The Lord may be pleased to help
us this morning. I'd like to draw your attention
to the verse we read in the first epistle of John, chapter 4 and
verse 19. We love him because he first
loved us. Nineteenth verse, the first epistle
of John, chapter 4. The epistle of John in the first,
the second, and the third epistle speaks so much of our knowledge
of our need and our knowledge of God himself through our Lord
Jesus Christ and of his wonderful love. We read elsewhere of the Apostle
John named as that disciple which Jesus loved. And John speaks
so much in his Gospels of the love of God. But what a blessing
it is that God's love is made known to us. We can't help but realize that
without the gift of God's love, we would not know our need of
Him. All these things are of His grace. What a blessing it
is if we are the subjects of His grace. We hear and we read so much about
natural love, don't we? And if we think of it, dear friends,
Love one to another is a gift that God has preserved to us
despite the fall of mankind, the atom fall. There are many
things that were lost at that time, but natural love one to
another was still preserved. And we know Of course, many families,
husbands and wives that are blessed with natural love one to the
other, and that love lasts while they're here on this earth. But
the love of God is a far more remarkable blessing.
It is designed in eternity, and it endures for all eternity. Natural love, affection one to
another, of course, is a rich blessing. And right from when
we were very young, those of us who were blessed to grow up
in a loving family, especially with God-fearing parents, we
realized what love was. In love, we were corrected. In love, we were nurtured and
we realized love when we were shown affection and care and
it just come to my mind. One of our granddaughters, when
she was a little toddler, she had a great fear of dogs and
I remember taking them out for a walk one day over on Hothfield
Common, and we were walking across there, and all of a sudden, about
50 yards in front of us, there was quite a big dog coming towards
us, and she was holding my hand, walking along, and she tugged
on my arm. She said, Granddad, can I have
a shoulder ride? And I put on my shoulder. She said, I feel safer up here.
She didn't like that big dog. But that was because she knew
that she could put her dependence in someone she loved. And our prayer is that she will come
to a knowledge of the love of God in her own experience. We
pray on, day by day. But this love of God, is so remarkable
to think we love him because he first loved us. When was that
first? Well, it was in eternity. The eternal God is our refuge,
we read, and underneath are the everlasting arms, those arms
which cannot fail. We cannot drop below the strength
of those arms of God, can we? We all know that wonderful well-known
verse in John 3 and verse 16 that God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. Have everlasting life now. That saving relationship with
our Lord Jesus that was given to the instruction of Nicodemus
when those words were said by our dear Lord Jesus is a work
which begins in time. It was planned in eternity and
goes on for all eternity. And so it is an eternal love. And this part of God's word speaks
to us of love like no other. Herein is our love made perfect,
we read, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because
as he is, so are we in this world. The Lord Jesus is unique. I think we can safely say that
he is the only person who ever lived a life on this earth without
sin. There must be so because it was
only he who had that word spoken from his heavenly father. This
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Our dear
Lord Jesus lived a life of perfection and his perfect righteousness
we can plead and we can seek to know. And so in the eternal
counsel of the Godhead, it was divinely decreed that the salvation
of lost souls might be saved by our Lord Jesus Christ. The fall of mankind in Adam did
not take God by surprise. God eternally had a plan of salvation. And we read those wonderful words. After this fall of mankind, when
Adam and Eve had sinned, we don't read that Adam went
to God in confession, realizing his need. No, God, the God of
all grace, came to him. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And what a rich blessing it is
that even today we still read and we hear of souls who God
is calling and saying to them, where art thou? What was Adam's reply? He said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. He heard God's
voice, and he was afraid. He was naked. He hid himself. And he said that he thought he
could keep his distance from God and hide up. This we cannot
do. in the person of the Lord Jesus
to seek and to save that which was lost. And he loved his lost eternally. There was never a time, even
in eternity, when he did not love his chosen people, his sheep
that hear his voice. And it's well worth noticing.
that before Adam and Eve were cast out of that Garden of Eden,
that place of paradise, that the promise of the Saviour was
given. And the Lord said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly thou shalt
go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will,
One of God's I wills, I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head,
and thou shall bruise his heel. The Lord Jesus is promised. And praise his name, he came
to this earth. And he lived, as we've already
mentioned, a perfect life. and he gave his perfect life
a sacrifice for sin. The complete fulfilment of the
Passover lamb, the lamb without blemish. If a lamb had a blemish
it was not accepted. The Lord Jesus is that perfect
sacrifice and he It said of himself, no man taketh my life from me,
I have power to lay it down, I have power to raise it again.
