There's several things about
the love of God and we certainly are not going to be able to cover
all of them. But I want to read from John
chapter 3. This chapter, I think I've said
this before, as I've studied this chapter recently and thought
about it and looked at what other people have said in Today's religion,
I find it ironic that the best known scripture is the least
understood. It's the most distorted scripture
in all of the Bible, John 3, 16. 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. John chapter
3 has been turned by religion, by man's religion, into a recipe,
into a set of steps, into a decision, into prayers that we pray in
order to get God to do something for us. And then they turn that
in further, they turn it into a case of introspection where
we look within to see if God has done for us what we need
to have done. But those things are exactly
the opposite of what John chapter 3 is telling us. John chapter
3 is telling us that salvation is a necessity because of our
terrible condition and it's a work only God can do. Not something
we get God to do. We aren't thinking about it.
God has to do it. He has to tell us about what
He's done. And it's not a work that God points us to look within
ourselves. The very opposite is the case.
God teaches us in this chapter that the result of being born
again is that we look to Christ and Him crucified. That's the
fruit of God's work in us, is to see His work for us. It's
not our experience that we look at, it's Christ's experience. It's not our work, it's His work.
It's not our prayers, it's His prayers. It's nothing about us,
it's everything about Him. And the reason for the Lord Jesus
Christ so humbly, Nicodemus, in this chapter is to teach us
that we need to be humbled. We need to be brought to the
end of ourselves to see that God's salvation in Christ is
our only hope. And so seeing that we would admire
and adore the Lord for His grace towards us who are sinners. And
so that's the summary of John chapter 3 that we need to hold
as we read through these things, but I want to read from verse
14 through verse 16 here with you, where it says Jesus is talking
to Nicodemus. Nicodemus had begun the conversation
back in verse 2, and then later on he asked the question when
Jesus told him, you must be born again or you can't see the kingdom
of God, clearly indicating that Nicodemus had not seen it. Nicodemus
said, how can I be born again? Enter the second time into my
mother's womb and be born? No. No. Jesus told him, whatever
is born of flesh is flesh. Being born by your mother produces
nothing but flesh. But what's born of the Spirit
is Spirit. You have to be born of God. God the Spirit. And so
he said, after Jesus explained that to him and his necessity
for it, showed him clearly that he had not yet entered the kingdom
of God, then the Lord compared the new birth to the wind that
blows wherever it wants to blow. It can't be initiated by man. It can't be impeded by man. It
can't be stopped or controlled by man. It's God's work. And
so Nicodemus How can these things be? He's completely without understanding
in this area. That's where he needed to be
brought. I don't know what to do, and I don't have any power. Remember Jehoshaphat's prayer
when the enemies came against him? Lord, we have no power against
this enemy, and we don't know what to do, and our eyes are
upon Thee. That's the result of God's work
in us. to bring us outside of ourselves
to see Christ. And so in the verses that followed,
Nicodemus throwing his hands up saying, how can these things
be? Then the Lord directs him to himself who was in heaven
and came down from heaven and then ascended back to heaven
because as God, Jesus Christ is God the Son. And as God the
Son, he was appointed from eternity to be the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, a man, joined in one person, human nature, to
his divine nature. And in that human nature, he
came down from heaven and suffered in humiliation, in shame, suffered
himself and his body, and suffered at the hands of sinful men. And
then he ascended back up to heaven. So the one who was in heaven
descended first, and then he ascended on high. And that's
the one he speaks of here, the king in the kingdom of heaven.
And so he says in verse 14, he says, And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Of course, Nicodemus was familiar
with what he refers to here. The children of Israel in Numbers
chapter 21, let's turn there. Numbers chapter 21, the children
of Israel had complained against God, complained against Moses.
And so in saying this, Jesus actually puts Nicodemus with
them. Remember those people, it's as if Jesus is saying, remember
those people who complained against Moses? who complained against
God, who spoke against Moses and God, Nicodemus. Remember
what God did then in how he sent serpents, these fiery serpents,
to bite them? Many of them died. Remember that,
Nicodemus? Now, you need to realize that's
where you are. That's where you are. He says
in Numbers chapter 21, let's see, in verse 4. And they journeyed
from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land
of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Nicodemus trusted that he obeyed
Moses and was favored by God. But here, no, these people spoke
against God and Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
out? They said, wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness? Is that the purpose? They thought
only evil of God because only evil was in their heart. So they
projected on Him their own attitude. For there is no bread, they said,
neither is there any water. And our soul loatheth, hates
this light bread. There was bread. God gave them
manna from heaven. And so the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set
it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that every one that
is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made
a serpent of brass, and put it on a pole, and it came to pass
that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived." That's what Jesus tells Nicodemus in John
3, 14. Why would he tell him this? Nicodemus
had asked the question, how can these things be? How can what
things be? How can someone be born again?
