How to Measure the Love of God, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to this program of the R.G.

Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Notts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm very excited to bring you today's message, How to Measure the Love of God. The apostle Paul told the believers at Ephesus that he was praying for them that they would come to comprehend the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height of the love of Christ that passes knowledge. Now, in order to measure a thing, you have to have a tool and a standard.

It might be a ruler or a yardstick, a tape measure, a scale, or something by which to measure. And in order to measure the width, the length, the depth, and the height of God's love, we must use the standard of scripture. And there is one verse in the Bible that is the perfect tool that we need to measure the love of God. The cross is the central emblem and symbol of our faith. Whenever the New Testament Bible writers wanted to express the love of God, they always point to the cross. And when they want to express the power of God, they point to the empty tomb. Because if there isn't an empty tomb, then the cross doesn't mean anything.

Jesus would be just like any other martyr. But he died and rose again. Hallelujah. And because he lives, we're here this morning and we have life, abundant life now, and the promise of eternal life to come. We're going to go right into the Word of God. And I'd like to ask you to join me in Ephesians, the third chapter, if you have your Bible. A very simple message this morning, but it's a powerful message. Why? Because I'm preaching it.

No. Because the Bible says the preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. And God has chosen the foolishness of preaching and even foolish vessels to do the preaching that the power of God may be exalted. He chooses the weak, the strong, and the foolish to confound the wise, that no flesh should glory in his sight.

Jesus and Jesus alone is exalted. And he said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. And so let's begin in Ephesians, the third chapter, and we'll begin in verse 14. And Paul begins by praying a prayer in verse 14. He says, for this cause I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you. Now I don't know if that means anything to you, but it means something to me. I'm going to take that personally.

And I advise you to do the same. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. God wants you to be strong in your inner man today.

The natural people in the world, all they care about is the outer man. They'll do everything they can to try to hold on to that last fleeting moment of youth. They'll go to the gym. They'll work out. They'll run.

They'll sweat. They'll go get makeovers and do-overs and all sorts of things to try to beautify the outer man. But God says, I want to beautify your inner man. He said, I will beautify the meek with salvation. He wants to make you strong on the inside, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, because everything that we receive from God, everything is by faith.

But you don't have to be discouraged this morning. You have faith. He's dealt unto every man the measure of faith. And everything that we receive from God, whether it's salvation or healing or deliverance, everything is by faith.

Amen. But faith cannot stand alone. The Bible says faith worketh by love. So that's where we're headed. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, that means you and you and you, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints.

Now I want you to help me finish this last part. What is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ, which passeth understanding. So what we're going to find out today is that God wants us to be rooted and grounded in love. You've got to have the seed of love planted in your heart.

You've got to have the root of love planted in your heart and the root will bring forth the fruit. Amen. But only if you remain grounded in the love of God and in the love of Christ. And God wants to reveal his love to us today.

And Paul said two things. He says, first of all, I want you to comprehend what is the breadth. Now that's an old English word.

We don't use it much anymore. It simply means how broad something is. So we like to use the word width.

That's the word I'll use instead of breadth. He wants us to comprehend what is the width of God's love, what is the length of God's love, what is the depth of God's love, and what is the height of God's love. And to know the love of God, which passeth knowledge.

Now you know that almost sounds like an oxymoron. How can you know something that passes knowledge? And the reason for that is because in the Greek, the word know means to know by experience. It's not just an intellectual knowledge, but it's something that you experience. And in the Greek, this particular word is in what we call the present participle.

And what it means is that it's owing going action. In other words, you will always, always, always be experiencing and growing in the love of God. Just about the time that you think you have reached the saturation point, that God's love is so overwhelmed you that you are just baptized in love, guess what? There's more.

When you think you have known the very height, depth, width, and length of God's love, there is more. It's like in the Olympic Games when they had the javelin throwers and the discus throwers. And they throw those things and they go out there and they mark it. They said, oh, he just did 50 feet. And everybody claps. But he gets out there and he says, I'm going to try again. Next time he goes 52 feet. And then he goes 55 feet. My goodness, somebody else comes up and throws at 60 feet. And they say, surely that is the limit of possibility. And somebody else comes along and goes 70 feet.

Because they go further and further. And that's the way God wants you to know his love. That when you think you've known it all, there's still more to know. So that's how it's going to be when you meet Jesus. When you meet with Jesus, when you receive the Lord, you are embarking on a journey, a journey that will take you to your dying breath.

And there'll be more and more and more and more that you can learn about Jesus. Amen. But what I want to focus on this morning is how can we comprehend the width, the length, the depth, and the height of the love of God?

