Place: Lurgan Baptist 24:8:2003

Reading: 1 John 4:7-21 John 3:16

THE WONDROUS STORY

2. THE LOVE OF GOD

When D. L. Moody was in England in one of his crusades he met a young man named Henry Moorehouse. The English man was greatly drawn to the American. The story goes that Henry Moorehouse asked

D. L. Moody if he would let preach in his church if he were to come to America. The evangelist agreed to the suggestion never thinking that he would have to make good on his promise. But in due time Henry Moorehouse arrived on D. L. Moody’s doorstep to redeem the pledge. A reluctant Moody surrendered the pulpit assuring his colleagues that the young man could not do much harm in one night and that he himself would follow him into the pulpit and rescue the situation. That night Henry Moorehouse took as his text

( Jn 3:16 ) and preached on the love of God with such passion and power that an awed Moody invited him to speak again the next night.

This continued for a week each night the young Englishman speaking from the same text. Moody was overwhelmed. In fact Moorehouse became known as the man who moved the man who moved millions. On the last night of his series Henry Moorehouse said to the people, “ I have been trying to telling to tell you how much God loves you. Suppose I could borrow Jacob’s ladder. Suppose I could ascend that shining stairway until my feet stood on the sapphire pavements of the city of God. Suppose I could find Gabriel the herald angel who stands in the presence of God. Suppose I could say, tell me Gabriel, how much does God love the world ? I know what Gabriel would say. He would say Henry Moorehouse, For God so loved the world …. life. That’s how much God loves the world.”

Love is one of the warmest words in the English language, and that God is love, and that God loves us is one of the most sublime, uplifting, and reassuring truths known to mankind. Love is His nature. It is not merely a friendly attitude He projects. It is the essence of His being. He is always going to act towards us in love because He cannot do otherwise. Love is the way He is.

Do you doubt the love of God ? Why ? Because of the bad things that He allows to happen to good people ?

Because of the unfairness and injustice and suffering and pain and cruelty of life ? Some questions we won’t have answers for until we get to heaven. But one thing we can know for sure is that God loves you and me. How do we know that ? We know just by looking at the cross where He proved His love for the world that mocks Him, ignores Him, despises Him, scorns Him,

and rejects Him. My …. we look at the cross and see “ I love you,” written in red …. the red of the Saviour’s blood. Surely we can say with the hymn writer, “ Oh how He loves you and me.” John says, “ For God so loved the world ….,” do you recall what Paul said in

( Eph 3:18 ) ? His prayer was that we “ may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” As we think of these two words this …. “ so loved,” I want us to think about:

(1) THE HEIGHT OF GOD’S LOVE

For this is a love which is high enough to take sinners to heaven. In his epistle the same John says, “ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God ….,”

( 1 Jn 3:1 ) Now love:

(a) IS HARD TO DEFINE:

The word “ loved,” occurs over 50 times in the book of John. The Dictionary says, “ love is to have a feeling, affection or regard for, to be strongly attached to attracted toward, to hold dear.” Now Biblical love is not talking about that kind of thing the rock singers crock about, “ I can’t live without you baby,” what that means is that you stir up my hormones and I need to have myself satisfied with you. Now that has nothing to do with Biblical love. What is love ? God is love. What is love ? Love is that selfless quality that seeks the good of its object even at personal cost. “ For God so loved the world,” that He felt romantic about it …. that He got a tingling sensation …. that He gave to charity. No ! “ For God so loved the world that He gave ….,” you see, love is an act of self-sacrifice, it has more to do with acting than feeling, its not act of the emotion but an act of the will. But while love is hard to define, love

(b) IS EASY TO DEMONSTRATE:

Let me give you three demonstrations of love. Think of

1. A Mother’s Love:

A mother loves unconditionally and unceasingly. What about the love of a mother ? Surely a mother’s love for her child is a picture of God’s love for us. No ! A mothers love is not a measuring stick for God’s love.

2. A Father’s Love:

Addison said on one occasion, “ Certain it is that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as the love of a father to a daughter.” Yet the love of a father is not the measuring stick for God’s love.

3. A Spouse’ Love:

Surely there can be no deeper love than the love that is shared between a man and a woman. Yet this love is not the measuring stick for God’s love. For God’s love transcends and surpasses all human love. My …. the height of His love is that His love has no comparison.

