You can take your Bibles and
turn with me to Psalm chapter 109. Psalm chapter 109. Our text will be found in verses
4 and 5. The Scripture says, For my love
they are my adversaries, but I gave myself unto prayer. And
they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. The title of the message this
evening is Love That's Hated. Love That's Hated. It's innate
justice for men to receive a just reward. It's innate. in every man to receive a just
reward for his actions. All men know that if a man should
commit murder, that he is guilty and worthy of death. We know
this. Every man knows this innately. And if a man is found guilty,
he should be justly punished for his crimes. Now, if a murderer
were to go free, we know that's injustice. Men are outraged when
murderers are set free because it is an insult to the victim. It's an insult to those who are
oppressed by a person's bloodlust. So we know this, everyone in
here. You take little children, you
put them in a group, and then someone does something wrong,
and let them punish the offender and see what happens. They're
more cruel to the offender than probably what is justly needed.
But we all know that injustice must be punished. But as we behold
this evening the Lord Jesus Christ, we know this, that He deserved
only praise. He did only that which was good. And yet, He was the most despised
man that ever lived. He was the most hated man that
ever lived. We see Jesus. The Scripture says
He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He did
only good works wherever He went. He healed the sick. He raised
the dead. Gave sight to the blind. Healed
the lame. Brought the dead to life. Jesus
came preaching a message of love and grace. He came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repent. What great love is that? That He would not call the best
of men, but He would call the worst of men to save them, to
embrace them, to love them. What a message! What a message
that no man has ever preached like He preached. He preached and testified of
the love of God in every action, in every word, in every deed,
in every thought. He perpetually showed the love
of God in everything He did. Jesus came preaching such a message. A poet once said this. He said,
if Jesus was guilty of anything, it was excess of love. Excess of love. I take you to task. Have you
loved like he loved? Have we even loved our children
like he loved his? None of us have. One would think
that such love would not only be received but welcomed. Yet
Jesus, a man possessed of the greatest love and exhibited the
greatest love, was the object of the greatest hatred. He was
the object of the greatest hatred. Flip over to Isaiah chapter 53.
This was testified of. This was testified of by the
by the prophet Isaiah in verse 2. See how the Lord describes it. See how the Lord describes His
Son. He said, For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant. What words? He'll be a tender
plant. As a root out of dry ground. He hath no form or comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of men." Notice that past tense. He has already been despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. A man like that deserves pity,
doesn't he? A man of such sorrow. A man of
such tenderness. A man of such love. And yet,
what is our reaction? We hid our faces from Him. And He was despised. And we esteemed
Him not. We esteemed Him not. Look down
at verse 7. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. And what was His actions? Yet,
He opened not His mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as sheep before her shearers as dumb, so he opened
not his mouth." The promise of God. The promise of God that
was told us from the beginning had come. Jesus had come, the
Messiah, the One who should redeem Israel, the One who should bring
in righteousness, the One who should put away sin and bring
in a kingdom, an everlasting kingdom of love and peace had
come. He had actually come into the
world as He was prophesied. And what was our response to
such a love? It was hatred. It was hatred. What did the kings of the earth
do when they found out that he was coming? You remember when
Herod was visited by the wise men? He actually went to the scriptures
to see where Christ would be born. knew where he would be born.
And what was his action? His action, his determination
was to kill the Son of God. To stop Him from coming into
this world to exhibit such great love. When Jesus preached His first
message, what was their response? They wanted to throw Him off
the hill. They try to kill him. When Jesus healed the blind,
raised the dead, made the lame to walk, and he did it against
the traditions of men, they hated him because he broke their traditions. He exposed their sin. Such love, such love exposes
our lack of love. Our lack of love. Such love of
Christ shows us that we are incapable of such love. And when sin is exposed, hatred
is produced. When sin is exposed, hatred. What happens when you are caught?
