That's so good. Well, Pastor
David Edmondson, pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville,
Kentucky, is going to bring our last message. David, everybody's
told me they don't want to go home, so you preach as long as
you want. You preach the message God's
laid on your heart. I'm looking forward to it. David's
talked to me about his subject this morning. I'm so anxious
to hear what the Lord's given you as you come preach to us. Thank you. Thank you for trusting
me with your pulpit. Thank you for having me. Thank
you for all your labor of love in this meeting. Thank you, Frank
and Janet, for opening your home to me and making me feel welcome
and loved. I'm so glad your daughters came
up. So glad you get to know them.
It's just been wonderful. Bruce, thank you. Thank you for
that message. It's a little heaven on earth,
isn't it? It really is. My subject this morning is love. That's a big, big four-letter
word. Sadly, most folks don't know
much about love. What is love? I remember, just like it was
yesterday, the first time my wife told me she loved me. I
liked it. I loved it. But I loved it infinitely more
when she told me this morning that she loved me. Even though
it was in a text message. You know why? Because she still
loves me. She still loves me. Thirty-two years next month and
she still loves me. Thirty-two years of living with
me. Seeing my shortcomings, my failures,
vanity, love of myself. She still loves me. Yeah, that's a little big word,
isn't it? I don't suppose it really much
matters what I think love is, what you think love is. It really
doesn't matter much how Webster defines love. When it comes right
down to it, all that really matters is what God declares love to
be. And we live in a world, and you
know this is so, I know it's so, we live in a world where
everybody claims to love God. It's about everybody. Everybody claims to love Jesus,
and they claim that God loves them. God loves everybody. Does
He? The older I get, the more I realize
that sadly, I don't know much about love. Not as God defines
it. Not as God clarifies it. Not
as God illustrates it. And the reason is, It's the same
as it is with you, that my thoughts concerning love are just too
tainted, too tarnished, blackened and blotted, corrupted and contaminated,
spoiled and soiled by sin. My sin, our sin, both by our
inheritance from Adam and by our own practice, produces only
selfishness and love of self. You know, the Apostle Paul, I
was thinking about this morning, in his second letter to the young
preacher Timothy, by divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warned that
in these last days, he said, perilous times, dangerous, treacherous
times would come. Do you remember the first thing
that was that Paul mentioned as a sign of these perilous times. We'll read in 2 Timothy, sometimes
you'll have to turn there with me, but chapter 3, verse 2, he
said, For men shall be lovers of their own selves. First thing. That's so alarming and sobering
to me. Why? Well, because sadly, when
I do an inventory of my own love, When I look at it closely, it
just seems like all of it, if not all of it, seems to have
self written all over it. Men be lovers of selves. Their own selves. Do you find
that to be true when you inventory your love? All the other things that Paul
mentions there in that particular text are really a result of being
a lover of your own self. He says, they'll be covetous.
That's being a lover of your own self. Boasters, proud, blasphemous,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, men and women without
natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers. The list goes
on and on. Fierce like animals of prey seeking
to kill and destroy. Lovers of oneself. Traitors,
high-minded. Lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. Having a form of godliness. An external, pretentious show
of religion, but denying the power thereof. That causes me
great concern. In and of myself, I don't want
to simply have a form of godliness. Do you? I don't want to simply
be a pompous and a pretentious lover of self, denying God's
love and grace, which ought to cause and create only humility
and love in me. For that reason, I so desire
to know what love is, as God sees it, knows and claims it
to be. And I know that I can only, can't
even scratch the surface of this deep and glorious subject of
godly love. That's what I'm interested in,
godly love. But for a few minutes, I want
us to consider a couple of verses in 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter
4. Let me, while you're turning
there, first remind you of who this is that's writing here.
It's the beloved John. He's the writer of the Gospel
that bears his name. The writer of these three epistles.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. And I thought about this. John was a humble man. Made so
by God's grace, no doubt. With great humility, have you
ever noticed that John does not even mention his name in his
own Gospel account? Nowhere can I find in the Gospel
of John where he ever mentions his own name. He didn't refer
to himself by name, but only as the disciple whom Jesus loved. referred to himself that way
because he felt that the Lord loved him more than he did Peter
and James and the rest of the disciples. I am convinced that
John referred to himself that way because he just couldn't
get over the fact that the Lord loved him. This is the disciple whom Jesus
loved. In all three of the letters he
wrote, He omits his name as though he would have no one
to be swayed because of his credentials as one of the Lord's disciples.
