The Love of God, Part 3 A

The Bible is a precious treasure, but knowing our tendency to forget even precious truths, our Lord included parables in His teaching, memorable stories with unexpected and profound meanings. Today on Grace To You, John MacArthur shows you how one parable in particular, the one about the prodigal son, reveals the amazing depth of God's love for his children, how he desires to pour out His grace on your life.

John is continuing the study he began last week. It's simply titled, The Love of God. And now with a look at what you can learn from the most famous of Christ's parables, here's John MacArthur. We've been looking at this whole matter of God's love. John 3.16 says, God so loves the world. And we've looked at how God loves the world. The love of God of 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 in His 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. And so we said that God's love is unlimited in its extent. But the second proposition is that God's love is limited in degree. While He loves the whole world, He does not love them to the degree that He loves His own. Those who belong to the Lord are the special objects of His love. He has for them a love that is beyond the love that He has for the world. In fact, we must remind you that the love God has for the world is temporal, that is it exists only within the framework of time.

It exists only in this life. It is temporary and eventually for those who refuse Jesus Christ, that love turns to hate. That hate results in eternal judgment. God does love the world in a temporal, temporary way bound by space and time. In the physical realm, that love turns to hate and judgment for those who reject Him. And the sad truth is that while God loves the world, extends compassion toward the world, common grace, warnings about judgment and the gospel, Jesus said, you will not come to Me that you might have life.

Men refuse the gift that God offers, therefore God's love turns to hate and judgment. But to those who receive God's love, to those who come to Christ, to those who accept Christ as Lord and Savior, believing in His death and resurrection and committing their lives to obedience to His will, to those people, God brings a love that is beyond the love that He has for an unregenerate mankind. He loves His own with a love that is far beyond anything that we could ever imagine or fathom, and even all eternity will not be able to fully exhaust the demonstration of God's love toward His own. He loves His own with a love that reaches to the fullest of His capacity to love, as we saw last time. And no one has expressed that better than the Apostle John who said, having loved His own who were in the world, John 13, 1, He loved them eis telos. And that phrase can mean He loves them completely, perfectly, fully.

It can mean to the end, to the limit, to the max, to the last. It can mean undying, eternal, everlasting, and it means all of that...all of that. The Lord loves His own in a way that is going to be demonstrated throughout all eternity. And as I said, even all eternity can't exhaust the expression of that love. When John sums it up, he does in these simple words, see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us. See how great a love.

And he doesn't exhaust a half a dozen or a dozen adjectives because they wouldn't even come close to saying what needs to be said. He just says how great a love that we should be called children of God, 1 John 3, 1. It is that great love with which He has loved us. And it is that love that causes us to be called His children. Remember now, He set that love upon us in eternity past before the world began, just as He did the nation of Israel, a predetermined sovereign, uninfluenced desire and will to love us while we were not yet born and knowing that when we were born we would be unlovable sinners. We have been designated as the beloved of God by His own eternal choice. John again says it as well as it can be said, 1 John chapter 4, verse 9.

You might want to turn to this chapter. I want to comment on a couple of verses. 1 John chapter 4, verse 9, by this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. God first loves us.

Because God loves us, He sends His Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Verse 10, in this is love. There is love manifest in the gift of Christ, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son for our sins. Down in verse 16, John says, we have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him. And then verse 19, we love because He first loved us.

Let's get the sequence right. God determined to love us before the world began. God loved us when we were yet in sin. God loved us when we were not lovable. And it was that predetermination to love us in spite of what we were that is the essence of God's great redeeming love. God loves sinners and sends His Son into the world to redeem them. To those who believe and accept that redemption, He pours out a love that knows no limits forever and ever and ever. It is demonstrated, first of all, in that He was willing to die for us and then spend the rest of eternity pouring out expressions of that love upon us.

It's mystery. How can we ever expect to understand why He would choose to love us in such a way? Why is it that God at best didn't just say, well, I'm going to concede to you you're a bunch of wretched sinners, I'm going to let you in my heaven, you can enjoy a few things but don't expect a lot? Why isn't it that there's some minimal expression of God's love to those of us who have sinned against His holy name? Why doesn't He express the maximal levels of His love for the holy angels who never fell and who faithfully throughout all of time have been loyal to love the God who made them? He damned the angels that fell with no hope of redemption. Why would He redeem man? We don't know the answer to that except that He predetermined to love us and by loving us to draw us to Himself.