How can he be born of the Spirit of God when the Spirit of God
blows as the wind blows where he will and gives life to whom
he will by his own power? How can we do this? And so Jesus
holds himself up. not just himself as God but himself
as man and as the man who came from heaven and was was nailed
to the cross would be he hadn't yet been but he would be and
so he teaches his own substitutionary death appointed by God given
by God and he brings this to Nicodemus' attention for this
very important and fundamental reason that when God gives birth
to us, it's always through looking to Christ. He holds up the Lord
Jesus Christ and what He did, and it is in looking to Him that
we are born again. It doesn't cause us to be born
again, but seeing Christ is the result of being born again. You
see the difference? This is God's work. It always
directs us to Christ and Him crucified. There is no new birth
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and His sin atoning death having
come from heaven and returned to heaven in power. And so, to
understand John chapter 3, we have to understand the preeminence,
the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ. The theme of scripture
is the Lamb of God. It's not what we do or what we
make happen. It's what God did, what he did
in Christ. And so, the Lord Jesus himself
points Nicodemus to himself as that. Now, those who were told
to look in the wilderness at this serpent on the cross, The
serpent on the pole, which was Christ. Remember, the serpents
were sent to bite the people. That was God's plague against
them for their sin. The plague came against the people
because of their sin. God commanded Moses to put a
serpent on the pole and everyone who would look on the pole would
live. But the serpent was the one cursed
in the garden, remember? And the serpent biting the people
was the plague God sent. So because of their sin, they
were under the curse. But the curse was seen now on
the pole because everyone who hangs on a tree, Galatians 3.13,
is cursed of God. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin. Because he was made sin, he was cursed of God. And God
tells sinners to look to Him. Yes, you're a sinner. Yes, you
have no reason in yourself to expect any favor or you deserve
nothing from God but condemnation and curse. But look to Christ.
Look unto me, Jesus said, and be ye saved all the ends of the
earth, for I am God and there is none else. They were told
to look to the serpent. We're told to look to Christ.
They were not told to put a tourniquet on their leg if they'd been bitten
there. We're not to try to cut off our sin, try to hold it back. They were not told to build a
wall to guard themselves against the serpents that couldn't keep
them from them. They weren't told to raise a
hand or make a decision or to repeat a prayer. None of those
things. It was to look. upon that serpent,
made sin, cursed of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
2 Corinthians 5.21, you know what it says. For He, God, hath
made Him, Christ, to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's what Christ
was made, sin. He hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Galatians 3.13
This is what the Lord did. The Lord of glory came from heaven. He who is equal with God, having
the glory of God, made himself of no reputation, and was in
humiliation and shame, in order that he might take the sins of
his people, bear them too, and answer for them in every way,
every precept fulfilled, every penalty suffered, And all the
promises of God are now ours because He's perfected us before
God. That's the message of John 3, 14 and 15. Not to cry, not
to shed tears, not to lay awake long moanings at night hoping
God will show me mercy. No. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. That's the message of the Gospel.
The Gospel is not God loves you. It's look to Christ. Look to
Christ. Now, in the middle of all this,
we see this verse in John 3.16, "...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." You see
the parallel. Looking is believing. The one
to whom we look is Christ and Him crucified. God so loved. This is the way God loved. He
put His Son on the cross. You see the serpent on the pole?
That was God's command. Who put him there? God commanded
Moses. The law cursed Christ because
sin was found on his son. Undoubtedly, Moses had to take
that metal and heat it up in the fire. He had to take a hammer
and beat it out into the shape of a serpent. And he had to fasten
it to the pole. This is exactly what the law
did to Christ. The wrath of God was poured out
upon him. God's curse came upon him. His hands and feet were pierced.
