Turn back to 1 John chapter 4,
where we had our reading in verses 7 through 16. You may have guessed by our text,
and by the hymns that we have sung, something about my subject
this morning. My message I've called, God is
Love. And I was thinking about it this
week, how many times over the years it seems like I've been
like a little boat that has set out in this great sea to talk
about the love of God. And every time I've finished,
it seems like I haven't even got out of sight of the shore. I've only begun. God is love. As a matter of fact, two times
in this chapter we find that statement. God is love. That is an absolute and unchangeable
fact. But we have to remember, and
we have to give consideration to this. Just because the Bible says,
God is love, that doesn't necessarily mean that He loves you. or that he loves me. You could pick out the wealthiest
man in all the world. Changes a little bit once in
a while, these billionaires, but you could say that he is
rich. But that doesn't mean we're going
to get any money from him. That we're going to be made wealthy
by him. You see, the truth is, while
God is love, that's not all that He is. As a matter of fact, in
this same book, in the first chapter, the apostle says, this
then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare
unto you, that God is light. The apostle told us, reminded
us, that God is light before he told us and reminded us that
God is love. He says God is light and in Him
is no darkness at all. Light being a reference to truth. symbol of holiness. God is light
and in Him is no darkness at all. And what we find in this
book is not only that God is love, but that being God is light
as He is also, He can only be this to those who are in Christ Jesus. He can only be love to a people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is to these very people
that the Apostle Paul speaks these words in Romans 8. He says, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." He identifies with a people. And furthermore, since God is
immutable, that means He's unchangeable. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not. Since He is unchangeable, if
He loves this people now, if He loves anyone now, He's always loved them. God is love to these, and He's
always been love to them. And that was true even before
the world began. We can't really even hardly think
about this. We have no real sense of eternity. But according to His Word, even
before they were born, even before the world began, He loved this
people in Christ. What He says to Jeremiah can
be said of every one of them, Jeremiah said, "...the Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee." Why has He drawn them? Does draw them? Because He's loved them with
an everlasting And this means that every act
of God toward them, and He has had many acts toward His people
especially, but every act of God toward them has been an act
of divine love. Things that He did concerning
them even before the world was. Things that though there remains
a mystery to a degree to us, and yet He has clearly said that
He did this concerning them. Divine election. which is simply
God's choice of this people out from among Adam's race, an act
that men by nature rail against, deny. That was an act of love. When he wrote by the apostle
to the Thessalonian believers, he said, but we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, Beloved of the
Lord, because He hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation." He didn't choose these that He
loves to get a chance or an opportunity or for something that might be
made available or possible He says, Beloved, He chose you to
salvation. That was an act of divine love. He says it again in an epistle
to these same people, Knowing, brethren, Beloved, your election
of God. He says by Hosea, speaking to
this people spiritually, I will heal their backsliding, I will
love them freely without any cause in themselves. And then
using the nation of Israel as a picture and type of these people
who are the objects of His divine, sovereign love, He says this,
"'The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you,
and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto
your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt. Their bondage was a picture of
the bondage of this people He chose. Slaves to sin, slaves to Satan,
slaves to this world. And He brought them out, He chose
them and delivered them, not because of anything in them,
but because He loved them. And not only that, God's predestinating
all things. So many people, I dare say most
people, they don't see predestination. They don't see that foreordination
of God that the Bible speaks of so many times and shows us,
by example, so many more times. They don't think of that as an
act of love. But everything God does toward
this people, especially as He predetermines and marks off beforehand
the things concerning them, they are acts of divine love. As a matter of fact, if you turn
back in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1, I check
back just to make sure that my aging mind was not wrong on this. But if you look here in Ephesians
chapter 1, beginning in verse 4, Paul writes, "...according as
He hath chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him." Two commentators, a Greek authority, reading the exact
text from the original, believes that that is exactly where that
statement and verse ends, and that the next two words are associated
with and connected with what follows. So that means, in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children in Christ according to the good
pleasure of His will. Now, you know and I know that
if we love our children or love someone else in this world, had
we the power, had we the ability to do or to determine beforehand
what would happen to them if we had the wisdom and the knowledge
concerning that and the ability, what would we do? We wouldn't mark off the courses.
