I would say that all of us have
at one time or another, when we were younger, more than likely
sung, Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Well,
does he? Is that what the Bible says?
That God loves everybody. or does he love some? Does he
love the whole world or does he love those who love his son? In this day and time when men
and women think and actually believe that they can, by their
own will, let God have his way and give their hearts to God
and allow God to save them, These need and ought to go back to
the beginning of what God said in this book. From the very beginning,
God makes it very clear who's in control and who's in charge. Need to go all the way back to
Genesis chapter 1. You don't have to turn there.
And verse 1, and read how things really began and who it was that
was behind them all. It tells us in just a few verses
there in the first chapter. In the beginning, the beginning
of what? The beginning of time. You know,
there was a time when there was no time. And God created time
when He made the heavens and the earth. In the beginning,
the beginning of time, God, doesn't say David, doesn't say Chris,
doesn't say Moses, doesn't say Abraham. It says in the beginning,
God, what did God do? Before time ever was, God created. God was before time. God is eternal. God is and always was. God created time. What are you
going to do with a God like that? I know what most are doing with
Him. They're lying on Him. What are you going to do for
a God like that? What are you going to do to God
like that do men and women really think that they have any control
over a God like that God created that word created in the Hebrew
means God chose God selected God made God created everything
everything and God saw everything that he made and he said, behold,
it's very good because He made it. He created it. God made the
earth, this place we reside. And in the beginning, it was
without form and void and full of darkness. And God gave the
earth substance. God made the earth full. God gave this earth light. Where were we when God laid the
foundations of the world? He asked that question. Where
were we when God measured the world and put his plumb line
to it? You guys that do carpenter work,
you know how important it is to have a plumb line. Where were
we when God laid the cornerstone and fastened and secured the
foundation of this world? Where were we when God shut the
sea with doors and commanded them not to come an inch further?
You stop right there. God said that. It was God who said let. It was
God who allowed, permitted, authorized, and granted light. And that's
not all. It was God the Son, the one who
made all things, who said to God the Father and the Spirit,
let there be light. And immediately says, and there
was light. No hesitation when God commands something. God is in agreement with himself. But he never asked us what we
think. If somebody tells you that, you remember that. God
created light. God divided light from the darkness. Did God create darkness? Oh,
that upsets folks. He said, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Now, that's what God said. And
he said it in this book. God named the light day and God
named the darkness night. Who did? God did. Who let him do it? No one. He does what he wills in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. He has the right as God to do
it. He has the right as God to do
anything and everything. God divided the waters. God caused
the dry land to appear. God brought forth grass. God
gave the herbs and the yielding seed. God gave the trees and
the fruit from them. God created the fish, the minnow,
and the whale. God made every creature that
moves. God made every creeping thing. God made spiders, Teresa. God made the cattle on a thousand
hills. It all belongs to Him. What does
He need from us? And then God made man and woman
and God gave them dominion over all that He had made. But mankind
doesn't have dominion over God. You won't find that in this book. And God gave man one commandment,
and he failed miserably. Man doesn't command God to do
anything. Now, I don't know where folks
are getting their information, but it sure ain't from the Bible. They're not getting it from Genesis
chapter one. They're not getting it from the
Holy Scriptures. I guess, no, I know, the truth
got lost when man sinned. The reality is that it's still
hidden today from many. We were talking about it in the
Bible reading a minute ago. A church on every corner, just
about. I remember one time when we lived
more on the north end of town, Teresa drove and I was counting
the churches that I could just see and there were, I couldn't
believe how many there were. And yet, to my sadness, I don't
know of any of them that preach what this book teaches, not in
its entirety, not in the truth of who saves. Sad. So, has God revealed it to you? He reveals it to some, He reveals
it to a few. So in consideration of these
things found in these first few verses of the Bible, what did
you and I ever do to make us think and believe that God is
obliged to entitle us to make a choice? Now, if you buy something, you
purchased it. If you earned something, you
worked for it. If you deserved something, you
merited it. But a gift is something you don't
purchase. A gift is something you don't work for, and it's
certainly something that you don't merit. If something is
given to you, it's given freely. A true gift is a free gift. Now, if you make me pay for a
gift, it ain't much a gift. If you make me work for a gift,
if I do something that would cause me to deserve a gift, then
it ceases to be a gift. That's not rocket science. God provided everything for Adam
when he created him, and God still provides everything for
men and women who he is God over. while the rain falls on the just
and the unjust. The sun shines on both. There are no self-made men. Someone
is going to say, well, no, I work 40 hours a week. Some work more
than that. I pay for my housing. I purchase
my own groceries. I'm a self-made man. Well, who
gave you the ability to work? Who gave you the health to work? Who gave you the mental capacity
to hold a job? Who gave you the desire to work?