His side was pierced. The sword of God's justice was
plunged into him. And so we see him nailed to the
cross. God did this. Why did God do this? For God
so loved. That's why. God gave his son. This doesn't speak so much about
the quantity, but the quality of God's love. God loved in this
way. And so that is what I want to
consider today. The love of God. The love of
God. The first thing we see about
the love of God And we must know, we must start from here, I think,
because this is who God is, is that God is, first and foremost,
holy. God is holy. Holy, holy, holy. Remember, Todd preached a message
and he took us to Isaiah chapter 6. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. God hates, it says in Psalm 5.5,
God hates all workers of iniquity. The love of God is what we're
considering, and yet Psalm 5.5 says, God hates all workers of
iniquity. Let me take you to a couple of
verses in the Psalms. Turn to Psalm chapter 11. Psalm chapter 11. is to see how this is with God. How can God love those who are
unholy? Psalm chapter 11, he says in
verse 7, For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. The righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. And there's another verse I want
you to look at too. Look at Psalm 146. The Lord loves righteousness. He's righteous. How could He
not love righteousness? Psalm 146 and verse 8. He says, "...the Lord openeth
the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down."
And listen to this, "...the Lord loveth the righteous." And back in Psalm 5 verse 5,
I quoted it, but it says this, The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity." He hates workers
of iniquity. He loves the righteous. The righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. Look at Psalm 45 and verse 7. Speaking about the Lord Jesus
Christ, whose heart beats with God's heart, because He is God. As man, his heart beats with
God's heart because he is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. Psalm 45, verse 7. Just 45. Verse 7. Thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. This is quoted in Hebrews chapter
1 verse 9, the Lord Jesus Christ. You love righteousness, you hate
wickedness. So God hates all workers of iniquity,
He loves righteousness, and He loves the righteous. There's
no place, then, for us in the love of God. Is there? Can there
be? How can God, who is holy, love
those who are unholy? And yet, look at this in Romans,
chapter 5. Look at Romans, chapter 5. There's
a big question that this raises, not only in us as sinners, but
even from Scripture. How does God Himself reconcile
these things? Romans, chapter 5. He says, In
verse 8, God commendeth, that means He
made known, God commendeth His love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How do you reconcile
this? How can God be holy and His love
be holy because all that God does is holy? How can He hate
wickedness, hate all workers of iniquity, and love the righteous? How can we have any hope in Him?
And the answer is, of course, because very fundamentally it's
for this reason. that the love of God is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Remember how God has spoken of
His Son in Scripture? In Matthew 3, verse 17, when
Jesus was in the waters of baptism, a voice spoke from heaven. God
the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved son. And then
again in Matthew 17, verse 5, when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Peter, James, and John were there. And Peter had suggested, how
about if we make one tabernacle for you, one for Moses, one for
Elijah. And the voice from heaven spoke
again, this is my beloved son. Hear him. So it was all about
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was his beloved son. He is God's
beloved son. Now we know why God loves him.
He hates wickedness. He loves righteousness. He does
all things well. But God's love is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at Romans chapter 8 in verse
39. Verse 38 reads this way, very
familiar, "...I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord." There's only one place God's love is
found. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1 says the
same thing in verse 4. He tells us first in verse 3 that
God the Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. And then in verse 4 he says all
those blessings were according to His having chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world. He chose us to all those
blessings. How did He choose us? He chose
us before the foundation of the world that we should be not unrighteous
and wicked but holy and without blame before Him in love. And
how did He choose us to be holy and without blame? He says according
as He has chosen us in Him. in Christ. All of God's people
are made holy. And so when Jesus told Moses
that as the serpent-bitten people in Israel were to look on that
serpent on the pole, and then they would be healed, they would
live, God tells us to look at Christ crucified. And in so looking,
we see the way in which God can receive sinners. He has made them holy and without
blame in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how God can love us. And
His love has always been towards His people in Christ. He never
loved His people apart from Christ. He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. Then in verse 5 of Ephesians
1 He says, well, I'm sorry, at the end of verse 4 He says that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, not
in wrath. Not in terror, not in anxiety,
but in love. When we are made holy and without
blame in Christ, then God loves us in Christ. Because we're holy. He's attracted to us in Christ. The Lord Jesus is the basis of
God's love for us. It's the basis of God's holy
love for us. And how we can understand these
things, it's really beyond our comprehension. But God did it. He put us in His Son and gave
us to Him so that He didn't see us separate from Him. Take a
look at Ephesians chapter 3. Actually, look at Ephesians 1
a little bit further on before we go to chapter 3. Paul is praying
in verse 15 and 16. He says, "...wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you." He gives thanks
to God because they believe and because they love God's people. Because it's God's work that