When our first instinct is to react and defend ourselves, the
first instinct, even though we're guilty, is to react. How could
you even think of? Oh, yeah, you're right, I'm guilty. Done it. But our first natural
instinct is to hate light, to hate it, to reject Jesus said, For my love they
are my adversaries. This has not changed. This has
not changed today. There are still many who profess
love of Christ. They confess Him that He is their
Lord. And yet, when the love of Christ
is revealed and the light of the glory of the gospel is shined
upon them and their sin is exposed, They will hate Christ. They will hate Him. Behold, this
evening, I want us to focus more, not on the adversaries, but I
want us to focus on the love of God. The love of God that
is manifest in Christ Jesus. Let us who believe be comforted. The love of God should comfort
every believer's heart, because you and I are the objects and
recipients of His love. And secondly, let us who are
recipients of His love, let us also love even as we are loved. First of all, the love of God
is eternal. Eternal. This word we cannot
wrap our minds around. We can say, I understand, I ask
my son. He'll tell you he understands
eternity. No, we don't fully understand eternity. We are creatures
of time. And eternity is far beyond the
measure of our mortal minds can comprehend. Yet there was a time,
if we can call it that, before time, where God dwelt for all
eternity past by Himself alone. God's love is eternal. See this
in Jeremiah chapter 31. Verse 3, The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
I have drawn thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. The natural man will always love
a God whose love is much like his own. A natural man will love
a God whose love is much like his own sinful passion. We are
creatures of time. The Scripture says that all flesh
is grass, and the glory of man is the flower of grass. Grass
is pretty high out here. If you want to go see what you
are, look at the grass. You want to see what greatness
you have? Look at that flower of the grass.
We had some tulips up here. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Where are
they? They're gone. They're withered. That's who we are. And that's how we perceive love
by nature. We are creatures of time. Our
love has beginning and our love has ending. But God's love has
no beginning and it has no ending. He said, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Our love is a product of time.
Our love is carnal and our love has beginning and endings, but
the love of God is the product of his own nature, which is eternal. It's eternal. The love of God
for his elect people had no beginning because he had no beginning. Because it was perfect already,
it needed no change. His love is eternal love. Believer, if God loves you, it
is because He always has loved you. There has never been a time
He has not loved you. There will never be A time that
our God has not loved us. Rest in His love. Rest. Be at peace. Not with your love
for Him. Your love is short. It's weak. It's feeble. It's up. It's down. His love is forever. And if He has loved you, He will
always love you. And there's nothing that will
ever separate you from His love. Nothing. Hell, with all its demons,
could not separate you from His love. Second of all, God's love is
immutable. This word means unchangeable. God's Word, God's love is always
unchangeable. Our love is weak. Our affection are wavering. God has no passion. God has no passion. Because passion
dictates a heat, a certain amount of rising of love. Our love can
rise to excel and then what happens is it falls down. It goes up
and it goes down. Our love has passion. God's love
has no passion because it is unchangeable. It is immutable
as his own character. And we can love someone so deeply
and we can swear I'll love them forever." Oh, if I just had that person.
You remember. I just had this guy. I know this. That I'm going to love forever
and it's going to be great. Now, I'll tell you what. Your
love may endure until you die. But in between, in between the
beginning and the ending, oh, what a turmoil our love is. Staggers. We're like a drunken
man on a vessel in the middle of a storm. Our love is up and
it's down, it's up and it's down. And our love is that way because
our love is based on the objects. Our love is based on the other
person. If you love me, then I will love you. But if you do
this, then my love will still be there, but it won't be as
great. I remember my brother Don telling
me, He told me, Fred, love is not a feeling, it is a commitment.
And one day you're going to look at that pretty girl and you're
going to say, I'm committed to you. Because you're not going
to be able to say, I love you. You're not going to have those
feelings. Our love wanes. It's so weak and feeble. Why
would we trust it? Why would we hold to it? Why
would we think God would love us just because we loved Him?
No, His love is not based on objects. His love is immutable
as is character. It's unchangeable. However high
God's love is, it is continually high and it never lowers. It can never go higher than it
is. He can never love you more than
He loves you now. And He will never love you less
than He loves you now. His love does not change. His love does not change. His
love is according to His sovereign will. He loves us because He
will. His love is not based on you.
His love is based on Himself. Now, He is worthy of all self-love
because He's perfect. He is worthy of self-love and
He loves us because He loves Himself. And His love won't change. The love of God the Father chose
us because He loved us. The love of the Son agreed to
redeem us because He loves us. And the love of the Holy Spirit
purposed to draw us with loving kindness and give all the elect
life and faith and hope and give us love. Do you love Him? If we love Him, it is a product
of His unchanging, immutable, eternal love. That's the only
way we could love Him. The only way the moon has any
light at all is it reflects from the sun. And the only reason
we have love for God at all is because it reflects off of His
nature. Because He gives us that love
for Him. Which of you believers in Christ
not felt that God's love changed. We feel that all the time. We
feel surely God's love has changed. That God has turned His face
from us and surely He could not love us anymore. Go to Psalm
77. See if you can identify with
Asaph. I cried unto God with my voice,
even unto God with my voice. And he gave ear unto me. In the
day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My sore ran in the night
and ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God. and was troubled,
I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. Thou holdest mine
eyes waking. I am so troubled that I cannot
speak. I have considered the days of
old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song
in the night. I commune with my own heart and
my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more?
Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promises fail evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his
tender mercies? I tell you what, if you've not
felt that, something's wrong. Believers, we, when we sin, we
are overwhelmed. And surely, we think that God
has left us. If you are in trouble, if you
are in doubt, if you have fear, listen to the comfort that your
God gives to you. I love you forever." Our feelings do not change the
love of God for us. If we have doubts, the remedy
for such doubts is to remember his love. Remember his mercies
that he changes not. He said, for I am the Lord, I
change not. He didn't say anything about
you. He didn't say anything about me. Again, our love is mutable. Our love is changeable. His love
is not. His love never changes. It's always the same. I like
this. God moves in mysterious ways
His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the
seas and rides upon the storm. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust Him for His grace behind of frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. Don't judge God's love based
on your love. Don't judge God on your feeble
sense. Judge God's love based on God's
word. And you'll find him faithful.
You'll find him faithful. Third, God's love is unmerited. God's love is unmerited love. The love of God is eternal, unchanging,
even because it is unmerited by his objects of love. Go to Isaiah, chapter 48. Isaiah,
chapter 48, verse 8. If you ever witness to someone
and they want to understand why it is that God chose you, give
them this. Here it is. Isaiah 48, verse
8. Yea, thou heardest not. Yea, thou knewest not. Yea, from
that time that thine ear was not opened, for I knew that thou
wouldest deal very treacherously. and was called a transgressor
from the womb. Here's why He loved me. For my
name's sake, I will defer mine anger. And for my praise, I will
refrain for thee that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined
thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction, Why, for mine own name's sake, for mine own
sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it? For how should
my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory
to another." You want to know why God loved you and not someone
else? He did it for Hisself, not because
of me, not because of you. His love is an unmerited love. If God loved you for any reason,
He doesn't love you at all. If God found a reason in you
to love you, He doesn't love you at all. He loves His people
without merit. Unmerited love. He did it for
His own namesake. Natural men despise such love
because the carnal mind believes He is worthy of love. Man, by nature, thinks that he
could demand God to love him. Not us. Not us who know who we
are. Because God knew we would deal
treacherously with Him. He knew that we would be dead
from the womb. He knew that we would be sinners
and haters of God. And yet, He loved us in spite
of us. He loved us. Even when we were
unlovable. There was nothing in us. The truth is, none of us deserve
the love of God. People see infants and babies
and they think, how precious. Do you realize they do not deserve
the love of God? What we all deserve is hell. Do you see why men hate the love
of Christ? It goes against their very nature. God's love is unmerited. God
knew what we were, what we would become, and yet He still loved
us. Undeserved, unmerited, unwanted
love. You know what? I didn't want
God to love me. I didn't want him to love me.
I love myself enough for both of us. So I thought, God still loves me. In spite of that arrogant,
foolish, wicked man that I am, he still said his love. And he said, I'll love you because
of my own namesake. His love is undeserved, unmerited,
unwanted, and only accepted in the day of His power. Only when
God regenerates the soul are we capable of accepting such
holy and righteous love as God's. May the Lord keep us from looking
for merit. If I would spend more time meditating on His great love
and less time looking to find merit in myself, I would be a
happier person. There is no merit here. And I'll save you the anticipation,
there's no merit in you either. The Lord may keep us from such
things. He loves us because of his own
namesake. Fourthly, God's love is manifested. Men say, I love you. I love you. I love you. That's pretty easy,
isn't it? Saying I love you is one thing. Revealing love. Exhibiting love. Actually loving is altogether
different. It's altogether different. God's love is just is not just
in word, but in deed. Indeed. The love of God was not
manifest to anyone in eternity, but himself, there was no one
to manifest it to. God was by himself. He loved
us with an eternal Love, an unchangeable love, an unmerited love, and
He loved us all when He was by Himself, yet none of us knew
it. And here we have God exhibiting
His love throughout history to the children of Israel, to that
one nation. You think about that. How many
nations did God pass by and kept only one nation for Himself?
And not even all of that nation was saved. Yet God continually manifesting
His love by giving Him His law, by giving them the prophets.
