We love him because he first loved us. We love him and there's a because,
because he first loved us. Now I'm going to come back to
this precious verse at the end of this message, would you turn
with me to Luke chapter eight? This is a very familiar passage
of scripture, but I wish we could listen to this like we'd never
heard it before. Luke chapter eight, beginning in verse four. And when much people were gathered
together and were come to him out of every city, He spake by
a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by
the wayside, the hard, beaten, unpenetrable path. And it was
trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some
fell upon a rock, And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered
away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And others fell
on good ground and sprang up and bear fruit
and a hundredfold. And when he had said these things,
he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Do you know you have to have
ears to hear before you can hear? And if you have ears, let him
hear. Verse nine, and his disciples
asked him saying, what might this parable be? And he said
unto you, It's given to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God. But to others in parables that
seeing they might not see. And hearing they might not understand.
Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The gospel. Those by the wayside are they
that hear. Then cometh the devil and taketh
away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and
be saved. These are the seeds that fell on the hardened path. And you know, I get this. How
many men do you see out in the world that are so hard hearted
that the gospel has no effect on them? Steely, hard, unbeaten,
the beaten path. Verse 13, they are on the rock. Or they,
which when they hear, receive the word with joy. This is a
great message. We love this. It makes sense.
I like what I'm hearing. I don't know how many times I've
heard that. They receive the word with joy. This is great.
I'll be back next Sunday. I've heard that so many times.
They receive the word with joy. But these have no root. which for a while believe, and
in time of temptation, they fall away. I didn't sign up for this,
the troubles that have been brought on by the gospel, the inconveniences
that have been brought on by the gospel, so they leave. Verse
14, and they which fell among thorns, are they which when they
have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures
of this life and bring forth no fruit to perfection. They hear the word, they believe
the word, but gradually the cares of this life The lust for riches,
the pleasures of this life, choke the word. And I don't think these
people necessarily leave, but they bring forth no fruit. They
sit there and they never bear fruit. Now the good part, verse
15. But that on the good ground,
Now, this ground had something done first. It was plowed up. The rocks were
removed. It was watered. It was prepared
before it received the seed. It's what the old-time writers
called prevenient grace. Grace before grace. The reason this ground received
the word was because first something had been done previously for
that ground. And what happened? But on the
good ground are they which in an honest and good heart. Now you know what that is. That's
the new heart that he gives. No man by nature has a heart
like that, but those whom God has mercy on, he gives them a
new heart that's honest. It's honest before God. It's
good, pure. The heart that David cried, creating
me a clean heart. And what does it do? Having heard
the word, keep it and bring forth fruit. the fruit of God, the
Holy Spirit with patience. But something was done to this
soil first before the seed was received. Hence, good ground. We love him because he first
loved us. Grace before grace. Grace preceding human knowledge. Grace preceding human action. Grace preceding human response. Prevenient grace. To hear the
gospel, you have to be given hearing ears before you can hear.
I love the way the Lord said, he that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. To see and understand, you must
be given seeing eyes. Why it even takes preceding grace,
prevenient grace, grace before grace to receive grace. I can't
even receive grace. I can't even believe grace without
the grace of God first coming to me. I turn to Genesis chapter
6. We'll look at several scriptures. Verse 5, very familiar verse
of scripture. And God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. Question, was Noah included in
that demographic? Yes, he was. Verse eight, but
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was included
in Genesis 6, 5, but thank God for eight. Verse eight, but Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now Solomon, Solomon was
called by God, the beloved one. Before he was born, before that
David had even heard of Bathsheba, his mother. In chapter seven,
he told David, you're going to have a son and he's going to
be beloved of the Lord. It was said to Zacharias, you're
going to have a son and his name is going to be John. Now he hadn't
been conceived yet. He hadn't been born, but you're
going to have a son and his name is going to be John and he will
be great. in the eyes of the Lord. He shall
be filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. Now somebody
says, well, what if he doesn't believe? Will it happen then?
