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Brothers and sisters in the Lord, I shared with you last Sunday morning that one of the
things that happens when by faith in Jesus Christ we become the children of God is that
God pours his love into our hearts, that is to say we begin to experience and the core of
our being, the reality of God's love. It isn't only an intellectual exercise any longer. His
spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. That's of course what Paul talks
about in verse 5 of this chapter when he says, "Hole does not disappoint us because God's love
has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." And the irony
of all of that is that the difficulties in the trials of life instead of robbing us of that
experience of God's love, more often than not, are the instrument that God uses to bring out the
awareness of the love that he has for you and for me. And many of us here this morning I'm sure
can testify to the fact that there have been those times when our backs were driven against the
wall. And on an outward surface issue there wasn't a lot of reason to be joyful and there wasn't
a lot of reason to be hopeful. But in the middle of that crisis there was an awareness of God's love
and God's power that carried us through and we knew that it would be okay because God is on his
throne in heaven. I am his child and he loves me with an everlasting love. God's love has been
poured into my heart through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Now unfortunately
not all of God's people are able to identify with that experiential knowledge of God's love
poured out in their hearts. And not only that, but even those of God's people that know how to
experience or that have experienced that love of God should have brought in their hearts
will acknowledge that more often than not we're not very much aware of it at all.
And there are many reasons for that of course but I believe one of the reasons is that sometimes
we just really feel unworthy of God's love. And we wonder how God can put up with us and we wonder
if the day is coming when God will just sort of pull the plug on us because we've been too bad
for too long and we've gone too far. Haven't you ever felt that way? You know God comes to you
in His love. He shows the reality of the sacrifice of Jesus. You respond in faith with all that is
within your heart. And you say yes Lord I want to love you. I want to live for you. I want to serve
you. I want to do your will. And you put all the energy that you have into gear and you try to
be all of the things that God wants you to be and then you discover it's not that easy.
And you fail. And you can't overcome those certain bad habits that are a part of your life.
And you become discouraged. And you begin to wonder maybe God's love is meant for everybody else
but me. And you kind of throw in the towel because it's just become too hard and you can imagine how
God will want to put up with you because He's put up with you for so long. I believe that's especially
true of new believers when they start struggling with overcoming old patterns in their lives.
I also believe that it's true especially of people that have been raised in a situation
where the love they received from their parents or from other people around them was a
conditional kind of love. The kind of love that said I love you if you measure up but I'll throw
you out and I will punish you when I will reject you when you don't quite measure up
to what my expectations are of your life. How do you overcome that? How can you live with the
confidence that the love that God is for you is a love that will carry you through and present you
before the throne of God without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. Well that's what Paul
begins to talk about now in verses 6 through 11 of this chapter as he begins to elaborate upon the
nature of the love that God has poured out in our hearts. And he does that in these verses I think
in a most interesting fashion because he begins saying on what we were like when God's love
first found us three times in his passage he tells us what we were like when God first gave
his son Jesus to die for our sins. Verse 6 while we were still weak at the right time
Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us on then verse 10 if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. Do
you notice the parallel structure in each of these verses while we were still weak while we
were yet sinners while we were enemies what's Paul saying. Well what Paul is saying is that when
God first proposed in his heart to bring you and me and to fellowship with himself there wasn't
anything that he saw in your life or in my life that made us worthy to be saved that's a tough
and bitter pill to swallow for humanity but the Bible teaches it again and again and again
we were Paul says number one week that is to say there wasn't any strength in us
that made us even want to be able to reach out to God let alone be able to
number two Paul says we were sinners that is to say people who stubbornly and determinedly
decided to go their own way rather than God's way and then Paul says number three and you'll
notice the progression here gets worse all the time he says we were enemies that is to say
we didn't only just ignore God we didn't only not have the power to reach out to God
