God, The Greatest Lover of All - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, October 14th. There is only one source of love that never changes and never ends. It's found in the one who is love, Jesus Christ.

The series Liberated to Love continues. All of us are probably at different levels in our understanding of God's love or even being able to feel it. And if I should ask you this morning, how many of you genuinely believe God loves you? More than likely, most of you could raise your hand and say, I do. But if I should say to you, how many of you as a way of life in your daily life, you feel God loving you?

More than likely, most of you probably would say, well, I know He does, but to ask me if I feel like it, not exactly. Now you and I can love someone and situations and circumstances or disagreements can crop up and we may not feel that love. You may still love them or you may not feel it. Or some people can just quit loving someone. But the one thing about God's love is this, you never have to worry about if God is going to stop loving you. Now remember this, if your idea about the love of God is that it is something you deserve because of something you have done or doing or will do, then you may question the fact, well, you know, how long is this going to last? Now, none of us want to be loved by someone who only loves us when we meet all the requirements or when we please them in every aspect. Nobody can please everybody else in this world.

Nobody can do that. But you see, if I see that God's love for me is based on anything but the fact that it's just His nature to love, then I'm going to say, well, I know He loves me today or now, but listen, when God says I love you, there are no buts, no ands, no ifs, no wherefores or therefores. It is the nature of God to love.

It is absolutely everlasting and eternal, unceasing, unchanging. Somebody says, well, God, I know that, but God doesn't love me. Let me tell you why that's an act of pride. What that says is God loves everybody else, but I'm unique. I'm different. My sin is special or you don't know what I've done.

That is pure pride. God loves you no matter what. And I do believe with all my heart.

Listen to this now. God's heart is equally as grieved, equally as grieved over my unwillingness or inability or refusal to accept His love as He is any sin that I would commit. He's got to be grieved over the fact that we won't accept His love.

When you love someone and you love them and you do everything in your power to express that love and they shut it out and refuse to accept it, it grieves your heart and breaks your heart. What about God? Well, at least that'll give us an idea of what His love is like. How does He express it?

And there's a difference. Well, first of all, He expresses it in the creation, for example. Everything that you and I see, the stars, the sun, the moon, the planets, the darkness, the brightness of the day, beautiful colored trees in the fall, the green and freshness of spring, whether it is large rocks or sand on the beach, fish in the sea, animals out in the wilderness.

Well, it doesn't make any difference what it is. Every single part of God's creation, He said when He finished, He said it is very good. Now listen, it's one thing for you and me to think something's good, but when God says it's very good, you can mark that down. You know what that means? That's the best He could do.

That's what it means. Do you think God would create something less than the best He could do? Has He ever created anything less than the best He could do?

No, He hasn't. He wouldn't create you and me in it less than the best He could do with what He has in mind for your life and mine. God intends for you and me to see everything He's created with a message in it, and the message is I love you. Now, how many of you love to go to the beach? How many of you love the mountains? How many of you love the big cities? Mm-hmm.

All right. All of us love things. Now, I love to get out in the wilderness and trees and the mountains and, you know, I could just walk and walk and walk. In fact, Andy and I were out in Jackson Hole of just the two of us, and we walked 12 miles one day and seven miles one day, just walking through the woods and just enjoying ourselves and just looking and seeing everything that God has created. And you can just walk forever in the midst of God's wonderful creation. Listen, everything He created is not only a thing, but it's a sign.

And here's the message. I love you. When you look at a full moon, you don't think anything or you think of watching a beautiful sunset or a sunrise, or when the ocean is sort of calm or when there's tumultuous waves breaking and crashing on the rocks. You don't think anything.

Or a beautiful colored aspen tree. You don't think anything. You see, every single thing God's created, it may be a thing, but it's a message. And what God's doing, He's saying, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you tonight, I love you today. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. What is He saying?

He's saying, I love you. God is expressing His love in the creation in so many ways. But one of the ways He's expressed love is not only in the creation, but there's another way. And sometimes it's difficult for us to believe this one. Now watch this carefully. One of the ways that God has expressed love for us is in the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. You saw, mm, mm, mm, mm. How can you have a loving God who placed this perfect man and woman in this perfect garden?

Everything was absolutely fantastic. It's what all of us would like to spend eternity in. How can that be the love of God? If God loved man, He would never have let him fall and get into sin and just mess it all up.

