Turn with me to Matthew chapter
22. We're continuing there in the scripture. Matthew chapter
22, and we're going to begin at verse 34. This is a very short text of
scripture in Matthew 22, and it follows immediately when the
Sadducees had interrogated Jesus about the resurrection, Remember,
that was the second attack. This is the third attack. The
first attack were when the Herodians and the Pharisees came to Jesus
and asked Him a question about paying taxes. And the second
was when the Sadducees tried to deny the resurrection, and
Jesus reproved them. And this third one is about the
lawyer, or the scribes, who asked Jesus about the greatest commandment. These three attacks come right
after Jesus had given three parables in Matthew 21 and the beginning
of Matthew 22. They're all connected. But in
each of the attacks, in each of the parables, we see both
the severity of God in His judgment against unbelief, and then in
these parables, I mean in these accounts where the Pharisees
and Herodians and Sadducees and then finally the lawyer or the
scribe did this to Jesus, We see not only his silencing them
in their unbelief and their pride, but we see a deep message of
the gospel to his people. The wisdom of Christ in these
things is astounding. It's really astounding. And it's
not just astounding in his wisdom, but it's astounding in the fact
that his wisdom is scriptural-based. It's as if he himself had written
the scriptures. Isn't that interesting? He is
the Word of God. So when we read these things, always remember
that what God has written is both, as Paul said, it's a saver
of life to life, to them that the Lord is saving, and it's
a saver of death. to those who are in unbelief
in the stubbornness of their self-righteous pride. All of
us are naturally stubborn in our pride and our self-righteousness.
I can tell you that I know that from experience most intimately
in my own experience. Nothing more better describes
my own attitude towards God than a trust and confidence in my
own self, even though there was no basis for that. It was complete
misplaced confidence. It's called self-conceit. And
it's disgusting. It's the one thing that Christ
denounces more than anything else in Scripture is hypocrisy,
self-righteousness, and pride. But in His words, the Lord directs
us always to Himself, and that's the greatest comfort. So let's
begin here in Matthew 22, verse 34. It says, But when the Pharisees
had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were
gathered together. Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, saying, Master,
which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is likened to
it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets. That's all that Matthew has to
say about it, but back over in Luke, if you want to turn to
Luke, It's the same kind of thing, and I think it's the same event,
only that it's presented in a different way by Luke. In Luke chapter
10, verse 25, it says, "...behold, a certain lawyer stood up and
tempted him, saying, Master..." His question was different. He
didn't put it like in Matthew, where it says, what is the greatest
commandment? He said, He said to him, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, what is
written in the law? How readest thou? He returned
his question with a question. It's a very good, it's a good
policy. If you want to come with an accusation
against me, let me ask you a question. You're a lawyer. I'll ask you
a question. I don't think that's allowed
in courts today for the person on the stand to ask a question
to the lawyer, is it? But Jesus did it here. What do
you read in the law? How do you read it? Eternal life? And the lawyer said, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. They had these things
written and these things called what were they called, phylacteries. I think they were little things
that they would write, things that they needed to memorize
and they would recite them from their youth so that they were
just right on the tip of their tongue. So he thinks, the way
I read the law is, the way that you have eternal life is, thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy
neighbor as thyself. And Jesus said to him, thou hast
answered right. This do, and thou shalt live.
Thou, you've answered correctly. The way to eternal life, you've
come to me and you've asked this question, the way to eternal
life, how do I have it? And he said, what do you think?
He said, I think the way to have eternal life is to love God with
all my heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love my
neighbor as myself. And Jesus said, you have answered
correctly. If you do this, he says, do this,
and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself,
this is beyond what was spoken of in Matthew, said to Jesus,
and who is my neighbor? Isn't it interesting that he
didn't say anything about loving God? He immediately jumped back
to his neighbor. I think that being a lawyer,
he thought he would work up from the easier to the more difficult. If he could prove Jesus to be
wrong on the neighbor thing, then he could maybe weasel his
way out of loving God with all of his heart, soul, and mind
and strength. Because the Jews thought that other Jews were
their neighbors. Those who had the same religion
and had the same God, were born in the same nation, were of the
same people." Those are my neighbors. It's the brother I have who's
next door to me. But Jesus' answer and interpretation
of Scripture is different. Because this lawyer, willing
to justify himself, said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? And Jesus,
answering, said, here he's giving an example of what a neighbor
is. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell
among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded
him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there
came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. and likewise a Levite, when he
was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the
other side." Now the priests and the Levites, you know who
they were. The Levites were born to Levi, I think the second son
of Jacob, and he was the one through whom Aaron came and all
of Aaron's sons, they were the ones who were the priests. But
not only were Aaron's sons priests, but other Levites were able to
do the service in the tabernacle. So these really represent all
those under the law that were given to the people to bring
them to God. He passed by on the other side,
the Levite did. But a certain Samaritan A Samaritan. Interesting. The Jews hated the
Samaritans. They were like the racial, the
ones who, they had a big, big problem with the Samaritans.
