Would you look with me again
this morning at John chapter 13, the Gospel of John chapter
13. Last Sunday we asked the question,
who does God love? Who does God love? And most who hear this question
will respond, why God loves everyone, of course. Everybody knows that.
But no, scriptures do not say that. but emphatically say that
there are some whom God hates and will eternally damn them.
But those He does love are eternally saved. Let me give you one clear
example of that. The Lord Jesus Christ was talking
to His disciples in John chapters 13 through 16. Judas Iscariot
was present. In verse 1 of John 13 it says, having loved his own, which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end." Having loved his own,
he said to his disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose
you. His own. Those whom he had chosen. Well, down in verse 18, the Lord
says, now Judas was still there, and the Lord said to all of them,
I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen. but
that the scripture may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me
hath lifted up his heel against me." Judas was the son of perdition
from the beginning. He was not loved by God or Christ. He was a man that was left to
himself to do what his evil heart made him do. And then after Judas
left, Judas left, verse 30 of the same chapter, He received
a sop, went immediately out. After that, when he was gone
out, verse 31, Christ said, Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. And he began to talk to his disciples,
those eleven, say, little children. And he talked to them about love.
He said a lot about love. He talked about God's love. His love for them. Their love
for Him. And hatred, He talked about.
In chapter 14, verse 21, the Lord says to them, He that hath
My commandments, and keepeth them, He it is that loveth Me,
and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will
love him. Did you hear that? He that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him. Verse 23,
he said, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him. Did you hear that? Chapter 15,
verses 18 and 19, the Lord said to these same disciples, and
Judas was not one of them. But he said to these same eleven
disciples, verses 18 and 19, if the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Have you ever bothered, those
who listen to this, have you ever bothered to compare that
with John 3.16? Has your preacher ever done so?
No, and he won't because he doesn't know the answer. John 15, I will
go on. In verse 23, the Lord said, He
that hateth me, hateth my Father also. Does God love those that
hate His Son? No, He plainly said not. He loves
those who love His Son. Chapter 16, verse 27, He says
to these same disciples, the Father Himself loveth you because
ye have loved Me. Did you hear that? And in Romans
8, Romans chapter 8, verses 35 through 39, it talks about Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Us. Who is the us?
Well, Paul writes in Romans to those who are called by God,
beloved of God, called to be saints, and so on. Well, he says in Romans 8, who
shall separate us, whoever these us are, from the love of Christ?
He goes on to ask the question, shall death separate us? Well,
people, listen. Death is going to separate the
sheep from the goats, isn't it? Death is going to separate those
whom God brings into his heaven from those he puts into hell,
isn't it? Well, then, who shall separate
us? And in verse 39 he says, "...from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." not only revealed by Christ,
but it's in Christ. All who are in Christ are loved
of God. God loves His chosen people who
are in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says that
of God are we in Christ who is made undead. God loves His own people, His
chosen people. Having loved His own, John 13
says, He loved them to the end. Now, those who say God loves
all without exception, those who say God loves every single
human being, that God loves Hitler as well as John the Baptist,
that God loves Osama bin Laden as well as the Apostle Peter,
what they are saying is God's love is useless. It's a failure. It has nothing
to do with anything. But it all has to do with the
man. What the man does with that love. What man, whether he accepts
it or not. Whether man acts upon it or not. That's not in the
Bible. God Almighty's love. God's love
is sovereign. He loves whom He will. Don't
you? God's love is sovereign. God's
love is eternal. Never faileth, 1 Corinthians
13 says, charity or love never faileth. True love never stops
loving. God's love is eternal. Having
loved his own, he loved them to the end. Jeremiah 31, 3 said
to his people, Israel, spiritual Israel, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee." God's love is saving love. Whoever He loves,
He saves them. He draws them. Whoever He loves,
He keeps them. And He keeps loving them. Whoever
He loves, He provides everything they need. Now, you can have
your God, those who listen to this, who take issue with this
and don't believe it and don't like it, well, you can have your
God, small g, who loves you and leaves you. You can have that
God. the God who wants to save you and can't, a God who is a
helpless bystander in the affairs of this world, a world he cannot
control. Now, that's a God, a small g,
a God who cannot save, a God who is not God at all. You can
have Him. He won't do you any good. But
I'll rest my eternal soul on the all-sovereign, true and living
God and His unchanging, eternal, saving love. My hope is that if God loves
me, He has ordered all things concerning me, and I am forever
in His love. Let me ask you another question
then. Who did Jesus Christ die for?