which allow them to go to destruction, would we? And yet man thinks
he's better, he thinks he loves more than God, in love, having
predestinated a people to the adoption of children in Jesus
Christ the Lord. And it's actually absolutely
true that God does not and has never had any thoughts concerning
those He chose in Christ but love. He's never thought of us
in any other way. He says again by Jeremiah, The
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not evil, to give you an expected end." He said,
I know the thoughts that I think toward this people, and they're
not thoughts of evil, they're thoughts of peace. They're thoughts
by which I'll bring them to an expected end. You see, that's
something that men and women in every age have no idea of. They think this is all done as
a kind of a gamble with God. They think that Christ coming
into this world, that His death on the cross, they think that
it's something that we'll not know the result of until eternity. That's not so with God. He knows
the thoughts, He thinks. They're thoughts of peace and
love in order to bring this people to an expected end. An old preacher, he had this
to say concerning this subject. He said, God is love, and the
seat of that love is His heart. Everything God does. flows out
of a heart of love, and we use that term. He even allows us
to use that term so that our finite minds can have some grasp
on what is being said of His love and grace to us. It flows
out of the heart of God. That act, that blessed act by
which He does not impute their sins to them, That act that he
acts in love, whereby he imputes to them the very righteousness
of God in Christ, they're all acts of love. And as this old
writer said, they flow out of the heart of God. Let me read
you further. He said, "...towards a sinner."
Not just any sinner, but towards a sinner standing in the righteousness
of his Son. That heart is love and nothing
but love. Let me ask you this, does the
Father love the Son? Does He not say, this is my well-beloved
Son? Well, if his attitude toward
his Son is one of love, unchanging love, then his attitude toward
those who are described as being in his Son is the same. As he is, so are we in this world. He goes on, "...not an unkind
thought lodging there, not a repulsive feeling dwelling there. All is love and love of the most
tender character. Yes, we dare affirm that towards
His chosen people there has never been and there will never be
one thought of unkindness. of anger, of rebuke in the heart
of God. From eternity it has been love,
and through time it is love, and on through eternity to come
it will be love. Just imagine the things that
we have thought Just imagine the ways that we have acted out
our sinfulness in so many ways. Just think about all the hours
of ingratitude, of murmuring, of all these things that characterizes
sinners as we are. He has never had any thought
toward us. except thoughts of love." And to be sure, the greatest
demonstration or manifestation of that love for his own, for
these sinners that he loved and chose in Christ, is his sending
Christ to be their Savior. Again, that's not a random thing. The greatest act of love ever
manifested in time is Christ laying down His life for them. If you ever see the love of God,
If you ever find out something about the true love of God, the
biblical, eternal love of God as it is in Christ Jesus, it
will be by the Spirit of God giving us the view of faith in
Christ crucified. You can just talk about the love
of God until you're blue in the face. You can just overflow with
this sentimentality, these emotional and fleshly evidences of exuberance,
whatever you might call it. But the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus is in Christ crucified. Hold your place and look back
in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Now there are
a lot of people who know a little bit about John 3.16. What does
it talk about? The love of God. And that love
is directed at these who will never perish and who will be
brought by God to believe on Christ. But what about 1 John
3.16? Same apostle. He says in 1 John
3.16, "...hereby perceive we the love of God." You see, the love of God has
to be revealed to us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because He laid down His life for us. That tells us a lot of things,
one of which is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. And that love is demonstrated
toward those that He loves in this central glorious thing. This love that is demonstrated
and exhibited clearly in this act of love. Because He laid
down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. How could we ever look at each
other, as some people say, crooked-nosed? How could we ever deal with each
other in any way other than this unconditional love, since we
have the example of it, the greatest example of it, demonstrated toward
us in how Christ laid down His life for us. You see, the love of God in Christ
is not a general love for all men. most of whom will surely
perish, and as many have already done so, but it is a particular
distinguishing love shown by His sacrifice for them." It is
love in action. Love in sacrifice. Sovereign love. that does not wait to be loved. You see, that's the kind of love
we talk about. I'll love you if you love me
first, you know. No. His love is totally contradictory
to such notions as that. His love acted in love to these
who are most unlovable. But he did it because he loved
them. He says by the Apostle Paul,
Husbands, love your wives even as also Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. This is a particular love. And
out of that particular love flows this particular redemption, this
particular sacrifice. Love your wife as Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. He said himself, greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
You see, these elect of God, these loved and chosen in Jesus
Christ, they acted as enemies to Him, but they were always
His friends. He laid down His life for His
friends. They played the harlot, but He
laid down His life for them as His bride. So distinguishing is it that
Paul writes in Romans 9, and he reminds us of that, not only
does God love the unlovable, but He loves whom He will. He said, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And you see, Christ did not come
into this world and die on that cross in order to make God love
them, but because God loved them. You remember Boaz? When he went
down to that place at the city gate and took care of all the
arrangements, satisfied every claim against Ruth and also of
Naomi, when he did that, it wasn't in order to make himself love
Ruth, it was because he already loved her. When Hosea went to that place
and redeemed Gomer off the slave market, it wasn't to get her
to be his wife, it was because she was his wife. And when you look at our text
in 1 John chapter 4, look at what it says so clearly and plainly
in verse 9. It says, "...and this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him." And you can try to say, well,
God loves everybody. Well, that means nothing in light
of that, does it? It means nothing. It may make
you acceptable to this religious world that is so full of error
and knows nothing about the love of God. It may make you acceptable,
it may be politically and religiously correct to say that, but that's
not what that verse says. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us." Who's John writing here to? Well, he's
writing to a church, he's writing to believers, but he's describing
all of these as those little children. Little children born
of God. He said, and this manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. Then verse
10, herein is love. Not that we love God. Our love for Him is never the
cause of His love for us. Not that we loved God. But that
He loved us. and sent his son, the propitiation
for our sins." It doesn't say to be the propitiation. Those
are added words in the text there by the King James translators.
