Transcript: God's Unconditional Love: A Transforming Christian Message

The message today is called God Loves You. And we're going to begin today's word in Romans 5.5. In Romans 5.5, please. And this expectation will not disappoint us, for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. Verse 6, when we were utterly helpless. Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight By the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's judgment. Verse 10. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. Verse 11. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us by making us friends of God. There is a story which dates back many, many years ago and possibly into the early 1800s, Telling of the love of God that our scripture has just poured out so vividly to us. This story of the love of God reaching and touching the unsuspecting is a demonstration of God's love just suddenly coming upon us when we were sinners. Amen. And so here's this wonderful testimony telling of some years ago that a young English woman moving in the highest circles of fashion in Paris happened one day to be in poor hell. She was lying upon her bed when her sisters came bursting into her room in a state of great excitement and said to her, there's a crazy man who has come to town over here from England and he's called a revival preacher. And they say that it's the greatest joke in the world. And he goes on ranting away in English. And one of the French pastors does his best to interpret what he says into French. It will be great entertainment. All the world is going and we're going too. Too bad you can't. And they went off. No sooner had they left when this girl as she lay in her bed felt an indescribable desire to hear this preacher too. She rang the bell for her maid and said, I want to hear this revival preacher. Dress me and order a carriage for me. Her servant tried to convince her by saying, Oh, you really should not think of that man. I'm sure you're not fit to go today. But she would not be put off, so she went and was shown to a seat in front of the platform, and there she sat directly in front of the preacher. By the time the hymn was sung and the prayer over, she began to feel somewhat awestruck and very solemn or serious. Then came the sermon, and the preacher stepped right up to the front of the platform and looked her right in the face with a keen and searching glance and said, poor sinner God loves you I do not know what other words he may have spoken she afterwards said but I dare say he said a great deal for he preached a long time but all I know that I sat there before him with my head buried in my hands sobbing and sobbing as if my heart would break and my whole life passed in review right before my eyes. I thought how I had lost it and wasted it. In all of my life, I had turned my back upon God to live for sin and worldliness and foolishness. I had spurned and mocked his invitation and rejected his call. And yet, oh my God, it is true. It is true that all the while thou hast been loving me. These words kept re-echoing over and over again through my mind. Poor sinner, God loves you. I do not know how I found my way home, she said. But the next thing I remember is that I was laying prostrate upon my face before God. the tears still streaming from my eyes as I lifted my heart to God and said It is true it is true it is true You have been loving me all the time and now your love has triumphed. Almighty God, you have won my poor heart. Great God, from this moment forward, I am yours. The divine love of Almighty God Reached out and touched the heart of this poor, wretched sinner And captured her heart This preacher, who was mocked by the world For shedding abroad the love of God Spoke simple words of truth To this young, unsaved, worldly woman He did not speak with an eloquent speech to describe God's love to her dear church He simply spoke the truth in love Saying, poor sinner, God loves you You see, these words carried the power and presence of the very one whom God the Father had sent into the world after his son Jesus Christ had ascended to be seated next to his Father in heaven. And the very one I speak of is precious Holy Spirit. He powerfully, and he touched her and convicted this young woman of her sin. And at the same time, he poured divine love into her heart by witnessing his presence and his power to her. We open this message today with a scripture which Apostle Paul gives us keen insight into the love of God. Romans 5.5 Romans 5.5 And this expectation will not disappoint us for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us his Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came just at the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's judgment. And since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of His Son, while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by this life. Hallelujah. Verse 11. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us by making us friends of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, I pray those words of truth wash over you. We can see in the scripture and also the testimony of the young woman who was touched by the divine love of the Holy Spirit that this joyous understanding brings life to the dead soul. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Only the Holy Spirit of God could impart this truth by faith. We were really undeserving of His love. But we see this unselfish holy act that it was Christ who died for us in order that we might experience the love of God and live eternally with him. This is real and genuine love, dear church. This is justification by your faith. It was Christ who died for us. It was great love which motivated Christ to strip himself of the glories of his Godhead to become an infant in the manger. It was great love which motivated Jesus to live a holy consecrated life And to go through the great sufferings that he did for each one of us Because he is not a respecter of persons It was great love dear church When he gave us the perfect example by his spotless life And great love that he would go to the cross to be nailed to it and it was great love that he would be willing to be beaten and mocked and spat upon and to have his beard pulled out and to be stripped of all of his clothing and hang naked upon the cross as a gazing stock for the sake of sin it was this great love which motivated him to be willing though he knew it beforehand that he would be pierced through his side and his precious blood spilled out for the sake of poor, wretched sinners. Jesus Christ died for me and you, and all else who would choose to be associated with the greatest love story ever told, a selfless love. All that death could mean, Jesus Christ endured it for selfish, prideful, sick-minded, and conceited sinners. the whosoevers who would choose to partake of this beautiful divine love offer and partnership with the master of their life for eternity The death of Jesus was no common death It was