I have entitled the message for
this evening, Who Does God Love? Who Does God Love? Now I want to answer that question
from the scriptures. That's the only way to answer
any question, is from the scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. If the Bible is not the inspired
word of God, all we have is speculation, my opinion and your opinion,
which doesn't amount to much, does it? But we're going to look
at what the Bible says regarding this question, who does God love? Many would consider that question
redundant. Kind of like the question, what
color are all black cows? Well, obviously they're all black.
To many, it's a given that he loves all men. 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 wouldn't be fair. That
wouldn't be fair. And all of a sudden, we're entering
the realm of merit. But the question I asked was
not, who does the God that loves all men love? But who does God
love? The God of the Bible. Who does
He love? Now, He is as He is. The Bible
says, in Him we live and move and have our being, the last
breath you took. Just now, he gave you. The last
breath I took, just now, he gave me. And he can withhold it if
he is pleased to. So it would behoove you and I
to know who it is that he loves. Who does God love? Now, this church came out of
the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, where Brother
Henry Mahan was the pastor. And that church came out of a
Southern Baptist Church. The largest Southern Baptist
Church in Eastern Kentucky, the Parlor Baptist Church, and somewhere
over 60 years ago, they had a meeting and they brought a man in, a
traveling evangelist by the name of Roth Barnard. And this is
how he introduced the message. You listen real carefully. He
introduced the message. First time anybody heard it,
they didn't know what to expect. And he said, There are two lies
being circulated in Ashland, Kentucky. Now, you can imagine
everybody's taken back. What's he getting ready to say?
He said, here's the first lie. It's that God loves everybody. That's the first lie. And the
second lie is that Jesus Christ shed his precious blood for everybody. Those are the two lies being
circulated in Ashland, Kentucky. And you can imagine how shocked
everybody was when they heard that. They hadn't heard anything
like that before. But you know, the same lies are
being circulated in Lexington, Kentucky, even today, that God
loves everybody without exception and that Christ died for everybody. Now, somebody may be thinking,
why are you making an issue of this? What is the point? Is this necessary to speak this
way? This language almost seems inflammatory. Why would you even
talk about something like this? Well, let me give you four reasons
why it's necessary to make an issue of the fact, and notice
I called it a fact, that God does not love all men equally
the same. Now, I want to show you this
from the scriptures. Here's the first reason why I'm
making an issue of this. The Bible does. That's enough of a reason, isn't
it? Turn with me to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Now this is
God speaking, and he says in verse 11, for the children being
not yet born, talking about Jacob and Esau, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger,
as it's written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Now God
said that. Esau have I hated. Now I've heard
people say, well, what that means is he loved Esau less. Can God
love less? Is it possible for the living
God to love less? Turn with me to Malachi chapter
1, this is where this is quoted from, the last book of the Old
Testament, Malachi chapter 1. The burden, last book of the
Old Testament, chapter 1, the burden of the word of the Lord
to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord,
yet you say wherein hast thou loved was not Esau, Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom, his descendants,
saith, we are impoverished, but we'll return and build the desolate
places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but
I'll throw down. They shall call them the border
of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation
forever." Now, that doesn't sound much like love less, does it?
God said regarding Esau, I hate him. And understand this about
God's hatred. It's not like our hatred. Our
hatreds have been vindictive hatred. If you get mad at me,
I'm going to get mad at you and all that kind of stuff. That's
not what God is. Holy God is righteous. Now, let
me show you some other scriptures. Turn to Psalm chapter 5. The
book of Psalm chapter 5. Now, why make an issue of the
fact that God does not love everybody? Because the Bible makes an issue
of this fact. If the Bible's the word of God,
we're to pay attention to what it says. Look in Psalm chapter
5, verse 5, verse 4. For thou art not a God that hath
pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The
foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Now, have you ever heard, well,
God loves the sinner, but he hates his sin? Where's that in
the Bible? It's not in the Bible. God does not put sins into hell. He puts the ones who committed
those sins into hell. And it says he hates all workers
of iniquity. Verse 6, Thou shalt destroy them
that speak leasing or lies. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. Look in Psalm 7, verse 11. God judges the righteous, but
God is angry with the wicked. every day. Look at Psalm 11,
beginning in verse 5. Verse 4, the Lord is in his holy
temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes behold, his
eyelids try the children of men, the Lord trieth the righteous
but the wicked, and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Now that's speaking of God's
soul. His soul hateth upon the wicked, he shall rain snares,
firing brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This shall be the portion
of their cup, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His
countenance doth behold the upright." Now, here's the first reason
to make an issue of this. God's Word makes an issue of this.