He didn't say John, an apostle, a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not in any of his three letters. John knew something
about humility, and John knew something about love. It's in John's Gospel that the
words love and loved are mentioned over twice as often as the other
three Gospel accounts combined. It's here in his first epistle
that the word love is recorded over four times more than any
other epistle. He speaks more of love than any
other apostle. He refers to himself And his
Gospel narrative also is the disciple found leaning upon the
Lord's chest. I thought about that. It seems
like he was always desiring to be close to his Savior's heart.
He knew something about love. This is the beloved John that
heard first hand from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ that
God so loved the world. all His people in the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. This is the disciple who heard
with his own ears the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in John
15. He said, This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you. He heard those words. Greater
love hath no man than this. than a man lay his life down
for his friends. Now, if we're to learn something
concerning love, true love, the love of God, that's what I'm
talking about. I believe John's our man, don't
you? So here in 1 John 4, verse 10,
let's begin reading. I want us to take a simple approach
this morning and just consider the words of this passage simply
as they read. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. First notice that John tells
us what love is not. That's important. Herein is love
not. See that? Love, true love. The love of
God. The love that is so crucial for
us to learn something about. Not that we love God. Often in describing someone who
is considered to be a believer, people say things like, Boy,
he or she is somebody that really loves the Lord. John says love
is not that we love God. It's not that we love God. Our
love for God is not God's standard for love. I can assure you of
that. John says herein is love not that we love God. He tells
us right off the bat what love is not. that we may truly see
the love of God in its fullness. What we have here, and brother,
this is the title. I'm not good at giving titles,
but if I gave a title to this message, it would be Love to
the Loveless. Not that we love God. There are multitudes of professing
Christians who claim to be the children of God who believe that
they first loved God, and then God loved them in return. And
that is a great error. It's a great error. Oh, it sounds
good, doesn't it? It sounds good. Oh, I love the
Lord. And He loved me in return. Great, great error. greatest
error that a man or a woman can make. The cause of redemption
is not, I repeat, not that men and women first love God. That's
the first thing John tells us. Here in His love, not that we
love God. There's never been a man or a
woman who could love God before God loved them. It's impossible. Impossible. We can't love God first. For
God's love for His people was bestowed upon them before they
were ever born. Isn't that right? Isn't that
what the Scriptures teach? People who believe that they
first loved God will make their loving God the cause of their
salvation. They sure will. God's love for His elect and
chosen people began before the foundation of the world, before
the world was ever made. We love that blessed truth, don't
we? And again, in the Gospel according
to John, in that glorious seventeenth chapter, you know it well, our
Lord speaking to His Heavenly Father said, For thou lovedest
Me before the foundation of the world. Now listen, God loves
sinners only in one place. One place only. In His Son. In His Son. If God loves you,
if God loves me, if God ever loves anybody, it's going to
be in Christ. The Lord Jesus said, for thou
lovest Me before the foundation of the world. It was then and
there that He chose and elected a people whom He also loved,
for He loved them in Christ. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians
1, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. here in His love. Not that we
love God. But that He loved us, and He
loved us in Christ before the world was ever made. Look at
verse 19. We love Him because He first
loved us. What be the cause? Because He
loved us. We love Him Because He first
loved us. What an amazing truth. And it's
the foundation of our salvation. Not that we love God. No, no,
no. Perish the thought. God's love
is to those who did not love Him. What better passage confirms
that than the one we find in Romans chapter 5, that God commended
His love toward us. When? While we were yet sinners. Unloving. Christ died for us. The Gospel
declares the Lord fixed His sovereign eye of electing love upon sinners
in whom there was no thought of loving Him. And in that, dear child of God,
God gets all the glory. Men think they love God first.