did that. But then he says, this is his prayer. that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want
you to stop there for a moment to understand this. From eternity,
the Lord Jesus Christ was not a man until he came into this
world. He had not yet taken on a body
of human nature and flesh and blood like our body. But from
eternity, God chose that man, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be
joined to His Son, who is the everlasting Son of God, equal
with the Father, to be joined in nature with Him so that they
would be one. That man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
joined to His Son. Now, having chosen Him to that,
He set Him up as the head of His people. He made Him the covenant
head. In His decrees, in God's eternal
purpose, Jesus Christ, the man, always was with His Son, one
in nature. But He had not yet come into
the world. So when God, whenever you read in scripture, the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, understand that He's the God of Jesus Christ
as man. He's also God Jesus Christ is
also the Son of God, one with the Father and the Spirit as
God. But as man, He is the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And as God of Him, He's also
our God, because we're in Him. So He says here, that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, He speaks of
Him as the Father, because He's the Father, as God the Father,
God the Son, and that relation between God the Son and God the
Father is one of Father and Son, an eternal relationship. We can't
understand, we always want to think about it as something that
occurred at a moment or in time, but it was always that. As long
as God the Father has been God the Father, God the Son has been
God the Son. You can't have a son without
a father and you can't have a father without a son. So he says that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ Our eldest brother, the one who
stood for us from eternity, the Father of glory may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him." The knowledge of Christ. This is His prayer. This is the
Spirit of God recording in Scripture for us the will of God for His
people that God would give us a spirit, His spirit, of revelation
that we might know it and knowledge of Him, of Christ. Do you see
that? The first thing he prays for
here is that we might be given a revelation and knowledge of
Christ. Now, he prays for other things,
and I want you to go on in chapter 3 and read this with me, and
I've given you that point. He says in chapter 3, verse 8,
he says, "...unto me, whom less than the least of all saints
is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ." We're the Gentiles. God gave
us an apostle, dedicated an entire one of his
apostles just for the Gentiles. And he speaks to us in a way
that there's no mismatch between our natural disposition and outlook
as Gentiles and the message that he preached. It's a message of
salvation entirely by grace to us ignorant, self-willed, self-serving
Gentiles. And he says, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. I'm going to hold him up to you.
He says, "...and to make all men see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been
hidden God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent
that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."
Why did God determined to do this from eternity. And why did
he hide it? In order that right then, at
this time, after the death of Christ and His resurrection and
ascension to heaven, God would make known through the church
those people the Lord came to save. the manifold wisdom of
God and listen to verse 11 according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness
and access with confidence by the faith of him wherefore I
desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you which
is your glory for this cause I bow my knees unto the father
of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named the Lord Jesus Christ We're all His, and God is our
Father by Him, and that's the whole family in heaven and earth,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that
you might be filled with the fullness of God. What is the
effect, what is the result of seeing the love of Christ, of
knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge? What's the
effect in our lives? It's to be filled with the fullness
of God. Now, we can't comprehend the
fullness of God. What does this mean? It means
that when we understand the love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the length and breadth and height and depth, all those things he
just mentioned there, that there's something in the comprehension
of that where we're really comprehending all of God, the fullness of God.
Therefore, to know and understand the love of God is that one thing
that surpasses all the pleasures and comforts of this life and
surpasses everything in eternity, is to know the love of God in
Christ. And that's why it's so important
and so essential that we understand what Scripture says about this
love of God. So the first thing we see about
it is God's love is holy, which raises the natural question.
How then can God love us, who are sinners? And the answer is
God loves His people in Christ. And that's the only way God loves
His people, is in Christ. And so, we find ourselves in
scripture to be ungodly and without strength, even the enemies of
God. And in Christ, God loved us. And so, I think the next question
that we would answer is, does God love me? Isn't that really
the point here that the Lord brings us to? Does God love me? Does He love everybody? If He
loves everybody, then there's no question, is there? Because
we just assume that God loves us and we go on about our lives
doing whatever we want. God loves us after all. But there's
a problem with that. It's a complete lack of understanding
of the love of God. And that's why I want to look
at this with you. The love of God. You see, We, the first thing,
to answer this question very simply, does God love me? God
never starts, He never starts with a bumper sticker, God loves
you. He doesn't start that way. He
starts with the problem of your sin, like He did with Nicodemus.
