in there for who? And why would that matter? Because scarcely, for a righteous man, would some die. So if they knew that there was some bum in there who was a leech on society and maybe had a long criminal record, I'm not going in there. Not that they would do that, but you open the door for that if he finds out. So they just go in blind. They don't care who it is. They don't ask. It's my duty to go in there. I'm going in. But we're talking about people willing to just make the choice to die for somebody. It either has to be a deep-seated love for somebody that is unbelievably close to you or someone that you so look up to, who is so righteous and so goodly that you look at them and say, I would put my life on the line for you. And the Bible says that is scarce. Second Paul mentions a good man. Someone whose goodness extends beyond mere righteousness to active benevolence and kindness toward others. What does the Bible say about a good man? There's none that do with good. There's none good but God. But the Bible uses that example anyways. For such a benefactor, Paul acknowledges that some would even dare to die. the exceptional goodness and kindness of such a person might inspire rare acts of self-sacrifice. Very rare. In fact, the term peradventure in the Bible indicates uncertainty. I might do it, I think. It might happen, but even then, only occasionally, human love at its very best remains selective and conditional. You would say, you love me unconditionally? Nobody loves you unconditionally. There's no such thing. God loves me unconditionally. That's not true. It's not true at all. Somebody sold you a false bill of goods and you bought it. There are conditions. There's supposed to be conditions. Otherwise, you would use people and abuse people, and we're not opening the door for that. We might sacrifice ourselves for those who earned our affection through their exceptional character or kindness toward us, but would anyone die for their enemy? You don't see that on this list. You have two options, the righteous or the good. And the Bible says it's scarce, and per adventure, some would die. But who would die for their enemy? Only Jesus Christ. Would anyone die for someone actively opposing them? This is unthinkable in human terms. You look at somebody that is against you, that causes you harm, and you don't want to do anything for them. You don't want to buy them a donut if it costs 50 cents. No, go to your own. All you've done is cause problems for me. You're against me. I'm not helping you. That's not what Jesus did. Now, but God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's verse eight. Having established the limited nature of man's love, the Bible now unveils the breathtaking wonder of God's love with the transitional term. this wonderful term, but God. But God. You see, verse 7 is what men might do, and it's rare that men might do this. But now you get into verse 8, and it's but God. These two words signal a divine intervention that completely transcends human capacity and expectation. It's above man. We don't even understand it. In fact, if you'd be honest with yourself, you would sit down and ask God, why did you do that for me? Knowing the purity of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the innocence of Jesus Christ, opposed or set against, juxtaposed to your guilt, what you deserve, that should humble you and make you sit down and say, what in the world? Why would you do that for me?" The word commendeth means to exhibit, display, or prove. God actively demonstrates and recommends His love. It's not just a recommendation, it's an active demonstration that comes along with the recommendation. It's pretty incredible. This is not a passive or theoretical love, but one that God continually exhibits through concrete action. God does not merely tell us He loves us. He proves it through the most costly demonstration imaginable. He gave His Son. I think it's going to come up again here in our teaching, but, for God so loved the world. Now, you think about the wording there. For God so loved the world. Well, how much? So. So. There's not a number to be put upon it. There's not a measurement to be put upon it. For God so loved the world that God loved the world to an extent that He was willing to sacrifice His Son just to make salvation available for you. What makes this demonstration so extraordinary is its timing and object. While we were yet sinners. Unlike man's love, who looks for worthiness in its object, God's love reached out to us when we were not just unworthy, but actively opposed to God. And you think you're going to save yourself? you should bow down at the mercy of God. We were not righteous men, nor were we good men. We were sinners, rebels against God's authority, transgressors of his law, and his enemies, actively. And yet Christ came and died on the cross for people who fit that description and those characteristics. Praise the Lord. Sound biblical teaching emphasizes that God proved His love by acting first. He didn't wait for us to become strong or godly or worthy of salvation. Instead, He loved us and took action while we were still helpless. Praise the Lord! This demonstration of love preceded by worthiness in us, showing that God's love operates on an entirely, entirely different principle. He loved you when you were unlovely. He cared about you when you were hard to care for. And now here's where people get Confused. They