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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-steers/the-love-of-god/
Romans chapter 5, reading verse 7, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, but God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That's all that we're going to read. This Bible has much, very, very much to say about the love of God. Some verses have already been quoted tonight. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, made the statement, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. The verse that I have read, among many others, this verse would emphasize the tremendous character of God's love for sinners.
There is an illustration in verse 7 that expands the love of God because of the character of the illustration. I want you to notice three things tonight. First, the comparison of human love on one side.
That's verse 7. And divine love, that's verse 8. And the purpose that the apostle Paul had in view in writing these two verses was to use human love in verse 7 to express the wonder of God's love in verse 8.
Then I want you to think for a moment that God wants to commend you to his love. But God commendeth his love toward us. Then to think for a moment of the consequences of the love of God. Christ died for us.
That's a clear, plain, simple statement. And there is no one here tonight who has been saved and is on the way to heaven who has any more than these words at the end of this verse, Christ died for us.
And there was a moment when they discovered that the death of Christ was for them. Notice what verse 7 says. For scarcely for a righteous man. The righteous man is a man who is looked at by others and he is esteemed to be a right living man.
And because of that, he has the respect and the esteem of other men. And so they esteem him to be a righteous man. But my Bible tells me that God has a different view of that man. The Bible tells me in this same epistle to the Romans, chapter 3, that there's none righteous, no, not one.
And so one man's opinion of another man may be vastly different than the divine estimate of that person by God. None righteous. We have in this verse, another man. Scarcely for a righteous man per adventure for a good man.
Perhaps there might be an occasion when someone would take the place of a good man and die for that good man. The good man is a man that others esteem to be good in his character and beneficial to others.
There's a man in the Bible like this in Acts chapter 10. That's Cornelius. Cornelius, a Gentile Roman centurion, officer in the Roman army. And in a remarkable way, he had the respect and he had the esteem of the Jewish people that were around him.
They esteemed him to be a good man. But God has a different view. God says there's none that doeth good, no, not one. And so the righteous man, scarcely for a righteous man would one die. His life is in danger.
Someone might take his place. And if they take his place and die, the righteous man will live. Or peradventure, scarcely for a righteous man, peradventure for a good man. Some might even dare to die. Let me give you an illustration of that.
And on March the 30th, 1981, the president of the United States, Mr. Ronald Reagan, was leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel when a man by the name of John Hinckley quickly was moving towards the president of the United States with a gun in his hand.
Obviously, his purpose, his intention was to assassinate Ronald Reagan. Two of Ronald Reagan's men, one a Secret Service man and the other one his press secretary, stood between Mr. Reagan and the man with the gun.
Both of those men were shot. Why did they take that place? Because they esteemed that the president of the United States was a righteous man, was a good man, and they would take his place. They would stand between the gunmen and they would die, suffer for the president.
That's verse 7. That's the height of human love and human devotion. But it's very rare, very, very rare. That doesn't happen very often. Now, notice the contrast. Scarcely for a righteous man would one die.
Peradventure for a good man. Some would even dare to die. And there's a tremendous word, but God. In contrast to verse 7, we come to this tremendous statement in verse 8, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, not righteous, not good, sinners, Christ died for us.
Every person who has been saved has come to a point where they understand that they have sinned. They are not ready to meet God. And if they die in their sin, if they go out into eternity in their sin, it will be to be banished in the lake of fire forever because of their sin.
We're dealing with solemn issues when it comes to a gospel meeting. We're not standing just simply to give a lecture. We want to touch the souls of those who are not saved tonight. That the Spirit of God would stir your soul tonight to realize that what those two men are preaching, what you have heard in gospel testimony tonight is total truth.
But God commendeth his love toward us as God looked down from heaven upon this world. John chapter 3 and verse 16, for God so loved the world. That's not the physical world that's around us. That's not the beautiful mountains and the trees and so on.
But that's the world of sinners. God looked upon a world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Sinners who were in their sin and again, not righteous like verse 7. Nothing good about them as in verse 7.
Not the estimate of one man for another man. But God looked upon a world of sinners. And if you and I were left to travel to eternity in our sin, then we would be banished eternally from the presence of a holy God.
But it says that God commendeth. That word commend simply means that God wants to introduce a sinner in this meeting tonight to his love. You don't deserve that. You don't deserve that God should look upon you and have any mercy for you.
Because you've done nothing that would deserve or merit the mercy of God. The grace of God is unmerited. But God wants to introduce a sinner who doesn't deserve his love. But he wants to introduce that sinner to his love.
That's the word commend. God commendeth his love toward us. The love of God is tremendous. I'm glad I'm saved tonight. I'm glad I'm on my way to heaven tonight. It's something that we rejoice over. Not that we deserve it.
We deserve the judgment of God. We deserve to be punished for our sin. But God commendeth that love of his to us. And that's real. That's genuine. You will notice that human love must have a motive. That's verse 7.
There's a motive in the heart of one man who would take the place of another man. But when you come to the love of God, there's nothing that's deserving. And yet God in his love toward us looked upon this poor world of sinners, looked upon you.
Down through the ages of time, you are in the mind of God. And tonight in this gospel meeting, God wants to introduce you to the wonders of his love. I think it's already been quoted tonight by one of the brethren who told how he got saved.
