Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar 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 Nyberg. In Romans chapter 5, verse 8,
Paul said, But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Who is the us that Paul is speaking
of? When he says God commended His
love toward us, does he mean all men without exception? All
men to ever live? When he said Christ died for
us, does he mean that Christ died for all men, even those
in hell, even those who are suffering the wrath of God? Who is the
us Paul speaks of? I know this, it's the same us
as in Romans 8.31 when Paul said, if God be for us, who can be
against us? Question, who does God love? Who does God love? Many would consider that question
redundant. He loves everybody. Why even
ask that question? Kind of like asking the question,
what color are all black cows? Well, they're all black. To many,
it's a given that he loves all men the same, and therefore the
question is answered before it's even asked. And most people would
be horrified at the suggestion that he does not love all men.
Why that would not be But the question I asked was not who
does the God who loves all men love, but who does God love? The God of the Bible. Now, the Bible is the inspired
Word of God, and God reveals to us who He is. Who does that
God love? The living God? I want to know. Who does God love? I want to
give a little history before I get into seeing what the Bible
says about this question. But I grew up in Ashland, Kentucky,
and I was a member of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland,
Kentucky. And that church had come out
of a Southern Baptist church called the Pollard Baptist Church
back in about 1950. It was a large Southern Baptist
church. And they had an evangelist come
into town that they didn't really know, and his name was Ralph
Barnard. And this man opened this series
of meetings in this large Baptist church in Ashland, Kentucky.
He opened with this statement, there are two lies being circulated
in Ashland, Kentucky. That's an unusual way to open
a meeting, isn't it? And you can be sure that everyone
was thinking, well, what are the lies that are being circulated
here? And he said this, there are two
lies being circulated in Ashland, Kentucky. The first one is that
God loves everybody. And the second one is that Christ
died for everybody. Those are the two lies being
circulated in Ashland, Kentucky. And you can imagine people never
heard anything like that before. And it caused an uproar at the
time. Now, I could say just as truly,
There are two lies being circulated in Lexington, Kentucky and Central
Kentucky and all over America and all over the world. And the
first one is that God loves everybody. And the second one is that Christ
died for everybody. Those are lies. Now, somebody may be thinking, why
are you making an issue of this? Why that language seems inflammatory. It seems like you're trying to
stir up a hornet's nest. Why are you making statements
like that? What's the point? Why is it necessary? And let me give you four reasons
why it is necessary, what I'm talking about. The fact, and
I call it fact from the Bible, that God doesn't love everybody
and that Christ didn't die for everybody. Let me give you five
reasons as to why this is an issue. The first reason is because
the Bible makes an issue of this. In Romans 9, verse 13, God said,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's God's language. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Somebody says, doesn't God love
everybody? Well, I know he didn't love Esau. He said he didn't.
And if you read where it is quoted from Malachi chapter 1, he says
against Esau and his descendants, the Edomites, there'll be indignation
forever. Whatever they try to build, I'll
throw it down. He hates Esau. Now, God's hatred is not like
our hatred. Our hatred is an evil hatred. Somebody does this
wrong and we want to get them back. God's hatred is with regard
to righteousness. But let me read a few scriptures.
