I choose thee Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Neibert. I'm preaching out of the 11th
chapter of John this morning, but I want to let you know about
a special meeting we're having at the Todd's Road Grace Church
this Labor Day weekend. We're going to have four speakers.
preaching the sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus. And our
services begin Friday night at seven, Saturday morning at 10,
Saturday evening at six, and Sunday morning at 10. And we'd
love to have you come out and hear the gospel of God's grace. I'm preaching from John chapter
11, verse five. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. In verse three, these same sisters
came to the Lord and they said, his sister sent unto him saying,
Lord, behold, He whom thou lovest is sick. Now notice these women
did not say with regards to their brother, he who loves you is
sick. They didn't say that at all. They said, he whom thou lovest
is sick. Now the writer to this book,
John, this is John's gospel, referred to himself as that disciple
that Jesus loved. That's how he referred to himself. Not the disciple that loved Jesus,
but that disciple that Jesus loved. Very important. And when
these women come to the Lord with their brother's sickness,
they say, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now, most people would
come and say, Lord, the one who loves you is sick. And when they
do that, they've entered the sense of entitlement. You need
to do something for him. He loves you, now it's your responsibility
to do something for him. But you don't come to the Lord
on grounds like that, ever. Not with a sense of entitlement,
not telling him what to do. Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. Now the tense in the original
speaks of a continuous action. He whom you continually love
and presently love, who you've always loved, is sick. The same is true of verse five
of Jesus loving Martha and Mary and Lazarus. He continued to
and kept on loving Martha and her sister Now, I want you to
think of this language, and then I want to ask you a question.
If God loves everybody like he loved Martha and Lazarus and
Mary, if God loves everybody just like he did them, And some
of those people he loves end up perishing and going to hell. And some of the people that he
loves are saved. Question, what does the love
of God have to do with salvation? If he can love somebody, love
them equally, two people, love them equally, and one's damned
and one's saved, what's the love of God have to do with salvation?
In reality, Nothing. It's what one did that the other
did not do that caused their salvation, not God's love. If
he loved them the same and one saved and one's lost, the cause
of salvation is not the love of God. The cause of salvation
is what the one did that the other did not do. It makes salvation
by works. Now, what I want to consider. What does the Bible teach about
this? Most people think it's a given that God loves all men
the same. It's a job, isn't it? He's God.
He's supposed to do that. And religion presents the love
of God like that. False Christianity presents the
love of God like that. Not a saving love, not a sovereign
love. but some kind of generic love
that loves you if you'll do your part. If you do your part, he'll
do his. Now, what does the Bible teach
with regard to God's love? Well, Psalm chapter five, verse
five says, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. And that's what
the Bible says. Thou, speaking of the living
God, hatest all workers of iniquity. That's a pretty big demographic.
What about the scripture, Romans 9, verse 13, a quotation from
Malachi 1, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's God's Word, not a denominational
brand or what this church says or what that church teaches.
This is what God says. Jacob, have I loved. Esau, have I hated. Now, what is your visceral reaction
to that? How does it make you feel when
you hear these words from God? Jacob, have I loved. but Esau
hath I hated." Do you recoil from that? How could that be
fair? How could it be fair for God to love one and hate the
other? Now, whenever we make a statement
like that, and I thought that before, when I first heard this,
that's the way I felt, this doesn't seem fair. Whenever we make an
objection to anything in God's word like that, all of a sudden
we've become God's judge. I don't agree with that. I think
that's wrong. And when we have a reaction like
that, it has something to do with the ignorance of really
what God's hatred is. God's hatred is a righteous,
just hatred. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. Esau was a man who could care
less about God. God wasn't worth a bowl of soup
to him. And he sold his birthright, he
sold his Relationship with God is the one, the firstborn, the
birthright, he sold it for a bowl of soup. He didn't care anything
about God. God said, Esau, have I hated. And it's a righteous hatred.
It's a hatred with regard to justice and righteousness. Esau was a person who deserved
the hatred of God. But what about this? Has anybody
ever been amazed by God's love to Jacob? Jacob was a deceitful
man. He was a sinful man. He was a
swindler. Read his history. Yet God says,
Jacob have I loved. I hope my reaction is not, how
could God hate Esau? Because I understand how he could
hate me because of my sinfulness. I hope my reaction is, how could
he love Jacob? And take it further, how could
he love me? I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner,
condemned, unclean. Now the scripture tells us that
God is true. God is spirit. He's not confined
by space or time. He's spirit. He's the eternal
spirit. God is light. In him is no darkness
at all. We read that God is a consuming
fire. This has to do with his holiness.
