Back in the Second World War,
there's a story that goes of a convoy of ships that were sailing
from America to England. And in this convoy was a large
container ship which had a number of goods travelling to the war
effort on the front in Europe. and around it were a series of
destroyers of the Royal Navy around this ship. And a German
submarine, a U-boat, was under the waves and they noticed on
this container ship that there was a stream of the wake of a
torpedo that had been fired from this submarine that was to hit
really this container ship and would sink it to the ground,
to the bottom of the sea. And they graced themselves that
there would be soon an impact, there would be an explosion and
there would be sinking, and there would of course be great loss
of life. But then, one of the destroyers, travelling on the
outside to protect the ship, swiftly spotted this same torpedo,
put its engines into full steam ahead, and put itself in the
way between that torpedo and the container ship. The destroyer
was hit, the destroyer was sunk, and all on board were lost. And
it was heard, the captain of this container ship was heard
to say, the skipper, the captain on that destroyer was my best
friend. That man had not just been a
friend in word, He had also to him been a friend in action. He had not just loved him as
it were in words, he had loved him in action. He knew how deep
his love for him was because of what he had done. He had given
his life instead. And in the epistle of John, 1st
epistle, chapter 4, we are told that God is love. God is love. The very essence of God is love.
But where do we see God's love? Well, how do we know that He
is love? Is it just words? Is it just
a declaration? How do we know that God loves?
We know it because of what He has and because of what He does. What He has done and what He
still does. We can be sure that God loves
because of what He has done. And with that in our minds, with
God's help, In these next three sermons that I hope to take this
morning, this evening and on Tuesday evening, I want to consider
really a topic on that basis of that text, God is love. And I want to take it in considering
in each time the love of God in each person and work of the
Trinity. So this morning I want to consider
together the love of God, the Father, of God the Father, And
I want to direct you and to read together from the book of Genesis
this morning. The book of Genesis and chapter 22. The book of Genesis and chapter 22.
This chapter records the sacrifice or the offering of Isaac to his
father Abraham. Genesis 22. May God be pleased to be with
us and bless us as we consider his word together this morning.
I direct your thoughts to the Gospel according to John, chapter
3, and we'll read verse 16. The Gospel according to John,
chapter 3, verse 16, a well-known Gospel verse. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. Back in the early part of the
20th century, there was a missionary couple who were working amongst
the people in Ukraine. And they were walking through
the mountains in the Ukraine and they were admiring the grandeur,
the impressive geography of the area, seeing the mountains and
the streams and all throughout that area. And their minds were
directed to a hymn which had been written by someone in Sweden. And they were directed to translate
that hymn and translate it into English. And it's a hymn which
you all know. It begins, O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the works thy hands have made. I see the stars and
hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe
displayed. I'm sure you know that hymn and
it goes through all the glory of creation. and how amazing
it is that God has made and we see his glory all around us in
the heavens and the earth and all that is therein. They came
then on that walk and they came to a little house and in that
house were a group of people and they were worshipping together
and the Spirit of God was clearly working among them whilst they
were there and as they walked past or they stood outside they
could hear through the open window a lady openly repenting of her
sins. And she was speaking and praying
to God and turning from her sins in her words and in her prayer.
And she said words, not the exact words, but it led them to add
another verse to that hymn. And the verse is this, when I
think that God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can
take it in. And from those words, they added
that verse into the hymn. I scarce can take it in. And you know, as we work our
way through that hymn, we consider the glory that God has made and
the glory that God has done. But, you know, there is no real
wonder or glory greater than considering what God has done
in sending his son, what God has done and his love for sinners. There is the real wonder, the
real wonder is in the Gospel. That God sent his Son and his
work and his love is seen then in the most glorious, the most
powerful way for you and I to ever see. May we, as they were
directed to worship God, not only for creation but for grace
and salvation, may we today be helped, directed to worship.