Who makes you differ from another? That's what Paul asked. Who makes
you to differ from another? What difference does it make?
It makes all the difference in the world. Because if you did
it, you're going to glory in it. If God did it, you're going
to glorify Him. We saw that in Psalm 115 this
morning. What do you have you didn't receive,
Paul asked. And if you received it, why do
you glory in it? Why do you take credit for it?
1 Corinthians 4, 7, read it. Are you proudly taking credit
for what belongs to God? In the creation of the world,
God provided everything. And He still provides everything. God provided everything for us.
In the new creation, in a sinner's formless, void, and dark heart,
God provides it all. We as new creatures have these
things, the fullness, the light, only because God made it so. And what proof, what evidence
we have from God Himself that salvation, our redemption, cannot
be bought, it cannot be earned, and it cannot be merited. Now
come on. God wrote us a letter. It was so full of what He's done
for us. So much has He done for us that
it had to be made a book. It's a big letter, long letter. And it's a word of comfort to
some, and it's a word of condemnation to others. It's a word of comfort
and assurance to a few, and it's a word of judgment and condemnation
to many. That should alone alarm us. And
that's what God said in this letter. He said that. He said
broad is the gate that leads to destruction and narrow is
the way that leads to life. God said that. He wrote it in
this letter. But most men and women seem to
have it all figured out. They can take what God says and
they can leave it. And the truth is that most are
too busy to give it much consideration. They're satisfied to listen to
someone else tell them who God is and who and what they are.
They're too busy to look in here and find out for themselves.
Paul talked about the noble Bereans. He said they got in the Word
of God constantly to see if what he said was so. I wish more people
do that. I want you to doubt me. If you're
going to search for yourself to find that what I'm telling
you is true. But when you find out what I'm
telling you is true, then I don't want you to doubt me. Oh. Men and women today think they
can purchase what is not purchasable. The love of God is not for sale. It's not. When it comes to knowing
that, why even the music group, the Beatles, knew it, had it
figured out. Didn't they sing, Can't Buy Me
Love? I was thinking about that yesterday, and I remember Brother
Maurice used to call them the Beagles. Well, might as well
have been Beagles. Can't buy me love. If a man could
buy love, earn it, merit it, then he would have a part in
it. But he doesn't. He's unable, he's unwilling,
and he's uninterested. By nature, the love of the church
to and for Christ is a grace so valuable. Now listen, this
is so valuable that it cannot be purchased. It cannot be earned. It cannot be merited. It can be had freely. In, by, and through the Lord
Jesus, it's free, without money and without price. Come and buy
without money and without price. I've asked you this before, how
you do that? I don't think Walmart's doing
that. How are we gonna do it? We're gonna charge it to the
account of another, and that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Turn with me to Song of Solomon,
chapter eight. This is my text. Song of Solomon,
chapter eight. Verse 7, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
and then Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse
7. Verse 7 says, many waters cannot
quench love, neither can the floods drown it. And if a man
would give all the substance of his house for love, it would
utterly be contend. Who is it to be freely given
to? To those that are thirsty. To those who are poor and have
no money. You know, if a rich man were to offer his whole estate,
everything that he has for Christ's love for him. I'll trade you
all for the love that Christ has for you and that you have
for Christ. To the one who's thirsty and
poor, it would be rejected. No deal. No deal. As a matter of fact, it would
be an insult. It would be an insult. All the
best treasures in and of this world would not suffice to cause
the love of Christ to part with His love. It just wouldn't do
it. No sane man or woman would part with the fulfillment of
greed when they had the one thing that they need. Jesus Christ
is the one thing needful. What would you give for that?
The believer wouldn't give everything and wouldn't take anything for
it. No one in their right mind would
trade life eternal for the things of this world. Because this world
is going to burn. It's going to perish. But eternal life is just what
it is. Life eternal. I've often said, if we announced
today and could be convincing in our advertising or whatever,
that we had found the Fountain of Youth and we advertised it
and said, come to 2015 Beulah Road this Sunday. We've got life
eternal. We've got a potion you can drink
and live forever. You couldn't pipe them in here.
