Turn with me this morning in
your Bibles to Romans chapter 5. Romans 5. at some point in time, establish this day as Mother's
Day. They say it is to honor mothers. However, I believe that the Bible
says that we are to honor our fathers and our mothers All the
time. Not just a day. And so I'm not against honoring
mothers. As a matter of fact, the Bible
often speaks of a mother's love for her children. And God uses that as an illustration
to show the superiority of His love over human love. I don't know if you noticed it
or not, but the last verse that we read in our reading there
in Isaiah 49, after the Lord by the prophet Isaiah has told
about His Christ, that would come, and the people that he
would save. And yet, looking at the situation
as it was in that day, he says, but Israel says, or Zion said,
the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. To which he replies, Can a woman
forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. We see that in our day. more
than I ever thought we would. They may forget, yet I will not
forget thee." And the love that he is talking
about there is that same love that Paul talks about here in
Romans 5. Let me read a few verses. Beginning
in verse 1, he says, Therefore, being justified, or having been
justified, by faith we have peace with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Actually, what that says literally
there is, since we have been justified, since we believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, since we have been justified through
the Lord Jesus Christ, Let us have peace with God." Now, he's
talking about a peace that is already established, a love that has already been
demonstrated, and now here is a call to a love that is experienced. He says, "...by whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice
in 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 maketh
not ashamed." We have a real and genuine hope. Never to be
disappointed. Why? Because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. Paul goes much farther than simply
talking about the love of God. He says in these verses, and
in this fifth verse especially, that the love of God, though
it is very much talked about, cannot be known, cannot be experienced,
or cannot be appreciated apart from the Holy Spirit." The love of God that He has for
His people is not simply something that is upon the lips. It has been, as the language
is here, poured forth. into their hearts." Gushed is
even a usage here. It is poured forth in their hearts. And by that he means it is a
revelation of His love that is not simply a mere affection for
them presently. But the Spirit of God reveals
a love that God has demonstrated toward them, had toward them,
and for them from old eternity. I wonder how many preachers in
this very day will tell men and women God loves you. But if you come to the Word of
God, and that is our only standard, that is never the way the love
of God is expressed. It does say, God is love two
times. But what it says concerning those
that He loves, is that He has always loved them. That word loved, as it is associated
with the Word of God, is most often in the past tense. Even when his people are unable
to say that they love God, they acknowledge this first of all. And that is, we love Him because
He first loved us. And the only way we receive this
real and true and genuine revelation of the love of God, as I said,
is by the Spirit of God. And the reason for that is that
this book also teaches us that the love of God is in Christ
Jesus. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God is said to be a consuming fire. In other words, if you
look at this book in its entirety, many more times than you read
that God is love, you will read as we sang that God is holy. Holy. You'll read many more times
that God is righteous. You'll read many more times that
God is just. You'll read many more times that
God is a God of wrath against sin. So we can only know and
certainly only appreciate the love of God in light of who God
is and also in light of what we are. And that only ever happens. by a working, a mighty working
in us wherein the Spirit of God reveals to us, demonstrates to
us, and pours forth in us that love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. Hold your place and turn over
to John chapter 16. I say that because that Christ
Himself says in John 16 and verse 13, speaking of that same Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, He says in verse 13, "...howbeit
when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into
all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He
shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to
come." He shall glorify Me. And that makes me know that wherever
we are and whatever is felt, or whatever men and women claim
about the Spirit of God in a place or amongst a people where Christ
is not given all the glory, not only in creation or providence,
but especially in salvation. The Holy Spirit is not in that
person. is not in that place, is not
in that ministry. Because where He is, Christ gets
all the glory. And I mean all the glory. Because if the love of God in
Christ Jesus is not more than giving everybody a chance, If
God loves one as much as the other, and what determines God's
benefit to you is based on your choice, what in the world does
the love of God have to do with salvation? He says, "...he shall glorify
Me, for he shall receive of Mine, and show it unto you. All things
that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I, that he shall
take of Mine, and show it unto you." Wherever the Spirit of
God really demonstrates and pours forth the love of God that is
surely in Christ Jesus, there will be a revelation, an emphasis,
a declaration, and whatever word you might want to use, of nothing
else than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, the glory of that love
can only be seen when we are enabled of God by this faith
that the Spirit of God gives us to behold in His Word who
God really is. You say, well, I love everybody. I hope you do. I don't believe
it, but I hope you do. But if you love every other person
in this world, which we're commanded to, if you love every person,
you are simply loving ones like yourself. That's not the case with God.
