The Love of God, Part 3 B

When we become His children by faith in Jesus Christ, what kind of love do we then enjoy? It never fades, it never wavers, it never wanes, it never grows cold, and it never changes. God loves us with an everlasting love. It's talked about, written about, and sung about a lot. People spend tremendous amounts of their time and energy trying to find it.

What am I talking about? Love. The Bible also says a lot about love. In fact, it says the way you love shows the world that you're a Christian. But what is the difference, and is there a difference, between biblical love and what the world calls love? John MacArthur answers that question today on grace to you as he looks at God's incredible love for you, how He expects you to love others, and how that love produces joy in your life. Our current study is titled, The Love of God.

And now with a lesson, here's John. John 3.16 says, God so loves the world. And we've looked at how God loves the world. The love of God to the world is manifest in His common grace, as theologians call it, or His general goodness.

Skies are blue and the grass is green and the flowers grow in the garden of even the unregenerate people, and music comforts our hearts and gives wings to the expressions of our emotions, and we can enjoy a little child, and we can enjoy the fruits of love and labor. And all of that is common grace, common to all people, and is manifestation of God's love. And then God manifests His love in an unlimited way to the whole world in terms of His compassion. He pities, and we showed in Scripture how God has compassion even to the point where Jesus wept as He looked at the plight of people. We saw the compassion of God also in the healing ministry of Jesus as He touched them in the time of their great need. And God's love to the whole world is seen in warnings.

All through the Bible God warns about sin and its effect and its consequence and eternal judgment. We see God's unlimited love to the world in the gospel as it is to be spread to the whole world and people are to be told that if they'll come to Christ, their sins can be forgiven and they can have the hope of eternal life in heaven forever. That's all God's unlimited love. Now when we become His children by faith in Jesus Christ, what kind of love do we then enjoy? Let's not talk about His love that is unlimited in extent to the world, let's talk about His love that is limited in degree to the world because the full degree of His love belongs to believers. Let's talk about the love He has toward us. It never fades, it never wavers, it never wanes, it never grows cold, and it never changes. God loves us with an everlasting love.

And you're back to the ice, tell us again, Jesus having love to His own who were in the world loved them to the eternity. It is a love that will never die, never grow cold, never diminish, never fade, a love from which we can never be separated. Nothing can separate us, nothing, not death, life, not anything angelic, not anything in the present, not anything in the future, no thing that's created and everything was created except God Himself.

Nothing in existence can separate us from that love. He loves the world with a temporal love. He loves the world with a love of compassion, a love of goodness. He loves them enough to warn them, but that love is bound by time, and when time ends for them, so does that love, and they enter into hell and judgment. But His own who believe in Jesus Christ and have come to Him in repentant faith, He loves them with an everlasting love that cannot ever be broken. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, and let's see another passage that defines for us the character of this love.

Ephesians chapter 2, some more reminders that I know you're familiar with. Verse 4, and here Paul uses the same term that John does, His great love with which He loved us. Everything starts out of God's love, this great love with which He loved us.

And then he goes on to define this love. He loved us so much that even when we were dead in our transgressions, and there again is that emphasis on having loved us when we were not worthy, He made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. He loved us first of all.

He loved us in our transgression. Out of that love, He sovereignly made us alive together with Christ. That is, He placed us in Christ by our faith in Christ. We were placed on the cross spiritually. We died with Christ. We rose to walk in newness of life so that He literally dealt with our sins and gave us new life through grace. Verse 6, He then raised us up with Him. We came out of the grave with Christ. We are now seated with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

What does that mean? That our real home is in heaven, that our real life is in a spiritual dimension that is beyond this world. That's what He did for us. He loved us so much that even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ through grace. He raised us up out of the grave to walk in newness of life. He seated us permanently in the heavenlies. That's now our home. That's our abode.

That's where our life is. And why did He do this? Why would He save dead sinners?

Why? Verse 7 gives you the reason for all of it. In order, and that's a purpose clause, for the purpose that in the ages to come, that's through all eternity, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace. How's He going to show the surpassing riches of His grace toward us? In kindness. What? What does that mean? That means God saved us when we were dead in our sins so that He might be able forever to show us His kindness.