And we read God is love. Oh, I love this. God is love,
not here's what love means and God fits the definition. No,
God is love. Oh, the love of God in Christ
Jesus. He whom thou lovest. He whom
thou lovest is sick. Sickness. If you're not sick
now, you will be. Sickness. It's part of the human
experience. And oh, how Difficult it is to
be sick in whatever fashion, from having the flu to having
cancer or heart disease, whatever kind of sickness is a difficult
thing. But these women say to the Lord,
he whom thou lovest, They don't even, they do not even say, heal
him. They wanted that, but they bring
this case before the Lord. He whom thou lovest is sick. Now sometimes he heals people,
sometimes he doesn't. When you hear a preacher say,
it's never God's will for you to be sick, that's the work of
the devil. That's foolishness. That's foolishness. Somebody
that, Preaches that way, doesn't know who God is. Somebody who
believes that way, doesn't really know who God is. Sickness is
of the Lord. And he's got wise purposes. You
see, he's the first cause behind everything. Don't blame things
on the devil. God is the one who strikes a
man ill, who kills a man, who raises a man up. He may heal
if it's his good pleasure. Whatever he does is right. There's
one old preacher that said this, the greatest physical blessing
is health. The only greater blessing is
sickness. Oh, what a blessing sickness
is to the Lord's people. What they learn of his grace
and his kindness through sickness. He whom thou lovest is sick. Now I wanna make some statements
from the scripture about the love of God. He whom thou lovest
is sick. The love of the Father, the love
of the Son, and the love of the Holy Spirit, they're one. You
see, when Jesus loves someone, God the Father loves that one,
and God the Holy Spirit loves that one. Now, I realize men
have preconceived notions of God's love and feel like it's
a given. Of course God loves us, that's his job, he's God.
But what does the scripture teach with regard to the love of God? Here's the first thing I want
to say, and this is so important. The love of God is in Jesus Christ. Nothing shall separate us, Paul
says, from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. Who is referred to by us? The same people of whom Paul
said at the beginning of this passage, if God be for us, Who
can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? The us are God's elect. The us are those who are in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God does not love me
independently of Jesus Christ. He loves me as I am seen and
viewed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what that love looks like.
John 17 verse 23 says, thou has loved them. as thou has loved
me." Now that's God's love. He loves all of his people exactly
as he loves his son, because those people are in his son. When God sees me, he sees me
in his son. God's love is in Christ Jesus. He will not speak to nor be spoken
to apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's salvation,
all of God's blessing, all of God's favor, all of God's love
is in his son. Now the love that Jesus had toward
Martha and her sister and Lazarus and the whole company of God's
elect is eternal. It's everlasting. Jeremiah 31,
verse three, behold, I have loved you with an everlasting love. There was never a beginning or
a starting point with the love of God before the foundation
of the world, before the creation, when there was no universe, when
all there was was God and the Trinity of its sacred persons
He knew and loved every single one of his people. He said to
Jeremiah, before I saw thee in the belly, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee, I loved thee, whom he did foreknow. That means for love. It doesn't
simply mean he knew who they were, whom he did foreknow. Then he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. There was a woman
who one time was speaking to a preacher and she heard him
preaching on the love of God, how it's eternal. And she came
up to him afterwards and she said, I know the love of God
must be eternal because if he would have waited till time,
he couldn't have loved me. But thank God his love is eternal. Behold, I've loved you with an
everlasting love, a love that had no beginning and a love that
will have no end. The love of God in Christ Jesus, eternal, sovereign. That means he loves whom he will
love. God is sovereign. That's who
He is. A God that's not sovereign is
not God at all. God loves whom He will. And He said, Jacob, have I loved? And he saw, have I hated? That is God's sovereign love. And any objection to this comes
from a sense of entitlement. This is not right. God owes me
his love. God, he owes it to me. That's a sense of entitlement.
And it's a denial that I'm so sinful that I merit God's wrath. Oh, don't complain with this.
Thank God that he loved Jacob. He loved a great number of sinners.
That's good. If he could have let us all go
to hell. but he is love and he loved a
great number of people with his saving love. Now this love of
God we're talking about, the love of Christ, the eternal sovereign
love of Christ is always saving love. Now listen to this statement
real carefully. There will not be anybody in
hell that God loves. There will not be anybody in
hell that Jesus Christ loved. There will not be anybody in
hell that God the Holy Spirit loved. Listen to this scripture.
Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, but God, who is rich in mercy, For his
great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are
saved. Everybody that he loved with
this great love, he saved by his grace. God's love is always
saving love. And that word saved is in the
perfect tense, complete. It's not possible for someone
that God loved. for someone that God loves, for
someone God elected, or Christ died for, or the Holy Spirit
gives life to, to be separated from that love. Everybody He
loves, He saves. You see, this can't be undone. If you're saved, you're saved.
