They used to use a symbol of
a hand pointing. These folks who use computers
have those little icons now, they're like that. It's a symbol
of a hand pointing, to call attention to something. And whenever there
was some important thing to be demonstrated in the books, I
suppose because of the textiles, they would, rather than having
bold faces, they'd just have a hand pointing to call attention
to that particular thing. There are words used in the scriptures
to call our attention, specifically to certain things that need to
be read as though they were typed out in bold-faced capital letters. And one of those words is the
word, Behold. It's used throughout the scriptures to call our attention
to specific things that we must understand. Specific things that
we must pause and meditate upon and seek from God a clear understanding
of. In particular, there are three
things with which this word, behold, is connected, which God,
by His Spirit, calls our attention to in a most emphatic manner. I want us to begin this morning
in John chapter 1 and verse 29, a very familiar text of Scripture.
John the Baptist was doing his ministry. He was preaching and
baptizing, and he saw the Son of God coming to him. He saw
the Lord Jesus coming to him, and as he was watching him approach,
he said to those who were hearing him preach, he said, Now, fellas,
behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. Look
at it. The next day, John seeth Jesus
coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. He bears our sin, and bears it
away, the sins of his people in all generations, in all parts
and kinds and conditions of society throughout the world, behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Now
I want you to do that. I hope, I pray, God help us by
your Spirit, every soul here, to behold the Lamb of God this
day who takes away the sin of the world. Some of you are here
without Christ under the wrath of God. The weight of your sin,
I hope, has begun to crush your heart. You feel the weight of
your sin, your guilt, your depravity crushing you as it were down
to hell itself, and you feel like, I simply cannot go on in
this miserable state. I cannot go on in this terrible
sense of curse and condemnation. I cannot go on like I am. I call
on you now. like that first Baptist preacher
caught on those who heard him, to behold the Lamb of God. Look
to Christ. Look to Him. He says, Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God,
and beside me there is none else. Look to Christ and live. Look to Him, and your burden
goes away. One of my favorite pictures given
in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is that of A pilgrim, when he
has the terrible weight on his back, he has that terrible, terrible
load, the load of guilt and sin. And he had been to this place,
he had been to that, he had been to Mount Sinai, and he couldn't
find any relief. But he said, when I went up to
Mount Calvary, and beheld the Lamb of God, the burden of my
sin rolled away. And I'm telling you, as you look
to Christ, the burden of your guilt rolls away. He's taken
away the sins of his people. He hasn't tried to do it. He
hasn't made it possible for sin to be taken away. He has, by
His sacrifice, put away sin. He bore our sins away so that
they are never called back to remembrance by God Almighty.
Behold Him and live. You say, Preacher, what do you
mean, behold Him? Sometimes I think that we try
to explain things that are so simple that they should need
no explanation at all. But let me try to illustrate
it, rather than explain it. When the children of Israel,
you'll remember in the wilderness, were bitten by fiery serpents
and they were perishing, God commanded Moses to make a brazen
serpent, like the serpent that had bitten the children of Israel,
and lift it up on a pole. And he said, it'll come to pass
that everyone who looks on that brazen serpent, everyone, he
didn't have to see it clearly, just look. He didn't have to
see it with both eyes, just look. It doesn't even say he has to
speak, it just says, look, everyone who looks upon that serpent,
that is, everyone who believes me, will be made whole. And as
soon as a man looked at that serpent, just that quickly, as
soon as he looked at the serpent of brass, he looked that way,
and just get a glimpse of that dazzling, brilliant serpent of
brass, head up on a pole, as soon as he looked, he was made
whole, just like that. As soon as you look to Christ,
you're made whole before God. As soon as you look to Him, the
burden and guilt of your sin is taken away. My message is
the same to you who are born of God, to you here who are already
heirs of eternal life. Whatever your soul's trouble
is, whatever your need is, whatever your heart craves, whatever your
present condition is, this is what you need to do. You need
this hour to behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world. I have often said preachers are
like the pole to which Moses fixed that serpent, held it up. We're good for only one thing,
holding up the serpent. We're good for only one thing,
holding up Christ crucified before men. That's my responsibility. That's what I pray God will enable
me to do today. I hold him up for you to behold
him. Behold the Lamb of God. If you can, if you will, you'll
worship Him. You'll worship Him. Behold the
Lamb of God, and wonder, be astounded at Him. You'll be constantly
amazed as you look away to Christ, amazed at Him who was sacrificed
for you. Behold the Lamb of God, and be
ravished with His mercy, His love, and His grace. I promise
you, if you look to Him, you'll be ravished by Him. If you look
to Him, if God will give you grace just to look to Him, give
you eyes to behold Him, your soul will be ravished by Him.
