You have seen pictures of the
pulpits in Europe and particularly in Great Britain and the older
church buildings. The pulpits are usually quite
high above the congregation. They have galleries around the
sides and the pulpits are built so the folks sitting up in the
galleries can see the preacher and the folks sitting down on
the front row have to look like this. And I always thought I'd
kind of like to preach in one of those pulpits until I did
one time. It's hot up there. But I heard
a story a long, long time ago about a young preacher who was
asked to preach. And he prepared well and studied
and got his sermon well organized and written out and came time
for him to preach. He was called on to come to the
pulpit, and he walked up with broad shoulders and a straight
back, and he was just ready to go. And he stumbled and fell
all over himself and didn't get anything said. And he came down
with his head hanging between his legs and sat down quietly. And an old deacon met him after
the service was over and said to him, son, If you had gone
up the way you came down, you might have come down like you
went up. And I try to remember that. Nothing benefit to your soul. Will be accomplished here tonight.
Unless God, the Holy Spirit will speak through me to your hearts
by his word. I asked that he will. Open your
Bibles to 1st John chapter 3. My subject tonight is the love
of God. What a huge subject. Our text
will be 1st John chapter 3 verses 10 through 18. Let's begin at
verse 10. In this the children of God are
manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. I take that to mean that doing
righteousness, behaving righteously more than anything else has something
to do with loving one another. to do righteousness, to behave
righteously, more than anything else, has something to do with
brotherly love. Read verse 11. You'll see that
this is backed up. For this is the message that
you heard from the beginning, that you, we should love one
another. Now, John is referring here in
verse 11 to what he just said in verse 10. So doing righteousness
has something to do with loving one another. Verse 12, not as
Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and
wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his
brother's righteous. Now, I remind you, The only righteous
works Abel performed which are written in this book. The only
righteous works Abel performed which are described in this book
are described in these words. Abel brought of the first things
of his flock and of the fat thereof. That's all he did. That's all
he did. So the book of God refers to
Abel's works of righteousness as his worship of God. His worship
of God by which he demonstrated genuine love for his brother.
Showing his brother how that sinners come to God through Jesus
Christ alone. Abel by his testimony before
Cain. His worship of God before Cain. coming to God through blood atonement
by the sacrifice of an innocent victim on his behalf, bringing
to God that which only God could provide, that which God must
accept, the sacrifice of his own son. Abel worked righteousness,
believing on the Son of God. And for that, his brother Cain
slew him. He hated him and he murdered
him. Verse 13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hate you, we know that we have passed from death unto
life because we love the brethren. We love God's people because
they're God's people. We love those who are in Christ
because they are one with Christ. We love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer. and you know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love
of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. Now there is much that could
be said and should be said from the other portions of the scripture. And we'll look at them again
later as God enables me. But let's tonight focus our attention
on that which is stated in verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love
of God. Because he laid down his life
for us. Now, notice the words of God
are italicized. They're italicized because there
is no corresponding word for of God in the Greek text. Our translators honestly italicized
the words to let us know just that so that the text would be
a little bit difficult to read. Hereby perceive we the love because
he laid down his life for us. But the text is referring back
to what John has just told us about Cain and Abel and Abel's
love for his brother Cain. The love that's reflected in
Abel's love for his brother Cain. The love that we have one for
another as we love our brethren in Christ. What is that love?
Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his
life for us. The love that we have for one
another That love that arises from and is manifested the love
of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord Hereby perceive we the
love of God because he God Almighty in human flesh God himself laid
down his life for us and We ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren Oh, the wondrous love of God,
who its heights and depths can tell. God the Son has shed his
blood and redeemed my soul from hell. My soul, sweet mystery
this, all my sins on Christ were laid, all my guilt he took for
his by his death atonement made. I in him am justified, freed
from sin, and more than free, guiltless, holy, sanctified,
righteous made at Calvary. Savior, Lord, to you I bow, conquered
by your love and grace, saved unto the utmost now by your blood
and by your grace. Whenever we think about the love
of God, we must begin here. The love of God is in Christ. It is revealed in Christ. We rejoice to know God is love. We rejoice to declare that love
is in God and love comes from God. Apart from God, there is
no love. But the love of God is revealed. The love of God is manifest. The love of God is known. only
in the person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God
does not make His love known anywhere else or in any other
way except in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible never
speaks of the love of God outside or apart from Christ. Those who
talk about God loving sinners apart from Christ, talk about
God's love towards sinners in some ambiguous way apart from
his son, know nothing of which they speak. And they speak in
direct opposition to the word of God. The Lord God is good. He's good to all, the psalmist
says. His tender mercies are over all his works. And we recognize
that because of God's goodness, because of his tender mercy,
he feeds the ravens. He feeds the beast of the field.
