I realize that preachers are
often given to exaggeration when they wish to make a point. I
try never to do that, but today, in what I had to say in my opening
remarks, I want particularly not to do that. I have written
out what I want to say with much care, and I want you to listen
carefully. I can't tell you how very heavy
my heart has been since Friday morning. On Friday morning, the
Supreme Court of the United States ruled that sodomites must be
protected by law in the practice and the promotion of their perversity,
not only with impunity, but under protection of law. June 26, 2015 shall forever mark in my mind
the most infamous day in American history. I've given that a lot of thought.
No evil day in the history of this nation we love is more infamous. And we've had some infamous days.
But the evil consequences upon our nation and the world as a
result of what was declared by the Supreme Court Friday morning
will have consequences such as none of us can imagine. Yes,
we've had some infamous days. December 7th, 1941, the Japanese
assaulted Pearl Harbor and killed 2,400 people. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme
Court legalized the murder of innocent babies in the womb.
And since that order by the Supreme Court, almost 60 million babies
have been butcherously ripped from their mothers' wombs and
slaughtered. September 1, 2001. Muslim terrorists attacked the
United States and 3,000 people were slaughtered. But January
26, 2015 will bring more evil consequences
upon our nation and the world than all those previous days
of infamy combined. There is no crime against humanity. There is no crime against humanity
so great, so evil, so vile as the destructive practice of sodomy. This act by black-robed reprobates
is the just judgment of God upon a people who have with willful
determination cast off the fear of God. These things are not accidents. They are works of divine judgment
upon a people who have deliberately shut their eyes to the light
God gave them and stopped their ears to the voice of God's servants,
refusing to hear God lest they should obey his word. I wrote
to a friend of mine Friday afternoon who asked me about this very
thing. And I said two things content my soul in the face of
this sad, dark day of divine judgment upon the nation we love. First, I am content with the
fact that our God is on his throne. He always does right. And what God has done is right. It is right. He never errors. He never does wrong. What God
has done is right. He only doeth wondrous things. And second, I am content because
of the marvelous loving-kindness and tender mercies of our God. Blessed be His name, in wrath
He still remembers mercy. I know He does because I've experienced
it. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. Heavy as my heart has been, oh,
what a message God has given me for you and for this day in
which we live. Open your Bibles to Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5. I have nothing new, nothing novel
to preach. My subject is as old as the everlasting
heels and it is a subject so simple that any child can understand
it. And yet is a message new to my
heart every day and the deepest mystery man ever considered. The most profound truth a human
tongue ever attempted to declare. Romans chapter five, verse eight. God help you to hear him. God
commendeth his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Oh spirit of God, give me grace
and power to proclaim this day the greatest possible display,
the great commendation of God's love to sinners in the sacrifice
of his darling son. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Every time I read and study those
words, I stand amazed. I marvel at the wonders here
declared and revealed to sinners who deserve God's everlasting
wrath. Here, God, the triune Jehovah,
lays naked His tender heart. God, in giving His Son to die
in the place of sinners, gave all His love at once. Behold the crucified Christ.
beholding him behold all the love of God behold the crucified
Christ and beholding him behold all the love of God behold how
he loved him the Jews said when they saw our Savior weep at Lazarus
tomb What shall we then say of this love beyond compare in bleeding
for us? Here God shows us all His love. Oh, let it ravish our hearts. Let it ravish our hearts until
we see Him face to face who was entirely put to death, being
fastened upon the cursed tree as our substitute. To know the
love of God is heaven on earth. And the New Testament shows us
plainly that this is not the privilege of a select few saints
if they live just right and behave just right. But rather this knowledge
of God's love is the normal part of everyday life for every child
of God. The Holy Ghost tells us in verse
5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. That's not talking about our
love for God. Rather it is talking about God's
love for us. And when the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the revelation of Christ, God giving us faith
in Christ assures us of his love for us. We have known and believed
the love God hath for us. Listen to this prayer. This is
Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. This is my prayer for you. That
God would grant you according to the riches of his glory. to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Paul is not talking about some
faint, passionate impressions of God's love, but a deep, overwhelming, abiding
knowledge of God's love. This is the ministry of the divine
comforter. When God the Spirit comes, he
comes and convinces sinners of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. By that, he comforts them. He
comforts us with this knowledge that our sin has been put away. That righteousness has been accomplished
for us by Christ the Redeemer. And judgment is over. Thereby,
he comforts us with the assurance of the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts. We know the love of God for us,
Paul tells us in our text. above all else because of what
he has done for us by the sacrifice of his son. God's love is known
for us by the sacrifice of his son. We see his love in providence. We read about his love in his
word. We hear of his love in the preaching
of the gospel, but here is how God commends His love to us. He gave His Son to die for us. Now before I get to my text,
I think it's important for me to make comment a little bit
about the statement found twice in 1 John chapter 4, God is love. God is love. But understand this,
Please understand this. That is not all that God is. That is not all that God is. Oh yes, thank God. God is love,
but God is also holy. He will not abide sin. God is
righteous. He demands righteousness. God
is just. He said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And by warning after warning
after warning after warning in His providence, God has told
you, soon you shall die. You will meet God in judgment.
