Again, if you'll turn with me
to 1 John chapter 4. Let's begin reading in verse
9 and look through verse 11. In 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.
And then John makes this statement, herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. Now I'm convinced that men by
nature, and I speak of myself first and foremost, really don't
know much, if anything, about true love. Most of what men call
love is just tainted and it's conditional at its best state. It's dependent upon the other. We love others when they love
us. That's easy to do. And I sometimes
wonder if I've ever really loved someone that seemed to hate me,
didn't like me. I'd have to say no. Have I ever
really wanted to be kind to someone that was cruel to me? Let's just be honest. It's not
the easiest thing in the world to do. It's hard to be kind to
someone that treats you bad, treats you horribly. And I suppose
that, but by the grace of God, I'll never be able to do that. Not in this fallen state of humanity,
but by God's grace. When someone's mean, distant,
unkind to me, my natural tendency is just to avoid them. I'm just being truthful with
you. Talking about me now. By nature, I really wonder if
any of us, as I said, but by the grace of God, are able to
be gracious and generous to those who hate us and despitefully
use us. Our love is so conditional. But it's a quite different thing
with God Almighty. Quite a different thing when
we speak of the love of God. First, we must understand that
God's love is just the opposite of ours. It's totally unconditional. God's love is independent. God's
love is non-conditional of us in every way. And I think we
can see that, if God permit, in the light of what the beloved
John writes here in verse 10. He tells us what true love is.
But really in verse 9 too, because it says that the love of God
is manifested toward us because He sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. And then he
says, herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us and He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. John shows us something about
the true love of God in his statements in these two verses. God loved
His elect children so much that He gave and He sent His only
begotten Son. Men have taken John 3.16 and
just messed it all up, but one of the most beautiful scriptures
ever written, for God so loved the world, his people in the
world, that he gave, that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth on him should have everlasting life. He loved
his elect so much that he gave the thing that was most dear
to him. He sent His Son into the world,
which we've said many times denotes that His Son was not in this
world, not of this world. His Son had always been with
Him, reigning and ruling on the throne. John 1, such a familiar
passage of Scripture, 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. And all things were made by Him.
This speaks of Christ. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. And the beauty of this is that
God was made to be flesh. Mind-boggling. We'll never fully
wrap our finite minds around that. He became a man to redeem
man. Became what we were. What caused
God, what would cause Him to send His beloved Son in the flesh
to dwell among us? Well, you know the answer. But
it's only because God revealed it to you. He sent Him to die
in the place of sinful men and women whom He chose before the
foundations of the world. Love? Herein is love, John says. This is the perfect example of
love. The love of God is found in this
great truth, He sent His Son to be propitiation. Now that
word basically means appeasement, satisfaction, payment of our
sin. He sent His Son to be made sin
for His sheep and give them in return perfect righteousness
Those who have no righteousness. Now that's love. That's love. What self-denying, amazing, unexampled
love. Never been another love like
it, never will be. And truthfully, I or no man have
the words that really show forth the excellence of God's love. In order to save and redeem his
people, it was necessary that the only begotten son of the
Father should suffer in the flesh, that he should be delivered into
the hands of sinners, that he'd be cruelly mistreated, spit upon,
and nailed to a tree and put to death. And that's exactly
what you and I deserved. That's the gospel of substitution.
Had a man tell me one time, he says, why don't you go into the
deeper things of God? There's nothing any deeper than
that. And I suppose that I can put this myself personally and
a little more into perspective when I consider this question,
would I give my son to die? God's love goes really much further
than even that because of whom he gave his son to die. Many a parent relinquished in
their own mind and hearts their sons and daughters to go into
the military to serve and fight for this country's freedom. But
who would ever give up their child for their worst enemy? Who'd give up their child for
one who never did them any service, treated them ungratefully, even
despised their existence? Who'd give up their child for
that person? Not I. Just wouldn't do it. But I'm
not God. And I'm glad that I'm not. That
is exactly what God did for us, friends. And if I could leave
you with one thing tonight, It would be that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly,
those that hated Him, despised Him, that said in their heart,
I won't have Him to rule over me. May we consider the love
of God the Son who was willing to die in our place. That Holy
One was willing to become a man, willing to take our sins upon
Him, willing to suffer God's wrath for our sins. Can't go
any deeper than that, dear friends. That's the heart of the Gospel.
