It was for me, yes, all for me,
O love of God, so great, so free,
O wondrous love, I'll shout and sing,
He died for me, My Lord and King.
Was it for me, He wept and prayed,
My load of sin before Him laid,
That night within Gethsemane?
Was it for me, that agony?
It was for me, yes, all for me,
O love of God, so great, so free,
O wondrous love, I'll shout and sing,
He died for me, My Lord and King.
Now, the last time I was here I spoke on John chapter 3 and verse 16. And I just took the first word, "For GOD" - GOD so loved the world." Today, I want to look at the second word, main word in that verse,
"For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have eternal life."
God SO LOVED, He so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son! So my message today has two sides to it. On the one hand, it's the most glorious truth that you could ever hear about, and on the other hand, it's the most solemn truth that you'll ever hear.
I want to speak today about the kind of love that God has shown to this world. Not about the world's idea of love, but about the love of GOD, which is very, very different because it's so much higher, and purer, and nobler, than the love that we may give to each other or to other people, or the love that we may experience in return from those that we love in this life. Because much of what passes for love between us flawed human beings is based on selfishness and self-interest. And the test of true love comes when the other person in the relationship cannot or will not gratify our needs. And that's often when the ugly truth about the self-centred human nature that we're born with comes out and is revealed in all its ugliness, with the hurt and misery that flows from the behaviour of hard-hearted people who are only interested in their own welfare.
But fortunately, there are many examples in this world of true love, real, genuine love. Many of us have observed selfless love among families. When my wife Norma was young, her grandparents opened their home every weekend to their daughters and their young families. And they provided them with an outstanding level of love and care. That was selfless - selfless love.
And many soldiers in wartime have demonstrated the kind of love that the Lord Jesus spoke about when he said, "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Another example of love is the love that David and Jonathan had for one another. And it was on a higher plane than the love even between a man and a woman, based on mutual respect and shared values and shared admiration for each other. Jonathan was a true friend, a true and loyal friend to David in the face of his father's treachery. That's how much David appreciated Jonathan's love.
And yet, still the love of God goes far beyond the purest and noblest and highest self-sacrificing love that's possible on earth.
A man wrote a lovely hymn, and a couple of lines from it came to my mind as I was preparing for this message. Frederick Lehman wrote this in 1917.
"The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell."
I always had a question mark in my head about that last phrase. "The love of God reaches to the lowest hell." I'll have more to say about that in a minute.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world." The WORLD? God so loved the world. He created the world, a world populated by men and women and boys and girls like you and me. He gave us a wonderful, beautiful, unique world to inhabit. And he so loved us that when our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, he chose not to destroy the world and start over again, but to work out his purposes of grace and mercy in a fallen world. And in order to save us, God, whose essential character is LOVE, went to such lengths that it would involve untold suffering and pain to Himself.
There was a wise woman of Tekoa who once said this to King David when Joab, the captain, got her to - he put the words in her mouth, really, to try and bring Absalom back from exile. And she said to King David:
"God devises means that he that is banished be not an outcast from him."
That's what God did. He devised a way back to him, a way back to the innocence and beauty and perfection of Eden, where man and woman had intimate communion with the God of heaven; before the fall, before Satan tempted Eve to disobey the clear instruction of God not to eat of the fruit of the tree that was in the midst of the garden, the tree of good and evil. And her disobedience and Adam's disobedience resulted in a catastrophic separation between God and man. Their communion was broken, "and so death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned", it says. God has made us in his image. Mankind is unique among all of God's created beings. He's given us similar characteristics to his own being, and as such we are unique and very precious to God. And he's given us the freedom to choose between right and wrong. Neville said something that stuck in my mind this morning in his prayer. He said, "God has allowed man to choose his own destiny." We have free will. God has given us the ability to make decisions based on knowledge. He's given us the freedom to choose between right and wrong. But God in his love cannot overlook sin. Sin has to be confronted and dealt with. Do you agree with that?
Every parent knows or they soon discover that it's no kindness to overlook or ignore sin in a child. That's a recipe for anarchy and rebellion and destructive - self-destructive behaviours. Children need clear boundaries and consistent behaviour management so that they learn how to behave and how to discipline themselves when they grow up, and become adults themselves. Because if they don't respect their parents, it will affect their attitude to their employers. But more importantly, if they don't respect the delegated authority of their parents - that God has given to their parents, then they're unlikely to develop respect and reverence for God, the ultimate authority, the one who has power to judge us for all eternity. Because by nature we're sinners. We rebel - we naturally rebel against authority. And we naturally rebel against God's authority. The Bible says in Isaiah 53, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and God has laid on him" - that's on Jesus - "the iniquity of us all". So we're all sinners by nature. That's not a situation that a God of love could ignore or tolerate.