think that because God was willing to do that, that surely he's just okay with everything you do and the way you live and would never be angry with you and never condemn you and never send you to hell. He says in Hebrews, if I did that to my son, what do you think I'm gonna do to you if you reject him? Now, this is, and this is where the reason people are confused about that is because they, we now live in a world where there is no discipline of children. It's very rare to find. And so children grow up thinking that there are no consequences from the people who love me for the things that I do wrong. And then they begin to confuse love with allowance. I can just do what I want. I'm allowed to do what I want, and the reason I can't is because they love me. They would never punish me because they love me. And that is a terrible, terrible mistake. It has caused great harm. And so when you try and explain to them that you have a God who does love you, but who will also cast you into hell for eternity, they look at you like you're crazy. They don't understand such things. They don't understand a God who would chastise or a God who would send you into an eternal punishment for rejecting his son. And they don't understand that because they didn't have a father who punished them or who was a stern figure who was supposed to lead the home. And it has created much confusion. Now, that brings us to the cross. The culmination of this passage is found in the phrase, Christ died for us. The Son of God took upon Himself human flesh and voluntarily submitted to the horrors of crucifixion for those who deserved His judgment rather than His mercy. This death was not an unfortunate martyrdom, but a deliberate, substitutionary atonement whereby Christ bore the penalty of our sins so that we might receive forgiveness and reconciliation with God. There has to be justice. Christ died to ensure that justice was available. Now, if you don't trust in him, then the justice comes from you receiving the penalty for your sin. If you trust in Jesus Christ, then that substitution is made. You no longer have to pay for your sins because Christ did it for you. Why would you not take that deal? Bible expositors emphasize that anyone who puts their faith and trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ receives the benefit of this demonstration of love. Christ's death provides complete atonement for our sins, past, present, and future. 1 John 2 says, All of it. Everyone. Even for Asian people, black people. Yes. People. Just get rid of the moniker. Get rid of the descriptor. Just people. Christ died for the sins of the world. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter what your background is. You need Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what religion you claim. You need Jesus Christ. It just... It's an amazing, amazing demonstration of love. This verse presents the most astonishing reversal of expectations. In human experience, we expect that the best people might sacrifice themselves for the most worthy recipients. In God's economy, the infinitely worthy sacrifice to himself for the utterly unworthy. This is love that defies comprehension, a love that does not find worth in its object, but creates worth through its sacrificial giving. There's no better way to lift somebody up than to create worth in them. Not this superficial, just think better about yourself. That's empty. That's nothing. Build them up. That's the best way to help somebody. And that's what God did. He did more than put his money where his mouth is. He gave it all. He gave it all and did so for our benefit. Now, what are the implications for our lives? Number one, it establishes beyond dispute that salvation is entirely of grace and not of works. Again, for about the billionth time. God must be in... I imagine God at times is in heaven just beating his head against the wall. Like, what else could I say? What else could I do to break the pride of these people who think they can save themselves? If Christ died for us when we were still ungodly sinners, without strength, by the way, that's quite notable. You were ungodly and without strength, and the contrast is between not saved and saved. There is no in-between where you are working to attain salvation. Either you are the ungodly, without strength, or you have been saved and you're in Christ Jesus. That's it. I mean, there is no in-between. If Christ died for us, when we were still ungodly sinners without strength, then clearly our salvation originated in God's gracious initiative rather than our moral improvement or religious effort. Romans 6.23 reminds us, the wages of sin is death, but the gift, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now listen to that contrast. How do you get wages? By work. So the equation that should formulate in your mind is, if I work, the wages is death. It's sin, which equals death. Well, how do you get a gift? You just receive it. So the contrast is, I can work, but understand that that work is gonna come with wages, and the wages of sin is death, or I can just receive the gift of God, which is all through Jesus Christ our Lord, which I think God has made unbelievably clear in these five chapters, without fail. Second, this passage reveals the immeasurable scope of God's love. If God loved us enough to sacrifice His Son for us when we were at our worst, absolute worst, then surely His love for us now that we are