a death of deep personal humiliation and disgrace It was a dishonorable death and it was a death of unspeakable pain and agony. And the greatest tragedy of all, dear ones, is that while we were yet sinners, we were sinners, we were sinning against the very one who went to the cross and died for us. Are you beginning to see the picture here that God loves you? God loves you. God Almighty gave his Son to all the world and his Son Jesus Christ willingly came and died for all. And he did this to offer us all eternal life through his death, burial and resurrection. Let us understand please, this is not to be taken lightly. It is not an offer held out for us to try out. Let us get our eyes off of the visible, which is only temporary, and look to the one whom we do not see with our natural eyes, but who opens up the eyes of our spirit, and there we do see him. And this is called faith. This is no small offer. This was a great cost and a high price Jesus paid for you and me. All he and the Father desired back from us for the sacrifice of Christ is our love and our obedience to his commands. We are offered eternal life in the presence of the Godhead. and we will live in this ethereal realm in absolute peace and joy and total fulfillment. While we were yet still sinners, steeped in our sin, and we who even had for a long time heard of the good news, yet we despised it and we mocked it and thought those who brought the good news of salvation and the testimony of Jesus were crazy and weak Christians who were on a futile mission. But Jesus still loved us. All the while we lived in the deception of our own minds. The Gospel of John 15 declares, No greater love is this than he who laid his life down for his friends. Dear one, love begets love. God is love. Only true love sires or fosters love. God sent his son to draw men unto himself, to apprehend for himself a beautiful bride who will love him for who he is and not for what he can give them. The love of God is like a magnet It is a permanent, attractive force And like love, it will be the force That will draw all men and women to Jesus You too will be like the one In whom you are learning to be modeled after When you remain side by side With divine love himself God will cause others to be drawn to you too. This is the effect, precious ones, of true love. The young woman experienced the love of God being poured out from the preacher that she went to hear. The very one who was mocked and made the brunt of jokes and one whom many people went to see and hear just for a show or entertainment. Something new to laugh at and ridicule. The love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit reached out and touched her. And yes, we too must endure the same walk as our master, just as this preacher was willing to do. Jesus was mocked, was scorned, laughed at. And so, must we be willing to die daily and carry our own cross? Jesus said, if they persecute me, they will persecute you. You might as well know right up front that this precious love does not come to you by chance or mystery or a whim. This great love comes to us by a supernatural law because all of God's law is divine. Romans 5, 7 declares, but God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. you can see here as we've been covering this word today that we did nothing to receive the free offer of eternal life except to say yes, yes dear Jesus you have been loving me all this time and now your love has triumphed over me almighty love you have won my poor heart Great God from this very moment forward I am yours Hallelujah Hallelujah What love Divine love in motion. We did nothing but to welcome it and give our lives and then be required to practice and what the Bible tells us to do in order to remain in this love. it was a testimony of God's love the story is told of Edward Irving a charismatic pastor who was ahead of his time in the 1800's he went to see a dying boy once he received the call of the young lad's condition and when he entered the room he just put his hand on the dying boy's head and said my boy God loves you and he walked away and the boy jumped up immediately from his bed and he called out to the people in the house and he announced God loves me God loves me Hallelujah you see one word only one word changed an entire life and it brought instant healing and life to this young boy. The sense that God loved him, had overpowered him and melted him down and then began the beautiful work in the making of his new heart. This is how the love of God melts down the unlovely heart in us and begets in us this new creature who becomes patient and humble and unselfish. Just one touch of His love upon your life will bring you to your knees and you will cry out too, Yes, yes, dear Jesus, you have been loving me all this time and now your love has triumphed over me. Almighty love, you have won my poor heart. A great God from this day, this very moment forward, I am yours. The man or woman who loves God is known by God. And you do right and good because you love him and you want to please him. The book of 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3 declares, But the man who loves God is known by God. Let me say that again. But the man who loves God is known by God. When we come into the place with God and dwell in His love and have this deep fellowship, His plans begin to unfold for our lives. And we're told that in the book of Jeremiah 29, verse 11. Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future and then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart I will be found by you declares the Lord and will bring you back from captivity Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah. Precious one, you must know that God loves you and he has plans for you. He doesn't want to hurt you. He is a God of love and he loves you more than you could ever know. We need to come to the place like the young woman who was touched by the love of God in the meeting that she went to and heard the words. poor sinner, God loves you. She said she had been guilty of almost rejecting his call because of a life of sin, of worldliness and foolishness. And she said, and yet, oh my God, it is true. It is true that all this while you have been loving me. You have been loving me all the time and now your love has triumphed. Almighty God, almighty love, you have won my poor heart. God, from this moment forth, I am yours. These should be our words too. Oh, they should be our words too. Great God, I am yours. I am yours. What commitment. We were really undeserving of his love, but we see this unselfish holy act that it was Christ who died for us in order that we might experience the love of God in our own lives and this is real and genuine love dear church this is justification as I said by your faith it was Christ who died for us please above all remember God the Father God the Son and God, precious Holy Spirit, love you. Believe that with all of your heart and learn to live and dwell in His love. Thank you.