The Love of God

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That's 866-626-4356. Welcome to Leading the Way with pastor and author, Dr. Michael Yousef. Today, a powerful look at the love of God. You can't earn it.

You can't increase it. But today, I think you'll come to understand and appreciate it in a deeper, more meaningful way. So join me in listening to Dr. Michael Yousef. I think most people would like to think of God as a big teddy bear. You just hug him when you feel like it. Then you put him down and you move on with your life. And then you kind of, if you feel like it, you go back and you give him another hug and makes you feel good.

And then you move on and and so forth. I think any believer in Jesus Christ would have to affirm the following. That God does not make us jump through hoops in order to receive his love. That he does not make us earn his love. He loves us before we ever get our act together. This is all true. But the love of God is far, far, far, far more than all of that. By now I know some of you are saying, what in the world is Michael going with this?

What is he saying here? Well first, let me tell you what is absolutely true. What is absolutely true is this, that God's love does not depend on what we do.

That much is true. God's love is not conditional on our doing anything. But God's love is conditional nonetheless.

You say conditional on what? Conditional on what Christ did on the cross. It is conditional on the priceless sacrifice of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is conditional on the incomprehensible cost to God the Father when he gave his only son. We need to say that God's love is conditional. Conditional on the sacrifice of his son. Conditional on our acceptance of the sacrifice of his son.

Conditional on our being cognizant of the enormous price that was paid on the cross for you and for me. Listen, salvation might be free but it was not cheap. And that's the difference.

That's the difference. I want you to turn with me to that prayer of Paul in Ephesians chapter 3 beginning at verse 18. Ephesians 3 18 and 19. Here's the prayer. The prayer that you may have power.

Of course supernatural power not power that comes from trying hard. That you might have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge. That you might be filled to the measure of all fullness of God. In many ways Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 18 and 19 is a prayer that they and us would come to know the unknowable. That we would get to the bottom of the bottomless. That we would plumb the depths of the unfathomable.

And you say what is this double talk? How can he pray for them to have the supernatural power to be able to comprehend what is incomprehensible? What is Paul praying? Here's what he's praying.

Listen carefully. He is praying that you and I may enter into the knowledge of God's love. That we day by day deeply enter into further comprehension of how incredible this love is. You say how can we comprehend the infinity of the love of God?

Well the truth is we can't fully. In fact we're gonna be spending eternity. You're gonna be spending, I'm gonna be spending our forever in heaven just comprehending what it means for the Son of God to be separated from the Father and hang on that cross so that we can be set free.

You see we're gonna spend eternity just trying to comprehend the enormity of the God of very God hanging on a cross like a criminal. It is so beyond our ability, my ability to put it in a message today. But nonetheless because of the limitation of time I want you to focus with me on three things. I want you to focus on the immensity of the cost of God's love. Secondly I want you to focus with me on the impediment of the recipient of God's love.

And thirdly I want you to focus on the immeasurability of the blessing of God's love. The enormity of the cost. I told you salvation is free but it wasn't cheap. It cost God everything. It cost His Son. It cost Him everything.

And I began my statement with that kind of shock mode that to shock you in order to get you to focus in order to get you to think with me about the cost of the love of God. Sure it is unconditional to us but it's conditional to God you see. God had to pay the price. God did not give us something for nothing. He gave us something that cost Him everything.

I want you to hear me right. For somebody to take a punch in the face for you is very different from somebody who would take a bullet in their heart for you. For someone to sacrifice an hour or two or a day or two for you is different from somebody who would sacrifice his future for you. And for a human being one might die. It's very difficult.

It's nearly impossible. But even if it happens as we'll see later what Paul tells us. But don't forget that this is the perfect holy righteous God sinless whose life is of infinite value. Not only got up on that cross and died for you but bore your sins and mine for you. For the God who is the maker of the universe the owner of the universe to die in order to pay the wages of your sins and mine is of immense value.

It's incomprehensible. I read not so long ago about a couple who were sitting with a pastor who had gone for counseling and and then the conversation heated up and the husband said to the wife he said have I not given you a beautiful new home have I not given you a beautiful new car have I not given you beautiful new clothes have I not given you have I not given you and then when he calmed down the wife said that much is true you have given me everything but yourself. God in Jesus Christ gave himself up. No wonder the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2 20 would say the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. The immensity of the cost of the love of God.