He gives every animal on the earth water to drink. He closed
the livers because of His tender mercy, because of His goodness. But to speak of God's providential
works in creation as works of love is totally contrary to this
book. God's love is revealed in His
Son, Christ Jesus the Lord. God's love is altogether focused
upon His Son and those who are in His Son. Do you understand
that? He causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall both upon
the just and the unjust both upon the righteous and the reprobate
But he does so because of his love for his elect the just the
righteous in his son Christ Jesus the Lord God's love is never
made known and cannot be known apart from faith in Jesus Christ
the Lord It is not known and cannot be known apart from faith
in Christ Jesus the Lord. And those who declare that God
loves all people alike, that he loves those who Perish under
his wrath in hell just as he loves those who are taken by
his hand of mercy into heavenly glory That he loves those who
are heirs of eternal damnation Just as he loves those who are
heirs of eternal glory have no idea What God is who God is or
what God's love is they make the love of God to be a fickle? passion Capable of nothing They
make the love of God to be a changeable passion, able to accomplish nothing. Nowhere in this book is the love
of God spoken of that way. A.W. Pink wrote this, and I fully
agree. Nothing is more absurd than to
imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish. Nothing more absurd than to imagine
that anyone loved of God could eternally perish. God is almighty. You understand that? God is almighty. Do you reckon he had let the
object of his love perish? Do you reckon he had let the
object of his love perish? What stupidity. None of you are
that helpless. None of you are that meaningless
in your love. I'm not that helpless. Are that
meaningless in my love? I can just picture, you have
a little baby filled with fire and you warn him, don't touch
the fire, son. That'll hurt you. That'll hurt
you. That'll burn you. Don't touch the fire. And he
keeps crawling over there toward that hot stove. And you say,
don't touch the fire. I'm sitting there watching you.
The baby's getting closer and closer to the fire. And I said,
Bobby, pick the baby up. Oh, I couldn't do that. That
would be interfering with his will. And then you say you love
the baby. Well, I'd check you into the
funny farm, take the baby away from you. That's insane. That's insane. God's love. is exercised in omnipotence in
the saving of his people. And those who are the objects
of God's love shall be with him forever in glory. When Paul says
nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, the word us refers to God's elect. It doesn't refer to everybody
in the world. When John declares hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. The word us refers
to God's elect wherever they're found to those who are truly
saved by God's grace. So well, but God so loved the
world. Let me tell you how to read that.
Let me tell you exactly how to read that. Exactly how to read
that. God so loved his elect wherever
they're found throughout the world. God so loved the world
of his elect. You mean, Brother Don, God only
loves his elect? Man, you finally got it, didn't
you? God loves particularly, distinctly, a specific people,
a specific people that can never be numbered and yet a limited
number, a specific people no man can number and yet a specific
number, his elect. The word of God speaks plainly.
It cannot be more plain. There are some people in this
world whom God does not love, never has loved, and never will
love. He says, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. And that's not referring to two
individual men. That's referring to two men who
represent two classes of people, chosen and reprobate. Loved and
hated and God will never cease to love Jacob and he can never
be persuaded to love Esau Because his love is absolutely free We
read in the scriptures about a man named Cain that God destroyed
Because he loved him. No, he loved his brother Abel
We read in the scriptures about a whole generation under Noah's
day, under the wrath of God, and that whole generation of
people, a whole generation. Now, I'm just speculating. I
don't know this for sure. Merle, I suspect there were as
many people on the earth in Noah's day as there are today, maybe
more. And you know how many of them
knew God? Eight. You know how many of them were
preserved in the ark? Eight. You know how many of them found
grace in the eyes of the Lord? Only Noah. And as a result of
Noah knowing God, his household was saved by God's grace as well.