He said regarding Esau, Esau have I hated. Now, here's the
second reason we make an issue of this. is to say that he loves
all men, even the wicked, those who do not believe, those who
end up in hell, is to degrade his holy character. Now, what
do I mean by that? You've heard people talk about
unconditional love. God loves people unconditionally. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't.
There's no such thing as unconditional love. There's got to be something
there to love. Now, when God loves somebody, he makes them
lovable. He makes them righteous. He makes
them to where He desires them. But He doesn't just unconditionally
love someone that's evil. He's holy. He can't love evil. He can't do it. It would be degrading
to His character. We read in Psalm 117, the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright. Now, here's another reason it
degrades us. First, the Bible makes an issue
of it. Second, It degrades his character, but listen to this,
real character. Thirdly, to say he loves all men the same, to
say he loves Judas the same way he loves Peter, is to make his
love meaningless. If he loves Judas, who is in
hell, the same way he loved Peter, who is in heaven, what does his
love have to do with salvation? Not a thing. It's a denial of
the very meaning of the love of God. To make his love just
generic like this, oh, he loves all men the same, is to deny
what his love even means. It makes it meaningless. And
fourth, to know he loves you is the assurance of the believer. Paul said he loved me and gave
himself for me. This is the assurance of the
believer. Now, if I tell someone who's an unbeliever, God loves
you. And Christ died for you. I don't
love that person, and I don't love God. Or I wouldn't be saying
something like that. I would be finding out what the
Scripture says regarding the eternal, saving love of God. Now, who does God love? We see from the Scriptures that
He does not love everybody. Somebody who says He does, they're
lying on God, because God says He doesn't. That's so. Well, who does God love? That's what I want to know. Who
does God love? We turn to Romans chapter 5. Now, understand this thing of
God not loving everybody, that doesn't keep salvation away from
anybody. There's mercy for everybody who
comes to Christ. There's mercy for everybody who
asks for mercy. This isn't shutting anybody out
of the kingdom of heaven. But it's telling us how sinners
are saved. So who does God love? Well, look in Romans chapter
5, verse 8, but God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet what? Sinners. Sinners. Christ died for us. Now, I'll tell you who he loves.
He loves sinners. Would that be you? Are you a
sinner? Well, somebody says, what do
you mean by that term? Well, it doesn't matter what I mean by
the term. What does the word of God mean by the term? A sinner is
someone who breaks God's holy law. Sin is called in 1 John
3 for the transgression of the law. If you're a sinner, that
means all you do is break God's holy law. Now, would that describe
you? Somebody says, no, that doesn't
describe me. Well, I can't give you an insurance
that God loves you then. He loves sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. That's who he loves. People who in and of themselves
are nothing but sinners. They have no claim on God. They
can't look down their nose at anybody. They know that all they
are in and of themselves is sin. Now that is the person that God
loves. For every sinner, there's a Savior. If you're a sinner, if you're
somebody who all you do is sin, God loves you. Christ died for
you. But if you're not that, I can't give you any assurance
that God would have anything to do with you. As a matter of
fact, until you believe the gospel, until I believe the gospel, we
don't have any reason to even suspect that God loves us because
of our sin. It's only when I believe the
gospel that I see the love of God in Christ Jesus. God loves
sinners. Now turn to Psalm 146. I know this regarding who God
loves. He truly, genuinely loves sinful
men and women. And if you're a sinner, I can
assure you, God loves you. And if you're not a sinner, I
can't give you any assurance of that. Now look here in Psalm
146, verse 8. The Lord opened the eyes of the
blind. The Lord raises them that are
bowed down. The Lord loveth the righteous. And that's who he loves. The
Lord loveth the righteous. Now, somebody may be thinking,
that seems totally contradictory to what you just said. You said
he loves sinners, but here it says he loves the righteous.