Whom the Lord loveth, what does He do to those He loves? He rebukes
and chastens, doesn't He? Revelation 3.19, Whom the Lord
loveth, He rebukes and chastens. Hebrews 12.6 says the same thing. The Lord chastens every son whom
he receiveth. So the Lord starts that way with
us. And you see the love of God working in a man like Nicodemus
or in the publican in Luke chapter 18. Where the publican says what?
He says, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Look upon Christ
and receive from Him the satisfaction to your justice and the fulfillment
of your law that I could never give and receive me for his sake. That's where the love of God
brings us. You see, the love of God, the question, does God
love me? God doesn't answer it with yes
or no. He says, look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you sinful people. Look to Him. and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth." It's always to Christ. God's Spirit
directs us and His Word directs us. The only way we know the
love of God is His love to us in Christ. And so I want to show
you, we saw this in John 3.16, which undoubtedly you have memorized.
But look at 1 John. 1 John chapter 4. It says the same thing. And this is always where the
love of God is seen. He says, 1 John 4, in verse 9, "...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." That was the
design, the purpose for which He sent Him, that we might live
through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God. But that
He loved us, how? And sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's what the publican prayed,
God be propitious to me the sinner. And so God's love is known in
Christ crucified. That's what the word propitious
has to do with. Making satisfaction to God so that God receiving
full payment for our sins from Christ. All of our sins are put
behind His back. And Hezekiah prayed that. Remember Hezekiah, the king in
Israel? Look at Isaiah chapter 38. I
want to show you this. This is the love of God. And
then I'll give you some things about the love of God from Scripture,
just briefly. to think about the love of God,
to understand the love of God in Christ is to understand the
heart of God. Isaiah 38, it starts out in verse
9, and I'm not going to read all of it, but Hezekiah became
sick and he was going to die, and so he asked the prophet Isaiah
if he was going to die, and God told him that he was going to
die, and he moaned and he cried, and God added, I think, 15 years
or 10 years to his life. And so this prayer comes out
of that. But look at verse Verse 17, Hezekiah says this in his
prayer, This is what God's love does
for his people. Saves us from the pit that we
deserve. The pit of corruption. And he
says, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. What is the love of God? It is
holy. How can it be holy? Because it's
in Christ. And all of God's love is in Christ.
Because it's in Christ, it is saving. God's love is in Christ. Let me just give you a couple
of scriptures. Remember Ephesians chapter 5
verse 25? Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's love,
isn't it? Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. What does love do? It gives. How does it give? Money? Itself. Love gives itself. It's an instruction
to husbands how we're to love our wives. You don't just give
them money. Give yourself. All of your life,
everything that you have, nothing held back. Sacrificially give. That's what Christ did. He looked
for what He could do for His people. For the joy. Remember
Hebrews 12, 3? For the joy that was set before
Him. He endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. Christ
had joy in giving Himself, in offering Himself, laying down
His life, in suffering, in all of that. It cost Him. But it
was a joy because He looked beyond that. to what he would gain by
it, his people. So the love of God is in Christ,
it's holy, it's saving. I want you to look at another
scripture, look at Song of Solomon, which is just before Isaiah. Chapter 8. I want you to see
this about the love of God. There's many things we can say
about the love of God. And each of these verses really
brings out several aspects of it. But look at Song of Solomon,
Chapter 8. Verse 6 says this. This is a
prayer. It's a prayer of... I believe this is a prayer of
the bride to the bridegroom. And it's a prayer of the bride,
the Church of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, expressing His
heart that He has revealed to her, and which she now prays
to Him. It says in verse 6, Set me, set
me as a seal upon thine heart, and as a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death,
There's nothing that a man won't do for love. The strongest motivation
in the world that we know is love. A man will give his life,
and a woman will give her life for love. Look at the way a mother
gives her life for her children. Or the way that your wife gave
her life away to be married to you. She could have done something
else, but she decided to be with you her whole life. Growing up
and then becoming old and then finally her life is spent because
of you. She wanted to be with you. That's
love, isn't it? I think about that a lot. But
here he says, love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel
as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire, which hath a most vehement flame. But listen to this in
verse 7. Many waters cannot quench love. The flame of love is so hot,
it doesn't matter how much water you throw onto it. You can't
put it out. Neither can the floods drown
it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
if you give everything you had for love, it would be despised
and contempt, utterly contempt. It would be considered a hateful
thing. What? You cannot buy love. That's what God is teaching us
here. The love of Christ for His people. He has a seal on
His arm, has a seal on His heart. Because that seal is the signet. It's like the ring on the finger.