They knew they were ungodly. They were racially different
than them. So they hated them. But the Samaritan As he journeyed,
came where he was, the man who had been taken by thieves and
beaten and stripped of his clothes and left wounded. And when he,
the Samaritan, saw him, he had compassion on him. And he went
to him and bound his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and
set him on his own beast. and brought him to an inn and
took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed,
he took out two pence and gave them to the host, the man who
was the innkeeper. The Samaritan took his own money
and gave it to the innkeeper in order to pay for the man who
was hurt. In fact, he told him, he said,
take care of him and whatever you spend more when I come I
will repay thee when I come back again which now Jesus asked the
lawyer he says now which now of these thinkest thou was neighbor
to him that fell among thieves notice he the way he phrased
it was who was a neighbor to him now that was a very good way of ensnaring the lawyer
in his own trap, wasn't it? He didn't ask him who was the
neighbor, he said who was a neighbor to him. And the lawyer responded. I mean, what's he going to say?
He's got to answer this question. He said, "...he that showed mercy
on him." In other words, the Samaritan was a neighbor to the
man who went from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves,
was stripped of his clothes and beaten and left half-dead, and
took care of him and paid the money and all these things that
he did. And then Jesus said to the lawyer, "...go and do thou
likewise." Now all these things, they teach us many things. First
of all, Jesus answered this lawyer out of the law that he trusted.
The man wanted to know how to have eternal life, and Jesus
answered him, what do you read? He said, well, love God with
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor
as yourself. And Jesus said, do that, and you will live. That's
what God has written. Do it, and you'll live. And in
a lot of ways, that served only to silence the lawyer, because
he couldn't have done that. He hadn't done that. And even
we, when we look at that, we think, well, if that's what is
necessary to have eternal life, then I can't have eternal life,
isn't it? Isn't that what we would say?
Or, if we take the account in Matthew where he said, what is
the greatest commandment? We know that these two commandments
are the greatest commandments. So if we fail to do the greatest
commandment, then what have we done? Haven't we failed in the
greatest thing, the most important thing? In James, chapter 2, verse
10, he says this, he says, for whosoever shall keep the
whole law, the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he's
guilty of all. So even if you just, the smallest
infraction of the law makes you guilty of the whole law. But
here, the very greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God
with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. And how
can we do that? Who among us can claim to have
done that? And even if we say, well, inside,
on the inside, I've done that. Okay, well then let's take the
second one. What about this man who was a neighbor, the Samaritan?
Who can say they've done what this man has done? The Samaritan
was, he came to this man who left from Jerusalem to Jericho,
and the Levite and the priest passed by on the other side.
One of them looked at him and just passed by. What a cold-hearted
thing to do. Just because he was beaten and
a stranger to him. He said, he's not my neighbor,
he's a stranger. And God's commandment to love
my neighbor can't include strangers. But Jesus is making the point
that it doesn't only include strangers, but it includes strangers
who have fallen into the outward beating and stripping
and leaving half-dead represents what sin does to us. And so he's
saying it goes far beyond just being a neighbor to a stranger.
