Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans, chapter 5. The topic today is how we as ambassadors, right? We keep talking about ambassadors. We’re ambassadors for Christ, but that’s not how we began.

We begun by being enemies of the one that we now represent. And so our topic today is how we have been brought from enemies to citizens. You understand that as an ambassador. An ambassador must be a citizen of the nation that he or she represents. In other words, let’s think about this in football terms. Your quarterback needs to be a member of your team, right? And maybe that’s the Browns problem, I’m not sure. But shouldn’t your quarterback, in other words, you just can’t have the quarterback from the other team come out there and play for your side, Is that correct? Does that stand a reason you can’t call some beer bellied guy from the third row in the top level down to play quarterback for you because he’s not on your team?

Well, we can’t be ambassadors for Christ if we’re not on his team. If we’re not a citizen of his kingdom, we must represent, we must be a member of a citizen of his kingdom in order for us to represent him. Romans, chapter 5, verse 6. For while were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly for One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us. Say that with me, Christ died for us. 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 were sinners, 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. Let’s pray. Father, we know that your word is blessed, but we pray that you would bless the reading of it through the hearing of our ears and by your spirit, we might take it and apply it in our lives. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen. What if someone broke into your home and brutalized your family members and drugged some of them out and threw them in prison, maybe, perhaps even led to some of your family members dying? What if this happened and it happened because they were simply Christians? How would that make you feel?

Really? Nothing. If your mother and father were drugged, drug out of the house and slaughtered before your eyes simply because they were Christians? How would you feel? Angry, Right? You would be upset, wouldn’t you? What if you got a really good look at the person that was doing that? What if you. It is now emblazoned on in your brain that you will never forget the look of that person who imprisoned your parents, killed your siblings, brutalized your home. And what if after just a few months of this, a few months later, you walk into church and there sits that same person who killed your family, imprisoned your family, brutalized your family, burnt your home to the ground? How would you feel about that? I’m sorry. Terrible. Yeah, terrible. Why would we feel terrible about that? Yeah, go ahead. Right, yeah.

Well, see, I’m going down there and stand because you guys are quiet. The kids down there talk. Good job. So let’s. Is. Is there an example in our Bibles of this? Is there an example in our Bible of something like this? I would say it is. The man who wrote what I just read for you was a man by the name of the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul, according to Acts, chapter eight, got his start on the pages of our Bibles by participating in the murder of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, and then was given orders to persecute all Christians. And the Bible says that in Acts, chapter 8, verse 3 and verse 9 that Paul set about in the old King James language, breathing threats. But we also know that there in our Bibles, it was that he was just.

He was just a marauder that was persecuting and dragging out and imprisoning Christians and. And leading to death. He had devastated the church. And then by the time we get to Acts chapter nine, the end of chapter nine, he is showing up in the very same church house of the very same people that he had killed and imprisoned their family members. And the people were like, whoa, wait a minute. What’s going on here? This guy. What happened? What happened between Acts chapter 8 and Acts chapter 9? The apostle Paul got saved. The Apostle Paul was reconciled to Christ. The Apostle Paul, who was once an example, enemy of the church, and therefore an enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you’re an enemy of Christ, you’re an enemy of God. Because Christ is God.

And because he was an enemy of Christ, he then is now reconciled to God. And he is now a citizen of the very same community, the very same kingdom that those Jewish church members were a part of. And what must they then do? They must receive him, love him, greet him with a holy kiss, as the Bible says. I would say to you that now this same man, the Apostle Paul, went on to be persecuted more than any of us will ever see. I hope he was stoned, he was left for dead, he was beaten, he was starved, he was imprisoned, he was shipwrecked. The same man who breathed out all of the. The danger and all of the persecution on the early church also got a healthy dose of it himself.

