J.C. Ryle said that that was
the best hymn written in the English language. I would not
argue against that. What a hymn. Turn back to John 3.16. On Christmas
Day and New Year's Day, we'll have one service at 11 a.m. Christmas Day and New Year's
Day next week. I've entitled this morning's
message, The Love of God. The Love of God. There really is no human parallel. God is other. His love is other. And if we try to make it out
to be like human love, we bring it down. God is love. Not, here's the definition of
love and God fits that description. God is love. Now, the love I'm going to be
speaking of, I hope from what the Bible teaches, is so unlike
the way, quote, Christianity portrays his love. You know, I say without apology
that I don't want to be identified with Christianity. I hate it. But I love the gospel. I love
what God declares of himself. The love of God. Now, this passage of scripture
that I just read may be the most often quoted passage in all the
word of God. Uh, I've looked at, uh, athletes
and they'll have John 3 16 on their cheeks, you know, and it's,
um, supposed to have a definite message for them. And while it
is a wonderful verse of scripture, I love John 3 16. Love it. It's also one of the
most misunderstood and misrepresented verses of scripture in all the
word of God. And we'll see that in. as we consider this subject,
the love of God. I want to say it that way, the
love of God. Now, we all have different kinds
of loves, but they're not parallel to this love, the love of God. Notice in our text it says, For
God so loved the world. God so loved Now this is the
same world that hates him. The cross is the reminder and
the proof of that. This world hates God. God so loved the world. Oh, the love of God. God so loved
the world. God is love. And the reason for God's love
is found in his character. Don't miss that. Somebody says
God loves unconditionally. No, it doesn't. There's no such
thing as unconditional love. There's a song that was on the
radio a few years ago. I don't know if it was a country
in Western. Always talking about unconditional love and everything.
There's no such thing. God loves you as you're in Christ.
If he loves you, he doesn't love you unconditionally. He loves
you because you're in Christ and in Christ, you're all together
lovely. God's reason for love is found
in himself. Now I want to read a passage
of scripture in Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses seven and eight.
The Lord did not set His love upon 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." You know
why the Lord loved you? Because He loved you. The reason
is found in His glorious character. God IS love. God MUST love because God IS
love. Now, I repeat, John 3, verse
16 is perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible. Maybe the
judge not might be a more well-known verse because people used to
love that Judge not, you can be participating in some kind
of horrible action. And if somebody confronts you,
don't judge me. And that is used quite often,
no doubt. But I would think John 3, 16
is probably the most well-known verse of scripture in all of
the word of God. And it's also the most misunderstood
verse of scripture in all the word of God. And let me tell
you why most people. when they used John 3.16, most
preachers. And if they preach this way,
they're not preaching the gospel, they're not preaching the living
God. Most preachers use this verse of scripture, God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What that means is, God loves
you. God wants to save you. God wants
to forgive you of your sins. God wants to have a relationship
with you. God wants you, but it won't happen unless you believe. God loves all men without exception. God loves you. He wants to have
a relationship with you. He wants to forgive you of your
sins, but there's something you need to do in order for Him to
be able to get what He wants. Universal love. And this is where
most preaching begins. God loves you. God loves you. Let me give you two major problems
with that. Number one, he may not. Romans chapter nine, verse 13
is a quotation from Malachi chapter one. where God said, Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. That is God speaking. I know he didn't love Esau. Thou hatest, the scripture says. In Psalm 5, thou hatest. all workers of iniquity. That's a pretty big demographic,
isn't it? In the book of Acts, we have
the sermons of the apostles, the Acts of the apostles, and
we have the recorded sermons of Peter, of Paul, And you know,
something that is conspicuously absent in every one of these
sermons, this word, the love of God. Now the love of God is
certainly implied in every message, but the word love or the love
of God is not mentioned in one of their sermons. Why is that? It's true, you can
look it up for yourself. When Peter preached on the day
of Pentecost, did he mention the love of God? He certainly
implied it in what he said, but the actual love of God is not
MENTIONED in their preaching. Why is that? Here's why. Gospel preaching,
true gospel preaching, does not begin with God loves you. True gospel preaching begins
with our STATE before the Living God. It begins with our GUILT
before the Living God. Now, here's where gospel preaching
must begin. Not telling you that God loves
you. Not trying to prove the existence of God. my state before
God. Romans chapter 3 verse 19 says
this, we know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law. I mean, you are under God's law,
whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we like it or not,
God's God. And here's what God has to say
to every son of Adam. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world stand guilty before
God. Now, that's where we begin. Somebody
says, well, what about the love of God? Listen, the love of God
is behind salvation. God is love. And God didn't send
his son to make a way for him to love, but because he did love.