Astounding. You say we don't deserve His kindness. That's the whole point. That's why He gets so much glory from showing kindness to us. Forever and ever we'll not only thank Him for His kindness, but we'll thank Him for His kindness because we know we never deserved it.

But that's the point. He loved us so much that He wanted to show kindness to us forever. You say, what is heaven? What is heaven? Heaven is where God will show us kindness out of the surpassing riches of His grace forever. You say, you mean we're going to go to heaven and God is just going to spend forever being kind to us?

That's right. Now that is a love that transcends. It is a love that gives life. It is a love that promises eternal glory. It is a love that pledges eternal kindness. The eternity of heaven is God being kind to us, kind to us forever and ever and ever.

And people sometimes think about heaven and they think, oh, I don't know, it might be boring up there. Now remember this, God has an infinite mind and God has an infinite number of ways in which He can demonstrate His kindness. And so eternally we will just have exploding on us one experience of God's unsurpassed kindness after another, no two of which would ever be the same.

That's how much He loves us while we were yet sinners. Look at Ephesians chapter 5 and learn another area of this love, and that is its purifying aspect. First, it is a lavish love. Secondly, it is an unbreakable love. Third, it is a love that shows eternal kindness, and here it is a purifying love. It says in verse 25, Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

Why? In order that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless. So now we find another purpose. Not only does He want us to experience kindness forever, but He wants us to experience eternal holiness. Christ loved the church enough to die for the church in order to sanctify, that is to separate the church from sin, to cleanse the church by the Word, to bring the church into heaven in all her glory without spot, without wrinkle, but holy and blameless. Now the amazing reality of that is there's only one being in the universe that's holy and blameless.

Who's that? God. He loved us enough to make us exactly like Him. That's why John says we'll be like Him when we see Him as He is. It's an incredible thing. God loves us enough to separate us from sin, to cleanse us, to purify us, to bring us into glory without spot, without wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. I mean, the transformation is incredible from being dead in trespasses and sins to being alive in holiness and perfection and all of it due to nothing of our own, no worthiness in ourselves, no desirability in ourselves, no achievement in and of ourselves, nothing but God's free grace. What love?

No wonder. No wonder, John said, what great love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. It is a love that lavishes. It is a love that is unbreakable. It is a love that will demonstrate itself in eternal kindness. It is a love that will demonstrate itself in eternal holiness.

Look at Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12. This too is an important aspect of His love. God always wants the best for His children, and He knows that the path to the best is always the path of obedience.

Did you get that? God knows that the path to the best is the path of obedience. You know, it's like a parent. A parent says, well, I really love my child. I really love my child and doesn't discipline the child. I question the love. Because if you don't discipline your child, you're really programming that child for the worst. Love doesn't seek the worst. Love seeks what?

The best. And so love learns to discipline because discipline becomes then protection and a guarantee of blessing. And God says, I love you too much not to discipline you. We've said that as parents, haven't we? Bend over, this is because I love you.

And you get a quizzical look from the kid who says, sure, but in the end it is. And they learn. But God loves us enough to discipline us.

Why? To push us back into the path of blessing. Chapter 6, chapter 12 verse 6, for those whom the Lord loves, He what? He chastens. He disciplines. And He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure and God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom His Father doesn't discipline?

If you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then you're illegitimate children and not sons. If you're not being disciplined by God, you don't belong to Him because if you belong to Him, He'll discipline you because He loves you so much. We have furthermore, verse 9, earthly fathers to discipline us.

We respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Our earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good. Here it is again that we may share His holiness.

Not in eternity, that's already going to happen. But in time, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. God loves you enough to discipline you. It is a love that corrects. It is a love that rebukes. It is a love that reproves. It is a love that chastens.

It is a love that trains. It is a love that disciplines toward righteousness, toward godliness. This is the saving, justifying, sanctifying, glorifying love that God has for His own and only for His own, those who believe in Him.

