Turn back tonight again to Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Tonight I want us to look at
verses 5 through 11. I thought about just calling
this the love of God. But it is necessary in our day
to distinguish between what so many call the love of God and
what the Bible reveals to be the love of God. And so as we
find it here in this particular context, it is the love of God
that Paul says is shed abroad in the hearts of his people. It's not the love of God that's
spoken of by this religious world, but it's the love of God which
is shed abroad in the hearts of his people by the Spirit of
God." You see, the love of God, though
very much talked about in our day, cannot be known or experienced
or appreciated apart from the Holy Spirit. Now just remember
that. I suppose the love of God is
what most would say is a common commodity in our day. But the true love of God is never
known or experienced and most certainly appreciated except
God the Spirit reveal it to us. That's what Paul says in verse
5. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. And the Spirit of God does this
by taking the things in His Word concerning Christ and showing
them to us. Hold your place here and turn
back to John 16. John chapter 16, and here our
Lord tells us this very thing. In other words, the Spirit of
God does not give us some kind of feeling, although it surely
does produce a wonderful feeling. But what He does is reveal to
us and enable us to believe what He says about the Lord Jesus
Christ. John 16 and verse 13. Christ says, 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. Now you look at this fourteenth
verse. He, that is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, he shall
glorify me, Christ said, for he shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall
show it unto you." So the love that the Spirit of God sheds
abroad in the hearts of God's people is that love which is
shown in the Lord Jesus Christ. He does this by giving us faith
to believe. And the glory of that love can
only be seen when we are enabled, on the one hand, to see who God
is. You see, that's the reason why
the love of God that men speak of today, it is not glorious. And it can never be glorious
until we see who God really is and then contrast that by His
revealing to us just exactly what we really are. You see, the glory of the love
of God is manifest in the knowledge of who He is
in His greatness and holiness compared to what we are in our
sinfulness. And that is why the Bible says
that the love of God is in Christ Jesus. Everywhere outside, of Christ
Jesus, God is a consuming fire. And the love of God, the true
love of God which He sheds abroad by His Spirit in our hearts,
we see that the love of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul moves on from that
very thought. And he shows us again and again
more about that love and how God demonstrates it concerning
His people. And there are several things
that I want us to notice in the following verses. And the first
is this, the reason or the cause of God's love is to be found
only in Himself. You cannot read these verses
and see at any point where there is anything lovable or deserving
love in any of those that God loves. His love, the cause of it, and
the reason for it is found only in Himself. He loved us simply
because He loved us. Do you ever get tired sometimes,
if you are dealing with children, how that they have to stop and
ask you that question again and again? On everything you tell
them, everything you instruct them, they have got to stop and
stand in your face and say, why? They never can bow to the fact
that maybe you know more than they do, you've experienced more
than they do. But in that, they are simply
reflecting what every man and woman by nature is to God. There's nothing lovable in us. There's nothing lovable about
us. The love of God is a sovereign
love. He loves whom He will, and He
has loved them, it says, with an everlasting love. You see, the love of God, as
we find it in the Bible, is no more desired than anything else
about God, because in truth it brings us back to be confronted
with who He is and what we are. And then there is something else
that is very obvious in these verses that follow verse 5, and
that is that the love of God is most clearly exhibited in
the death of, the gift of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ for
us. Isn't it amazing how much people
can talk about the love of God and minimize the suffering and
death of Christ? Look down at that eighth verse. He says, "...but God commendeth
His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. That's what the love of God is
all about. The love of God is most clearly
demonstrated and shown in the gift of and in the death of His
Son. That's what John 3.16 says and
is all about. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son." Gave Him for what? As an offer? No, He gave Him as a sacrifice,
gave Him to die that death that would accomplish the salvation
of His people. You think about how many talk
about the love of God and how they diminish the death of His
Son. They reduce the love of God to
nothing because of what they say about the death of Christ. That's right. It doesn't matter
how much or how often or how sincerely One talks about the
love of God if at the same time they are under, on the other
hand, diminishing and making little of the very demonstration
of that love in the death of Jesus Christ. Because you see, if the death
of Christ If this great act of love, if this demonstration of
the love of God, if it didn't actually accomplish something
for us, if it did not actually save us from all our sins, what
good is the love of God? What good is it? If God said,
if He actually had said, He loves me, and knowing the state that
I'm in, knowing that I'm dead in trespasses and sin, knowing
the rebel I am by nature, and all my difficulties and inability
to save myself, if He is able and He loves me and doesn't save
me, what good is His love? And how
much is it different from what men call love in our day? No, the love of God is in Christ
Jesus. And one of the very things that
demonstrates that is how that everyone that He loves and everyone
that He gave His Son to die for, He comes in power and sheds that
love abroad in their hearts. And it's revealed in the sufferings
and the death of Christ. You see, in truth, there may
