Tonight we're gonna be in the
book of Proverbs chapter eight. Proverbs chapter eight. Tonight we have a most encouraging
topic. It's love. It's love, it's God's
love towards us And it's our love towards Him. We already
heard in 1 John 4 that God is love, and He tells us why we
love Him. Why is that? Because He first
loved us. The love of God cannot change.
It's just like every other attribute and characteristic of God. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if He loves you right
now, He's always loved you. There's never been a time He
didn't love you. This is the good news of the gospel. What does it mean when he says
we love him because he first loved us? What does that mean?
That means if he doesn't love us first, we're not going to
love him. That's what it means. It means
that our love is completely dependent upon his love, not the other
way around. See, religion has the opposite.
Religion has it that once you love him, then he'll love you.
Once you do good, then you'll be accepted. But that's not the
truth, is it? No, the truth is, is that our
love is dependent upon him. If he doesn't cause me to love
him, I will not love him. He must give me that love. He
must give me that heart. or I will not love him. Now in
that light, let's read our text here, Proverbs 8, verses 17 through
21. I love them that love me. And I had originally titled this
message that I love them that love me, but I ended up with
a different message altogether. So we're probably gonna be in
this verse again next week, Lord willing. I love them that love
me, and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor
are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is
better than gold, yea, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice
silver. I lead in the way of righteousness
in the midst of the paths of judgment that I may cause those
that love me to inherit substance and I will feel their treasure. I love. This will be one of the
last things we look at, but he says I lead. You see that right
there in, uh, verse 20, I lead in the way of righteousness.
And then the next verse, here's the reason why he leads that.
I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. I'm going
to, I'm going to, I'm going to lead them and I'm going to cause,
and that's the message tonight. If I'm going to love God, he's
going to have to give me that love to love him. My love don't
mean anything. My love doesn't, doesn't do any good, uh, because
it's bound by my nature. It's a sinful love. But no, the
love of God is a holy love, a righteous love. It's a good love. Not a single one of God's elect
have hope in their own love, not our love towards him. Remember
whenever the Lord asked Peter, Peter, do you love me? Well,
you talk about breaking Peter's heart because Peter already had
denied the Lord three times. This is the first time he saw
him since then. Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know I love
you. He wasn't afraid to say it, but
he was embarrassed, wasn't he? He was embarrassed of himself.
He was embarrassed of his actions. Like, well, my actions didn't
reflect that I love you, but I really do love you. I didn't mean to
deny you three times. I didn't mean to get scared around
a 12-year-old little girl whenever we're warming by the fire, but
I did. But you know I love you. I can't look at myself and prove
that I love you, but I love you. I can't find evidence that I'm
doing what I want to do, getting better and better for you because
of my love for you. No, no, no. Lord, I love you
because you first loved me. Because you first loved me. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you. You're the
one that put it there. You know it's there. I know my
actions didn't align with my words. Peter, do you love me? And he was grieved the third
time. He was grieved the third time. But every time the Lord
would ask him that question, Peter would say yes. The Lord said to Peter, feed
my sheep. If you love me, preach the gospel.
If you love me, declare the truth. Don't be ashamed of the gospel.
And we see Paul's take on that in Romans chapter one, verse
16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Peter would have said
the same thing. And at any time, had you asked Peter, was Jesus
Christ, uh, the son of God, just as he had confessed before he
would have said yes. He never, uh, he didn't deny
who the Lord Jesus Christ was because God had given him faith.
but the Lord has left him to himself for a moment of weakness
and unbelief. So that he said, did not Christ say, but Peter,
I've prayed for you that your faith fail. Not if the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed that Peter's faith failed, not Peter's faith didn't
fail. So at any time, if you would've
asked him, is he still for the Christ, the son of the living
God, Peter, he'd have said yes. Yes. What's your hope, Peter? Him. Not in myself. That's the
whole reason the Lord allowed him to do that, is so he wouldn't
have any confidence in the flesh. Do we see that? Just a chapter
before that, he was, he lopped the ear. Well, you heard about
this weekend, didn't you? Lopped the ear off of the high priest's servant.
