God’s Love is Attached to a Cross

[00:00:00] Let's take our Bible and turn to the book of John. The Book of John. We are going to take a break from our study of the law of God to just do a little excursion into a familiar subject that will not be new to you. But I trust my heart's desire is that it will be a blessing and a help to you. That is, that your heart might be warmed to the Lord. In this subject, I want to talk tonight about the love of God. The love of God. [00:00:43] We're starting. John chapter three. I bet you know what verse that I'm going to be looking at. Verse 23. Wrong. Good guess, though. [00:00:53] Do you know why I'm going to go to John chapter chapter three? The reason I'm going to go to John chapter three is because in the New Testament there are no direct references to God's love until John chapter three. In the New Testament, you look at Matthew and Mark and Luke, there's hints here and there, but no direct references like you find in John three until you get to John three. Now, after this, of course, there are others, and we'll look at some of those tonight. [00:01:25] And what's also true is that as concerning the love of God as shown in the New Testament, or rather as concerning love that is shown in the New Testament, the vast majority of the references to love in the New Testament, I think the most common reference to love is our love toward God. But then secondary to that is the love that God mentions that a man should have toward a man, another mankind, you might call it horizontal love. So you have those two things, and of course those are important factors. [00:02:05] But the love of God is something that's mentioned the least frequently in the New Testament. Relatively few expressions are found in the New Testament of the universal love that God has toward every person. Now, there are some references to the love that God has toward believers, or conditional statements where the Lord says, if a man x, then God will love him. That's found in the book of John as an example. [00:02:38] But the kind of reference that we find in John three is relatively rare in the Bible. So we want to look at some of these and hopefully draw some principles and hopefully our heart will be encouraged. [00:02:53] Encouraged. [00:02:55] There's a lot of different directions you can go when you talk about the love of God, a lot of responses that might be suitable and fitting when we think upon and meditate upon the love of God for us. [00:03:10] But I'm not going to talk about those tonight. But I hope that our study of the love of God will, by its very nature prompt some of those responses, and these are important things for us to remember, not to forget, not to forget. Let's pray, and then we'll read in John three. [00:03:32] Our Lord, thank you for the opportunity to look at your word and for the subject of the love of God, that there is a subject to study. I pray that our hearts would be joyful to see and hear and to be reminded of your great love to us, its height, its breadth, its depth. [00:03:56] Thank you for loving us, Lord, in Jesus name, amen. [00:04:03] I want to say one phrase, and then I want to endeavor to show you this phrase throughout the various verses that we look at. And this is an important truth that is found in the New Testament. In particular is this God's love is attached to a cross. [00:04:29] God's love is attached to a cross. [00:04:34] We often think of love as a feeling, and love does have feeling involved with it. There are times when you must exercise love as an act of the will in the absence of feelings. How many of you are married or have been married for those of you that are widowed? [00:04:52] All right. How many of you can testify that having been married, that there are times when you did not have the feelings associated with love with your spouse? Listen, if you've been married any amount of time, you're going to come to that point, because we're just wicked old people and we need the Lord every day, right? [00:05:13] But at that point, we must exercise love as an act of the will, right? We say we choose to love, but aren't you glad that there are feelings that the Lord allows us to have that make that easy for, hopefully, the vast majority of the time. [00:05:31] But God's love. So we think about love generally as a human being. We think about it as often as a feeling. [00:05:38] But God's love is not that nebulous. [00:05:42] It's not something that God so much tells us, we think of. Well, as a missionary in Cambodia, one thing Cambodians very rarely said to each other is I love you. I mean, it's almost unheard of. It's just not a thing. But we say it a lot. We'll tell our kids, I love you. We'll tell them, we'll express that. But more important, and this is what we see, more important than saying I love you, is the demonstration of love, and that is characteristic of God's love. God doesn't say, I love you a lot, but he sure does show it. He sure does show it. But here's the thing I want you to understand God's love. God doesn't show us his love in the way maybe we expect. [00:06:24] God's love is attached to a cross. [00:06:28] God's love is like a monument. It's like a monument, a huge granite monument, permanent monument. And I hope you understand what you'll understand as we go forward. That's why I say God's love is attached to the cross. It's not a sentiment. [00:06:47] It's not a feeling. [00:06:51] It is a moment in time, a one time proof of his heart toward us that can never be denied. They can never be altered. They can never be changed permanent. This is God's love. God's love is attached to a cross. John three, look at that, if you would. [00:07:16] The Lord says to. Of course, Nicodemus, what many people might not know off the top of their head is John 316, as often as is quoted, is actually spoken by Jesus himself, which is fantastic. Spoken to Nicodemus, verse eleven says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that which that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven. There you have the omnipresence of Jesus the Son, proving his deity. You have the fact that he descended from heaven, proving his eternality, his