I want to ask you to open your
Bibles to 1 John, the fourth chapter. I want to talk to you a few minutes
about the love of God. That's the title of my message,
The Love of God. Verse 7. Beloved, writing to
the saints here, Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knows God. He that loveth not, he does not
know God, because God is love. 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. We didn't. We couldn't. But that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. That word propitiation is such
a blessed word in the context of scriptures. It literally means
that he satisfied God for us. gave his son to satisfy his law
and his justice for his people, propitiation. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought also to love each other, one another.
No man has seen God at any time If we love one another, God dwells
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And 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, As Christ is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear. It hath torment. He that feareth
is not made perfect in love. And we love him because he first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, hates
his brother, he's 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 I.
have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. I want to talk to you a few minutes
about the love of God. I don't know much about love,
any kind of love. I just don't. I don't know how
to define it and explain it. But the love of God, I do know
these things about it. what God says in the Scriptures.
I don't know that much about it. I may not understand it,
and I don't, but I know what the Scriptures say, and I know
that what the Scriptures say are true. It's the Word of God.
Now, holiness. Holiness is the first, foremost,
chief moral attribute of God. Holiness. That ought to be the
first thing we think about when we think about God. The angels
sing continually 24 hours a day, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hope. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Holiness! His name is holy. He's called
the Holy One of Israel over and over. Him whose name is holy,
that's a scripture term. He's holy. God is first and foremost
holy. He's the holy God of the Bible.
And being holy, He is just and right and good. He is governed
by holiness in everything He does. Everything He does is holy
and just and good. Paul said the whole law of God
is holy and just and good. God is governed by holiness.
His chief moral attribute is holiness. Being holy, then, his
love is a holy love. It's not just an arbitrary emotion. It's a holy thing. Holy love. Holy, pure, righteous, good,
holy. The holy love of God. Like all of his works, The wrath
of God. He just doesn't get mad and punish
people. Holy wrath. Holy wrath. Holy wrath. God is not only loving,
that's the first thing you think about when people, that's the
first thing you hear. When people talk about God, mention
God, the one word most often connected with God is love. Smile,
God loves you. God loves everybody. All these
things we hear all the time. But how much do we hear about
holiness? God is holy. God is just. He's holy. He's just. God is not only loving,
God is love. Twice we read it in these verses.
God is love. I don't understand that, but
I know it's far above any of my comprehension. God is love. Not only loving, He is love.
He is love. What a God. God's so loved. He's a loving God. Smile, God
loves you. And we don't hear much about
holiness. But love, especially God's love, is a word that we
don't understand much about in our generation. In fact, we don't
understand much about love, whether human or divine. We don't know
much about it. We just don't. I readily confess,
as I said before, that this is a precious little word that I
don't know how to explain. I don't know how to define. I don't know how to explain. I
don't know how to define. Most people today seem to think
it's an affection, an emotion that you can turn off and on
and stop and start. I told you this story several
times since I've been here, but when I was overseas, I had a
little girlfriend when I left in 1958. We were writing back
and forth, and then pretty soon one day I got a letter from my
mom saying she's married. I thought I'd die. It hurt. But a couple days, a few days
later, I got a letter saying my dog died. It hurt just as
bad, so I don't know. I just don't know about those
things. I'm telling you the truth. It did. I'd hate to lose that
dog. I'd probably get another girl
easier than I'd get another dog like that. But anyway, I said
that to make a point. It's hard to define, explain
love, emotion, infatuation. I don't know what it's all about.
Not much. But love is an emotion, and love
is a feeling. But it's a lot more than that,
according to the Scriptures and according to the human definition
and understanding of the Word. That's why God said, where your
treasure is, There will your heart be also. Whatever you really
love, that's where your heart is. Whether it's on things above
or things down here, whatever you really love, truly love,
that's where your heart is. It's just the way it is. Just
the way it is. But love is more than that. Love will issue in a commitment. Commitment. in the person or
thing loved. You really love something, you
have some commitment to it, him or her or whatever. And love
is more than that. When possible, love will issue
an axe of love. It's not passive, not passive. It's active. It'll do something,
things for the one it loves. There's a commitment and it's
active. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. He gave His Son. He gave His
Son. That's the example. God loved,
God gave. God so loved, He gave. Over and
over in the Scriptures. And when possible, love will
give or help or relieve in distress the ones we love. It will sacrifice for the person
loved. always has and always will. Love
is an emotion, and love is that emotion and that energy
which moves us to pursue the one we love. You really love someone, you
want that, you want to be around them, you want to be with them,
you want to help them, you want to, you just love them, you want
to be, you're committed to them. We humans naturally love that
person or thing which is desirable to us and lovable to us. We're
attracted to it because of something in that person or in that thing.