How great a love. Great enough, said Paul to the Thessalonians, to give us eternal comfort and good hope. Let me take you to one other passage that may sort of finalize your thinking with regard to the greatness of this love. Ephesians 3, verse 17, and I'll look at just three verses here with you. Ephesians 3, 17 to 19. Now Paul is praying here for the Ephesians and of course for all believers, and he's praying in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

That is more than a prayer for salvation, obviously it encompasses that. The word dwell, katoikeo, is a word that means...it has the word home and to settle down combined. It means to settle down and be at home. When Christ settles down and is at home in your heart, or to put it another way, when Christ has unrestricted access to every area of your life, when Christ is in control, it's not just that you're a believer, it's that Christ has settled down.

He's not having to be up fixing things, you know. When you're committed and devoted to Christ and He has unrestricted access to your life, then Paul says, you are being rooted and grounded in love. In other words, you will be solidly firmly fixed in the love of God when your life is fully yielded to Christ. When every area of your life is yielded to Him and He has that unrestricted access to every part of your life, you will be solidly fixed in the love of God.

You will experience that love. That's what Paul meant in Romans 5, 5 when he says, the love of Christ is shed abroad in your hearts. That's what Jude meant in Jude 21 when he said, keep yourselves in the love of God.

What did he mean? Stay in the position of devotion, dedication and obedience in which you will be rooted and grounded in love. If you want to experience the fullness of God's love, then let Christ have unrestricted access to every area of your life. Keep yourself in the love of God. It doesn't mean keep yourself saved.

It means keep yourself obedient and devoted to Christ so that you're feeling the full benefits of God's great love. And when you do that, verse 18 says, you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and you will be able to know the love of Christ which surpasses what? Knowledge. The point is the love that we're talking about here is unknowable. It's unknowable by human reason. It's unknowable. The human mind cannot know it. The unregenerate can't know it.

It is incomprehensible. It surpasses knowledge. But you can know it, he says. You can know the love of Christ which no one else knows. You can comprehend it in its breadth and its length and its height and its depth when you are rooted and grounded in it. And that happens when Christ has unrestricted access to every area of your life.

When Christ fills your life, you can go back to John 14, then the love of God will fill your life. When Christ has every part of your life, then the love of God fills your life and then you will comprehend it. The point is you can only comprehend it when you've experienced it. It reminds me of Louis Armstrong, the great jazz trumpeter who was once asked to explain jazz and his classic answer was, man, if I got to explain it, you ain't got it. Now we understand that love is a little like that. If I have to explain it, you ain't got it. But the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through Jesus Christ by faith in Him.

If I've got to explain it to you, then you're not experiencing it. But if Christ has unrestricted access to every part of your life, you will be rooted and grounded in love and you will comprehend with the saints, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and you'll know the love of Christ which otherwise is absolutely incomprehensible and unknowable. Some old saint looked at that verse 18 where you have the love of God cubed. You see it there? It's just the love of God cubed.

I mean, just to show the vastness of it. How long is long? How wide is wide? How high is high and how deep is deep? Well, one old saint took the cross and said the cross is the symbol.

The upper arm points to the height, the lower arm points to the depth and the cross piece to the breadth and length and they're endless. How broad is God's love? It's to all who believe. How long is His love? It's from eternity past to eternity future. How high is His love? High enough to enthrone us in the heaven of heavens. How deep is His love? Deep enough to reach to the deepest pit of sin and rescue us. There is the sum of it all.

It's a love that is broad and long and high and deep. And this is God's love that leads to verse 20. And you can't really look at this section without verse 20.

Verse 20 says, Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. What is that? That is a what? A doxology, isn't it? Well what is causing Paul to burst into a doxology? What is causing it is because he has just comprehended as much as is humanly possible the love of God in Christ and he bursts out into praise. God loving sinners so much that He makes them His own, forgives them all their sins, pours out kindness for all eternity, makes them as holy and blameless and perfect as He Himself is by granting to them His own righteousness in Christ.

That's His love. And my prayer for you is the prayer of 2 Thessalonians 3, 5. Listen to what Paul wrote. May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.

May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. Have you noticed how love in this world is fickle? People talk about love, but oh is it fickle.

We're not talking about that kind of love, questioning whether it even is love. There's a lovely hymn written by George Matheson called, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, sad story behind that hymn. George Matheson, the writer, was to marry the love of his life.