but we were actively opposed to God we viewed God as an enemy we wanted nothing to do with him
and we fought him with everything that is within us do you understand that to be the condition
of your own heart do you understand this morning that from God's point of view
apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ that's how we are towards God
now if other people treated us that way what would we do
but we'd make shortshifter than wouldn't we I mean you just don't have a relationship with people
like that but the amazing thing of God's love says Paul here in this passage is that while we were
all of these things Christ died for us and his whole argument in this passage then
is that God knew us through and through and through and he knew that we were weak he knew that we
were sinners he knew that we were his adversaries wanted nothing to do with him and yet
fully knowing that in his love decided to send his son into the world helped him to live our life
and die our death ascended into heaven said down at the right hand of God poured out his holy spirit
and by the spirit of God came to you and to me with his grace while we were yet soldiers
and he said I know you're not worthy to be saved I know there is nothing in you that would make
me want you to be part of my family because you're a rotten miserable little whatever
but Paul says in this God's love was shown that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
and that's when his argument here becomes really interesting because he now goes on to say
if that's what we were like before God sent his son into the world and he nevertheless
reached out to me where I was knowing that I was not worthy to be saved and to be loved and to
experience his salvation much more now he says that we have been saved by the death of Jesus
and have become a part of God's family how much more will now God pour out his love into my life
and carry me through and bring me into victory verse 10 listen to it again if while we were enemies
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more I love that phrase much more
now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life two sets of contrasts there I want us to
notice this morning enemies reconciled to God that's one set removed from God restored to God
friends of God the second set of contrasts that you find in that one verse is the death of Jesus
versus the life of Jesus and without trying to make it complicated would Paul is really saying
here I believe is this he says there was a day when I was alienated from God
and there was nothing in me that would want God to save me but he says so great is the love in the
heart of God even though while I was weak while I was a sinner while I was an enemy God chose to
bring me into a relationship with him by the death of his son when his son died on the cross
the issue of sin and guilt was dealt with and we became reconciled to God we are now the friends
of God because of the death of Jesus but he says and this is the clincher if that's how much God
loved me when I was a stranger and an enemy and doomed for hell now that he has brought me into
his family by the death of his son how much more God having done all of that will he now take me
and lead me into glory by the power of Jesus who is no longer dead but who's alive because you see
we are saved by his life that is to say Jesus sits at the right hand of God and because he has
overcome death and hell and all of its anguish ever lives and reigns to make it her session for the
children of God and of God love me enough to let his son die for me what I was a sinner how much
more now that I am no longer a sinner but a member of his family and Jesus lives at the right
hand of God how much more will he pour into my life everything that I need to carry me through
and to bring me to glory if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son
much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life picture it this way
you're a married couple you've got some children of your own
but your heart's full of love and you want to find more children into which you can pour out that
love and you go to the orphanage shades of and of green gables here and you go to the orphanage
to pick out a child to take into your family and to bless with everything that you've got
but instead of just going around to see who's got the cutest face and who's got the best background
and who would best fit into your family you're so filled with love and you're so confident of your
love that you reach out to the least likely candidate for adoption maybe a child that's
malformed maybe mentally handicapped a child that you know in and of itself can
can never give you the kind of joy that perhaps a healthy child would give you but but you're so
full of love that you picked the worst possible kind of child and you bring that one into your
family you know it's medical history you know what its prognosis is and you know that you're
heading for a lot of trouble but you're going to do it the child grows up and sure enough your
worst fears are realized emotionally psychologically and physically the child is very severely handicapped
and you just got to keep on porting your love and your life into that child's life
now human parents are limited in their love aren't they?