It goes to the point where we love those who have offended
us and offended God. And that's what this man had
done in the second example. So the first point here is that
Jesus used the law to show this man that he had not kept one
of God's commandments one time. And which of us can say that
we have ever kept this commandment to love the Lord our God with
all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our strength, all
of our soul, everything that we are. Who can say we've ever,
one time, done that? And say it before God? No one
can. What does that mean? It means
we've broken the law all of our lives, all the time. We're nothing
but sinners. That's what it means. We're nothing
but sinners. And so God's Word is true, isn't it? There's none
righteous. No, not one. Sin is what we are. Sin is what
we do all the time. Even the best of God's saints
cannot claim anything more than that they in themselves, in themselves,
they're sinners all the time. Now, it's because God has revealed
this In his word here, ironically, it is our very failure to keep
God's most important commandment. It's that failure that God uses
as the backdrop for His own love to His people. And that's how
the Gospel bursts forth on the scene from these two scriptures. Have you ever thought about that
commandment? Isn't it strange that God would have to command
us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind,
and strength? There's nothing about God that is unlovely. There's
nothing that's not good about Him. It's like when someone treats
us with kindness all the time, no matter what we're like, and
we're mean toward that person. There's nothing we can say except
that it all is our fault, right? And so, whenever we think about
how God has only been good to us, and He in Himself is only
good, then we can only blame ourselves if we fail to love
Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind,
all of our strength. Who He is and what He has done
should draw forth from us all of our love for Him. And yet
it doesn't, which proves that we're sinners. But again, I say,
ironically, it's our very failure to love the Lord, our God, with
all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that He becomes
this dark backdrop on which we know
the very love of God. It's against the bright light
of God's love that we see the blackness of our love. Now, I
want to point out that what I've entitled this message herein
is love. Look at some scriptures with
me. Look at 1 John chapter 4. I want to read this from verse 7. 1 John chapter
4, verse 7. Let us love one another, for
love is of God. And every one that loveth is
born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love." That's very logical and very clear,
isn't it? If God is love, and we don't
love, then we don't know God. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God. but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In the Law, God
commands us to love Him. But in the Gospel, God holds
forth His love to us and tells us, this is love. He sent His
only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him,
and He gave Him, and sent Him, and gave Him to be the propitiation
for our sins. A propitiation. What's that?
It's a big word, isn't it? It's even difficult to say. Propitiation. A propitiation means that a satisfaction
has been made to God's justice by sacrifice. So that God's wrath
is actually taken away. His wrath should be against us,
but because He's punished our sins in His Son and received
satisfaction for that, therefore His love is towards us. And His
wrath is removed from us. And so we see that that is the
love of God. His love toward us is seen. So
I want you to consider the love of God towards His people. Herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Look at 2 Thessalonians. In 2
Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 5, it says this. And the Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. What is this? This is a prayer. This is an exhortation and it's
a prayer. It's a prayer that the Lord would
do something. And what is that? Direct your
hearts into the love of God. Well certainly, if the Lord directs
our hearts into the love of God and we say, we ought to love
God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, that would
be directing us into the love for God, our love for God. But
in 1 John 4 19 it says we love Him because He first loved us.
So in order for our hearts to be directed into the love of
God, first we have to know God's love to us. That's the only way.
So I want to consider with you the love of God towards His people. And let me take you to another
place in Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. The Apostle
Paul, as you know, was a blasphemer. He was a persecutor. He injured
the people of God. And he took them into prison.
He hated Christ. He hated God's people. But Ephesians
chapter 3 shows that the Lord chose him to be His messenger
in order to make known the gospel of His grace. And so we read
in Ephesians chapter 3, Verse 7, he says, Whereof I was made
a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to
me by the effectual working of his power. Effectual just means
God's power accomplished in me what he intended. Verse 8, Unto
me who am less than the least of all saints. On the bottom,
if you were to compare All of God's people I would be the least. Unto me who am the least of all
saints, less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Christ's riches cannot be comprehended
by measurement. They're unsearchable. And he
says, "...and to make all men see what is the fellowship of
the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in
God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Remember that
word, fellowship? It means that God has provided in Christ for
us. And we are given His Spirit in
order to take what He's provided for us as our own. And rejoice
in it, and worship God for it, and come to Him in it. That's
fellowship. Jesus said in John 6, verse 56,
He says, "...he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
dwelleth in me, and I in him." Isn't that fellowship? We, by
faith, see what Christ has done. We come to God by it. We rejoice
in the fact that God receives us for what He did and finds
in His Son. And God says, and that's all my provision for you.