Daniel Whittle wrote the poem for a song that I've sung since I was a small boy. The words express the question that must be on all of our hearts. I know not why God's wondrous grace to me He hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for His own. I don't know why, but I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. We don't know why. Maybe in eternity we'll never know why. Why would God love us? There was nothing in us to love. God said to Israel, you are worse than Samaria, you are worse than Sodom. Samaria and Sodom perish in judgment and Israel He says, I will forgive you.

Why? Because I've chosen to love you. It's an immense and incomprehensible mystery, but God loves His own and because of that He sent His Son into the world to die for us that we might become His children. 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. Let's begin by looking at Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15, a very familiar chapter in which is included the parable of the prodigal son, as it's called. It really is the parable of the forgiving father. It is misnamed the prodigal son. It's really the story of the forgiving father or the loving father.

Let's look at Luke 15 and verse 11. He said, A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. And he divided his wealth between them.

And not many days later the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country. There he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to be in need. And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, not a proper occupation for a good Jewish boy.

He was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I'm dying here with hunger. I'll get up and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me as one of your hired men. And he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him over and over and over.

Stop at that point. The father is God. The son is the irreligious, worldly sinner. Every sinner has, in a creative sense, God as a father.

And every sinner has privileges because he is created in the image of God. This young man pictures the sinner who squanders those privileges in a dissolute, irreligious life. He took all of the good things that God had given him by virtue of being created in God's image and he went out and wasted them in loose living, immorality and drunkenness and all that you could conjecture. He comes to a point where in the midst of his debauchery, he realizes he has hit bottom.

He's serving pig slop and having to eat his own meals from the same. And he realizes that this is not the way to live and so he decides to come to God. And here is the penitent sinner and he comes back to God. And he's coming sorrowful over his wasted life, sorrowful over squandering all of the wonderful gifts that are his by virtue of being created in the image of God. He's wasted his time and all of his opportunity, but he knows where he is. He understands his iniquity.

He understands his wickedness. He wants to go back and make things right with his father, with God, and he heads back. In verse 20, then you see God's love demonstrated toward a penitent sinner.

While he's still a long way off, he's still down the road, he hasn't even been able to reach the presence of his father. His father saw him because he was looking and he felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him over and over is the indication of the Greek language. Here you have a picture of the character of God's love. And the amazing thing about this love is that it's given toward one who is utterly undeserving, one who has wasted and squandered opportunity and privilege, and yet the father sees him, feels compassion for him, and runs to meet him and throws his arms around him and repeatedly kisses him. Here is tender mercy. Here is forgiveness. Here is compassion. Here is a father treating the son as if there were no past, as if his sins had been buried in the depths of the deepest sea, removed as far as the east is from the west, and forgotten. Here is effusive affection. There is not a reluctance that says, well, you know, you really lived a wretched life and I'm going to let you into the kingdom, but I really shouldn't do that attitude. There is no past. It is gone.

It has disappeared. And all that the son experiences is embracing and repeated kissing and hugging and the joy of the father is overflowing. And this is emblematic of how God loves the penitent who comes to him. He loves him lavishly. He loves him grandly, greatly, affectionately. And the son is so shocked by this.

In verse 21, the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. It's almost like he pushes him away and says, wait a minute, do you understand what I've done?

Do you understand what I'm like? It's almost as if he can't deal with this. This is perhaps the profoundest humiliation. Coming to God is a humbling experience. And the first thing that humbles you when you come to God is the awareness of your sin. He was humbled while he was eating the pig slap. He became very much aware of a wasted and squandered life.

He knew what was available to him from the father. He went back, he confessed his sin against heaven and in the sight of his father. He is a true penitent. He is turning from his sin, turning from his wasted life and he comes to God and he is humbled first of all by his sin. But then secondly and perhaps more profoundly, he is humbled by God's grace. What is more humbling than the awareness of one's sin is the awareness of God's grace. That is far more humbling and he wants to push God away, as it were, and say, do you really understand what I've done?

You're just pouring out love and affection on me and do you know who I am? That is even more humbling. But such is the love of God toward a penitent sinner.