preexistence, also his deity. [00:08:08] So he's equal with the Father here. Verse 14 says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. Now, we know it is a good thing when we exalt, or we might say, lift up Jesus before others. But that's not what this is talking about. This lifting up is a reference to the, in comparison to the serpent in the wilderness, where it was physically lifted into the air, the serpent. And whoever looked on the serpent who was bitten lived. And so the Bible says in verse 14 that the son of man that descended from heaven must be lifted up above the earth. This is a reference to the cross. [00:08:54] Verse 15, notice the word that. So you have the cross. It says, even so must the son of man be lifted up. In other words, Jesus must be crucified. [00:09:07] Why that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. [00:09:17] So listen, there is no salvation. There is no eternal life. Even if you believe on Jesus, there is no eternal life until you have the cross. You know why? [00:09:29] That's what this verse is saying. You know why? Because until the problem of sin is dealt with, is resolved, no sinner can come to God. No sinner can have eternal life. Listen, this is before Jesus ever went to the cross. And here we have an expression of the love of God, the cross. In John 316. You didn't know the cross? Maybe you didn't know John 316 had the cross. Maybe not. In that verse in particular, two verses above it, Jesus brings up the cross. You know why? Because the God's love is attached to a cross. [00:10:03] For God so loved the world, this is the motivation that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So even though, as I said, even though 16 does not have the word cross or the concept of cross, it's attached in the context. From verse 14 down, there is no 16 until there's a verse 14, the cross, there is no believing on the son and being forgiven, having eternal life until there's a cross. [00:10:38] Until there's a cross. [00:10:40] Now in verse 16 it says, for God so loved the world. I might have mentioned this before, but this actually could be taken two different ways. It could mean God loved us this much, right? It could mean this shows the extent of God or the depth, you might say, of God's love. But you could also just as accurately say that the word so means God. This is the way God showed his love. God loved us like this. God so loved us how he gave. [00:11:14] He gave. You see that word, whosoever. [00:11:18] Whosoever believeth in him. [00:11:23] You see in verse 16, it says, for God so loved the world, we see the world. That's that kind of open ended thing. Like whosoever is an open ended invitation. It tells us the boundary of God's love, or rather the lack of boundary. In other words, God's love extends to every person that can fit inside whosoever. It is all inclusive. [00:11:48] This is what we call Calvary love. Why do I call it Calvary love? Because God's love is attached to a cross. [00:11:58] This kind of love has been extended to every individual. Hence the word whosoever. Hence the word world. Now the Calvinists will tell us that God loves people. [00:12:10] Now I've actually heard this was it. Yesterday I saw a Calvinist, a famous Calvinist, Rc sproul sprout. However, you say his last name and someone posed a question, they said, does God love everyone? Now for us common folk, right, we look at John 316 and we see it says the world, and we just accept that it means everybody. [00:12:32] Well, some people are just too smart for that and hemmed and hauled and redefined. And he said, well, if you understand the love of God's love to mean that God has goodwill toward all of his creatures, then yes, God loves everyone. But if you mean it to understand the way that God loves in salvation, well, then he loves the elect. [00:12:58] Forget about that. [00:13:01] It says, the kind of love we're looking at in verse 16 is what kind of love? This is the kind of love that is demonstrated by the cross. Verse 14. [00:13:16] So here's what that means. Whosoever Jesus died for, those are the ones he loves. And there it goes back. For those of you who are interested to this doctrine of limited atonement, did Jesus die for everyone or didn't he? Because if he did not die for everyone, then you could say, maybe he doesn't love everyone because the cross was the expression and demonstration of his love. [00:13:40] If, on the other hand, Jesus died for everyone, then he must love everyone. [00:13:46] And in fact he does. [00:13:49] It is all inclusive, this specific kind of love, if you want to say that, the kind of salvation love, if you want to want to be technical, salvific love. You like that word, don't you? Ten cent word right there, salvific love. [00:14:05] It is the love seen in the cross. And so we go down to verse 17. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, 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. So to refuse to believe on the son, to trust in Christ, is to reject God's love, which is demonstrated in giving his son. [00:14:38] So we see in these verses, God's love is demonstrated. That's the first thing, not just spoken, but demonstrated. And we see that the love of God is proven by an act of giving. [00:14:52] Giving. Verse 16. Look at Romans, chapter five. [00:15:04] Romans five. [00:15:06] I know all of these passages we look at are familiar. That's okay. [00:15:12] Verse six says this. [00:15:17] For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet per adventure. Perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God, by contrast, commendeth, that means, demonstrate his love toward us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see that he demonstrated his love again, just like in John three, the love of God is demonstrated not just told, but shown. Shown for your family, for your children. It's much more important to demonstrate your love than to constantly tell them you love them and not have the works that demonstrate it to go along with it. Tell your kids, tell your grandkids you love them. But more important than that is to show it. [00:16:11] Is to show it. And this is what