Well, here's what the Lord does. For every sinner, he makes them
righteous. And everybody who believes themselves
to be righteous, he leaves them in their sin. But the Lord makes
sinners righteous. That's the glory of the gospel.
2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, For he, God the Father, had made
him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin. Why did the Lord Jesus
Christ die? There's only one reason for death.
Sin. The sins of God's elect became
his sin so that he became guilty of it. 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. So every single believer is nothing
less than the very righteousness of God. You're looking right
now at the righteousness of God. Somebody says, how could you
say that? Because the Bible says it. 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." Every believer has the very righteousness of
Christ, and they stand before God holy, unblameable, and unreprovable,
and altogether lovely. Just as Christ is lovely, every
believer is lovely. The Lord loveth the righteous. Turn to John chapter 13. Now, remember, I'm looking at
what the Bible says regarding that person that God loves. Look
in John chapter 13, verse 1. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his
own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. He loves his own. In John 17, verse 9, he said
regarding his own, I pray for them. I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. His own are His people. That's
who He came to save. Matthew 121, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He saves His own. Now, who are
His own? In Jeremiah chapter 31, verse
3, you can look this up if you want to. I'll quote it. He said,
Behold, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. His own are those that he has
loved eternally with an everlasting love. Nothing, Paul said, shall separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now, who's the us? Well, you
look in the context. He said, 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?" It's God that justifies it. Who is
he that can condemn? It's Christ that died. That's
the only answer I need. Yea, rather, that's risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Ephesians 1, 4, and 5 says, But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins. That's Ephesians 2, 1.
Ephesians 1, 4, and 5 says, In love, having predestinated us
under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto 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. Now that's who he loves. Who does he love? We read, Jacob have I loved. He loves individuals. It said
regarding Solomon, the Lord loved Solomon. You remember in the
opening lines of John chapter 11, where it says now Jesus loved
Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He loved these individuals. It
was even said of the rich young ruler, the Lord beheld him and
loved him. You see, the Lord's love is not
a generic love. When he died on Calvary 3, he
had the names of every one of his people on his heart, and
he represented them. He loves individuals. There's
no generic love. He loves individuals. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He didn't lay down his life for
goats, he laid down his life for the sheep. And then in Proverbs
chapter 8, verse 17, he says, I love them that love me. I love
them that love me. Now everybody who loves God,
they love him as he is. If you love God, that means you
love the fact that he loves his people. You love how he's revealed
in scriptures. You love his sovereignty. You
love the fact that he's in control. You love his holiness. You love
his justice. You love his wisdom. You love his grace. You love
him as he is. And you love him in this manner. You wouldn't change him if you
could. Everybody who loves God would not change him if they
could. Now, you'd change me if you could.
And I change you. I've never met anybody that I
would like to change to make it a little bit better for me.
I mean, that's the way we are. But regarding the living God,
I wouldn't change him if it were in my power. And he says, I love
them that love me. Are you somebody who loves God?
You love him as he's revealed in his word with the scripture
assures that he loves you. Look at Ephesians chapter five.
I'd like you to look at this with me. I'm going to be reading this
verse of Scripture in the wedding, but look in verse 25. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. He loved the church. Now turn to John chapter 3. Not
everybody's in the church. He loved the church. John chapter
3. Now, here's a scripture I dare say somebody's been thinking
about. What about this scripture? Well, what about it? Let's see.
John chapter 3, verse 16. 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. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, it already was condemned,
but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God." Well, who is this world that God loves?
Well, it's everybody who believes. Everybody who believes. God so
loved this world, this sin-infested, fallen world. Folks like me and
you. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, the fact that God
loves his people doesn't keep anybody from being saved. If
you come and believe on him, you will be saved by his grace. Isn't that good? I'm so thankful for that. I've
heard people say, well, the world means every individual without
exception. No, it doesn't. I've also heard people say, well,
it means the world of God's elect. I don't believe that either.
