I have two point I want to make.  First, I want us to see the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Second, I want to spend a little time on the response.

                So what is the prompting in this passage?  Because last week we spoke of how the Holy Spirit prompts us to understand the Bible, I want to follow closely to the text this morning so that you can see for yourself the prompting of the Holy Spirit as it is revealed here in Romans.

                “1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

                Here is the point. When we received the Holy Spirit, God’s love was poured out into our hearts. 

                I love the term, “poured out.”  Picture a pitcher full of water.  You pick up the handle and tilt it up and see the water pour out of it.  So also, when we became Christians, we received the Holy Spirit.  But what else was poured into our hearts was God’s love.  Every true believer is filled with God’s love.

                The question that is asked by Greek scholars at this point is a very interesting problem.  Is God’s love for us poured into our hearts or is God’s love for other people poured into our hearts? Or, is it our love for God that is poured into us?  In other words, as a result of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the passage teaching that we will recognize God’s love for us or is it saying that the Holy Spirit will cause us to love God or others more?

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For 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! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:1-11, NIV.

                It appears to me in reading this passage that the love of God that is poured out in our hearts is a realization of how much God loves us.

                Let me be clear on what I am trying to say this morning.  We have learned in past weeks that the Holy Spirit prompts us before we are Christians to see that we were wrong about Jesus, that our unbelief is a sin.  We were convicted that Jesus has God’s full support, that Jesus is right.  And we were convicted that Jesus was not under judgment, but the prince of this world.  This favorable opinion of Jesus was prompted by the Holy Spirit.  Then we learned that the Holy Spirit within us is giving us an inner voice that we are God’s children because of our faith in Jesus Christ.  And we learned that the Holy Spirit helps us understand the Bible, that we are anointed and the Holy Spirit teaches each one of us.  Our ability to understand scripture is a “God-thing”, supernatural in nature.

                But in this passage we learn that the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts a realization of God’s love for us.  I believe the whole context of this passage leads to that conclusion.  Paul is trying to let us know that it is through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, that inner voice, that we fully appreciate God’s love for us.  When the Holy Spirit enters us at the moment of salvation, it is one of the first acts He does, is gives us an appreciation of how much God love us.

                How does this happen?  Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit reveals the love of God for us through the use of a contrast.  Let me explain what I mean before we look at scripture to see it.

                Nothing makes us want to buy a product more than the power of contrast.  Does your car get 30 miles per gallon?  But a gas/electric one and you can get 60!   Do you hunt deer with a rifle with open sights?  This scope will allow you to see deer clearer and be further away.   Are you making $500,000 dollar a year?  Let me introduce you to my friend, Bill Gates.  What we have is often good enough until we have something to compare it to that is so much better.

                And so in this passage, Paul makes some assumptions that are right on target.

                First, and you must agree to this in order to become a Christian, we are all sinners.  The more we realize that, the more we are prepared for God’s love for us. 

                Notice that this undergirds all that Paul says.  He calls us “powerless, ungodly, sinners, enemies of God” all in a few short verses. 

                In the 5th century, a British monk named  Pelagius reacted to this teaching by saying that we are all basically good people.  This teaching that we are sinners and are ungodly and enemies of God is just not true.  His views reflect how most Americans and many Christians feel.  I have no other answer than to say that if I have to choose,  I will choose Paul over Pelagius any day of the week.  If Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, describes me as “powerless, ungodly, a sinner, an enemy of God,” then I am going to believe what the Bible says.

                But actually, that is not what the Bible says about me.  This is what the Bible says I used to be!  And herein, lies much of the contrast.  Something has changed. I will come to that in a moment.

                I ask you, how do you feel about powerless, ungodly sinners who are enemies of God?  Ask some of your radical Muslims and they would say that such people are worthy of death.  If your neighbor is running a drug house next to you and makes loud noises in the middle of the night, how do you feel about them?

                I don’t know about you, but my natural inclination is to avoid bad people.  My natural inclination is to demand that justice be done towards such people.  Give them what they deserve!

                That is what makes this contrast so great.  Notice how bad the Bible says we are in contrast to how God reacts to us.

                6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For 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!

                What does Paul say God’s reaction is?  Christ died for the ungodly.  While we were sinners, Christ died for us.  We are saved from God’s wrath through Him!  As enemies, God patched things up between us and Him through the cross. 

                If this is true, what makes many of us shake our heads in acknowledgment of this truth?  It is the prompting of the Holy Spirit who is pouring this love for God into our hearts.

                This is why communion is so important.  We remember Christ’s death till he come!  We don’t deserve God’s grace and the more we recognize this, the more we appreciate the fact that we have it!  It is the Holy Spirit within us that builds within us an awareness of how much God loves us.

                This is why some people need to be broken.  We have a false impression of how good we are.  We worry that people might think that we are bad.  We hide our sin and put on a front that we are better than we are.

                But when we can face our inner sin and realize, that in spite of what we have said or done or been,  God loves us; then we are able to experience the deep love God has for us because the Holy Spirit will just pour love on your past, love over your sin, love in the present and God’s love in the future. 

                If you have a love for God in your heart that comes because you appreciate what Christ has done, then you have heard the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart.

                What is the response? 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” We rejoice!

                This whole passage is feeding us information that, if we understand it, will cause us to rejoice.

                Verse 2: ...And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings... And now verse 11, “We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ...”

                In this thanksgiving season, the human response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is rejoicing.

                We think,  “I was powerless to go to heaven.  There is no way I could make it on my own.  My sin will keep me out.  But God loves me.  He gave me a gift through Jesus Christ.  My sins are forgiven,  I have eternal life, not because I deserve it, but because God love me.”

                We think, “I was ungodly.   I bring too much baggage to the table.  I’ve got secrets that only God and I know about.  But in spite of the secrets that I have, God knows them and loves me deeply.  Jesus died so that my baggage could be forgiven and I could be made right with God.  What love.”

                We think, “I didn’t have anything to do with God for years.  I wasn’t a believer, I didn’t attend church, I didn’t care about the Bible, I made fun of Christians and thought they were nuts.  But one day I realized that my problem was me.  Jesus was there all the time willing to embrace me and forgive me through the cross.  When I saw what Jesus did, I realize that God loved me and that what I was is not what I have to be today.”

                If that is your testimony, it is the Holy Spirit that has given you this love for God.  It is your proper response to rejoice.

                Don’t be afraid of rejoicing.  The more you see and feel God’s love for you, the more joy will be a natural response.

                I need to issue a warning here.  If you do not agree with what Paul writes here in Romans about your spiritual condition, you may not be a Christian.  It appears to me that our love for God grows out of this sense of unworthiness that we feel.  Our appreciation for God comes as we see that the motive behind all that happened on the cross was love.  If we think that we are good people, that we are ok, then we go against the grain of this passage that says that we are sinners in need of grace, which God has in abundance!

                During this Thanksgiving season, let the rejoicing over God’s love for you flow out.  It is the Holy Spirit that is pouring out a realization of God’s love for you and it is the Holy Spirit that is prompting you to rejoice.

                So rejoice.