THE LOVE OF GOD DEMONSTRATED
Rom. 5:6-11
INTRODUCTION
A. AN UNUSUAL SURVEY was done a few years ago;
1. Participants in the survey were asked this question; “What 3 word sentence would you most like to hear or have said to you?”
2. The top three answers capture the heart of our needs & wants:
a. “I love you;”
b. “I forgive you;”
c. “Supper is ready!”
3. Doesn’t that pretty much sum up our needs? We need to be loved, forgiven, and we need provision.
4. God meets every one of these needs. In fact he meets all of these needs because of the eternal, unconditional fact that He Loves Us.
B. WHY IS THE LOVE OF GOD SO IMPORTANT?
1. It’s something that will change our past, and redirect our future.
2. It is something that will ease the pain of broken hearts, and shattered dreams, and give us the peace that we need for our souls.
3. It is something that will give us confidence that we are of value, that we matter, and that we are accepted by the One that matters most.
4. I want us to talk about the LOVE OF GOD!
C. TEXT
6 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
D. TITLE
1. So we’re going to look at ways God has revealed His love, who the objects of God’s love are, and the effects of God’s love.
2. Title of this message “The Love of God Demonstrated.”
I. HOW GOD DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE
A. GOD’S LOVE IS OFTEN OBSCURED
1. God’s love is often obscured/clouded in this world – by sin, sickness, death, wars, catastrophes, etc.
2. But God has made great efforts to teach us what love is. HOW?
B. HE PUT US IN FAMILIES Ps. 68:6; “He sets the solitary in families.” IN FAMILIES WE LEARN:
1. How to love each other, to get along w/ others,
2. How to forgive, to overlook an insult;
3. How to not always get our way
WE ALSO LEARN:
1. The sweetness of a mother’s love
2. The sternness/ excitement of a father’s love.
3. We parents learn the joy of loving our children from infants to adults.
4. We bond in lifelong relationships with our kids and our spouses.
5. HUMOR. Two wives were talking. One said, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that Nathan had focused less on my looks.” The other said, “Not Jason! As I get older, he says I get even more beautiful every day." The first said, “Yeah, but that’s because your husband is an antique dealer!"
C. HE GAVE US THE BEAUTY OF NATURE
1. God made all things beautiful and for our enjoyment.
2. All the mountains, stars, waterfalls, flowers, brilliant colors, myriad of bugs, animals, undersea creatures, beautiful birds, etc., are astounding.
3. God made them all for us. "[God] has not left Himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy" Acts 14:17. But some could miss the connection to God’s love, so…
D. THE GREATEST DEMONSTRATION OF HIS LOVE
1. But God pulled back the curtain, displaying before the world His love in all its matchless tenderness and grandeur.
2. Paul describes it as having breadth and length and
depth and height (Eph. 3:18).
3. But Romans 5:8 says that God “demonstrates” his love to us. He sets it before us for our observation and admiration – so that we might be attracted and our hearts melted, so that we might come to Him.
II. WHO THE OBJECTS OF GOD’S LOVE ARE
… As shown in the death of Jesus Christ His Son.
A. WHO THE OBJECTS WERE NOT
1. Was it the Angels that were the objects? No – they did not need His death.
2. Was it only for “good” men and women? No – that would limit His love. The Bible says that “none” were good, that “all have sinned.”
B. WHO THE OBJECTS WERE
1. Those in a state of Helplessness – “without strength” (verse 6).
a. We can’t stop sickness or death.
b. We can’t live (on our own) morally upright.
c. We can’t save ourselves.
2. Those who were ungodly – “Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6). “Ungodly” = those indifferent to spiritual things (like Esau).
3. But God goes lower – into the depths of sin. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8).
4. “Enemies!” “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (v. 10).
5. ILLUS. In the March 22, 2010, issue of Time, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author of Made for Goodness (HarperOne, 2010), was featured. Readers submitted questions to him. Tutu was asked, “What is your favorite Bible verse & why?