Behold the Lamb of God and you will find inspiration for your
soul's devotion to Him. Behold the Lamb of God and you'll
be broken over your sin, your indifference, and your hardness
of heart just to look to Christ to take care of it. Behold the
Lamb of God and you will be revived, renewed, and refreshed this day.
with the fullness of grace in him. Behold the Lamb of God being
in all the scriptures, as he is prophesied, testified, identified,
crucified, and glorified. Behold the Lamb of God is the
message of this book. Next, I want you to turn back
to Lamentations, the book of Lamentations, chapter 1. And listen as the Lamb of God
himself speaks. Here in Lamentations, chapter
1, verse 12, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, speaks and calls
for us to behold with reverence His sufferings and sorrows as
our substitute. Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Is it nothing to you? Is this
Is this insignificant to you? Is this meaningless to you? Is
this something that doesn't demand your constant, constant, constant
study, constant, constant seeking, constant, constant reverence?
Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold and
see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done
unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger." The scriptures call our attention
constantly to that which Christ suffered, to that which he endured,
to the sacrifice he made that we might live. I want you, as
I preach to you today, and as I preach to you tonight, as I
preach to you every time we meet together, I want you to see the
suffering of the Son of God. Do you see him hanging upon the
cursory? There he suffers all the horrid
ignominy and terror of God's unmitigated wrath, in his body,
in his heart, and in his very soul. The Son of God was filled
with sorrow, with suffering, and with wrath to redeem and
save us. Bill, if you and I can get hold
of that, if we, if our hearts ever really get hold, if it ever
gets hold of us, we'll never be the same. One of the hymn
writers said, yonder amazing sight I see, the incarnate Son
of God expiring on the cursed tree and weltering in his blood,
Behold the purple Torah gone down from his hands and head,
the crimson tide puts out the sun, his groans awake the dead. The trembling earth, the darkened
sky, proclaim the truth aloud with the amazed and cheering
cry, This is the Son of God. So great, so vast a sacrifice,
may well my hope revive. If God's own Son thus bleeds
and dies, the sinner sure may live. Oh, that these cords of
love divine might draw me, Lord, to Thee. Thou hast my heart,
it shall be Thine, Thine forever, Thine." Behold and see, our Savior
says, if there be any sorrow likened to my sorrow. What was
the source of it? It was that, he says, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
It pleased the Lord, he says, to bruise me. It was God's work
of inflicting this sorrow upon me. The Lord God himself has
put me to grief. The Lord God himself punishes
me for sin. For what was the cause of his
sorrow? Why did the Lord God pour out this wrath upon him?
Because the holy, immaculate, sinless, spotless Son of God
was now made to be sin for us, and he became now the object
of God's wrath, the object of God's judgment, the object of
God's unmitigated anger, and he poured out his wrath upon
him so that he might suffer all the consequences and all the
penalty of sin on our behalf. Well, why? Why on earth did the
Son of God endure such sorrow? Why did he suffer such? Why did
he endure this being made sin, being made the object of God's
wrath, so that God himself must make sin? Why? He endured the
agony of hell, that he might redeem and save his people, that
we might be made the righteous Oh, wonder of wonders. Jesus
Christ was made to be seen, and suffered all the sorrow of
judgment, all the torment of judgment, all the consequences
of sin for the satisfaction of justice. So that we who are nothing but
sin, and fully deserve the unmitigated wrath of God in hell, so that
we might be made the very righteousness of God in him." That's enough preaching. That's
enough. Oh, if he could just get a hold
of this. Why did he endure such torment? The hell he endured was our hell! The death he died was our death!
