Turn with me to Romans chapter
5. While you're turning there, I
want to express my heartfelt appreciation to this church. And with regard to your pastor,
I say this carefully. But there are a lot of men that
I love to hear preach. There's not all that many men
that I feel like I could sit under. And your pastor is a man
that I feel like I could sit under. And I love him and esteem
him so very highly. I'm thankful. Well, you've already turned to
Romans chapter 5. I want to read verse 8 of Romans
chapter 5. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. When it says God commended His
love toward us, Who is the us? When it says that Christ died
for us, who is the us? Who does God love? That's our subject for this morning.
Who Does God love? Am I in this group God commended
his love toward us? Am I in that group that he commends
his love toward? Who does God love? Now many would
consider that question redundant. Very much like the question,
what color are all black cows? Well, I know what color all black
cows are. They're all black, every single
one of them. I mean, that question seems unnecessary. To many, the
answer is in the question. To many, it is a given that he
loves all men. And therefore the question is
answered even before it's asked. And most people would be horrified
at the suggestion that he does not love all men. Why that would
not be fair for him to not love all men. Why would you even bring
up something like that? Well, the question was not, who
does the God that loves all men love? That's not the question
I asked. That God is a figment of men's
imagination. That God is non-existent. That is not the God of the Bible. Now remember, the Bible is God's
infallible, inspired word. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God And this book that God has given us is a declaration
of the isness of God. If you want to know who God is,
he makes himself known in this book. Who is it that the God of the
Bible loves? Who does God love? Now, with regard to us and the
Bible, the Bible tells us that in Him we live and move and have
our being. And the last breath that you
took was the breath God gave you. And He can withhold it if
He's pleased to do so. And it would behoove you and
I to know who it is that God loves. I don't want to presume
on this, do you? I don't want to presume on this. You know,
the fact of the matter is, until someone has bowed the knee to
the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no reason to even suspect that
God loves them. You believe that? Who is it that
the living God loves? Now, I was blessed and privileged
to grow up in the 13th Street Baptist Church out of Ashland,
Kentucky. Brother Henry Mahan was my pastor,
and I'm so thankful for that great blessing. Now, a little
history lesson. When he had come to Ashland. He became the
assistant pastor and later the pastor of the Pollard Baptist
Church. And at the time, it was the largest
Southern Baptist Church in Eastern Kentucky. It was numerically
a big place. And in God's providence, they
invited a man by the name of Rolf Barnard to preach there.
And no one knew exactly what it was that he believed. And
I don't know why they, well, I know why they had him. The
Lord had him there, but they didn't know what was going to
take place. And he opened up the service
with this statement. There are two lies being spread
in Ashland, Kentucky, and everyone was silent. And he said, the
first one is this, that God loves everybody. And the second is
that Christ died for everybody. And they'd never heard anything
like that. And you can imagine the response at this time. These two lives are being circulated
today too, aren't they? Now, somebody may be thinking,
why make an issue of this? What is the point? What is the
purpose of making an issue of the fact that God doesn't love
everybody and Christ didn't die for everybody? That seems negative.
That seems almost inflammatory. Why are you even talking like
this? Well, let me give you four reasons why it's necessary to
make an issue of the fact, and notice I called it the fact,
that God does not love all men and that Christ did not die for
those that God does not love. Now here's the first reason.
The Bible makes an issue of this. That's enough of a reason, isn't
it? Turn with me to Romans chapter 9. You're there in Romans 9. the 13th verse as it is written. Well, let's back up to verse
11. We need to read those two for the children talking about
Jacob and Esau being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil that the purpose of God, according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that called. That's God's
purpose according to election. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I, what's that next word? Hated. Now I once had a Bible that had
a marginal reference and it said what that means is loved less. Can God love less? Can the infinite, holy, glorious
God love less? Turn with me for a moment to
Malachi chapter 1. This is what this is quoted from. Malachi chapter 1, verse 1, the
burden, last book in the Old Testament. right before the book of Matthew,
the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. This
is God speaking. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet you say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob and I loved
Esau less And in loving him less, I laid his mountains and his
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom,
the descendants of Esau say, we are impoverished, but we will
return and build the desolate hosts. They shall build, but
I'll throw it down. They shall call them the border
of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation
forever. Does that sound like love less
to you? Not in any way. Now remember this about God's
hatred. God's hatred is not like our hatred. You do me wrong,
I get mad at you. Pure self. God's hatred is with
regard to his justice and his holiness. It's a holy hatred. Not like our hatred. It's a holy
hatred. Let me show you some other scriptures.