He was ready to go. But then, whenever everything
started falling into order of the Lord, And he fell apart,
didn't he? Why? His eyes wasn't on Christ.
His eyes wasn't on Christ, which is the same with us, which brings
us back to our point. Why do we love him? Because he
first loved us. I've titled this, why, how, when
do we love him? Why, how, and when do we love
him? Well, I've already told you the
why, because he first loved us. We don't look to ourself as evidence
in any way. We certainly don't look to our
love as evidence of our salvation. We look to Christ. We look to
his work as evidence of our salvation. We don't look to ourself. We
don't look to our works. We look to his works and we believe him
that he accomplished salvation. Now he, what does he mean here
says it, We love him because he first loved us. But then it
says, I love them that love me. Religion would probably take
that and say, OK, God's love is contingent upon you loving
him. That's what it kind of sounds like, isn't it? You read it just
just as it is. I love them that love me. But
you read the full canon of scripture, you'll find out that our heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked in the
time of Noah. So is it now that the imagination
in the heart of men is only on evil and that continually? Why
would he want my love? My love is sinful. No, he's not
talking about physical love, like we have emotion and affection
with our spouses. That ain't the kind of love he's
talking about. He's talking about a perfect love. Perfect love casts out
fear, doesn't it? That's what the scripture tells
us. Perfect love casts out fear. Where is it gonna come from?
Because it can't come from you and I. Can't come from you and I. It's gotta come from him. It's
got to come from him. Why do we love him? Oh, because
he first loved us. Let's go back to 1 John. We're not gonna read all this
again, but I want us to see a couple verses here. Look at verse nine, and this
was manifest, the love of God towards us because that God sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through
him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. So what he's saying here is,
he's not just saying I love you, but he actually caused He says
it was manifest, this was manifested, the love of God towards us because
that he sent his only begotten son. So he, if somebody loves
you, they're not just going to say it in word. Their actions
are going to back up their words. Is that not true? If I told my
wife I loved her, but I was not good to her, what good's my love
going to mean to her? That's not love. It's not going
to, Well, God is holy. God is perfect. God is sovereign. God is righteous. And he cannot
lie. And if he says, I love you, which he just did, we love him
because he first love us. This is the written word of God.
He loves his people. He loves his people for God.
So love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The
reason he says world there is because Nicodemus was a Jew and
thought that salvation was just to the Jew. He's like, no, it's
to every, they're going to be representative from every race,
every tongue, every creed. Lord's going to save his people
out of the North, South, East, and West. That's what he was
telling Nicodemus. God so loved. What did that love do? He sent
forth his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned
sin of the flesh. He sent forth his son to die
for his people. That's love. No greater love
hath any man than this, than a man laid down his life for
his friends. Our Lord loves his people, loves
his people. The Lord said, I love them that
love me. But it says here in his love,
not that we love him, but that he loved us and he proved it. That tells us that our love Isn't
the deciding factor in salvation whatsoever. It was his he proved
it. He proved his love by accomplishing
salvation for his people 100% not partly. Not he didn't say
I love you this much. Now I need you to do your part.