reconciled to Him through faith is secure and unwavering. How are you going to lose it? You're not. If he would go to that extent to ensure your salvation and you trusted him, you think he's just gonna let you go, let you fail, let you fall? You put way too much confidence in your ability to screw this up. You need to trust the Lord. Third, it should transform how we view ourselves. We are not saved because of any inherent goodness or potential within us. we are saved despite our complete unworthiness. You don't deserve salvation. This should produce humility and gratitude, eliminating all grounds for pride. Glory in the cross, not in yourself. Number four, it revolutionizes how we view others. If God could love us at our worst, sometimes I wish I didn't put these things in my notes. If God could love us at our worst, how can we withhold love from those who offend or oppose us? Christ's example encourages us to love to a love that extends beyond those who deserve to embrace even the undeserving." Now, again, this is where people get confused. They say, well, I'm just going to love my enemy. Yeah, you're supposed to love your enemy. That doesn't mean you let them come in your house and move in and start feeding them. This is one passage that demonstrates that you not only should, but you can love your enemies if you are filled with the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ lives within you the way the Bible says, if you've been saved. You should love your enemies. You should not let people abuse you and take advantage of you. That doesn't mean you get back at them. This is where the problem is. They say, oh, I don't let them take advantage of me. You know, I'm going to, no, you're not going to do anything. If you're gonna do anything, it's get out of the situation. Don't be there to let people take advantage of you or misuse you. Love them, pray for them, ask the Lord to deal with them, but don't stay there and be abused. Move on. Now, if this is a marriage situation, that's a whole different set of complexities, but even still, in that case, there are things that the Bible offers solutions that can help protect you and keep you from being taken advantage of. Now, finally, it should transform our response to temptation. Biblical instruction shows that when temptations come into our lives, as they do daily, by the way, we face a choice. Will we, for love of our Savior, resist the urge to sin? Or will we, for love of ourselves, yield to those temptations? Remembering Christ's sacrificial love provides powerful motivation to walk in obedience to him. The Bible talks about Christ being preeminent, having the preeminence Well, if he does, it's gonna make it real hard to give yourself over to temptation. If he doesn't, well, it could go either way. You might take the temptation, you might take Christ. And so understanding what he did for you and when, when you were ungodly and without strength, should provide a little bit of spiritual motivation for you to abandon temptation and trust the Lord. To finish out, living in response to God's demonstrated love. As we consider the truth that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, we must allow this revelation to transform every aspect of our lives. This demonstration of love calls for a response of humble gratitude, wholehearted devotion, and transformed living. That's what's supposed to happen when you get saved. That doesn't mean everything in your life becomes perfect and you do everything right, but there should be this transforming effect where change is taking place. And when somebody says, I got saved and nothing changes, it's like, okay, I'm skeptical. I'm concerned. When tempted to doubt God's love during difficult circumstances, we need only to look to the cross, where God has irrefutably commended His love toward us. When struggling with guilt over past failures, we can find assurance in knowing that Christ died for us as sinners. When you are a sinner, Not when you were good, not when you were righteous, not when you were worthy, not when you had plenty of strength to take care of yourself. He died for his enemies, people who were against him. He didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up first. And when called to extend love to others, we have in Christ the perfect pattern of loving those who need it most. Amen. Most exciting part, loving those who need it most. Now we want to be like that guy who came and said, who is my neighbor? Who are you talking about, Lord? I just need a little clarification. And the Lord might come back with a parable that makes a fool of you, so you may not want to ask such questions. But that's Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8, the love of God died for sinners, the ungodly, without strength, incapable of saving yourself. Christ came and did it for you. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your son and all that he's done for us on the cross. Help us, Lord, to live as though he is preeminent, as he should be, in every aspect, every day of our lives. Help us to look to Jesus to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Help us, Lord, to live with these realities in mind. Help us to preach this gospel. Help us to use these verses to help people understand their utter inability to save themselves and their desperate need for Jesus Christ. Pray that you'd have your way in these things. In Christ's name I pray, amen.