He'll believe. He'll believe. Because this was
predetermined by God. This was grace given before this
man had any existence. He says to every one of his people,
before I form thee in the belly. I knew thee. Many will say, Lord,
Lord, did I not preach in your name? In your name did I cast
out devils? In your name did I not do many
wonderful works? Then shall I say unto them, depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. Never was a
time I knew you. I don't know you now and never
will. But to all of his people, before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee, Jeremiah 31 three, behold, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. A love that never began. Who understands that? Nobody.
But we believe it, don't we? Behold, I've loved you with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. Second Timothy two, 19, the foundation
of the Lord standeth sure, having this sealed, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. Romans 9, 11, for the children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. not of works, but
of him that calleth." Now, I'd like you to turn with me to this
passage, if you would, 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. Let's begin in verse 8. Paul says to Timothy, be not
thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God who hath saved us and
called us. Now, which came first? The saving
or the calling? He saved us. And everybody he
saves, he calls the call of invincible, irresistible grace. He saved
us and he called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus. before the world began. Grace before grace. Now, everything God does is eternal. I become more amazed by this,
more flabbergasted by it, and yet knowing I don't understand
it, There's no way we can understand eternity because we're bound
by space and we're bound by time. And it sure is hard to get hold
of this. As a matter of fact, it's impossible. But do you know
that there is an eternal covenant? One that never had a beginning.
It's what David called, although my house be not so with God yet,
as he made with me an everlasting covenant. ordered in all things
and sure. There's an eternal surety. The
Lord Jesus Christ, who before time began, took full responsibility
for my salvation in eternity. There's an eternal sacrifice.
We read in Revelation 13, eight of the blood of the everlasting
covenant. There is an eternal priest, the
one who's the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
eternal. There's an eternal people that
have always been known by Christ, that have always been loved by
Christ, that have always been in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
look what verse 10 says, though. Now, we had this grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death. That's what he did on Calvary's
tree. He put it away and he had brought light and immortality
to light through the gospel, whereunto I'm appointed a preacher,
an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Well, Paul, don't
you know that there's no need to preach if everything's already
ordained before the foundation of the world? That's foolishness.
Of course there's a need to preach. Verse 12, for the witch cause
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed. and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Now,
everything that was done in eternity, I was justified in eternity.
Some people are afraid of that, I have no idea why. Everything that I have was given
me in Christ Jesus before the world began, everything. But
it's just as true that I was justified when Christ died on
Galilee's tree. That's when my sin was put away.
He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification.
I was justified when I believed. I didn't have a reason to believe
God had anything for me until I believed the gospel. And one
of these days when I don't sin anymore and I stand before God
absolutely just perfect, just like Christ, I'll be justified
then. You see that which is done in eternity will always be done
in time. Hebrews 1.14 speaks of angels
who were sent to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. They shall be. They're not yet,
but they shall be. You see, something was done previously
that made sure that would take place before they call, God says
in Isaiah 65, before they call. I will answer, and while they're yet speaking,
I will hear." Listen to this scripture, the steps, the steps
of a good man, and that's every believer. The steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord. Every step you have taken today,
10 years ago, when you were a kid, it's ordered by the Lord. I love that. Somebody says, well,
you're making me a puppet. I'm fine with that if I'm the
Lord's puppet, aren't you? The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. The steps. Everything you do.
You see, Romans 8, 28 says, And we know that all things work
together for good to them who are called according to his purpose. You see, something was done in
this purpose. Grace before grace. Free grace. Don't you like free
grace? It has absolutely nothing to
do with you doing anything to gain it or earn it or have it.
It's free. It's called abounding grace,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It's called
exceeding grace. In 2 Corinthians 9, 2 Corinthians
12, my grace is sufficient for thee. It's sufficient grace.
You can have One thorn in the flesh, you can have 10 million
thorns in the flesh. Doesn't matter. His grace is
sufficient for you. We read in Ephesians 2 of the
exceeding riches of his grace. And Peter spoke of the God of
all grace. Now, I want you to think of the
grace that came to you before you experienced grace in this
life. what all the Lord did in his
providence to cause you to hear the gospel and believe. There's
a man returning from Jerusalem. He's gone there to worship. He's
coming back empty as he was when he came. He knows the God of
Israel is the true God and he knows he doesn't know him. He's
gone to Jerusalem. He's coming back. He's reading
the scriptures. He has no idea what they mean.
