1 John, chapter 3. 1 John 3, beginning in verse
1. The Apostle John writes, "...behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God." Therefore, the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is." This epistle, which is simply a letter, was
written to the people of God. Not only this epistle and letter,
but likewise all the Bible. to believe, to those that are
described by John as the little children born of God. And when he comes to this statement
here in that third chapter, he begins with the word, behold. That means to look. And it means more than simply
to look, it means to meditate on and to think and to consider
what he's saying. And even as he says this, this
is something that we as sinners, in and of ourselves, we cannot
do, and the reason being is because he says we are of ourselves blind. Blind to the things of God, blind
to spiritual truth, but God And if God is pleased to give us
what he calls the seeing eye, which is simply the sight of
faith, then we'll be enabled to see, and to some degree, in
some measure to behold such things as John is talking about. You see, when he speaks such
things as this, it's like every one of the commands of the gospel. He says to these who are blind
spiritually of themselves, behold, or look. And they cannot of themselves,
we cannot, and yet He enables us to. You remember, He went
to the man who was sick of the palsy. And the thing that He
said to him was, rise up and walk. And though he could not of himself,
he did because Christ enabled him to. When he stood before
the tomb of Lazarus who was dead, he said, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus certainly could not
of himself. He'd been dead three days, but
yet he did because the power and the ability and the life
and the sight and all these spiritual things was in the hands of the
One who spoke. the words. So what is it that
he calls upon us to behold here? He says, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. In other words, we are
to look not at all the things that we by nature are inclined
to look at. all the things that distract
us and disturb us and divert us from this which is the most
glorious, he says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us. And there is obviously then something
that is glorious, something that is wonderful, and something that
is very unique about the love of God. And when you hear almost
every day in some way or another Men saying that God loves everybody,
He loves everybody the same. How could we not, if we be honest,
Listen to such as that, and if that really be the love of God,
have to confess that what in the world would be glorious and
wonderful and unique about such a love as that. In other words,
if He loves everybody, And yet there will be many, even most,
who perish in hell. What good is the love of God? What is glorious about that? And such a view just simply reduces
the love of God to a mere sentiment. It reduces it to a love that
is no greater and really no different from the love of sinful man. That's not what John is calling
upon us to behold and look at and consider. No, he's saying
what all the apostles said and all the prophets said, and yea,
everything in this book demonstrates that the love of God for His
people is amazing and wonderful and in some way glorifies Him. He is to be magnified and praised
because of his love which he has for his people. And we ought to always remember
this. God loves as God. He is not fickle like we are. He is not sinful like we are. He is not one who looks out at
the exterior, such as we do. He is God, and as God, He loves
as God. And the only way that we will
ever know in reality what manner of love God's love is, and how
He loves, is to look in the Bible. It is to listen to God and not
men. He is the lover, it is His love,
and He, in His Word, has told us who He loves and how He loves. What manner of love is the love
of God the Father. If we look at the manner of God's
love, we have to begin at exactly the same place and exactly the
same time that God begins. And what we find is this, the
love of God that He has for His people is said to be an everlasting
love. Now I want you to hold your place
here and turn back to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah the prophet
in chapter 31, and listen to what God Himself says about this
man Jeremiah, because what He says of Jeremiah, that is, what
He says about one of His people, one of His elect, what He says
about him is true of all His people. Look down with me in
Jeremiah chapter 31 at that verse 3. Jeremiah, who says that he
is the least of anything, who before he gets very far in his
prophecy declares that he's nothing and weak and frail, he can't
talk, he's not noticeable. Listen to what he says. The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, or yes, or it is
true, I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Do you
see that? You know, it's amazing to me
that men and women who claim that they will love each other
forever, for all eternity, and then usually prove, before a
few years is passed, that that was a lie. They will not believe
the God of truth who says of His people, I love them individually,
corporately, any way you want to describe them, I have loved
them with an everlasting love." What does that mean? It means
that the love of God for His people is without beginning,
it is without ending, It is the love of God which is and has
always been a love for them as He viewed them and loved them
in Christ. I've loved you. As a matter of
fact, if you want to do an interesting study, Go look in the Bible,
do a concordant search or a computer search as we can do now, and
you look for that word, love. And then you turn around and
you do another search, and you search that word loved, and what
you will find is that with reference to the people of God, it is most