The judgment he bore was our judgment! And he did it so that
we might never endure the wrath of God, the judgment of God,
and the death in hell that's deserving to our sins. It is
in consideration of all these things that John the Apostle
calls for us over in 1 John chapter 3. To behold with deep and joy,
and exalting confidence and praise, the love of God for His elect.
Behold the Lamb of God. Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto His sorrow. And now, behold what manner of
love. The Father hath bestowed on us
that we should be called the sons of God. Now I want to talk to you this
morning about the love of God. And it's a big subject. Big, big subject. So I'm going
to talk to you about it this morning, and then talk to you
about it again tonight, Lord willing. I want you to turn with
me to John chapter 17, to our Lord's high priesthood prayer.
As we obey this command and behold the love of God, In verse 23, the Lord Jesus speaks. He is speaking to God, His Father,
on our behalf. He is expressing His desires
as our great high priest. Now remember, what He desires,
He's going to have. What He prays for, God's going
to get it. The Father cannot turn away the
prayers of His God Almighty will give Jesus Christ everything
he seeks, everything he desires. He's our great High Priest who
has satisfied justice. Now look here at verse 23. He
says, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, that the world may know, now here's my subject, that thou
hast loved them as thou hast loved me." What a stupendous, amazing statement. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. Now, I'm going to be honest with
you. I wouldn't dare think much less
say it, if it wasn't written right here in the book of God.
The Son of God says, I want the world to know, and I want them
to know, that you love them as you love me. Now without question, these verses
teach us, or this verse and these statements teach us far more
than we're going to look at today, but I want to concentrate on
that one statement from our Lord's lips, and I want you to understand
that God our Father loves His elect as He loves Jesus Christ
Himself. Arthur Peake said that God's
going to fulfill this prayer like this, when God's elect have
all been gathered together in one, when the glory which Christ
received from the Father has been imparted to thee. when they
shall have been made perfect in one, then shall the world
have such a clear demonstration of God's power, grace, and love
toward his people, that they shall know that the one who died
to make this glorious union possible was the sent one of God, and
that God has loved them for whom he has sent, even as he has loved
him from everlasting. that the world may know that
thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." And when our
Lord says this, the little word, as, that's used here, has at
least three means. It has at least three things
that are clearly implied in it. Let's look at them one at a time.
First, there is a similarity of cause between the love of
God for Christ and the love of God for his people. God loves
us in Christ. Now, I can't stress that enough.
God's love is not a universal sentiment that has no power and
no effect upon man. It is not a universal passion
for all men. God's love is in Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, God is a consuming
fire. We cannot approach God, and God
will not approach us outside Jesus Christ. That needs to be
understood. In these days, men everywhere are taught, and universally
presumed, that God loves them. You see bumper stickers and placards
and tracts and all kinds of nonsense, all kinds of folks saying, God
loves you, God loves you, God loves you, the whole world being
convinced God loves them, and it's just not so. It's just not
so. Some of you are here today without
faith in Christ. Now, I want you to hear this
preacher. I'm going to tell you the truth. I want you to hear
me. You have no reason to even suspect that God has any grace,
any love, or any mercy for you. none whatsoever. The Scriptures
nowhere teach that God loves men who are lost in their sins.
The Scriptures nowhere teach that men and women who are yet
without Christ have any claim upon God's love, but rather the
Scriptures declare the wrath of God abideth upon you. Is that
what this book teaches? This book declares that men and
women by nature are children of wrath. Now, I know God's love
is eternal. I know that our faith does not
cause God to love us, but that our faith is the result and fruit
of God's love for us. But nowhere do the Scriptures
declare to any man that God loves you until you believe Christ.