be times when I in some sense feel that I am loved of God. And yet there may be at the same
time and maybe many more times than not, that I do not feel
the love of God. That I do not feel that God loves
me. That I do not see any way He
could love me. But you know what? His love is
always the same, always unchangeable, and always there for everyone
to see in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is most definitely to
be seen for what He is, this love of God in Christ, when we
consider those He loved for and died for. Now, who are they? Do you know that people come
to this book without any reading of it hardly at all, without
any understanding of the message of this book? They just kind
of open up the book and somebody points them to it and they say,
well, that means that God has shed His love abroad in the hearts
of everybody. Is that true? Absolutely not. If you turn back
to the first chapter of this book, Romans chapter 1, and you
see that this letter, which is what it is, the epistle of Paul
the Apostle to the Romans. This letter was sent just like
you'd send a letter addressed to and intended for a particular
group of people. Paul begins this letter. He identifies
himself. He tells upon which authority
he writes what he writes. He glorifies Christ and then
looks at what it says in verse 7, "...to all that be in Rome beloved
of God, called saints." Called saints. The saints of
God. Not so because some religious
body determined or made them saints, but these every one in
Jesus Christ rightly called saints, these saints that were at Rome,
and the saints of God in every age following that." Now, what does that word saint
mean? It means those that were set apart by God. Those that are regarded as holy
by God. Those that He has set apart for
His own glory, for His own use, for His own purpose and grace. And they are set apart in the
sense that He brings them by His Spirit to believe the truth
the word of the truth of the gospel. They believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, they are called and regarded
in Christ by God as these saints, called by His Spirit, the called
of Jesus Christ. But how does He describe these
that He loves in themselves? What does he remind us of? What did Paul remind these saints
at Roma? Well, look down at verse 6. For when you were yet without
strength, those that God loves, they were,
they are of themselves and they are brought to confess that they
are without strength. I don't know of a word or a phrase
that describes me any better. And the farther I go physically,
the more I age, the more I realize in my own body I am without strength,
but the more also And even more greatly, I realize that spiritually,
without strength, helpless, impotent, no ability
to please God, no ability to save ourselves, no way to satisfy
divine justice, nothing. to offer to God. That's who God loves, those that
are without strength. All right, look down at the latter
part of that verse. It says, in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly That means something like this,
that God condemns us. Rebels against God. Those who
by nature, left to themselves all their days, have condemned
God, if not outwardly, in their heart. Blamed Him for everything that
they think went wrong. It says Christ died for the ungodly. All right? Look down at verse
8. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners. He is still talking about those
He loves. Isn't it amazing how we, When
it says plainly that He came into the world to save sinners,
He came to seek and to save sinners, that He loves sinners, that we
run as hard as we can from the very place and position that
He says He loves, sinners. We are sinners by nature. We
are sinners by birth. We are sinners through our fall
in Adam, which you will expound upon much more in the coming
verses. We are sinners and sinning. That's us. This means that we were sinners,
if you notice here, before we were born. Do you ever look at that verse?
For when we were yet without strength in due time, or that
is, in appointed time, God commended His love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners. When we had already sinned in
Adam, and before we were ever born
on this earth, which he knew we would come forth from the
womb sinning, he said, Christ died for us. That means that those that God
loves, they were sinners before they
were born. If it says, while we were yet
sinners, that Christ died for the ungodly, That means that our sinnerhood
has roots in our fall in Adam. And the reason that we come forth
sinning is because we are sinners. But it says, while we were yet
sinners, He loved us. And He sent His Son to die in
our place. And then in verse 10, He describes
us. He says, for if when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Nobody likes to think that they've
ever been the enemy of God. But you see, the love of God
in all these verses, it is shown that it is not some mere sentiment
or emotion or benevolence in God. In other words, the Spirit of
God teaches us that if we have an ability to give, It is nothing
if we walk by those who are empty or thirsty and say to them, be
ye warm and full." He said, that's not of God, and
neither is it like God. Because those He loves. Verse
8, it says this, "...but God commendeth His love toward us." It doesn't say He loves everybody
in the world. It says He commended His love
toward us, these saints, the called of Jesus Christ. What would happen if you went
out today and you told some of these people who are trying to
promote this universal love of God, if you told them to leave
the one that they're married to and go love somebody else? Well, they'd look you straight
in the eye and they'd say to you, let me tell you this, it's
my business who I love. That's exactly right to a degree,
but to no degree Is it this truth with God? It is His business
who He loves. And He loves His people in Christ,
and He commendeth His love. Now, it is my understanding that
the tense in which that word is given is a continuing sense. It means that this is something
that He has done, and it is something that He is doing, and it is something
that He will continue to do. He has been, and is, and shall
continue to command His love toward us. What does that mean? It means that God's love is always
in action toward His people. Everything that happens to them,
everything that is given to them, everything that He brings to