Only eight. That's all. You mean everybody
else is lost? Everybody else. You see these
silly, blasphemous, bumper stickers, smile, God loves you. Can't you
imagine Noah sticking something like that on the back of the
ark? That's insane. That's insane. Our Lord Jesus
spoke about his distinct grace and mercy on John chapter 10
and the Pharisees who stood by and listened to him talking about
the good shepherd and his sheep, talking to his disciples. They
said, we don't like what you're saying. He said, I wasn't talking
to you. Is it you believe not because you're not in my sheep?
The sons of Korah, God swallowed up the earth and destroyed them
like that. We read in the book of God about
the Sodomites, God destroyed when he rained fire and brimstone
upon Sodom. To tell sinners that God loves
them. Now this is where I'm stressing
this. To tell sinners God loves them, regardless of their relationship
to Christ, is either to assure sinners of everlasting salvation
or to utterly deny any meaning to God's love. There's no alternative. If God loves everybody, everybody's
going to hell, or going to heaven, no matter what. If anybody goes
to hell that God loves, God's love doesn't matter. It's significant. Now, let's look at what John
tells us here about God's love. We can't understand or appreciate
the love of God unless we begin with this fact, the love of God
is in Christ, revealed in Christ. All grace is in Christ. All the promises of God are in
Christ. All the blessings of God are
in Christ. And all the love of God is in
Christ. Nothing can be more profitable
to our souls than some knowledge of this love. So let me call
your attention to four things, just four things. And I'll be
very brief. First, let me remind you of some
of the characteristics of God's love. Obviously, I've got to limit
myself to just a few or we'd be here for a long, long time.
Let me show you four characteristics of God's great love. Actually,
there's three. There's three. The love of God
is free. It's free. It can't be bought. It can't be earned and it can't
be lost. The love of God is free. He says
in Hosea 14, 4, I will love them freely. God's love toward his
elect is an unconditional, unqualified, unmerited love. Altogether, uncaused,
it is free. God doesn't love us because of
anything amiable or attractive in us, because of anything good
or righteous that he foresaw would be in us or done by us. He says, Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I hated. And he specifically declares
that he loved Jacob and hated Esau when the children were yet
in their mother's womb, having done neither good nor evil. that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. Our
love for God then is not the cause of his love for us. Love God and he'll love you.
Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. God's love for us is
the cause of any love we have for him. Our love for God is the response
of the love of God revealed in us. One of the first things given
to me by any of you after I became your pastor, Teresa Coleman gave
me a little plaque long, long time ago. Had nothing on it,
but 1 John 4, 19. We love him because He first loved us. And that's just the way it is.
If we love him, we love him because of his love for us in response
to his love for us. He loved us before we loved him. He loves us infinitely greater
than we love him. And our love for him is nothing
like it ought to be. But we love him because he first
loved us. here in his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. You see, God loved us when we
were lost and ruined in sin. He loved us when we were destitute
of all grace, without the least particle of love toward him,
our faith in him, while we were enemies, alienated from God. hating God. Children of wrath, even as others.