And He loves His Son. He sees us in His Son. There's
an immediate agreement between our hearts and the truth of the
Gospel and of Christ. That's fellowship. Verse 10,
this is why the Lord, this is the mystery, He says, this is
the mystery, this is why God has done this. This is why He's
taken the one who is the less than the least of all saints,
and made Him, and deposited in Him, and made Him the messenger
of this gospel. He says, "...to the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." When all things
in heaven and earth created that are not God's people look upon
what God has done for His people in Christ, they're amazed. The wisdom of God, the grace
of God, His holiness and His love towards them. And they stand
in awe at who God is and His glory. His perfections are known
in that. Verse 11. And this is all, His
intent to do this in the church, was all according to the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. The eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. God didn't
decide to do this after men sinned. He did it from eternity. Whatever
God does is from everlasting to everlasting. Verse 12. In
whom? In Christ. We have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him. What is this saying? It's saying that when we understand
that God looks upon Christ for us and finds in Him all He requires
of us because He provided all for us in Him. And He receives
all that He did and all that He is as ours in Him. We have boldness, don't we? Who could deny that God loves
and is well pleased with His Son? And it's amazing. We're amazed by it. We have confidence.
And we come to God with thankfulness in our heart. It doesn't depend
on me. It depends upon what He found
and finds in His Son. And so we have this access into
the throne of grace. And we come to God. And then
in verse 13, "...wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulation
for you, which is to your glory." That God would give to the Apostle
Paul this ministry to bring the gospel of the grace of Christ
to us, even through the sufferings of Paul, is the glory of God's
people. That God would so love us. That
this man, Paul, would so love the Church, and that Christ would
so love His people, that He would give His servant like this, to
such sufferings. And He says, for this cause,
For what God has done, I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ." Now he's about to enter in here to a prayer. He says, "...the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ..." Of whom? Of whom the Father. "...the whole
family in heaven and earth is named." Don't think of yourself
as an island of knowledge and connection with God. No. It's
all in Christ. It's not you. Don't think of
yourself as making a name for yourself in the kingdom of God.
That's the exact antithesis of the truth of the grace of God.
It's God, our Father. Not God, my Father, although
that's true, but mostly God, our Father, because He saved
me, like Peter said. We've got to be saved just like
them, those Gentiles, of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named. This is the prayer. Now this
is a prayer spoken by Paul, written here by Paul, but inspired by
the very Spirit of God. Which means this is God's will. And this is the intercessor's
prayer for his people, the church. So listen to this prayer. What
is this prayer? What does God want for his people?
That He would grant you, God the Father, that He would grant
you according to the riches of His glory. He just stacks up
these things on top of each other. The riches of His glory. Who
can fathom that? To be strengthened with might
by His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. We don't feel Jesus in our heart,
do we? You can't put your finger on
Him. You don't, you can't tell that, oh, see, I know that, see,
I had this, I spoke something and suddenly I knew God was with
me. That's no indication, which is what the writer of that book
I mentioned earlier said. He talked to me, therefore I
know he's there. That's not it. No, he says that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. In other words, we
look by faith, God-given faith, upon the Lord Jesus Christ, declared
to us in the Gospel, and we find all, all, all, all in Him. And so we, so, and we know that
He said in His Word, I will be in them, and they will be My
people. And all the promises God has
said. So we know that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us when we
look to Christ crucified as everything for us. As I mentioned earlier,
John 6, 56 brings that out. He says that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith. When you look to Christ as your
only hope, Christ dwells in your heart. Your looking is evidence
of that, isn't it? When the Israelites looked on
the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, that was God's doing
that gave them that grace to look. When Jesus answered Nicodemus
and said, when he asked, how can these things be? Jesus said,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, as the law
cursed Christ, whoever looks to and believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ, he has the Spirit of God. And so he says here, That
you being rooted and grounded in love. Not our love to God. That's the result of this. That's
the fruit of it. But no, He wants us to be grounded
and rooted as our foundation. The very spring of everything
that we think and do in the love of God. He says here in verse
18, this is God's prayer, the intercessor's prayer according
to the will of God through the mouth of Paul. He says, "...that
you may be able to comprehend with all saints..." Isn't that
amazing? That you would be able to comprehend
what passes knowledge. It's a contradiction, isn't it?