He sent His prophets to testify of His great love that was coming. He said, I'm going to show you
the greatest love. And He did when Jesus Christ
came into the world. He showed us the greatest gift
that anyone who loved could ever give. God gave His only. begotten
Son, for God so loved the world." God so loved the world that He
gave. God's love was not just word. It was in truth and deed. He gave His Son. That whosoever
believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. We
being sinners against God, at enmity against God, yet because
God so loved us, He sent His only begotten Son. And in love,
Jesus willingly condescended. We have no idea how far the Son
of God came down. The Scripture said, He who was
rich. How rich was he? He who was rich, for our sakes,
became poor. How poor did he become? In our text, he says, I am the
poor and needy man. Verse 22, For I am poor and needy. And my heart is wounded with
it. Jesus had the heart of a man. We know that He is deity, but
we also know He was humanity. When He was offended, when He
was hurt, He actually felt hurt. When Judas Istariot, who he knew
would betray him, yet it hurt to be rejected. He was wounded
in his heart. He felt pain. He was poor that through his
poverty we might be made rich. Rich in righteousness. Rich in
redemption, rich in regeneration, rich in love, in eternity, in
eternal life, rich beyond measure. Jesus gave up all he deserved
and took upon him the form of a servant. How far will you go for each
other? How much will you love those who love you? Well, how far will you go for
those who hate you? Do you see our love's not comparable,
is it? Our love's not comparable. Jesus took the place of His people,
and He was despised. You and I should have been despised.
He was despised in our place. He loved, but was hated in return. Jesus, by His obedience, was
a bright and shining light that exposed the sin of men, and they
hated Him for it. Only by the grace of God can
I have my sin exposed and be grateful. I'm grateful when God reveals
to me my sin. So that I might ask His mercy
and receive mercy. If we confess our sin, Do you know your sins? Do you
know all of them? When God reveals to us our sin
and lack of love for Him, praise God for His gracious love to
actually do something. He actually forgives our sins. He doesn't just talk about it.
He does it. Has your conscience been cleansed?
Have you had your conscience cleansed by the Holy Spirit when
confessing your sins and seeing the blood of the blessed Savior
flowing in your stead? And your conscience is washed!
And you feel free! You feel liberated! Who did that? God did. And he did it because
he loved you. He loved you. And by this great
love, Jesus was made a willing sacrifice for our sins. He who
knew no sin was made sin for us and bore the wrath of God
in our stead. The love of God was manifest
when Jesus Christ made his soul an offering for sin. sinners, behold the love of God. When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count
as loss and poor contempt on all my pride. I behold the love
of God. when I see Christ. God has manifested to me his
love. Has he manifested his love to
you? Have you seen Jesus Christ as the only reason for God's
love? He is. He is. Why will men continue to love
sin and hate such love? I don't know. Praise God He's opened my eyes
to see it. And lastly, the love of God is
a rebuking love. When you behold the greatness
of God's love, We cannot help but see the weakness of our own. Go to John chapter 21. You remember
Peter being so bold. He said, We'll die with you. I won't reject you. I'll die
with you." And he said, Peter, before the cock crows, you shall
deny me three times. And we know Peter's sin. We know his great fall. We know
that he denied the Lord, not only denied Him once, not only
denied Him twice, but in cursing, denied Him three times. And Peter, when the cock drew,
he went out and he wept bitterly. And now we find the Lord Jesus
returning from the dead, and he sees he's with his disciples. In verse 15, he said to Peter,
So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son
of Jonas. Lovest thou me more than these? May God give us grace to ask
ourselves this very question daily. May the Holy Spirit ask us this
question. Do you love me more than these. I confess that I love God only
because He loved me first. I confess that my love for Him
is so weak, it's not worthy to be called love. And I love Peter's answer, because
it was not in pride or boldness anymore. Yes, Lord, Thou knowest that I love you. Peter said, Lord, you know how
much I love you. I don't. I don't know how much I love
you. I can't give you a specific quantity. I know that I love Him. But I don't trust my love for
Him one bit. I trust His love for me. Yet, the Lord still asks us this
question, Lovest thou me? Do you love Him? Do you love Him more than this world? Do you love Him more than you
love yourself? May God give us grace to love Him. I can't love you unless I love
Him. Lovest thou me more than these? May we love God, and may His
love be the motive for all our service. What you do, your love for Christ and your
service of Christ is going to be the evidence of your faith. Faith is the root. Faith is the
ground of our salvation. But love is the blossom. May God give us such love. And may this love not be in word
only, but in deed, even as His was. May God bless this to our
hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.