If God will enable me to deliver
the message of 1 John chapter 4 verses 9 and 10, if he will
give you ears to hear and hearts to believe that which is contained
in these two verses, we will leave here tonight saying in
our hearts it has been good to be in the house of the Lord.
1 John chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. 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. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Herein is love. Herein is love. That's the title of my message.
When John is writing by divine inspiration and he looks for
love, looks for some display of love, looks for some means
by which to show love. He doesn't look to the angels
in heaven and their love for God and love for God's people.
He doesn't look down upon the earth and see our love for one
another or our love for God. He doesn't look in himself and
behold his love for God or for God's people. but rather he looks
to the Lord God himself, looking back to Calvary, looking up to
God the Father in heaven in all the wondrous splendor of his
condescending grace as he sacrifices his beloved son in the room instead
of sinners like you and me upon the curse tree. John said, there
it is. There it is. That's what I want
you to see. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, we didn't, we couldn't, and we wouldn't, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Twice in this one chapter, in
verses eight and 16, John says, God is love. And we rejoice to
know God is love. But that's not all God is. God is holy and just and true. God is righteous. God is perfect. Yes, God is love, but he is much
more than love. And whatever we understand about
God's love, that is so very important. Whatever we understand about
God's love must be understood in the light of all that God
is. Whatever we understand of God's
love, it must be understood in the light of all that God is. Now, please understand what I'm
saying. You can't know the love of God aright. You can't have
a right view, a right understanding of God's love if you fail to
see the consistency of his love and his justice in exercise. You can't know the love of God
aright unless you understand, unless you see that God's love
and his righteousness are exercised in precise consistency with one
another. You can't know the love of God.
All right Unless you know that God is love Even when he sends
sinners to hell that doesn't change his love That doesn't
alter anything God is love Well pastor, how can we say God is
love people who how can a God of love send folks to hell? He's
not a God of love Bobby. He is God who is love And apart
from him, there is no love. What men call love that's inconsistent
with him is not love at all. God is love. And if you would
know love, if you would measure love, if you would have some
understanding of love, herein is love. Not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Herein is love. There are two
texts of Scripture to which I would call your attention. You can
look at them later. They're familiar to you. One
in the Old Testament, one in the New, which speaks of God's
love from everlasting to everlasting. In Jeremiah 31 and verse 3, the
Lord God says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Or as the marginal translation
gives it, therefore, I have extended lovingkindness to thee. I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have extended
lovingkindness to thee. God's lovingkindness is extended
to men and women in time who are loved of God with everlasting
love. God calls men and women in time
by the omnipotent power of his grace to life and faith in Christ
who are the objects of his everlasting love from eternity. The other
text found in the New Testament is in Ephesians chapter 2. And
they were told that in the ages to come, the Lord God is determined
to show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. So this is the ultimate object
of God's love. I love you with everlasting love. And when I performed my very
last deed for you, When I've done the very last thing that
shall be done for you in the consummation of your salvation,
I'm going to present you to wandering worlds in the perfection of righteousness
to show my grace and my kindness through Christ Jesus. So God's
love is from everlasting to everlasting and everything in between. without
beginning and without end. The Lord God loved us with everlasting
love in union with his son without beginning and without end. The oceans mist are brought up
and come down in the rain and the rivers and the water runs
back to the ocean again. And so they're continually the
waters moving. But the water is one. And God's
love in Christ Jesus is that which reaches from eternity to
eternity, from everlasting to everlasting, and everything in
between. I'm not looking for something.
I want you to get this. Everything in between is but the outworking
and the displaying of God's love for his elect. Everything in time has God's
love stepped upon it. His love for his own. Everything
in time comes to pass in time for a specific people who are
loved of God with an everlasting love in his son. Understanding
that, David said, the Lord performeth all things for me. The Lord performeth all things
for me. When he sends famine in Africa,
or war in Iraq, or death in the family, or sickness to my body,
or bereavement to my heart, this is what God performed for me. This is what God performed for
me. Can you get hold of that? For
me, for me. All that goes on in time is the
performance of God's love for his elect, for the benefit of
our souls unto eternity. But how can we know this love
of God, this infinite, eternal love of God? John says, no man
has seen God at any time. On the begotten Son, he's almost
never seen God. Well, if we can't see God, how
can we know Him? John says, look back to Calvary,
the center, the hinge, the focal point of history, and understand
this, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us. and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Let me show you four things tonight
about the love of God. Four very simple, clearly revealed,
precious things about the love of God. First, God's love is
sovereign. God loves sovereignly. His love is without cause. His love does not arise being
stirred in him by something outside him. God does not love men because
of something he sees in men. God does not love men because
of something he receives from men. God does not love men because
of something men do for him. God's love is sovereign love. If it's eternal love, it's sovereign
love without calls outside himself. What is this love of God that's
sovereign? Sovereign love means independent
love. Independent love. God, the Father,
God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit dwell together in mutual
satisfaction eternally, Father, Son, and Spirit, in complete
complacency in themselves, in himself. Now, I don't understand
much about the Trinity, so I don't try to explain the Trinity, but
there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. and being God,
self-sufficient and independent, the eternal God lives forever
in complete complacency in himself. He doesn't need you. And he doesn't
need me. His happiness, his fullness in
his glorious divinity, his satisfaction, his complacency in his everlasting
divinity does not depend on us. People had this idea, God is
love, so he must have someone to love, but not outside himself. We don't supply an empty spot
in God's heart. So that God now, being loved,
looks at man and says, now I've created someone whom I can love. And therefore, he loves us and
finds satisfaction. Oh, no, God dwells completely
independent of his creatures. To say that God's love is sovereign
is not only to speak of it being totally independent. God's love
is infinite. Infinite. God loves in such a
way, in such fullness, to such a degree that his love can't
be measured. Infinite. I try not to use words
when I don't mean what I say, but we tend to do this all the
time. We overstate things. Don't ever use the word infinite
to refer to anything but God. Time is not infinite. Space is
not infinite. God is infinite. God cannot be
measured. His love cannot be measured.