In Psalm chapter 5, verse 5, we read, The foolish shall not
stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. You've heard that saying, God
loves the sinner, but he hates the sin. You won't find that
in the Bible. God doesn't put sins into hell. God puts the
ones who committed the sins into hell. Thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful
man. We read in Psalm 7, verse 11, God judges the righteous And
God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 11, verse 5,
The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked, and him that
loveth violence his soul hateth. Now, that's spoken of God. The
soul of God hates that wicked man and that one who loves violence. Now, these scriptures tell us
that God does not love all men. The Bible says that. If you believe
the Bible is the Word of God, listen to what it says. God does
not love all men. He hated Esau. Now, here's the
second reason why this is an issue. To say he does is degrading
to his character. You see, God is holy. He loveth
righteousness. He doesn't love evil. You see,
there's no such thing as unconditional love. People talk about the unconditional
love of God. There's no such thing. If God
loves you, you're worthy of His love. He sees you as beautiful
and holy. Now, you'll understand that when you understand the
Gospel. In Christ, I am beautiful and holy. In Christ, I am righteous. And God sees me as righteous,
I am righteous, and He loves me as such. There's no such thing
as unconditional love. God loves righteousness. And
to say that He loves that which is purely evil is to be degrading
to His character. And the third reason why it's
important to point out that God does not love all men and Christ
didn't die for all men is because to say that God loves all men
the same and that Christ died for all men the same, it's to
make His love and the death of Christ meaningless. Meaningless. If God loved Judas and Peter
the same, and Peter saved and Judas is not, what did the love
of God do for Judas? Absolutely nothing. What did
it do for Peter? Absolutely nothing. It's what
Peter did that brought him into heaven, not anything special
from God's love or Christ's death. If Jesus Christ died for the
sins of Judas as much as He did for Peter, and Peter's in heaven
and Judas is in hell, what's the blood of Christ have to do
with salvation? It's not a thing. Not a thing. It's what Peter
did that Judas didn't do that brought him into heaven. You
see, this is a message of salvation by works. If you preach that
God loves all men the same and Christ died for all men the same,
you have to believe in salvation by works. You cannot believe
in salvation by grace believing that. Now, to know He loves you
is the assurance of the believer. Galatians 2.20, Paul said, 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. This is the assurance of the
believer. Now, that man who brings a message, God loves everybody
and Christ died for everybody, if he says to someone who is
an unbeliever, God loves you, and Christ died for you, that
man doesn't love God or he wouldn't be speaking that way. He'd be
honest with what the Scripture says and he doesn't love that
man because he wouldn't be bringing a false message like that. That is altogether contrary to
the Scriptures. Now, it is evident that God does
not love all men. Question, who does He love? I want to know. I want to be
one of those people he loves. I want to be one of those people
Christ died for. Who does God love? Well, we read in Romans chapter
5 verse 8, but God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now know this, the people
that God loves are sinners. Sinners. Are you a sinner? What is a sinner? A sinner is
someone who commits sin. What is sin? Sin is the transgression
of God's holy law, the Ten Commandments. A sinner is someone who all he
does is break the holy law of God. He's sinful, full of sin. He cannot not sin. He can't look
down his nose at anybody because he knows something about himself.
He has no claims on God because of his sinfulness. He has forfeited
all rights as far as that goes. He can't obligate God to save
him because all he is is sin. Are you a sinner? Somebody says,
no, I'm not. Well, I can't give you any assurance that Christ
died for you or God loves you. But if you're a sinner, I can
assure you, if you're a sinner in the scriptural sense of the
term, nothing but sin. If that's what you are, if that's
who you are, if sin's your name, if sin's your nature, God loves
you. Now, if you are not a sinner,
I can't give you that assurance. You might be an Esau, one he
hates and one he's going to put into hell because of your sin.
But if you are a sinful man, Peter was. He said, depart from
me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. I'm full of
sin. If you are a sinner, here's good
news. God loves you. God loves sinners. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1 15,
For Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am the chief. That's who God loves. He loves
sinners. And then we read in Psalm 146
verse 8, The Lord loveth the righteous. Now that almost seems
like an oxymoron. You say he loves sinners, and
then you turn around and say he loves the righteous. Well,
those sinners aren't righteous, are they? Listen real carefully.