Turn to Psalm 5. Verse 5. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Have you ever heard preachers
say, God loves the sinner, but he hates the sin? You ever heard
that? Is that the Bible? God doesn't
put sins into hell. He puts the people who committed
them. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Look in Psalm 7, verse 11. God judges the righteous, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 11, verse five,
or verse four, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne
is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids
try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked. And him that loveth violence,
his soul Now that's the word of God. The Bible makes an issue,
obviously, of the fact that God does not love everybody. Here's my second reason as to
why this is an important issue. To say that he loves all men
unconditionally is to degrade his character. It's degrading
to his character. Being holy, he cannot love evil. Now, people talk about God loving
people unconditionally. There's no such thing. There's
got to be something to love. God doesn't love evil. He doesn't. He only loves holiness and righteousness. And to say he loves an evil man
who dies in rebellion and hatred of him, and he ends up putting
him into hell, that would degrade his character. God's holy. Here's the third reason. To say
he loves all men the same is to make his love utterly meaningless. If he loved Jacob and Esau the
same, if he loved Judas, The same way he loved Peter, if he
loved them both equally, and yet one's saved and one's lost,
what does his love have to do with salvation? Absolutely nothing. Now, write that down. Now, to know he loves you is
the assurance of the believer. Paul said in Galatians chapter
two, verse 20, he loved me. and he gave himself for me. This is the assurance of the
believer, to look upon a group of people and tell them indiscriminately,
God loves you and Christ died for you. If that's my message,
number one, I have no love for God or I wouldn't be speaking
that way. And number two, I have no love
to the people that I'm preaching to or I wouldn't be speaking
that way. Now this is how important this issue is. someone who preaches
the message God loves everybody Christ died for everybody and
it's up to you as to whether or not you're going to accept
or reject what he did that's going to determine your position
in heaven that is another gospel someone that preaches that does
not preach the gospel someone that believes that does not believe
the gospel that's how important this is now who does God love. I want to know. I really do want
to know. I want to know if there's any
way he can love me. I see in myself, you know, Jacob
have I loved and Esau have I hated. I can see why he would hate Esau
because I can see why God would hate me and put me in hell. Can you see that about yourself?
Can you understand? I mean, I'm amazed at his love
for Jacob. I mean, Jacob, I could identify
with Jacob, but I'm amazed by his love of Jacob. But I can
see, honestly, I can see why God would hate me and put me
into hell. So I want to know if I could
be one of those people he loves. Who does God love? Now, I'm going
to look at every scripture that identifies exactly who it is
that he loves. And the first one is that opening
verse of scripture that I read in Romans chapter five, verse
eight. Would you turn back there? But God commendeth his love toward
us in the while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. And here's the first thing I
can tell you about the us that he died for. They are sinners. Now, what is a sinner? Well, the first thing I got to
ask is what is sin? What does the Bible say sin is?