We'd have to rent, you know, a big stadium to get them all
in. And we have just that. That's what we got. And you can't pay somebody to
come here. Ah, the love of Christ. You know,
oftentimes I see advertisements for products for sale and the
caption is, price is firm. No trade's accepted. I see that
quite a bit. The love of Christ falls in that
category. The price for Christ's love is
firm. His holy justice demands it. You cannot trade something you
believe to be of equal value when there is nothing of equal
value. Trade's not accepted. You're
not going to trade your 401k for it because they don't even
compare, no matter how much it is. Nothing can quench the love of
the church for Christ either. The many waters and floods of
the wicked cannot withdraw a believer from Christ's love for them and
their love for Christ. Their afflictions even cause
them to increase. You know, when I have felt the
closest to God and love God the most is when I was afflicted,
when I was in trouble, when I was shut up to the fact that no one
could help me but God Almighty. And when He did, my love grew. Thank you. You did for me what I couldn't
do. And that's what the Lord does in every aspect. Nothing
can quench the love of a believer for their Savior. We see by divine
revelation that trials and temptations and trouble increase our love
and our trust for the one who loves us and gave himself for
us. They see that it's good for them,
just as David did, that they've been afflicted. For in that suffering,
they learn God's statutes, God's divine appointments. We know
that God sent it, and we know that God is going to make it
somehow to work together for our good. That's what He promised. Romans 8, 28, isn't that what
He said? And a true believer like Job
can say, though He slain me, Yet will I trust in Him. But
I will maintain my own ways before Him." Job 13, 5. They'll maintain
their trusting ways before Him to His face. As a man who fears
God by the character that God freely gave him. It can't be
bought. It can't be earned. It can't
be merited. It can only be freely given. Even our trouble proves God's
love to us. Yes, men and women mourn by reason
of their affliction, but the Scripture says, but they call
out daily for their loving Savior. You know when you're going to
cry out for help? When you need help. Not before. They continue to stretch out
their hands to Him, Psalm 89. That's what one in trouble does.
Lord, help me. Who could purchase a mother's
love? I have seen it all my life. I've seen it with my own mother.
I've seen it with some of your mothers. You know, I've been here 35 years
now. You might not believe this, but
Chris Coffin was a young man when I first started coming here.
I don't know if I'm telling on
me or you, but She loves her own child, and
she watches over it with meticulous care. I've seen it time and time
again in church conferences. You can hear a baby crying in
the distance, and one woman gets up, and I'm thinking, there are
30 mothers here. But she knows that was her child.
She could tell by their cry. Isn't that something? That's
a mother's voice. It's not in her power to transfer
the affection for her own son and daughter to the son and daughter
of a stranger. And I am very fond of your daughter,
but not like I am mine. I can't help it. We ought to
be, but it's just the truth. Her child is exceedingly precious
to her. David loved Jonathan and Jonathan
loved David, but neither of them purchased one another's heart. So I want to drive home the point
to those who believe, still believe, that they can somehow purchase
the love of Christ. You can't. It's not only profane,
but it's blasphemous. To suppose that the love of Christ's
heart can be bought with gold or silver. Listen, He owns all
the gold mines and the silver mines. You're not going to tempt
Him with that. What would Christ possibly gain
from these worldly treasures? Do we honestly think that He
could and would love some because of some service that we render
or some price that we would pay? That's a direct contradiction
to what the Word of God tells us. Christ loves us because He
pities us. He instructs us because He grieves
over our ignorance. I have three sons and there were
times where I just shook my head like, are you kidding me? You
haven't learned this yet? And then I think about my dad
and he said he's shaking his head because I hadn't learned. He instructs us because He grieves
over our ignorance. He knows the sorrow of our lack
of knowledge and that we would be consumed because of it. So He patiently and long-suffering
waits for us to learn of Him. He with loving kindness says,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly
in heart, and you shall find rest for yourselves. I can remember
my dad. My mom was the disciplinary. I told you that before. She'd
take a belt and lay it on you pretty quick. She'd take my dad's
belt off, and his pants might fall down, but she'd wear me
out with it. But my dad liked to sit down
and talk. He liked to talk things out. Oh, I wish I could listen
to him more. So do. We love him because he first
loved us. I love my dad because he first
loved me. I knew he loved me. Christ's love for us was not
to win notoriety. He was selfless. He had not one
atom of selfishness. How could He be influenced by
gifts from us? Why, every beast of the forest
is His. He owns the cattle on a thousand
hills, as I said. And if He was hungry, He said,
I wouldn't depend on you. Why? He tells us, for the world
is mine and the fullness thereof. And listen, there is not a speck
of, this speck of earth of what we call earth, belongs to Him.
The whole universe is His. You look out at the stars at
night, and there's galaxies that they haven't even found yet.