We want it, we're attracted to it. My friends, when we come to the
love of God, we are brought face to face with that which transcends
anything human, anything fleshly, carnal, or sensual. The love
of God is not like that, as I intend to show. The love of God is God-like. It's like God. It couldn't be
otherwise, could it? It's God's love. God is love.
It's God-like. It is miraculous. It is amazing. It is holy and perfect and immutable. That means it can never change.
It can never vary. Never vary. No ups and downs with the love
of God. I want to tell you a few things
about the love of God that I know. And the reason I know it is because
it's written in this book. And I hope you can take it in
and rejoice in it. Malachi, God's charge against
those people is, you won't hear my word. And you don't take it
to heart. And you don't give me the glory.
That's what the book of Malachi is all about. You won't hear
my word. You don't take it to heart. And you don't give God
the glory. Maybe we can take it to heart
this morning. God's love to His people. Now
this is so important that you understand this. God's love to
His people is absolutely free. Absolutely free. What can I do? What kind of position or condition
can I get myself in so that I can attract God to me? You can't. It's absolutely free. It comes
from the heart of God. The heart of God. Now let me
read you something. Turn back to John chapter 4,
please. Romans chapter 3, I'm sorry.
Romans chapter 3. But my reason for saying this
is in Hosea 14.4. The love of God is absolutely
free. It makes a statement in Hosea
14.4. I will love them freely. Freely. Now in Romans chapter
4. Look what it says here. This is amazing. I wish it could
just sink deep down into our hearts. Verse 23, Romans 4, 23. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Boy, that's true. And then this
just jumps out at you. Just bursts out. Therefore being
justified freely. And that same Greek word is translated
in John chapter 15, without a cause. They hated Christ without a cause. Same Greek word. Therefore being
justified without any cause in me. Think about that. You who are trying to make yourself
better, make yourself more presentable to God. He justifies us without
any cause in us. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor our fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requires is
to feel your need of Him. And He causes that. He stirs
up that need in our hearts. Freely. Therefore being justified
freely by His grace, through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a, there's that wonderful
word again, propitiation, through faith in His blood, propitiation,
satisfaction. God sent His Son to satisfy Himself,
His law, His justice for us. And when we can take that to
heart and believe that, lay hold of that, trust that, that's salvation. He becomes our salvation. All
we need for time and eternity is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will love them freely. No cause
or reason in us. We're all the enemies of God
by nature. We're all enmity in our minds
against God. Enmity in our minds by nature. And we can't make ourselves any
better. God has the ability. Romans 5. Turn on over just a page in your
Bible. Romans 5. Verse 6. When we were yet without
strength. We had no spiritual ability.
We had no spiritual strength. We could not do anything spiritual.
We could not understand spiritual things. We could not call Jesus
Lord. We had not the Spirit of God.
When we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Are you ungodly? If you say no,
He didn't die for you. He died for the ungodly. And
if He ever saves you, you'll see that you're ungodly before
He saves you. Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, ungodly sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if we
were, when we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son. Much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life. Enemies, ungodly sinners, Christ
died for us. And that's what we were. And
that's what we are by nature, and we can't ever change it.
We'll be that until we lay down these bodies of flesh, and we
have a new body, fashioned like unto the glorious body of our
Lord Jesus Christ. God has this unique ability.
I don't have it, and you don't have it. God has this unique
ability just to pick out someone someplace, anywhere, like Abraham. Abraham lived down in Ur of Chaldea.
His father was an idolater. His grandfather was an idolater.
They didn't know anything. They never heard about the true
and living God. And God appeared unto Abraham. God appeared unto
Abraham when he was yet in Ur of Chaldea and said, Abraham,
follow me, and made the promises to her. Abraham followed him.
God has the ability to set his love on his enemies whenever,
whomever, whichever, whenever he desires. I can't do that. I see an enemy, somebody that
hates me, somebody that wants to kill me. I'm supposing that.
But if I had someone like that, I'd just look at him and say,
I'm going to start loving him today. You can't do it. You don't
have that ability. But God does. His enemies, ungodly,
opposed to everything He is. We're the opposite. He set His
love on us, here in His love. Not that we love God, oh no,
but that He loved us on purpose, from eternity. Set His affections
upon us. You know, I see a man, just very
clearly, walking down the Damascus Road. And he had his retinue
with him. He had his people, the one that
laid his mule, and the one that carried his books, and this and
that. And in his pocket, he had a list of authority against certain
people to find them, apprehend them, beat them, bring them to
jail, kill them, whatever. Going down the Damascus Road.
And God turned on the light. And he fell in the dust. And
he went down into the dust, Saul of Tarsus. And he came up out
of the dust, Paul the Apostle. Paul the Apostle. God turned
an enemy into a friend. God did. Why did he do it? Something good in Paul, Saul?
