Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Nybert. I'm preaching this morning from
John 3, verse 16, which may be the most, if not one of the most
well-known verses in all the Word of God. John 3, 16. I bet many of you know that verse. Here it is. 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." I've entitled this message, The Love
of God. And let me say this at the outset,
the love of God is other. God is other. That's really what
holy means. Holy means other, separate. There's no one like God. There's
no one you can compare him to. God stands alone. And if you
try to liken him to anything, it's bringing him down. That's
why idolatry is so wrong. It's an attempt to bring God
down to a human level. God is other. His love is other. It can't be compared to human
love. It's so infinitely above and
greater, God's love is other. Now, I love when John says, God
is love in 1 John 4, 8. God is love. He doesn't say,
here is what love is, and God fits that description. No, God
is love. Oh, the love of God. Now, God's reason for love is
found in His own holy character. God so loved the world. Now,
remember what the world is. The world is the world He made,
but knew Him not. The world is the ones who crucified
Him. The world is me and you, the
people who crucified Him when He was here on earth because
of no love for Him. We will not have this man to
reign over us. The world is this sinful world. All that's of the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but of the world. The world is sinful
men and women. Somebody says, well, shouldn't
God love his creatures? Well, these are fallen creatures.
These are enemies. These are people who have no
love for God, who would rather there not be a God, When God
was here in the flesh, we nailed Him to a cross when He allowed
us to do what He determined for us to do. But we did what we
wanted to do. We nailed Him to a cross. The
scripture says He delivered Jesus to their will. God is so glorious
that He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever I love that word, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God's reason
for love is found in his own glorious character. I'd like
to read a verse of scripture to you from Deuteronomy chapter
seven, verses seven and eight. We read, the Lord did not set
his love on you nor choose you, And that is true of every believer.
God set his love on them and chose them. And he says to Israel,
the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. His reason for loving you is
found in himself. He doesn't have to have another
reason for love. Now, let me say three things
at the outset of this message. I want to be loved by God. You
see, if he loves me, I'll be saved. I am saved. My salvation's
sure. That's where salvation begins,
is with his love. Not my love to him, his love
to me. I want to be loved by God. And I want to love God. And I want to know how to preach
the love of God. And I pray that the Lord would
enable me to do that even now. Now, as I said, John 3, 16, if
not the most well-known verse of Scripture in all the Bible,
it's one of the most well-known verses. And it's also one of
the most misunderstood verses of Scripture. Let me show you
why. The average preacher makes this
verse meaningless. Most preachers in central Kentucky
make this verse meaningless. And here's why. They say this
verse says that God loves all men, without exception, the same. He gave His Son to die for all
men without exception. He wants to save all men without
exception, every man in the world. However, His desire and intention
will not come to pass unless you do something to make it come
to pass. You're going to have to decide
to believe. You're going to have to accept
him as your personal savior. Now he can love you. He can give
his son for you and pay for all your sins, but you still won't
be saved unless you do your part. There's not a drop of gospel
in that message. That makes the love of God meaningless. Now let me tell you why that
way of thinking or that way of preaching John 3, 6 wrong. To assure all men that God loves
them and wants to save them. Number one, it may not be so
with regard to you or me or any individual man because Romans
9, 11 says, Jacob, I mean, Esau have I hated. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. God says that. I know he hated
Esau. Somebody says, well, that means
he loved Esau less. Can God love less? I don't think
so. And remember, God's hatred is
with regard to his holiness and righteousness. It's not like
our hatred, vindicative and wanting to pay people back. His hatred
is a holy hatred, like his holy character. And the scripture
actually says, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. So I would
be being dishonest and not faithful to the scripture if I looked
at a group of people and began with this message, God loves
you. I don't know if he does or not. I hope he does. I hope
you're in Christ. But I can't assure people, look,
God loves you. That's the assurance of a believer.