It's all His. Every bit of it. What is your little two cents,
Mike? It's like that woman that put
Him in the offering to Him. Well, if it's all you got, it's
something. Our Lord labors, but he doesn't
labor for hire. God sees the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. And because of the joy set before
him, he endured the cross and he despised the shame, though
it was love unbought and unsought. There's none that seeketh after
God. I found Jesus, Jesus wasn't lost. Was he? How could he be influenced by
us? For the world is mine, and the fullness here. Why do the
works religionists think that they, why do they work to try
to bribe him? If Christ's love could be won
by us doing something or bringing something to Him, doing something
for Him, if there was something of ours that was equal merit
and of equal value with His love, something that He was willing
to accept, something that He was co-equal to His great love,
I can see why we might think that we could purchase His love.
But there's not. Nothing. What's the use of earthly
riches when it comes time for one to die? I've heard folks
say it all the time. Well, you can't take it with
you. I think some would certainly like to. There's no work we could
do that would be worthy of forgiveness of such guilt, is there? Nothing
found in us or ever to be found in us that would dare suggest
for a moment that it stands in comparison with His eternal love. It all belongs to Christ already.
We cannot even give ourselves. Every creature is His already.
Well, Lord, I'm going to give you my heart. Listen. First and
foremost, you know what I'm going to say. He don't want it. It's
deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. He's gonna have to give
you a new one. And that's what I'm saying. He
loves his people so much that he does. Another thing I hear folks say,
an old saying is, you know, especially birthday time, Christmas time.
What do you give a man who already has everything? Well, that's
a good question. Much more, what do you give God
who created everything, that owns everything? You can only give to Him what
He gave to you. His command is, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and
with all thy might. All our time, all our money,
all our faculties, all the possibilities that are in us are now His. They're already His. They're
His now. So how shall we come to purchase
His love? Can't be purchased. That's certain
for many other reasons besides the few that I've given you.
So let me ask you as seriously as I can, And I love thinking
about this. Isn't it a blessing to have the
love of Christ even though we can't purchase it? Even though
we can't merit it? Even though we don't deserve
it? We've got it. Some do. The Lord has given us
what he never could have sold us. He has freely, again, without
money and without price, given it to us. That's free. That's
free. We like free stuff, don't we?
A lot of folks don't like this. How long would it have taken
us to pay off what he freely gave? Ain't nothing to pay. He's already been paid for. And my friends, think about this
wondrous truth. Christ died for us before we
ever knew anything about Him. Isn't that something? This love is everlasting. It's
an everlasting love. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. When heaven and earth have passed
away, His love for us is still fresh and new. We're just getting
started. His love is mine. Did I do something to merit it?
Did a work of mine secure it? Did a righteousness of mine merit
it? No, no, and no. Three no's. It's not by prayers. It's not by ceremonies. It's
not by religious works of personal righteousness. Those things could
never buy His love and His favor. It's vain to think of purchasing
the love of Christ in such a way. And some will say, well, now
look, surely we got to do something. You heard anybody say that? Oh,
I have. Well, I love this great stuff,
you know, but surely we got to do something. What must I do
to be saved? Good master, what good thing
should I do? Must I do to be saved? There's nothing. He's already
done it. He told that rich young ruler,
go sell all you got. He was rich, and he went away
sad. He couldn't do it. But some will say, well, I can
give up this sin, or I could stop this vice, or I could renounce
this bad habit. Most people do every year, first
of the year, only to start doing it again with just a short period
of time. Listen, I'm resolved to no longer
make a resolution because I fail every time. We're going to step up our morality.
Well, if I believed in luck, I'd say good luck with that.
We're going to increase our moral duty. Okay, let me know how that
works out. When we shall have done all those
things which are commanded to us, we must say, we are unprofitable
servants, and we've done that which was only our duty to do. That's in Luke 17, verse 10. That's in God's letter to us. Will Christ's love be sold at
the market? Can you buy his love at Walmart
or on Amazon? No, it's being sold in most churches,
though. What men call churches, let me
reform that. Men and women of religion have
made their assemblies, we can call them that, their assemblies,
people sending assembly together. They've made it a den of thieves.