often, if not always, loved in the past tense. I passed by a sign on a church
yesterday. And it simply read what I see
on every hand. Their church signs said, Jesus
loves you. Show me that in the Bible. Show
me that broad statement. Show me that tense use. We know that the Scripture says,
God is love. But that does not mean that He
loves every person, that does not mean that statement that
He loves you, or that He loves me. His love is in Christ, and
it's an everlasting love. It's unchanging. You see, God
is immutable. And simply that means just what
he says there in Malachi when he says, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed." If God's love was mutable and changeable like
our love, we would certainly perish, we would certainly die
in our sins. There would be an hour when we
would do something so unlovely that He would turn His back on
us, that His love would wane like men and women in our day
say their love has, but He loves with an everlasting love and
unchanging love. That means, if He loves me right
now, if He loves me tomorrow, He has always loved me. Do you understand that? There
could never be anything in time that affects the immutable, everlasting
love of God. That love never depended on us,
never depended on us being lovable because we are not, never depended
on us doing something to draw out the love of God. He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting, Can you imagine that? That before
you ever even became your unlovely self, before we ever breathed
a breath, before our father Adam ever fell in the garden, before
the world was ever created by the divine hand. God says that
there is a people that He has loved with an everlasting love. As a matter of fact, everything
He did, concerning them and this world in Jesus Christ. He did not to gain their love,
but He did those things because He loved them. He's always loved
them. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. and not for anything done by
us or seen that we do, that reason, that source of God's love rises
up in His own perfect, holy, and eternal self. He said, I've
loved you. You say, but what? He says, I've
loved you. I've loved you with an everlasting love. When we're in our sin and in
our rebellion, When we bowed down before the idols of our
heart and the gods of this world, when we cursed God in our anger,
when we turned our backs on Him before we ever had any understanding
whatsoever of exactly who He is, He said, I loved you. I loved
you. And I'll tell you this. When
you find out what manner of love it is that the Father has for
His people, you will find out that God's love for His children
is a predestinating love. I find it so amazing. that the
people in this world who talk so much about the love of God,
they turn their backs and they'll have nothing to do whatsoever
and even view as a wrong view of God's love anything that has
to do with predestination. Turn in your Bibles over to Ephesians,
that first chapter. You see, Paul is beginning and
is speaking in much the same way that John is in praise and
thanksgiving to the Father for the demonstration of his love
which is in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1 and verse 3 also. He says in this letter, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
As a consequence of His love for His people, He in old eternity
blessed them with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in
Christ. According, as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame, before Him, period. I think most solid Greek scholars
believe that that is the end of that statement, and the last
two words are actually the first two words in the next statement,
which says, "...in love." This doesn't make Him an unlovely
or an unloving God. This is His love in action. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His Well, in love, as an act of divine
love. This people that He loved with
an everlasting and unchangeable love, in love, He predestinated
them, what? Unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. That sound like a bad thing to
you? That's an act of God's perfect love. That word, predestinate,
means to predetermine. It means to determine beforehand. It means to ordain and to mark
off beforehand what? Our sonship to God. our adoption as His children
in Christ Jesus. Had He not acted in His love,
had He not done what He did, had He left it to ourselves,
we would never have been His children, because we're enemies
in our minds. We're rebels. We don't act like
children. But it says in love, He predestined
this people to be conformed to the image of His Son. And when he writes concerning
that in Jeremiah, he said, Jeremiah, I have loved you with an everlasting
love, and therefore with these cords of love I've drawn you. You see, it does no good. for
anybody to say in some general way, God loves you, and then
his hands are tied, and he's a helpless being, unable to really
do something for you unless you let him. No, he loves like God,
and he determined that there would be this people that He
in His love would mark them off to this sonship, to this adoption
of children in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's wonderful. And
I'll tell you, it's really wonderful when you stop and think and consider
that He didn't have to do anybody like that. Look over in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 4, after he's told what we are by nature,
dead in trespasses and sin, by nature the children of wrath,
even as others, walking according to the prince of the power of
the air, who now works in the children of disobedience. And
he says in verse 4, but God, who is rich in mercy for His
great love, Wherewith He loved us." He loved us. You see, the
God that loved us is also God who is rich in mercy. It says,
He delights to show mercy. In the Lord, there's plenteous
mercy. There's this kind treatment of
