And tonight, I'm going to be
preaching on the part of the prayer the Lord taught his disciples
to pray. He taught us to pray on a daily
basis, Thy kingdom come. What's that mean? And this morning, I've entitled
the message, Who Does God Love? Before we begin, I ask you to
pray for me as we consider a subject that is infinitely beyond my
ability to present. Pray for me that I would be able
to preach the Lord's word upon this and pray for yourselves
to be able to hear Because this is equally a subject beyond my
ability and your ability to grasp the love of God. Who does God love? Verse 8, but God commendeth his
love toward us. That word, commends, is the same
word used in Romans 16, 1, where Paul says, I commend unto you,
Phoebe. I commend her for a favorable reception from you. And God is
saying, I'm commending my love for a favorable reception. Now, most of us are familiar
with that verse of Scripture in 1 John chapter 4, verse 8,
where we read, God is love. I love that verse. God is love. Beloved, let us love one another
for love is of God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God for God is love. God has wrath because of his
justice. He must punish sin. He must. That's who he is. He's just.
God has wrath, but it's never said in the Bible that he is
wrath. But it does say he is love. Not here is love and God reaches
that ideal, but God is love. And the first thing I would like
to say about God's love is that it is saving love. Ephesians chapter two, would
you turn with me there? Ephesians chapter two. He'd been describing us as being
dead in trespasses and sins. In verse three, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind. And
we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 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. You see, God's great love saves
all of the objects of his love. Jeremiah 31 three says, behold,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, because of that,
with loving kindness, Have I drawn thee? If I'm an object of God's
love, he draws me to himself. He would not let those alone
that he loved. Now, if he could love somebody
individually and that person ends up being the object of his
wrath, that would make his love meaningless. Utterly meaningless. His love is not generic, it's
not general, but it's special and it's particular. Behold,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. All he loves, he saves. You could not save anybody in
hell. Smile. God loves you. You know, the Lord said to one
particular group of people, depart from me. Ye that work iniquity,
I never knew you. I never loved you is what that
means. Adam knew his wife Eve. It didn't mean he knew who she
was. He knew her in an intimate way. And he says to this one
group who said, have we not preached in your name? Have we not cast
out demons in your name? And in your name, have we not
done many wonderful works? Then while I say unto them, depart
from me, Ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. Now, as we consider what the
Bible teaches regarding God's love, and that's our only source
of information, we'll see why this must be so. Now, here's
the first thing I'd like to say that the Bible says about God's
love. God's love has no cause outside of himself. Let me show
you that in scripture. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter seven.
This is a precious passage of scripture. Deuteronomy chapter seven, beginning
in verse one. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land wherein thou goest to possess it and has cast
out many nations before thee. The Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. But the Lord cast them out. And
when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt
smite them, and utterly destroy them? Thou shalt make no covenant
with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make
marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, and his daughter shalt thou not take unto thy
son, for they will turn away thy son from following thee.
That they may serve other gods, so will the angler of the Lord
be kindled against you, and destroy you suddenly. But thus shall
you deal with them. You shall destroy their altar,
break down their images, cut down their groves, burn their
graven images with fire, for thou art a holy people unto the
Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his
love upon thee, 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. That's why he loved you. because
the Lord loved you. He loved you. You see the reason
is found in his own great heart. He didn't love you because you
were more better than these other people. He loved you simply because
he loved you. Now what that tells me is that
there's nothing in me that would draw out his love. Nothing in me. But thank God
he said in Hosea 14 verse 4, Behold I will love them freely. Freely. God's love is found in
himself. The reason he loves is because
he's love. Do you know God must love because
that's who he is. That's not because anybody deserves
his love, but God is love and he must love. Now his love is eternal. That
means it never had a beginning. He said, behold, I've loved you
with an everlasting love. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. God's love is eternal. He never
began to love me. However old Christ is, And I say that in the weakness
of the flesh because He's eternal. He never had a beginning. He's
the eternal Son of God. But however old Christ is, that's
how long God has loved me. His love is eternal. eternal. It never had a beginning. Listen to this scripture. I'll
quote it. You're familiar with it. Ephesians chapter one, verses
four and five, according as he has chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinate us, predestinated
us unto himself by Jesus Christ. Do you know the love of God came
before predestination? That's an awesome thought, isn't
it? Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. You see, the love of God is always
before. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. The love of God
is in himself, the love of God is eternal, and the love of God
is immutable. He can't stop loving. He can't begin to love. He cannot
love more. He cannot love less. And his
love cannot end because his love is immutable. It knows no variations. It knows no changes. It knows
no ebbs and flows. It isn't hot and isn't cold.