How can we comprehend that? How are we going to be able to do that? Amen. How many want to know how to do that? Come on, lift your hands if you want to know how to do that. Lift your hands and let's thank the Lord that we can know what is the width, what is the length, the depth, and the height of the love of God.

Amen. All right, let's get on track here where we're going. He said that we can understand and comprehend that that's the parameters that we are to know of the love of God. Now, you know, in order for you to measure something, you got to have a tool.

I mean, if you're going to measure something, you got to have a ruler or a tape measure or some kind of tool to measure something. So if we're going to measure the love of God, we need a tool. Now, if you want to know something about God, if you want to learn something about God or find something out about God, where do you think you should go? To the Bible, to the word of God.

I mean, in this book is everything God wants us to know about him. So if we're going to learn something about God, we need to go to the word of God and we need to find something in the word of God that will serve as a measuring device that we can measure the love of God. So if I had to choose one verse in the Bible that exemplifies the love of God, what do you think is the most famous scripture in the Bible that tells the love of God?

Give yourselves a clap offering. John 3.16. Amen. John 3.16, turn to it. We're going to read this together. We're going to, or quote it if you want to quote it, read it, quote it.

Let's say this together because this is our measuring tool that we need to measure. Amen. John 3.16. Are you ready?

All right, let's go. 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. Amen. That's our tape measure for the love of God. So we're going to start off with what was first the width. How wide is the love of God? For God so loved the world. In Jesus Christ, God reached out his arms of love and he wrapped it around the whole wide world.

Amen. It doesn't matter where you are in this world, red, yellow, black, or white, from the Eskimos in the Arctic pole to the Aborigines in the south, God loved this whole world and in Jesus he wrapped his arms around this world. God is not willing that this world should perish. God made this world beautiful. The Bible says in Genesis that when God made it, he said it's good. It's good.

It's good. And when he put man on this world, he said it's very good. But sin came in and corrupted this world, corrupted the earth.

Amen. And God said through John in 1 John 5, 9, the whole world lieth in wickedness. The whole world is in darkness because sin came in and corrupted the world. And all that's now in the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

And it has corrupted the world. But God still loves the world. Amen. So he loved the world so much that he wrapped his arms around the world because he said through the prophet Isaiah, he said look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be saved. No matter where anyone is today, God is saving people. God is saving Buddhists in China. God is saving Hindus in India. God is saving Muslims in the Middle East.

God is saving atheists in the former Soviet Union. God is saving in prisons. God is saving in jail cells.

God is saving in the Maury places of the earth. He said just look to me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved because God's love is wide enough to encompass anyone that will look to him. He said through 2 Peter 3, 9, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the saving knowledge of his son Jesus Christ and come to repentance. God is not willing that one sinner go out into eternity without Christ. God is not willing that one person should perish without Jesus. God is not willing that one person go to hell because God knows how terrible and awful hell is. You see the Bible says that God made hell for the devil and his angels. He didn't make it for people. He didn't make it for human beings. He made it for Satan and his angels, but the Bible says that hell has enlarged itself seven times to receive the souls of human beings that are going out into eternity without Jesus Christ and they don't have to because God loved the world so much he wrapped his arms around the whole world and he's not willing that any should perish. He said in 1 Timothy 2, 4, God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. There is not one person that God does not want to save. God loves this whole world and he proved his love when he stretched Jesus out on that cross.

He stretched him out and he hung him high, but Jesus died on that cross so that the whole world might be saved and Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Someone says well that sounds very exclusive to me.

Yes, it is exclusive. There is no other way but Jesus. He said I am the door to heaven and no one comes to the Father God but by me. It is exclusive in that there's only one way, Jesus Christ, but it's for whosoever will let him come because God loved the whole wide world.

Amen. How wide is the love of God? Wide enough to reach the whole world whosoever will come to him. We sing that song, one of the first songs that we teach our little children to sing is yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so. I got a little card in the mail from my grandson Noah and it was a handmade card and how many know they're the best kind when they drew it themselves and they colored up themselves and they wrote themselves in their little handwriting. Grandmom, I love you.

Happy Easter. And you know what was on the front of that card? Three crosses.

He drew himself. He colored himself and already that little six-year-old knows that Jesus loves him and he proved how much he loved him because he stretched himself out on that cross. So the first question is how wide is the love of God? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What is the length? What is the degree that God would go to to prove his love?