This have I received from my father. And so the work of salvation by the wonders
of God's grace is secure in our Lord Jesus. And how can we who so often feel
to be such failures, have a realization of the wonders
of grace that work in us. We have this wonderful hymn. I mentioned
it to someone the other day and they didn't know it. Sovereign
ruler of the skies, ever gracious, ever wise, all my times are in
thy hand, all events at thy command. His decree, who formed the earth,
fixed my first and second birth, parents, native, place and time,
all appointed were by him. He that formed me in the womb,
he shall guide me to the tomb. All my times shall ever be ordered
by thy wise decree. When good Mr. Ryland, I think it was, wrote
those verses, he must have been in a wonderful place in his relationship
with our Lord God. And in Psalm 65, we read those
words, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to
approach unto thee. that is all in God's love. We love him because he first
loved us. God causes his people to approach
unto them. And if we go back to the early
dealings of God with us in our life, looking back, we're not really
aware of what's happening to us. We feel a difference, we
feel a disturbance going on within us, and we are brought to realize
that our only hope, our only way of salvation, and this is
the blessing of sitting under the preach word, our only hope
of salvation is in our Lord Jesus. ordering of events causes us
to approach Him and to pray to Him. And no sinner was ever yet
empty sent back, we sung this morning, who came seeking mercy
for Jesus' sake. We come to realize that we have
an eternal soul, eternity that immeasurable state where clocks
are not needed is before us each and we have an eternal soul.
But what a blessing it is. Those words that we read in John
chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they
follow me. What a blessing it is if day
by day, as life continues, we keep an eye on the shepherd.
And where the shepherd leads, we follow. For it is he who leads
us into green pastures and beside the still waters. Think of that dear man, blind
Bartimaeus, who sat by the highway side begging. We read in the gospel that he
asked what this disturbance meant. He could hear all these people
passing by. He couldn't see them, but he knew that there was a
procession walking by. He asked what it meant. He was given
an inquiring spirit. What a blessing it is. It is
because God loves us and he gives to us a spirit of asking, and
he was told that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Now dear Bartimaeus
had heard of the Lord Jesus. Someone had told him that Jesus
performed miracles and there was Jesus in Jericho. He wasn't to go there again.
This was shortly before he went up to Jerusalem to do love redeeming
work on that cruel cross. But Bartimaeus cried out, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And those who tried to
silence him, he overpowered them. The poor man couldn't see, but
he could speak. His voice carried, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And we read that Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be brought. Now that's God's irresistible
grace. He commanded him. Jesus was there
straight in front of him. And he said, what wilt thou that
I should do unto thee? We do well to study the questions
that Jesus asked in the scriptures, don't we? That's one of them.
What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord. He recognized Jesus as his Lord.
He said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus healed him. He said,
receive thy sight. Thy faith has made thee whole.
And I think I'm right in saying that the last thing we read about
Bartimaeus is that he followed Jesus in the way. What a blessing. He joined himself to those who
were already following Jesus. And with his new given sight,
You may be sure he kept Jesus in view as he followed him. Now
may God give to us the grace to do this. We love him because
he first loved us. This is an eternal love. These things give us a glimpse
of God-given faith of that eternal truth of predestination. And these wonderful truths are
a blessing to us to realize that it was fixed in God's eternal
mind when his dear son should mercy find from everlasting he
decreed when every good should be conveyed. Determined was the
manner how eternal favours he'd bestow. Yea, he decreed the very
place where he would show triumphant grace. What a wonderful blessing
it is that the full knowledge of God and the wonderful blessings
that flow from his throne of mercy and favour teach us more
and more that we love him because he first loved us. And God's full knowledge of his
people is so remarkable, isn't it? It's beyond all our comprehension
to begin to realize what the Apostle Paul wrote to those Roman
believers, and we must always remember that they were those
who were suffering persecution because they were Christians. But God says to them, and we
know that all things work together for good, to them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Things that work together for
good. Not just one event, but God so often causes a mixture
of circumstances to come into our life. And these things work
together for good. And this God does in order to
teach us that we love him because he first loved us and these things
are eternally decreed to come about. Who can know the mind
of the Lord? I was only reading the other
day about Ezekiel in that 47th chapter and of that stream of
water that flowed from the right side of of the altar and that
same love of God which would flow
and salvation be made known around the world. That source of water
is the gospel of God's wonderful grace. And that vision that was given to
Ezekiel made a blessing to him at that time and he made it known
that God would revive his chosen people Israel in the same way
he works mightily in the day in which we live amongst his
chosen elect. But the source of that water
he saw that came from the throne of God he saw the source of it,
he saw the extent of it, he saw the healing purposes of it, and
those people at that time that were coming out of Babylonish
captivity, thankfully they came back a different people than
they went. They were banished into exile in Babylon because
of their idolatry and ingratitude, but they came back a people who
God had worked in their very hearts and souls, And I think
we can rightly say that they didn't return to idolatry. And these things teach us that God is able to restore. Even as we read, he restoreth
my soul. Oh yes, we love him because he first
loved us. It is an eternal love that God
has. It is also an effectual love.
