Go back to John chapter 4. I'm
going to start there. I'm going to end up in Romans
5.5. I titled the message, The Love
of God Shed Abroad in the Heart. That's how you and I come to
love God. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad
the love of God in our hearts. It's His work. It's His work. The Scriptures teach us, as I
read to you here in John chapter 4, that
God is love. It says in verse 8 of 1 John
chapter 4, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.
And then over in verse 16, and we have known and believed the
love that God has to us. God is love. It's not that God
just loves. He is love. He's the embodiment
of love. It is His nature. You know, we can look at people,
people we know, and we would not say, that person is That
person is maybe kind or nice or this or that, but God, it says here, is love. He's the very embodiment of love,
and I do not believe that there's anything probably concerning
God that's more misunderstood and more abused than the love
of God. And the reason for that is that
men judge the love of God by human standards, by the way we
love. God said over in Psalms, you
thought I was altogether like yourselves. You think I'm like
you, up, down. Don't judge God by human standards. God's on a much higher, higher
level than that. Human love is full of sin. And so often, what it is, is
not love, it's lust. But human love is so full of
sin, it's fickle. We fall in love, and we fall
out of love. I can wear out your love. I assure
you, I could wear it out. I could get you to the point
where you'd just be sick of seeing me. I mean, you may like me now,
you love me now, but I can wear you out. I've got a nature that
Frank talked about this morning that could just really get on
your worst side. Human love is so fickle. But
God's love is holy. It is pure. It is unchanging. It never changes. It's never hot or cold. It's
always holy, fervent love. It's always like that. It's divine love. It's on a completely
different level than you and I can understand. The love of God passes. It passes
all human understanding. But don't try to logically understand God's love. Read it, believe it, and rejoice
in it if you're experiencing it. Rejoice and grow in it. Scripture teaches us, tells us
to grow in love. God does not grow in love. We
are to grow in love because we are not perfect in this life. Frank brought such a good message.
We still have such a sinful nature about us. We need to grow in
grace. We need to grow in love. But
God doesn't grow in love. If he did, he wouldn't be perfect.
But you and I need to grow in love and grace and kindness and
gentleness. And you know how to grow in these
things? The same way you grow in everything else you do. You
exercise it. If you're going to grow muscle,
you better exercise it. If you're going to grow in knowledge,
intelligence, you've got to go to school and exercise it. If
you don't exercise it, you can't grow in it. You're not going
to grow in it. If you want to grow in love and grace, exercise
it. That's how they grow. Now God's love, God is love,
and he shows love. He's going to show love because
that's who he is. He's going to do it. But now listen, his
love is a sovereign love. It is a sovereign love. God loves
whom he loves. In Romans 9, turn over to Romans
9. This upsets unbelievers, but
this does not upset those who believe, because they stand in
awe of it. That God would love me? My soul! That God would love me? He says in Romans 9, 13, as it
is written back in the Old Testament, Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Brother, I'm telling you, we
ought to stand in awe that God loves any of us. There's a whole multitude of
angels that God created that's faithful, and He provided no
Savior for them. They're goners. They're goners. And God does not love them. Listen
to Psalm 55. All workers of iniquity. He says
he hates them. He hates the workers of iniquity. But God loves. There's a multitude
of sinners that no man can number whom the Lord loves. I thank
God. I thank God that I'm in that
number. You believe the gospel? You're
in that number. You are in that number. And the love that he
has to his people. Now, we're swimming in deep water.
We've got your life jackets on because this is deep water. The
love that he has to his people is an everlasting love. Turn over to Jeremiah 31. In Jeremiah 31, look in verse 1. At the same
time, saith the Lord, Jeremiah 31.1, at the same time, saith
the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and
they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, the people
which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness,
even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love." Now that is a love that has no beginning and has no ending. You can't comprehend that. I
can't comprehend that. I'm going to leave it just where
it is. I have loved you. He says this to everyone whom
he saves. I have loved you. with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness,
how did God draw you? He drawed you with the lovingkindness
of the gospel. Christ crucified. Christ dying
on a cross. And you looked at that. And you
were drawn to it. You were drawn to Him. You were
drawn to that man that was crucified. Not everyone's drawn to Him.