It is the emblem that reveals the depth of love that lies within. And His love for His people surpasses
knowledge, but that love cannot be quenched by any amount of
flood, and the flood is the flood of God's wrath. What it required
Christ to die for His people, to lay down His life for them.
No amount of cost was too high for Him to have them. That's
love. Christ loved the church and gave
Himself for it. And you can see here too, the
unmerited nature of God's love. It can't be earned. Our love
never precedes God's love, and that's why God's love is so compelling,
so endearing to us. What would move us more than
a love that comes to us when we're in all of the depravity
and our ruin and sin? Guilty. The weight of guilt so
heavy upon us, we think we would die because of it. And God's
love speaks to us and points us to Christ. And then when we
see Christ, we see there's the love of God. God gave His Son
and Christ gave Himself. And the Spirit of God gives Himself
to us in the love of God. So God's love is in Christ. God's
love is giving. God's love is without measure
because Christ gave Himself. God gave Himself. When He says,
I will be a God to you, I will be your father, you shall be
my sons and daughters. That's the nature of God's love.
He adopted His children, made them His own, at the price of
the blood of His own Son. God's love is from everlasting
to everlasting. Look at Psalm 90. I like these
words here. You remember what it says about
God? It says God is love. Remember that? God is love. What is love? Well, God himself
is the definition of it because God is love. This is the way
we know love, not because we've loved God, but because of how
he loved us in Christ. But look at Psalm 90, verse 2.
In verse 1 it says, "...Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting Thou art God." You see that? You can
see this. From everlasting to everlasting
Thou art God. How can we describe God? He's
from everlasting to everlasting. He has always been God. God is love. There was never
a beginning to God's love. It is who He is. God's love for
His people is as old as God is. And it is as enduring as God
is. The commencement of God's love
is everlasting from everlasting. The duration of it is to everlasting. Because God is love. In Jeremiah
31.3, we read that last week at the conference, where he says,
"...the Lord hath appeared of old to me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee." So his love is forever. And remember what
we just read in Romans 8, "...for I am persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate
us from God's love because it is everlasting love. It is an
everlasting love. Think about that. You didn't
contribute to God loving you. You didn't contribute to it.
He didn't look to see some potential in you. I will love them because
of this or because of that. Before the children were born,
it says in Romans 9-11, before they had done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, it was
said to Rebecca, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's God's sovereign
love, isn't it? Love that finds reason only in
God, only in His heart. Now, that kind of love, when
you look upon the Lord Jesus Christ as a sinner, and when
you realize you have nothing that you can bring, nothing,
no righteousness to bring, and you need everything, and you
find that God has already designed and provided it and accepted
it from Christ for you, And on what basis do you make that claim?