He is the High and Holy One that inhabits eternity. He is that one of these seraphims
crying out day and night, hiding their faces, speaking those words
that characterize Him above all things. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord
God Almighty. He is so far above us, as high
as the heavens is, so is He and His thoughts and His ways above
us, that it can be nothing but the most infinite and absolute
condescension for Him to stoop and bow down, look upon us, and
love us in any way whatsoever. And we're just a bunch of sinners. Described by this book, by this
God in ourselves as maggots on the earth. Described as having
our best state being nothing but absolute vanity. Having ourselves
described by God in our best, all our righteousness, nothing
but filthy rags. So only when the Spirit of God
shows us who God is, and then shows us who we are, can we behold,
appreciate, and thank Him for the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. Somebody say, well, He loves
everybody in this way. No, He doesn't. Infinite holiness
cannot in the least degree love anything or anyone that is not
perfectly holy, for to do so would to make him not perfectly
holy. And I get so weary of these preachers
and people who try to skirt the issues, skirt the realities of
God's truth. He knows who He is, He knows
what we are, He said what we are, said what He is, said how
He saves sinners, and there's nothing else left to say but
what He says. God called Isaiah to say what
God said. He called Paul to say what God
said. Not more and not less. And He
calls everyone that preaches the gospel to say what He said,
and no more what He said, and no less. And the reason or cause
of God's love is to be found only in God Himself. Think about one who is altogether
perfect in himself. Think about God who has need
of no one or nothing. These preachers are always saying,
well, God needs you, He needs you to help Him, He needs your
money, He needs all these things. He doesn't need anything. He's
absolutely self-sufficient, has been from all eternity, always
will be. He needs you. He said, the hills are mine,
the cattle of a thousand hills are mine, the world is mine,
all souls are mine, and He needs us. But the flesh loves to be
bragged on and promoted, and that's why we have all these
recognition days to promote and brag on and exalt the flesh,
when in truth there is only one that we are to exalt. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God loved His people
not for a reason found in them or anything done by them or about
them. He loved us just because He would. If God loves me, He just loved
me because He loved me. If He loves you, He just loved
you because He loved you. If He didn't love me, He would
just not love me because He didn't love me. There was nothing in
me to make me love Him, or nothing in me to make me lovable to Him. Do we see that? And His love is an everlasting
love. That's what he told Jeremiah.
That's what he tells all his people, his elect people. Nobody
wants to talk about him, but that's what he tells his people.
I have loved you with an everlasting love. And since I have loved
you with an everlasting love, with these cords of love have
I drawn thee. I'm confident of this. I'm confident
that every person that has ever lived or ever will live on this
earth, every person that God loves, He loved them with an
everlasting love, and He will save every one of them. Their salvation is a demonstration
of His love. Look back in Romans 5 and verse
8. Paul goes on. He says, "...but God commendeth
His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us." If you read that verse, in the
light of every other verse in Scripture, you will find out
that the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, it is a particular
love for a particular people, and that means that the death
or the act of love toward them is a particular death for them. God commended His love toward
us." Who's the us? Well, in the beginning of this
very epistle, when Paul is led by the Spirit of God, he demonstrates in the very opening
of this letter, this distinguishing love and grace of God. He writes, verse 7 of chapter
1, to all that be in Rome beloved of God, called saints. It isn't actually called to be
saints, that's in italics. to these beloved of God in Rome
called saints." What is a saint? It ain't those folks that the
Pope made so recently. A saint, the word literally means
set apart unto God. A person is not a saint because
they do something, they're a saint because God did something. Do
you understand that? They're a saint because God,
in His sovereign love and grace, He set them apart unto Himself
to be the objects of His love, the objects of His grace, the
objects of His salvation. They don't walk around with halos
around their head. He gives us a description of
them here, but they are saints. He called them saints separated
unto God. Separated in Christ. Chosen of God. In Him before
the foundation of the world. Went with Him and in Him to that
cross wherein He died, called out by the Spirit of God. And think about how many will
talk about the love of God and they'll make nothing of the death
of Christ. And if they mention the death
of Christ associated with that love, they'll reduce it down
to an absolute failure and make its accomplishments dependent
on you and me. Did you know that everything
in salvation, with the exception of our experience
of it, which is what Paul is talking about here, was accomplished before you were
born? That's right. Number one, by
an act of the Father who determined to save. And I like what Old
Gil said there. He said, God's act or determination
to do something is the doing of it. Who's going to stop Him? He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. Are you going to stop Him? Many
thought they could. But not only that, not only an
act of the Father's will, but an act of the Son in His life
and death. What does He say on that cross?