There's no question about that. You know it. Your conscience
verifies it. Every day as you read the newspaper,
you hear it written again, soon you will meet God in judgment.
Yes, God is love. But God is holy. He's righteous
and He's just. He's angry with the wicked every
day. And He declares, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. But I am quick to tell you this
statement, God is love, is the complete truth about God
for everybody in Christ. It is the complete truth about
God for everybody in Christ. For those who are in Christ,
every act of Jehovah in righteousness, in justice, and in mercy is an
act of God's love. For those who are in Christ,
all that God is and all that God does declares God is love. If you would know the love of
God, get to Christ. Without Christ, God is all anger,
wrath, and justice. In Christ, God is love. This is all my hope, all my joy,
and all my assurance. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. Now, let's look at Romans 5 verse
8. God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here is a people loved. Here
is a love displayed. And here is love satisfied. Three things, Romans chapter
5 verse 8. Learn this first. God has a people
in this world whom he loves. I'm not talking about God's benevolence
and kindness. I'm not talking about what some
people call common grace. Their imaginations run wild with
them and they think that because God gives frogs food to eat,
And God gives fleas, dogs to chew on. And God gives dogs bones
to gnaw on. God loves frogs and fleas and
dogs. That's just nonsense. You see, there's a sense in which
God loves everybody. If you can get some comfort from
the idea that God loves you like He loves a frog, I won't rob
you of that. But that's not what this text
is talking about. This text is talking about God's special. peculiar, distinguishing, saving
love toward His own elect. God's love for His elect is altogether
free, sovereign, and independent. This is His great love wherewith
He loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and in sins. Now let me tell you something
about the greatness of God's love for us. These are things
that distinguish God's love from that which we call love in ourselves. God's love is a love of which
the world has no part. There are those in this world
who are not the objects of God's love. Let that sink in. There are some
people in this world God does not love. and you have no reason
to be suspicious that God might love you until you believe on
his side. There is no revelation, no knowledge
of God's love apart from faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. The
fact is the Lord God says, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I
hated. I have those words thrown at
me All the time, folks write up except for what they hear
me preach, and they see me write. And I say, well, what does that
mean? If I had said it, you wouldn't
have any trouble understanding it, would you? If you had said
it, I wouldn't have any trouble understanding it. It means exactly
what you think it means. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. This is how it's described by
God himself in Malachi chapter 1. I have loved you, saith the
Lord, yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us? That is, how have
you loved us like you ever loved anybody else? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. Children of God, we should never
cease to be amazed. that God should love any of Adam's
fallen race. And our heart should be humbled
in deep adoration with the sense, with the assurance, with the
revelation of God's love for us. Imagine that, rich bird. God set his heart on you from
eternity. Imagine that. Imagine that. Before the world was, God loved
us. And his love for us is absolutely
free and sovereign. The cause is all together in
himself. He didn't love us because of
anything good he foresaw would be in us. There was nothing good
in us before He loved us, and nothing good in us since He loved
us to attract His love. The death of Christ itself is
not a cause of God's love, but rather the revelation of His
love. John Kemp put it this way, "'Twas
not to make Jehovah's love toward His people flame, that Jesus
from the throne above a suffering man became, "'Twas not the death
which he endured, nor all the pains he bore, that God's eternal
love procured. For God was love before." God's
love is everlasting. It is from everlasting to everlasting. "'I have loved Thee with everlasting
love,' the Lord God said to His prophet. "'Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn Thee.'" How my soul rejoices to know this, too. God's
love for his people, like God himself, is immutable. It never changes. It is the same
yesterday, and today, and forever. We can't even imagine such love.