Paul says he loved me and gave himself for me. That's the assurance
of a believer. But in gospel preaching, listen
to this. Here's the second reason. In
gospel preaching, we do not begin with telling people God loves
them. Now, in the book of Acts, we have the preaching of the
apostles. their actual sermons, say the sermon of Peter on the
day of Pentecost in Acts 2, that sermon that God used to bring
3,000 people to a knowledge of Himself. In that sermon or any
other sermon in the book of Acts, do you know how many times the
love of God is mentioned? not once." In their preaching,
not once is the love of God mentioned. Now, it's certainly implied,
and the love of God is behind salvation. There would be no
salvation if there were no love of God. God didn't send his son
to make a way for him to love, but because he did love. God
so loved the world that he gave. But in gospel preaching, we don't
begin with God's love for the sinner. We begin with the sinner's
state before God, guilty. Guilty. This is your state, this
is my state before God. I'm not gonna tell you God loves
you and wants to save you. I'm gonna say this, my state
and your state before God is one of guilt. We have sinned
against God. And no sinner has the right to
even suspect that God loves them if they don't believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, because God is holy. We've sinned against
Him. Now, I can assure all men, if
you believe, you'll be saved. I can assure all men, if you
come to Christ, you'll be accepted. I can assure all men, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But I would
be wrong to look at a group of people that I didn't know the
state of their soul and say, God loves you. God's angry with
the wicked every day, the scripture says. Thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Now, when people present God's
love, he loves you, he wants to save you, but he will not
save you. He's not going to violate your
free will. You're going to, of your own free will, have to decide
to accept him as your personal savior before you can be saved.
What would you think of a parent who, if their child was playing
in the street, and a car was coming toward their child, and
let's say the child's name is Johnny, Johnny, get out of the
street, I love you, but I'm not gonna violate your free will.
And the child looks up and says, I'm not getting out of the street,
and all of a sudden the car comes and runs over him, kills him.
What do we do with that parent? We put that parent in jail. Now,
most people's idea of God's love, that He can love somebody and
have the power to save them, but He's not going to violate
their free will. He's made it to where it's up to them as to
whether or not they'll be saved. We'd put a parent in prison for
a love like that. And yet, that's the way people
present the love of God. Let me give you what I believe,
what I know, not what I believe, what I know the scripture teaches
with regard to the love of God. First of all, the love of God
is in Christ. People talk about God loving
us unconditionally. There's no such thing as unconditional
love. God's love is in Christ. Listen
to this scripture from Romans 8, nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now if I'm in Christ, God loves
me. If you're in Christ, God loves
you, because God's love is in His Son. It's in His Son to this
extent. We read in John 17, verse 23,
the Lord says to His Father in His great high priestly prayer,
thou hast loved them as thou hast loved Now, who is the them? He said in the ninth verse of
the same chapter, I pray for them. I pray not for the world,
but for them which you have given me. All God's love is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to this scripture,
1 John 4, 17, as he is, So are we in this world. Now, that is true with regard
to those who are in Him. As He is, so are we. Is He holy? So are we. Is He
lovely to God? So are we. Is He perfect? So
are we. Is He utterly righteous? So are
we. You see, the love of God is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. And there is no favor, there
is no grace, there is no love of God outside of Jesus Christ. All God has for the sinner is
in, through, by, and because of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's love is sovereign. What's that mean? He loves whom
he will. He said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Now you're going to have to deal
with that. Most people think, well, God loves everybody. Well,
he didn't love Esau. And somebody says, well, how
could that be fair? If from number one, when I make
an objection like that, which all of us naturally make, all
of a sudden I'm saying, God's not fair, I'm able to judge Him.
All of a sudden, I become God's judge. I can judge what's fair
and what's not. When I'm such a sinful person,
I'm not able to make a proper judgment. And secondly, if I
say it's not fair, I'm saying I deserve God's love. I'm saying
I deserve Christ to die for me. That's totally wrong. You know,
Paul anticipated this objection when he said, Jacob, if I loved
and Esau, if I hated, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is God unfair in loving Jacob
and hating Esau? I love Paul's answer, God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion, so that
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. His love is his sovereign love. Let me read you this scripture
from Isaiah 43, verses three and four. For I am the Lord thy
God, the Holy One of Israel, the Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Egypt was destroyed for the sake of Israel, and Israel
simply represents God's elect. Ethiopia and Seba for thee, since
thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable, and
I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. Those are God's words. John chapter
13, verse 1, we read regarding to the Lord Jesus Christ, having
loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them to the
end. God's love is no generic love. He sovereignly loves those that
He has chosen to love. Now, when I marry someone or
perform a marriage ceremony, I always say you're to be true
to her or him alone and prefer him or her alone above all others. Now, never in my time of marrying
people have I ever heard somebody say, that's not fair. That's
not fair for you to expect that. They should be that way toward
all people. You say, well, that's foolishness. Yeah, it is. And
it's foolish to think that God's love should not be sovereign
love. That's the best way it is. And God's love is always
saving love. There's nobody that he loves
that he does not save. Listen to the 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 and made us sit together
in him. By grace are you saved." There
will not be anybody in hell that God loved. There will not be
anybody in hell that Christ died for. God's love is saving love. And listen to this, the love
of God is eternal. If God loves you, there's never
a time when he began to love you. and there's never a time
when he will cease to love you. Jeremiah 31 three says, behold,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. A love that knows no beginning,
a love that will never cease. God's love is eternal love. And this goes right along with
it. We read in Ephesians 1, 4, 5 of his predestinating love. Ephesians 1, 5, in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
himself. Romans 8, 29, whom he foreknew. Now that doesn't mean he knew
of their existence. Adam knew Eve. This is speaking of a relationship
of love. Whom he did foreknow, them he
also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Now, let me say this about predestination. God is the God of absolute predestination. God is God being God. And He
predestinates all of His loved ones to be perfectly conformed
to the image of Jesus Christ. Now, if you could predestinate
your child to be perfectly conformed to His image, would you do it?