those who act as His enemies. 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." You are
saved. Here are all these people in
this world, and they all want to feel special. Now, I know how we are. I had
a birthday this week, I had a lot of greetings, birthday
greetings sent to me. And I just made a little note
on my Facebook page, I said, this was enough to make an old
man feel special. We like to feel special, don't
we? But what is wrong with us when the Bible speaks of this
special grace and special love wherewith He has loved His people
and we get all up in arms about it? How blind are we? This is
special grace. We were this way, unloving, undeserving,
but God, who is rich in mercy, wherewith He loved us with this
great love, and He saved us. Look in Ephesians chapter 3,
Ephesians 3 and verse 18. Paul is talking to these people,
and he's talking about how he prays for them. He prays for
them that they might grow in grace and in the knowledge of
Christ, and that they may, in verse 18, be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. What kind of
love is God's love? He says God's love in Christ
is that love that passes knowledge. Human knowledge cannot comprehend
such a love. Human knowledge would not even
receive such a love. It passes knowledge, passes experience,
passes explanation. Because when you boil it down
to its finest essence, and you ask yourself and everybody else,
why in the world would God ever love you? There can only be one
reason. Because He would. Because He's
God, and He can love whom He will. Paul wrote to those Thessalonians
a letter. And he talked about how many
receive not the love of the truth, how many of these people in that
land and the world receive not the things of Christ. Then he
says, "...but we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren beloved of the Lord." He wrote to a little group
of people. And he described them, not everybody
in that world, not everybody in that region of Thessalonica,
but he described them as brethren beloved of the Lord. He says, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief. of the truth. God chose you because
He loved you, and He manifested that love to you, and He brought
you by His Spirit to believe the truth as it is in Christ
Jesus. But if we ever find out about
the love of God, there's one thing for sure we're going to
find out. And that is that God's love for His people is a sacrificial
love. Turn over to the fifth chapter
of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5. And when
we read this, if there was no other statement in all of Scripture,
we would know two things about the love of God. One is that
it is a sacrificial love, and the other is that it is a particular
love. Ephesians 5 and verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even
as, in the same manner, Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it." Now, if you want to find out who God loves
and who Christ died for, you have to go no farther. His instructions
to these believing husbands at Ephesus and believing husbands
in every age is this, love your wives in the same particular
dedicated love and sacrificial love that Christ has for His
church. He purchased the church with
His own blood. Gave His life in this same manner
for the sheep. And the greatest act of love
that has ever been or ever will be is that act of love which
the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated and accomplished on the cross. Now, I don't want to hear that
message about the cross and the blood. You don't want to hear
about love. We can just listen to a TV program where this sentimental,
sloppy kind of love and lust is bound together and weep over
it. But we don't want to hear about
true love, real love. Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. And if you and I ever see or
know the love of God, it will be by seeing it by faith, looking
to Christ crucified. Because the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, though it is most clearly demonstrated
in the cross, it did not begin at the cross. Rather, the cross
is the clearest demonstration of that everlasting, immutable
covenant love. Turn over in your Bibles to Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. And look here in Romans 5 at
the 8th verse. Paul writes to the church at
Rome and he says, "...but God commendeth." What does that mean? That word means demonstrated,
made manifest, exhibited, confirmed. But God commended, confirmed
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. How did He demonstrate that love?
Did He come to every one of us in time and embrace us physically,
the man Christ Jesus? No. He said He demonstrated His
love in this, in that He came and died in our place. That's what He's saying here.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure,
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us, and much more than being now justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through Him." His death, the shedding
of His blood, this act of love is the act by which we are justified
before God. Not any act that we do, but this
one act of divine love, Christ coming and dying there, shedding
His blood to the satisfaction of God's justice against our
sin, He redeemed us by this act of love. Christ said, "...greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friend." That's what John 3.16 is saying. For God so loved the
world, and when He uses that word world, He breaks down that
barrier between Jew and Gentile to embrace a people from among
both Jew and Gentile. He says that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, that's a particular
people, should not perish. but have everlasting life." This
is divine love. Turn over again to 1 John. 1 John 3 and look down now at
verse 16, "...hereby perceive we the love of God." What is
it we say nowadays? Perception is everything. Well,
hereby perceive we the love of God. Not the world, does it?
