Shortly after lunch today, I
received a call from a fellow who introduced himself as Kyle. He said he was a missionary going
to Peru, and he wanted to know if he could come, set up an appointment
to come and minister to our congregation. I said, well, what would you
be telling us? And he seemed a little shocked that I would
ask the question. He said, what do you mean? I
said, well, what do you believe? And he proceeded to tell me he believed
that Jesus came into the world and died for the sins of the
world. And if folks would believe on
him, they could be saved from hell. And I said, why do you
want to go to Peru and tell folks that? He said, do what? I said, why
would you want to go to Peru and tell people about a God who
can't save them? He said, I don't understand what
you're talking about. I said, if God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody and the Holy Spirit's trying to save everybody,
then the love of God and the death of Christ and the call
of the Spirit don't make any difference to anybody. He said,
I don't understand what you're saying. I said, I don't think
you do. And he said, well, you have a good day. I can't imagine. I can't imagine a man so utterly
ignorant of this book, going in the name of God, pretending
to proclaim the message of this book. Turn with me, if you will,
again tonight to John 17, and I want to talk to you once more
about God's love. The title of my message tonight
is God's Love in Us. God's love in us. God is love. That's who God is. That's what God is. But that's
not all God is. God is love. God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. God is true. God is angry with
the wicked every day. All of those things are written
in the scriptures just as it is written, God is love. God commends his love toward
us in the sacrifice of his dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so
that God sets his love out before sinners and shows sinners his
great love by the sacrifice of his son. And the triune God,
in everything He does in this world, acts in love toward His
people. Everything God does in time,
He does because of His everlasting love for His elect from eternity. the nuptial chariot in which
our blessed Savior carries his bride through the ages of time
is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. And then the time
comes when God sheds abroad his love in the hearts of chosen
redeemed sinners, giving them life and faith in Jesus Christ,
causing them to know his love they believe him. The only person
who knows God's love for him is one who is born again by the
Spirit of God. You cannot possibly have any
inkling not from God not from his word, not from a faithful
preacher, not from your experience, not from your conscience. You
cannot have any possible inkling of a thought that God loves you
unless you believe on his side. The love of God is in Christ.
It is revealed in Christ. It comes to us when Christ comes
in us in the mighty saving operations of His grace. This is what it
is for the love of God to be made perfect in us. When God
gives us faith in Christ, when God puts His Son in us, when
God makes us new creatures in Christ, His love is made perfect
in us. and cast out all fear from us. His love revealed in His Son
is that perfect love that casteth out all fear, assuring us of
our acceptance with God, our perfect righteousness, our eternal
salvation in Christ Jesus. Now here in John 17, the Lord
Jesus is about to leave this world. He's going back to the
Father. He's told his disciples that
they must abide on the earth for a while, that they must endure
unceasing trials, heavy troubles, and great tribulation. These
things our Lord's told us plainly. Sons and daughters of God, while
you live in this world, as long as you live in this world, until
you've taken your last breath in this world. The Lord Jesus
promises that you must endure unceasing trials, heavy, heavy troubles, great
tribulation. You must carry heavy burdens
throughout your pilgrimage here. The burdens don't get lighter
only heavier with time. The troubles don't get easier,
only more difficult with time. While you live in this world,
that's the way life is for God's people here. You say, well, God
could make things different. He could, but he hasn't. He has
chosen this path for us for a reason. And having stated that, the Lord
Jesus told us, told us very clearly in John 14, 15, and 16, that
he would send his Holy Spirit to comfort his people in this
world. He calls him the Comforter, the
Comforter. What a name for God the Holy
Ghost, the Comforter. He is sent of God our Savior,
another Comforter like me, as the disciples constantly going
through difficulty and trouble and doubts and stormy seas and
times of darkness and assaults from men and misunderstandings
and their own unbelief, ever turned to the Lord Jesus and
He calmed the storm they were in. He says, I'll pray the Father
and He'll send you another comforter just like me to calm the storm
you're in. That's the work of God the Holy
Spirit. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them to us for the comfort of our souls. And then
our Lord Jesus urges us simply to trust him. Trust him. Trust him. Oh, trust me, my children. Trust me. I hear those words
from the Savior throughout this blessed gospel. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Believe me, believe me, believe
me. He knew that these disciples'
hearts were heavy, anxious, troubled, and fearful. He knew they were
full of doubts and questions, so much like us. So just before
he goes from them, just before he goes to suffer and die as
our substitute at Calvary, He takes these disciples, as it
were, by the hand and he says, come brother, come sister, let's
go to God in prayer. And he gives this prayer found
in John 17, recorded here by God, the Holy Ghost, for our
comfort, for our ratification, for our knowledge of him, to
teach us to trust him. In these 26 verses, Our great
high priest prays that God would preserve and keep us, that God
