Sermon Central
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Not Fit To Love
Contributed by Larry Finley on Aug 11, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: God loved us when we were unloveable.
NOT FIT TO LOVE
8/10/08 Romans 5:6-11 S__L__R__
Two little brothers had finished supper and were playing. One hit the other and soon hot tears and hard words followed. They were still being exchanged when Mom put them in bed and led them in saying their prayers. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I Wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take Amen
After “Amen,” Mom added, “Now, before you
fall asleep, I want you to forgive each other. The one brother thought a few moments and then answered, “OK, I’ll forgive him tonight, but if I don’t die before I wake ... he’d better look out tomorrow!”
1. MAN’S UNDENIABLE CORRUPTION
A. Vs. 6 Unable –w/out strength
1. powerless
2. incurable
a. Poor Richard’s Almanac” –
God helps those who help themselves
b. Truth- God helps only those who recognize
they can’t help themselves
B. Vs. 6 Ungodly
1. Not immoral – sin wallowing
2. Living w/o the knowledge, guidance or submission
a. If God died tomorrow – no difference
3. Living like an animal – survival of the fittest
C. Vs. 8 Unabashed - sinners
1. Live outside the target
2. shoot and then mark the bulls-eye where hit
3. don’t even know target exists!!!
D. Vs. 10 Unpeaceful
1. Strong word – full of hate
2. Detest the thought
a. God’s right to command – no absolutes
b. God’s right to judge –reproductive rights/fetus
2. GOD’S UNBELIEVABLE COMPASSION
A. Vs. 6-7 His Action
1. “died for” – took the place of
2. “yet w/o strength”
a. still Unable –still ungodly- unabashed; still at war
3. We may therefore draw one major conclusion from all this: God’s love is not dependent on anything in you because there is nothing in you worth loving. That is, there is nothing in you that forces God to love you. It’s not that you are such a naturally loveable person. You aren’t. And neither am I. Sin has infected your life so that it has distorted and destroyed even the parts of you that you believe to be beautiful. Sin "uglyfies" everything it touches
If God loves you only when you are loveable, then when you stop being loveable, God would have to stop loving you! Where would you be then? – Ray Pritchard
B. Vs. 8 His Presentation
1. commends
a. establishes
b. reveals as true
c. introduce
2. His love
a. not what we deserve “the soul that sins shall die
b. agape – love w/o expectation; love undeserved
3. toward us
a. continual movement toward
b. bombarding – flowing over – unrestrainable
c. outside the control of
4. while we were yet sinners
a. never when we are good enough
b. to try to earn such love would negate it
3. MAN’S UNSHAKEABLE CONVERSION
A. Vs. 9 “Much more” of Justification
1. many times better
a. nothing quite like it
2. sentence passed and paid
a. unpaid –hanging over head
b. unpaid –horror of sin winked at
3. God said I can’t forget or ignore – demand payment
a. Jesus paid it all and All to him I owe!!!
B. Vs. 10 “Much more” of Reconciliation
1. Change
a. Our Attitude
b. Our Action
c. Our Desire
2. Care – saved by His life – introduction; intercession
My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.
C. Vs. 11 “Much more” of Jubilation
A. Presence
1. God in our life will always produce joy
2. Freedom from judgment produces relief
B. Presentation
1. received – take that which is offered
2. now – in the present time
a. no offer after death
b. enter eternity with the free gift or w/o
C. Permanence