I've done all I can. That's not what happened. No. He saved his
people from their sin. A lot of people do say that they
love. I've got, I know people that
say that they love you, and that's just words. There's no deeds
to back that up whatsoever. Listen to what 1 John 3, well,
you're right there. Turn back to 1 John 3, 18. My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. Don't
just say I love you and don't in word, but it's indeed, it's
action. And whose action do we look to,
our own? No, we look to the action of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
finished work of the cross. We look to what God did. That's
our example of love. There's never been an example
that's ever gonna be given like that example. There's nothing
that compared to it. Because no other person can do
what God did. When the Lord, he made his soul
an offering for sin for his people, there's nothing that can compare
to that love that he showed forth. Christ is our example in this. Christ is our example and obedience
to the father in this father sent forth his son. The son loves
the father. The son said, I'll go. I'll go redeem them. The ones
that you've elected, he decided, or he agreed in the covenant
of grace before time ever began that he would come and die. He
knew what he was going to have to do. And he was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. And what did that love
accomplish on the cross? When the Lord bore our sin and
his own body on the tree, he wasn't offering himself to men
and he wasn't trying to accomplish anything. He was being made sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And as God poured out his wrath, the Lord said,
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. That's how much he loves
his people. That's how much he loves his
people. The only way for our sin to be put away is his son
had to die. And that's exactly what happened.
The father took the sword of justice and pierced the Lamb
of God. And our sins are gone. Our sins
are gone. It's not that we loved God first,
he loved us first. That's why we love him. We love
him because he first loved us. This is why we love him. He's
the author and finisher of our faith. He provided everything
required for perfect righteousness and true holiness for his people.
This is why we love him. Colossians 127 says, to whom
God would make known the riches of the glory of the mystery among
the Gentiles, which is this, Christ in you, the hope of glory. See, this isn't good news if
a man has righteousness of the law or a man has righteousness
based upon their works, but they're depending upon their love and
what they do. This is not good news, but if
your hope is in the finished work of Christ, if you see yourself
as a sinner and you don't trust your love, can't trust my love
with my wife. Think about this old flesh. You
say you love each other, and then a little later on, you don't
even think about each other. You get overburdened with things.
I don't have her on my mind all the time like I should. Think
about, I mean, you know it's true. That's just how we are
by nature. You know, the Father, we're always the apple of his
eye. That's love. That's something
we can't understand, we can't fathom because our minds are
always wondering. His mind's not wondering. No, he's purposed
all things. And you know what he said? He said, I'm ravished by one
look from her. Ravished by one look from her.
Can you imagine God looking at you and feeling the feeling of
love that he would feel because of the finished work of Christ?
I mean, how, I wish I could explain this better than I am, but do
you remember whenever you were Maybe you still look at your
wife or husband and have butterflies. I don't know. But sometimes the
flame kind of flickers. It gets dim, and you have to
work on love. I mean, you have to work on marriage.
And if everybody says otherwise, they're not in love. But it flickered,
right? But at the very beginning, you
remember, you desired to be with that person. You desired to see
them and just the sight of them, just their smell, just their,
oh, your heart. You ravished your heart. God
says, that's what my people do. When they look at me, that's
what he feels. That's what our Lord... How can
this be? We're talking about wretched,
vile, sinful, cursed creatures. How can that be except the Lord
Jesus Christ perfected and finished salvation forever and ever and
ever. Now he says, no, you're... You're
beautiful in my sight. Not one spot, not one blemish,
not one sin ever, you're perfectly righteous. This is why we love
him. He first loved us. Second, second thought is how? How do we, now we know why we
love him, but how do we love him? How can we, being the creatures
of sin that we are, although he don't see that sin because
it's been put away, we still are in this flesh, this sin,
this flesh is sinful still yet. How do we love him? How can we
love him? How do we love him? Turn to Romans
chapter five. It is not where I want it to
turn to. Hmm. Scripture tells us in Romans
that we are justified freely by His grace, tells us that we
were justified by the faith of Christ, His faithfulness. So
how are we going to love Him? He is going to have to give us
that love. He's going to have to bestow
that freely by His grace, freely by His grace, or we will not
love Him. We can't, we can't produce It
is five. Look at verse five, verse one.