Sure you would. You can't. God can, and God does. His love is predestinating love,
and His love covers all sins. Proverbs 10, verse 12, covereth all sins." Now, if God
loves you, all of your sins have been covered by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God covers sins, it's
unlike our covering. We can cover up something and
it's still there underneath. Not God. When He covers something,
it's gone. He put away the sins of all of
His people. Everybody He loves, He covers
all their sins. Love covereth a transgression. Now, if God loves you, if God
loves me, My sin was given to Christ. He put it away, covered
it by His blood, and made it not to be. God's love not only
covers all sins, God's love gives the covering. Now, what does
that mean? Well, it's found in our text.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, there's only one only begotten
son, and the only begotten, according to Acts 13, refers to his resurrection,
his begatting him from the dead. Thou art my son this day, have
I begotten thee? and he gave his only begotten
son to die. that whosoever believes on him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Romans 8.32 says he spared
not his own son. 1 John 4.10 says here in his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins. He sent his beloved
son to be a sin removing sacrifice. for our sins. And that's precisely
what he did when he said, it is finished. All those iniquities
and sins and transgressions were removed and made not to be. He provided the covering that
puts away sin. Now listen to this scripture.
His love is reciprocating love. Now, somebody says, what do you
mean by that? Well, let me read this Scripture. I John 4, verse 19
says, we love Him because He first loved us. Everybody He first loved They're
going to love Him in return. And they're going to love Him
as He is. They're going to love all of His attributes. There's
a lot of folks that don't realize that they hate Jesus Christ because
they've never heard who He really is. They find out they hate Him
when they hear of His true attributes. But a believer loves everything
about Jesus Christ. They love His sovereignty. They
love His holiness. They love His justice. They love
His power. They love His wisdom. They love
His mercy. They love His kindness. If it
were in their power, they wouldn't change anything about Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. And we read in 1 John 3, 1, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. Now, this is the love God
has for His people. He makes them His sons, not merely
servants, not merely creatures, but sons of God, sons by birth. We were birthed into his kingdom
and made a son. Sons by adoption. He adopted
us and we have all the privileges of sonship, joint heirs with
Christ Jesus. I love what John said in 1 John
4, 16. We have known and believed the
love that God has toward us. And that word believed is not
so much believed it was, but we've relied on that love. I'm
relying on everything I said with regard to His love to be
true, that His love's in Christ, that His love's saving, that
His love is sovereign. I'm relying on that. My only
hope of salvation is His love to me. I love that hymn, when
with the ransomed in glory His face I at last shall see, it
will be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me. And not only Am I relying on
God's love in Christ? God says, and this is a quotation
from Zephaniah 3, verse 17, and this is the most amazing verse
of scripture. God says, the Lord thy God in
the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. He will rest. Now, don't miss
that. He will rest in His love. You
see, He doesn't need a reason in me or you to love us. If I'm
in Christ, He rests in His love. There's nothing I need to do
to make myself lovely or more lovely. He rests in His love,
His great love, wherewith He loved us. Now, last thought. Who are the objects of His love?
Now, I would be telling the truth if I said His people, the elect,
those the Father gave Him, His sheep, the church, Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for it. But let me give you the best
description of the objects of His love. God commended His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Now, if you and I are sinners
in the scriptural sense of the word, we believe that all we
have done is broken God's law nonstop. There's not one thing
we can do to commend ourselves to God. We're totally dependent
upon Him doing something for us. If I am a sinner in that
sense, when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. If you're without strength and
ungodly, if me and you are sinners in the scriptural sense of the
word, people who cannot save themselves, that means God loves
us. He's the friend of sinners. Thank God for His love. We have this message on DVD,
CD. If you call the church, write,
or look it up on our website, you can get a copy. This is Todd
Kniper praying God will be pleased to make Himself known to you.
Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to todd.kniper at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen. Hmm.