He was willing to endure the bloody sweat to bear His back
to the stripes of hate. The great God-man was willing
to give himself up completely, body and soul, to the pains of
such a death that none has ever known or ever will. The only
words the Apostle John could find in his heart to say concerning
these things was, herein is love. This is love. You want to know
something about love? This is love. And may God for
a few minutes give us a mental vision in considering God's great
love towards His people. God help us to see. He who was
the Lord of glory became a baby, a child, raised under the authority
of parents, never once disobedient, never once sinned in thought
or deed. And they took him, and they hired
false witnesses against him, and they got him arrested, and
he was mocked by the rough and the cruel soldier. They spit
in his face. Men spitting in God's face. And
we say, oh, I've never done that. We do even today. We spit in
his face. Every time we doubt him, every
time we don't trust him, we're spitting in his face. They plucked
half the hair of his beard. They called him king and they
mocked him by bowing to him as if he was one laughing and joking
among them. So he's the king, he's the king
of the Jews. And he was beaten and whipped
more severely than any movie has ever been able to portray.
Isaiah 53, 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions. That's
love. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was appointed and with his stripes
we are healed. This message of substitution
is the only message that a believer desires to heal. It's what comforts
him. It's what gives him hope. God
himself did for me what I couldn't do for myself. And it doesn't
stop there. He's made to carry his cross
upon his shoulders through the streets of Jerusalem. He's brought
to a small hill outside the gates of Jerusalem called Golgotha.
And the Romans typically executed and condemned these folks in
public places, often by a road near the city. And this was done
so that the residents would be reminded of the fate that awaited
anyone who dared to challenge their authority. God was treated
this way publicly in front of all to see. Then he was taken
and thrown on his back and iron spikes were driven into his hands
and feet. Then as they often did after
they dug the hole, they lifted him up in a vertical position
and just let the what he hung on, drop in the hole, was to
jar him so hard that it'd dislocate his bones. And according to Psalm 22, the
prophecy, he cries, I'm poured out like water. And my bones
are out of joint, my strength is dried up like potsherd, and
my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into
the dust of death. And I can just imagine that he
suffered fever due to the infection of the exposed nerves in his
back, and now his hands and feet. And as the psalmist said that
I just read, his tongue cleaves to his jaw and he cries, I thirst.
And you know what they do? They dip a sponge in vinegar
and stick it to his mouth. Here in his love. And none of
this, now listen, if you don't hear anything else, hear this.
None of this even begins to compare with the torture of God's divine
wrath upon him. All the sins of all the elect
throughout all time on him. Oh my. The soul torture. My God. My God, why has thou
forsaken me? You look in the mirror, you'll
see why. Oh, his physical torture doesn't even begin to compare
with his soul torture. No man had ever felt suffering
physically much more the way he suffered spiritually. And I declare to you, according
to the word of God, it was all done for those who hated him. His enemies. But herein is love. No man's capable, I'm convinced,
of loving his wife if Christ loved the church. We're commended
to do that. How could I love my wife like
Christ loved me? Here's God's perfect example
of how and why we should love our wives. unconditionally. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and what gave him so forth. Herein
is the love that causes the church to submit unto Christ and causes
a woman to endeavor to submit unto her husband as unto the
Lord. Herein is love. Now I want to
give you just three things quickly that I believe are apparent from
mainly verse 10. Herein is love. Number one, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us. You see, friends, it's
according to grace and mercy alone that God would love us.
Nothing in us, nothing in us that would cause God to be mindful
of us, much less merciful and gracious to us. And as I said
earlier, to love someone who loves you, that's just the law
of nature. But God loved us when we did
not love Him. Christ died for the ungodly,
as I said. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. And one old writer once said,
there's not a man on earth who loved God. Not by nature. There was none that did good.
We know that from the scriptures. No, not one. And yet the Lord
God of heaven and earth fixed the eye of electing love upon
those who didn't love Him. Had no thought of loving Him.
had no desire to love him. There's no more love to and for
God in an unrenewed heart than there is a piece of granite.