Nowhere. Nowhere. People teach their children
this thing, Jesus loves me, this I know, or the Bible tells me
so, I won't ask every one of them where. What does the Bible
tell you of that? The Word of God doesn't tell
you that, false prevention tells you that. The Word of God declares
the wrath of God abides on you. Now, if you believe Him, if you
trust the Son of God, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
love of God in Him may manifest in your soul. But not until you
believe Him. Not until you trust the Son of
God. We give sinners a false sense of security and a false
sense of hope before God by telling them that God loves them while
they yet stand in rebellion against Him. Telling them that God loves
them while they refuse to bow to Him. Telling them God loves
you while they refuse to submit to His Son and believe on Him.
Oh no, no, no, no. Outside Christ, God's angry. with the wicked every day. And
God is a consuming fire, and if you meet God outside Christ,
the fires of hell, the very wrath of God that kindles the fires
of hell right now, will consume you in his judgment and in his
wrath. God's love, then, is in Christ.
He loves his elect in Christ, only in Christ. He chose us in
Christ, he accepts us in Christ, he loves us in Christ. And God
loves us for Christ's sake. The Puritan Thomas Menton wrote,
The elect are made lovely, and fitted to be accepted by God
only by Jesus Christ. The ground of all that love God
beareth to us, that is the foundation of all God's love to you and
me, is in Christ, all of it. We saw last week that we are
accepted in the That is, God accepts our faith. He accepts
our worship. He accepts our works. He accepts
our persons only because of Jesus Christ, because we are united
to Christ, because we are one with Christ, and because of all
that Christ has done for us. I will stress this again because
I want you to understand clearly. There is no acceptance with God
apart from Christ. There is no acceptance with God
apart from Christ. These days of ecumenism, men
everywhere are talking about people worshiping God after their
own fashion, you know. The Jews worship God after their
fashion, and the Islamic folks worship God after their fashion,
and Christians worship God after their fashion. Let me tell you
something. Nobody worships God Nobody worships
God but those who worship God, trusting Jesus Christ alone as
Savior. All other people are heathen
and idolaters and do not know God. Their religion is false
religion. I'm telling you, no, it doesn't
matter what I say. The book of God declares there
are exceptions before God. It's Jesus Christ alone. And
God the Father loves us for the same reason that he loves his
son. Look at it. Thou hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. Now, I've been studying that
for a good while, and I wanted to be sure I stated things exactly
right and understood them exactly right, and I want to be sure
you do. God the Father does not love us for the same reason that
he loves his son as his son. Oh no, not at all. His love for
his son as the son of God is a necessity. He must love his
son as his son because he and his son are one, and not to love
his son is not to love himself. He must cease to exist as God. But our Savior is speaking here
as our Mediator, and so many times, so many times, heresy
arises because men fail to distinguish between things said in the Scriptures
concerning Christ as our Mediator, and things said concerning Him
as the Son of God. Here our Savior speaks as our
Mediator and High Priest, and He says as a man, Father, you've
given me glory. He didn't give it to him as God.
He gave it to him as a man. He gave it to him as a result
of what he did in his obedience to God as a man. He says, I've
been obedient to the commandment of my Father, not as God discerned,
but as a man. He was obedient to the Father
in all things. And here he says, you've loved
them. Love Bob Pontius, just like you
loved me. That is to say, you love that
man. That man, sitting right there, just like we love that
man who sits upon the throne of glory. Just that same way. Can you get over that? Bobby
Estes, God Almighty, loves you as a man, like He loves that
man, who's at His right hand. That's what He said, Thou hast
loved them as thou hast loved Me. So that God's love for Christ
as a man, as our mediator, is based upon His obedience to God
as a man. Let me show you that in the Scriptures.