Isaiah 53. Unbeknownst to him, God had spoken
by the Spirit to a preacher by the name of Philip, who was preaching
in Samaria. And there was a great revival
that took place. And the Spirit told Philip, leave
there and go into a desert place called Gaza. And he goes into
that desert place and there he sees that man reading the scriptures. And the spirit said, go join
yourself to that chariot. And here he comes. And he asked
this man, do you understand what you're reading? All this happened
while this fellow was reading scriptures. And he didn't have
any idea what was going on. I want you to think when the
Lord came to you and revealed himself to you, before he did
it, you didn't know what was going to happen. You didn't know
what he was going to do for you. Every one of us have a story,
don't we? Every one of us have a story as to how God caused
us to hear the gospel. Now, I believe that the clearest,
most foundational scripture for this, what I'm talking about
now, is the one we read at the opening of this service. We love
him because he first loved us. We love him. Who's the we? The us he first loved. That's
simple, isn't it? We love him because he first
loved us. The folks who love him are the
folks that he first loved. And we love him, not as we should. Do you feel good about your love
to him? I know you don't, not if you're
a believer. Not as we would. We would love Him perfectly.
We would love Him without sin. We would love Him, oh, more love
to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee. Hear Thou the prayer
I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea, more
love to Christ, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee. More
love to thee. We don't love him like we should,
like we would, or like we will. Oh, one of these days I'm going
to see him face to face. I won't have to look down. I'll
just be enveloped in his love. I am my beloved's and he is mine. Now, we love him. We love everything about him.
We love every one of His glorious, excellent attributes. There isn't
anything about Him we don't love. We wouldn't change anything about
Him if it were our power to do so, because He's altogether lovely. He's perfect. We love Him. We love His holiness. He's the
Holy One of Israel, altogether other, and how we love Him for
that. We love his sovereignty. We love the fact that everybody's
in his hands, and he's the first cause behind everything, and
he's in control of everything. How we love his sovereignty. How we love his independence. He has no needs. I love it when
he says, if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. The cattle on a thousand hills
were mine. We love his independence. We're so dependent. He's so utterly
independent. We love him in his immutability. Jesus Christ the same. That can't
be said of anyone else or anything else. We change every 10 seconds. Well, every second. Not him,
Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. We love him in his, I guess this
is a word, in his eternalness. He never had a beginning. He'll never end. He's the high
and lofty one who inhabits eternity. The universe is not a drop in
the bucket to him. We love him in his omnipotence. He's able to save me with no
help from me. He created the world and that
was easy work for him. He is able to save the very chief
of sinners. We love his omniscience, his
wisdom, his way to make a way for God, His Father, to be absolutely
just and yet justify and save and accept somebody like me.