The Lord loveth the righteous. You see, these sinners that God
loves, He has made them righteous. I'm aware of my own sinfulness,
and I'm equally aware that before God I have no sin. I'm perfectly righteous. When
God looks at me, He looks at a righteous man with a righteous
soul. How can that be? Somebody says,
how can a sinner be righteous? 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 says,
For He hath made him to be sin. for us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, if Christ
died for me, my sin is put away. If Christ died for me, My sin
became His sin. That's why He died. He died because
He had the sins of His people upon Him. He died under the wrath
of God. And that perfect obedience, that
perfect righteousness that is His is given to all those He
died for so that every believer is the very righteousness of
God in Him. Now, the Lord loveth the righteous. And if you're a sinner, You're
somebody that Christ died for and that He made righteous. The Lord loveth the righteous. And then in John chapter 13,
verse 1, it says concerning the Lord Jesus, having loved His
own which were in the world, He loved them to the end. It doesn't say He loved all men
without exception. It says He loved His own which
were in the world. And when he went on to pray at
that time, then he said, I pray for them. I pray not for the
world, but for them which you have given me, for they are thine. He loves his own. When his birth
was announced by the angel to Joseph in Matthew 121, the angel
said to Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people. He didn't say for He'll save
everybody or He'll die for everybody. He'll save His people from their
sins. He saves His own. You see, to
me, it would be bad news if Jesus Christ the Lord died for everybody
without exception and people end up going to hell anyway,
because that means you've taken away my only hope, because the
only hope I have is that Christ died for me and put away my sin.
And if you say He can die for somebody, and they wind up in
hell anyway, you've taken away the only hope that I have. Who
does He love? He loves His own, and He never
ceases to love them. Who are the people that He loves?
The people that He has always loved. In Jeremiah chapter 31,
verse 3, God says, Behold, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." Now listen to me, with regard to God's elect,
with regard to those that believe, there was never a time when God
began to love them. I've always been loved in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I've always been united to Christ,
even when I wasn't aware of it. In Christ, nothing shall separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All His love is in Christ and He's always loved those in Christ
even before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1, 4, and
5 says, In love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Who does He love? Those that
He has always loved. Who does He love? Well, He loves
individuals. He said, Jacob have I loved. Now, if you would have looked
at the difference between Jacob and Esau, you probably would
have liked Esau better than Jacob. Esau was a man's man. He was
a hunter. Jacob was a plain man, dwelt in tents. He was a mama's
boy. But who did God love? Jacob have I loved. Now, this Lord loved Solomon,
the scripture says. David's son, the Lord loved Solomon. And we read regarding Martha
and Mary and Lazarus, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Remember how John referred to
himself throughout the Gospel of John? He called himself that
disciple that Jesus loved. And when they talked about Lazarus
being sick, they said, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. They didn't say, The one who
really loves you is sick. Now do something about it. No,
they said, He whom thou lovest is sick. He loves individuals. There's no generic love. The
names of all of his elect. were in His heart. That means
my name. My worthless name was in His
heart when He was on the cross, bleeding and dying for me. He
said, I lay down my life for the sheep. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Now, not everybody's his friend. Not everybody's a sheep. There
are goats. He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. He loves his individual believers. And then we read in Proverbs
chapter 8, verse 17, I love him that loved me. We love him because
he first loved us. And he says, I love them that
love me. Now here's what distinguishes
a believer from an unbeliever. A believer loves God. They love the God of the Bible. They love Him as He's revealed
in His Word. They love all of His attributes.
They love His holiness. They love His justice. They love
His wisdom. They love His love. They love
His Sovereignty. They love His power. Every attribute
of God they love. I love Him to this extent. I
wouldn't change Him if it were in my power. I can't say that
about any other human being. I certainly can't say that about
myself. Oh, if I could, there's a lot of things I'd change about
myself. He, I would not change. He's perfect. He's altogether
lovely. And that's how every believer
feels about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the God of glory. And the
Lord loves those who love him. And then in Ephesians chapter
5, verse 25, we read, husbands, love your wives even as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. Now, when Paul is speaking
of the church here, he's not talking about a local assembly.