Come back to John 10 again. John chapter 10. We've looked
at this several times in the last few weeks, but it'll bear
a little repetition. John 10 verse 14. Our Savior says, I am the good
shepherd. and know my sheep and them known of mine. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must break. And they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me." Wait a minute, didn't he love
him from everlasting? Of course he did. Didn't he love
him before he came into the world? Of course he did. Didn't he love
him before he agreed to be our surety? Of course he did. But
now he speaks as our surety. Now he speaks as our good shepherd
whose works were finished before the foundation of the world in
the covenant of grace, and he says, because of my obedience
to the Father, as the shepherd of my people. Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again." Now, I hope you understand what our Lord's teaching here.
God's love for us is free, and at the same time, totally deserved.
He said in Hosea 14, 4, I will love them freely, and yet His
love, mercy, grace, and salvation flow to us upon the merit of
Christ's obedience as the God-man, our representative and mediator.
Let me show you. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4,
Ephesians 4, verse 32. The apostle Paul is
giving us this marvelous exhortation to unity and love and kindness. And he says, be kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, do you
see it? For Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. God could not and would not forgive
Rex Bartley of his sin, otherwise. He would not and could not. But
for Christ's sake, he cared, and he did. Now, his providing Christ to
be our mediator, his purpose to forgive, his willingness to
forgive, is altogether free. But now, he does so on the ground
of justice, with honor to his name. For Christ's sake, he forgives
us. Let me again quote the Puritan
Thomas, man. God could not love us with honor
to himself. if his wisdom had not found out
this way of loving us in Christ. God was resolved to manifest
an infinite love to man, but he would still manifest an infinite
hatred against sin, which could not be more manifested than by
making Christ the ground of our reconciliation. How could the
holy God, the just God, love such vile and worthy creatures
as we are? The question is answered. He
loveth us in Christ, and for Christ's sake. God the Father
looked upon his Son from old eternity as our perfect, obedient
mediator, and for the sake of his Son he loved us from everlasting
upon the basis of what his Son promised to do for us. This word as suggests a likeness
of love. Not only does God love us so
that the cause of his love for us is like the cause of his love
for his Son, the cause of his Son's obedience, but he loves
us like he loves his Son. That's even more astounding.
The Lord God loves his people in the same way as he loves the
mediator the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved Christ as the head of
his mystical body, the Church, and he loves us as members. He
loved Christ for his own sake, but he loves us for Christ's
sake. God the Father loved Christ, the God in Him, as the expressed
image of his person. When the Lord God said, let us
make man in our image and after our enlightenment, I'm absolutely
certain that what he was saying is, now here is the surety, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has agreed to go and
redeem and save my people. Let's make Adam like him. The
Lord Jesus is the image of God, and God only loves him. Our souls are loved of God as
the image of God in Jesus Christ. loved of God in the same way,
for the same reason as Jesus Christ himself. Because the Savior
says, Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me, we are assured
that God loves his elect freely. As we've already seen, the Lord
Jesus earned his Father's love as a man by his mediatorial obedience,
and yet when our Savior came into the world We're told that
the Lord loved him, even before he had obeyed the Father. Turn
back to Isaiah 42. Isaiah chapter 42. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him, he
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now that's a prophecy
of the incarnation of Christ, Him coming into the world through
the womb of the Virgin Mary as a baby, made in a manger. And
the Lord God says, look at Him. I delight in Him. I delight in
Him. So that as a man, He loves Him
freely as He comes into the world before He's done anything. Even
so, He loves His people in Jesus Christ freely. The Lord God speaks
in Deuteronomy. Lindsay read it for us either
Tuesday or Sunday, he said, he said, I have loved you freely. Because the Lord loved your fathers
freely, he chose them. And he says in Hosea, I will
love them freely, I will love them without any cause, without
any cause in them, but all the causes in me. So that God's love
to his people is totally unconditional. He doesn't love us because of
something we do. He doesn't love us because it's something we
may earn from Him or lack. His love is not lacking because
it's something human that we may do. He doesn't give love
here and take it away here, conditioned upon what man does or what he
sees that man will do. But rather He loves us freely. It's so almost impossible for
us to get hold of that, because we can't love freely. We don't
know anything about that. We don't know anything about
that. I love my wife, and I'd love to be able to love
her freely. But there was a whole lot in her that attracted my
love to start with, and a whole lot that keeps it now. I love
my daughter, but she's my daughter. I love you, but you're my friends.