Not the religious world, particularly. Because He laid down His life
for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
Hereby we perceive the love of God. How? How do we know God
loves us? He laid down His life for us. That perfect, sinless, holy life. Look over in 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. Now, I know how even believers
get sometimes. We have trials, we have troubles,
we have things come along, we have people that we love and
we thought loved us, and we say, they don't love us anymore. Nobody
loves me anymore. Well, whatever we feel, if we're
His child, this doesn't ever change. In 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 herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son, the propitiation for our sins." Those words, to be
there, are added. He's always been the perpetuation
for our sins. And when He sent His Son into
this world, He was just manifesting that everlasting love. And how could we read such statements
as we find here in 1 John without realizing that beholding God's
love for us in Christ is a powerful motivation for us to love the
brethren, and actually the only thing that will move us to love
them? Well, I know he's my brother,
I know she's my sister, but they said some hard things about me.
They didn't treat me like I thought they ought to be treated. You
better remember who Christ loved. If he loved you and me, how could
we not love the brethren? How could we not love someone
that He loves in Christ? How can we not love someone Christ
died for? And then I'll say this. God's
love for His people is a keeping love. Turn over to Romans chapter
8, if you would. Romans 8. And look down at Romans
8 and verse 35. Paul has gone through so many
things in Romans, and most especially up to this point in Romans chapter
8, that it's as if he, in the light of all that he said about
what God has done in Christ in justifying His people and Christ's
death and burial and resurrection and intercession on their behalf,
he says in verse 35, "...who shall separate us from the love
of Christ?" shall tribulation," all these trials and tribulations,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword, as it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the
day long, we're accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No! 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, has always been
in, will always be in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord, is a love from which those whom He loves
in Christ can never be separated. Two things I'm sure of. Nothing that I do can separate
me from the love of God in Christ. And the other thing I'm sure
is this. Even if I were to do the worst things, I don't want
them to separate me from the love of God. And I don't want
to do those things. Turn back to Romans 5 a moment. How do we ever know such love?
How do we ever enter into those things? If we're blind to them,
if we're deaf to them, if we're cold to them, if our natural
minds are enmity to these blessed truths of God's love in Christ,
through believing. And we wouldn't even believe
were it not for the love of God. Look down at verse 5. Paul talks
about having been justified, he says, now by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Then verse 5 he
says, "...and hope maketh not ashamed," hope will never disappoint,
this hope, "...because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts." by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us." The Holy Spirit, He says, taking the things of Christ
and showing them to us, sheds the love of God abroad in our
hearts. You see, it means absolutely
nothing to ride by a sign or hear somebody say, smile, God
loves you. That would have been a bad bumper
sticker to be on the back of the ark, wouldn't it? But when
the Spirit of God takes this truth and brings it to bear and
bears witness to it in your heart, it's like God reaches down from
heaven and puts His arm around you and says to you, I love you. This is how much I love you.
And that's when we behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us." One more passage back in 1 John, in 1 John 4. And look down at verse 16. John
putting himself amongst the Lord's people, the Lord's believing
people. He says this, "...and we have
known and believed the love that God hath to us. Not all feeling is it. Faith
is not feeling, though it does bring forth feeling. Faith is
believing God. We have known and believed the
love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love Him because He first. love us. The love that God's
people have for Him is a reciprocal love. It's because He first loved
us. And if a man say, I love God,
and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God loveth his brother also."
May the Lord be pleased to shed abroad in our hearts the love
of God, that everlasting unchanging, sacrificial, redeeming love,
which He says is in Christ Jesus. May we believe it, rejoice in
it, know the sweetness of its comfort. We just want to be loved,
we say. Well, the love of God is in Christ
Jesus. An unending, preserving, protecting
love which only God Our Father, we cannot help but bless, as
Paul and John and every believer does, praise you and thank you
for that bestowal, that gracious gift of your love in Christ. The love wherein you make us
your children, save us from our sins, and bring us unto yourself. We cannot explain it in its depth,
or its height, or its width, its breadth, but grant to us
that we might believe on the Lord Jesus, believe all You've
said that You've done for us in Him, and therefore love You,
praise You, and thank You forever. For we pray in Christ. Amen.