Brother Allen's asked me about Wesley's hymn. Reinstate us in
thy love. We never were not loved of God,
but we walked on this earth. Children of wrath. We had a consciousness
of God's wrath and anger and judgment upon us and against
us because we could not perceive anything but wrath. Until we
look away from self to Christ Jesus, the Lord, and believing
on him, our hearts are reconciled to God by faith in Christ Jesus,
by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, reinstating us
in our experience, in our conscience, in the love of God. God loved
us when we were yet enemies to God. Even the death of Christ
doesn't cause God's love. Oh, no. God's son died for us,
and that causes pardon. God's son died for us, and that
causes justification. God's son died for us. That causes
forgiveness and reconciliation. God's son died for us. That gives
us acceptance with God. But the love of God for us is
that which sent his son to die in our room instead. Christ died
for us because God loved us. So that's the first characteristic
of God's love. It's free. Here's the second
thing. God's love's eternal. It didn't begin yesterday. It didn't begin in time. It bears
the date of eternity upon it. He declares, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Now, try to get hold of that
if you can. Come back to John chapter 17. As God the Father loved his son
from eternity, so he loved us from eternity. As God's love
is in Christ, God's love for Christ and his love for his elect
is the same. Only faith can grasp this. What I've got to say here, what
our Lord says here is beyond Beyond reason, it's even beyond
emotion. It can't be explained. It can't
be measured. It can't be put into any words
except just what he says here. John chapter 17. As God beholds
us in his son, he delights with us as he delights with his son. And he loves us as he loves his
son. He loves us As he loves his son. Hey, you gotta be careful how
far you carry that I'm so sick of hearing that Just run wild
with it Just run wild with it. Believe it Dare believe God What
does he say here John 17 verse 23? I in them and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one, that the whole world may know. When God gets done, when God
gets done, the whole world's going to know that thou hast
sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. How does God love me? See Christ
yonder on the throne? How does God love him? How full is the heart of the
triune God for him? So he loves me. so full his heart
is for me. Can you get hold of that? Can
you get hold of that? Number three, the love of God is immutable, irrevocable. If you're taking notes, be sure
you get this third adjective, indestructible. Immutable. Irrevocable. Indestructible. You hear a good
bit of talk these days about unconditional love. Not from anybody I know. Or you
either. Except God. Now, that's love. It's unconditional.
It can't change. It will never be revoked. It
can't be destroyed. God's love is not like man's
love. It doesn't change, never, under
any circumstances, under any conditions. Having loved us, he will never
call his love back. Having loved his own which rend
the world, he loved them. unto the end. Listen to what
Solomon says about it. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it. We did nothing to attract God's
love in the beginning, and we can do nothing to repel God's
love now. God's love is not dependent upon
our love. It's not dependent upon our faithfulness. It's not regulated by our love.
It's not regulated by our faithfulness. We can do nothing to destroy
it or even diminish it. Nothing. How can that be? Read the book of Hosea again,
will you? Go back and read about Hosea's love for Goma. While
she's in the arms of her lovers, her hired lovers lovers who hired
her out by the hour and She thinks that they cherish her and all
the while Hosea Provides everything she has all her food and all
her oil and all her money and all her clothes And she said
look what my lovers gave me And God says so is my love for you
Hosea Go love a harlot and I'll show you how I love my people. Never changed, never changed.
That prodigal son left his father, took all of his father's goods
that his father freely gave him and wasted his substance and
riotous living. until he had nothing and began
to be in want and came back to his father and he's dead sure
certain that his father will not receive him as his son and
hopes maybe, maybe he'll just let him live in the house as
one of his servants. And the father sees him and he's
had a great way off and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Because God's love cannot be
injured. God's love cannot be revoked. God's love cannot be destroyed. God's love cannot be diminished. It depends on nothing but God. He loves us with everlasting
love, free, eternal, immutable love. Now, consider for a moment a few of
the operations, the acts, the deeds of God's love. The first is free election. Because the Lord loved you, Moses
said, Deuteronomy chapter seven, he chose you. Predestined us unto the adoption
of children. Now let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something. You cannot talk about God's love
in Bible terms without talking about special election. To deny
God's sovereign election is to deny God's love. You cannot talk
about love in Bible terms without talking about predestination.
Let's see if this is what the book says. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. To deny God's sovereign predestination
is to deny God's love as it is revealed in this book. And to
deny God's love as it's revealed in this book is to deny God's
love altogether. Because there's no knowledge
of his love. But what's revealed here? In his son. In the sacrifice
of his son. Then, having loved us, the Lord
God reveals his love to us in the redemptive work of his son.