We don't know anything about free love, but God loves us absolutely,
without condition, without qualification, free, free. Imagine that, freely. God loves us tenderly and affectionately. As the Father's love for his
son is a tender, indescribably affectionate love, so God's love
for us is tender. and indescribably affectionate.
Let me read a couple of passages. Look in Isaiah 62. Isaiah 62,
verse 5. As a young man marrieth a virgin,
so shall thy sons marry thee, and as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over the bride. You remember? I got married, I was 18 years
old, and Shelby and I had been courting a couple of years, been
engaged for a year, and I remember that Sunday afternoon, June 1st,
1969, like it was yesterday. I was standing down in front
of the church building, and they started playing that wedding
march, I turned around and looked at her, and man, I got flustered,
I got butterflies, I got excited, I just, and I was beaming from
ear to ear. I mean just beaming from here
to here. She's mine now. She's mine now. Oh, I've got
her. You boys eat your heart out.
She's mine. She's mine. Now look here. As the bridegroom
rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
thee. That's just too much. That's
just too much. So shall my God rejoice in love
over you. He said, you're the apple of
my eye. He that touches you, touches the apple of my eye.
Zephaniah said to the Lord, God shall rejoice over thee with
joy and with singing. And God's love for his elect
is immutable. Now the Lord willing, I'll say
more about that tonight. But for now, let me really remind
you that there is no possibility of change in the love of God.
God's love doesn't fluctuate. It doesn't change. It cannot
be taken from us. It cannot be destroyed neither
by us nor by hell itself. It's immutable. Turn to Romans
chapter 8, Romans the 8th chapter, and listen to what the Apostle
Paul says. This man believing God speaks with confidence. And as
you read this 8th chapter of Romans, and the challenges that
Paul hears, either he is the most presumptive arrogant fool
who ever lived. Well, he's a man of confident
faith, one of the two. But he's a man of confident faith.
He issues these challenges. Having spoken what he did concerning
God's everlasting purpose of grace, he says in verse 31, what
shall we then say to these things? And then he begins to answer
his question. If God be for us, who can be against us? If God's
for me, that's all I need. Who's going to be against me?
And then he says down in verse 32, he despaired not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? And then in verse 33, who shall
lay the things to the charge of God's elect? Come on now,
who's going to charge us with sin? Who's going to bring an
accusation before God's people? I'm talking about in God's sight.