to exalt our God together. Well, what do we have in this
verse in John 3.16? A well-known verse. We have here, to begin with,
the person of God. God, so loved the world. God. Who is this? Well, this
is referring, of course, to God the Father. God. And who is God? What is God like? How can we understand and comprehend
God the Father? Well, he is eternal, isn't he? He is eternal. That's something
just to begin with that you and I can't really comprehend. We
can't really fathom out in our minds. He always has been God. He is God today. He will be God
tomorrow and he will always be God into the future. He never
began, he never started being God and he will never stop being
God. He has always been eternal. Eternal. But not only eternal,
he is almighty. He is able to do everything and
anything. He can speak and the world is
made. And he can order all events and
everything that occurs. He is almighty. There is nothing
that he can't do, nothing that in our lives, which we think
is beyond our control, is not beyond his control. Even the
elements, the wind, the waves, the sea, everything is in accordance
with his command and his will. You see, he's Almighty. We get
a little glimpse of the greatness of God when we think of what
he said when he came to Moses at the burning bush. Moses asked
him, didn't he? What is your name? I can go back
to the children of Israel, the Hebrews in Egypt. What is thy
name that I can say that thou hast come to me? The Lord said
this, I am that I am. You might think that that's a
strange name. It's difficult to get our heads
around. What does that mean? I am that I am. Well it means
this. He simply is. He didn't begin becoming. He
will not end being God. He does not rely on anyone or
anything. He does not need anyone or anything.
He will not cease to exist if he doesn't have something. He
doesn't need us. He doesn't need the heavens and
the earth. He needs nothing. He just simply is God and nothing
could ever stop that. I am that I am. That's how great he is. That's
how glorious he is. And he created all and made it
perfect and holy and pure. He looked on his creation that
he spoke into being and he said this, that it was very good. So he is holy. He's almighty
but he's holy as well. He's pure. He's sinless. There's nothing wrong in him.
There's nothing that he could ever do or think or say which
had the element, the smallest element of sin in it. He is totally
pure. We can't Grasp that either, can
we? Because we live in a fallen world,
we live in a sinful world, and something that we might think
is good, there's still an element of sin about it, there's still
something wrong if we delve into it. Sin has affected everything
in this world and in our lives. God is pure. He is entirely separate
from sin. He cannot be affected by it in
the sense that he cannot be tempted by it, he cannot fall in any
way into sin. He is holy, holy, holy Lord God
Almighty. This is who this God is. This
God who we read in verse 16. This is the God who made us. And not only that, you see, He
is a just God. He's a just God, a God who does
right and a God who will deal with sin. You see, the fact that
he is sinless means that when he sees sin, which is, in a sense,
in itself rebellion against him, he must deal with it. He is just. He cannot just ignore it, he
cannot just pass over it. He must deal with rebellion against
himself. We read in the Psalms, and David
wrote Psalm 9, he said, he shall judge the world in righteousness,
he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. So he is almighty, he is eternal,
he is sinless and he must deal with sin. He is a judge who will
judge rightly. This is our God. God so loved the world. God. Who does he love in this text? Who is the love directed towards? God so loved the world. The world. Now this is not a text clearly
because of the second half of it which teaches that all are
saved, because clearly the text says that whosoever believeth
on him shall not perish. So it does not mean every single
being who has ever lived in the whole world. What does it mean? Well, consider the context of
this verse. Who is he speaking to in chapter 3 of John? Well,
Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, who had come to him
by night, and we know that they had this conversation regarding
being born again, and then he comes to this word, that God
loved the world. And he's speaking to a Jewish
ruler. Jewish, we read in chapter 1,
in verse 1. He's a Pharisee, a ruler of the
Jews. He's a Jewish ruler. And in Nicodemus' mind, he has
entirely got the Old Testament teaching in his mind that God's
people are the Jews. They are God's chosen people,
and they, the Jewish nation, would refer to anyone outside
as the world. The Gentiles were the world.
They were heathen, they were ungodly, they were unbelievers,
they were not within the family of God. They were the world. And here the Lord Jesus is saying
something striking to Nicodemus, that God, yes, may love the Jews,
but he also loves the world. all who are outside as well. That the nations are not a barrier
to God's love. Because someone is not a Jew
is not a barrier to God's love. It goes to all peoples, to all
nations, to all tribes, to all who trust and believe in Him. And what a reason to rejoice
for you and me today Because I'm assuming, even if we look
far enough back, I don't know, but we are not Jews. We're Gentiles,
aren't we? And yet, the love of God has,
by the preaching of death, the resurrection of Christ, and the
preaching of the apostles, it's gone out into the world. And
it's come to us today. God so loved the world. But who is this then, the world?