He said, it is finished. It is finished. You say, what
if I don't believe on it? It's not finished for you then.
That's right. If it's finished for them, if
this act of divine love, this salvation, this death upon which
the putting away of the sins of His people and is making them
the righteousness of God in Him, if that's finished, then we're saved outside of ourselves,
before ourselves, He hath, Paul said, saved us
and called us. That's not what men say. They say, God has made salvation
available. He's calling on you. They'll say things like,
your choice determines your destiny. They'll say, it's up to you,
your faith, your decision. That's not true. Because I'm
sure of something else too, and that is that the love of God
is going to glorify God. And if I'm laying there in the
condition that the Scriptures put me in as a sinner, dead spiritually,
You could do anything for me that you wanted to do for me,
but it would not in any way be an act of real love unless it
took my whole situation into account and did everything necessary
for me to be able to receive it, like give me life. If the death of Christ did not
accomplish something for us, if it did not save us, if it
did not do for us everything needed to take us into God's
presence, then what good is God's love? You see, the one thing I love
about God's love especially is God's love is like Himself. It's almighty. It isn't just mere affection. You
ever use this expression, I feel for you but I can't reach you? God knows nothing of that. If you're out there and your
problem is you're in debt to a trillion dollars, I'd have
to say, well, I wish I could help you. I'm sorry about your
situation, but I can't do anything. God could. And you can go all that whole
route. with the exception of receiving
you and saving you at the expense of His justice." If you come by our house on any
given time, we're in the small grandchild stages and we have
a lot of stuff strung out sometimes. I saw you coming down the driveway,
I'd make a mad dash and I'd just sweep it under the sofa of somewhere,
tuck it in the bedroom, do something. God can't do that with your sin.
Because He's holy. No, His love has to be according
to everything that satisfies His justice. His love required
Him doing what could not have been done from heaven. And that
is, He in love had to come and take upon Himself human flesh,
had to take upon Himself a body in order to die for the sins
of His people. That's love. You'll never see
and know anything about the love of God until the Spirit of God
opens your eyes to the truth, gives you that new heart wherein
you look by faith to the cross. There's the love of God. And the love of God in Christ
is to be seen, as I said, when we consider those He loved and
died for. Who are they? Verse 6 says they
were without strength. For when we were yet without
strength. Verse 6 again. Now listen, you
remember that now. Without strength. That means
helpless and impotent and no ability to please God or to save
ourselves or to satisfy divine justice. Nothing to offer to
God without Strength. Verse 6 again. In due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. The ungodly. I've told you this so many times.
But living like we do near a Marine base, you know, we're familiar
with all the Marine slogans and all that kind of stuff. And the Marines had, I guess
they still have it, I don't know, that slogan that says, the Marines
are looking for a few good men. That's not God. He knows there are no good men. But there are a few bad men amongst
a whole bunch of bad men. A few bad men and women. Ungodly. But He set His love upon and
He purposed to save. If He hadn't, I'd never be saved.
You can play around with religion if you want to. You can carry
on the parade of it. This business is God in mercy
looking down on a worm and saving that bad person, ungodly. He says in verse 8, But God commendeth
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, We'll never find out what a sinner
is by comparing ourselves with each other. I know sometimes
when I preach, somebody always thinks to themselves, well preacher,
I'm as good as you are. What a low standard. What a low
standard. We only know sinners, ourselves
to be what sinners are and what sin is when the Spirit of God
shows the love of God abroad in our hearts. Paul thought,
he said, I was a good fella. Thought I was. Moral, religious,
a teacher amongst religion. But he said that was nothing
but sin. Sinners that were born such,
sinners who have a nature as such, sinners who are sinning,
and if He died for us while we were yet sinners, sinners before
we were born. What? You mean you don't become
sinners when you reach a certain age of accountability? Show me
that in the Bible someday. No, we became sinners when our
father Adam fell in that garden. Romans 5 father, it tells you
all about that. Verse 10, "...for if, when 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." You see, God commends His love. That word commends here means
that His love has always been in action toward His people. Some translate that word by proves,
or establishes, or confirms, or manifests, or gives proof
of, or demonstrates His love. How? In that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. But who's us? Those He loved, those He died
for, and those He shed His love abroad in their hearts. not those
who walk down an aisle, not those who get dipped in a pool or have
water sprinkled on their head, not those who raise their hand
or pray a sinner's so-called prayer and all this kind of stuff
that religion in our day has degenerated to, but those that
God makes known His love in Christ Jesus to and in. Enemies. But not enemies in the sense
that we might naturally think. Because what Paul is not saying
is here that they were his enemies, but he decided to make them his