But where we begin in preaching is the sinner's state before
this holy God. Guilty as charged. It would be wrong to assure the
sinner that God loves him. For one thing, he doesn't love
everybody. That's what scripture teaches. He doesn't love everybody. Somebody says, well, why would
you make an emphasis like that? Because the first thing somebody
thinks was, how could that be fair? How could it be fair for
him to not love everybody? Well, Paul anticipated that objection
when he said, Jacob, if I loved and he saw if I hated, what should
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Is God unfair? Is God
wrong? Now, let me say something. Anytime
I start becoming God's judge, God's unfair in that. I'm in
a place where I shouldn't be. I don't have any right or ability
to judge God. And I think when somebody says,
well, it's not right for him to not love everybody. Listen
to me. If salvation was in my hands or your hands, you know
how many people would be saved? None. Except me. At some point, I'd say, oh, I
love you. I really do. But at some point,
you'd cross me one too many times. I'd say, send him to hell. And
you'd do the same thing. You do the same thing. We talk
about this, God is love. Me and you, we love ourselves.
We're good at that. We love ourselves. We love those
people that can help us. But God's love's not like that.
God so loved the world. What glorious love. You see,
the assurance of God's love is only for the believer. Paul said
in Galatians 2.20, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,
and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." That's
the assurance of the believer, God's love. And I want to understand
whether I can have that assurance with regard to myself, with regard
to God's love. When preachers speak of the universal
love of God toward sinners, all sinners without
exception, they really make the love of God meaningless. If God
could love me and send me to hell, what good would his love
do for me? As a matter of fact, let's say
you love your child. You love your child. And your
child is in a place of danger. And what if you said to your
child, now I love you, and I don't want you to be in this place
of danger, but I'm not gonna violate your free will. And the
place of danger they're in, let's say they're playing out in the
street, and a car comes along and runs over them. What would you
do with somebody that had a love like that? You know, they'd be
put in jail, wouldn't they? And yet that's what men attribute
God's love to. He loves you. He wants to keep
you out of hell, but he's not gonna violate your free will.
He's gonna do everything he can to, he wants to save you, but
he can't. It's up to you. If a parent had
that kind of love to a child, they'd be in prison for it. Now
that's how serious this is. Like I said, God's love is other.
Don't try to put something human to it. God's love is other. It's
altogether glorious. Now I could say God so loved
the world that he gave his son. If you believe on him, you'll
be saved. I can say that to every creature. I can say to every
creature, if you come to Christ, you'll be received. I can say
that to everybody universally. And I say it to everybody universally.
If I, I can say, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. If you call on his name, you'll
be saved. This isn't keeping anybody out
of the kingdom of heaven. Well, I want to be saved, but
God didn't love me. That never happened. That never happened.
It's not like somebody says, oh, I want mercy. Nope, you're
not one of the elect. I don't love you. It doesn't
work that way. That's totally wrong. To present
it in that way is wrong. If you believe, you'll be saved. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish. but have everlasting life. So
don't anybody think, well, this message with regard to the love
of God is keeping people out of heaven. No, it's not. It's
bringing people into heaven. People who would have most certainly
been damned had not God loved so freely, so gloriously, so
graciously, it brings people into heaven. This doesn't say
stay out. It says come on in. Come on in. Whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely." Now, with regard to the love
of God, and Lord willing, within a few weeks I want to do an exposition
of verses 16 through 18, a whole message on that, but I just want
to talk about God's love this morning. Christ pronounced a
woe on the Pharisees in Luke 11 and 42 because they paid tithes
They had all their ducks in a row. They had their religion figured
out. They paid tithes, but they neglect the love of God. Boy, I don't wanna do that, do
you? Let me tell you three things.
I want God to love me. And I wanna love God. And I want to know what it means
to preach the love of God, the way it should be preached. And
I pray that that happens this morning, the love of God. The first thing I'd like to say
about the love of God. is that the love of God is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Paul said, nothing shall separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. If I'm in Christ, I have all
of the love of God. And I have it to this extent.
The Lord said in John chapter 17, verse 23, thou has loved
them as thou has loved me. Now you think of the impact of
that statement with regard to all God loves in Christ, those
in Christ. He says, thou has loved them
as thou has loved me. And I wouldn't dare believe that
were it not in the word of God. Thou has loved them. You know
what that means? That means if I'm in Christ,
God loves me, Todd Nybert, with the same love that he has toward
his son. What kind of love is that? I love that scripture. 1 John
4, 17, as he is speaking of the son of God, as he is, so are
we in this world. Is the son of God altogether
lovely to his father? Does the father look at the son
and say, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. You know what? He says the same
thing of you if you're in Christ. He says, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter in
whom I am well pleased. All of God's love is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. His love is not outside of Christ.