It's immutable. The love of God. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. And God's love is a covering
love. Proverbs chapter 12 verse 10
says, love covereth all transgressions. In Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 8,
God says, when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was the time of love. That's when you were cast out
into the field. You remember that passage in Ezekiel 16, to
the loathing of thine own person. speaking of a baby that was deformed
and what would they do? They'd throw it out into the
field to die. And God said, I pass by you then
behold the time was a time of love and I spread my skirt over
thee where all that could be seen as me and covered by nakedness. Love
covers all transgressions. Now, my dear wife, loves me. I have no question about that.
She loves me. And she knows my faults better
than anybody else in this room. She knows them. You can't live
with somebody and not become familiar with their faults. But
I dare say you've never had her tell you about any of them. You
know why? Because she loves me. Love covereth
a transgression. It always does. Now, a lack of
love seeks to expose, seeks to make people be seen and so on. But no love covers a transgression. The folks that God loves, He
covers all their transgressions. Blessed is he whose iniquity
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. It's a covering love, and his
love is a sacrificial love, a love that proves itself by his death. John 3, 16, God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. You see, love gives, and
he gave everything. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation,
a sin atoning victim for our sins. You know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes,
he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich. Now the Lord's love, is not in
word. Now, the most precious words
or the most meaningless words are the words, I love you. And
you know this in your own experience. Oh, how precious they are from
someone who proves their love by their conduct. How meaningless
when someone says, I love you, but they don't do anything for
you. That's meaningless. God has no meaningless I love
you's. Not at all. When he says, I love
you, salvation is behind it. He gives all of himself to the
object of his love. And you know, the love of God
never goes unrequited, all that he loves, love him in return. We love him, John said. We love
him because he first loved us. Everybody that God loves, they're
going to love him in return. God never has unrequited love. He never loves somebody where
they don't love him in return. He says, I love them that love
me. And his love is special and particular. I've loved you. I love that scripture
where John referred to himself as that disciple that Jesus loved.
That was his claim to fame, that disciple that Jesus loved. Now,
Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. His love is special. Now, I'll use Lynn as an example
again. If Lynn said, Todd, do you love
me? And I said, sure, I love you. I love you like I love every
other woman. There'd be problems, wouldn't there? What kind of
love would that be? There'd be nothing special or
particular about that love. That would be evil. That's what
it would be. It'd be evil. God's love is a
special, particular, Love. It's a distinguishing love. We
read in the scriptures, Jacob have I loved, God said. God said
that. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. God said that. Now somebody says,
how could God hate Esau? You know, I got no problem with
that at all. I can see why God would hate me. God's holy. God's just. Here's the amazing
thing, Jacob have I loved. Jacob that healed, that supplanter,
Jacob have I loved. Oh, God calls himself the God
of Jacob more than any other term in the Bible. The God of
Jacob. Oh, his love is special and particular. And to make his love universal
and general is to make his love meaningless. I can say this with
full conviction. There will be nobody he loved
in hell. Nobody. Jeremiah 31 three, I repeat,
behold, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore with
loving kindness, have I drawn thee. I've drawn thee to myself. Not only is his love eternal,
his love is everlasting. That means it'll never end. Not
only did it never have a beginning, it'll never have an ending. He
can never stop loving. Now, men and women get married. They love each other, they really
love each other, but something happens and they stop loving
one another. But you know that never happens
with God. His love never stops. Scripture says regarding the
Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 13, verse one, having loved his
own, which were in the world. He loved them to the end. It never stops. Now this will
summarize everything I've said. Turn with me to Romans chapter
eight, regarding the love of God. Verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? What can separate us from His
love? What can prevent Him from loving? Well, the question we need to
ask is, who is the us? Well, look in verse 28, same
chapter, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the call according to
his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, this is the us, for
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. It's already taken place. This