We think of it as that, but no. Who are we asking here? We're asking the Father of Glory. According to the riches of His
glory, give to us to comprehend what is incomprehensible. The
love of Christ. The breadth and length and depth
and height. And He says, that you might be
filled with all the fullness of God. When you comprehend the
love of Christ, you're filled with the fullness of God. Now
unto him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him
be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through all ages, world
without end. What is the breadth and length
and height and depth of the love of Christ? What is that? What is the love of God towards
His people? There's many things. When I think
of these things, the length and breadth and depth and height,
what do you think of? You think of a dimensional thing,
don't you? How many dimensions are given here? Four. And it's
very difficult for us to comprehend things in four dimensions, but
I won't get into that. But I want to turn to the Scriptures
to look at a place where this is used. Look at Job chapter
9. Because Job, in the book of Job,
not these same words, but very similar ones are used. It helps
us understand this. Job chapter 9, and then we're
going to consider the love of God that he describes here, that
we might know the breadth and length and depth and height of
it. Job 9 verse 7, I'm sorry, Job 11 verse 7. Job 11 verse 7, he says, Canst
thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? In other words, He's unsearchable.
He's beyond our ability to measure and comprehend. Verse 8. It is as high as heaven. As high
as heaven. There's the word height, isn't
it? What canst thou do? It's deeper
than hell. There's the depth, isn't it?
What canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth. How long is the earth? Well,
it either means the duration of the earth, or it means the
circumference of the earth, and it's broader than the sea. When
you look at the horizon out on the ocean, you just look out,
it just goes and stretches out. You can't see the end of it, east
to west. And so, you can see here something
there about what he means In Ephesians, from these words,
it's higher than the heavens. It's deeper than hell. It's longer than the earth. And it's broader than the seas. There's four there, aren't there?
What do you think of when you think of these things? What is
higher than the heaven? There's nothing higher than the
heaven. So the love of God is higher than the heaven. and is
deeper than hell. I think it's easier to understand
if we understand it in our own understanding of the gospel.
How far did the love of God have to go in order to save his people? Didn't it have to go deeper than
hell? Didn't the Lord Jesus Christ
himself have to stoop, take our nature, made in the likeness
of sinful men, bear our sins as his own sins, and pay the
penalty for those sins as if they were his own as our surety
to God." That was deep, wasn't it? There's nothing worse, nothing
farther from the truth and the holiness and the righteousness
and the purity of God than sin. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
had to come from heaven and be made sin for His people in order
to save them from their sins. It's deeper than hell. He saved
us from the wrath of God. It's deeper than hell. Look at
Romans chapter 5. This is the love of God towards
us. Deeper than hell. Look at Romans 5. He says in
verse 6, "...for when we were yet without strength..." That
means no spiritual strength, no power to do one thing that
God requires of us. No power to take away our sins
and no power to bring obedience to God for righteousness. When
we were in that condition, far off from God, He says, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly. I've underlined that word there
in that verse. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die.
When the Jews would think of people, they categorized them
according to John Gill in three ways. There were the righteous,
those who were really strict. They did all that they were required
to do, but they didn't go any further. Scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
that's someone who does not only what they're required, but they're
benevolent to the poor, they actually go beyond. For a good
man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, the profligate,
the rebellious, the proud, Christ died for us. That's deeper than
hell, isn't it? Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath. That's the hell.
Saved from wrath through Him, because He bore it. Verse 10.
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." And he begins these verses here from 6 through
10, he begins it with this, he says, Hope doesn't leave us ashamed
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. So, the height, the depth, the
length, the breadth of the love of God, it starts with this.
Christ came from heaven, He bore our sins as His own, saved us
from the wrath of God, saved us from hell, And then he lifted
us up as God's own sons and his own bride to eternal glory and
eternal life. From hell to heaven. The depth
and the height of the love of God. But then he also says that
you might know the length and the breadth of it. When you think about the length,
it might be the length in terms of measure, or it might be the
duration of it. And what is the duration of God's
love? Isn't it from everlasting? Jeremiah 31.3 we repeat it all
the time. He says, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. That means a love that predated
earth and all the worlds and all of creation. It came before.
God's love never had a beginning as long as God has been God.
He has loved his people in Christ. It's everlasting. And it's too
everlasting. God's love doesn't change. James
chapter 1, it says, in the Father of Lights, in whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. And in Hebrews chapter 13, verse
8, Jesus is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever.
He's the one who never changes. His love is... He is love. It's in His nature. And the objects
of His love were loved by Him from everlasting and to everlasting.