Tutu answered: Romans 5:8. "[While] we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It sums up the Gospel wonderfully. We think we have to impress God so that God could love us. But he says, "No, you are loved already, even at your worst."
C. THE TREMENDOUS SELFLESSNESS OF GOD’S LOVE
1. A LOVE…
Not for the deserving, but for the Undeserving.
Not for the obedient, but for the disobedient.
Not for the Just, but for the Unjust.
Not for His friends, but for His enemies.
2. If you’ve ever tried to love your enemies? Those who have done you injury, you know how hard it is. But God loved His enemies, made them the objects of His love, and saw that they should dwell with Him forever!
D. ILLUSTRATION
1. A young man who proved daring during the American Revolution afterward became a distinguished statesman. But he had a weakness – alcohol, and he became a hopeless drunk.
2. As his career had climbed, he had become engaged to a beautiful young woman, but when he lost his character due to drink, she broke off their engagement, foreseeing where his life was leading.
3. One day she was driving along in a carriage and she saw him lying in a ditch, drunk. His face was fully exposed to the mid day sun and she knew that in an hour he would be blistered. Her heart went out to him, so she reigned in the horses, got down, and placed one of her handkerchiefs over his face.
4. He later awoke and found the handkerchief. It was embossed with her initials. When he realized that she had seen him at his worst, yet stopped to assist him, he was filled with a thrill of hope and sprang to his feet, saying aloud, “She still loves me! All is not yet lost! I will redeem my life!” He did and they were ultimately reunited and were married.
5. Convince a man/woman that you love them and you’ll win their hearts. Convince lost people that God loves them and they’ll crowd into the kingdom.
6. Most people think God hates them; that’s why they’re running away from Him. But “God is love.”
III. THE EFFECTS OF GOD’S LOVE
A. ON GOD’S SIDE IT INVOLVED SACRIFICE
1. The greatest sacrifice the world has ever known. Genuine love.
2. Think how it must have grieved the Father to see His only, innocent and holy Son (His very heart) slapped and whipped and crucified at the hands of wicked men in a frenzy of passion and hatred.
3. What a sacrifice to make for us! How many of you would turn your child over to a murderer to be tortured and killed?
B. ILLUS.:
1. As a country, we are still reeling from many tragic events. One story is told by a survivor of the 2015 San Bernardino shootings, 27-year-old Denise Peraza.
2. Her life was spared, not because the shooter saw her and turned the other way, but because a valiant man named Shannon Johnson shielded her body with his own and saved her life.
3. When the shooting started, the children were huddled next to each other under the same table, using a fallen chair as a shield from the bullets being fired across the room.
4. She said, “I will always remember Shannon Johnson’s left arm wrapped around me, holding me as close as possible next to him behind that chair. And amidst all the chaos, he said these three words: "I got you."
5. Those three words: "I got you" are God's three words to you, not just in time of need, but all the time. That’s what Jesus was saying when He went to the Cross, “I got you!” The Lord Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. He says, "Don’t be afraid, I got you!"
C. ROMANS 8:38-39; “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Two brothers had a violent argument and fight. Each vowed never to speak to the other. Years passed.
2. Their mother was dying. She sent for her sons to come see her, but they wouldn't be in the same room.
3. Finally she convinced them to stand on opposite sides of her bed. With her last dying effort, she pulled their two hands together, and died.
4. With her death, she reconciled the brothers. That's what Jesus did. He took God the Father with one hand and us with the other, and dying on the cross, he put our hands together!
B. ALTAR CALL
1. HOW MANY NEED TO BE ASSURED OF GOD’S LOVE TODAY? Slip up your hand.
2. God’s looking for people to demonstrate His love through. Will you be one? Love the unlovable, the ungodly and even your enemies? Demonstrate what His love is like.
3. Do you need healing or forgiveness? Slip up your hands. We’re going to pray.