Who's going to speak to God against us? It is God that justifies. He's already declared us free
from sin. He's already declared us not
guilty. He's already declared us justified. Verse 34, who is
he to condemn us? Who's going to condemn us? It's
Christ who died. That takes care of that. Now
look at verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Oh, God give me just the tithe
of this kind of faith. Sometimes I get to thinking,
God forgive me, but I do, I get to thinking about my coldness
of heart, my indifference, my sin, my unbelief. I ain't worried,
that's done it, that's done it. Oh, what foolishness. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Let's see, shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loveth us, for I am persuading. I stand convinced
that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That
means God's love is immutable. It's unchangeable. It's unfluctuating. The same, faithful, always the
same. There was a famous Armenian preacher
years ago. He was the founder of the Christian
Missionary Alliance denomination, AWTOSA. He was somewhat of a
tazik preacher and has some things to say that considered in themselves
are pretty good concerning believing, walking with God, humility, and
such as that. But the essence of his theology
is horrible. And this is what he said concerning
the love of God. I looked it up yesterday and
wrote it down. This is exactly what he said. God must love,
and will love man until hell has erased the last trace of
the remaining image of God in him. Men are lost now, but they
are still loved of God. I believe, he writes, that God
now loves all lost men. Look, there's a catch. The day
will come when lost men will no longer be loved by God Almighty. I believe the time will come
when God will no longer love lost human beings. Now that kind
of love may suit and be worthy of a fickle, useless man. But it is not worthy of the great
and glorious Lord God. Our God does not love today and
hate tomorrow. Our God does not love now and
then suddenly turn against those he's loved and cast them into
hell. That's utter nonsense. What absurdity. God's love is unchangeable. And
thirdly, our Lord intends for us to understand that the effects
and fruits of God's love to him and to his elect are the same. Love that has no effect and bears
no fruit is useless love. Love that never is known by the
one loved is frustrated passion that destroys one's own peace
and happiness. A love that never sees benefit
and blessing upon its object, but only misery and woe is tormenting
love. You and I have experienced it
to some degree. You love a friend, a companion,
husband, wife, a child, mother, dad, you love them. And you see
them in the clutches of a cancer, some horrid disease that's taking
their lives from them. And you love them. And if it was possible for you
to put yourself in their place and then walk away, you'd gladly
do it. And your love for them is utterly
helpless, and that makes it tormenting. That makes it miserable. That
makes it unbearable. You follow me? That's the fickle
love of a man, not the love of God. God's love's not helpless. God's
love is not one that stands by and says, I want to do you good,
but I cannot do you good. Oh no! God's love has bestowed
good, and the good that he's bestowed he will bring to pass,
so that his love is always effectual, and always fruitful, and those
who are the objects of his love benefit from his love, even as
his son has benefited from his love. Let me show you these five
things, and we'll go home. Here are the benefits of God's
love, the fruit, the effects of his love, both to Christ and
to his people. First, the revelation of secrets. You remember how Delilah told
me in a sentence, you ladies wouldn't do this, if you loved
me. If you loved me, you'd give me what I want. If you loved
me, your heart would be with me. Our Lord speaks in a similar
manner. He says, I call you no more servants
but Because the servant doesn't know what his master does. But
I've told you everything. As the Father has made himself
known to the Son, so that the Son, while he was residing upon
the earth, and yet dwells in the bosom of the Father, has
seen the Father, and now declares him to you, even so the Lord
Jesus has made known the secrets of God to his people. He's revealed
himself to you. He's made known his purpose of
grace. He's made known his electing Lord. He's made known his eternal
purpose and predestination. He's revealed to us the secret
mystery of providence. He's made known his secrets to
us. Love bestows spiritual gifts
as well. When our Lord Jesus had finished
his work, he ascended on high and made captivity captive and
received gifts for men. Yea, he would repay us also.
You can read it in Psalm 68, Ephesians 4. Even so, the Lord
God in Jesus Christ has bestowed upon us all spiritual blessings. All of them. All of them. God will no more withhold from his
people anything than he will withhold it from his Son in whom
we're loved. Do you get hold of that? If you get hold of it, you can
laugh at these folks who talk about a second work of grace.
You can laugh at these folks who talk about degrees of reward.