It's in Christ. Secondly, the love of God is
sovereign. What's that mean? He loves whom
he will. And he stated that, Jacob have
I loved, and Esau have I hated. I've heard people say, well that
means he loved Esau less. Can God love less? Is that possible? And it doesn't say that. It doesn't
say Jacob have I, or Esau have I loved less. Now I want to remind
you, God's hatred is not like my hatred and your hatred. When
we hate somebody, we're being vindictive, we're being wrong,
we're being jerks. Our hatred is evil and we're
called upon to love our enemies, the scripture says. But God's
hatred is not like that. God's hatred is because he's
absolutely, perfectly just and pure and without sin. That's
where his hatred comes from. It's a holy hatred. It's a perfect
hatred. Not like ours. Ours is evil.
Ours is wrong. Everything about ours is just
wrong, sin, not God. His love is a sovereign love. Listen to this scripture from
Isaiah chapter 43, verses three and four. You can turn there
if you want, but let me read it. For I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, the Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee, since thou was precious in my
sight, thou has been honorable, and I have loved thee, therefore
I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Now that speaks
of the absolute sovereignty of His love. John chapter 13, verse
1, we read concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, having loved His
own. He loved them to the end. I love the way John describes
himself as that disciple that Jesus loved. never mentions his
own name. Here's his only identity, that
disciple which Jesus loved. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. This is speaking of his love
to his people. Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. God's love is no generic love. Now, When I marry people, I performed
a lot of marriage over the years, I don't know how many, but one
of the things I say in the vow is you're to prefer her or him
to all others. You know something, I've never
had anybody say, hey, wait a minute, that's not fair. I object to that. Oh, okay. This is speaking of God's special
saving love to his people. When you marry someone, you're
going to be true to that person alone, till death alone shall
part you. That is your, and you ought not
love that person like that. You ought to love everybody like
that. No, you shouldn't. There's just another example of our foolish
views and human views of the love of God that we put on it.
God's love is always saving love. God's love is always saving love. Ephesians 2.4 says, but God,
who is rich in love for his great love wherewith he loved us even
when we were dead in sins. Hath quickened us together with
Christ. By grace are you saved. Now there won't be anybody in
hell that God loves. Amen. There won't be anybody
in hell that Jesus Christ paid for their sins. Oh, the love
of God. It's saving love. The love of
God provides everything for the salvation of the objects of His
love. That's why nothing shall separate
us from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus, our
love. God's love is always saving love. God's love is eternal. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 3,
God says, Behold, I have loved you. And this is said to every
believer. This is said to many people sitting
in here right now. Behold, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. You know what that means? That means there was never a
time when God began to love me. Eternally. Therefore with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. His love is eternal." Everything God does is eternal.
He is not bound by space or time. He's the eternal God and His
love is eternal. The love of God is, listen to
this word, The love of God is predestinating love. Here's the scripture. In love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself. Now, predestination is just God
being God. God is the God of predestination. And let me ask
you a question. Listen, let me put this down
in human terms. If you have a child and you could predestinate that
child to be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, would
you do it? Sure you would. Sure you would. Somebody says, no, I wouldn't.
Yeah, I don't believe you for a second. If you were able to
do that, you'd do it. God is able. Because he's God, he has the
power to predetermine, predestinate somebody to be perfectly conformed
to the image of his son. I love the scripture, and all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to his purpose. God's love is predestinating
love. I think it's amazing that Most of what goes on under the
name of Christianity doesn't have anything to do with predestination,
but God is the God of predestination. And that predestination is not
just some kind of blind faith. It's predestinating his people
to be perfectly conformed to the image of his blessed son. The love of God. God so loved
the world, listen to this. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12
says, love covereth all sins. If God loves me, you know what?
All my sins are covered. Covered by the blood of his son
so that they are no more. You see, God's covering makes
it to where when he sees the sinner that he's covered, you
know what? There is no sin. I wish it wasn't this way. I
wish it wasn't. But if you sin against me or
do me wrong, I will, by the grace of God, forgive you, and I hope
you'll forgive me. Forgive me. But when we sin against
somebody, we ought to forget it, but it's still there. Back
in the back recesses of our mind. But when God forgives somebody,
you never sinned. Their sins and their iniquities,
I will remember no more. Love covereth all sins. Love covers a transgression.
Just by way of application, your spouse has many faults.