I was on the wrong verse. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in the hope of glory. And not only so, but
we glory in tribulation, also knowing that tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope
maketh not ashamed, here's the reason why, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which
is given unto us. How are you going to love him? He's gonna have to shed his love
into your heart. And it is to his people, that's
exactly what he does. I love all the benefits of our
Lord whenever he says live. When he comes to a man or a woman
and he says live, you're given love of God, you're given peace
with God, you're given grace, you're given mercy, you're given
righteousness, you're given holiness, you're given justification, you're
given sanctification, all at the same time. Repentance and
faith all at the same time. It's simultaneous. You don't get this one day and
then you have to wait and get something else later on and then
a few years later you get better, you get something. No, it's every
bit. Every bit at one time, we get all the fullness of Christ
Jesus. And he gives us that love wherein
we are able to love him. Able to love him. That's how
we love him. With the love that God sheds
abroad in our hearts. He did that. He did that. He sheds it in our hearts. The
new heart of flesh. That's so clear, isn't it? I
can't love him. The flesh hates God. Flesh hates
everything about God right now. But oh, that new man, created
in righteousness and true holiness, he loves, he loves God. He loves God being God. I think
that's what we're gonna talk about next week. The Lord causes us to love all
of his attributes. Everything about him, we love
it. I didn't love the fact that God was sovereign. I didn't love
election. I didn't love predestination.
I didn't love justification through and by the blood alone. I didn't
love sanctification by the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought that
there was things I had to do. And then God showed me who he
was. And I said, well, I put my hands over my mouth. Behold,
I'm vile like so many other we see in the scripture. That's
what he does. And that's, you fall in love with everything
about him. And you know who you fall out of love with? Yourself. You fall out of love with yourself.
You no longer, you no longer are your own God. He becomes
your God. He becomes your, he becomes your
husband. We love him. We're made to love everything
about Him and despise everything about self, about this flesh.
And we love His grace, don't we? We love that salvation is
by grace alone. We love righteousness. We love
when Christ is, that's what he's talking about there, when he
says, Christ is made unto you all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. You receive when we receive Him
by grace. We have all benefits that the
Lord, every single one, he gives it to his people through his
blood, all by his grace. We love his sovereignty, his
omnipotence. You love his power. You love
his power. I love his power. The winds and
the waves still know his voice. He said, peace be still, they
stopped. Oh, the Lord, he has all power, both in heaven and
on earth. He's the only one that has the right to salvation. This
is why we love him. And because he freely bestowed
this love and shed it abroad in our hearts. We love him. We love him. All by grace. Lastly, when do we love him? When do
we love him? A lot of people think that, like
so many other things, loving God is a choice. The way it is,
it's just not mine or yours. It's His choice. If I end up,
if I find myself loving Him, I'm not talking about loving
baby Jesus as so many do, I'm talking about God. We're talking
about the one that's seated on the throne, the sovereign creator
and sustainer of all things, the one that purposed all things,
accomplished all things, and sat down. That's who I'm talking
about. If we love him, that's because
he's given faith. That's because he's given grace
to believe him. That's because he's given love to love him.
So when do we love him? Turn with me to John 5. We're gonna read verse 38 through
42. And ye have not, and okay, I gotta back up a second. So
this is Lord Jesus Christ talking to the Pharisees, talking to
the scribes, talking to the ones that are anti-God, but they believe
that they're godly. That's who he's talking to right
here. And he says this to them. Verse 38, and ye have not his word,
the father's word, abiding in you for whom he hath sent him
ye believe not. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you. that you have not the love of
God in you. We can take those verses and
turn them around and say, if the Lord enables us to come to
him, we'll love him. That's when we'll love him. If
the Lord enables me to come to him for salvation, if the Lord
gives me faith to believe him, we will love him then. That's
when we'll love him. These men, the Lord's saying, you will not
come to me that you have life. Why? My father's word is not
in you. And lastly, the love of the Father is not in you.
The love that he gives, it's not in you. It's not in you.