First John 3, 4 says, sin is the transgression of the law. I can give five or six other
scriptural definitions, I realize that. I love that scripture in
Proverbs, the plowing of the wicked is sin. Do you want to
know what sin is? Well, if a wicked man does it,
it's sin, even if it's something as wholesome as plowing. I mean,
plowing seems to be a wholesome activity, doesn't it? I mean,
go out and plow to make crops, maybe to feed the poor. But if
a wicked man does it, it's sin. It's sin. Sin is the transgression
of God's holy law. What is a sinner? A sinner is
somebody who all he does is break God's holy law. That's it. He hadn't kept one
commandment one time. Would that be you? Would that be you? Somebody says,
no, I can't go that far. Well, I can't give you any assurance
that Christ died for you or that God loves you. But if you're
somebody who is a sinner, someone who all you do is break God's
holy law, you can't look down your nose at anybody because
you know in and of yourselves, you're the worst person to ever
live. You know that. If that's you,
God loves you. I'm sure of it. God loves you. That's the most important. Now, if that's who he loves,
I've got some hope that he loves me. If that really is who he
loves, I got some hope. He loves sinners. In Psalm 146, eight, why don't
you turn with me there? Psalm 146, like I said, we're
going to look at every scripture that tells us exactly who it
is that God loves. Scripture identifies this. Verse 8, The Lord openeth the
eyes of the blind. The Lord raiseth them that are
bowed down. The Lord loveth the righteous. Now, that almost seems contradictory,
doesn't it? You just said he loves sinners. And here it says
he loveth the righteous. Let me give you a hint. There's
only two kinds of people in this world, the wicked and the righteous. Now, do you understand that?
Here's something that I find very interesting. All of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous. All of the righteous believe
themselves to be wicked. No exceptions to this rule, none
at all. Well, how in the world can a
wicked man be righteous? Well, we've heard this scripture
several times throughout this weekend, for he hath made him
the Lord Jesus Christ to be sin. And what all that means, you
and I can't fully grasp, but he was made sin. Did he ever sin? No. This is worse. He was made sin. All that that means, all the
hell that's in my heart, he was made to bear and feel the guilt
and the shame and the humiliation of it. He experienced everything
about sin, but the commission of it. He was made sin for us. Who knew no sin? He never experienced
sin. He never sinned. He knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Now the Lord loveth the righteous
and He can look at poor old Noah Noah, who was just a sinful,
you have people thinking, well, Noah was just this really righteous
guy. Noah was a sinner just like you and I are. But he looked
at Noah and he said, thee have I seen as righteous before me. And you know, the Lord sees every
one of his people as altogether righteous. And the reason he
sees them that way is because that's the way they are. That's the
way they are. This is not a pretend thing.
This is not a, this is not so to speak. Every believer is righteous,
and the Lord loveth the righteous. Turn to John chapter 13, verse 1. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, When Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own, His own, which were in the world,
He loved them unto the end. Now, who are His own? Well, it's
His elect. Real simple. In John chapter
17, verse 9, the Lord said, I pray. Boy, the Lord's praying for you.
You in good shape? Huh? If the Lord calls your name
before the Father, how safe are you? How secure are you? He says, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world, but for them which you have given me, for
they are thine." This is his elect. He said, I came down from
heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. He prays for His own. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And somebody is wondering, am
I one of His people? Well, are you a sinner? That's
the only thing I'm asking you. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Is that you? Yes, you're one
of his people. In Jeremiah chapter 31, you don't
have to turn there. You've heard this, no doubt.
You can, if you want. But in Jeremiah 31, verse three,
God is speaking. And he says, the Lord hath appeared
of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Now the ones he loves are the
ones he has always loved. There was never a time when he
began to love me. Now that blows my mind. I don't
understand that, but there was never a time when God began to
love me. There was never a time when he
saw me and then gave me to Christ. No, I've always been in the beloved. Paul said, nothing shall separate
us. The same us where he said, if
God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, hath not with him freely
give us all things. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We read
in Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, 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 having predestinated us. In love having
predestinated us. Who's got love? Well, He loves
individuals. He loves individuals. Jacob have I loved. Now the Lord loves Solomon. Lord
loves Solomon. He never stopped loving him.
He was always the object of his affection. Remember that passage
of scripture where talked about Martha and Mary and Lazarus and
it says, Now, Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. He loved
them. What about when they told him
about Lazarus being sick? They said, Lord, that one who
loves you so much is sick. Know what they said, is it? Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. You know, the Lord looked at
the rich young ruler and Jesus beholding him loved him. What's John's claim to fame?