Very few, really, very few are drawn to Christ crucified. There's a lot of people drawn
to the miracle worker, the one who wants to save everybody at
Galetti. Few are drawn to Christ crucified. And the reason you
are drawn to that, because I loved you with an everlasting love
and with loving kindness, have I Drove you? Drew you by drawing you. Drawn by cords of love. I've loved you with everlasting
love and that love has no beginning and has no ending and you and
I cannot explain it. Look over in Deuteronomy chapter
7. I had Mike to look at this while we were up here a little
while ago. I saw this in my studies. I'm going to read you the first
eight verses. Deuteronomy chapter 7. When I hear the papers rattling,
I'll read. That way you'll be on the same
page with me. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath
cast out many nations before thee. The Hittites, and I want
you to notice this, the Lord cast these people out to bring
them in. And the Gergesites, and the Amorites,
and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Genesites,
seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord
thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and
utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them. nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following thee, that they
may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord
be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall
ye deal with them. Ye shall destroy their altars,
Break down their images, cut down their groves, burn their
graven images with fire, for thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself." He's talking about all his people.
I've talked to men before, pastors, and when they talk about election,
they say, well, that has to do with Israel over there. The Middle
East, that has to do with them. That has to do with every one
of God's children. It's amazing that it doesn't
seem to make them mad that God chose them. It actually only
makes them mad when it comes to us. Really. I've never heard anybody upset
because God chose Israel. Not the Hivites, the Perizzites,
the Hittites, and all those ites. It's only when you start talking
about us Thou art a holy people unto the
Lord thy God, and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a
special people unto himself above all people that are upon the
face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor
choose you because you were more in number than any people. You
didn't impress God, for you were the fewest of all people, but
because the Lord loved you. No explanation. That's like our Lord said. Even
so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight." Why did God love
me? Because he loved me. That's what
he's saying. He doesn't say, he said, but
because the Lord loved you and because he'd keep the oath which
he had sworn to your fathers. He loved you because he loved
you. Sovereign love. Sovereign love. Let's be careful
and not try to cheapen the love of God and bring it down to where
men are not offended by it. Because men, rebels, get offended.
Rebels get offended when you start talking about God loving
whom He will, God chose whom He will, saves whom He will. It's not cheapening the love
of God by just throwing it out there like chicken feed. What would Vickie's love to me
mean if she loved every other man like she loves me? That wouldn't work. That just
wouldn't work, would it? Well, yet we throw God's love
out there like that. We toss it out there like that.
But we won't do it ourselves. It's like we send men and women
to the battlefront to die for our freedom of choice, and then
turn right around and deny God the choice to save whom He will.
Isn't that silly? We ought to listen to, if men
would listen to what they're saying. God's love is sovereign. He loves
whom He will because He loves them. They say, because the Lord
God loves you. We get in trouble when we try
to bring God down to our level of understanding. That's when
we get in trouble. We put human logic to it and
we mess it up. And remember this, God's love, God's grace, God's
mercy has always been and always will be, and I'll show you this
in a little bit, in the Lord Jesus Christ. outside of Christ is wrath and
hatred. God's love is in Christ. He loved us where? In Christ. I'll show you Romans here in
a little bit. He says this, This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Listen to him. Now we have God is love, now
we have God manifested his love. Look in verse 9 back in 1 John
chapter 4. God is love. That's his nature. But he's also manifested that
love. What is love if it's never manifested? In verse 9. And 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. Saying, I love
you, without deeds is meaningless. It's meaningless. Love not in
word only, the scripture says, but in deed. And in truth, God
has manifested His love toward us. How did He do that? He sent
His Son. He has only begotten His well-beloved
Son. He sent Him into this world to
live and to die for a bunch of rebels that hated God. That's
love. Father, that's love. God commended his love, it says
over in Romans, God commended his love toward us while we were yet sinners, rebels,
enemies in our minds by wicked works. God commended his love
toward us when we were at our worst. He sent his Son into this
world to redeem us, to save us, while we were spitting in his
face, hanging on a cross. You know what he said? You remember
what he said? Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they're doing. And I assure you, everyone for
whom he prayed that is forgiven. They're forgiven. I don't know
he didn't put any names out there, did he? He didn't put any names.