There's no more love of God within the soul of the unsaved man than
there's a blazing open fire in the depths of the ocean. And
you and I both know very well that God did not love us because
we first loved Him. First of all, our own heart and
soul bears witness. Those that truly know God. And
verse 19 declares it from the Word of God. We love Him. Why?
Because He first loved us. That doesn't sound much like
the preaching I hear anymore. Men talk about how much they
love Jesus. And I'll say it again, men do
not generally love those that hate them or those who spite
them, and yet God loved us when we did not love Him at all. Herein is love, an insignificant
creature, vile, filthy, polluted, loved by the Creator, and loved
with all the infinite affection of God's heart. Wow. It pleased Him to do so. We ought
to stand still and wonder. We can't fathom the depth. We
can't scale the height. For the thoughts of our imaginations
are so much lower than God's. Our ways so much lower. His ways so much higher than
ours, I should say. So much so that Isaiah said,
for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways,
God speaking, than yours and my thoughts, than your thoughts.
Second thing, God's love was unsought by us. We didn't seek
God's love. Not till he made us willing.
Not till he had already done a work of grace. Not till he
had already given our dead hearts life. No way. Not that we love God, but that
God loved us and what sent His Son. We never sent to Him, did
we? He sent to us. Now let's just
suppose for a moment that we'd been conscious of our sins. Suppose
that we had fallen on our knees and we cried day in and day out
with tears of repentance, crying, Father, forgive us. Father, forgive
us. And if that were true, And it
would have been nothing short of great love that God would
devise a way even then of pardoning us. Would it not? But it's just
the opposite. God sent an ambassador of peace
to us. We didn't send or give anything
to Him. There was nothing about Him that we desired. We found
no comeliness in Him. Nothing appealing in Him. We
turned our back on Him and went farther and farther from Him.
Oh friends, Christ has not come into the world to be sought for,
but to seek and to save them that are lost. Is that not right? Is that not what this book teaches?
It all begins with Him. It all ends with Him. Salvation
is of the Lord from the beginning to the end. He saves us by His
grace, He keeps us by His grace, and we persevere by His grace,
and we endure to the end by His grace, here in His love. Unsought,
unasked by us who are the objects of His compassion, here in His
love, John says. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son. What does man have to glory in,
dear friends, but the grace and mercy and love of God? That's
why David said, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. In
verse 11, and my last point, beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. And that's my third and last
point. We ought, we ought also to love one another. Dear believer,
by the love of God which He's manifested to you, we're bound
to love one another. We are to love one another, though
all of us have many infirmities. There are many professing believers
that say they can't love such and such a brother or such and
such a sister because they've been offended. Haven't we all
offended Christ? Herein is love. Herein is love. Should Christ forgive us of all
our sins? And we not forgive our brothers
and sisters? And Matthew's gospel says, but
if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive you yours. But so and so, they did not treat
me respectably. I'm guilty of saying that. Poor
worms want to be treated respectfully? Respectably? We better get a clear view, by
God's grace, of what we are. And yet we, in no shape, form,
or fashion, ever, ever treat God with respect. before he intervened
by mercy and grace in our lives. And yet we've got the gall to
say, they didn't treat me respectfully. Oh, God help us. There's really
not anything that anyone could say bad about me that's not in
some way true, I'll tell you that. If I haven't done it, more
than likely I've thought it to do it. And rather than get angry,
may the Lord teach us just to smile. Just smile. Who are we
that we should expect anybody to honor us when none of us ever
honored our Lord? What hypocrites we are by nature. Oh, let us be ready to forgive,
even as our Lord said, 70 times 7. Verse 9 said, And this was
manifested, the love of God toward us, because... How do we know
that God's love was manifested toward us? Because God sent His
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
That's the only way we can live, friends. And here in His love,
men are standing and saying, Oh, I love God with all my heart. herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us. And again, John reiterates and
says, and He sent His Son. How do I know God loves me? He sent His Son to die for me
in my place, in my stead, to be the appeasing, the propitiation
for my condemned state before me. And beloved, in the conclusion
of the matters, if God loved us that much, Shouldn't we love
one another the same way? And yet I tell you that only
the grace and mercy, continual grace and mercy of God, will
cause it to be so.