Because God Himself tells you to look to Christ. And so you
look and you say, I know there's no reason in me to have confidence
or assurance in God, but I see every reason in Christ. I can
come to God through the blood of Jesus, because He commanded
me to, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. To do anything less than that
is to harbor unbelief in the heart and to disobey the truth
that God has commanded in the gospel to us Gentiles. Look upon
me, he says, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. We find when we look to Christ
everything that we need because in Christ is all. The fullness
of the Godhead is in Him and we're complete in Him. And in
that look, in that look, That is the evidence of the Spirit
of God working in you. When you come to the end of yourself
and you say, I have no reason for comfort in myself. No, of
course you don't. That's the whole point. But look
to Christ and see there, God is satisfied, propitiated, reconciled. We're redeemed, remission for
all of our sins, cast behind His back. So let me give you
these things about the love of God. God's love is sovereign. If a man were to give all the
substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned,
utterly despised and loathed and hated, that you would attempt
to bring one thing for the love of God. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, take a
look at this, Deuteronomy chapter 7. This is the reason God gives
for His love for His people. And it's not a reason that satisfies
the curiosity of those who want to have, to be able to explain
everything and put it all in a nice little box. But this is
the reason God gives. He says in Deuteronomy 7, verse
7, The Lord did not set His love upon you or choose you because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. That's it. Why? Why did God love them? Because
the Lord loved you. Why did God love His own? Because
the Lord loved you. Love always finds its spring
from God's heart. If you take yourself back in
the eyes of faith through the scripture to the very beginning
of time, you come to that place where God spoke when there was
nothing and the world was created. And you find the foundation on
which everything was made is the Word of God. even further
back and you go back into the ages of eternity to find that
foundation upon which everything sprang in God's saving work for
his people. What do you find there? You find
this verse, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore,
you see, therefore connects the reason to the result, the consequence. Everything follows therefore
and everything preceding that is the foundation of everlasting
purpose because God loved his people in Christ. And when we
look upon the Lord Jesus Christ as sinners, needy sinners, and
we come to Him with every need we have, and we need everything,
in the filth of our sin, and the unbelief of our heart, and
the coldness of our heart, and we look again to Christ, that
is God's will for us to come and take and draw from Him everything,
because He's given it to us in Christ. That's the love of God. His love is from everlasting.
It's holy. It's sovereign. It's unmerited.
And God's love is distinguishing. It has to be distinguishing.
It has to be distinguishing. Think about it. If God's love
is like the flame in Song of Solomon 8-7 that can't be quenched,
how could God love those He loved from everlasting and will love
to everlasting and let one of them perish? How could that be? That is the complete misunderstanding
of the love of God. God's love is not something that
says, well I can only go this far and you have to make up the
rest. What kind of love is that? If
a father or a mother let their child play in the highway, what
kind of love would that be? And not save them from danger
when they had it within their power to do so. God's love is
a saving love. It's a love that cannot fail.
He says in Zephaniah 3.17, He says, the Lord thy God in the
midst of thee is not weak. He's not conditioned upon you.
He's mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with singing. He will rejoice over thee. That's
what God's love does. He's not going to be disappointed.
He's not going to be frustrated. He's not going to fail. His love
will have every object of His love. And the objects of His
love never change. And His love towards those that
He loves never changes. Have you ever wondered about
the love of God, the intensity of the love of God that's made
known to us before we were ever converted, before we ever believed
in the Lord Jesus? This is phenomenal. God's love
to us before our conversion, the manifestation of it exceeds
all demonstrations of it after our conversion. Isn't that amazing? And you might say, well then
God must love us when we're sinners. Absolutely. If He didn't, where
would we be? What are we ever going to bring
to Him? But doesn't the righteous Lord
love the righteous? Doesn't He hate all workers of
iniquity? Absolutely. But He gave us to Christ and
put us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Therefore, with
everlasting love, He drew us. You know that God loved us when
we were sinners, don't you? Even when we were dead in sins.
Look at Ephesians chapter 2. We don't think enough about the
love of God, do we? Because we think very much about
ourselves. And we're doubtful. Because we're
always looking at ourselves. We're always discouraged. But
if we know the love of God, don't you know that it will create
a cheerful confidence in every trial? I don't care what you
do to me. If I know that I have the love
of God, it doesn't matter what you do. Sure, I'll feel the pain. I'll know sorrow. But that will
sustain me in all of the troubles of my life. Look at this. Ephesians
chapter 2. Verse 1, And you, you who were dead in trespasses
and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation, our manner of life,
in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
listen to these words, for His great love, wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace you are saved. Amazing. Amazing love, isn't it? I stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He
could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. I wonder too, but I
find the answer to that wonder in Christ. And that's the only
place we'll find it. Look unto me. Look upon the Lord
Jesus Christ with God-given faith and see all of the reason, the
basis of all that God does, the delight of God's heart, the love
of God's heart in Him. And the Lord tells us to look,
and in looking He says, you live, you're alive. The one who looks
already has everlasting life. So the love of God is distinguishing. It has to be distinguishing.
He gave us this love. He says, He loved us before the
world began, according as He has chosen us in Him before the
foundation of the world. In 2 Timothy 1.9, He says, Who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
were given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. God's love is adopting. Remember
what 1 John 3 says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. His love is adopting. That's
what He says in Ephesians 1 too. He says, "...having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself."