Not a thing! His face, he hated Christ so
much, and the followers of Christ, and the name of Christ, that
I can see those lines of anger, and bitterness, and wrath written
in his face. He became the most devoted, perhaps,
of all the apostles. When he saw what he was doing,
God turned on the light. He said, God, who command the
light to shine out of darkness, shine in our hearts, our darkened
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. He saw Christ. God revealed Himself
to him in His dear Son. God has that ability. You know,
we can't understand it, most people today. But it's like,
think about this. as a prison house. And all the
people in this prison house, they had been tried, found guilty,
convicted, condemned, and sentenced. What awaits them? Only the execution. The day of execution. The day
of execution. And God said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. And people want to fuss about
that statement. I just want to get in front of the line so maybe
have mercy on me. We all deserve the same thing.
There's no good in any of it. We're all under the sentence
of death. And any day that sentence might be carried out. But God
has mercy. God has mercy. And it's not because
of anything in you. It's because of our need of Him.
And He gives us that need. I repeat again, let not conscience
make you linger, nor of some kind of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requires is
to feel your need of Him. And He says, come unto Me, all
you thirsty, come to Me and drink. You hungry? I'm the bread of
life. Come. All you that weary and heavy
laden, come to me. I'll give you rest. He loved us when there was nothing
good in us, nothing lovable about us. We're attracted to things
that we're naturally attracted to. People, things. that appeal
to us, our hearts. Nobody can explain the love of
God for dead dog sinners. All we can see in it is God's
glory, God's glory. He loved us, He chose us, He
called us to the praise of the glory of His grace. Secondly, God's love, Hosea 14,
4, is absolutely free. Secondly, God's love, Jeremiah
31, 3, is an everlasting love. You can't figure out the time
when God began to love His people. He's always loved them. Always
loved them. He says in that passage, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. And then there's a big
word there that always follows love. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore, therefore, because
I loved you, therefore I drew you. I loved you and left you. No, love can't do that. I loved
you and I drew you. And everyone here this morning
ought to be saying, Oh God, don't pass me by. Draw me. Don't leave
me to myself. Draw me. I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving kindness,
I drew you. God's love for His people is
an eternal, everlasting, never-changing love. Spurgeon used to say, whatever
God does in time, He purposed to do before there was time,
before every time was. Whatever He does in time, He
purposed back in eternity. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world. He declares the end from the
beginning. And He loved these people, John
17, 26. He loves His people with the same love wherewith He loves
His only begotten Son. Only God has that power and ability
to love enemies, ungodly, dead dog sinners. And He sets His
love upon them, the same love, Wherewith He loved is well beloved,
altogether lovely, only begotten Son. Danny, He loves you just
like He loves His Son. Same love. Same love. And it's eternal. It's never
changing. And He'll never leave you, never
forsake you. Sometimes He'll let you think
He's gone. The heavens seem like they're brass, but He'll never
leave you. Even then, He's there. When He tries His gold to burn up the dross, He's standing
at the door. What a God. God's love is not
passive. No real love is. Now listen to
this, what I'm saying. It's not passive. No real love
is. I loved you, therefore. I loved you, therefore. God's love is not a mere offer.
No real love is. You'll pursue the object of your
love. You'll pursue what you love.
You can't help it. It's a part of love. Human love is often disappointed,
bringing hurt, bringing pain. Your dog might die. Your girlfriend
might marry somebody else. But God is never disappointed. His
is a conquering love. I loved you, therefore. I loved
you, therefore. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power, therefore. God's love is conquering, triumphant,
Victorious always, always. Never fails, never fails. There's a girl, lady used to
work down at one of these quick picks down here. And when I was
coming to the study every morning, I was talking to her about love. I had an article in the paper
and she read it. We were talking about it. And
I said, she said, God loves everybody. I said, how come so many of them
are in hell? There are a lot of people in hell today. And
a lot of people going there before this day ends. You mean to tell
me God loves them? With a son sacrificing love and
yet let him perish like that? I said, suppose a big coal truck
coming down the road here, down the highway, and your two children are out
there in the road. Would you just holler and offer them a
way of escape, or would you risk your life to spare them? She
said, I never thought about it like that. I said, that's the
way it's presented in the scriptures. God loves, God draws, God saves. He's a victor. And this is, I've already mentioned
it, but God's love thirdly, God's love for His people, it's always
active and always effectual, never fails. Never fails. He loves them, He brings them.
You know why Christ died? Peter said He died the just for
the unjust that He might bring us to God. Bring us to God! Offer us a way of escape? No!