The beloved disciple. What did he refer to himself
as? That disciple that Jesus loved. You know, that's what
I want to be more than anything. I want to be that disciple that
Jesus loved. Now, I can find some security
there. He loved individuals. You see, his love is not generic. The names of all of his elect
were in his heart when he suffered in their room and in their stead.
My name, my worthless name was on his
heart. When he said, Father, forgive
them, he wasn't speaking generically. He's talking about Todd and Albert.
He's talking about every one of his elect. Now see, everybody
that he said, Father, forgive him, the Father forgave him.
There wasn't anybody he said, he didn't say generically, Father,
forgive him. No, he was talking about every one of his elect.
Father, forgive them. The Father always responds to
whatever the Son says. Anything the Son asks the Father
for, the Father doesn't say no. Everybody he prayed for. They
were forgiven. You see, his love is no generic
love. When the great high priest went
in to the Holy of Holies, he had the names of the 12 tribes
of Israel engraven on his breast. He loves individuals. In Proverbs 8, verse 17, you
can, I'll just quote it. He says, I love them that love
me. Now, I'm not asking you how much
you love. As a matter of fact, if you think
about your love, you'll probably... If you start thinking about your
love, you'll start wondering if you have any love at all. But I'm asking you this. Do you love His holiness? Do you love His justice? Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Do you love the fact that he's
all powerful, and so that whatever he wills, he has the power to
bring to pass? Do you love his sovereignty,
the fact that he controls everything, and is the first cause behind
everything? Do you love his sovereignty? Do you love his wisdom, the way
he's made a way to be just and yet justify the ungodly? Do you
love all of his excellent attributes? Do you love him as he is to the
point where if it were in your power, you wouldn't change him. I tell you, you, you wouldn't
change him. He's perfect. Well, you love
him. You love him. And the Lord said,
I love all those that love me. In Ephesians chapter 5, you're
familiar with this passage of scripture. Ephesians, if you
want to turn there, Ephesians chapter 5. Husbands, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should
be holy and without blemish. He loved the church. Now is everybody the church?
Of course not. The church is His people, His
bride, His elect. Turn to John chapter 3. Who does
God love? Now we're trying to answer this
from the scriptures. Who does God love? John chapter
3 verse 16 says, For God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, the world already was condemned,
but that the world through him might be saved. Who does God love? Well, He so
loved the world. Now, I've heard people say that
that means all men without exception. Well, you know from the other
scriptures that ain't what it means. I mean, it's just not even being
honest with it, not even being partially honest. You know it doesn't mean
that. Well, what does it mean then? It means exactly what it
says. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that anybody Whosoever believes the
gospel shall be saved. That's good news. I love the
word whosoever. That's one of my favorite words
in the scripture, whosoever, because I'm a whosoever. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, you
said whosoever, I'm calling, save me. Whosoever, whosoever. Isn't that saying that God loves
all men without exception? No, it ain't saying that. It's
just not. You know that from the light
of other scriptures. But it is saying that He loved the world
this much, that anybody who calls upon His name, anyone who believes
on the Son will be saved. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise,
for no reason whatsoever cast out. you come, you'll be received. That's how much he loved this
evil world. First John chapter three. First John chapter three. Behold, verse one, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us,
recognizes us, loveth us not, because it knew him not. He loves those the world does
not know." You know, Let's face it. The world doesn't know us. Who
are you? You're insignificant. You have
no power. You have no influence. I mean,
look at you. You all don't even count. I mean,
there's churches with thousands of people and here we are. Who
are you? The world knows us not. That's
okay, isn't it? That's okay. You know, whosoever
would be the friend of the world, the scripture says, is the enemy
of God. If any man loves the world and loves the Father, it's
not in him. I'm really okay to not be recognized by this world
that hates God. I don't want to be identified
with it. Do you? The world knows it's not. Turn to Deuteronomy
chapter 10. This kind of goes along with
this. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 17. For the Lord your God,
Deuteronomy 10, 17. For the Lord your God is a God
of gods, is the Lord of lords, a great God, and a mighty, and
a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He
doth execute judgment of the fatherless and widow. Look what
it says next. He loveth the stranger. He loveth the stranger. You know,
Peter wrote to the strangers scattered throughout those different
regions. You know what? I am a stranger
in this world. This world's not my home. I'm
just passing through, waiting for that time like we sang in
that opening song, waiting for that time when sin and sense
will molest no more. We're just passing through, waiting
for that time. The Lord loveth the strangers.