So how did the God of perfect love, who's also intensely pure and holy and righteous, how did he reconcile a world of proud, rebellious, selfish people with himself? What means did he devise to bring us back into a right relationship with himself? Well, we know from the Bible that God spoke to men and women through his dealings with a chosen people: Israel; who were a representative nation of the people of the world, a sample of the human race, and through the Hebrew prophets who were sent to Israel to foretell about the Saviour who was coming, that God was going to send to save them from their sins; God, the supreme eternal being who spans the ages, he has been working out his purposes of grace and love, stage by stage, over time. He exists outside of time. He exists in eternity. And his redemptive purposes were revealed in his own good time. "And when the fullness of the time came", it says in the Bible, "God sent forth his Son". And his redemptive purposes were revealed to a few shepherds on a hillside in Bethlehem. And the angels appeared to them in glory and they said, "There is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
It says in Romans,
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Yes, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life".
Jesus left the throne of heaven, and was born as a tiny helpless babe and laid in a manger dependent upon his mother Mary. What kind of reception did he get when he came to this world? He was given the outside place. There was no room from the very beginning, no room in the Inn. There was no room in the hearts of so many of those whom he came to save.
I want to read in Mark chapter 10. And this is breaking into the life of the Lord Jesus when he was here on earth. Mark chapter 10, and reading from verse 32.
"And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was going before them and they were amazed and they that followed were afraid. And he took again the twelve and began to tell them the things that were to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles and they shall mock him and shall spit upon him and shall scourge him and shall kill him and after three days he shall rise again."
They'll deliver him to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and they will deliver him to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, kill him and then three days later - "I'll rise from the dead".
He told all these details to the disciples before it happened. He knew every single detail of his life before it happened because he was God in human form. Only God knows the end from the beginning. And this fact alone, the fact that he carried that knowledge with him throughout his life on earth; surely that tells us something of the love that God and his beloved Son had for you and for me.
That he could go through his whole life on earth knowing how those learned men of Israel who claimed to be their spiritual leaders, they searched the scriptures daily and thinking they had salvation in the scriptures, but Jesus said, "These are they that speak of me, that testify of me." The scribes, he knew that they would reject him and yet still he was motivated by that agape love that we spoke about last time, the love which loves when there's no love in return.
"He came unto his own," the scripture says, "and they that were his own received him not." But it's great what it says next, "but to as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God even to them that believed on his name."
So he knew every detail of the shameful treatment that men would heap upon him. Gentiles - the Romans - who had no knowledge of the majesty and the greatness of the God of Israel, the God of Israel "whose love is as great as his power, and knows neither measure nor end!" He endured mocking, spitting, scourging and death by crucifixion. He knew that was going to happen to him and still he went on.
The Lord Jesus displayed the characteristics of a true martyr, didn't he? Unlike these Middle Eastern terrorists who call themselves martyrs - what a contradiction in terms if ever there was one! Because a true martyr, like the Lord Jesus, doesn't shout for the death of those who put him to death. Jesus from the very cross that he was hanging on, he said, "Father, forgive them." Dying in excruciating pain, "Father, forgive them." That's the heart of a true martyr. No anger, no hatred for those who crucified him.
"Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing."
They don't know what they're doing. There was no imprecations of divine retribution from Jesus on the cross because he had come "to seek and to save that which was lost". That's you and me, lost sinners. He came in LOVE - out of love for your souls and he came to die for me. To the dying thief who changed his mind about Jesus and expressed his faith in Jesus' power to save him, he said, "Today you'll be with me in paradise."
So there's a difference between those who despised the Lord Jesus in ignorance and those who knowingly rejected his authority.
Peter gave the Jewish leaders the benefit of the doubt when on the day of Pentecost he said, "You did it in ignorance." Acts chapter 3, let's just read that together.
Acts 3:14. This is the day after the day of Pentecost actually. Sorry, I made a mistake.
Acts 3:14. He said to the Jews,
"But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of Life whom God raised from the dead whereof we are witnesses and by faith in his name has his name made this man strong."
And then verse 17 he says,
"And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers, but the things which God foreshowed by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent you therefore and turn again that your sins may be blotted out that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."
So, there's mercy for those who reject Christ out of ignorance or preconceived ideas about who the Messiah might be. "They did it in ignorance," Peter said, but there's an opportunity to repent and turn again and turn to the Saviour and say, "I'm sorry, I put you on that cross. My sins put you on that cross. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Please save me, Lord."
And Paul in 1st Timothy he said, "Even though I was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor" - he put Christians to death! He said, "Yet I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief."
The God of love shows mercy to those who acknowledge their transgressions and repent. But judgment is the other side of the coin. Judgment awaits those who despise and reject the love of God. You can't trifle with God. God is not mocked. Horatius Bonar wrote this lovely hymn, but it sums up the truth of the Word of God. It says,
"The love of God is righteous love,
Inscribed upon Golgotha's tree.
Love that exacts the sinner's debt,
Yet in exacting sets him free.
Love that condemns the sinner's sin,
Yet in condemning pardoned souls,
That saves from righteous wrath,
And yet in saving righteousness reveals."
And, coming back to that line of that hymn that I quoted earlier:
"The love of God goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell."