Except for me, mine doesn't. But your spouse has many faults. You know what you're supposed
to do? Cover them. Cover them. Don't expose them. Cover them. Love covers a transgression. Thank God, God's love covers. all sin. Love gives God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. He spared not his son. God so loved the world that what
did he give? His only begotten son. He gave
him to be nailed to the cross. Somebody says, why would he do
something like that? Because he's just and holy. If he's going
to accept me, I'm going to have to be just and holy. And the
only way I can be just and holy is for my sin to be given to
Christ and him to bear it and put it away and give me his righteousness. What love that God would give
his son for sinners. His love gives here in his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation, the sin removing sacrifice for our sin. When he said he's finished my
sin. Believer, you have no sin. What about the sins I commit?
They've been put away by the blood of Christ. All sin, past,
present, and future, is blotted out by the blood of Christ. I
remember one time I read somewhere where somebody was criticizing
Christianity and they said, well, I criticize Christianity too.
But what they said is Christianity is people who don't want to take
responsibility for their own sin. Bingo. Me, I don't want. Do you? No, I want the Lord to
bear it all and put it all away. 1 John 4, 19 says we love Him because
He first loved us. Now here's the point. God's love
never goes unreciprocated. Never. We love Him. We do. Every believer. I love
Him. You know, if you don't love Him now, but He loves you, you're
going to love Him. His love never goes unreciprocated. We love
him. We love who he is. We love his
attributes. We wouldn't change. And I love
saying this. There isn't a human being alive
that if you knew him enough, there isn't things you'd like
to change about him. I remember I've said this before. Somebody
said, I wouldn't change it. Well, you don't know me then. If you knew me,
ask Lynn. There's plenty of things she'd
change about me if she could. Some things I'd change about
her, too. I guess I've already messed up
what I said, don't ever bring it, she's better than me. My point is, God is the one being
that I wouldn't change if I could. He is perfect. He's without fault. I love all
of his attributes. I love him. I love him. And I know why. It's because
he first loved me. 1 John 3 says, behold, what manner
of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. All of God's children, they're
not just his servants. They're His sons, sons of God,
daughters of God, children of God, children by birth, birthed
into the kingdom of God, partakers of the divine nature, children
by adoption, adopted into His family, the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto Himself. And what that means is we have
all the privileges of sonship. Join heirs with Christ. All the
privileges of sonship. Listen to me. You're a son of
God. You're a daughter of God. What do you got to be upset about
or depressed about? You're a child of the King. What
a privilege. what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us. You know what that means? Everything
that happens is for your good, and He makes it that way, in
His glory. John said in 1 John 4, 16, we
have known and believed the love of God has toward us. And that
doesn't mean simply, I believe God loves me. That's not what
that means. You know, if you'd ask, you believe
God loves you? Yeah, I do. Well, that's not
what this scripture's saying. We have known and relied upon
the love God has to us. Everything I've said, I'm relying
on with regard to. I'm relying on his love is in
Christ Jesus. He doesn't love me because of
any loveliness in me, but because I'm in his son. I'm relying on
that. I'm relying on his love being
eternal. and saving and gracious and covering. I'm relying on
the love that we have known and relied upon. The love that God
has to us. Now, not only, I've got two more
things I want to say, then I'll be finished. I want to quote
a passage of scripture from Zephaniah chapter three, verse 17. Not
only am I relying on God's love in Christ, listen to what God
says. about his love. Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17,
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 rests in his love. He's so
satisfied with his love to you. He rests in it. There's nothing
you can do to change it. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. You know, the Lord sings a song
about you in His own great heart. It's what the scripture says.
He'll rejoice over you with singing. Now here's my last statement. We'll talk about this glorious
love of God. So other, who are the objects of his love? Who are the objects of his love? Now there are a lot of things
I could say. The church, Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it. There are a lot of things I could say about his love that
may not Comfort me even though I see they're true But let me
leave you with this thought Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Who does God love sinners. Are you a real sinner in the
scriptural sense of the word? If you are, God loves you. And he gave his son to pay for
your sins. And you are called upon to trust
him right now completely. If you're a sinner, you'll do
that. If you're not a sinner, I got
no gospel for you. But if you're a sinner, God loves
you. I can say that with full conviction. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom Paul said, I am the chief. When with the ransom and in glory,
his face I at last shall see it will be my joy through the
ages to sing of his love for me. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that you are love. How we thank you that your love
is in Christ Jesus. How we thank you that your love
covers all sin. How we thank you for your love
for sinners. Lord, reveal yourself to each
one of us. according to your will, for the
glory of your holy name. In Christ's name we pray, amen.