What a blessing it is that God causes these things to have an
effect on his people. The awakening of a soul to a
felt sense of their possession of an eternal soul is that which
has an effect on people. They feel a disturbance. in our
heart and soul. And this surely is that cultivating, enabling the good seed of the
word of life to enter in. When we cultivate our gardens,
we dig and break the soil down, it's a disturbing effect on the
soil, but it's all necessary create a seedbed whereby things
can grow. And so it is with the glorious
good news of the gospel. Hard hearts can be broken and
the love of God is an effectual love. It has a work that comes
to pass. All God's promises And the blessings
of his covenant he will bring to pass. Yes, and he'll bring
it to pass to his praise and his glory. God's effectual love
reached out to the tribe of Israel time and time again, didn't he?
And with such love. And so every person that is a
subject of God's grace is loved. with an everlasting love. We read in the Gospel of Luke of that woman who was regarded
as such a sinner and The word came to her, by the
Lord Jesus, thy sins are forgiven thee. But what a blessing it is. This
man, Simon, a Pharisee, desired that Jesus would eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And
behold, a woman in that city, which was a sinner, when she
knew that Jesus sat at in the Pharisee's house, brought an
alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him.
Remember that they would very often lay down on a sort of couch,
a table in front of them, and the feet behind. And what we
read is that she washed his feet with her tears and wiped them
with the hair of her head. and kissed his feet and anointed
them with ointment. Now when the Pharisee, which
had bidden them, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This
man, if he were a prophet, would have known what manner of woman
this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. Then Jesus answering,
said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And
he said, Master, say on. And he goes on to tell him about
the certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed 500
pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave the most. And he said
unto him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said, unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thy
house, thou gave me no water for my feet, but she hath washed
my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gave me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came,
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head, withal, thou didst not
anoint. But this woman hath anointed
my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her
sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto
her, thy sins are forgiven. love to his people causing an
effect. That poor woman with all her
sin, that forgiveness gave her such
a love to the Lord Jesus that she wept tears sufficiently to
wash his feet. What an effectual love this is. God has said, all that the Father
hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. That wonderful effectual love. The enemy of souls so often cast
doubt on our believing in our Lord Jesus. It's a sad thing
when God's people come under attack.
The enemy of souls, we read in the scriptures, he walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist. Now, I don't know who I'm speaking
to online, but dear friend, if you are under, the doubting of the evil one. And you might think, how can
we know that we love him because he first loved us? Well, if we look at John chapter
three, we read of Jesus' teaching to Nicodemus. In verse six of
that chapter we read, that which was born of the flesh is flesh
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And we by human
nature have a hunger for the things and possessions of this
world and this life. Have you been given that rich
blessing of a felt knowledge that you have an eternal soul? Are you seeking to know more
about the Lord Jesus? If you are, be encouraged. Who
put that hunger into you? Who is it? It is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He who, of whom we can say we
love him because he first loved us. And the same Lord Jesus,
who in the Beatitudes, In Matthew chapter 5, he says, Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Continue to hunger, continue
to seek, and God will fill you. May the
Lord bless you each, dear friends. May you come to know that we
love him because he first loved us. What a blessing it is to
have that effectual love at work in your heart. And also, it is
an enduring love. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And
we read of this enduring love, and we read it in God's holy word, he that shall
endure to the end, the same shall be saved. These things were written to
persecuted people. And I think 16 times we read in the scriptures,
his mercy endureth forever. God's mercy is such that it will
continue until his people are with him
in his immediate presence forever and ever. But God's love to us
is that which was eternal and effectual and it will endure. Our brothers and sisters in Christ
who are suffering such persecution and hardship for the gospel around
the world. Apparently there are many Christian
people in North Korea and even at this time in that terrible
situation in Afghanistan. They live in danger. They need
our prayers. They need God to answer our prayers.
And may God's mercy enable them to endure. And we trust that God's love
to his sheep, his people, is that which will dwell in them
by his wonderful grace. When Noah entered into the ark,
God didn't say to Noah, go into the ark. No, God said to Noah,
come into the ark. God's presence was already there.
And throughout the duration of that flood, Noah was blessed
with God's presence. And through the duration of trials
and persecutions and hardships, we love God because he first
loved us. That enduring love continues. God was with Noah right through
the flood. And I think it's our dear old friend Matthew Henry
that makes the point that Noah was safer in the ark than Adam
and Eve were in the Garden of Eden because they were there
in their own strength. But Noah was in the ark because
God shut him in and God was with him in the ark. What a blessing. And so may we As we journey on
in the pathway of life, I only feel to have scratched the surface
of this tremendous truth this morning. But it is a truth, and
may we seek to know more of it, that we love him because he first
loved us. May God's eternal love, his effectual
love, and his enduring love be our rich blessing and may those
who seek find him to be that God of whom we can say we love
him because he first loved us. May the Lord add his blessing.