would flood our lives with joy in the midst of difficulty, that
the Lord God would sanctify us by his word, that the Lord God
would cause us, living in this world, in union with Christ,
to live in union with one another, that he would give us at last
heavenly glory and perfect us in that glory. Now let's just
read the last few verses of this great prayer, beginning of verse
24. John 17, 24. Father, I will. I will. This is what I desire. This is
what I want. This is what I ask of you. This
is what I purposed. I will. I will. And when you
hear him say, I will, you can rest your soul on this fact. He will. I will. I will. What he prayed for, he's
going to have. The father cannot turn away the
presence of his son. What he prayed for, he will have. Father, I will. That they also
whom thou hast given me All my elect, all you trusted in my
hand as a surety, I will that they be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou
lovest me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. These
have known that thou has sent me these disciples These right
here Peter Thomas John These disciples All these disciples
who forsook it Peter who denied him Thomas who said I won't believe
like put my hand in his side This what Savior says these have
known me These have known thee in spite
of everything the world may see about them, in spite of everything
they may think of one another. These have known thee. And these
have known that you sent me. These are my disciples. Read
on. Verse 26. And I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them. and I in them. This 26th verse
will be our text. I have declared unto them thy
name and will declare that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them and I in them. With those words, our Redeemer,
the Son of God, tells us plainly the whole meaning his life, death,
resurrection, and revelation in himself. The whole purpose
of his life, death, and resurrection as our substitute, the whole
purpose of him revealing God is that he may dwell in us, and
that the love of wherewith God loves him from everlasting as
our mediator and surety may dwell in us. I've come here and I have declared
to them your name and I'm going to continue to declare to these
people for whom I intercede your name And I do this that the love
wherewith you love me may dwell in them and I may dwell in them. What a great, great subject. Infinitely vast, infinitely full,
infinitely rich, infinitely wondrous. I have no hope of expounding
it. But this indescribably delightful,
comforting, instructive message is the richest I can imagine.
I never feel so incompetent as a preacher as when I'm trying
to preach to you about the love of God. And yet I know that this
subject so indescribably beyond the reach of my mind is the most
comforting, the most useful, the most edifying, the most correcting
of all messages in this book. How many of God's people have
been converted by the revelation of God's love in Christ Jesus,
having God's love commended to them in the sacrifice of his
son by the gospel. How often our hearts, when cold
and languishing, have been revived by the blessed Savior, once more
putting His hand in by the hold of the door, dropping with sweet-smelling
myrrh, and drawing out our hearts in love to Him because of His
love for us. Nothing so effectually reproves
our sin, our unbelief, our worldliness, our indifference, our coldness,
as the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing moves our hearts
Godward like the knowledge of the love of God in our Savior. Preaching. I tell preachers this
all the time, young and old. I try to convey it to young men.
I plan when I get down to Mexico once more to tell it to the preachers
in the preacher school there. Preaching. Preaching ought to
always move our hearts Godward. Not just fill our heads with
knowledge. Not just fill our minds with facts. Not just give
a true sense of scripture. but in proclaiming the truth
of God from the word of God according to the book of God move our hearts
Godward and nothing does that but the knowledge of the love
of God freshly breathed into our souls. Oh may God the Holy
Ghost be our teacher and may he be pleased to show us something
of this wondrous mystery. I declared unto them thy name,
and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them. Our Savior here declares in the
hearing of his disciples that the entire purpose of his existence
in human flesh The whole purpose of his life
and work, the whole purpose of his being is that the love wherewith
God loved him may be in us and he in us. In us. The very last word of the Lord's
Prayer concerning the love of God for us is this. that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. He means for us to know and enjoy. He means for us to know and enjoy
the love of God for us. But there's more than that. He
prays that this love, wherewith the Father loved him, may itself
be in us. He could ask for nothing greater
than that. He asked that we might be filled with all the fullness
of the love of God. For being filled with all the
fullness of his love, we are filled with all the fullness
of God. Oh! Turn to Romans chapter 5. Let's
look at this one more time. In this great request, our Savior
asked that we might have all the fullness of God overflowing
our souls all the time. That's the very beginning of
the experience of grace. This is where it begins. This
is where it begins. The experience of grace begins
with the revelation of God's love for you. in you. Oh, can it be true that God loves
me? Can that be said of me? Can that
be true of me? A sinner like me? A blasphemer like me? An obnoxious man like me? Can
that be true of me? Such a base, immoral, vile worm
of the dust? Can that be true of me? Let's
see what it says. Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore being
justified, justified by the doing and dying of the Son of God,
by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Believing on this one who died in the womb instead of sinners.