That if you could imagine the scroll above your head as a great canopy. And every person upon this earth as a scribe by trade. And with a little quill or a reed as a pen and the oceans filled with ink.
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. That's the great contrast between verse 7 and verse 8 in Romans chapter 6.
And God wants tonight. God wants tonight. It's the purpose of God in a gospel meeting like this. He wants to take a sinner. And he wants to introduce that person to his love. And we have the consequences of that love expressed in verse 8.
Notice the verse again. But God commended his love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Someone might take the righteous man's place. Someone might take the good man's place. But God's not looking at righteous.
The Lord Jesus said, I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. God's not looking at people who esteem themselves to be good tonight. God's looking at sinners tonight. He's looking at sinners who deserve his judgment.
He's looking at sinners who deserve his wrath. And he wants to tell them, he wants to remind them that he gave his son to die for them. It's a wondrous moment in the life of a sinner when they just take in that tremendous truth.
That the Lord Jesus died for me at the place called Calvary. That's what it means to be saved. That's what it means to be born again. When I took my place as sinner before mercy's footstool lay, Jesus took his place as Savior and took all my sins away.
When you come to the chapter that we have read from, there are three solemn words in this chapter. One of them, verse 8, sinners. But when you come back up the chapter to verse 6, for when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
Maybe like some here, raised as I was in a gospel hall Sunday school, I had no arguments that I was a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. I knew what I had done. I knew things about my life. I knew how I deceived my parents.
I was a sinner. But there's a verse, there's a word in this chapter that I had a problem with, that I wrestled with. And that was the word ungodly. I could look at my friends and they were just a little worse than I was.
I could look at them. Yes, they were sinners. They were ungodly. But that was a hard word for me to come to grips with until I realized one day that I was ungodly. And just like my friends, there was no difference.
For all have sinned, all are ungodly, all have come short of the glory of God. God wants a sinner tonight just to take their place before Him as a sinner, as ungodly, as undeserving. And then He wants to open your understanding, the purpose of the Spirit of God tonight.
When sinners realize that they are helpless in their sin, wandering on in the darkness of their sin. Well, remembering those of us who are saved, many of us here, I wandered on in the darkness, not a ray of light could I see.
And the thought filled my soul with sadness. There's no hope for a sinner like me. Notice verse 8 again. But God commendeth His love toward us. Now, while we're sinners, while we're ungodly, the other word in the chapter is we're enemies of God.
Christ died for us. God had a perfect Son. He never sinned against His Father. He never outraged His Father. God had a Son who was absolutely perfect. I don't have a son like that. I have one son, but he's not like that.
And yet that perfect Son, God provided Him to die for you, a sinner. God looked down from heaven and every blow of the Roman hammer that drove the nails through the hands and the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God was giving His Son to you. That's what this verse says. Christ died for us. On that cross with the crown of thorns, on the awful indignities of men that were perpetrated against the Lord Jesus Christ, crowned with thorns upon the tree, silent in His agony, God looked down from heaven.
He saw every mark of dishonor that men placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And then a holy God with you in view died for sinners. God cloaked that scene in darkness and the Lord Jesus was going to be punished for sin that was not His own.
Upon Him, almighty vengeance fell, enough to sink a world down into hell. And it is something beyond our imagination, beyond our ability to grasp in totality, that on that cross in those three hours of darkness, the Lord Jesus suffered and bore the sin of sinners.
Do you know that tonight? Do you know the Savior in a very real and in a very precious way? That the man on Calvary's cross was a man who suffered and the man who died for me. The great contrast here then is between human love that's so failing, so faltering, so faint, and the love of God that is vast and far beyond human comprehension to grasp the fullness of it and yet to be basking in the love of God.
A woman came to Mr. Spurgeon one day and said that there's a verse in the Bible that I don't understand, that Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Don't understand how God could hate Esau. Mr. Spurgeon replied, that's not my problem with that verse.
My problem with that verse is this, how could God love Jacob? And that drives it home to the sinner. The sinner's problem is how could God love me? How could it ever be that a holy God in heaven could love me to such a great extent that he would give his son to suffer and to die at Calvary for me?
When a sinner takes that truth in, that is a life-changing, an eternal destiny-changing statement. Christ died for sinners. What does that mean to you tonight? I'm going to close the meeting just now.
I'm going to quote the two verses again. For scarcely for a righteous man would one die. Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. That's human love that is so faltering, so failing, set on one side.
But God, unfailing, tremendous, beyond the scope that we could take in, in his fullness and his greatness. But God commended his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Soul, tonight in this meeting, who would take their place as a sinner and take in this tremendous truth. It was the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary who died for me. That my sins might be forgiven and that I would know for certain that I will be in heaven.
Our Father, in the name of thy Son, we have been reminded tonight of the love of God. Some of our brethren here have told us of the moment that they were saved. And then that precious moment, each of them have reminded us that they discovered that Christ had died for them.
We have been reminded of the absolute need in the life of a sinner to prepare to meet thy God. A preparation that is so absolutely essential in light of eternity. We've been reminded of God's love, but God commended his love toward us.
And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. These are solemn issues. And as we are about to arise from this gathering tonight, we would pray that any soul here who is concerned about eternity, that that thought, those concerns may not be taken away.
We might leave quietly tonight because eternity is in the balance. Thus, I word we pray in his name. Amen.