When he announced to her that he felt God's call to missionary service, she said, I don't want to be a missionary and left him, refusing to marry. All alone he wrote these words, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, I rest my weary soul in Thee. I give Thee back the life I owe that in Thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be. God loves you this much. Can you say with Matheson, I give Thee back the life I owe to such love that in Thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be?

That's the question. Father, we thank You for the reminder again of Your love to us, and we've just touched so lightly on this great truth, and yet to just touch its surface is so enriching, so thrilling, and we're so grateful. You love us with a love beyond our comprehension, and it will take all eternity, and even that will not exhaust its expression. Thank You that while we were yet sinners, You loved us enough to send Your Son to die for us. We pray for those who may not know Christ, those who have no knowledge of this love, who are loved in a temporal and temporary sense, but will feel the wrath of Your judgment someday if they don't come to Christ. Father, may You draw them to Yourself. May You draw them to Christ.

Like the prodigal, may they see their sinful condition and come to You, believing in Jesus Christ as the One who died and rose again for them that they might have life. For those of us who are Christians, may we keep ourselves in the love of God, as Jude said. May we be so devoted to Christ that He has complete access to every area of our lives so that we might comprehend the greatness of this love and bask in its glories. And may we even today, Lord, realize that when we love You as we should, we will love one another. We know that that's the fruit of this love.

That's the result of this love. Because God loves us, John says, we ought to love one another, but it all starts with You loving us. May this be a day in which we express our gratitude for such love in our Savior's name. Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today he continued his current study on the love of God. Well, turning our thoughts from the love of God to the love demonstrated by God's people, John, you've spent five decades pastoring a church and encouraging your people to love and to serve one another.

And I know there have been challenges along the way. So what have you found to be particularly helpful for fostering biblical love among the congregation? Looking at a church over half a century, I can tell you the most manifest characteristic of people who have been half a century under the Word of God is not the sound doctrine. It's love. It's love from a pure heart. The goal of our ministry—the apostle said this—is love from a pure heart.

That's what you're after. You would assume, I suppose, if you didn't know Grace Church and you came for the first time, that 50 years of teaching the Bible, these people would be like a lot of little theologians running around spouting Bible verses and being able to explain every doctrine. The truth of the matter is they can explain the Bible. They can explain doctrine.

But the first thing you would run into if you came to Grace Church—and you can validate this by just coming—you're going to see people who love, and they love the Lord, and they love each other. That is the mark not only of obedience, but it's the mark of sanctification. You can be obedient as a young believer. You can be obedient the first day you're a Christian.

You can be obedient the first year, two years, three years. If you've been a believer for 10, 20, 30 years, your obedience is more consistent because you're more sanctified. And the more consistent obedience is a manifestation of the work of the Spirit in sanctifying you. And inevitably, it shows up in how much you love—real sanctification.

So it should be true, and I've seen it true. Half a century of teaching the Word of God produces people who know the truth but who love the God of the truth, and the love of God is manifest from their hearts to all the people around them, so that the goal of ministry is love from a pure heart. It isn't even to satisfy—and this needs to be said. We're not trying to make people happy with themselves like megachurches today.

We want to make you feel good about yourself. No, that is not the goal of sanctification. That is not the goal of ministry. The goal of ministry is for you to lose your life in loving someone else.

Wow. And of course, friend, to truly minister God's love to others requires that you understand God's Word, and that you are obeying the Word, and that you are equipped to communicate the truth of Scripture accurately. For excellent help in that, let me recommend you pick up a copy of the MacArthur Study Bible.

Order yours today. You can order by calling toll-free 800-55-GRACE or by visiting our website, gty.org. With about 150 maps and charts and timelines, and in particular, 25,000 notes written by John, the Study Bible explains virtually every passage of Scripture. It's a great gift for any student of God's Word. You can order yours in the New American Standard, English Standard, or New King James versions of Scripture. And again, to purchase the MacArthur Study Bible, a library of Bible study tools in one volume, call 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org. And for even more ways to study God's Word and take in biblical truth, head to gty.org. There you can download John's entire sermon archive for free. That's 3,500 messages from over five decades of pulpit ministry. You can also supplement your daily Bible reading with three different devotionals, or you can find helpful articles on the Grace To You blog. And the sermons, devotionals, and the blog, all of that and much more are free at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here tomorrow when John continues his study, The Love of God, with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.