He said, Father, forgive them. And I'm telling you this, if
he did, if he forgives you, it's because of Christ. It's because
of Christ and because God loves you in Christ. Forgive him. He doesn't know what he's doing. That's love manifested. It says in John 3, 16, this is
probably one of the most misrepresented scriptures in the Bible. For
God so loved the world. God loved not only the Jews, but He loved
Gentiles. God has a people out of every
kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven. I'm looking at
some of them. And God sent his Son into the
world because he so loved the world. I don't have any problem
with that whatsoever. He manifested his love. There's
no greater manifestation of the love of God than the Lord Jesus
Christ being crucified on the cross, no greater. Turn over to Romans 5. Let me read this. I won't quote
it, but let me read it. In Romans chapter 5. Verse 8, But God commendeth his love. I looked at a commendeth. God
exhibited. God exhibited. He showed forth. He made to stand forth his love
on the death of his son. God commended his love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us. Does God
love me? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you love him? Do you love
him? Peter, do you love me? Well,
me loving him is evidence of him first loving me. It's evidence
of Him first loving me. And then God's love is enduring
love. Look in Romans 8. Romans chapter
8. It's enduring love. Like I said,
I can wear it out. But I can't wear out His love.
I'll wear yours out and you wear mine out. But not His. Verse 35. Who shall separate
us? from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, shall that run us off? Distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Peril? Sorrow? Will those things run us off?
Will those things separate us from His love? No. Can't do it. Actually, those things run us
to Him, not from Him. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death, that can't do it, nor life, that
can't do it, nothing in this life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, you reckon he's covering everything here? Paul, under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is not going to leave one thing
uncovered, one rock unturned concerning the love of God to
his people. Hith nor dath nor any other creature shall be able
to separate us from the love of God. Where is it? This is where it is, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's where it is. And if I
have that, if I'm in Christ, nothing can take God's love from
me. Nothing can change it. Nothing
can make it diminish one degree. Not at all. It's enduring love. And then it's sacrificial love.
Go back to 1 John 4. It's sacrificial love. I tell
you this, true love, true love is sacrificial love. You give
of yourself, you do. You give of yourself to your
family and take care of them, take care of each other, take
care of the children. It's love. And I tell you, it's
sacrificial love. A mother will go without before
she'll let her children go without if she loves her children. If
she loves her children, she will. She will. Herein is love in verse 10. Herein
is love. Not that we love God. We ought
to do that. But that He loved us. And sent His Son. Here's the sacrificial love.
Sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He died under the wrath of God. against sin and for sin. But he also died because God
loved us. He loved us. And there was no
other way to have us. No other way to save us except
Christ endure my hell. Our hell. That's the only way
it could happen. And there's nobody going to perish
in hell for whom Christ died. And that is just, that's just
not going to happen. That's not going to happen. It says in John 13 what? Having
loved his own. It doesn't say having loved everybody. It says having loved his own. He loved them to the end. He
loved them to the end. True love is sacrificial. You
always think of and do for the ones you love at the expense
of yourself. You do. And then his love, listen,
his love is constraining love. It's constraining love. Paul
said, the love of Christ constrains me. My confidence in my wife, when
I go away, when I go away, I'm out, leave town for something,
her faithfulness to me is not, it's not, it's not, well
that's what it says. It's not supposed to be this
way. No, your faithfulness is by your
love. And that's what constrains you.
The thing that constrains us from running headlong into everything
out there, like we used to, is the love of God shed abroad in
the heart. So, now, let's go to Romans 5. I'm going to end with this. This love shed abroad in the
heart is what constrains us. I wrote a small article on that
in the Bulletin. Actually, the way this started,
I was thinking about forgiveness. I was thinking about the Lord's
forgiveness of my sins, sitting at the house, and, Lord, forgive
me of my sins. And I have a real desire for
that. Do you have a real desire for that? Do you really have
a real desire for God to forgive your sins? Well, why? Why? Just so you won't end up
in that You want to end up in torment? Is that why? Get out
of trouble? Or is it because of a love that
you have for Him? You offended Him, and it troubled
you. There was a time it didn't trouble
you. There was a time it didn't trouble you. With loving kindness,
He said, I've drawn you. With loving kindness. Here's
the effect of his love, not only for us, but in us. Let's see,
what'd I say? Romans 5, look in verse 5. And hope maketh not a shame,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given to us. Remember, he said, I first loved
you. We love God because He first
loved us. God's love for us moved Him. It moved Him to send His
Son into this world. It moved Him to give Christ to
be a propitiation for our sins. His love for us moved Him to
send Christ to redeem us, to suffer our hell. His love for
us. This love is beyond our comprehension.