is not future. This is, it already is. It's already happened in the
person of Christ. Now, what should we say to these
things? 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 also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? That's the us. It's God that
justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril
assured? As it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the
day long. We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay,
in all these things we're more than conquerors through him that
loved. us. For I am persuaded 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. God's love is in Christ. Now let's go back to Romans chapter
five. This love I'm speaking of, this
saving love, this causeless love in us, this eternal love, this
immutable love, this sacrificial giving love, this covering love,
this special love, this particular love, this everlasting love of
God which is in Christ. Here's how God commends it. Now
remember he says God commends his love toward us. He's commending
it for a favorable reception. I commend unto you Phoebe, a
servant of the church. Paul is saying to the church
at Rome, receive her. I'm commending her to you. And
God is saying regarding his love, I'm commending my love. Now here's
how God commends his love. Here it is. Romans chapter five,
verse eight. But God commended his love toward
us in the while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Now here's love's commendation.
Christ died for us. I suppose that there isn't anything
that I have a harder time grasping than
the son of God dying. This is Christ. This is the darling
of the father. This is the express image of
his person and the brightness of God's glory. God, the son. The one who is altogether lovely,
the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the servant, The
Son of God, the Son of Man, the One who said, I do always those
things that please the Father. This is the One who died. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died. First John 4.10,
herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to die. to be the propitiation
for our sins. It was the Father's will to give
Him to be the Savior of those He loved. For God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. That was God's purpose in sending
Him. The Father sent the Son. The Lord said in John 6, verse
38, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me and this is the father's will which sent
me that of all which he had given me I should lose nothing but
raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of him
that sent me that everyone that seeth the son they see who I
am and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I'll raise
him up at the last day now that's love's commendation the father
sent his son Christ died Now, I made this statement recently. There's nothing remarkable, and
I'm not saying this unfeelingly, but there's nothing remarkable
about the death of any son of Adam. When I die, nobody's going
to say, boy, it's amazing he died. That's remarkable. No, it's what we expect. We expect
that of every son of Adam. You see, the wages of sin is
death. And when I die, nobody's going
to be saved. That was amazing. Can you believe
that happened? No, nothing remarkable about it. But oh, there's something
so remarkable about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
came to die. And you and I both know, I hope
we both know this, there's only one reason for death, sin. The wages of sin is death. Christ
drank the cup of God's wrath completely dry. Hebrews 12.2
says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, oh, the shame he felt as he was forsaken
by God. I can't understand that, but
somehow the Lord was ashamed of himself before his father
because my sins literally became his sins. When he said, my God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? He said in that same song,
I'm a worm, not even fit to be called a man. That's the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ, how truly he was forsaken, cut off
by his father and he died because of sin. He felt the shame, the
guilt, the demerit, the marring, the debasing nature of sin. Now
he never sinned. Even when he was made sin, he
never sinned, but he experienced everything about the darkness
of sin with the exception of the commission of sin. Turn with
me to Lamentations chapter one. right after Jeremiah. The next time you read this book,
Lamentations, read it as the very words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, because that's what it is. But look in verse 11. all her people sigh they seek
bread they've given their pleasant things for me to relieve the
soul see oh lord and consider for i am become vile now you
and i were born vile when he was made sin he became vile verse
12 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. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ from Calvary's tree. And indeed, there's no sorrow
like his sorrow. Here is love's commendation. Christ died for us. Now who is the us? How can we
answer that question? Who does God love? God commended
his love toward us in the while we were yet sinners. Christ died
for us. Now I could say that God loves
the elect and it would be true. I could say that God loves believers