I guarantee you they'll take the glory for it. And what blessed simplicity As
I sat there and listened to brew, my heart just, oh my! I just kept thinking, how simple! What simplicity in this gospel
of ours, in this wondrous truth of God's love for us. Not that
we love God, but His love for us. Who can debate or argue that
salvation is of the Lord. By which of His laws have I not
broken? How cold my dead, dead heart. But regardless of that, here
in His love, not that I loved God, not that you loved God,
but that He loved us. That's the first thing we see. God's love for us is unsought
love. It's unsought love. How much
did God love us? So much that He sent His Son. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. How amazing is it that this love
should come from such a one as God is? And even more amazing is the
fact that His love was unsought by us. Here in His love, not
that we loved God, but that God loved us and what? Look at it. Sent His Son. We never sent to
Him. He sent us. And immediately my
mind runs to Luke 19 verse 10 which says, For the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now, listen
carefully to what I'm about to say. I say it deliberately. If my salvation, if my redemption,
if my reconciliation to a thrice holy God was left up to me, I've never had salvation, redemption,
and reconciliation with God. Never. I've never loved God had He not
first loved me. And the child of God says amen
to that. That's so. We know that's so,
don't we? I would have never sought Him
had He not first sought me. God sent His Son. Love caused
it. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that God loved us and He sent His Son. If there is ever to be any reconciling
between God and sinful man, man ought to have sought God. Man
should have sought God. And how simple and plain it's
wrote out to us in Romans 3.11. It says, there is none that understandeth. There is none that what? Seeketh
after God. None. Well, I sought the Lord. No,
you didn't. No, you didn't. Because there's
none that seeketh. The weaker should first seek
the greater for help. But that wasn't the case. Because
herein is love that God sent. And He not only sent, but He
sent His Son. He sent His Son. For God sent
His Son, not into the world to condemn the world, John 3.17,
but that the world through Him might be saved. Paul wrote in
Galatians 4, that when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to do what? To
redeem them. To redeem them that are under
the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Look up
at verse 9 here. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. And to go a
step further, oh my, we can't stop there. Verse 10 tells us
that God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. What a glorious
word that is. Do you know what that means?
Propitiation. It simply means atonement. It
means an appeasement. He appeased God in my place. It means to reconcile. It means
to reconcile. God's divine justice demands
death. The wages of sin is death. That's
what God's justice demands. And it demanded death because
of our sin. But it's been satisfied, appeased,
fulfilled because of the repitiation of
His Son. It was a sacrifice of Himself
as the atonement, the payment for our sins. Don't make this
harder than it is. Wherewith mercy is given, And
it still remains true to God's justice. Just and justifier. I love that
term, don't you? God remains just and He's able
to justify the ungodly. Only one way. The same way He
loves us in His Son. Now I pray that some who have
never sought Him might be sought and found of God right now. Right now. Herein is love. Self-denying
love. Amazing love. Unfailing love. Words dispel me. I know no words
by which to set forth the excellence of His love. I just fell miserably
at it. It's love divine. It's love beyond
degree. God sent His Son to be a propitiation
for our sins. It was necessary that His only
begotten Son should suffer in the flesh and that He should
be delivered into the hands of sinners, cruelly ill-treated. spit upon, as we've discussed
and heard preached this weekend, nailed to a tree and put to death. And with that said, who among
us would give up his son or daughter? Love? Oh my, what love! I've often thought about mothers
and fathers that have lost a son or even a daughter in war. I just can't imagine how horrible
and heart-wrenching that must be. There have been many that
have given up sons and daughters for our freedom, but that did
not make it any easier for the mom, dad, wife, or children of
those who lost a loved one. But if you're able, if God would
allow us just for a moment Imagine giving up your beloved child
to die for an enemy. One who hated you without a cause. That's love. That's love. Herein is love. That's God's love. That's what
God's love does. That's what God's love did. Sent His Son to die for one that
hated Him. Hated Him. For God so loved that
He gave. He gave His only begotten Son. We use that word love pretty
flippantly, don't we? When we consider it in this life. Sure do. But God doesn't. No,
sir, love infinitely means something to Him. He sacrificed His own
darling Son for those that not only did not love Him, but hated
Him. Herein is love. Let me briefly endeavor to show
you the greatness of God's love in closing. Again, paint a picture,
if I'm able, of this reality for you, if I can. Painting a picture, as I said
the other day, is like the unlearned schoolboy endeavoring to paint
a Rembrandt on a chalkboard with a piece of chalk. It just can't
be done very well. Can you see him there on the
day of his crucifixion? He who is the Lord of glory,
he's beaten beyond recognition. The Scripture said his visage
so marred more than any other man that he doesn't even resemble
a man. Doesn't even look like a man.
I've seen pictures of those and accidents and you think, oh my,
the face is all swollen. You can't see their features. His visage was marred more than
any other man. Beaten beyond recognition by
rough, rough soldiers. They spit in his face. They pluck
out his beard. They call him king and they mock
him and mimic bowing before him as royalty. They blindfold him
and then rear back and hit him with all they can. And they say,
you're a prophet. Tell us who hit you. That's just
cruel. He's scourged. And this scourging
is no child's play. You know, years ago, you know,
they talked about being tamed. Well, did they beat you with
a bamboo stick or something? No, that's child's play compared
to this. Because the whip that they beat
him with had chips of bone in it. From what I read and from
historians in that time, tied in and it ripped and tore the
flesh Made him unrecognizable. I can't paint this picture like
it ought to be painted. But they didn't stop there. He's
made to carry his cross on his own shoulders through the streets
of Jerusalem as those who eagerly watched with anticipation, scoffed,
ridiculed, and laughed. That's cruelty. He's brought
to a hill called Calvary outside the city gates and he's thrown
on his back and railroad spikes are driven into his hands and
his feet. And as Brother Don mentioned
yesterday, they dig a big hole and they've got him nailed to the cross and they
drop it in that hole with such force that the impact was designed. It was designed to dislocate
his bones. There the Son of God hangs between
two notorious criminals that we talked about Friday night.