Who is it? What is the world? If we consider,
as we have, who God is, what is the world? Well, it's the
opposite, isn't it? The world. The world that God
made, but yet so quickly, so quickly fell into sin. That with
one temptation from the devil, mankind fell and disobeyed God. The world who wants its own way
and says, I won't have this man to reign over me. The world who
turns its back on God and follows its own pathway. The world who
puts his fingers in his ears and ignores the word of God,
his laws, his commands, his judgments. The world who even deny the very
existence of God in the first place. The world who waves his
fist at God and says, I don't believe in you, and I'll have
my own way. That's the world. The world,
who we read in the opening chapters of Genesis, in his heart is evil
continually. And that's not changed, has it?
That's not changed. Evil continually. Evil and sin
throughout. Evil and sin in ourselves. Evil
and sin which runs contrary to God. It is the complete opposite
to what we should be. The complete opposite to what
we were created to be. To be sinless and in perfect
communion with God. The world is the complete opposite
to how it was first created. God and the world. We have two
polar opposites here. Two things which in natural wind
could never be joined together. Two things which are heading,
as it were, in complete opposite directions. They cannot be brought,
they cannot be reconciled. God and the world. But then this text is joined
by one word, isn't it? God so loved the world. God loved the world. He loves
sinners. He loves people who have rejected
him. He loves people who have turned their back on him. He
loves the world and for Nicodemus this must have been completely
out of his mind. Loves the world? The people who
don't know the commands of God, the people who worship idols,
he loves the world? And yet God clearly in the words
of Christ here declares that he does love the world. How can it be true? How can we
possibly believe a statement like this? How can we believe
that it's true? Is it just words? Is it just
something that is said, but is in a sense out there but cannot
be grasped? How do we know that it's true? Well, because we see it in action. We see this love in action. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. Think how much God endured because
of his love for the world. That we see this love in action. Turn with me to the chapter we
read in Genesis chapter 22. Genesis chapter 22. In this chapter we are reminded
of Abraham and we are reminded how God comes to Abraham and
speaks to him and he says, take now thy son. What has gone in the years before
this chapter, in chapter 22? Put your feet, as it were, in
the shoes of Abraham. Try to identify with Abraham
for a little while. What has Abraham been through?
What has he experienced? He's been through a long period
of not having any children. Abraham has grown old. His wife,
Sarah, has grown old. And they are childless. And God
has promised, but God does not give them a child quickly. And Abraham and his wife no doubt
long for this child that God might give them. And the day
has come that the longing is satisfied, that the yearning
for a child is satisfied. And Sarah gives birth to Isaac
in her old age and in Abraham's old age. And Isaac is before
them as their son. their special promised son. In this child is bound up the
example, the very working out of the faithfulness of God. Every
time they see him as he grows up, As he crawls, as he walks,
as he runs, as he plays in the fields, every time they see Isaac,
they see the son of promise. They see the fulfilment of God's
faithfulness. They see their only son. They love him. Their heart yearns
for him. He is so special to them. Their son, Isaac. They love him so deeply. And
yet God comes to Abraham. And he says this, take thy son,
thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the
land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Oh how even these
words Well these words must have struck so hard at the heart of
Abraham because of the thing he was told to do but even in
themselves it's thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest yes Lord
he is my only son yes I do love him go to the mountains of Moriah
and sacrifice offer him there for a burnt offering oh the son
of promise my son whom I delight in The Lord God Almighty has a Son. The Father and the Son. And there is between the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity a perfect loving
unity which cannot be broken. There is a depth of love between
the persons of the Trinity which is so deep, love that we can't
imagine. There is no sin, there is no
division, there is perfect love and unity amongst the persons
of the Trinity. The Lord said, didn't he, as
he saw his son being baptised and on the Mount of Transfiguration,
this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. He is my beloved. He is my delight. He is my son. And the Prophet Isaiah He's recording
the words of the Lord. What does he say this? The Lord
describes him as this, Behold my servant whom I must hold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. The father looks on his beloved
son, whom his soul delighteth. He is my son. There is perfect
love. There is perfect unity. The depth
that we cannot really understand. Thy son, thine only son whom
thou lovest. Oh, this is who he is and he
receives this command, this message, take him and offer him. And what does Abraham do? What
does he do? Does he complain? Does he argue? Does he say, no Lord, that's
my son. How about Ishmael? No, Lord, what about a ram? What
about a sheep? What about something else? Lord,
it's my son that thou hast given me. Could it really be? No, what does he say? He rose
up early in the morning, saddled his ass and took two of his young
men with him and Isaac, his son. He gets up early when the dawn
is breaking. He prepares himself for the journey
early. He doesn't argue. He doesn't put it off. He gets
up early. He takes the hard, the heart-breaking
instruction and he willingly obeys his father, his God. He
willingly obeys. Yes, his heart, as it were, is
being rented to. Yes, his heart is yearning for
what he must do, but he obeys and gets up and he goes and he
embarks on the course set for him willingly. in perfect obedience,
he gets up early. Oh, how the father heart of Abraham
must be breaking as he leaves the tents behind and heads into
the mountains of Moriah. Oh, how the Lord, as it were,
sent his son early. He sent him into a sinful world,
willingly doing what must be done. He sent his son into a
sinful world to be tempted, to be mocked, to be despised and
rejected, to suffer, to be crucified. And yet he sent him, his beloved
son in whom his soul delighted. He sent him. He sent him at that right time.