I wish I could believe him like I ought to. I do, too. I do,
too. I believe him, but I couldn't
say I'm a believer. I don't really trust him as much
as I should. You find me somebody in here who trusts him as much
as he should. Anybody here trust him as much as you should? If
you do, you don't trust him at all, I promise you. If you vainly
imagine you so trust him, you don't trust him. Oh, no. The
sinner believes him. We trust Him. We trust in having
faith in Him. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch this. By whom also
we have access by faith into this grace, this blessed grace
of free justification, of complete salvation wherein we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. We stand right here, sinners,
with not one good thing, not one clean thought, not one noble
thing to commend us to God. We stand right here, trusting
Christ alone as all our salvation. And we stand here and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. What? What? A sinner? He's the only one who
can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The center, trust in
Christ. Read on. Read what it says. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also. The tribulation be all right.
Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience,
and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. What's he
talking about? We live rejoicing in hope of
the glory of God and we will never blush because of it. Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. I'll never be put to confusion.
I'll never be embarrassed. I'll never make haste. I'll never
be confounded. I'll never be pushed away by
God Almighty and not by hell because the love of God is shed
abroad in my heart. God has spoken peace to my soul,
giving me faith in his darling son. This, I repeat, is the sweet
beginning of the experience of God's saving grace. The love
of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Because our
Savior prayed, Father, I will that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them. All right, let me show you four
things about this love of God shed abroad in our hearts. This
love of God in us. First, the Lord Jesus looks backward
and summarizes his entire life in ministry. He says, I have
declared unto them thy name. Come back to John chapter 1.
John chapter 1. I have declared unto them thy
name. There is no salvation. without
knowing God. There is no salvation without
knowing God. And there is no knowing of God
apart from the knowledge of Jesus Christ, his Son. You can't trust
an unknown God. Brother Mahan used to say, I've
heard him say it a hundred times, You can't trust an unknown Savior
any more than you can come back from where you haven't been.
You can't trust an unknown God. The Lord Jesus came here to declare
God's name. To reveal to us who God is. Look at John chapter 1 verse
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father. The glory of God
in the face of the crucified Christ. For of, I'm sorry, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Now look at verse 16. And of
His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. We just
received heaps of grace upon heaps of grace. For the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now
watch verse 18. No man has seen God at any time. No man has seen God at any time. God is spirit. He doesn't have
parts and passions. He doesn't have a body. He doesn't
have eyes and ears and nose and mouth and hands and feet. God's
spirit. No man's seen God at any time.
You can't possibly know God unless somehow God finds a way to show
Himself to you. And He's done that in the person
of Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Word. God took on Himself
our nature. Now watch this. The only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him. He hath declared him. You get a strange package at
the door, and you're not expecting anything. You haven't ordered
anything. It's not your birthday. It's
not Christmas. You just got a strange package at the door, sitting
at the door, and it's addressed to you. You don't know where
it's come from. And you wonder and wonder and
wonder, what's in the package? You sit around and talk about
it with your husband a little bit. Finally, he says, well, why don't we open
and see? So you take your case knife and you cut the thing open.
There it is. There it is. Why, look at that.
Isn't that great? This is what the Son of God has
done. He came down here, opened up
God, and said, look at me. This is God. This is God. He opened up to us all that God
is. He said, I've declared unto them
thy name. Here is a man appealing to the
righteous judgment of God himself as he speaks in prayer. A man
asserting with absolute unqualified confidence that he had fully,
constantly, and perfectly made known to men who God is. Our Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples
and said, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. You want
to see God? Look at me. You want to know
what God's like? Look at me. You want to hear
God's word? Listen to me. You want to see
how God acts? Look at me. Todd and I were talking
today about this thing of We have this idea. We want to protect
God from misapprehension. And it's right that we have a
good, proper theological concept and idea of God as best we can.
God is not like anything on this earth. But don't get the idea
that God is like a rock out on the hillside that doesn't touch and can't
be touched. Mark Daniel, God came here in
human flesh to show you how that God is grieved, and God weeps,
and God is touched, and God touches. Do you see that in the Savior? Do you see that in the Savior? Here is a man, behold how he
loved him. The Savior says, he that seen
me seen the Father. They saw the Son of God weeping.