the Lord did. But remember, God's love is attached to a cross. But God commendeth his love toward us. How did he demonstrate it? [00:16:24] Christ died for us. [00:16:28] Going back to the issue of calvinist and what I'm about to say, my Calvinists would argue to their dying breath that this is true. But I've heard it with my own ears. I know it's true. [00:16:41] When you deep dive into a calvinist thinking, you'll find that they think that because the elect will believe they are somehow more worthy of God's love. [00:16:54] I've heard a calvinist say, are you telling me that Jesus died for Judas Iscariot? [00:17:04] That's exactly what I'm saying. [00:17:07] I just don't believe Jesus could die for Judas Iscariot. So that means you think you're somehow more worthy. [00:17:16] So even in there, for all the talk about unworthy, it's almost like a mantra. Unworthy. For all the talk about that, there's something in them that says, well, God has called me and elected me and so I have believed. And God knowing that he put his special love upon me, in other words, they deny it. But that's kind of the idea. [00:17:40] It's kind of the idea that somehow the elect who will believe are more worthy of God's love than everybody else. [00:17:48] Romans chapter five absolutely destroys that God's love is offered to us not because we will believe or because there's anything in us that is deserving of his love. [00:18:02] Because it says without strength, verse six, ungodly, that's us. Verse six. Verse eight, yet sinners. [00:18:15] So God's love therefore extends to all who fit in this category. [00:18:20] Everyone who fits in this category. So God's love. If God loved us and Christ therefore died for us as a demonstration of God's love, then that means that God's love and he did so even though we were wicked and did absolutely nothing to deserve it. You know what that means? That means his love is not a reward for righteousness. [00:18:44] We were not righteous when he loved us. We were wicked. That's what these verses are teaching. And if that's the case as a believer now, and you mess up and you sin against God, you know what that means? [00:18:55] He didn't initially love you because you were righteous. Do you think it's going to affect his love for you now? No way. [00:19:03] No way. [00:19:07] Because his love. [00:19:09] He did not give us his love because we were righteous to begin with. Look at romans eight, verse 35. Famous passage says this. [00:19:23] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, and all these things, we are 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 does not and cannot vary when you sin against God. God's love does not vary towards you. [00:20:10] It does not falter or diminish because you sin. [00:20:16] He does not cool in his love towards you or toward me when we mess up. [00:20:26] No matter. And furthermore, looking at these verses, there is not a thing that happens to you or that could possibly happen to you, no matter how unfortunate, no matter how painful. That could ever be an indication that God's love toward us has varied in the slightest. [00:20:47] Because God's love is based in his own nature, and we know that God cannot change. Therefore, his love cannot change. Now, how do we know that God's love does not vary? Besides the fact that it's plainly stated? Right? But look at verse 39. It says, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God. This is the key, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God's love is attached to a cross. [00:21:21] God's love. Listen, Christ already died for you. That's done. That will never change. [00:21:29] That monument of God's love, the testimony of God's love that stands throughout the ages. It's still like a pillar of granite. It stands there. And when the sands have covered it all, over 300 millennia from now, it'll still be there as a testament of God's love for every single person for whom Christ died. And that's everybody. [00:21:52] It doesn't vary, because if God's love were just a sentiment, we might have a reason to think it varies. But because the Bible says, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord that attaches his love to the cross. [00:22:11] It's attached to a cross. [00:22:16] Listen now, please. Nothing you could do, nothing you could ever possibly do or that could ever possibly come to pass in the universe will change that. [00:22:33] God's love was not just spoken, but at one point in history it was demonstrated. And so at no time in the future can that be reversed. [00:22:45] Look at Galatians two. [00:22:53] Verse number 20 says this, I am crucified with Christ. [00:23:00] Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God. Notice who loved me and gave himself for me. So it is not in John three it is not just the father's love that sent the son in this verse, you see, the son of God gave himself for me. That's the love of the son to boot. [00:23:27] The love of the son to boot. The Son himself also went to the cross voluntarily. Jesus was not only sent, but he also went in his love. [00:23:38] And we also see in this verse, he says, notice this is a little bit different than the other verses we've seen. Paul, speaking here, says, the Son of God loved me. [00:23:50] That's first person singular, not us, me. [00:23:57] And gave himself for me. [00:24:01] God's love is personal. [00:24:06] In John 316, we saw God's love is universal, but here it's personal. [00:24:12] Listen now, God's love is to me and to you as an individual. [00:24:20] So if we follow what we might call the logic of faith, we might say that every single person for whom Christ died can say with absolute assurance, God loves me. And how do we know that the huge eternal monument of his love that shouts all through the ages, I love everyone for whom I died. [00:24:55] You see, it's not sentiment. It's demonstrated God's love is attached to a cross. Ephesians two, if you would, verse number four, you look at verse three. We're reminded of the things we've already seen. Verse three says, among whom also we all had our conversation in time, passed in the lust of the flow