How much does God love us ? How much does God love you ? When we think of a mothers love, we must remember that God’s love is higher than that, when we think of a fathers love we must remember that God’s love surpasses that, when we think of a spouses love we must remember that God’s love transcends that. (1)

(2) THE DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE

For this love is deep enough to take Christ to the very depths to rescue the lowest sinner. ( Phil 2:8 ) You know, so often our love is motivated and inspired by the love that we receive. So often our love is a matter of reciprocation. In other words:

(a) HUMAN LOVE IS WITH CONDITIONS:

Indeed John says, “ We love Him, because He first loved us.” ( 1 Jn 4:19 ) In other words, our love has conditions, such as we love those who love us. We love those that are desirable or deserving. Certain features, qualities or virtues call out our love. On the other hand the absence of such things keeps us from loving. We shower affection on the lovable children and avoid the belligerent little rascals who look as if they might want to kick us in the shins. Don’t you find it easier to express you love for your wife when she tells you what a wonderful husband you are, but it’s a wee bit more difficult when she scolds you for not taking out the rubbish. Do you see the point I am trying to make ? Our love has conditions. (a) But:

(b) DIVINE LOVE IS WITHOUT CONDITIONS:

My …. is that not amazing ? That God’s love is extended to us when we do not deserve it, in other words His love is unconditional. Oh, when I think of His love for sinners I am mindful that there was nothing in us to attract God’s love. We were at our very best dead, depraved, dominated by the god of this world. Defiled sinners deserving the wrath of God, and the damnation of hell. The truth is, that everything about us this …. should make God loath us, instead He loves us.

Our sin He does not love, but our souls He does. My …. in spite of who you are, and in spite of what you are, God loves you ! Sinner, God’s love does not demand that you be a certain kind of person, live a certain kind of life, possess certain kinds of virtues, for His love to reach you, for He loves us without conditions.

Concerning the nation of Israel we read, “ The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you.”

( Deut 7:7-8 ) The Lord loves us because He loves us. Its an unconditional love. My …. you don’t have to be lovable, desirable, commendable, presentable to be loved by God. The Bible says, “ But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” ( Rom 5:8 ) Oh, the wonder of it all just to think that God loves me. Do you believe that ? Have you grasp that ? Have you allowed this glorious truth to pierce your heart ? When Nansen was looking for the North Pole, his ship entered deep waters. Each day he gathered up rope and let down the plummet to measure the depth of the ocean at a given point. One day he came to a place where the water was exceptionally deep. He let down the plummet but was not able to sound the depth.

He gathered up all available rope on board the ship and attached it to the line, still it never reached the depth. In his report, he wrote the exact length of the line and then he added these words, “ Deeper than that.” Are you in the quagmire of sin this …. ? God’s love goes deeper that that ! Are you in the depths of depravity ? God’s love goes deeper than that ! Are you in the clutches of the drink, the drugs, the immorality ? I tell you, God’s love goes deeper than that ! “ For God so loved,” (1)(2)

(3) THE BREADTH OF GOD’S LOVE

For this love is wide enough to embrace the whole world. “ For God so loved the world,” you see God’s love is a “ whosoever,” love it embraces all regardless:

(a) OF THEIR RANK:

God’s love is not limited Racially: for people of all races are invited to come and trust in Christ. ( Rom 10:13 ) God’s love is not limited Socially: for the elite of society and ordinary everyday folk are urged to seek the Lord.

( 1 Cor 1:26 ) God’s love is not limited Financially: it does not matter whether you are rich or poor, for God’s salvation is “ without money and price,” ( Is 55:1 ) God’s love is not limited Morally: for you come to Christ, “ just as you are,” ( 1 Tim 1:15 ) My …. is their a moral barrier in your mind ? Are you saying, “ I’m too bad to come to Christ, I would love to get saved but would the Lord really receive me ?” Yes ! The Bible says, “ For whosoever shall …. saved,” ( Rom 10:13 )

Listen, my …. this love reaches behind every prison bar,

it reaches into the red light district where men and women’s bodies have been ravaged by prostitution.

It reaches into the pit of sin, where man has fallen lower than the beasts, it reaches into the death cell where hardened criminals are awaiting their doom. It reaches the lonely jungles of Africa, to quicken the soul of the savage bushman, it reaches India’s teeming millions, for God’s love is abundant and its supply so inexhaustible that it is above all and for all. Tell me, has this love gripped you ? Touched you ? Drawn you to the

Saviour ? It embraces all (a) and regardless of:

(b) OF THEIR RESOURCES:

“ For God so loved the world, that He gave ….,”

And what do you with a gift ? Receive it or reject it !

