I'm reading this morning from
the Gospel of John chapter 13. John chapter 13. And this will
be the first part of a two-part message. The next part being
next Sunday morning, Lord willing. And I've entitled this message,
Who Does God Love? And next week will be, the Lord
willing, will be, For Whom Did Christ Die? John 13, I read verse
1. It says, Now before the feast
of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that
He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the
end. having loved his own which were
in the world. He loved them unto the end. Now back in 1950, a few years
before I was born, there was a traveling evangelist from Winston-Salem,
North Carolina who came into my hometown of Ashland, Kentucky
and held a tent meeting there in the middle of Central Park,
a large park in the middle of that town. And back then, everyone
in town went to those tent meetings. Every church member, every preacher
or pastor of that church, and nearly every citizen. It was
a large civic event whenever a tent meeting was held back
then. Now, that unknown preacher back
then, 1950s, That unknown then preacher stood up and loudly
and boldly proclaimed a message that no one had heard before,
a message that shocked that little Bible Belt community of religious
folk. The first words out of his mouth
were as a bombshell that dropped. He said, and I quote, the two
biggest lies that have ever been told are number one, God that
loves everyone, and number two, Jesus Christ died for everyone,
and ain't neither one of them so. Now back then, and my parents
who were there, they said you could hear the people's jaws
drop and hit the floor, just as I believe I heard some this
morning. Now those same lies that he said,
that God loves everyone and Jesus died for everyone, those same
lies are believed by the vast majority of professing Christians
today. In fact, the whole of modern
so-called Christian religion, no matter what denomination it
is, be it Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, whatever, they all
believe those two things, those two lies I call them, are the
foundation of all that they believe. Well, here is one preacher, this
is one preacher, that boldly states that God's Word does not
say, nor does it imply, that God loves all human beings without
exception. Nor does God's Word say, or even
imply, that Jesus Christ died for every human being. I just
read to you the Scripture that spoke of Christ saying, having
loved His own, He loved them to the end. His own. Who are
His own? Is it just talking about the
twelve disciples? Were those the only ones He loved
at that time? Well, go with me to John 17. It says, having loved His own. The Lord had more disciples than
just those Eleven, really. No doubt the Lord loved eleven
of those disciples. Twelve, including the Apostle
Paul later on. Those were His own. No doubt.
His own. Whom He chose. He told them that.
He said, You did not choose Me. I chose you. They were His own. They belonged to Him. Those were
the ones given to Him by the Father. They belonged to Him. His own. Well, listen to John
17 as our Lord prays to His Father. concerning his own whom he loved,
and love to the end. John 17.1, he spake these words
and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. And in verse 6 he says, he goes
on to say, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world. Out of the world. Thine they
were and thou gavest them me. And they have kept thy word.
Verse 9, he says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them." He is talking about
his own. Is that clear? Those thou hast
given me out of the world. He says they are thine. Mine
are thine. I pray for them. He says, I do
not pray for the world. Now, verse 12, he says, while
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those thou gavest me, I have
kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the Scripture might be fulfilled. Go on, verse 20, he says, "...neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word." Our Lord says, I pray for those in
the future, those future believers who shall believe on me through
the preaching, through the writing, through the word of God, through
the apostles. Verse 23, he goes on to say,
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them, who, his own, those given to him, as thou hast loved me. Verse 26, I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that thee love wherewith
thou hast loved me. may be in them, and I in them. So I ask you, whom does God love? All whom He chose. All whom He
gave to the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8, verse 39 concludes
this way. Romans 8, verse 39. It says,
remember all these things, it says, Who shall separate us from
the love of God? The love of Christ shall tribulation,
and on and on. Well, if God loves everyone,
death will separate those in hell. Well, read on in Romans
8 verse 39, it says, neither height nor depth nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ our Lord. The love of God which is in Christ
our Lord. The love of God is in Christ. It is upon all those in Christ. Those that believe Christ. Those
whom God gave to Christ. Those whom God chose. Whom the
Father loved before the world began. Those whom He gave to
Christ to save. Those whom Christ came to save
and save. Those whom Christ gave to the
Holy Spirit to come and give them repentance and faith, the
gift of eternal life. Those who are in Christ by faith. Those who were, those who are,
and those who ever shall be loved by God in Christ. All outside of Christ. who are
outside of Christ. All who were and all who now
and forever shall be outside of Christ are under the wrath
of God. Not the love of God. The wrath
of God. Well, I can hear the argument.
I've heard them all before. And 15 minutes on the radio is
not enough time to answer all the arguments. But let's consider
that verse which you're asking right now. John 3. John 3.16. Do you want to know the truth
of what Christ is saying in John 3.16? Do you? Christ said David
will do his will, will know the doctrine, whether it be of God
or not. John 3. The same Christ, now
listen carefully. Do you want to know the truth?
Are you listening? The same Christ who just said, I pray not for
the world. And he said of his own, those
who he was praying for, he said, they are not of the world. People, if God loves every single
human being, why does he not pray for them? God loves those
some he does not pray for. And the same Christ who had the
Apostle John write later on in 1 John 2 verse 15, listen to
this passage if you've ever heard it before. The same Christ who
had John write, and I quote, Love not the world, neither the
things of the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Well, that same Christ,
that same God, the same One, It was speaking to a Jewish teacher
named Nicodemus in John 3, an orthodox Jew, a strict orthodox
Jew, a teacher. Jews then, and perhaps now, were
the most bigoted and prejudiced people on earth. They believed
that God only chose Jews, no Gentiles. No Gentile. There were none of the rest of
the world, only Jews. God did not. A couple of times
the Lord made the Jews fighting mad when he said that God chose
a Gentile widow over all those Jewish widows to sustain her
life through Elijah. That God healed a Gentile leper,
Naaman. as opposed to all those Jewish
lepers back then. He made the Jews fighting men. And our Lord is saying to this
bigoted, prejudiced Jew, God so loved the world. Not just some Jews, but a people
out of, Revelation says, out of every kindred, tongue, and
people, and nation. Out of, not every single one,
but a people out of the world. kindred, tongue and people and
nation. And God plainly said throughout
the Psalms, Psalm 5, 5, Psalm 7, 11, 11, 7, 11, 5 and 7, He
hates all workers of iniquity. God said that. He doesn't say
He hates their iniquity and loves them. He says, He hatest all
workers of iniquity. In Malachi, and quoted again
in Romans 9, God plainly says He hated Esau. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Some ignorant fellows say that
means love less. God cannot love someone less
than another. That's ridiculous. The word is
sonne. is the Greek word. It means to
utterly detest and abhor. God cannot love one less than
another. God's love is perfect. He loves
all whom He loves. He loves them equally. And our
Lord went on to say to this bigoted Jew, Whosoever believeth in him,
that is, whoever God gives the gift of faith out of the world,
they will not perish. But whoever does not, in verse
36, He says the wrath of God abides upon them. Let me ask
you a question in closing. If God loves every single person
who ever lived, people like Manasseh, Pharaoh, Nero, Adolf Hitler,
Osama Bin Laden, and yet they're in hell today? If God loves everyone
that's in hell today, let me ask you something. What good
did the love of God do those people? What good does the love
of God do them now? What does the love of God have
to do with salvation if God throws them in hell anyway? Huh? No,
God loves His people. Christ loves His own to the end
and saves His people with an everlasting salvation. Now next
Sunday, Lord willing, we will deal with the question, for whom
did Christ die, taken from John chapter 10. Till next Sunday,
good day.