To what degree? To what length would God go? How many have ever been in a situation, maybe a relationship where it just wasn't going good but you loved that person dearly and you were trying, trying, trying to work it out and you say I'm going to hold on a little longer. I'm going to go a little further. I'm going to walk another mile. I'm going to give them another chance. I'm going to try one more time. I'm going to give it all I've got. I'm going to go to the nth degree but somewhere along the line you say that's it. That's enough.

I've had it. I'm out of here but God didn't do that. No matter how many times he said I'm going to give him another chance. I'm going to try again. I'm going to call him one more time. I'm going to send my spirit once more.

I'm going to show my mercy one more time. To what degree and what length would God go to show his love to this world that he loved so much that he would send Jesus Christ, his only begotten son from heaven down. You've got to understand where Jesus came from. You can't appreciate how much he loved you if you don't know where he came from. He left the splendor of glory. He left that celestial city. He left that place where choirs and choirs of holy angels sing Alleluia, Alleluia. He left that place where living creatures bow down night and day and day and night 24 seven and say holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty. He left that place that's of absolute beauty that eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into your heart or your imagination the things that God has prepared in that place.

We talk about it streets of gold. We talk about the celestial city. We talk about the glory that shall be revealed. Jesus left that place. The Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God and the word was the light of men. The word was life and that life became the light of men and the word was made flesh became flesh and dwelt among us.

Among who? Sinners, God haters, murderers, blasphemers, filthy people but Jesus came in the form of flesh came all the way from heaven down to express how much God loves us. He left the splendor the glory. He laid aside his right as God. He laid aside his deity and his majesty and he came all the way down to show to what length God would go to prove his love to us. In Philippians the second chapter the Bible talks about Jesus. It said who speaking of Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but he made himself of no reputation and he took upon himself the form of a servant.

Somebody say servant. Somebody say God became a servant. That was the degree and the length that God would go to to show his love and took upon himself the form of a servant and being found in the likeness of men he humbled himself. Now I've got to stop for a moment and think about that. He came already as a servant and yet he humbled himself further and he humbled himself and became obedient and he became not only obedient but he came obedient unto death.

The length is getting greater. He humbled himself unto obedience even unto death even unto the death of the cross because you see the Bible says in Deuteronomy cursed is he who hangeth on a tree. The Bible says in Hebrews the 12th chapter that Jesus despised the shame of the cross but he endured its shame. He endured its mockery. He endured its ridicule. He endured becoming accursed. He endured it. That was the degree that God was willing to go to show how much he loved us. And Jesus became obedient even unto death unto the death of the cross. Jesus came. How far was he willing to come?

Remember we're talking about the word of God in splendor and glory. He was willing to come down to a lowly humble manger in Bethlehem. He was willing to go to an ordinary little town called Nazareth and work for 30 years in a carpenter shop. He was willing then for three years to walk the highways and byways from Jerusalem to Galilee and back to Jerusalem and to Galilee amongst the people healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, giving sight to the blind, those that were crippled, those that were in this world that were hopeless, those that were in this world they were oppressed by the devil. They were beat down. They were oppressed by the wicked one.

But the Bible says in God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good, healing all that were sick and all that were oppressed of the devil because God was with him and he was willing to go wherever the sick were and heal them. He was willing to go wherever the lost were and save them. One day he was willing to get off the boat and go to the seashore of Gadara to one man who was so demon possessed. He was so tormented in his mind. He was so tormented till he ripped off his clothes and cut himself. He was such a tormented soul that the Bible says that the chains couldn't even hold him. He broke the chains that they tried to put on him. But God went to such a degree that he was willing to go to that one man and set him free. That's how long and how far the arm of God was willing to reach.

Amen. And he went from three years of doing nothing but good, nothing but healing their sick, nothing but ministering to their lost and broken people and what did they do to him? He went to the garden of agony.

How many have seen the picture, the passion of the Christ? It began in the garden. Gethsemane, the word Gethsemane means oil press and it refers to the olive trees and how that they would garner the oil and harvest the oil. Today in Gethsemane they still have olive trees that are 2,000 years old. It is quite possible that they're the very trees that were there when Jesus was there. And you see in the garden where the olive trees were they had an oil press.

They didn't have modern equipment like we have in our modern factories. It was a huge, huge, huge stone weighing maybe several tons and they would take those olives and at first they would put them in baskets and they would put the baskets on top of each other and they'd put these huge weights on them and what would happen? It would crush the olives and the oil would run out.

The oil would run out as the more pressure, the more weight that they would crush them and that's how they got the oil out of the olives. And that's why it was called Gethsemane, the oil press. And Jesus was in the oil press because the Bible says he was in great agony. He said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death.