And finally he lost his head at the hand of the Roman authorities. They chopped his head off. And the very people on the day that the Apostle Paul had his head chopped off, the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And at the moment that he took his final breath, he was awakened on the streets of gold in heaven. And he was being cheered by the very ones that he persecuted and put to death here on earth. Did you catch that? Not an amen, not a hallelujah, not a wonder of wonders. Think about this. The very people that he murdered, Stephen, let’s just use Stephen as an example. Met him in heaven and gave God glory, all because he once was an enemy. And then he was brought in as a citizen the kingdom.

This is a profound understanding of what the Apostle Paul wrote. He knew of what he was writing about. He says, were weak, were enemies of God, were sinners. But Christ died for us. And so that’s what we have here. This is Paul’s lived experience that he knew what it was like to be an a vehement enemy of Christ, of God and yet to be reconciled by the blood of Jesus. So the reality is that we can cluck our tongues at Paul and we can say Paul’s one of those people and I’m glad I’m not like Paul. But the reality is we all start just in the same place that Paul started. As enemies of God. We’re all, we all begin as enemies of God. We cannot be ambassadors unless we be citizens. And we cannot be citizens simply by birth.

We must become citizens How? By rebirth. By rebirth? Born from above. Jesus said except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom heaven. Born from above, we must be divinely reborn. That’s born again. We must be regenerated. We must be saved. We could say so. There’s not one of you in here. I want everybody’s eyes on me. Put your pens down. We’re preaching the word of God. I want everyone here to pay attention to what I’m about to say. Not one of you will ever enter the kingdom of God by virtue of your parents faith. Not one of you will ever see heaven simply because your mom and dad are Christians. Not one of you will ever experience God’s saving amazing grace simply because you went to a Christian school. We must be born again. We must be born from above.

Jesus said In Mark chapter one, verse 15, the very first words that we have recorded of Jesus that he had to say the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. That’s how we’ll enter the kingdom. That’s how we’ll become citizens of only by rebirth. Notice in verse 6 of Romans 5 what it tells us about our condition. It says that in verse 6 we’re weak and ungodly. Verse 8 it says that we’re sinners. In verse 10 it says that we’re enemies of God. Now most of us, I wonder how many of us anyway would say that we’re enemies of God. But the reality is unless we be born again, we are enemies of God.

We see this to be repeated, this pattern in Paul’s writing In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 12 he gives us the same kind of a description. Remember that you were at the same time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That was our condition. And if you are apart from Christ today, that is your condition as we speak. You are without hope, without God in this world. And this world is all you have. You have nothing more to look forward to. That’s our condition. Separated, alienated strangers, hopeless and without God. But he doesn’t leave us there.

This same Paul who knew what it was like to be an enemy of God and knew what it was like to be all in as far as persecuting God, also knew what it was like to be reconciled to God. And he understood it was simply because of the love of the Father of God toward him, toward us. So God demonstrates his. Everybody look at verse 8. But God demonstrates or shows his love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us. You were a stranger, you were alienated, you were an enemy of God, but yet Christ still died for us. Died for you. Can you say that? All right, let me divide this group up here today. There’s something I want us to do. Everybody look at verse eight.

So from right here over, I want you to say, while were still sinners. And then from right here, we’ll separate you two. Christ died for us. On this side. We’re going to see who can say it the loudest and the clearest. Okay, let’s try this. If you wonder what it is, it’s right there in your Bible. While were still sinners, Christ died for us. Ready? One more time. Say it loud, say it proud. That is something that we should shout about. Do you let that ruminate? Do you let that sink down inside of your being? That while were sinners, hopelessly lost, strangers, alienated, enemies of God, without hope and without God in this world. Christ died for us. We are sinners, but he died for us. What depth of love. What a demonstration of love this is that Jesus Christ died for us.

J.C. ryan, one of my favorite authors in the world, Noah, is reading a little bit about J.C. Ryan today. I hope to make him a J.C. Ryan aficionado. J.C. Ryan wrote this. He says God knew what were before conversion. Wicked, guilty and defiled, yet he loved us. He knows what we will be after conversion. Weak, erring and frail, yet he loves us. Oh, the mercy and the. The depth of grace, the love of God. He says that in back to Romans 5. He says were justified by his blood. That is an all encompassing term for the redemptive work of Jesus. Not, we’re not talking about a superstitious opinion of what the blood of Jesus is all just one drop of his blood would. No, we’re talking about his redemptive work. It is an all inclusive term in the Bible.