We're strangers and pilgrims here, aren't we? Strangers and
pilgrims. The world can't understand us,
and that's okay. But this is not our home. You
know, when you go to a hotel, you don't invest a bunch of money
into it. You're just there for a little while. I mean, I want
to be in a nice hotel room, but I'm not going to go buy new pictures
and hang it in there while I'm there for a day or two. I mean,
we're just here for a little while. This world is not our
home. We're strangers. Hebrews 12. This is a quotation from Proverbs. Verse six. For whom the Lord loveth. he chasteneth. And he scourges
every son whom he receiveth. Do you remember when the Lord
said to the church at Laodicea, Whom I love, I rebuke, and I
chasten. Who does the Lord love? He loves
the people he chastens. You see, you don't punish other
people's kids, do you? You just don't do it. You punish
your own. And it's not the punishment of
vindicativeness, it's for our good and His glory. The chasing
of the Lord. And what is the chasing? Does
that mean you get sick? Well, I'm sure it all is included. I remember one time, a fellow
came to visit me when I was in the hospital. And he told me,
he said, well, the reason you're there is because of what you
preach. I mean, he was another preacher. He was a Pentecostal
preacher. And I don't even know why I came to him. But at any
rate, I said, well, I said, if the Lord wanted to, he's got
plenty of reasons to chase me, but it ain't because of what
I preach. You know, I mean, I know that. I mean, there's a hard,
every time I, something happens to me, I think, well, what have
I done? Or what, you know, or I think of things I haven't.
And I don't know. I mean, you go, but, but the
chasing of the Lord more than anything else is his, is him
hiding his face. to where you don't feel His presence. And that's the sorest of all
chastening. A believer can't handle that.
I have to have His presence. I can't be left to myself. I
can't be left to myself. Have mercy on me. That's the
chastening of the Lord. But whom the Lord loves, He chastens. Now, I don't want to be chastened,
but I want to be chastened. Because whom the Lord loveth,
He chastens. 2 Corinthians 9. Verse 7. Every man according as he purposes
in his heart. Now here he's talking about giving. How much should I give? However
much I purpose in my heart. That's how much. That's how much
somebody ought to give, whatever the Lord leads them to. Every
man, according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give. Not grudgingly. Look at what
I'm losing in giving. I'm going to lose my vacation.
I mean, this is very hard on me to give like this. I mean,
no. Not grudgingly, not, I'm doing this. Or a necessity. Don't give to
a need. Don't give because this bill
needs to pay or that needs, but if everything's good, I don't
need to give because we don't have a need. No, you give as unto the Lord. Every
time you give, you give as unto the Lord. You know, one thing
you can't do, you can't out get God. Can't be done. Can't be
done. Every man, according as he purposes
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. You know, giving is the principal
word of the gospel. God so loved the world that he
gave. God so loved the world that he
gave. And I want to be a giver, don't
you? It's more blessed to give than
to receive. And God loveth. Now that's what
the scripture says. God loveth a cheerful giver. That's where we get the word
hilarious from. I mean, it's fun. It's enjoyable. You know,
you love to give to folks you love, don't you? You love to
give to folks you love. God loveth a cheerful giver. Who does God love? God loves sinners. Aren't you
thankful for that? God loves the righteous. He loves
his own. He loves those that he has always
loved. He loves individuals. He loves
those that love him. He loves the church. He loves
the world. He loves the stranger. He loves
the ones the world does not know. He loves the ones he chastens. And he loves a cheerful giver. I want to be that one whom God
loves. And let's begin right here. He
loves sinners. And if I'm in that group, I'm
in all the rest of them. Amen. It's been a blessing of
England.