That encapsulates the solemn truth that God's love is not to be taken lightly. God's love is righteous love. He's a God of love, but he's also a God of absolute justice. He will not stand by and ignore rebellion. He won't allow rebellious acts to go unpunished. In fact, those who refuse to acknowledge and repent of their sinful condition, even if they live an outwardly law-abiding life, but inwardly refuse to admit that by nature and by practice, they are self-willed sinners, self-righteous people. People like those described in the Gospel of Luke, "which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and set all others at naught".
Jesus told this parable or the story, the true story of the two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood like this and looked up to heaven and said, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I give tithes, I give a tenth of all that I earn to the poor, and charity." And the other man, he wouldn't even so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. He bowed his head on his chest and he said, "Lord, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, - "the sinner." Be merciful - it was as if he was the only sinner in the world and he needed God's forgiveness. And God will, Jesus' comment on those two men was, "This man went down to his house justified more than the other."
So self-righteous people condemn themselves, but God will condemn them to eternal death; because the Bible says "there's none righteous, no not one". "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". And unless we repent and ask God's forgiveness for our natural sinful condition, in this life - the grace of God will be beyond our reach in the next. There's no second chances. That's the other side of the coin.
The love of God reaches to the lowest hell.
There's a heaven to be gamed and a hell to be feared. Eternal death, Jesus spoke about eternal punishment, eternal death in the Lake of Fire. Separated from the communion with God and with the Lord Jesus our Saviour whom he provided. Separated from communion with God forever. That's an awful prospect, but sadly it's too awful for some people to accept. But it's just; and it's perfectly in keeping with God's righteous love.
So if you spurn the love of God, you're making a very deliberate choice. To reject the love of the Son of God who suffered on your behalf, who took the blame for all your transgressions, who took your sins in his own body on the cross. If you turn your back on such mercy and love, then you'll bear the consequences of that choice forever. 'God has allowed man to choose his own destiny'.
And another thing, God will never allow anything unclean to jeopardise the sanctity of heaven. To endanger the security of those who have put their trust in him, in Jesus. He's going to populate the new heavens, the new earth which he's going to make - he says he's going to make new heavens and a new earth. And he's going to populate that new earth with those who are redeemed, who have put their trust in Jesus. And that's a place that will be eternally free from sin and forever free from the destructive influence of Satan, the enemy of God, the opposer of God and man. Because it says in Revelation 21,
"There shall in no wise enter into it," that's the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, onto that new earth.
"There shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean or that makes an abomination and a lie, but only they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."
Why not? Why will God not allow anything unclean into that world? Because God is holy and God is righteous. And because God is a God of love; and God for all eternity will protect those who have put their trust in him, who have fled for refuge to the Saviour. That's the simple logic of love. And it's instinctive in every parent. Even the most docile of animals turn into fearless protectors of their young when they're threatened.
I just want to finish with a few thoughts.
A few years ago in Indiana, in America, in the United States, a 25 year old pizza delivery man was going along the road - in his car I think - and he was passing a building that was burning at midnight, around midnight. And he stopped the car, he went over and hammered on the door and woke up the family and got them out. But they said there's a little girl, a six year old girl, she's still in the house. And that 25 year old pizza delivery man went back into the house and up the stair to the bedroom or the room where the little girl was. He smashed a window and took her in his arms and he dropped to the ground with the little girl. But he broke her fall but he injured himself quite badly. He saved her to his own personal cost. He risked his life to save her. And he has marks on his body to prove it.
Jesus has marks on his hands and his feet and he's a spear wound on his side. Isaiah 52, Isaiah tells us "he was more marred than any man" - because he bore the righteous indignation of a holy God against us, against our sins. "He bore our sins in his own body on the tree".
Have you ever thought about the agony of soul that we sang about in the hymn that the Lord Jesus went through as he contemplated what lay ahead because he knew, he knew what was coming; and he kneeled in prayer, he knew that God was going to take your sin and mine and punish him instead of you, instead of me. And that was abhorrent to his righteous holy soul. The sweat fell down off his brow like drops of blood onto the ground.
"Oh my father," he prayed, "if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me. Nevertheless not my will, but yours be done."
Have you ever thought what it cost him to pay the price for your salvation? Have you ever thought how that prayer must have affected his God and father? Because the answer from God the Father to God the Son was - 'everything depends on you'. It couldn't pass away. He had to go through with it. Otherwise there was no salvation and no eternal life, no eternal future for you and me.
But today in the quietness of your own heart you can answer his question, the question that Jesus cried out on the cross at the end of the crucifixion when he laid down his life of his own accord. He said,
"My God, my God, WHY have you forsaken me?"
Can you say from your heart, It was for me - ?
"it was for me Christ Jesus died, a victim on the tree."
"It was for me, yes all for me,
Oh love of God so great so free,
Oh wondrous love I'll shout and sing.
He died for me, my Lord and King."
May it be so today.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish" - eternally - "but have eternal life."
Shall we speak to God in prayer.
Perhaps we could just sing a one verse hymn. 146.
For God so loved the world,
He gave his only Son,
To die on Calvary's tree,
From sin to set me free.
Someday he's coming back,
What glory that will be!
Wonderful is love to me.
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