Who did Jesus Christ die for? If you want to see what God's
Word says, turn to John chapter 10. We're going to hear from
Jesus Christ Himself. We'll see what he says. Now,
if you are a Christian or a Christian, you believe what Christ says,
don't you? We're going to hear what he says himself about who
he died for. He's going to tell us. Now, the
first thing we need to understand when talking about the death
of Jesus Christ is, number one, why did he die? Why did he die? Number two, what did his death
accomplish? What did his death accomplish?
If he had to die, why and what did it accomplish? Number one,
why did he die? He died as a sin offering. Now
this is told, this is written throughout the Old Testament
scripture. There were lambs, bullocks, turtle doves and other
innocent animals killed as a sin offering for people, for human
beings. Innocent animals killed because
of the sins and transgressions of people. God said, and this
is all symbolic, these animals, God said the soul that sinned
must surely die. He said the wages of sin is death. What you earn and the consequences
is death. Well, Jesus Christ was sent by
God to be a sin offering, a substitute. He came to die for sins committed,
sins which he did not commit. He didn't die for his own sin,
but he came to die for someone else's sin. He came to pay the
price. The price of sin is death. The
wages earned is death. The price of sin is separation
from God or hell. That is what hell is, separation
from God. That is where sinners go. God who is holy in His holy hill,
holy heaven, separates himself, separates sinners from himself.
The payment of that, of sin, is hell, separation. Christ is
called the Redeemer of His people. The Redeemer. What does it mean
to redeem? Redeem means to pay for something,
to buy something, either with money or exchange something to
receive what you've redeemed, such as coupons. Have you ever
redeemed a coupon? Well, if you pay for something,
the law demands that you receive that, what you paid for. It would be breaking the law
if you did not receive what you redeemed. Well, did Jesus Christ
actually pay for the sins of his people or not? Did he redeem
them? Is he a redeemer or is he not? Hebrews 1 verse 3 says, Christ
by himself purged our sins. Whose sins? Whose the our there? You need to find out, don't you?
Whoever that our is, whoever he's talking about, their sins
are gone. which says by himself, purged our sin. It doesn't say
Christ Jesus and us or Jesus and our faith. In Hebrews 9 verse
12 it says he entered into the holy place having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Now who's the us? You better
find out. Whoever he did it for, he obtained a redemption for
them. He obtained it, that's what it
says, Hebrews 9.12, having obtained eternal redemption. Not a down
payment, not a partial payment, not if you will accept it payment.
The Bible doesn't say that anywhere. Throughout Old Testament scriptures,
folks, the sin offering was made. Now, by the way, an offering,
these offerings were made to God, not man. They weren't offering
these to men, but to God. Beginning in Genesis, throughout
the Old Testament, Especially in Exodus, there were sin offerings.
Blood atonement. Now, a high priest took the blood
to offer before the Lord for the sins of the people. What
people? The world? Did he offer those
atonements for the world? Never. Not once did he ever do
that. They were always for the children
of Israel. Always for God's people. Always
for those whose names were on His breastplate and upon His
shoulder. Well, Jesus Christ, Scripture
says, with his own precious blood, having died on Calvary's tree
as a substitute, with his own precious blood entered into heaven
itself to offer his blood for whom? John 10, Christ says, in
verse 11, I am the good shepherd, and a good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He said in verse 15, I lay down
my life for the sheep. And he said in verse 26 to some,
you believe not because you are not my sheep. All whom God chose, all whom
God loved, all whom God gave to Christ, all whom Jesus Christ
died for are saved, redeemed, their sins put away. The Holy
Spirit then in time goes out looking for these. They have
blood on them. They have blood applied to them.
He gives repentance, faith, gives them life. And that is the Bible
story of salvation. God's love is His power and glory. Christ's blood is His power and
glory. May God be pleased to reveal
this glory to you. If He does, He must love you
and Christ must have died for you. Till next Sunday, good day.