Why in the middle? It's to say He's the worst of
the three. Right there in the middle. Suffers devastating fever. The irritation of the nerves
of his hands and his feet and his mouth is dried up like an
oven. And then the real suffering starts. Then, yes, because his soul is
tortured such as no man has ever felt. All, all of God's For all the sins of all the elect
throughout all time is poured out on Him like a hurricane. Well, what do you have to say
about that? Herein is love. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and He sent His Son to be a payment for our sins. Let me give you one last thing.
It's in the form of a question. What is the effect of divine
love? What's the effect of God's love
for His people? Look at verse 11 of 1 John 4. If God so loved us, we ought
to love one another. We ought to love one another.
This is the effect of divine love. We ought to love one another.
God loved us when no good was found in us. And you know what? We ought to love one another
just the same way. But so-and-so is not very lovable. Neither are you. Neither am I. They're hard to love. So are
you. So are you. That's the love of God in Christ. That's love. That's true love.
Loving the unlovable. Isn't that what He did? Look
back at verses 7 and 8. Let us love one another, for
love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Now listen to me well. I speak to you, the believer,
there is nothing, nothing you can do to make God love you more. But herein is love. There is
nothing you can do to make God love you less. Did you hear what I said? Love
it if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. And I pray
that God enable me to love Him and to love those that He loves just a little like He does. It's just a little. Herein is
love. The love of God in Christ. What
love. Amazing love. I see that love here between
one another. One thing that I notice so much,
I'll just say this. Throw this in for nothing. Your pastor and his wife love
you. It's easy to see. Easy to see. I thank you again for the opportunity
to come, Pastor. I read in this book, God loves
sinners. What an amazing truth. I read
that in this book. But one day, by His grace, God
revealed to my heart that God loves His sinner. If we would think the ocean filled,
nor the sky a parchment made, to write the love of God above,
to rain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky, Well, I can weep that our weekend's
over. It's been such a blessed, blessed
weekend. I thank the Lord for his provision
of this weekend, for his blessing, his word, honoring his word,
sending it forth in power. Thank the Lord. And I thank you
men who came to preach to us. Don and Bruce and David, I thank
you so much. We're honored. that you'd be
here. It's very obvious the Lord has
gifted these men to preach, and he gave them the message for
us for this weekend. I'm very thankful. I pray the
Lord bless you in a special way. All of our musicians that made
the worship service so pleasant, and our ladies who worked so
hard. You men, too, worked so hard to take care of the building. You ladies, you worked so hard
providing the food to make things so pleasant. We have time of
fellowship. I thank you for your giving to
support this, to put on it. I thank you. What a blessing. Before we sing a closing hymn,
let's bow in prayer and give thanks. Our Father, we're so thankful
that in your infinite goodness and grace that you've seen fit
to provide us this weekend of worship. We are thankful that
you sent your servants to us with a message for your glory
and for the hearts of your people here. Father, we pray for a heart
that would receive your word and believe it. Enable us to
meditate and feed upon these messages, the messages of our
glorious Lord and Savior. Cause them to strengthen us,
to strengthen our faith, to strengthen our love for thee and our love
for one another. Lord, you've blessed us beyond
measure. You've given us a small taste
of glory, and we're thankful. And Lord, I pray that you bless
these men that you've sent our way as they return back home.
I pray that you continue to bless them in preaching. When they
get home Wednesday night and they preach, Father, bless them
then the same way you've blessed them this weekend. Coming days
and weeks and years, continue to bless them in those places
for your great namesake and for the good of your people there.
Father, for those who couldn't be with us, they're sick and
hurting, those who are bereaved and heartbroken, we pray for
them. We pray that you'd bless their heart, that you'd heal
and give comfort and wisdom and direction according to your mercy,
your wisdom and your goodness and your grace to us. Father,
again, we thank you for all things and how especially we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. What a Savior. What a Savior
who would come to suffer and die to be a propitiation for
sinners such as we are. Father, we're thankful. It's
in his matchless name we give thanks and we ask these things.