The word adopt means to choose. He chose us to be His sons. Amazing
love, isn't it? That God the Father would choose
people and sinful people to be His sons from eternity. The whole
family of heaven and earth is named in Him. God our Father
by Jesus Christ. his love is adopting. Look at
John chapter 11. He chose us to be his sons before
the foundation of the world predestinated us to be his sons by Jesus Christ,
by his redeeming blood. In John chapter 11, he says this,
in verse 50, Caiaphas, the high priest, they were all wringing
their hands, what should we do with Jesus? And Caiaphas spoke
by the Spirit of God, even though he was a wicked man. He said,
no, you don't consider that it is expedient for us that one
man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish
not? And this he spake not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation. And not for that nation only.
but that also he should gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad." The children of God? But I thought
they weren't the children of God until they believed. No. They were the children of God
when God chose them to be His sons. In God's purpose, in God's
ordained will, in His decree, which is as good as being done,
they were already the children of God. He had already made them
His sons. And so He had to gather them who were scattered abroad.
The Gentiles and the Jews that were God's sons by adoption. His love is adopting. His love
is saving. I already read to you from Isaiah
38, 17, Hezekiah said, Thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption because you've cast all my sins
behind your back. And then in Zephaniah 3, 17,
remember what he said? He said, The Lord thy God in
the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. That's the love of God. He will
save. Don't you have confidence in
that? I remember as a little child, my dad was playing hide-and-seek
with us kids, and he put me up on this roof. I don't know how
I got up there. But it was time. The guy was calling, everyone,
come on out. I had a chance to go run and
tag up, and I'm up on the roof. My dad said, jump, I'll catch
you, jump, I'll catch you. I can't, I'm afraid. Jump, I'll catch you. Finally,
I fell off the roof, And he caught me. It was the greatest feeling
in all the world to be caught. He will save. Look at Romans chapter 5. He
will save. He will not fail. His love is
unquenchable. He will have everyone he loves. Jesus gave his life. Do you think
he would give his life and yet fail to have those for whom he
died? How could that be? What kind
of love is that? That's no more than human love.
But Romans chapter 5 says it this way. In Romans 5 verse 1,
therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. When we see that our standing
before God is entirely based on what Christ has done in His
obedience and in His death, Man, I have peace. Don't you? Don't
you have peace? Don't you know the comfort of
God when you realize that everything God requires of you has been
provided and given by Jesus and the Lord has accepted it from
Him? That's what peace is. He says,
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We only stand by God's
grace, not only, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing
that tribulation worketh patience, And patience, experience, and
experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame. Listen, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given to us. What does the Holy Spirit do?
Not only gives us life, but He sheds abroad in our hearts the
love of God. But how does He do that? How
did he do it with Nicodemus? He lifted up Christ and him crucified. Notice what he says in verse
6. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. That's someone who keeps the
law as best he can. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. Someone who also gives money
to support the temple and keeps the law too. I mean, you look
at him, he's a good man. Someone might even dare die for
him. But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, made right before God by His blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through Him. God's love is not going to fail.
He's going to save. Listen. For if when we were enemies
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled we shall be saved by His life. There's no
failure in God's love. And to underscore this, let me
go back to Romans 8 and read this for you one more time. Romans
8, verse 29. For whom he did foreknow. Foreknow,
that means he loved before. He also did predestinate. to
be conformed to the image of his son, that he, Christ, might
be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." There's no disconnection. The chain of God's purpose and
the fulfillment of it is unbroken. What shall we then say to these
things? This is what we say, if God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? That's the unfailing nature of
God's love, isn't it? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? I dare anyone. It is God that
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. If Christ is at God's right hand, God has accepted everyone
for whom Christ died. And he makes intercession to
make sure that his will, which he died to put into force, is
carried out and fulfilled to all those it was made with. Verse
35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. Expect these troubles. God ordained
that for his sake we would be killed all the day long. We are
counted as sheep for the slaughter. But, notice this, nay, in all
these things, even our own death, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." God's love never
changes. God is not a man that he should
repent, neither the son of man that he should change. He doesn't change. Thank God
for his love in Christ. Let's pray.