It says he sent him who is the propitiation. as long as they
have been in Him, as long as they've been in Christ, loved
in Christ, chosen in Christ, as long as He has stood as their
surety, and the Lord had imputed to Him their sins, there was no wrath against them. Never. Absolutely never. Turn back to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, here the Apostle
Paul, writing in this same book, writing in this same text of
Scripture, says in Romans 5 and verse 8 this, he says, "...but
God commendeth His love toward us." What does that mean? It means exhibited. He exhibited
His love toward us. In that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. We acted as sinners. We were
sinners by nature. We were sinners having fallen
in Adam. But He says, exhibited, demonstrated His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Now, we counted a remarkable
thing. We counted an act of bravery
and courage if one dares to lay down their life for another. We have many brave military men
who've done it. We have many brave policemen
who've done it. We have many individuals. You
read about it almost all the time where some father or some
husband or some person stood in the way to protect another. But that's nothing compared to
the Son of God. It's nothing in this sense, because
there has never been another like Him. It may come down to my having
to lay down my life for my wife, for my daughter, or my granddaughter,
but all that will be at best is a sinner laying down his life
for a sinner. This is the Son of God. This
is the sinless One. This is the One who in Himself
cannot be added to in any way. But He does it out of everlasting
love. He lays down His spotless, perfect,
holy life. And so that love demonstrated,
that love exhibited, is exhibited along with and in total harmony
with all the other attributes of God in the cross death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God is light, truth. Where do mercy and truth meet
each other? Where does the psalmist say they
kiss each other? It's in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Where does divine love and perfect
righteousness, divine love and justice, where do they meet at?
Where are they all satisfied? In the cross. That's why I say
that's the greatest act of love that's ever been. because it
was an act of love. It was God acting in love toward
a sinner without violating His character. Paul says, while we were yet
sinners. That is, it's not only that we
were not in some kind of a positive state of goodness, or not even
in a negative state, just sinners. That's all we can ever claim
in and of ourselves. And that's why the only reason
that can ever be found for God loving this people, it would
have to be found in Himself. You'll never be able to look
at yourself on your best day. You'll never be able to measure
yourself by the most generous rule and find any reason in you
for God to love you. If He loves you, He loves you
just because He would. And He says of those that He
loves, He said, since I love you, since you were precious
in My sight, I'll give peoples, lands, everything
for you. As a matter of fact, everything
in this world Everything that happens in this world, since
they are all determined by God who is love to this people, they are acts of love for Him.
You say, wow! Paul says, I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Don't talk about the love of
God apart from the cross of Christ. Don't talk about the love of
God apart from His redemptive work on that cross. Don't talk
about the love of God apart from that righteousness that He imputes
to this people. Don't talk about it apart from
what He says that He did concerning them before the world began.