and that would be true. I could say that God loves those
who love Him. That would be true. I could say
God loves those to whom He's given a new nature, and that
would be true. I could say God loves those who
repent, change their mind, and that would be true. But what
does the text say? His love, His great, saving,
redeeming, sacrificial, immutable, eternal, everlasting love. God commended His love toward
us into while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Not seeking Him, no sorrow for
our sin, no confession, no cry for mercy, no realization of
our need, no appreciation for who he is and what he did. No,
Christ died for sinners as sinners. Now, please listen to me very,
very carefully. Are you a sinner? Now, I dare say that everybody
in this room without exception, said, yes, I am. Bet you said
that. Yes, I am. We know that's what we ought
to say. Yes, I am. We're all sinners. Yes, I am. I want to ask the same question
in another form. Have you ever taken any of those
personality tests maybe when you're applying for a job or
you're supposed to get some kind of position or maybe they want
to give you some kind of personality test at work? I've taken several
of them and I've noticed what they do. They ask the same question
in many different ways because they've got built in that we're
going to be dishonest and give the answer that we know we ought
to give. rather than what really is in
us. So they'll ask that same question in many different ways
to see if they can trick us into telling the truth. Are you a sinner? Let me ask you that question
in another form. Now the scripture says sin is
the transgression of the law. talking about the Holy Ten Commandments
of God. Here's my first question. Are
you somebody who puts anything before God? How do you measure up there? Are you someone who attributes
false things to God, false concepts and false ideas that are wrong
in order to make things better for yourself? Are you an idolater? Are you an individual who is
irreverent? You take his name in vain. When you take his name in your
tongue from your heart, there's irreverence in it. Are you someone who never rests? You never rest. Are you a murderer? Maybe you've not killed someone
physically, but you've attacked someone's character and murdered
them by slander, gossip, and innuendo, or maybe even silence,
not taking up for them when you said it. Are you an adulterer? Are you chaste in your heart?
Are you an adulterer? Are you guilty of committing
sexual sin, adultery against Christ in your heart? Are you a thief? Do you take that which does not
belong to you? Are you a thief? robbing and
stealing, taking credit where credit's not due? Are you a liar? Would that describe you, a liar?
Someone who does not tell the truth. Even when you tell the
truth, you've got a slant on it in order to make yourself
look better. Are you a covetous person? One who covets that which belongs
to your neighbor? not satisfied with what God has
given you? Are you covetous? Somebody says, well, I know I'm
a sinner, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm a liar, and I'm an adulterer,
and I'm a thief, and I've never obeyed and honored my parents
and honored authority. I wouldn't describe myself that
way. What kind of sinner are you? Huh? What kind of sinner are
you? Now, a sinner is somebody who
all they have done is broke God's law. They haven't kept one commandment
one time. That's what a sinner is. You
see, all they do is sin. They cannot not sin. They can't look down their nose
in judgment and moral superiority over anybody. And they have no
claims on God because of their sin. Are you a sinner? Does that describe you? Beloved, if it does, God loves
you. Do you hear that? God loves you. Heaven is yours. The forgiveness of sins is yours. You're accepted in the beloved.
Now, if that doesn't describe you, I can't give you any hope.
I can't give you any assurance that God loves you. I can't give
you any assurance that Christ died for you. But if you are
a sinner, God loves you. Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. If you are a sinner, God loves
you. And remember, his love is saving
love. Now, I was talking about sin
being the transgression of the law. Turn to 1 John 3. Verse
4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested. This is why God sent him. Oh,
the father sent the son for this purpose. To take away our sins. and in him is no sin. If I'm in him, I have
no sin. Remember, love covereth all transgressions. If you're a sinner, God loves
you. And he sent his son to take away
your sins. Believe on Him right now. That's God's command. Trust Him
to make you without sin before a thrice holy God. Who does God love? He loves sinners. I love that
song. The sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. You know, there's, it's, it's
an awesome thing to think about. There are some people's hearts
right now who are dancing for joy that God loves sinners. See it in your eyes. And there
are some people who, just another sermon. Why? Because they don't
see themselves as sinners. May God give us this revelation
of ourselves that actually comes from a revelation of himself.
If I ever see who he is, I'll see who I am. And I'll trust
him completely. Who does God love? God loves
sinners. Let's pray.