of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, the love of God is described with an adjective, great for his great love, wherewith he loved us. [00:25:39] It reiterates the truth in romans five eight, that there was nothing good to love. There was no righteousness to love at all. [00:25:47] We were unlovable. [00:25:50] Verse three says that there was nothing good whereby God responded in love. No, the love originated with God. It wasn't a response to our goodness, and it's not a response to our goodness. Now, his great love, it describes the largeness of God's love. This is not the extent as in who it covers. This is the amount, the largeness. [00:26:19] One preacher I heard recently, he said, we talk about the length in ephesians. In fact, it talks about the length and the breadth and the height and the depth of God's love. And he described it as a well, as a well. In other words, the depth. This is describing the depth. [00:26:41] Ephesians, chapter three. If you'll just peek over there. Verse, verse 19 says, now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. I'm in chapter two, chapter three. I apologize. And to know the love of Christ, notice what it says, which what passeth knowledge, passeth knowledge, even when you go here, back in chapter two, it says this, verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us. And you follow the context, even when we were dead in sins, hath raised us up, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. You see that even there it's a little bit more distant, but even there you can see the cross, the love of God demonstrated by the cross. Chapter five. If you would look at that, verse two and verse number 25. Verse two says, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Verse 25 says this, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. The essence of God's love, we've already seen, is giving. [00:28:13] One thing with husbands that I know, for me, it took a long time, years, for me to understand what it meant to love my wife, to love my kids. And the core of that is not the way I feel. The core of that is giving, primarily me. [00:28:37] That's the bottom line, husbands. That's what it means to love your family. It means you give yourself. [00:28:44] What's the example of that? The cross. [00:28:48] God's love is attached to a cross. [00:28:51] But think about this, though. That's what's in chapter five, verse two. And in chapter five, verse 25, is the idea of giving the essence of God's love. He's giving, but think about giving. Whenever you give something, think about the, you consider the value of the thing given. In this case, what was given in verse two, what was given. [00:29:15] Help me now. Help me. [00:29:17] Himself, Christ himself, he gave himself not something else, but himself. So when you give something, what you're saying is, my love for you is greater than my own value. [00:29:35] It expresses the greatness of the love by the thing that is given. So however valuable that thing that we are giving away is, that is the greatness. That is the measure of the greatness of God's love. [00:29:48] And in this case, Christ gave himself his own self passing knowledge. [00:29:57] Now a couple more places. Look at Titus three. [00:30:02] Titus, chapter three, verse number three. We see the same thing as in romans five. God didn't see anything good to love. [00:30:17] That's not why he loved us to begin with. Verse three says, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God, our savior toward man, appeared. [00:30:35] Appeared? [00:30:38] When did God's love appear? You know what the word appear tells us? God's love was already present, and it was. God's love is in the Old Testament, too. But it didn't appear until when. [00:30:52] The cross. That's what this is talking about. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's the cross. God's love is attached to a cross. [00:31:16] The love that sent the Lord Jesus into the world and the love that led Christ to volunteer for the cross is the same love is the same love that responds when we call upon him for salvation. His love is active at every stage. Look at Hebrews chapter twelve and hold your place there real quick and go to revelation chapter three, and hold your place in revelation, because our last verse will be in revelation. Revelation three, Hebrews twelve. First it says this. Verse six, Hebrews twelve, verse six. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. See that revelation 319 says this, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. What does that tell us? [00:32:23] What it tells us is, it is assumed whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. That tells us that it is assumed that in these verses that the object of God's love sometimes sins, sometimes goes wayward. [00:32:46] Right? Sometimes is in need of correction. God isn't. It is not expected. God's love is not. It is not true that God's love expects that we will be sinless. In fact, he knows very well we won't be. [00:33:01] Now, that doesn't excuse it by any means. We will give an account to God. [00:33:11] But what we see is knowing that we will sin. It's understood in these verses. It's implied, instead of God's love diminishing or withdrawing from us when we sin, his love responds when we sin. Think about that when we do wrong. And that which is not pleasing in his sight, his love, instead of going away, it draws nigh to correct. [00:33:42] He takes upon himself the responsibility to remove from us that which offends him. [00:33:50] He wants us, but he does not want our sin. So you know what he does? He, through correction, separates us from our sin. [00:34:02] You know why? Love in this way, we could say in psalm 23, God's rod corrects us, and by correction his love is actually verified and proven. [00:34:23] God's correction is intended to encourage us that he loves us. [00:34:30] Lastly, revelation one, verse five. [00:34:39] This is the last reference to God's love in the Bible. [00:34:44] Verse five says, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. It. I'll say it one more time. [00:35:03] God's love is attached to a cross. [00:35:07] Amen. [00:35:09] Let's pray.