His grace cannot be measured. God is infinite, and that one
who loves infinitely, independently, sovereignly, as I've already
hinted at, loves eternally. God loved us before the foundation
of the world as one with his Son. Indeed, our Savior tells
us in John 17, he loves us as he loved his Son, and he loved
his Son before the foundation of the world. In love, he predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. He established a covenant of
grace in everlasting love because he loved us. The Lord Jesus stood
forth as our surety because of his love for us. The triune God
chose us because he loved us and the angels of God were created
of God to be ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those
who shall be the heirs of eternal salvation. I recall hearing an
old man many, many years ago make a statement, whether he
had some understanding I didn't have or not, I don't know, but
it's quite possible what he said is so. He said, I think the pride
arising in Lucifer's heart was that he refused to be servant
to man whom he considered to be less than himself. And God
made the angels to be ministering spirits sent forth to minister
to those who shall be the heirs of salvation. Couldn't God take
care of and protect his people without angels to protect them?
Yes, but he uses angels. He created angels to care for
his own, to protect his own. to watch over his own. Elijah
said, let my servant see. Let him see the mountains are
full of angels watching over us. Angels, a whole host of heavenly
beings created of God because He loves you to watch over you,
protect you, keep you. Not who are presently the heirs
of salvation. but those who shall be the heirs
of salvation. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14. All
the days of our rebellion, flirting with death, courting
hell like we would court a friend, daring God to his face with every
breath. God's angels watching over us,
keeping us from harm, for he would not let us perish the objects
of his love. God's love is immutable love. If it's sovereign, free, eternal,
infinite, It is unchanging and unchangeable. God's love knows
nothing of distinction or degrees. I suppose it's impossible for
any mortal really to love two people alike. One, you got two sons. I just
have one daughter. I can't use me. You got two sons. and you
love them both dearly. But I guarantee you, you don't
love them both alike. The different parts, characteristics,
and traits for which one appeals and another one appeals. So that
the love, I'm not talking about measure, I'm talking about difference.
It's just different. I love my daughter, and I love
my wife, and I wouldn't attempt to measure any measurement of
difference between my love. But I can tell you right now,
the love's different. It's a different love. It's a different love. And we can't love anything like
God does in this regard. But God loves all his people
alike, for he loves us in his son perfectly. And his love never
varies. It's never hot, never cold, never
indifferent, never passionate. God's love can't increase and
it can't diminish. But that's not all, Alan. It
can't be increased and it can't be diminished. We cannot cause
God to love us more. And bless his name, we cannot
cause God to love us less. God's love is sovereign, free,
eternal love in Christ Jesus. His love can't be altered by
anything outside himself, and nothing can alter him. He says,
I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Now, I stress this because most
people have a blasphemous notion concerning God's love. They believe
that God loves everybody. In other words, they believe
that God's love is both helpless and frustrated, both meaningless
and changeable. For if He loves everybody, obviously
His love for some folks doesn't matter. If God loves folks who
go to hell anyway, His love doesn't make any difference. If God loves
folks who perish anyway, His love makes no difference. If
God loves everyone and some folks go to hell, then God's love must
at some point change. There is a very popular preacher
these days. He was the founder of the Christian
Missionary Alliance Denomination. His name is A. W. Tozer. And
folks quote him a lot, read him a lot. Let me read you something
Tozer said. Listen carefully. He said, God
must love and will love man. Now listen. until hell has erased
the last trace of the remaining image of God in him. Men are
lost now, but they're still loved of God. I believe, I'm continuing
to give you exactly what the man said. I believe that God
now loves all lost men, but the day will come when lost men will
no longer be loved by God, God Almighty, I believe the time
will come when God will no longer love lost human beings. Mark, that's blasphemy. That's
blasphemy. You mean God can change? God's
love can change? The objects of his love can change?