friends. No. They've always been his friends. But they in their minds and in
their actions have acted toward Him as enemies. Verse 10 again, For if, when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, Old Gill said, reconciliation
implies a former state of friendship, a breach of that friendship,
and a making of it up again, which in no ways contradicts
the everlasting and unchangeable love of God to His people, for
this is not a reconciliation of God to them, but of them to
God." He never changes. He was a friend to them before
time. They acted as enemies. Even his
people, they acted as enemies. Paul writes in Colossians and
he says, you were enemies in your own minds by wicked works. What do you think he's talking
about there? That you thought dirty thoughts? I know you never had a dirty
thought in your mind. I hate to tell you this, but
every thought you've ever had is a dirty thought. Because it arises up out of a
sinful mind. But you know what the dirtiest
thought that you've ever had was? Maybe one you hold right
now. That you Somehow, by what you
do or don't do, something you are or are trying to become is the reason why you have the
favor and blessing of God. He called those wicked works
in your mind. We are enemies in our minds to
God if we in any part attribute salvation to anything in us or
done by us and not in Christ and His blood and His righteousness
alone. So what do you do? He reconciled
us unto Himself. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. God was in Christ reconciling
us to Himself through the death of His Son and in our experience
when He brings us to see and appreciate and believe His love. A special love that He had for
us and showed it in Christ. This same apostle, when he's
writing in Ephesians 5, he's talking about people in a marriage
relationship. He uses this very thing, he says,
Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for
it." Now if you believe that verse
and you still believe in universal love, then you would have to
pretty much believe in free love. You remember the free love of
the sixties? You can't love the one you love,
love the one you're with. That's religion in our day. Is
that not right? No, he says, husbands, love your
wives and love them as Christ loved the church, particularly,
sacrificially, devotedly, and gave Himself for it. He reconciled us to God by the
death of His Son. How? Should we have some formula
to go along with? No. By the death of His Son. If God reconciled me unto Himself
by the death of His Son, I'm reconciled to God." Yeah, but he said, be you reconciled.
What is he talking about there? He's talking about be reconciled
to whatever it is. The situation, the tribulation,
the circumstances, whatever it is, in your life as a believer,
be reconciled to it. Why? Because we're already reconciled
to God. You say, you don't know how bad
it is. No, I probably don't, but I know this, the worst is
behind us. And that's why we glory in tribulations. We rejoice in hope. And what he says in verse 11,
and not only so, but we also joy in God. That's our delight. That's why we want to worship
Him. That's why we want to hear about Him. We love our mothers,
we love our fathers, we love our children, but we worship
Christ. We joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement, the
reconciliation. And look at verse 9. I love this
verse. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, having been justified by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Does that sound like some kind
of general love? That sounds like a particular
love, an omnipotent love. You say, well, God loves you,
but He can only do what you allow Him to do, or God loves you and
He won't do anything against your will? Well, that's a pitiful,
pathetic love. If you have love for your children, you do whatever. Whatever is
in your power to save them from danger, save them from collapse,
whatever it is, is in your power. You think God loves His people
less than you love yours? When Paul is writing in 2 Thessalonians, to these that he describes in
2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, as those beloved of the Lord. He says that a multitude of people
will be blinded by Satan And they'll be deceived with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the
love of the truth. that they might be saved. And
for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie." Now, I want to point out one thing to you
there. And that is, it does not say that they receive not a love
for the truth. It says they receive not the
love of the truth. What is the love of the truth? It's this sovereign, eternal,
particular love of God in Christ Jesus to His people. They wouldn't receive that love.
Well, they'll talk about love. They love Jesus. But they receive
not the love of the truth. The love of the truth is in Christ
Jesus and toward all who are in Him. Chosen in Him by the
Father, redeemed by Him, and called by the Spirit of God,
who pours forth the love of God. in their hearts. He opens that fountain that first
flowed in heaven to flow in their heart. It's the fruit of the
Spirit. When Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit, number
one. For the fruit of the Spirit is
love. Love because loved. God help us to acknowledge, to
rest in, to trust in that love that's in the truth. Father, this day we thank you
for your manifold blessing to us. We thank you for our mothers. Just reminders of your gifts
and goodness to us. But we thank You most of all
for Your grace and for Your mercy to us in Christ. Help us, Lord, to love You because You've loved us. To rest in that love that glorifies
You, a love for the unlovely, A love for the undeserving. A
love for sinners in Christ Jesus. We pray that you'd hear us this
day because of Him. Receive our thanks. Get glory
to yourself. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.