This is what John tells us in our text. Hereby perceive we
the love of God because he laid down his life for us. Now listen to me carefully. We read the love of God in the
precious blood of his darling son. And you can't read it anywhere
else. We see the love of God revealed,
not in the incarnation of Christ, not even in the life of Christ,
not in the example of Christ, not in the doctrine of Christ,
not even in the prayers of Christ, but only in the blood of Christ. Had our Lord done everything
else and left this undone, Had he not poured out his life's
blood unto death for the atonement of our sins and the redemption
of our souls, we could never have known the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. When God would show his power,
he made the world. When God would display his wisdom,
he set the world he had made in the frame of this vast universe. When God would manifest his greatness,
he made the heavens above and put the angels and principalities
and powers around his throne. But when God would reveal his
love, he gave his son to suffer and bleed and die to put away
the sins of his people and bring in everlasting righteousness
for us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. You get that, David? You can't
perceive it any other way. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Because he laid down his life
for us. Behold, my soul, the love of
God He bought me with his precious blood. Yes, Christ my God, my
covenant head, my substitute, died in my stead. Yes, Jesus
took this wretched place and died for me in deep disgrace. For me, he plunged into the flood
of woe, the horrid wrath of God. Now, for his praise, I can but
tell how Jesus vanquished death and hell, put sin away with his
own blood, and brings his ransomed home to God. No wonder Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. No wonder he said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And then he reveals his love to us. in his gracious operation
of the new birth regeneration. He sends his spirit in the time
of love and calls out his elect, calling us by his grace, giving
us life in Christ Jesus, causing us to believe on the son of God,
revealing Christ in us and to us. And the love of God is thereby
shed abroad in our heart. The love of God giving us the
blessed assurance of everlasting salvation in Christ the Lord. The love of God shed abroad in
our hearts, telling us that we're the sons and daughters of the
Almighty. And God, because of his love,
because of his undying, unfailing, unquenchable love, because Because
His love cannot be destroyed. Because He will not cease His
own to cherish. God preserves us and keeps us. Unto everlasting glory. Turn to Jude. Look at Jude. Let me show you one sure sure
consequence, one certain consequence of God's great love for us. Our fall could not destroy it.
God's justice could not nullify it. Our sin, our temptations,
our corruptions, our enmity cannot withstand it. Our many falls
cannot destroy it. And here's the sure consequence
of God's great love for us. This love of God. Keeps and preserves us through
everything here and will bring us at last before his glorious
throne and present us. Look at this. Verse 24, Jude,
verse 24. before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He will present us, Bob, you
and me, He'll present us thoughtless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. With exceeding
joy. Oh, our joy. Oh yeah, we'll be
full of joy. But this is talking about His
joy. The joy with which He presents us with thoughtless before the
presence of His glory. What do you reckon would be a
reasonable response to that love? Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren. That sounds like a reasonable
response. The love of Christ constrains
us. It's the motive of our lives, the rule by which we live, the
inspiration for our service. Men point to many, many things.
They call them evidences of grace and salvation. Our Savior points
to one thing. He says, by this shall all men
know that you're my disciples because you have love one for
another. Believers are people. who knowing the love of Christ,
willingly, gladly, voluntarily, continually give themselves a
living sacrifice to God, laying down their lives for the brethren. Laying down their lives for the
brethren. I'm not just talking about preachers
and missionaries. All of God's people are missionaries.
You know that? All of God's people are evangelists. All of God's
people are his servants. All of God's people are continually
compelled by his grace to lay down their lives in the cause
of Christ for the brethren, for the brethren. Give up their rights
and their time and their talents and their possessions and their
wants and their desires and their comforts and their pleasures.
Why? Because the love of Christ constrains
us. Many years ago, Brother Scott
Richardson wrote this. I just read it in the John Chapman
Bulletin earlier this week. I defy anyone to find the solitary
text of scripture in the New Testament. that uses the law
to motivate, inspire, regulate, or even guide a believer. Believers
are motivated by love, inspired by gratitude, regulated by grace,
and guided by the Holy Spirit. The whole Word of God, the complete
revelation of His will is our law. Our lives are governed by
love, not by fear. We walk by faith, not by legislation. We walk in the spirit, not in
the flesh. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Because he laid down his life
for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. Amen.