Bring us to God. He's the propitiation of our
sins. He's satisfied God for us. And
He brings us to God. Brings us to God. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 1, What manner of love the Father
hath offered us, bestowed upon us, bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. He made us to be His sons. He bestowed His love upon us.
of His own will, James 1.18, of His own will, beget He us. We were born again with the Word
of Truth. Oh. Oh, man. God's love for His people, fourthly,
is sacrificial. You know, Met that old woman over there
out in Oklahoma a long time ago. And things I'd been spending
on playing tennis and running around doing this and that and
the other, I started saving up to spend on her. So I could buy
gas to go see her. Love's sacrificial. It's a commitment. It always is. Always is. Little old yellow Chevrolet just
kept a-headin' that same way right toward her house. I'd save up a few dollars and
we'd go to the movies, go out and get a hamburger, go to my
favorite place and get an ice cream. God's love for His people is
very sacrificial. He spared not His own Son. How sacrificial is it? He spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall not He also with Him
freely give us all things? Spared not. He didn't withhold
His judgment, His justice, His wrath against His Son when He
bore our sins. Spared not His own Son. God so
loved the world that He gave. Here in His love, God gave. Gave
His Son. He gave His only begotten well-beloved
Son to become a man, one of us, to become a servant, to make
Himself of no reputation, made a little lower than the angels,
to suffer and die, to die the death, that death. The wages
of sin is death. He died that death for me. God's amazing love He laid on
His Holy Son the iniquity of us all. Took it off us, laid it on His
Son. His Son took the punishment,
we go free. That's what they call substitution.
That's what this book's all about. Substitution. And the substitute
satisfied God for His people. He was their propitiation. The Bible said, and I don't understand
these things, you can just read them and wonder at them, that
God made His soul, His soul, to be an offering for sin. I can't enter into that very
well. He suffered the just for the unjust that He might bring
us to God. He purged. He Himself, by Himself,
purged our sins. He put away our sins. They're gone. They'll never be
remembered. Those for whom He died, their
sins will never be remembered against them again. God will
never bring up their sins against them. They're gone. They're put
away. He purged our sins. He redeemed us unto God by His
own blood. Bought us to God. Bought us to
God. And Himself, He gave Himself
as a ransom. Number five, God's love for His
people. You take this to heart. I know
most of you do already. God's love for His people is
in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 39. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. In the day of the
ark, which is a type of Christ, where was the love of God? It's
in the ark. Everybody outside that ark was under the wrath
of God. Everybody outside that ark, the floodwaters came upon
them and swept them away. You had to be in the ark. Now
the preachers of our day are running around everywhere saying,
smile, God loves you. But they're telling a lie. They're
speaking without justification. If you're in Christ, you can
claim the love of God. Not unless you're in Christ.
Not until you get to Christ. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus. Every spiritual blessing, every
saving blessing is in Christ Jesus. He is our life. He is our salvation. He is the
way, the truth, and the life. Every blessing is in Christ.
You know what that makes me want to do? Get to Christ. And I hope
you're feeling the same way. Get to Christ. How do I get to
Christ? Don't move a arm, don't move
a leg. It's a heart thing. Religion's
a matter of the heart. You embrace Him in your heart.
You see who He is. You see what He became. You see what He accomplished.
You see where He is now. Your heart goes out to Him. God makes Him attractive to you.
God, more than that, makes Him necessary, needful. I must have
Him. I must have Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. hath life. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He's the one that hath the Son. Free. Absolutely free. What must I
do? Believe? Believe. The Jews, the leaders, came to
Christ in John 6 and tell us the work we might do, that we
might do the work of God and all these things. He said, this
is the work of God. You believe on the one whom He
sent. That's it. Believe. Put all your eggs in
one basket, all your hopes in one hand, and grab hold of Christ. All your hope in Him. All your
confidence in Him. Paul said, we're the circumcision.
We worship God in the Spirit. Not with our hands and feet.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's all of our rejoicing.
And we have no confidence in this flesh. None whatsoever. None whatsoever. Don't look to
your sinfulness and say, I'm too sinful. He saves without
a cause. He saves freely. No man can make himself savable.
No man can make himself presentable to God. God just looks at the
need. He said, if you call on Me with
all your heart, and I love this, I'll be found of you. I'll be
found of you. It won't be in vain. If you call
on God with all your heart in Christ Jesus, you'll find Him. You'll find Him. You'll find
it. And I repeat again, if you're
looking for anything, looking to anything, in yourself, of
yourself, don't do it. And don't sit and think, I'm
too sinful, He won't save me. That's the people He does save.
Let not conscience make you linger, nor our fitness fondly dream. All the fitness God requires
is to feel your need of Him. May God put that need in your
heart this day. Okay, David.