When it speaks the blood of Jesus, it means his redemptive work. And we’re reconciled to God. We’re justified. That means that is a declarative act of God. That God declares those who are unworthy and unrighteous to be worthy and to be righteous by virtue of what Jesus has done on the cross for us and that were enemies that are now reconciled. That means he restores us to friendly relations with him in Ephesians 2. Again I say they mirror each other. Ephesians 2, verse 16. That God might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and he preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access talk about Jews and Gentiles in one spirit to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. You’re citizens. Do you have faith in Jesus? Do you believe that while were yet sinners that Christ died for us? Then we can have faith. And we can understand then that we’re now citizen. We’re no longer enemies. We have been reconciled. There’s an end to that hostility. And how has he done that? By going to the cross. And he shed his blood. And he died as a in the place of sinners. He died as an atonement for our sin, so that whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord would be saved. Do you catch that? That it is God whom we have offended. It is God whom we have rebelled against.

But yet it is God who pays the price for rebels so that we might be reconciled to Him. Do you understand that in the earthly realm rebels must die in order for the King to secure peace in his kingdom. But yet in the godly realm, it is the King who dies in order to secure the peace for the rebel. We could say it like this. This group over here. While were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Let’s do it again. While were rebels, while were enemies, while were alienated, while were completely separated from him, dead in our trespasses and sin. Yet Christ died for us to restore and to reconcile us unto Himself. He secures the peace for us. Love makes all the difference in the world. That it’s not enough. It’s not enough that he simply Forgives. You catch that.

Are you forgiven of your sin? I hope you are. It is imperative that we must be forgiven of our sins. But it’s also. But. But the amazing grace of God and the love of God is. Is that it doesn’t just end with forgiveness. Again. Ephesians, chapter two. It says that while were. Excuse me, you were dead in your trespasses and sin. And once you once walked and were children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ even while were still sinners. He died for us. Here’s the amazing thing about it. We’re not saved. We’re saved by grace. But it’s because of his love. You see, God’s love makes the difference.

In Romans 5, verse 8, it says, God shows His love for us. For God so loved the world that he gave, God so loves his love makes that difference that he not only pardons the rebel, but he elevates the rebel. I’ll close with this point. Imagine the king who. There’s been rebels within the kingdom and fighting against and seeking to depose the king. And the rebels are caught and. And. And the ringleader of the rebel is brought before the king. And he’s humbled there before the king. And justice says to lop his head off, to kill him. He is a rebel against the king. That’s what justice demands. But the King is gracious, the King is merciful. And the king extends his hand over the rebel and he says, you are pardoned. That’s grace. He who deserved to die was pardoned. That’s grace.

And it’s wonderful. But then the king reaches down and takes this unworthy rebel by the hand and sits him beside himself on the throne and gives him a royal garment and a feast fit for a king. He has made us. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And he has caused us to be seated with Christ in heaven. Every spiritual blessing, grace, mercy, pardons, but love elevates. Paul knew what he was talking about. We were enemies deserving of death. But yet now we have been pardoned and then reconciled and seated with the King. We’ve been brought from enemies to citizenship so that we might represent Him. May we serve him well, and may we cry out to him for his pardon, that he might elevate us by his love. Amen. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank youk again for your word. We’re thankful, God, for your mercy and for your grace. We’re thankful for your love. That makes all the difference in that. While were still sinners, Christ died for us. While were rebels, Christ died for us. And, Father, that you have elevated us. Not only have you pardoned us, but you have elevated us. You have given us all that we need for a life of faith and godliness. And, Father, we are children adopted into your family. And we are ambassadors who represent you before a lost and dying world. We are citizens of a greater kingdom. Drive that point home in our hearts today and teach us by your spirit, it’s in Christ’s name that we pray. Amen. Thank you.