It's just what it says. He loves the world. to this extent
that anybody who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, anybody
who comes to Christ for mercy, shall be received and shall be
saved. In 1 John 3, behold, verse 1, 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. The world does not recognize
a true believer. The Lord said, You are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. The world does not
recognize the true believer. Deuteronomy chapter 10. I have
three or four more scriptures I want you to look at, because
these tell exactly who it is he loves. Deuteronomy chapter
10. Verse 18, He doth execute the judgment
of the fatherless and widow, and he loveth the stranger. He
loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye
therefore the strangers, for you are strangers in the land
of Egypt. He loves the stranger. Now, what
is a stranger? A stranger is a foreigner. That's
exactly what the word means. a foreigner. He loveth the strangers,
and a believer is a foreigner in this. I'm a stranger in this
world. I realize I'm a stranger. This world is not my home. I'm
passing through. Peter wrote to the strangers
scattered throughout Pontius and Galatia elect according to
the foreknowledge of God. Every believer is a stranger.
I tell you, I mean, I'm thankful for life, but this world, it's
not my home. I'm looking forward to being
done with this world, being done with sin, and being in the very
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves strangers. Are you a
stranger in this world? You know if you are. If you are,
He loves you. Now look in Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 6, For whom the Lord loveth, obviously
He doesn't love everybody. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth, and He scourges every son whom He receives. You don't
correct other people's children, do you? You only correct your
own. You only chasten your own. Now,
everybody that the Lord loves, He chases. And that seems I want
to be under his chasing hand because I want I don't want to
be chasing, but I want to be somebody the Lord loves, don't
you? And so if that's the case, whatever chasing I need, I want
to have it because I want to be somebody who the Lord loves,
whom the Lord loves. He chases and he scourges every
son that he receives. Now, Second Corinthians, this
is the last one. Second Corinthians chapter nine. This was actually
what inspired this message. I was looking at this verse of
Scripture. Verse seven. Every man, according as he purposes
in his heart, so let him give. Not grudgingly or of necessity,
not because you have to or because you think it's your duty or you're
afraid something will happen to you if you don't. For God
loveth a cheerful giver. That's who God loves. He loves
a cheerful giver. Now, I want to be one of those,
don't you? A truly cheerful giver where it's my privilege to be
a giver. I look at it as a blessing, a
cheerful giver. That's who God loves. He loves
a cheerful giver. Now, who does God love? He loves
sinners. If there's anybody in here who
believes themselves to be a sinner before God, he loves you and
Christ died for you. Scripture says when we were yet
without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
If you're ungodly and without spiritual strength, I can guarantee
you Christ died for you. He loves the righteous. You see,
every sinner he makes righteous. I think this is so interesting.
All the righteous believe themselves to be sinners. And every sinner believes himself to be
righteous. All the true righteous, they
believe themselves to be sinners. And all who are evil believe
themselves to be righteous, or at least have the potential to
be righteous if they can be. But God loves the righteous.
He makes every believer righteous by Christ. He loves his own. He loves those
whom he has always loved. Behold, I've loved you with everlasting
love. He loves individuals. He loves those that love him.
He loves the church. He loves the world. He loves
those that the world does not recognize, he loves strangers,
he loves the ones he chastens, and God loveth a cheerful giver. Now, it's kind of scary to think that God does not love
everybody because I think, well, what if I'm one of those people? That's a reasonable thing to
think, isn't it? But if you are a sinner who looks
to Christ only as your righteousness before God, and the only way
that God would have anything to do with you is for Christ's
sake, if you really believe that, you're somebody that God loves. He loves everybody who looks
to his Son. Now, if you want to know what
God thinks of you, what do you think of Christ? That's how you
can determine what God thinks of you. Do you believe that Christ
is altogether lovely? Do you believe that he himself
is salvation and salvation comes wholly for his sake? Do you believe
that? God has a high opinion of you. If you don't. If you reject your
son, if you died in unbelief, God never loved you. He never
knew you to be one of his own. Now, I want to take my place
as a sinner looking to Christ only. I want to be one of those
people that God loves. Let's pray together.