You see, no sinner could ever merit
or deserve or earn Love like this. No fallen mind could ever
fully comprehend this infinite love. And no one can measure
it and explain it. It just simply flows out of the
heart of God. Why does God love His elect people? Because He would. Is His love
Being what the Bible says it is, is it not more than just
a mere affection? And when he raises a sinner from
spiritual death to life in Christ, when he gives that new birth,
when he brings them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, or
as the Scripture speaks of, when he enables them to see. That's
an act of divine love. Paul says in Ephesians 2, But
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He
loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved." He's dealt with this people in
acts of love all before time and all through time. and all
through their lives. And when that hour comes, the
hour of His appointing, when He brings them under the sound
of the gospel and causes them to believe it, when His Spirit
gives them faith and life, that's an act of God's love. And surely
this is a glorious thing to see and to know, That in the midst
of our afflictions and our trials and our troubles, I know we all
think nobody has them like we have them, but the truth is all
God's people have them. And they're really, for the most
part, very much alike. They may involve a family, Remember,
they may involve our health. They may involve persecution
because of identifying with Christ and His gospel. They may come
in a multitude of different ways. But they're all sin of God in
love. Not in punishment. Not in unkindness. But in grace and mercy. and love. He's the loving Father. I realize that even as earthly
parents, a lot of times what we try to do best for our children,
it's often times misinterpreted, isn't it? But if they could only
know what moves us to do that. And surely if that's true of
us, how much more true must it be of God who is love to His
people. Paul in Romans chapter 8, again
in verse 33, he says, "...who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?" In other words, if He's loved us
this long, and if He's loved us in this way, especially in
Christ His Son, whatever could separate us from His love? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword? No, these things are the things
that characterize those He loves. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep with
a slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us." For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is no fickle lover. Because
the love wherewith He loves His people is that love that's in
Christ. I'm not lovable. Christ is. I'm not obedient. Christ was. I don't do always the things
that please Him. Christ did. And His love for
His people is in Christ Jesus. And this is true even when His
chastening hand lays heavy upon us. You say, I don't know what you're
talking about. I hope you do. Because it's the chastening hand
of God that comes against His people often times. But there's no punishment in
it. Blow, if you want to call it
that. Every stripe is an act of love. In Hebrews, we read,
"...for whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourgeth every
son whom He receiveth." And surely we'll see and have
seen, hopefully, that His love is the cause of and the reason
for any love we might have for Him. Look back at our text in
1 John 4 at verse 19. This is as simple as it gets.
We love Him. I almost hate to talk about my
love for Him. It's so minuscule. so flawed, so full of ingratitude. But we love Him because He first
loved us. And not only that, His love for
us is why we're to love our brethren. Again, verse 11, Beloved, if
God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. And like I say, the love that
we're to have for His people has been pictured and demonstrated
toward us in the love that God has for us. And that love is
full of forgiveness and mercy, and not at any time based on
what we feel is being done toward us, but always because of Christ. Say, well, I just can't forgive
them. Christ said that may be an evidence
that you're not forgiving yourself. Because all who are forgiven,
forgive. Just like all who are loved,
love. And walk in love as Christ also
has loved us. and have given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor."
Walk in love. And then it also ought to be
the very reason and ground of our assurance. Paul says, Now our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved
us, and have given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace." You see, God is love to those
in Christ. To those loved and therefore
chosen, redeemed and called. And I like what we read in John
13. As Christ demonstrated, when He walked here in this world
toward those disciples that He loved. It says in John 13, now before
the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was
come, that He should depart out of this world into the Father,
having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them until
the end. And so when they're pictured
in heaven, when John in the Revelation, he sees that company, they praise Jesus Christ, the
faithful witness The first begotten of the dead. The prince of the
kings of the earth. And they say, unto Him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Unto Him. But they begin on earth. Unto
Him who loved us. and washed us from our sins by
His own blood." You see, the love of God in Christ toward
His people is not new. As a matter of fact, it's most
often, if not all the time, spoken of in the past tense. It's unchangeable,
immeasurable, and infinitely wonderful. And nothing can separate
those who trust Christ alone from the love of God. Look down
at the last verse. Rather, the last one we read,
verse 16. This is what John says, and he
includes all the people of God. He says, "...and we have known
and believe the love that God hath to us. God is love. How do we know it? Because that's what the glad
tidings of the gospel are. We have known through the knowledge
he gives in his gospel and believed the love of God. You say, well,
I don't feel it all the time. Well, I don't either. As a matter
of fact, I don't think it's primarily a love to be felt, but it's a
love to be believed. And He enables us to believe
it, He says in this text, by the witness of His Spirit. I love that old hymn written by a man by the name
of Jehoiada Brewer, called Hail Sovereign Love. Hail Sovereign Love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised the mention of
His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in
thick Egyptian night, and fond of darkness more than light,
Madly I ran the sinful race secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran. Almighty love arrests that man. Almighty love arrests that man. And so the bride says in the
Song of Solomon, because of that very thing, love that would not
let us go, will not let us go, I am my Beloved's and He is mine. My Beloved is mine. God is love to those who look to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. And that love doesn't start when
they believe. They believe because of that
love. Almighty, effectual, sovereign love. If anybody says, well,
why in the world would God love you? Because He would. Or how in the
world could God love you? In Christ's crucifixion. Father, this day we give You
thanks and glory, praise, for that love that belongs to You
comes from You alone. For that love that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord cannot be measured, cannot be fully explained, but
surely has been demonstrated. in His coming into this world
and dying that death in our place. And we thank you that it is repeatedly
declared, demonstrated in the gospel that gives to you all
glory. We thank you for that love in
Christ. Pray that you might work in our
hearts that that love might bring forth love for you. We pray in
Christ's name, Amen.