bear in their lives, everything is an act of His love, even when
He chastens us. He says, that the very chastisement
of God concerning His children, that is an act of love. Here, commends means something
like this, God proves His love. I went down a long list to see
how different ones translated or interpreted that word, commended,
and here are a variety of them. God proves His love, or God establishes
His love, or God confirms His love, or manifests His love,
or gives proof of His love. Did you know that you and I,
if we are His children, could live in this world and outwardly
to the natural eye of man, it might appear that God hated us
every step of the way. And yet in truth, it be that He loved us. You know, the Bible in most cases,
sets forth the love of God in the past tense. Just go look. You won't find loves, but you
sure will find loved. And we are to trace back the
origins of God's love toward His people to old eternity before
the world was before we ever existed physically? Because to thank Him for His
love and to praise Him for His love, we've got to see that all
that He did for us is because He loved us. He loved
us and did this. He loved us and did that. He
loved us and gave this one. That's the way it is in this
book. And He never changes. He never
falls out of love with His people because His love has always been
for them as they are in Christ. But God gives proof of His love. What is it? in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Somebody said this has a twofold application. Commended means,
on the one hand, approving, or the approving and establishing
of things, and also the recommending of persons. he commendeth his love toward
us." And he puts right behind that, he contrasts that to man's
love. If you look down in verse 7,
he says, "...for scarcely for a righteous man," or for an honest
man, "...will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die." But God in love sent His Son
who died for us while we were yet sinners. You see, the most of what God
does for His people, He does for them and has done
for them while they were in themselves members of a rebel race. while they were at the very time
sinning? While they were at the very hour
shaking their fists in the face of God all the time? What is
he doing? He is loving them. And that is a lot different from
man's love. The love of God is through the
justifying blood of Jesus Christ by which we are saved. Look at
verse 9. He says, "...much more then, being now justified, or having
been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through him." Now, what kind of a person stands up in the
name of God and tries to dangle over the heads of his people
fear of the wrath of God on them. Can't we see what he says here? Since the love of God is through
this justifying blood of Jesus Christ. Since the demonstration
of God's love to us was in Christ's death through which we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. Why? Because He bore our wrath. That's what He said. I laid down
my life. for the sheep. He died in the greatest act and
demonstration of love, especially divine love that ever has been
or ever will be. And we'll be saved from wrath. Because we've already been saved
from wrath through him, he bore the wrath of God. Now, I want you to look at this
tenth verse, because I want us to make sure that we understand
some things about our being enemies and this reconciliation that
he speaks of. 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, or
saved in His life. Now, first of all, Only friends need
to be reconciled. Just have to remember that. He calls us here enemies. He says, for if when we were
enemies, that's what we acted like. That
was the enmity in our hearts toward God. We acted as enemies
toward Him. But we weren't His enemies. You can't be loved with an everlasting
love by God. You can't be chosen in Christ
before the world began in Christ. And every other thing that the
Bible says about his people, you can't be all those things
and be the enemy of God. You can act like God's enemy,
which we did. Sad to say, but even now sometimes
it seems like we do. We could be, as Paul says in
Ephesians 2, by nature, the children of wrath even as others. But his people have always been
his children. He said, I lay down my life for
my friends. You think about that. I'll let
somebody get you all messed up and say that here's this dramatic
thing that's taken place. Now, you once were a child of
the devil, now you're a child of God. Or you were once an enemy
and now you're a friend. That is not what this book teaches.
And if we regard it like that, it would make God mutable. It would make Him changing. And
he said, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob,
you are not consumed. Friends need to be reconciled
when there is a division, when there is a breach, when one of
those friends plays the fool. John Gill, old John Gill, with
all his faults, he made some statements that
just sum some things up that I don't think can be beat. This
is what he said concerning reconciliation. He says, 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." Do you see that? God never changed. He never ceased
loving, though we fell in at Him, though we lived most our
days maybe. That thief that He brought to
Himself on the cross all His days lived as a rebel against
God. But God loved him. And you know
what the clearest proof of it was? The one who was hanging
on that middle cross. who said, ìToday, youíll be with
me in paradise.î You see, God is unchanging. Heís
never changed in His love toward us. Weíre the ones who had to
be reconciled to Him, and we were unable and unwilling to
do this. We acted as enemies. The natural mind, the carnal
mind is enmity. against God. But he did it. Do you see this here? For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Boy, that's
wonderful, isn't it? when we didn't have any desire
to be reconciled, when we were still playing out the role of
an enemy, when we had no ability. We were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. We were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. Nothing can be added to that. Nothing can be taken away from
that. And God help us to see that. Here is the real deal if you turn over to
2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5, and look down
at verse Eight. Eighteen, rather. And all things are of God. That's the way it is in creation.