He sent him because of his love. Yet he gave him. You see, he
gave him. He gave his son. He rose up early
in the morning and he laid on Isaac. We read, as they went,
that he took the wood of the burnt offering and he laid it
upon Isaac, his son. He lays the wood on him. He takes the fire in his hand
and the knife. and they went both of them together. We picture
Abraham laying the wood on his son, carrying the fire, carrying
the knife that he used to slay his son and to set the burnt
offering alight. The items that would kill him
and the wood that would burn him on his back and he lays it
on his own son and they walk together up the mountainside. Oh how How when Abraham laid
that on his son's back, how his heart must be broken. The suffering that was to come.
The thing that he must do. Yet the Lord, he saw his son
walking through his life. He saw his son Jesus going step
by step through the streets of Galilee and of Judea, step by
step to Calvary, step by step to the cross. He saw his son
going to the day of suffering. He saw his son laid out on a
cross and crucified. The end that could not be avoided.
The day that had to come. We read, don't we, that the Lord
Jesus must go to Jerusalem. He must go that way. He had to
go that way. It was the way that he had to
go because that was the reason he had come. That was the reason
he had been sent. And yet his father saw it step
by step, as it were the wood laid on his back, a further step
up the mountain to Calvary. And the Lord saw it And the Lord,
as it were, had his father's heart out to his beloved son
as he walked that path. His only son. They walk up the hillside and
Isaac speaks. And Abraham has to deal with
this most heartbreaking of questions. Abraham, father? Behold the fire
and the wood. Where is the lamb? for the burnt
offering? Where's the lamb, Father? Where's
the offering? Where's the sacrifice? Oh, what
a question from innocent Isaac that Abraham has to deal with.
Yes, Abraham believes that God can raise him from the dead,
we read in the Hebrews. He believes that God can do anything
and that Isaac may well be restored again and resurrected. But as
far as Abraham is concerned, as he walks up and hears this
question, he has to turn in his mind at least and say, Isaac,
you're the Lamb. My son. You're the sacrifice. My son. Here is the offering. My son. God will provide himself
a lamb for the burnt offering. But as far as Abraham's mind
is concerned, his son is the lamb. The Lord. No, I only saw his
son walking to Calvary. What does he hear? He hears his
cries. In Gethsemane, he hears the cry,
Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me. He sees his
son sweating blood and groaning in Gethsemane. He sees him with
the weight of sin on his back and the prospect of the cross
before him. And he sends an angel to minister. But the path cannot
be changed. The way must still be walked.
The cross must still be borne. It's as if the Lord, as he hears
the cry, Father, let this cut pass from me. Son, you are the
sacrifice. You are the lamb. You are the
offering. And he takes him and he binds
him onto the altar. He built the altar and laid the
wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the
altar upon the wood. He lays him there. The sacrifice
has come. The time has arrived, the death,
the suffering must be endured. Oh, the hands that bound him,
his own son, the hands that laid him on the altar, ready to strike. Jesus is laid on the cross, and
the sins of the church are laid on him, and the burden of the
guilt and the wrath of God is upon him. and the physical pain
and the spiritual suffering is to be upon him. And the time
has come throughout all eternity past. It's been appointed that
on this day, on this hour, the sacrifice will be offered and
the time has come. And the Lord is to slay his son. The plan must be fulfilled. The time has come. Oh, those perhaps more of us
who are fathers, can we enter something into Abraham's heartbreak,
into Abraham's pain? And he takes the knife to slay
his son. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
here am I. He said, Lay not thine hand upon
the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that
thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram, caught in the thicket
by his horns. He is stopped at the last moment. The cry comes out at the last
moment. He was willing, he did not even
withhold his own son. But yet a substitute was given. A ram was seen. The knife was
laid down. Isaac was unbound. Isaac was
taken off the altar and the ram was caught. The ram was bound.