Now God's love in us moves us to seek and follow Him and be
committed to Him. That's the effect of it in you. It's like that lady in the Song
of Solomon. Have you seen Him whom my soul
loveth? Have you seen Him whom my soul? She says this, I'm lovesick.
Have you ever been lovesick? Anybody ever been lovesick? It
just wears you out, doesn't it? You're no good on the job. All
you think about is the one you love. It's just constantly on
your mind. But when the love of God is shed
abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, He's constantly on our
minds. He's on your minds every day. You think of Him every day.
You may not think of Him all day long, but we're still in
His flesh. But you do think of Him. You
do thank Him. That's the effect of His love
being shed abroad in your heart. God's love. And this dawned on
me when I was thinking about the Lord's forgiveness, desiring
His forgiveness, asking for His forgiveness, and this scripture
came to my mind right here. The love of God is shed abroad
in the heart by the Holy Spirit. There's only one reason I desire
His forgiveness. Truly desire it. is because He's
enabled me to love Him. Because I love Him. God's love
means nothing to a sinner until the love of God is shed abroad
in his heart by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Until then,
God's love doesn't mean anything to you. I heard that growing
up young. His love meant nothing to me.
God's forgiveness meant zero to me at one time. At one time,
reconciliation, He wasn't somebody I wanted to
be reconciled to. I didn't love Him. I had no love for Him in
the least degree. I never even thought about it.
I remember, I have to look back and remember a time in my life
I never thought about God. God was not in my thoughts at
all. God's love is meaningless. Forgiveness
is meaningless. Reconciliation is meaningless
until the love of God is shared abroad in the heart by the Holy
Spirit. It's meaningless. Let me give you an example because
I gave it to you in the bulletin. What a person thinks of me or
you. If you don't know that person, does it bother you? You ever
cut somebody off in traffic, chase them down and apologize?
Huh? Have you? No way. No way. You've never done that. But you offend somebody you love.
You cannot rest until you have their forgiveness. You cannot
rest until you've been reconciled to that person whom you love.
Now, if you don't know the person, you don't love the person, you
don't even think about it. You ever say this? Because I've
said this. What that person thinks of me
is meaningless. It doesn't mean any more to me. I care more about
what my bird dog thinks of me. And it just hit me this weekend
as I was looking at this. It's because you have no real love
for that person. You really love that person, it don't matter.
It don't matter. And I'll tell you this. When
the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit,
His forgiveness matters. Reconciliation matters. His love
matters. Because you've offended the one
you love. And you can't rest until that's taken care of. It
has nothing to do with missing hell and going to heaven. It
has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with I've
offended someone I love. And you don't even know how to
explain it. You really don't. You can't. The best explanation
of love is over in 1 Corinthians, isn't it? Now, if anybody wants
to say, explain what love is to me. I don't know what love
is. Just go over and read it to them. It's kind, it's long-suffering. Ain't no lust in it. There is
no lust in love. Not true love. Not true love. How do you feel about God's love
to you? How do you feel about forgiveness?
How do you feel about reconciliation? How do you really feel about
the Lord Jesus Christ? Peter, do you love me? On that basis, feed my sheep.
That's the only basis that we can feed the sheep on, because
you take love out of the equation, Then we're feeding the sheep
for what we can get out of the sheep. We're going to fleece the sheep.
That's what you're going to do. You're not going to feed them, you're
going to fleece them. But I tell you this, if I feed
you out of love to Christ, then I'll feed you. And I'll feed
you Christ. I'll feed you Him. Does it matter to us? Does it
really matter that I have His forgiveness that I'm reconciled
to Him. If that does, I'll tell you what,
I was just walking on air because I realized that's evidence that
the love of God has been shared abroad in my heart. Because I
desire it, and I do desire it. Let us never cheapen the love
of God by just throwing it out there saying God loves everybody,
God wants to save everybody. God loves everyone in Christ. Do you love Christ? Do you really
want to bask in the love of God? Then come to Christ where it
is. Come to the fountain. Come to
where that fountain flows with love. Don't say you love God if you
don't love His Son or believe on His Son. Christ is the fountain of God's
love. It's where all of it comes out. It's where we experience
it. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
this and enable us, enable us to Really, really drink of His love. I mean to drink of it. To know it by experience. I pray
He does.