That's certainly the way it is in providence. But, oh, it really
is the way it is in salvation. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, the gospel of reconciliation, which is what?
To tell men and women that God was in Christ reconciled. Then he says this, "...to wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation." Now, Paul is writing this to
the church at Corinth. He is writing this to believers.
And he said, you've got to remember this. that God was in Christ
reconciling us to himself, and he's given us this gospel. And
you've gone out, as I have, and sought to bear witness of it
and preach it, and you've run into some real problems. Then he says, now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. You mean there is something left
for me to do to be reconciled to God when it has already told
us two times here and elsewhere too that God We were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. No, he's saying here, you be
reconciled to whatever circumstance I bring in my providence to you.
You be reconciled in whether or not this gospel meets with
acceptance, or whether you get cast in prison like I have, or
whatever happens. And live your lives. in a way that adorns the doctrine
of God our Savior. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. But if only friends need to be
reconciled, why are we called enemies in verse 10? For this reason, though God has
never been the enemy of His people, they have acted as and shown
themselves as enemies to Him. But He demonstrated His love
even when they acted as such, even when they were hostile toward
Him, even when they appeared to be at war with Him. What was
He doing? He was commending His love. toward
us. Look over in Colossians, the
first chapter, and I think this tells us and explains a lot about
this business of being an enemy. Colossians 1 and verse 20, he said, by the blood of His cross, by
Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind." Do you see that? You were enemies in your mind,
it says, by wicked works. Why? Because in your fallen,
depraved mind, you thought that you had done something or were
something or had something that commended you to God. He said those were wicked works. Christ described them as works
of iniquity. Yet now hath he reconciled us. He reconciled us. And we shall
be saved from wrath, and that by his life, or in his life, through his ever living to make
intercession for us, and through his living in us through faith,
And not only that, look at verse 11, and not only so, but we also joy in God. We not only have our sins put
away, we not only are going to be saved from wrath, we not only
are reconciled to God, but we joy or exult in God. Before, you could mention the
name of God. You could say what He says in
Scripture, and it would bring fear to us. But mention His high and holy
name. Tell about how He commended His
love toward us in that Christ died for us, and we have no greater
joy. We glory in nothing but Christ
and Him crucified. We glory, we rejoice in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the reconciliation. That's what that
word is. You see, atonement means something
like a covering. And that's why all through the
Old Testament, all those sacrifices of the Old Testament, they were
atonement. They were like a covering. For when Christ died, he made
the real reconciliation. And it's the same word translated,
reconciliation, elsewhere in the Scriptures. We rejoice in
God. How can we, wretched rebels,
How can we rejoice in God? In the Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the reconciliation. We are at peace with God. We
joy in God. We have no fear of the coming
wrath because of His love. He reconciled us to Himself through
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He revealed it to us. He
shed His love abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of God, who took
the things, the gospel of this crucified Christ. and showed us the peace that
He made by the blood of His cross, and declared to us in a mighty fashion that He loved us in Christ and
reconciled us unto Himself through His cross death. I was typing this today, and
I got down to the end, and in my mind that old hymn just kind
of broke forth. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? died he for me who caused his
pain, for me who him to death pursued." Amazing love. How can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Then it says the same thing again.
Amazing love. How can it be? that thou, my
God, should die for me." This is the love of God that
the Spirit of God sheds abroad in the hearts of His people.
It's that love that is in Christ who died for us. God help us to see it, to believe
it, to appreciate it, to thank Him for it, and to joy in it. Our blessed God, we thank You
tonight. We say also with that old hymn
writer, Hail Sovereign Love. the love of God which is in Christ,
the love that you proved and demonstrated and manifested to
us in that you gave Christ to die for our sins. Lord, we can't talk much about
our love for you without feeling so hypocritical. that we can surely talk about
your love for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you tonight. We
pray for your people as they are scattered abroad throughout
the earth. And for your true servants who
labor to preach the gospel and glorify you and not themselves,
may you have all honor and praise and glory. And receive our thanks as you
must receive us and everything about us in your beloved Son. We pray in his name. We pray through His blood. Amen.