human parents are limited in their knowledge of what really lives in the child's heart
and one of the problem that a lot of foster children encounter and a lot of foster parents'
experience is that the relationship is more than either bargained for it sometimes these
children are passed on from home to home that because anybody wants to reject them but because
we just don't have what it takes to pour out that kind of love into people's lives
but God's not like that when God called me into his family he knew exactly what was living
in my heart he knew that I was weak he knew that I was a sinner and he knew that I was an enemy
and yet in spite of all of that he sent his son to bring me into his family and now having brought
me into his family with a full four knowledge of the rebelliousness of my own heart
he is committed by his confidence and the sacrifice and the resurrection of Jesus
to pour out his love into my life and to carry me all the way through because he isn't now
going to throw me out of the door when he's done all that work to adopt me into his family
to begin with much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved
by his life I get the impression sometimes that many of God's children think that
that when God called us into his family
he underestimated what lives in our lives and we say to ourselves God you don't know what you're
in for you don't know how much anger lives in my heart you don't know how many cruddy genes
I inherited from both sides of the family and I'm not talking about pants here either
you don't know how hard it is for me to even begin to want to love you let alone do your will
and there are those times I'm sure in many of our lives where we come to that kind of point where
we say well you know everybody else pushes me away Lord I failed my father I failed my husband I
failed my wife I failed my kids I've I'm just a failure just just throw me aside because
because Lord I haven't got what it takes to see it through to the end I guess I'm just one of
these that are destined for damnation rather than for glory and Paul's argument here in Romans
chapter 5 so that while we were yet sinners Christ died for you and for me God's not taken by surprise
God's not surprised that what lives in your heart or what lives in my heart
and when he sent his son to die in the cross for our salvation he knew fully well what it was that
lived within our hearts but still he chose us to bring us into his family and having brought us
into his family he knows that his love and his grace is more powerful than everything that lives
within us because you see if we are reconciled by the death of his son much more now shall we be saved
by his life one of the things that I believe God wants us to learn as a people
is to get our eyes off ourselves offer failures offer weaknesses offer sins
and unto the person of Jesus Christ so that as Paul goes on to say in this particular passage
we can rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have received this message
of reconciliation maybe you're here this morning and you don't feel worthy of communion
maybe you're here this morning and you say to yourself you know everybody tells me God loves me
and intellectually I might understand that God loves me
but I really believe that God can love me I mean he may love other people
but if you really knew what I was really like then you would never think that God could love me
the way that I am today
and God says just be quiet God says I loved you
when you didn't even know that or what though that was there
God says I loved you when you were stubbornly and stupidly following your own way
God says I loved you when you were fighting me with everything that was within me
and I loved you so much that I gave my son to die for you so that I could bring you into my family
and God says do you think having done all that
I'm just going to stand by now
and wipe you out because I see that you have struggles and because there are burdens in
your life you don't know how to deal with
all that at all says God because I know God speaking now I know
that what Jesus did when when he died and when he arose
was to make possible the complete salvation of every part of your life and of my life
and even though we often despair and even though we think that God cannot keep on loving us
God's grace is there to the degree that as we yield to him and lay hold of his power
and ray hold of his glory that which he has begun in us that's what he will bring to completion
once we understand that
we understand why Paul when he gets to Romans chapter 8
can say I believe there is nothing but nothing at all of creation that can separate me
from the love of God in Christ Jesus
by Lord you struggle with your sin
you struggle with what lives in your heart
you struggle with becoming the man becoming the woman that God is calling you to be
do you question whether you can make it to glory and stand before God spotless and without
ring call
Paul says look at Jesus
look at the manifestation of God's love in his death and in his life
God says believe in him for nobody but nobody that hopes in him will ever be disappointed
because in him God poured out his love for you
and for me let us pray
and cannot be Lord
that you should love the likes of what we are
we're here this morning and Lord if we've taken seriously last something
night's admonition to prepare our hearts
that we know Lord that in many many areas we're not where we ought to be
and sometimes the more we see about what lives in our hearts the more we
we just sort of want to give it all up and say how could you ever love me
yet Lord we know from your word and we know from experience too there are there are persons
upon persons in this auditorium even this morning
I will have discovered that time and time again as they sought to run away from you
your love pursued and your love won
and we pray now Lord that as we join together in the sacrament
that you'll help us to believe your word
that if you loved us while we were yet sinners enough for Christ to die
now that we have become your children there is nothing but nothing that will stop you
from pouring out your love into our lives and changing us from glory to glory
and to bring us through the stand before your face
we give you Lord our sins our shortcomings our failures our pains our defeats our discouragement
our heartache and we just declare by the word of the Lord that we rejoice in God
through Jesus Christ through whom we have been reconciled to God the Father
now you spray this warning Lord that as we stand in faith your spirit will pour out your
love into our hearts and that will know in a whole new way that nothing but nothing
can separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord help us to lift our eyes now
to Jesus his cross and his life and by faith
may we be made whole in Jesus name
Amen.
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