Our love for those dearest to us fluctuates and varies. At
times it burns and seems to consume us, and at times it's almost
forgotten. We can't even imagine love that
doesn't change. But God's love, like Himself,
changes not. He loved us. before the worlds
were made. He loved us before He created
the world. He loved us when He created the
world. He loved us when He created us
in our father Adam. And He loved us when we fell
in our father Adam. And He loved us all the days
before ever we came into this world. And loved us when we came
forth from our mother's womb speaking lies. Loved us in all
the days of our rebellion when we lived with our fists shoved
in God's face and would have God Himself out of our lives.
Yet his love changed not, but at last he conquered us by his
mighty love. In the day of love he came and
said, Thy time was the time of love, and said to us, O how he
loved us when first he gave us faith in Christ. And all these
days since, how we've sinned against him
and spurned his love. and required him evil for good,
and yet his love has never fluctuated. He loves me now as he loved me
from eternity because he would love me. Having loved his own
which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. This love
of God is perfect. Never changes in its objects,
never changes in its degree, never changes in its measure.
I recall the day our daughter was born. I got home from the
hospital about 3 or 4 o'clock on Sunday morning after Faith
was born and oh, what joy I had as I preached that morning. I
was scheduled to preach some weeks before that and God's given
us a child. My wife's safe, the daughter's
safe. Oh, what joy, what joy. And I
recall the first little trial to come up in my life as a believer.
Doctors came in the room one day and told my wife and I that
I had cancer. in the fourth stage and I wasn't
likely to survive. God did that too. God did that
too. You know why he did it? He did
that because he loves me. Because he loves me. Everything
God does, he does because of his love for his own. And here
we see God's love, that unspeakable love, displayed. God commendeth
his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons
of God. Now, look at the display of God's
love. He commends it to us. Several of us here used to be
salesmen. I think Lindsey's the only one still left. And he has
a much tougher time selling stuff than I did. Skip used to sell
shoes and men's clothes, I believe it was. I used to sell, I sold
a lot of stuff. I sold a lot of stuff. But everything
I've ever sold, I could show it to you. And Lindsey has to
explain it to you. He got to convince you that you
need to buy his product because of things you see in print. But
the things I sold, I could show them to you. Man, if you can
get the fella to come up with the cash, and he's got the cash
to buy a new Corvette, and you take it out there and show it
to him, that's a piece of cake. If he's got the cash to do it,
that's a piece of cake. You can show it to him. God commends
his love to us. by showing it to us. I've told
you this before. I don't know a better way to
illustrate what I'm saying. I went to pick out that diamond
ring she's wearing, and it ain't much, the best I could do. And
when I went in the store, they pulled that ring out of the case
and set it up on a glass with lights like those shining right
down on it and laid it on a piece of black velvet. And man, that
ring looked big and beautiful against the backdrop of that
black velvet and in the light shining upon it. Here is God's
commendation of His love to sinners. He lays it on the backdrop of human sin and depravity. and shines upon it the light
of the glory of God in the face of his dear son. God commendeth
his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Man has to have a motive for
love. God has no motive except what
he finds in himself. And the best thing that could
be given in heaven, God gave for the vilest sinners
upon the earth. Oh, child of God, trace out all
the blessings of grace that you can as you've experienced them
and received them. and trace them back to their
original cause, God's love for you. Turn back to Psalm 16. Psalm 16, I want you to see this. Psalm 66, excuse me. Psalm 66,
verse 16. David's talking about God's mercy
to him. God hearing his cries, his prayers,
He says in verse 16, Psalm 66, Come and hear, all ye that fear
God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I have long since been convinced
that the best preaching done in the world is just declaring
what God has done for my soul. I love to hear a man declare
what God's done for his soul, don't you? What he's experienced
by God's hand. This is what God's done for my
soul. He chose me. He chose me. In eternal election,
God chose me. The Lord God redeemed me with
the precious blood of His darling Son. All the days of my rebellion,
the Lord God went before me, ordered my steps, protected me,
hedged me about with His goodness, and with the goodness and mercy
of God, with the helms of heaven, chased me to my Redeemer. And at the time of love, He called
me by His grace, revealed His Son in me, gave me life and faith
in Christ. God calls me to believe on His
Son. God gave me faith. And the Lord
God has since that day upheld and preserved me. Though I fall
a thousand times a day, the Lord lifts me up. Though the Lord
God has found nothing in me attractive. everything in his Son attractive
and made me to be everything in his Son attractive so that
God speaks and says of me, you've ravished my heart. There is no
spot in you. That's called love beyond The
Lord God hears my prayers. He makes known his will. He comforts
us in trial, gives us peace in death, and at last will bring
us to eternal glory. But here is God's commendation
of love. These things all fade in the
background. These things, these things fade