When God calls us out of darkness by his gospel into his light,
he causes us to believe the truth, the word. He gives us his love. He gives us his love to love. That's when we love him. He's
gotta bring the light first. We'll never love him until he
brings the light. When we love Him, this is why
we love Him. This is the when. Christ said,
all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and they
that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. When do we love
Him? When we see Him. You know, whenever
we're glorified, we get to love Him with a perfect love, completely
without this body of flesh upon our back. We're going to love
him when we see him as he is. We're just looking through a
glass darkly, Paul said. And is it true of all of us that
the Lord's called? We love our savior. We love our
father, but oh, we're just looking through a glass darkly. They
did a little research on that. And basically back then the mirrors
all had, they weren't perfect reflective mirrors like they
are now. They had a kind of black, maybe you've seen them before.
They're really old mirrors. They have the, You kind of have to do this way
and that way to get a good view of yourself. That's what he's
talking about. He's like, you can't see him right now. You're
looking through a glass darkly. Oh, the half's not been told
yet. And yet we love him because he first loved us. Aren't you glad he says, he tells
these men, you will not come to me that you have life. But
he tells us my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they
follow me. All that the father gives me
will come to me. He provided everything he required for his
elect and freely bestows it by his grace. Now let's go back
to our text, Proverbs chapter eight, briefly. I want us to just look at a few
of these key verses, or key words in these verses, and try to tie
all this together, if the Lord be our help. Verse 17, I love
them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find
me. Riches and honor are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold,
yea, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in
the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment,
that I may cause those to love me to inherit substance, and
I will find, and I will feel their treasures. There's some
key words in here. First thing he says, That verse
17 again, I love them that love me and those that seek me early
shall find me. David tells us in the book of Psalm, he says,
I would not have sought the Lord had it not been for the Lord
said, when thou saidst, seek you my face. That's when we seek
his face. So we've already established
we'll only love him if he first loves us, but we'll only seek
him if he says, seek you my face. Notice verse 18. Riches and honor
are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. That word
durable, you know how I like to look up words. You know what
that word durable means? Handed forward, freely given,
and surpasses all others. Surpassing all others. That's
a gift, isn't it? That's durable riches that are
freely given, handed forward, Surpassing all, there's nothing
that compares to it is what he's saying. These durable riches,
these, it's righteousness. Is that not the blood of Lord
Jesus Christ? What else could that be? That's
Christ himself, isn't it? That's what that is. He's the
durable riches described here. Isn't it wonderful He just gives
it to His people freely by His grace, freely by His grace. No
wonder the next verse says this, verse 19, my fruit is better
than gold, yea, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver.
Those that have tasted of the Lord, those that have tasted,
you can testify to that, can't you? You can say truth, Lord,
truth, Lord. You are better than gold, better
than fine gold and choice silver. Here we have the conclusion to
all of this. Why do we love the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, notice verse 20. I lead in the way of righteousness,
in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those
that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures.
You remember what David said? He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his namesake. First off, he started out by
saying the Lord is my shepherd. Mine is possessive, but it's
also being possessed at the same time. Do we see that? I belong
to him, he belongs to me. He bought me. It's what the scripture
says in Solomon, my beloved's mine, I'm my beloved's. He causes his people to love
him, calls us unto an inheritance. You notice that he just said
that word inheritance. I may cause those that love me to inherit
substance. Peter tells us this. that he
calls us to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, which fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. Why do we love him? Because he first loved us. How
do we love him? With his love shed abroad in
our heart. When do we love him? When by his grace he calls us
out of darkness into his glorious light, to his glorious light.
And notice the thing he says last, and I'm finished. He says
last three words in verse 21, or last five words, I will fill
their treasures. I will fill their treasures. Has Christ been made unto you
your treasure? Is that not the feeling of the
treasure there? It's Christ himself again. Christ
has made unto you all of your wisdom, all of your righteousness,
all of your sanctification, all of your redemption. He, he is
your treasure. He is the treasure of his people.
He's done it all and finished all salvation for his people.
All God's people just say amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you
that you loved us first. We ask that you take this and
bless it to our understanding. In Christ's name, amen.