It never fails. John 13, verse 1. He says, "...having
loved His own, He loved them to the end." So, that has to
do with the length of God's love. And it also has to do with the
breadth of God's love. The Lord Jesus has loved His
people, always loved His people, and loved all of His people in
all ages, in all places, in all kindreds, in nations, in tribe,
and tongue. the breadth of the love of God. It goes to all of
his elect, all of his people throughout time and for eternity. It reaches to hell, it brings
us to heaven. From God's exalted perfections
to man's wretched and helpless condition, the almighty power
of God in Christ has loved us from everlasting to everlasting,
every kindred, tongue, people and nation, from the depths of
our guilt and shame and condemnation to the height of eternal glory,
taken those who were the enemies of God and made them his sons,
those who were the wasted harlot and bought them and made them
his wife. This is the love of God to his
people. Reconciled us on the death of his own son. Dead in
sins, made alive by His own Spirit. The love of God towards His people.
It's amazing, isn't it? So when did it start? It started
in eternity. How long does it end? How long
does it last? It goes on for eternity. It never
ends. How strong is the love of God?
Look at Song of Solomon, chapter 8. How strong is the love of
God? You think, well, it's strong,
but if I've sinned against God, then I've really messed it up.
And His love toward me, it's been, it was nice to think God
loved me, but my sin has separated me from God. Isn't that the way
we think? We might not say that, but we
think it, don't we? Song of Solomon, chapter 8, he
says this, Many, verse 7, many waters cannot quench love, neither
can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance
of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. It would
be disgusting for anyone to give in order to have love. That's
what God is saying. God's love is free. Hosea 14.4
says, I will love them freely. In Deuteronomy 7, verses 7 and
8, God says, I love them because I love them. The reason for God's
love is His sovereign will. I have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. Before the children were born,
before either of them had done any good or evil, God says, I've
loved Jacob and I've hated Esau. He loves his people. I didn't
quote that exactly right in Deuteronomy. I'm going to read it to you there.
Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 7, he says this, Now this is
all This is all spoken of here of
the nation of Israel, which shows that God's love is special and
particular. He loves His people. He doesn't
love everybody in a saving way. He does have a tender provision
for all mankind. In Matthew 5, He says that God
sends His rain upon the just and the unjust. And then He exhorts
us, He says, therefore you should love your enemies. So if we're
going to be like our Father, we also need to love our enemies.
But His love for all men is not a love that is a saving love.
It's not an eternal love. It's a love of the Creator towards
His creatures. And men have turned their backs
on His love. But God's love for His people
is special and it's particular. It means that He did love them
out of all the rest of the world. And His love is an overcoming
love. In the book of Hosea, in chapter
11, verse 8, He says, How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? God's
heart was turned in His wrath towards His people because of
His love, which turned His wrath in the sacrifice of His Son.
He found a way for His love to be just and also justify the
ungodly in His Son. And so that's why he says in
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, he says, He's chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world. The duration of His love
is everlasting. His love is special. His love
is strong. It overcomes sin and death and
every barrier. There's no barrier to the love
of God. There's nothing that can separate us from the love
of God. Isn't that what Paul said? He
says nothing can separate us from the love of God because
it's in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's no measure, really, to
measure God's love. It's unequaled. There's no way
to compare the love of Christ for His people to any other love
in the world, although it's done in several places. It just doesn't,
it falls so far short, doesn't it? It's unmatched, it's unimaginable,
and it's incomprehensible, the love of God towards His people.
Unchangeable, unchanging, it's the foundation of all of our
love to Him. eternal love. And so we see this
in this answer of Jesus, love God with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Why? Because God
is love, and He's loved His people, and when we see God's love to
us in Christ, We might think, well, you know, God loves His
people after they're saved more than He loves them before they're
saved. Have you ever thought things
like that? Maybe you've even heard things like that. People have
written about it. God loves His people after their conversion
more than He does before their conversion. But is that true? Does God love His people more
after their conversion than before their conversion? What if we
were to... Create a list of those things,
the instances and the display of God's love before their conversion
and put it alongside those things that God has loved His people
after their conversion. What would we see? Well, we would
see that God from eternity chose them. That was before their conversion,
wasn't it? And we see that He made an everlasting
covenant with them. An everlasting covenant started
in eternity. And that covenant was ratified
in the blood of His own Son, the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. So we see, before they were converted,
He both loved and chose and made a covenant with them in Christ.
And then He gave them every blessing. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, in the heavenlies, before we were ever converted.