Secondly the impediment of the recipients of God's love. You see most of us would be willing to sacrifice for our family members so we'd be willing to sacrifice for friends. I think it would be a natural thing when you see a friend in need you're willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to help the friend. Most of us are more than willing to sacrifice in order to repay someone who's done us a great favor in the past but I wonder how many of us would be willing to sacrifice for the sake of someone who killed our child. But you see when God showed his love for us we were unlovable we were undeserving we were at enmity with God we were indifferent to God we were ashamed of God and that is why the Word of God said in Romans chapter 5 it says while we're still powerless Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely would anyone die for a righteous man though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die but God demonstrated his love toward us in this while we were sinners Christ died for us. You see the depth of God's love can only be contrasted to the impediment of the recipient of the gift of his love. I know that human pride and arrogance want us to see that there's something intrinsically good in us that made us worthy of the Son of God to die for us but it is not so it is not so. Do you know why many Christians today are not humbling themselves before God? You know why so many Christians today are full of themselves there's so many Christians today are full of their own accomplishments and their own achievements who they are where they live what they do the reason for that my beloved friends is because they do not comprehend the unworthiness in the light of love of God. But the scripture from cover to cover tells us that his love is based not on you being a nice guy or a sweet lady not on you being a good boy or a good girl no no no no no no you miss the point you miss a point altogether but his love for us is based on our unworthiness his love is based on his sovereignty because he is God and therefore he is not under obligation to anyone he is free to love whomever he wants to love and only when you truly begin to comprehend this will you become overwhelmed with the love of God will you become so overwhelmed with the generosity of the love of God God chose to love me God chose to love you when the people of Israel become so full of themselves when they got into the wilderness and they saw God provided for them supernaturally across the Red Sea provided manna from heaven gave them water out of the desert out of the rock they've got to the point of thinking of themselves we must be really super duper people we must be really special there is something intrinsically good in us to read about it and you'll see what I mean that made God do this for us listen to what Moses said to them in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 7 you see God doesn't bless us because of who we are he bless us because who he is here's what he said the Lord did not set his affection on you and chose you because you were more numerous than other people for you were the fewest of all people but it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath his war to your forefathers it's a sovereign love of God that I don't deserve and none of us deserve and if you ever think you deserve the love of God you have never experienced salvation I pray to God you will do that today if you listen to somebody who tells you that you're worthy of the love of God I can tell you right now that person is denying the very sovereignty of God the very prerogative of God of who God is let me tell you something about our most importance if you've forgotten everything I've told you I don't want you to forget what I'm going to tell you the depth of your love for God is in proportion to the depth of your comprehension of his sovereign love for you I'm gonna repeat it now the depth of your love for God is in proportion to the depth of your comprehension of his love for you you see the immensity of the cost of the love of God the impediment of the recipient of the love of God but thirdly the immeasurability of the blessing of the love of God in first John chapter 3 verse 1 says this here's what the Word of God said see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God what is God saying here listen you can spend the rest of your Christian life unpack this verse this sentence and you would make do justice to it what is he saying here's what he's saying he's saying that his love for us went beyond rescuing us from sin and death he is saying that his love for us went beyond sacrificing of himself to bear our sin on the cross that his love for us went beyond forgiving of our sins that his love for us went beyond clemency of his former enemy he said how come because he could have sacrificed and he could have forgiven us he could have rescued us he could have redeemed us and they're stopped and that would have been wonderful would have been marvelous would have been great but no no no no he didn't stop there he went much much much further than all of this his love took us into the family and called us his children you know I sat down this week and and as I try to do every week and and at this time I really was trying I allowed the love of God to just overwhelm me to fill me to overflowing and and I got overwhelmed and and then I began to think of of some human analogy that I can use so I can make this understandable that I can make it comprehensible to you and I really have I worked very very hard but and I try every time I try to think of an analogy an illustration just to make to take the point home but you know what I came to the conclusion that I couldn't I couldn't there is no human analogy that would illustrate the immeasurability of the blessing of the love of God the image of finding a helpless homeless child and taking home does not begin to illustrate it does not begin to explain it even adoption of a child and giving the child the rights and the privileges of the family does not begin to explain the love of God you know why you know why because God does something that a human parent could never accomplish and that is to impart something of himself in you and in me so that we can take on the family resemblance listen to first John 3 9 no one who is born of God practices sin literally habitually practice sin because its seed abides in him and he cannot go on practicing sin because he is born of God by this we know the children of God you want another child of God see somebody who hates sin and as soon as he or she sins he's over there to the Father's throne asking for forgiveness that's what this verse is saying because when you come to Jesus Christ he doesn't only just forgive you he doesn't only just redeem you he doesn't only just assure you of heaven but he adopts you but he doesn't only adopt you he changes your nature he gives you his nature little girl sat across from her daddy wearing braces on her legs and tears were streaming down her face the physiotherapist had just finished working with her and the pain was just too much for her and saw through tears she says to her daddy daddy don't you love me just the way I am and the father gets up and he hugs his little girl and he said yes honey I love you the way you are but I love you too much to let you stay that way beloved I want you to listen to me we have so much cheap grace and cheap Christianity being preached in the churches today and there are many people in the churches today will find themselves in eternity without Christ because they've never been told the truth God loves his children too much to just forgive them and let them go in their happy merry way God loves us enough to impart his divine nature upon us so that we can say no to sin regardless of the pain to the flesh regardless of the pain to the old nature and regardless of the pain of isolation and rejection by the world he loves us too much to let us live for self he loves us too much is the love of God unconditional to you it is but not to God it cost him everything and the condition is that you come to him through his son you can't come to him based on your good works how hard you try because all of you good works won't get you there all your philanthropy will not get you there all of your efforts won't get you there and the condition is he's asking you and he placed is that you come to him and receive the love of his son conditional on Jesus is bearing all of the cost conditional on you accepting through your though unworthy his free gift of grace and if you've never done that the Bible said today is the day of salvation you can come and experience this overwhelming incomprehensible love of God shall we pray there is not a moment ever since that day in 1964 that I would not allow myself to be overwhelmed afresh of the incredible love of God the costly love for him in my unworthiness without being overwhelmed and I will until I see him face to face nothing will change that for there's nothing in me that would make me lovable but he loved me nonetheless he loves you and it is out of love that he wants you to hear about his love father's God our human pride our selfishness our arrogance always want to think that there's something in us but Lord is of grace pure grace we couldn't do even 1% and you do 99 you had to do all the hundred percent and for that I thank you I praise you I glorify you today in Jesus name Amen thank you for joining dr. 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