Don't you love His wisdom? Oh, the wisdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We love His omnipresence. You know, you can't go anywhere
where He's not. Well, how can that be? I don't know, but it's
still so. He said that The son of man, look right here in John
chapter three, which is in heaven. I'm in heaven right now while
I'm standing here on earth. Somebody says, well, he's not
in hell. Listen, the fires of hell are fueled by the attributes
of his justice. There's nowhere you can go where
he is not. We love his love. When with the ransom in glory,
his face I at last shall see. It will be my joy through the
ages to sing of His love for me." We love His mercy. We love His meekness, His humility. Isn't that astounding that the
God of glory, the Creator of the universe, is meek and lowly
in heart? How we love Him as the friend
of sinners. He's the sinner's friend. If
you're a sinner, how do you answer that? If you're a sinner, he's
your friend. He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. He's altogether lovely. How we
love his salvation. How we love him, thinking about
him standing as my surety and taking full responsibility for
my salvation before I was ever born. Don't you love him for
that? Oh, we love him in his incarnation. I'm flesh. He had become flesh
too to save me. How we love him in his law keeping
when he who made the law, was over the law, submitted to being
under the law, and kept the law for me." How we love Him in His
death when He willingly let those soldiers, as a matter of fact,
He willed them to do it. When they were driving the nails
in His hands and His feet, He was willing them to do this because
He knew that's the only way His bride would be saved. How we
love His righteousness as our righteousness before God. How
we love Him as an intercessor, representing us before the Father
even now. How we'll love Heaven because
we're with Him and we're like Him. Every believer can say with
Peter, We love him. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know all things. I can't fool you. You know how
unstable I am. You know how sinful I am. You
know how inconsistent I am. You know how contradictory I
am. I can't fool you. You know exactly how I am. You
know all things and you know I love your person. I adore your
person. There's only one feeling I know
of that's better and more enjoyable than the joy when the Lord gives
you the grace to consciously adore Him and love Him. I mean,
that's a wonderful thing when we're enabled to do that. But
let me tell you something, it's better to be loved by Him. That's better. We love Him. We really do. We love him. I know I'm the spokesman for
a bunch of people here. You said we love him. Because. Because. He. First. Loved us. I think of this love of. Eternal
union. I I'm so amazed at that scripture
in Ephesians chapter 5. I believe it's in verse 27 when
it says, He that loveth his bride loveth himself. And so close
is the union between Christ and the believer that when he's loving
you, he's loving himself. I am the vine. You are the branches. And the stem that goes through
the vine goes through the branches. There's no connecting point. There's never been a time when
he didn't love me. He said, as the father has loved
me, have the father love him. I couldn't possibly describe
all the ways the father loves him. It's so glorious. We love
to put our toes in the ocean of it, but we can't grasp it.
The Father's love for the Son. Oh, the beauty of the Son. But
the Lord Jesus Christ said this, as the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. His love has maturity. When he willingly took the complete
responsibility for our salvation. Now, I want you to think about
this in that eternal covenant that David said, it's all my
salvation and all my desire. When he took responsibility for
me, like Judah did for Benjamin of my hand, shall thou require
him? At that time, everything God
required of me, he looked at Jesus Christ, the surety for. We love Him in His incarnation
because the children were flesh, He became flesh as well. We love
Him in His obedience to the Father's will to save us. We love Him
in His death because I have no doubt, I don't understand this,
but when He was hanging on that cross, my name was on His heart. He knew me. That's true of every
single believer. You know, I know this is speculation,
and I want to be careful when I say this, but when he was in
that grave, when he opened his eyes, I had my own doubt that
the first thing he thought was, I've glorified the Father. That's
what I came to do. I've glorified the Father. But
the second thing that he thought was, I've got my bride. I've
saved my bride. Their salvation is accomplished. So, how? He loved us when He
ascended back into the glory as the Lord of hosts, bringing
all of His elect with Him. And how He loves us as He sits
now at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning,
interceding for His people, representing them, controlling all things
for their good and His glory. and how we love His return. And now He loves the thought
of His return in returning to be with us forever. Now, He's
coming for those He loved, His elect, His bride, His brethren,
and we love Him. Oh, how we love Him. And we say,
if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema,
maranatha, that's what ought to happen to him. And we know
this. Oh, we're so sure of this. If
we love him, there's only one reason. Because he first loved
us. Thank God for the love of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We love him because he first
loved us. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that you
first loved us. And Lord, we say with shame that
we know we would have never loved you had you not first loved us
and given us the love wherewith we love you. Lord, we confess
salvation is of the Lord. And Lord, how we thank you for
the revelation of your love. For the revelation of your gospel. Lord. We ask. That you give us the grace to
believe thy gospel. And we ask that you would give
us grace to love you and love you more. Forgive us that we
even have to ask for grace to do this, but Lord, we do. We're
so sinful that we will not love you as ashamed as we are of that
if you do not enable us to, but oh Lord, what joy there is in
being enabled by your grace. to see your glory, to love who
you are, to love how you save. And Lord, we confess, it's because
you first loved us. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
amen.