Well, let's see if that's true. Here's the connection. The connection between the fall and love is freedom. You see, without freedom, I can't sin. God so loved you and me, He gave us the privilege, the freedom to make choices. And that freedom includes the freedom to do right and to do wrong, to love Him or not to love Him. And so the fall was an expression of God's love.

He loves you and me so much. He didn't want to put us in the Garden of Eden and smother us with smother love. You must operate in a certain fashion. You cannot make choices about this. God doesn't want a bunch of robots, so here's what He said. He said, I love you so much, I'm going to give you, listen to this, I'm going to give you the freedom to say no even to your God. His freedom to make choices in life is an expression of the love of God.

And otherwise, we'd only be robots. So He expresses that love in the whole idea of choices and that is giving us freedom. And so one of His expressions is His creation. One of His expressions of love is the freedom to choose. One of the expressions of His love is the forgiveness of our sin. God, in sending His only begotten Son, did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

You see, you can't go back and say, well, I think it ought to be like it was in the Garden. You and I would never understand the love of God were it not for the fall. Listen, the most dramatic, eternally, superior, pinnacle, zenith expression of the love of God is at the cross. He says, you want to know how much I love you? I love you this much and stretched out His Son at the cross and crucified Him. I love you this much and He turned His back upon Him and separated Himself from Him and He bore our sin. He says, I love you that much. So God's expressions of love come in different ways, from the creation to the crucifixion. It is all an expression of God loving you and me that has nothing to do with what we are like. It is this universal love that is available to everybody. And He says, I love you with a love that knows no ending.

Think about this. One of the ways He expresses love for us is found in this third chapter of 1 John, first verse. Look at this. He says, see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God? Now watch this one. He says, one of my expressions of love for you is this.

Now think about this for a moment. He's put us in a family and God is our Heavenly Father. Now, what is the Father's responsibilities? To protect the family, provide for the family, give the family instructions so He gave us His word, communicate with the family so He gave us prayer, fellowship with the family, give them security, meeting their needs.

You see, all of these are expressions of a Father toward the family, loving that family in so many ways. Is that not what God has done? Look what He's done for us.

He's put us together. You've got friends in this church and you've got friends in your church. And my friend, listen to me, when I think about how many people who never go to church and how many people who are Christians, never darken the door, my friend, listen, not to go to church.

Listen to me carefully. Not to go to church is to say, look, God says, behold what manner of love I have for you that I've put you in a family. I want to love you and I want to give you somebody who will love you. I'm going to mix up all these spiritual gifts so you get your needs met. I want you to be able to get together and sing about me and praise me and adore me and worship me. I'm going to give you the privilege of being a part of something that is eternal and Satan can never defeat. I'm going to make you a part of my family and my church. You say, well, I join the church but I'm not interested in going.

Well, I'll go every three or four weeks. I'm going to tell you something. That's a sin against God. It is a sin against God to neglect the assembling of ourselves together. He says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. This is the will of God. This is part of the plan that we're in the family. And when we don't show up for the family, you say, well, you can be a Christian without being a church member, a sort of one. You can be saved without being a church member, but you won't be much of a believer without being one. He says, look, it's an expression of the love of God. So what you're saying is, well, that part of his love I'm not interested in. Everything God provides for me, he knows I need. And I can tell you, any believer who only lives to themselves and never aligns themselves with other believers, they're going to be like a hot coal in the midst of the flame that gets set aside.

And I don't have to tell you before long, it gets absolutely cold and black. No more evidence of flame and fire and warmth. God's put us together as an expression of love. And that's why we should be thankful for his church, thankful for the family of God. He says, look, look, behold what manner of love. Then he says one of the expressions of his love is this. Suppose, for example, suppose you'd have gotten saved and God said, do your best, do your best.

Friend, most of us would have said, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that I'm forgiven of all my sin? Yes. And now I got to do the best I can?

Yes. Well, what about calling me on tonight? Just because I'm not going to make it. And you know what? God knew not a single one of us would make it. And that's why he says, he says, here's what I'm going to do. He's I'm going to send you on just like me. In the Greek, in that 14th chapter, the word alos, A-L-L-O-S, the Greek means one just like whatever he's talking about.

So he says, I'm going to send you on just like me because I know you're not going to make it. His name is the Holy Spirit. He's the comforter. He's going to be in you with you and upon you because you're not going to make it without him. And he's going to give you direction and guidance and all the ministries of the Holy Spirit gifting us. That is an expression of the love of God. Here's how much he loves us.