You see, this love, grace, salvation is completely free. It has been once and for all purchased and thus provided by the death of Christ and its available regardless of your rank or resources. Many years ago a traveller was crossing a bridge between Cannes and Nice. There was a bunch of flowers on the wall of this high bridge. On asking why, the visitor was told that a short while ago, a very wealthy girl in a sports car had driven up, and had taken her dog in her arms and had jumped over the bridge. She had left a note in the car which said,

“ Nobody loves me but my dog, there is no peace.” What a pity that girl did not know that she was loved and that she was wanted ! My …. do you know that you are loved ? Do you realise that God wants you to be His child ? “ For God so loved ….,” (1) (2) (3)

(4) THE LENGTH OF GOD’S LOVE

For this is a love which is long enough to last forever.

( 1 Cor 13:8 ) As Spurgeon said, “ It so long that your old age cannot wear it out, so long your continual tribulation cannot exhaust it, your successive temptations shall not drain it dry, like eternity itself it knows no bounds.” You see:

(a) GOD LOVES CONTINUALLY:

Spurgeon on one occasion visited one of his students who had become a pastor. He had built a new church. There was a tower on the church and on the tower was a weather vane with the words, “ God is love.” Spurgeon looked at it and said, “ Young man, do you think that God’s love is as changeable as the wind ?” The student said, “ No Sir, but the message is that God is love, no matter which way the winds blow. God always loves.”

Spurgeon replied, “ you are right, God always loves.”

When the Lord Jesus was about to go to Calvary we read, “ having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” ( Jn 13:1 ) To the end of

what ? Who can really say ? Christian, He will love us to the end of our waywardness and wanderings. He will love us to the end of our deepest need. He will love us to the end of our lives, to the end of time, to the farthest extremity of eternity ! (a) and:

(b) GOD LOVES ETERNALLY:

For the love of an eternal God must be an eternal love.

“ His love no end or measure knows

No change can turn its course

Eternally the same it flows

From one eternal source.”

The Lord says to every child of God, “ I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” ( Jer 31:3 ) One Sunday morning the preacher began addressing his congregation by inviting an old man up to the pulpit to tell his story. He said, “ One day my son, his best friend and I set out on a fishing trip. We were having a great day, the new boat was a joy to be in and the fish seemed to be jumping out of the water to get on our hooks. We were having so much fun that we lost track of time, it was getting dark, we had drifted further out into the ocean, and a storm was beginning to come on us. As quick as we could we started for the coast, but we were now in 10 foot swells and our boat was being pitched back and forth and then it happened. A wave crashed over the boat laying it sideways, sending both my son and his friend overboard. Because of the waves and the wind by the time I got a rope to throw to them, they had separated and drifted almost out of reach. I was just getting ready to throw the rope when another wave rocked the boat and stalled the engine.

By this time the old man was crying, but he continued,

“ So there I stood, boast dead in the water, with only one chance to save only one boy, my son or his friend. I quickly made a decision, then tossed the rope.” By now the old man was weeping uncontrollably so the pastor stepped in and finished the story. “ You see,” said the pastor, “ the two boys had drifted so apart from each other and the boat that the man only had time to throw the life line to one or the other. One boy would have to be lost. The father realised that his son was saved, and his son’s friend was not, if his son were to die now he would go to be with the Lord but if his friend died he would go to hell. The father chose to save his son’s friend.” Now the pastor began to cry, but through his tears he said, “ He sacrificed his son to rescue his son’s friend …. ME. Yes, said the preacher I was the friend on that boat that fateful day, and because my best friend loved me more than himself I am alive today. He continued, how do I know that my best friend loved me more than himself you may be asking ? Because before I was rescued Jimmy’s father told him the situation and allowed him to choose to be sacrificed. My life was in Jimmy’s hands and he chose to save me rather than himself.”

What a sacrifice ! What love you say ! Yes, but nothing in comparison to the sacrifice of Calvary. Come with me to the cross. Do you see the sinless Son of God hanging on a tree ? Do you hear the motley crowd as they cry,

“ He saved others, Himself He cannot save,” you say,]

“ Why is Christ there ?” To die for you, because He loves you ! Will you respond to this love this …. ? Will you say, “ Love so amazing, …. all.”