He's talking about the bride of Christ. He's talking about
the church for which he died. Feed the church of God, which
he purchased with his own blood, Acts 20, 28 says. Christ loved
the church. The church is every believer. Now, I'm thankful for the local
church. I'm thankful for the church I pastor. But here's a
church membership that's more important to me than membership
with a local church. You see, you can be in the role
of a local church and be a member and still be lost. But in this
church, if you're a member of this church, Christ died for
you, God loves you, you must be saved because Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. And then we read in John
chapter 3, Verse 16, For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have eternal life. God so loved the world. Well, that seems to imply that
God loves everybody. No, it doesn't. Listen to what
it says. God loved the world like this. God so loved the world. In this manner, God loved the
world that anybody who believes on Christ would be saved. I don't
care how sinful they are, I don't care if they're Jew, Gentile,
black, white, rich, poor, it makes no difference. Anybody
in the world who believes, I don't care how far off they are, how
sinful they are, anybody who believes is saved. That's how
much God loves the world. Anybody who comes to Christ will
not be cast out. The Lord said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. If you come, if you believe,
You're one of these people that God has loved. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And then we read
in 1 John 3, verse 1, Behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God. Therefore the world knoweth us not. God loves those who the
world does not recognize. You see, a believer is not of
this world. If I'm a believer, I don't trace
my roots from this world. I trace my roots from God Himself. They are not of this world even
as I am not of this world. The world does not recognize
us, and that's fine as long as He does. And then we read in
Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 18, where it says, the Lord loveth
strangers. The Lord loveth strangers. And the believer is called a
pilgrim, and a stranger, and a sojourner here. We're just
passing through. This world is not my home. This world that
doesn't love God as He is, this world's religion, this world's
philosophy, this world's ways, this world is not my home. I'm
just passing through, looking for a better country, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. Really, this world is not my
home. I'm a stranger here. I'm a stranger and a pilgrim
passing through, waiting till I'm enabled to see my Lord Jesus
Christ face to face, beholding His face in righteousness, and
I'm just passing through as a stranger. And then we read in Hebrews chapter
12, verse 6, and this is a quotation from the Proverbs, whom the Lord
loveth, He chasteneth. and scourges every son he receives."
Did you notice whom the Lord loves? He chastens. The Lord
said in Revelation chapter 3 to the church at Laodicea, as many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Notice the language. As many
as I love. He doesn't love everybody. But
everybody He does love, He rebukes and He chastens. Who does the
Lord love? Those He chastens. Now, I'm not
looking to be chastened. I don't want to be chastened.
I deserve to be chastened. I don't want to be chastened.
But I know this. I don't want to be without chasing
because if I'm without chasing, I'm without the Lord Himself.
Who does the Lord love? Those He chastens. You see, you
don't chasten other people's children, do you? You don't correct
other people's children. You correct your own. Now, everyone
the Lord loves, he chastens with his wise hand. Whom the Lord
loveth, he chasteneth. And then we read in 2 Corinthians
9, verse 7, every man according as he purposes in his heart,
so let him give. Not grudgingly, not thinking,
well, I can't really afford to do this and it's going to keep
me from doing that. Or of necessity, I'm giving simply to a need.
For God loveth a cheerful giver. God loves someone who enjoys
giving. You see, if you love somebody,
you love to give to them, don't you? Everybody you love, you
enjoy this thing of giving. You don't give out of duty if
you love. You give because that's what you want to do. It's a privilege. It's a pleasure to give. And
the Scripture says, God loveth a cheerful giver. When God saves
somebody, they're changed from takers to givers. That's what
they want to do, be a giving person. It's more blessed to
give than it is to receive. God loves a cheerful giver. Now, who does God love? Well,
according to these scriptures, and I've given you every description
of the people that God loves in the Bible, God loves sinners,
God loves the righteous, God loves his own. God loves those
whom he has always loved. God loves individuals. God loves
those that love him. God loves the church. God loves
the world. God loves the ones the world
does not know. God loves strangers. God loves
the ones that he chastens. And God loves a cheerful giver. Now, how can I know if I'm somebody
that God loves? If you look to Christ as your
all in salvation and you look nowhere else, if you come to
him as an empty handed sinner, crying for mercy, You're somebody
that God loves. Now, we have this message on
CD and DVD. If you call the church or write
or email, we'll send you a copy and like to invite you to services
at Todd's Road Grace Church. We'll begin Bible study this
morning at 9.45, morning worship at 10.30, and tonight at 6. This
is Todd Knight. God will be pleased to meet you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.