And not only that, but He gave His Son for us when we were enemies. He gave His own Son to be the
propitiation. So we see the list on this side
growing longer and longer. And then even when we were dead
in sins for His great love wherewith He loved us, He gave us life
by His Spirit. That's there on this side. And
then on the other side, after our conversion, what do we find?
The greatest demonstration of His love. Well, He continues
to love us. He won't leave us. He's given
us His Word. He takes us to eternal glory. But we have to say, if
God Himself made Himself God to us and made us His people,
if He gave His Son for us and gave Himself to us in His own
Spirit, and And all these things, even before our conversion, can't
we say that God loved His people more by His evidences before
their conversion than after? We have to conclude, yes, God's
love is eternal. It doesn't have an end or a beginning. It doesn't increase. It doesn't
decrease. And so, that's amazing to us, doesn't it? Doesn't it
move our hearts to confidence? To come to Him in Christ? It's amazing to consider the
love of God for His people. Without beginning, without end,
special objects, distinguished out of all the rest of humanity,
given in Christ, blessed in Him with all blessings, Christ Himself
given to us. And then we think, well, yeah,
but if you teach that God loved His people when they were sinners,
then it's only going to make people want to sin all the time
because they know God loves them. They're just going to do what
they want. Is that the way God's love? Is that the influence of
God's love on our heart? Is that what it does in Scripture?
Remember when Jonathan saw David kill Goliath? Remember when Jonathan,
who was the son's king, saw all the people lauding David for
having destroyed their enemy. What did Jonathan do? His heart
was knit to the heart of David in love. He wanted David to have
all the glory. He saw that God had anointed
him to be king and save those people. And he loved him as his
own soul. That's what love does. It cements. It binds. It puts
an unbreakable bond between, in this case, Jonathan and David. God's love doesn't separate us
from Him. It draws us and brings us to
Him. Remember when Peter had denied
the Lord Jesus Christ three times? What happened in Luke 22, 61?
It says, Jesus turned and He looked at Peter. What was it,
a look of condemnation? I told you so. No, of course
not. All he had to do was look at him. And Peter looked at Jesus. And what did Peter do? He went
out and he wept bitterly. Why? Because he knew the love
of Christ to him. What causes you the greatest
shame before those that you love? Isn't it their disapproval? But
isn't it more their love to you? To know they love you in spite
of who you are and what you've done, and yet you've done it?
Doesn't that cause you the greatest mourning over your sin? And then
later, Jesus asked Peter, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me?
He said yes, three times. And what did Jesus tell him every
time? If you love me, remember the first commandment, what is
it? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength. If you love me, Peter, feed my sheep. I don't want something for myself.
Take care of my sheep. Why? Because I gave my life for
them. I love the church and gave himself
for it. From eternity to eternity he
gives and gives and gives himself to his people. Peter, you want
to love me? Love my, feed my sheep. Give
them what I've given you from me to them. That's what the love
of God does toward us. Remember what Jesus said about
the woman in Luke chapter 7 when she had nothing to pay? A huge
debt. She came and she wept behind
Jesus. She poured out her tears on his feet, wiped them with
her hair, poured out that ointment on his feet, wasted it because
of her love for him. And Jesus said, He that has been
forgiven much loves much. That's what God's love does to
us, doesn't it? It makes us love Him. Makes us love Him. It doesn't
make us want to sin. It makes us not want to sin.
It makes us confident that if He loves us, we can take on any
thing He has given us to do with confidence that whether we see
the success of it or not, whether we see the dominion of sin in
our lives or see our dominion over it or not, we look to His
Word and we know that He cannot fail. His love for us cannot
fail. Direct your hearts, the Lord
direct your hearts into the love of God. Let's pray. Lord we pray,
that in this very failure on our part to do the greatest and
most important command of all, we would see on the black backdrop
of our own sin, your great love to us, that it is because of
our failure that your love is shown to us, that everlasting
love, and that all that is done in time and for eternity will
be a commentary on how you loved us in Christ from the foundation
of the world. from before the foundation of
the world. Lord, we thank you for this love. Thank you that
it's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved the church. It was your will that he give
himself for the sheep. It was your will that they be
kept by him. You put them into his hands from
whom no one can take them, and then you put them into your own
hands. Lord, what love is this that endures to everlasting,
that saves us from sin, and even our own foolishness and wickedness? We look to you, Lord, and we
ask that you would cause us in our heart to so love you from
all that we are because of your love to us, and help us, Lord,
to love one another. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.