“THE REMARKABLE REALITY OF THE LOVE OF GOD—LOVED …



“THE REMARKABLE REALITY OF THE LOVE OF GOD—LOVED BY GOD”

JOHN 3:16; 1 JOHN 4:19

INTRO: Can you think of a time when you just fell ‘in love’ ? When all you

could think about was that special someone. You would see her

(him) and your heart would go all aflutter. When you heard her

voice on the phone, you just felt things were perfect. There was

nothing you couldn’t and didn’t talk about. You would talk for

hours about anything, everything, about nothing. Maybe you feel

that way now. It’s funny how we get when we are ‘in love.’ We get

silly. We’ll say things we never would have dreamed we’d say. We will

do things we never thought was possible for us to do, all to have our

love returned.

What is this love anyway? What is it about love that makes us so

goofy? What is it about me that makes me lovable? I don’t know

about you, but it is the last question that gets me. I know me oh too

well. There is nothing about me to love. Yet, I am loved. Sometimes

I wonder why I am loved. It makes me warm inside to know that with

all my faults, I am loved anyway. There are people in my life that love

me, even though at times I am so unlovable.

But you know what? There is a love even deeper than my love for my

family and friends and their love for me. This love is so deep it is

unfathomable. I don’t understand half of that love, but I know it is a

reality. God loves me. Little ‘ol me. With all my faults, with all that is

there that is unlovable. God still loves me; and He loves you also! God

loves us in good times and bad. But he is even more real in our lives

when we are having tough times. -- Joe Gibbs, former head coach of

the Washington Redskins. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 4.

As we look at God’s love today, let’s look at three W’s: the Who, the

When, and the Why.

(1) THE WHO-THE WORLD

JOHN 3:16a—“For God so loved the world…”

A. The Dimensions of God’s Love. “…God so loved the world..” Just

think about that for a minute. God loved the world, all the people of the world, those from the past, the present, and the future. Think of all the people of the past that this world has hated: Caligula, Pontius Pilate, Adolf Hitler, Timothy McVeigh, Jeffrey Dahmer; just to name a few. God loved even them. Our Lord God must be a pious man to be able to love rascals. I can't do it, and yet I am a rascal myself. -- Martin Luther, "Martin Luther--The Early Years," Christian History, no. 34. Even the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees that put Him on the Cross, God loved. Jesus died for even them.

ILLUS: I read the testimony of an ironsmith, who said he worked with

iron because iron was so hard to bend into something beautiful.

He said he wanted to make iron into poetry.

We're like that with our sins. We are hard, and we are rigid, and

we do not bend easily. We are intractable; like dogs returning to

our vomit, we go back and back and back again to the same old

sins. But God loves us, and not because of anything within

ourselves. There is no reason why he should love us. He loves

us, as Moses says, Because. -- Bruce Thielemann, "Because,"

Preaching Today, Tape No. 105.

Dt 7:6-11; Pr 26:11; 1 Jn 3:1

B. The Depth of God’s Love. “For God SO LOVED the world…” The depth

of the love of God is so great that we can’t even come close to comprehending it. God so loved the world - That is, all men under heaven; even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally perish. (Wesley’s Explanatory Notes). The Bible shows in John and also in 1 John 4, especially in v19, that God loved the world and He first loved us.

ILLUS: God’s Love explains (1) Why God Creates—because He loves, He

creates people to love; (2) Why God Cares—because He loves

them, He cares for sinful people; (3) why We Are Free to

Choose—He wants a loving response from us; (4) Why Christ

Died—His love for us caused Him to seek a solution to the

problem of sin; and (5) Why We Receive Eternal Life—His love

expresses itself to us forever (1).

(2) THE WHEN-AN ETERNAL LOVE

A. The Beginning of God’s Love. When we speak of when God’s love

began, we must see it as an eternal love. Because that is what it is. God’s love has no limits or bounds. R. C. Sproul, in his book, Loved By God, says, “Holy Scripture begins with five simple words, words that may be the most provocative and controversial words in the Bible: ‘In the beginning God created…’” (Genesis 1:1) (R. C. Sproul, Loved By God, p. 21.) This speaks of God’s eternal love, from the beginning He loved us.

B. The Blessing of God’s Love. Jeremiah speaks of this eternal love as

God was preparing to judge Israel. In Jeremiah 31:3 it says, “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” What a blessing it is to know that God loves us and has always loved us! God says, “..I have loved thee with an everlasting love…” Notice the word EVERLASTING it means “without end, always, perpetually.”

ILLUS: We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers,

spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us. That's the

truth of our lives. That's the truth I want you to claim for

yourself. That's the truth spoken by the voice that says, "You

are my Beloved." -- Henri J. Nouwen in Life of the Beloved:

Spiritual Living in a Secular World. Christianity Today, Vol. 40,

no. 13.

