All right, please stand for the reading of God's word. Our text for today is going to be Romans chapter 5 versus 9 through 11.

I'll go ahead and read our text in its entirety when I finish reading it. We're going to say this is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

Again, our text for today is Romans chapter 5, verses 9 through 11.

The Bible says this, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood,

much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son,

much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

This is the word of the Lord.

All right, please be seated.

By way of introduction, I have the following.

Christ dying was not due to any goodness found in man, but only due to the mercy that is found

in God.

Christ's death was not merely for those who were useless, but for those who were guilty

and vile, such that their everlasting destruction

would have been to the praise of God's glorious justice. It is not only that God, at the cost

of the blood, the death of his only son chose to redeem and restore and reconcile those who

were useless. It is not only that we were without value,

but we were worse than useless. Trash would have been an upgrade. It would have been an improvement,

a step in the right direction. Trash doesn't have much value. I guess it depends on whose trash we're

talking about. One man's trash is another man's

treasure. But in general, trash doesn't have much value. It's useless, but it's at least not a

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