Give Jesus your heart. Make Jesus Lord. Let go and let
God save you. It's nothing but counterfeit
money that we'll not spend. You take a $20 Monopoly money
down to Subway and see if you can get you a sandwich. Our text does not merely say
that this price will be refused, but it'll be utterly contemned. That means despised. That means
scorned, treated with contempt, looked down on, disdained, disregarded,
reviled, scoffed, and mocked at. When I hear such things,
I'm gonna be honest with you, it makes me sick in my stomach
to hear somebody lie on God. I want to just cry, no, no, no,
that's not what God said in His letter. People are ignorant because
they don't know the God of the Bible. They won't have Him to
rule over them. How can they insult Him so? They
know not what they do. Christ said that when they killed
Him and people still today don't know what they do. Friends, nothing
can substitute for love, and that is infinitely more true
concerning Christ's love. His love is a holy love. He cannot
love us apart from being holy and just, and He died in order
to make us so. We couldn't keep the law. We
couldn't satisfy God's holy justice. He did it. Therefore, we are
justly saved. We have on a wedding garment. God's command of each one of
us who professes to be His child is, my son, my daughter, give
me your heart. Proverbs 23, 26. He's not pleading. He's not begging for us to love
Him. I heard that all my life. Well,
stand and sing just as I am. And God is, you know, pleading for sinners to come
home. Come home, come home. You are weary, come home. Well,
you should. But He don't save you because
you walked to the front. And that's what they mean by
coming home. Something I've come to learn
is this. Men don't care what religion asks them to do as long
as it doesn't trouble their hearts. They don't mind praying. They
don't mind hearing sermons. They don't mind tithing. They
don't mind witnessing, but they do mind repenting. And they do
mind changing. That's what repent means, to
change. And the reason why is it's something
that they cannot truly do apart from Christ's love for them and
their love for Him. Men will offer and do anything,
won't do anything that has to do with the heart. You know,
there are priests of religion in the historic region of, I
think it's pronounced Hindustan in Northern India, that were
just like the prophets of Baal. They cut themselves with knives. They'll lay on a bed of spikes.
They'll be hung up by a hook in their back. and hang there
in agony in the name of sacrifice to their God. False gods, idols. But they will not confess that
Jesus is Lord. He's Lord of all, and they themselves
are a poor, sinful creature who deserves to be punished. You
won't get them to do that. You know, the most unpopular
truth that ever fell from the lips of our Lord Jesus is, you
must be born again. And man will say, oh, no, there's
another way. I can purchase it. I can earn
it. And I most certainly deserve
it. The believer's not going to argue
about where God is to be worshipped like that woman in the well.
You say that you worship in Jerusalem, and I say you worship in this
mountain, and the Lord Jesus says, you know not what you worship. You don't know who you're worshipping. You've got to be worshipped in
spirit and in truth. So where is that? That's where
the truth's being preached. In the spirit of God. And that's
not everywhere. As a matter of fact, it's hardly
anywhere. So again, all that you have,
all that you've accumulated, all that God himself has given
you will be despised by you if you offer it in lieu of the true
love of Christ. The love of saints to their Lord
is not given to Christ because of his gifts to them. We love
our God and we love Him all the more because of the many gifts
that He bestows upon us, but His gifts do not win our love.
All that He's given me today, He gave me many years ago. All
that truly matters, the covenant of grace has always been mine
and yours, given before the foundation of the world. And many years
ago, I had a preacher tell me about it. And he told me how
Christ died for me, how did Christ love me, and how Christ gave
Himself for me. He told me that my Lord, what
my Lord did for me, what I could never do, and that He divinely
intervened in my heart, caused me to bow to Him, and caused
me to love Him. And this letter says, David,
I love you. You love me because I first loved
you. I would have never loved him
if he had only given me the substance of his house. I needed his love.
I needed his forgiveness. I needed his spirit. And most
of all, I need him. If he'd never given me himself,
I would have never given him myself. Now, the scripture says
this, my beloved is mine and I am his. And those are the sweetest
words ever preserved in my heart and in my mind. The believer
does not say his crown is mine, his throne is mine, his breastplate
is mine, his whatever is mine. She, as his
spouse, delights in everything that Christ has as a king, as
a priest, and as a shepherd. But above all else, that which
wins and charms his church, his bride, the most is, he himself
is mine. And I'm his, though he's slain
me. Yet will I trust him. I must
trust Him, there's no other to trust. Only He can do for me
what must be done. I must be born again. If I'm
not, I'm gonna perish. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in His body, whether good or bad. For this corruptible,
this flesh, must put on incorruption, and this mortal, must put on
immortality. It must. But without faith, it's
impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. So, in closing, do you love and
trust the Lord? You must. You must. If you ever truly see Him, You'll
want to. Again, you can offer a real saint
the whole world, but what would they give in exchange for their
soul? It all comes down to what do
you think of Christ, and what life in Him really means to you.
You can be bought if Christ means nothing, but if He means everything
to you, there's nothing that would cause you to exchange your
own soul for His love. Price is firm and no trades accepted. Heavenly Father, enable us to
love you, Lord. Enable us to love you and give
ourselves to you and your kingdom as you've loved us and gave yourself
for us. And it's in Christ's name we
pray and ask these things. Amen.