almost into insignificance compared with this. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It would never have been possible
for us to know the love of God for us. if his son hadn't died
at Calvary. If there's no other explanation
ever to be found as to why God ordained the sin and fall of
Adam and the sin and fall of our race in Adam, this is sufficient. The only way we could ever know
the love of God is for God to redeem us by the blood of his
darling son from the sin and fall of our father Adam. The
cause of Christ's death is the love of God for our souls. Imagine
that. Our Lord Jesus didn't have to
die. We had no claim upon Him. We made no appeal for Him to
die. When He died, He knew that if He laid down His life for
sinners, He would get no love in return from those for whom
He died. except He created. Merle Hart, when the Son of God
died for you, He knew He would get no love in return from you
except He create that love in you. What a commendation of God's
love. He died by the hands of men as
well as for the sakes of men. He died for sinners. who wished
that he should be made to die and cried, crucify him, crucify
him. And in dying for us, our Lord Jesus took upon himself the awful mass
of shame, dishonor, and the infinite, intimate relation to sin that was required for Him to
be made our substitute. For He who knew no sin was made
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Why? Why would that Holy One? We're told that man drinks iniquity
like water. Why would the Holy Lamb of God
drink my sin into His old being as a thirsty man drinks water? Because He loved me. Because He Love me. This one who died for us is himself God. And he died such a death as no
man can begin to describe. A death of dreadful shame and
ignominy, but a death Completely lawful. Completely lawful. He was put
to court unlawfully by the Romans and the Jews. Or put to death
unlawfully by the Romans and Jews as Lindsay has been showing
us in John 18. But Lindsay, he was put to death
lawfully by the court of God's justice when he was made sin
for us. Our Savior died in unutterable
pain and agony, being made sin for us, forsaken of God. See from his head, his hands,
his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love
and sorrow meet? or thorns compose so rich a crown. Hear him as he cries, I thirst
because of the fever that burned in his body and in his soul.
Hear him as he cries, at God's inflexible justice, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And hear him as he cries in mercy,
let them not be ashamed for my sake. Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do. But hear him as he cries in triumph,
having finished the work for which you came into this world,
having redeemed our souls from the justice of God and the law
of God and the curse of God's law, having put away our sins
by the sacrifice of himself, our Savior cried, it is finished. My hateful sins, my cruel sins
his chief tormentors were. Each of my crimes became a nail
and unbelief the spear. My sins made his pour vengeance
down upon my savior's head. Break my heart, oh, burst my
eyes and let my sorrows bleed. Here's the third thing. Love satisfied. The God of glory,
the God of all grace, our God graciously accomplishes the eternal
salvation of every sinner for whom Christ died. He, God the Father, He, God the
Son, He, God the Spirit, shall see of the travail of His soul
and shall be satisfied. It is not possible that one sinner
for whom Christ died should die. Our sins He washed away. We're made the very righteousness
of God in Him. We're justified by His blood,
reconciled to God by His death. and saved from wrath through
Him. Every soul for whom Jesus Christ
died shall be brought at last into a living union of faith
with God's dear Son. For our Savior said, this is
the will of Him that sent me. And every sinner who comes to
Christ in faith shall be saved by His blood because Christ died
for that sinner. I bid you, right where you are,
without moving a muscle, without saying a word, without uttering
a prayer, come to Christ now. Believe on the Son of God now. Trust Jesus Christ now. Astonishing. How can I explain
this? I've been trying to believe but
now I do. I've been trying to believe but now I do. That's
because the Son of God loved you and gave himself for you
and he now comes to you. And every sinner who comes to
Christ, Christ died for that sinner because God loved him
from eternity. How do you know? Listen to this. This is the will of Him that
sent me, the crucified Savior says, that everyone which seeth
the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. You wonder, would God save a
wretch like me? Would God save a sinner like
me? How can I tell you how anxious
God is to save sinners? God commends His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Paul, does that still thrill
your soul? Christ died for me. We have one
picture of God in all scripture, getting in a hurry. Just what? When God created the heavens
and the earth, he wasn't in any hurry. He could have, what he did on
those seven days of the restoration of the earth, he could have done
it like that. But he wasn't in any hurry. He just did things
at his leisure. always does things at his leisure.
God's never pacing back and forth in heaven, never in a hurry,
except on one occasion, on one occasion. When the prodigal son
came home, his father saw him when he was yet a great way off.
This is what the book says about his father, picturing our God
ran. Oh, God runs in mercy to greet
sinners coming for mercy. He ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and
kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and kissed Him. That's what God
does when sinners come to Him. Because God commendeth His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Amen.