Jeremiah 31:4a says, “Again I will build thee; and thou shalt be built..” It by the love of God that we are formed into the image of God’s dear Son. It is the love of God operating in our lives that motivates us to serve and worship HIM. Life's setbacks are temporary, but God's love is permanent. He's always there to take us over the rough spots, to lead us out of our slumps and into our grooves. -- Atlanta Braves third baseman Terry Pendleton, quoted in Guidepost magazine. Marriage Partnership, Vol. 11, no. 1. R. C. Sproul says, “The love of God for His redeemed is not only from everlasting to everlasting, it is also to everlasting. It is a love without end, a love that never ceases.” (R. C. Sproul, Loved By God, p. 40.)

(3) THE WHY—NOT BECAUSE WE DESERVE IT

A. A Perplexing Question. Why would the God of the universe, the

Creator of all that we see, touch, smell, love us? I think that is the question each of us asks. Why would He love those who turn their back on Him? Why would He love the ones who spit at him and curse His name? The reason He is able to do this is because He is God and we are not.

ILLUS: The beasts of the field say: "Love made me." The birds of the

air say: "Love made me." The creatures that swim in the rivers

and the sea say: "Love made me." Only man, his back turned

to the sun, does not say "Love made me." But when he turns

round in the light of Christ, then he too knows in his heart

"Love made me" and he cries out with every living creature,

"Love made me! My Father in heaven loves me." -- Michael

Sellers in The Word of God and the Wisdom of Man.

Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 17.

B. A Precious Example. R. C. Sproul cites an example of what he calls

God’s transferred love. He looks at Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9. “Mephibosheth’s injury occurred when

news came from Jezebel that Saul and Jonathan were dead. Mephibosheth’s nurse picked him up and began to flee. In her haste, she stumbled and fell and dropped the boy. As a result, he was left

crippled.” (R. C. Sproul, Loved By God, pp. 35-36.) The relationship between David and Jonathan was based on extraordinary love…There

existed a deep sense of loyalty between David and Jonathan. The text of 1 Samuel says that Jonathan loved David as “he loved his own soul” (20:17). Later David sought survivors from the house of Saul to show them kindness for Jonathan’s sake. This kindness David described as “the kindness of God.” (R. C. Sproul, Loved By God, p. 37.) It is a precious example of God’s demonstrating His love toward out of His mercy and Grace (Romans 5:8).

C. A Powerful Example. David showed Mephibosheth kindness not

because of who he was, but because of whose he was. He loved Jonathan, so he took care of his son. “The whole motivation was rooted in David’s profound love for Jonathan.” (R. C. Sproul, Loved By God, p. 38.) David declared in 2 Samuel 9:11, “..He shall eat at my table as one of the King’s sons.” For all practical purposes, David adopted Mephibosheth. He was given the same privileges and status accorded David’s sons. David’s was not motivated to do this because of pity for someone who was crippled, nor because there was anything lovely about Mephibosheth, but his motivation was David’s profound love for Jonathan. God sent His Son Jesus to die for us not out of pity or because there was anything lovely within us, but because of His great love (1 John 4:7-10; 19)

A Picture of Redemption. “This narrative is a microcosm of

Redemption. All mankind has fallen. In a sense we were injured when

our nurse dropped us in a fall. The fall left us spiritually crippled, unable to walk the path of righteousness on our own. Yet we have been invited to come into the King’s family as His adopted children and to eat at His table. Our adoption and privileged status in the King’s house is rooted in the eternal love of the Father for His Son. We receive the benefits due the heirs of the son. Because of the Father’s love for Christ, we are welcomed into His family.” (R. C. Sproul, Loved By God, pp. 38-39.) The Cross is the medium of Redemption. It was “at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my sin rolled away..” The Cross is the message of God’s Redemptive love for all mankind.

ILLUS: The Cross is the proof that there is no length to which the love

of God will refuse to go, in order to win men’s hearts. The

Cross is the medium of reconciliation because the Cross is the

final proof of the love of God; and a love like that demands an

answering love. If the Cross will not waken love and wonder in

men’s hearts, nothing will—William Barclay (2).

CLOSING: What an awesome reality! We are loved by God! The Children’s

song goes:

“Jesus loves the little children; all the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His

sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

How true this song is, Jesus loves the children, and He loves the

adults, and the teenagers, and everyone in between. The sooner we

learn this, the better off we will be.

Karl Barth was invited to deliver one of the distinguished

lectureships at a theological seminary in the East, and while he

was there a group of ministers and theologians and dignitaries of

one kind or another sat down with him in a kind of question-and-

answer period. Someone asked the question, "What is the most

profound thought that you know, Dr. Barth?" This is what he said:

"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." -- W. Frank

Harrington, "The Love That Brought Him," Preaching Today, Tape

No. 51. There’s no better thought than we are LOVED BY GOD!

NOTES: 1. Living Letters from the Life Application Bible. P. 267.

Albert M. Wells, Jr. Inspiring Quotations-Contemporary &

Classical. Pp. 52-53.

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