The ram was offered. The ram was the sacrifice. And
imagine, just imagine the thanksgiving in the hearts of Abraham and
Isaac as they stood there and saw the sacrifice consumed and
the smoke ascending into heaven of that ram. Oh, the joy, the
rejoicing, the relief, thanksgiving to God that he had not had to
offer his son, as he said, he called it Jehovah-Jireh, the
Lord will provide, and he provided, didn't he? A substitute, a sacrifice
instead. How amazing, how wonderful for
Abraham. Oh, but you see, this is where
the picture diverges. This is where, as it were, the
parable breaks down. Because as Jesus was on that
cross, there was no voice from heaven. There was no, as it were, staying
at the last minute. There was a cry from the cross.
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? A cry from the sacrifice,
the Lamb of God himself in his suffering and in his agony and
his enduring of the wrath of God. There was a cry There was
no answer. There was no substitute. There
was no other way. In response to that cry, the
Lord God continued to pour out his wrath. He continued to pour
out hell upon his only beloved son. There was no other way. His only son. He must continue
to pour the wrath of God on his son. until all those sins had
been atoned for, until all the suffering had been endured, until
all was paid to free his people. His son must endure it all. There was no ram caught in the
thicket, as it were. The heart of the father I believed
at that time must have yearned for his son, his only son. And yet he could not, he must
not, he would not stay his hand. The lamb must be consumed. Do you see something of the depth
of the love of God? Something of the depth of the
love of God for sinners? that he gave his son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I hate to use family as examples
in preaching, but it's a good one. You know, the day Bethany
came home from hospital, Joel fell down the stairs and I had
to take him the next morning, Sunday morning, off to the hospital.
And he was beside himself, his leg was painful and he couldn't
stand and he was tired and it was awful. And he fell asleep
just before we went in to have an x-ray on his leg. And I took
him in, he was asleep, and laid him on the bed, the table for
an x-ray and he woke up and he screamed. And he screamed and
he was crying my name lifting his arms up and he was beside
himself. There was nothing I could do.
All I could do was stand back and watch as he screamed in his
fear, in his pain. A little glimpse, that's nothing,
it's nothing, but a little glimpse of the father enduring the cries
of his son and the suffering of his son and yet the wrath
must continue. The pain must be endured. this
morning, do you ever doubt that God is love? Do you ever say,
well, that's just words? That's just an idea that John
wrote, that God is love? Do you ever doubt it? Doubt no
more. Here is love to an unfathomable
depth. Here is love to a degree that
you cannot understand. Here is love that we see displayed
in action for sinners. Love that can reach the worst
of sinners. Love so vast that it can reach
you and me this morning. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. Here we have the one qualification. Here we have the love of God
in its enormity, in its vastness, and what do we have? Whosoever
believeth in him. The qualification is believing,
is hoping in his love. It's all on mercy, it's all love,
it's all undeserved, it's all grace, We all rely on it, every
Christian relies on it and so do you this morning and so must
you this morning. Nothing else, nothing else for
you to even consider as it were. The love of God, do I hope, do
I reach out and want to just grasp something of that love
which is so deep that it might be for me. No one deserves it. No one deserves it. if you believe this morning,
from your heart, something within, something that God has done.
This is how much he loves you. And as uncertain and difficult
and trying your life might be and you wonder where God is and
you wonder if he's forsaken you and you wonder what's going to
happen, this is how much he loves you. That he gave his only begotten
son, that we might have everlasting
life. If you are afraid that your sins
are too great, if you say that God cannot possibly love or forgive
you, if you say, well, how do I know if I'm an elect of God
whether he would ever come to me or not, this word tells us
that all of those thoughts as difficult as pressing and as
much as they may be in your mind and as much as the devil will
remind you and remind you of them that this text tells us
that we should in a sense with God's help try to put all that
aside because the simple thing is whosoever believe it in him
this love is so vast This love is so great it can encompass
even the depths of your sins. The everlasting arms can reach
even you. And even those sins which are
so heavy and so burdensome and so trying and will drag you into
hell can be cast into the depths of the sea to be seen no more. This is the most humbling, humbling
message that we can ever consider, that we can ever know. What does
John say after he's told us that 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. Herein is love. Here it is. Here is love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son. his only son, his beloved son,
the son in whom he delighted, his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Let's join with the Apostle Paul
this morning. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Amen.