If God can change, God can't be trusted. If God can change,
you're in jeopardy. If God can change, no promise
can be believed. If God can change, nothing in
this book can be believed. Oh no, God's love doesn't change.
God doesn't love today and hate tomorrow. God doesn't love today
and despise tomorrow. God's love is sovereign, free,
eternal, immutable love. Unconditional. His is the only
unconditional love there is. Sunday night I went home and
We watched that little special they had on television about
George Bush. Whether you like it or not, I kind of like Mr.
Bush's actions as president for the most part. And I have a lot
of respect for the man. But bless his soul, he is a Methodist. And he acts like it most of the
time, talking about religion. And he said, he talked about
his daddy's unconditional love for him. and his unconditional
love for his daughters, and his wife's unconditional love for
him. Everybody loves that term unconditional. It ain't unconditional. Oh, no. No, no. Your love for
your sons and daughters is not unconditional. Their love for
you is not unconditional. Your love for your wife and husband
is not unconditional. It's conditioned on a bunch of
stuff. But God's love, that's unconditional love. That means
God's love is indestructible. Not even our sin and fall in
our father Adam injured God's love. Not even our rebellion
all the days of our lives, shoving God, as it were, out of our way,
called God to love us any the less. And having called us by
his grace, washed us in his blood, and saved us now by his mercy,
we still sin violently against our God. And much that we do displeases
him. And he makes clear that David's
actions with Bathsheba and Uriah and our actions displease him,
but never the objects of his love. His love still is unchanged. God's love is sovereign love. Now, here's the second thing. God loves sinners. God loves sinners. Find me a
sinner. Any sinner. Anywhere. Find me a sinner. A man, woman,
boy or girl. A sinner. Someone convinced of
their depravity. Someone convinced that their
hearts corrupt. Someone convinced that they deserve
the wrath of God. Someone convinced that they ought
to go to hell. Find me a sinner. Find me a sinner. And I'll show you somebody who
is the object of God's love. Find me a sinner, and I'll show
you a person chosen of God. Find me a sinner, and I will
show you one redeemed by the blood of Christ. Find me a sinner,
and I'll show you one called by God's grace. You see, a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. But Brother Don, all men are sinners. Go ask them. Just
go ask them. They'll talk to them about it
a little bit. You'll find out they'll choke you to death to
tell them they're sinners. Oh, I've done some wrong. Nobody's
perfect. We all know that. I'm not the best of fellas, but
I ain't like Charles Manson. Find me a sinner and I'll show
you the object of God's everlasting love. God loves sinners. Here's the proof. all the days
of our rebellion, in the sin and fall of our father Adam,
God's love remains steadfast. And God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loves sinners. God loves sinners. Brother Don, I believe God loves
saints. You know, I know he does. I know
he does. But my saintliness, Murrell, I have great reason to question
all the time. My sinnerhood, I have no reason
to question. bow in the dust at the throne
of grace as a sinner in need of mercy all the time with this
confidence God loves sinners when I think of our fall and
our father Adam and I'm at the age now where I I'm not much
careful about what I say in the sense of being careful of lest
some detractor, some will-worship army, and some legalist gets
hold of it and runs wild, says all kinds of stuff, make wild
accusations. In fact, I like to throw the goats a can to chew
on once in a while. For the goats who don't like
it, here's a can to chew on. For you sheep, here's some good
food for your souls. Our sin and fall in our father
Adam. was by divine design intended
to give a black background upon which God might reveal to us
his everlasting love. No accident, no accident, God's
love as we know it in Christ. God's love, as it is revealed
in his son, is something the angels of God have no knowledge
of. You know, the angels of God attend
church with us three times a week. They sit in the assembly. Right
there in the pew beside you. Hear you sing and pray. And hear
the sermons. anxious to learn everything they
can about redeeming love, saving grace, and forgiveness. Those
holy beings can never know that love of God. They can never know
it. They can never know it, for they're
not fallen. They've not been redeemed. They've
not been recovered by God's free grace. Oh, blessed fall. blessed fall God Commends his
love toward us in the while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us You go to the jewelry store and
start to look at jewelry The jeweler will lay it on dark velvet
and he will shine a bright light on the jewels. And he can make
rhinestones look expensive. He can make cheap stuff look
real good, let alone real diamonds and real rubies and real sapphires. Now, shining in that gold setting
against the backdrop of that black velvet, you just stand
back and And that's something and you start shelling out the
money just cause your wife's smiling at it. Or your girlfriend's
smiling at it. Oh, yeah, we'll buy that. That's
worth the money. Here's the background on which God makes known his love. Herein
is love. Not that we loved God. but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. God loves sovereignly