Weeping because Mary and Martha were weeping. Not weeping because
He didn't know what was going on. Weeping because He's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. Do you understand what I'm trying
to tell you? Jesus Christ is God. The whole revelation of
God in all His being, He shows Himself God and declares God. God is declared by him and only
by him. This knowledge he gives is the
distinguishing knowledge that he alone can give. In the sixth
verse of this chapter, our Savior says, I have manifested thy name
unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Believers are people. to whom
Christ has revealed God. In his person, in his doctrine,
in his bringing in everlasting righteousness, in his accomplishment
of redemption, he has revealed God. Go to Gethsemane and see
the Savior as he bows and see God revealed as he cries, my
father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Go on
with him to Calvary and see how that he takes to himself all
the fury of God's wrath because he's made sin for us because
this is the only way God can be just and justify the ungodly. Oh, in this is our God in Jesus
Christ the Lord. We have waited for him. He will
save us. He's declared himself and he
says, I will declare it by the gospel. The Lord Jesus continually
declares who God is and declares God's love to sinners and he
will forever do so. Let us never imagine that we're
going to learn all this. Throughout the glory of eternity, the Savior will be declaring
to us the love of God for us. And we will be forevermore increasingly
ravished by the love of God for us. Now, watch this. I have declared unto them thy
name. and will declare it, that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them." He came here and died because
God loved us, and has come here to reveal it. Our Lord Jesus,
our blessed Savior, would have us to enjoy a deep, continuous,
undisturbed assurance of God's love for us. And Lindsay, that can only be
by faith in Him. Only by faith in Him. There's
no way on this earth you can have a continual undisturbed
assurance of God's love for you except by faith in Christ. Not
by something you do, not by your feelings, not by the measure
of your faith, not by your love for Him, not by your righteousness,
not by your Bible reading, not by your prayer, not by your devotion,
not by your dedication, not by anything in you! Only by believing
God's Son. Pastor, how do you know God loves
you? I have one reason. I believe
Him. That's all. I believe Him. I believe Him. Our Savior would
have us to realize, not only to know this, but to realize
the love the Father has for us is the very same love He Himself
enjoys as God's darling Son. Let me read something to you.
I've gone over this hundreds of times. I can't say it so well. So I want to read to you what
Mr. Spurgeon said to his congregation in London more than 150 years
ago when preaching on this same subject. Listen carefully. Do not tell me that God the Father
does not love you as well as he does Christ. The point can
be settled by the grandest matter of fact that ever was. When there
was a choice, when there was a choice between Christ and his
people, which should die of the two, the father freely delivered
up his own son that we might live through him. Oh, amazing love. Thou hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. Our love for Christ is but a
reflection of the Father's love in us, for us. What a poor word
I've chosen to express what I want to say, a reflection. But how
else can I say it? Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me, and the love that you have for me, I've put in
them. That love which we have for our
Savior is but the reflection of God's love for Him. It's ours. We're born again. We have a new
nature, Christ in us, but it is but the reflection of God's
love for Him. It's not something original with
us. It's not something in any way
built by us, but rather it is the gift of God in us, and but
the reflection of that. And our love for one another,
our love for God's people, is but the radiation of God's love
for his son, when God's love is made perfect in us. So that
we love one another. We really do. Believers do. I'm
not saying, Bill, what you ought to do. If you're a believer,
you love me. If you don't love me, you're not a believer. That's
just plain as it can be. But our love for each other,
our love for each other is only the reflection of God's love
for his son, which God has put in us. And the love of God being
made perfect in us, being brought to its final end in us, being
brought to its completion in us, casteth out all fear. Now, look at one more thing in
our text. Look at the last line of the
text. The Lord Jesus dwells in His
people. assuring us of God's perfect
love for us. Look at it. I had declared unto
them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them. What can this possibly mean? I can't begin to apprehend it
yet, but soon we shall. At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you," the Savior
said. I said to Shelby Sunday afternoon, there's not any wonder in this
book more astounding to me and none more comforting to me. and
none more baffling to me than our union with Christ. And we just can't get hold of
it yet. We just can't do it. Our Savior
said, at that day, you shall know that I am in my Father,
and you are in me, and I am in you. For now, for now, it must suffice us to know that
Christ dwelling in us is the assurance of God's love for us,
and that's our hope of glory yet to come. Christ in you, the
hope of glory. Oh, would you go home tonight
with this sweet assurance, God loves me. God loves me. Red Turtle, if God loves you,
everything's just fine. You got that? If God loves you,
everything's just fine. Everything's just fine. God loves
me. Would you go home with the sweet
assurance that God Almighty in all the fullness of His being
loves you. Believe on the Son of God and believing Him God speaks
to you as He did Enoch of old and God gives you this testimony
in your conscience that you please Him For God accepts you in His
darling Son. And the Lord Jesus said, that's
the reason I came here, that the love that you have for me
may dwell in them and I in them. God grant you the blessed knowledge
of His Son and the knowledge of His love dwelling in you. Amen.