He wasn't just satisfied forgiving us of our sins. He says, I'm going to get on the inside of you. And if you will allow me, I'm going to live my life through you. He says, I'm going to enable you to become the person I want you to be. I'm going to enable you to do the work that I've called you to do.

It's going to be all me. It's in your body and your personality and your spirit. But he says, I'm going to be there living through you and working through you and doing the work. That's an expression of the love of God that he didn't leave us to ourselves. Another expression of his love is found in Romans 828. Now, I always say you all know that passage, but some people don't. So if you don't know it, I want you to turn to it. Romans 828 says, We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those of us who are his children. Now, look at this. Is this not one of the most practical expressions of the love of God possible?

What is that? Here's what it says. God is causing all things, every single thing that you do during that day to work out for your good. Now, that is an expression of his love. Suppose he said, Do your best.

Get along the best you can. But God says, You want to know how much I love you? First of all, I've saved you from your sin.

Secondly, I've come to live on the inside of you. And not only that, God says, I'm not even satisfied with that. He says, because I know the Holy Spirit living within you is going to give you direction. But you know what God says?

He says, I love you so much that I already know you're not going to listen to him sometime. I know you're just going to blow it bad. You're going to fault and fault. So here's what I'm going to do. Not only am I going to forgive you, not only am I going to get on the inside of you, but here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be there every single moment, and whatever you do, I'm going to keep adjusting and working in your life. I'm going to make every single thing that goes on for your good. Now, it may not appear that way at first, and it may not, listen, it may not be for your immediate good, but the way I'm working it, I'm going to work it so it's going to turn out for your good. Are you talking about loving me and loving you? He says, not satisfied just saving you, not even just satisfied getting on the inside because you're going to blow it.

I'm going to be, he says, I'm going to be there and I am going to be working every single thing for your good. Now, I'm here to tell you, if that isn't a wonderful, inexpressible, inexhaustible love of God, please tell me what it is. How much more could he love us than that?

What does it say? It says he hasn't left me to myself about anything, nothing, that his love is all-encompassing, walking under the umbrella of his wonderful, expressive love. Look at all the ways God is expressing love to you and to me. And to think that he would send the Holy Spirit and to think that he would say, I know that's not enough, so here's what I'm going to do. I am going to come and I'm going to walk with you through your life moment by moment, day by day, because I know you're going to need me there adjusting and working so that everything will turn out for your good. That's God's sweet, gentle, precious, tender love for you and me.

He says not only that, one of the expressions of my love, he says that I've prepared heaven for you. How many of you have had anything to do with heaven? Not a thing. How are you going to get there? Can't get there.

That's one trip for which there is no human mode of transportation. Not a one. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, now, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, you believe also in me. He says, in my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I'm going, listen to this, this is how much I love you. I'm going to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again to receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. Period. That's it. What kind of a master craftsman is this God who is our God? He's perfect. There are no flaws. You can examine whatever he builds. It is absolutely perfect.

You can go with a magnifying glass. No imperfections. And you know what? It's a gift. It's an absolute gift.

You can't do anything to earn it. It is a gift. One of the expressions of his love is heaven. There are lots of them, but let me just end up with this one. One of the most wonderful expressions of the love of God is his uninterrupted presence in your life and mine.

Listen to this. He says, I, this is God speaking, I will never leave you nor forsake you. There isn't anybody in the world who can make that promise. You know what that means?

It means that no matter what you and I go through, it means that no matter where we are, it doesn't make a difference. Some of you may be in a hospital. Some of you in a nursing home. You may be in a prison.

You may be in a small apartment. You may be looking down this long tunnel in your life and thinking, God, I feel like I'm in the dark. You may be in a situation that you'd give anything to get out of. You may feel like your life is just all full of frustration and anxiety.

All of this. You know what God says? Here's what he's saying. I am there with you. You know what else he's saying? I'll always be there.

It doesn't make any difference what happens. Here's one thing you can count on. He's always there. I don't know how God can love us any more than to say to us in his infinite, uninhibited, perfect, unconditional, all-encompassing love to say to you and to me, I'm there.

And you know what's with him? All the love that God can manifest. He says, I'll always be there, no matter what. Thank you for listening to part two of God, the Greatest Lover of All. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.