This can't be undone. The cause of God's love is in
Himself. This is why God loves, because
God is love. He doesn't look for a reason
in me or you as to why he could love us. He doesn't say, well,
that person will help me, that person will be valuable in my
kingdom, that person will help many people, therefore I'm gonna
set my love upon him, or I see that that person is gonna believe
on me, therefore I'm gonna love him. Like God's looking through
the telescope of time and seeing what people will do and basing
his love on what we do. No, that's not true at all. Deuteronomy
7 says the Lord loved you because He loved you. The reason is found
in Himself. You know, when I hear people
speak of unconditional love, there's no such thing. God doesn't
love unconditionally. If I'm in Christ, I'm lovely
to God. And I deserve the love of God
in Christ because Christ deserves the love of God. I love that
scripture in 1 John 4, 17, as he is, so are we in this world. The love of God is found for
a reason in himself. He said, I will love them freely. There's nothing in you that can
cause God to love you. The reason is found totally in
himself because he is love. Now, God's love is sacrificial
love. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. That was his purpose in sending
his Son. Everybody God loves, he gave
his son to die in their place. You see, God's holy. He can't
love me the way I am. He can't love you the way you
are. He's holy, he's righteous, he's just. He would cease to
be God if he could embrace a sinner without those sins being punished,
but because God is love. He sent his son into the world
to save sinners. And Christ came into this world
born of a virgin. He never sinned. He worked out
a perfect obedience. He kept God's law perfectly,
yet he's nailed to a cross. Why? He took upon himself the
sins of his people to make a way for God to be just and justify
them. Those people that God loves,
he sent his son to put away their sins and to work out a perfect
righteousness for them. God's love is sacrificial love. And 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. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be a propitiation for our sins. Oh, the sacrificial love
of God. And this is what makes every
believer like Daniel was, greatly beloved of God. If you're a child
of God, you're greatly beloved of God. And you know, this love
never goes unreciprocated. We love Him because He first
loved us. That's why we love Him. God never
loves someone and that person does not love Him in return.
He gives them a new heart and they're caused by His grace to
love Him in return. And where there is love to Him,
there's always love to His people. 1 John 5, 1 says, whoso believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth
him that begat loveth him also that's forgotten of him. You
see, there is a love that every believer has to everybody that
God loves. We love all men. We especially
love believers. I do love, I want all men to
be saved as far as that goes. Why do we preach? Why do we witness?
We want to see people come to know the Lord. But when we know
someone who actually loves Jesus Christ, our heart goes out naturally
to love that person. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5.14, the love of Christ constrains us. Now the us, once again, is
everybody he loves. All believers, it constrains
us. Now what in the world does that mean? Well, let me give
you some meanings of that word. It holds us together. It arrests
us. It compresses us. It compels
us. It preoccupies us. It perplexes
us. It constrains us. It holds us. It keeps us. It presses upon
us. We're taken with it. We're thrown
with it. It's even translated made sick.
You've heard of being love sick. Peter, do you love me? Not, Peter,
are you sorry? Peter, do you love me? Yea, Lord,
you know all things. You know that I love you. Now in closing, I wanna ask this
question. How can I know if he loves me? I know that God does not love
all men. The scripture teaches that. This
preacher's opinion, this is what the scripture teaches. God loves
those in Christ. How can I know if God loves me? Now this answer may shock you. But this is how you can know
if God loves you. Are you a sinner? How do you answer that question?
I'm not talking about an ex-sinner. I'm talking about a right now
sinner. Are you a sinner? Sin is called the transgression
of the law. Are you a law breaker? Do you
break every one of God's commandments? You see, a sinner is someone
who hasn't kept one of the 10 commandments even once. He knows
the spirituality of the law. He knows he's never kept one
commandment one time. He is a sinner. God commended
His love toward us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Who did Christ die for? Sinners,
people who are sinful, people who cannot not sin, people who
are so sinful they can't look down their nose in judgment on
anybody. And all their sin is their fault. They can't blame somebody else.
They're sinful, sinful. Like Peter said, depart from
me, Lord. I'm a sinful man, full of sin. A sinner has no claims on God.
He has no sense of entitlement before God. He knows that if
God cast him off, just and holy is his name. Are you a sinner? Somebody says, no, I wouldn't
go that far. Well, I can't assure you Christ
died for you. But if you are a sinner, a real
bonafide sinner, not a sham sinner, you're the real deal. You are
a sinner. If you are a sinner, Christ Jesus
came to save you. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom Paul said, I am the chief. If you're
a sinner, Christ came to save you. What a glorious thought. Believe on Him right now. Rest in who He is as all that's
required, as all that's needed. Just resting in who He is. May
God enable you to do this. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church right
or look at it on our website, you can get a copy. This is Todd
Kniper praying that God will be pleased to make Himself known
to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To receive a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neiber at
gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.