and God loves sinners. Now here's the third thing. God saves every sinner he loves. God saves every sinner he loves. There's no such thing as God
loving one he doesn't save. These days, folks like to talk
about God's universal love. They talk about God's loving
everybody. You just can't say God doesn't
love everybody. Well, let's try putting things
the way you do. This yahoo across the street
over here, all he denounces what you're hearing here tonight is
with anger, with anger. You know, it makes him mad. I
hope he listens to that. I don't want to make him mad
or make him real glad. I hope it makes him glad. I'd
love to God save him. But you can't say that. Well, let's try
the reverse. Noah has built an ark and the
floods rising and everybody's laughing at him. Everybody poking
fun at it. It ain't going to rain. And then
it starts to rain. Oh, no, it ain't going to rain
long. No, it's just a nice shot. We've been needing this. And
the boat starts to come up off the ground. Noah, let us in. And Noah hangs a bumper sticker
on the back of the ark and says, smile. God loves you. Might have
a strange way of showing it. If God loves everybody, he hasn't
got a strange way of showing it. There are some folks to whom
Paul wanted to go preach the gospel. God said, no, go over
here and preach it. But if God loves everybody, he's
got a strange way of showing it. There are people today who
never had the privilege of hearing the name of Christ proclaimed
in their ears. People in the world today who
never had the privilege. Well, if God loves him, surely
he'd make him to hear the gospel of his grace. The fact is, God
doesn't love everybody. There are those in the world
called Jacob, the objects of his love, and everybody else
called Esau, folks he hates. Folks who are elect and folks
who are reprobate. Folks who are sheep and folks
who are goats. That's what the book says. Now,
you can fuss about it and fight about it if you want to, or you
can bow to God and worship him. I thank God we bow to him and
worship him. You see, God's love is not a
waste. God's love is not meaningless. God's love is not frustrated.
God's love is not somehow useless. No, no, no. God loves folks. He saves them by his grace. How
did he do that? He sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Propitiation. It's the word mercy
seek. He sent his son to be the perpetuatory
sacrifice for our sins. You remember in the Old Testament,
they, by divine order, made an ark of the covenant. Little bit
bigger than this communion table. Inside the ark are the two tables
of the law that the children of Israel broke. And God said,
you put those tables inside the ark. And that golden ark is set
in the holy of holies in the tabernacle and in the temple.
Over top of the ark is the mercy seat, plate of pure gold, a lid
on the ark covering it completely. And on each end are cherubs facing
one another, their wings touching each other, looking down on the
mercy seat. This is what Isaiah saw in Isaiah
chapter six. He saw the Lord sitting in his
glory on his throne on the mercy seat. And Aaron went in once
a year with the blood of the paschal lamb and sprinkled it
on the mercy seat and thereby atoned for the sins of all Israel
so that between God in heaven and the broken law beneath the
table is blood covering the broken law a ceremonial picture of atonement
made of just dissatisfied, of wrath appeased, of God pleased. That's what Christ is for us.
He is our atonement. He is our reconciliation. He
is our peace. He is that one who put away our
sins by the sacrifice of himself. His atonement is not just a covering
for sin, but a putting away of sin upon the basis of which God
blesses the people who are the objects of his love in complete
consistency with his holiness, justice, and truth. He's the
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the
sins of his people scattered through all the earth. Imagine
the multitudes, the multitudes scattered among the nations of
the world, the multitudes among every kindred, nation, tribe,
and tongue, the multitudes out of every age and generation for
whom Christ Jesus has made atonement. for whom he is the propitiation
because they're the objects of God's love. God's love is sovereign. God loves sinners. God loves
savingly. Now listen to this. God's love
is sacrificial. Love always is. Love always is. You got that new baby, you're
going to sacrifice a bunch and be happy to do it. Yeah, husband sacrifices the
attention he was getting and wife sacrifices the attention
she's getting. And man, if it wasn't feeding that baby, I could
go play a little golf. If it wasn't for feeding that
baby, I could buy some new clothes. If it wasn't for taking care
of that baby, educating that baby, I could have some money
to buy some new furniture. No. I've never thought like that,
have you? I've never given that a thought.
Never thought about what it costs to be a daddy. How come? Because I love the child. is always sacrificial, willingly
so. If so with man, infinitely so with God. You want to see love, Merle?
Would you like to see it? Go back to Calvary. Herein is
love. Herein is love. here in his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. O Spirit of God, daily write the love of God on
my heart. And on the hearts of these, your
people. Sweetly compel us by this love
of God revealed in Christ Jesus. Constantly to devote ourselves
to our Redeemer. And I pray God will compel you
who are yet without Christ now to come to Him. by his great
revelation of his love in Christ Jesus. Amen.