He was testifying that he could have died in Gethsemane just from what he was going through in his soul, in his emotions. The agony that he was feeling and experiencing was enough to kill him. In fact, Luke tells us in Luke 22, 44 that he was in such agony that his sweat came as drops of blood falling to the ground. Now that is a medical condition that is possible.

It only occurs though in extreme stress but if the body is under enough stress it will cause those little capillaries to burst and then that blood will come out through the pores of the skin dropping to the ground. That's the agony that Jesus was in. That was the length and the degree that God was willing to go to save that God so loved the world.

Amen. And so he went from that place there in the Garden of Gethsemane. He didn't die because God sent angels to strengthen him because he was going to go to that cross. He wasn't going to die anywhere but on the cross because remember I said the cross is a curse but the Bible says in Galatians 3, 13 that he went on the cross to become a curse for us to deliver us from the curse and that's why he had to go to that tree. He couldn't die in Gethsemane. He had to die on the cross and he went from Gethsemane to Pilate's Whipping Post and if you saw the movie The Passion of the Christ you know that the thrust of the movie is there at Pilate's Whipping Post where he suffered, where he was in agony, where he was beat and it was so, I've heard people say on two ends of the spectrum, I've heard people say that actually it was much worse than that. I've heard other people say I don't see how it could have been that bad because if it was bad as it shows on there he would have died.

He couldn't have lived through all that. How many have heard people say that? Have you? You probably have.

Maybe you thought it yourself. How could he have survived that such beating? I mean the human body is a human body and if he was a human body then he suffered like any other human. Why didn't he die under all that beating and all that loss of blood and all that continual beating?

Why didn't he die? And I heard one Jewish rabbi who was a messianic rabbi, in other words he believes that Jesus is Messiah and I was listening to him one day and he said that he pondered that very thought but he said that he heard a minister preaching and he said this, Jesus was human in every respect just like we are. The Bible makes that very clear and I could take you to verses in Hebrews and I could prove that just like I just quoted from John but I believe that you will agree with me that Jesus was human, that he had a human body and he felt and bled and hurt and all just like us. But Jesus was without sin. He was without sin. You see the Bible says he was tempted in all points like we are but without sin. He was like Adam was before Adam sinned. He was human but he was without sin. How many know that death came into the world because of what?

Sin. Adam and Eve were not supposed to know death but the Bible says when they sinned that death entered the world through the sin of Adam and when it entered the world through the sin of Adam it passed down to every man or everyone in the human species. So when death entered in because of sin it passed down unto everyone so everyone dies. Amen. How many know that in the human race mortality is 100%?

Everyone dies. Amen. But because Jesus was without sin because Jesus was sinless death didn't have a claim on him. But when he hung on that cross the Bible says he took upon himself and bore in his own body our sins, your sins and my sins and he became the sin bearer and then when he carried the sins of all the world, remember God so loved the world, then death could lay a claim on him because he was carrying your sin and my sin.

How many say amen? So he went from Gethsemane to Golgotha to prove how far God would go. What is the length of God's love?

He loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son. Amen. But whosoever believeth in him should not perish.

Amen. What an exciting and uplifting message how to measure the love of God. This was Apostle Paul's prayer for believers that we would comprehend the width, the length, the depth and the height of Christ's love that passes knowledge. Now in order to measure anything you need a tool and a standard and God's word tells us who he is, what he has done and what he will do. So scripture is the measuring tool we need and the greatest verse in the Bible that describes the love of God is John 3 16.

Phrase by phrase we can calculate how wide, that's wide enough to wrap his arms around the whole world. How long, that is to what degree God's love will go. How deep his love can reach down to the gutter and the deepest pits of sin to whosoever will to how high.

Lift them from the gutter most to the uttermost to spend eternal life in heaven with him. You know the first song we teach our little children is Yes Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so and God wants everyone to know that his love he said is from everlasting. So if at any time you hear a voice saying to you God doesn't love you it's the voice of the devil and you need this message for yourself or perhaps to share with a friend or loved one who is in a trial or with the unsaved persons in your life who need to know how much God loves them too. To order how to measure the love of God you can receive it on CD for a love gift of ten dollars or more for the radio ministry. Request offer SK114 that's S as in Sharon, K as in Notts, 114. Mail to Archie Hardy Ministries P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 21203 or you can order online at rgharty.org where you can also order on MP3. But to receive how to measure the love of God by mail send your minimum love gift of ten dollars to P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Be sure to request offer SK114. Until next time this is Sharon Notts saying maranatha.