It is rich, lavish, effusive, exalting love. The father doesn't even respond to his hesitant questions in verse 21. The father just says to the slaves, quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf, kill it and let us eat and be merry.

There's not even a regard for the queries of the young man about whether he's worthy or not. He just says, start the party, folks. This son of mine, verse 24, was dead, has come to life again. He was lost, has been found and they began to be merry. That's the picture of the love of God toward a penitent sinner. It is not minimal, it is maximal.

It is lavish. Turn to Romans chapter 8 and here is another picture of the character of this love. Romans 8, verse 35.

This too is an absolutely crucial understanding to give us the greatness of God's love. Verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Paul asks the rhetorical question, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. That's taken from Psalm 44. Paul says, well, what's going to separate us from the love that God gives us in Christ?

I mean, we're being put to death all day long. He lived on the brink of death constantly, as we all know. He was always being considered as a sheep to be slaughtered by somebody who wanted Him dead. That was His pattern of life.

Is that going to separate us? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword? Verse 37, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who...what?...loved us.

You see, this is personal experience. Paul says, I've been through tribulation, God didn't stop loving me. I've been through distress, God didn't stop loving me. I've been through persecution. I've been through famine. I've been naked. I've been in peril.

I've stood on the edge of the sword. I've been through all of that and I can tell you in it all the one who loved me never, ever, ever severed that love. And so I'm convinced, verse 38, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The second thing we learn about God's love toward His own is that it is unbreakable, inseparable, unconquerable, and everlasting love. 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 loved 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. That's 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. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. Today, John continued his look at the vast, unparalleled love of God and how you can experience His grace and mercy in its fullness. The lesson you just heard is part of John's study titled The Love of God. Along with teaching each day on the radio, John serves as chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in Southern California. Well, John, for our listeners, practically speaking, how does our understanding of God's love affect our everyday lives?

What areas does it touch? Well, one thing. Just last Sunday, I was preaching on this text. In Matthew 22, the lawyer says to Jesus, �What's the greatest commandment?� He says, �To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.� Okay, you love God. And then he immediately said, �And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.� If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you're going to love your neighbor as yourself.

They go together. So loving God means loving others. Loving others means extending to others the kind of love that God extended to you, and that's what we were talking about yesterday. Since God loves you with a forgiving love, it's not only a blessing love. It's not only an ingratiating love. It's not only a love that lavishes you with heaven's best.

You're blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. That's how much God loves you. It's a love that lavishes you, but it's also a love that shows you mercy. It's a love that shows you grace. It's a love that is kind. It's a love that is forgiving. It's a love that, as 1 Corinthians 13 would define it, it doesn't hold grudges. It doesn't wish evil on anyone. It's not love tempered or moderated with vengeance. So when we talk about God loving us, it is this free, complete love that forgives all of our transgressions, wipes out everything, removes our sins as far as the east is from the west, buries them in the depths of the sea, and remembers them no more—that lavish kind of love.

So it's the positive side of blessing, and it's the negative side of forgiving every sin we've ever committed against God. And if we love our neighbor the way God loves us and the way we love God, that's the kind of love we're going to extend to those who are around us. This and a lot more is contained in the book I've written called The God Who Loves. It's a full book, and it's loaded with insights about the love of God that most Christians don't even understand.

They have a very kind of simple devotional idea about the love of God. Get a copy of the book, The God Who Loves. It's available from us right here at Grace To You, and you can order it today. Yes, this book can help you appreciate the amazing depth of God's love for sinners, perhaps like no other book can. It's a great resource to donate to your church's library or to go through with a small group. To pick up a copy of this book, The God Who Loves, get in touch today. The price for The God Who Loves is $13, and shipping is free. To order, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our online store at GTY.org. The book to look for again, The God Who Loves.

Order your copy and maybe a few to give to others at GTY.org, or when you call, 800-55-GRACE. And now, turning the corner a bit, let me remind you that Grace To You is listener supported. Today may not be your first time listening to this broadcast, but other people may be new believers, or people just now finding this station are tuning in and listening and learning. Radio offers us a wide and changing audience, and we're able to reach those folks because of the support of friends like you. To partner with us in getting life-changing biblical truth to people who hunger for it, call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. Now, for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week off with Grace To You, and join us tomorrow when John continues to help you deepen your understanding of the love of God. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You!