You can laugh at these folks who talk about you earning a
higher standing before God. You can laugh at folks who talk
about your relationship with God depending on you. Oh, no
offense! God has freely bestowed all things
upon his Son whom he loves. and he has freely from everlasting
bestowed all things upon his people, whom he loves as his
son." The Lord God will also give strength and protection
in life to the people he loves. In Isaiah 53, he says, Behold
my servant, mine elect whom I uphold, one whom I uphold. The Lord Jesus
said he set his face like a flint, and he gave his ears to those
who would pierce his ear and his back to the spiders, knowing
the Lord God will uphold me. He will strengthen me. He will
help me. And I'm telling you that as long
as we are in this world, the Lord God Almighty will uphold,
strengthen, and protect us as the objects of his love throughout
the days of our obedience here. So that whatever your need is,
he says, my grace is sufficient. It'll be enough for you. It'll
be enough for you. And fourthly, because he loves us, God accepts
everything we do for him. Everything that Christ did for
God was accepted and pleasing to him for two reasons. Number one, he was perfect. Number
two, he loved him. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. And everything we do for God, everything we do is accepted and well-pleasing
through the merits of Christ because he loves us as he loved
him. Peter said we offer up prayers
and sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God by Jesus
Christ. God our Father accepts our paltry
efforts at serving him Our paltry, sinful efforts at pleasing him,
he accepts them for two reasons. First, he accepts our poor, sin-stained
obedience upon the merit of Christ's perfect obedience. So that when
we pray, and our prayers are so full of
sin, and so selfish, And so, Carl,
he accepts our prayers upon the merit of his son, whose obedience
is perfect, whose blood is satisfied for all our sins. We give our
gifts. Some of you, I don't know, I
have no idea what anybody gives, maybe give five dollars You've
done all you can do. Some of you may give $500 and
you've done what you can do. But in reality, none of us have ever made a sacrifice
to God. Not really. Not really. But he accepts our
puny efforts at sacrifice on the basis of Christ's perfect
sacrifice. You see that? And he accepts it for another
reason. He accepts what we do for him because he loves us. I remember when I was a boy,
I used to be smaller than I am now. I wouldn't know I was this
big. And I thought my dad was the biggest fellow living. I
thought he was. He was a giant. Man, he weighed
225 pounds, six foot one. And when it snowed down south,
it wasn't very often, but when it snowed, it'd get pretty good
snow, I'd be out with him. And I'd remember trying to walk
in his steps, you know, pick my feet up, put them right where
he put his. And he thought I was kind of
humorous. He'd look back at me. He'd make his steps a little
bigger. And I couldn't keep up. I'd drag my feet, make a mess. I couldn't stay in his footprints
for anything. But he was pleased outside. Because he loved me. Because he loved me. That's all.
He wouldn't have thought anything if you'd been doing it. But have
a song. And I'm telling you, God Almighty
is pleased with our paltry, sinful efforts at pleasing Him. That
in themselves are worthy of nothing but hell and judgment and condemnation. He's pleased with us. First,
because of the merit of his son. And second, because he loves
us as he loves his son. And he will bless us as he blessed
his son, with honor and exaltation as well. The Lord Jesus was honored
and highly exalted by God the Father. as the object of his
love. He's given his son preeminence
in possession of and power over all things. And the Lord Jesus
says that he will give to us to sit down with him in his throne
in exactly the same way as he is sat down in his father's throne. which thou hast given me, I have
given them. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. Oh, what a pillar upon which
to rest our heads! What a comfort for our poor,
aching hearts! What a glorious theme for our
daily meditation! Why, it calls for adoration,
praise, and We may be despised, misunderstood, abused, and hated
of men, but we're loved of God. God, our Father, loves us even
as he loves his darling son. And he has so loved us from eternity. I beseech you, therefore, my
brethren, by the mercies and love of God, If you present your
body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto the Lord, his love demands it. Just your
reasonable service. Who wouldn't expect as much?
Now let me ask you, what would you give? What would
you do to be assured such love. Perhaps you say, Pastor, I'd
give my right arm. I'd give anything. I'd do anything
if I could go to bed tonight assured that God loves me as
he loves his son. May I ask you another question?
Would you do nothing That's the problem. The only reason you don't rest
in the assurance of His love is because you keep trying to
do something to get it. Do nothing. Believe Him. Believe Him. Cast your soul upon
Jesus Christ alone. your soul into the arms of the
crucified Son of God. Believe God. And as you believe
Him, this is what the Savior says to you. The Father loves
you, even as He loves me. Amen. Lord willing, tonight I'll be
preaching to you from verse 24, on the everlasting character
of God's love for his elect.