“THE MEASURE OF GOD’S LOVE”
Ephesians 3:14-19
1. The Length of God’s Love.
* Jeremiah 31:3- “I have loved you with an everlasting love and have drawn you to Me with loving-kindness.”
* God’s love is impossible to fathom and there is no limit to His love!.......etc,
* There is, though, a limit to God’s Mercy.
In Genesis 6-8, you can read the account of how the morality or mankind had declined.
In Genesis 6 the Bible says that “The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
And God said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever.....”
God determined that He would destroy the world and all that was in it but He showed His mercy toward man by giving mankind 120 years to repent. During that time only 1 man and his family sought and found favor with God and was saved from being destroyed in the flood.
For 120 years the peoples of the earth had lived within the mercy of God. During that time, though, they kept on living in open rebellion towards God. God kept calling them to repentance but they kept on rejecting God. Little did they know that there was a limit to God’s mercy and their time was running out.
For 120 years they scoffed at Noah’s preaching and laughed at him as he built the Ark. Finally, the construction was completed.
And in Gen 7:16. the Bible says that Noah and his family entered the Ark, and God sealed the door behind them and the rains began to fall.
** God sealed that door, not Noah. Noah might have opened the door when people began to cry out but the fact that God sealed that door is important for 2 reasons:
1. All those on the inside were saved because they had been sealed. God had provided that the Ark would be their means of salvation. They were safe in the hands of God. Today, when a person accepts Christ as Lord they are sealed with the Holy Spirit and their salvation is 100% secure.
2. When God sealed that door it marked the end of His mercy toward anyone not in the Ark. I believe that each of them had an opportunity to be saved right up until the moment God sealed the door. When the rains started falling and the water rose, they must have cried out in vain but it was too late for their opportunity for salvation had passed. They had said “NO” to God 1 too many times.
Many people are in this same predicament today. God’s offer of mercy has been extended to all people but over and over people have either outright rejected God or said “Not now” to God. What they do not understand is that they may might never have another opportunity to accept God’s offer of mercy. The raindrops of the flood of their destruction may already be falling.
Read 2 Peter 3:9-10 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
God is loving. God is patient. But God is just and will punish sin. And His patience is not eternal and is on His timetable, not yours.
* I want to ask you a question: Has God been calling you to salvation but you have been postponing that decision? If so, then you need to realize that you may already be near the limit of His offer of mercy for you. But I want you to know that God loves and He wants you to understand......
2. The Height of God’s Love.
** Ever since the fall of man, humans have tried any and everything possible to attain immortality, to restore his relationship with God, and to earn a place for himself in Heaven. The first attempt at that was shortly after the flood when they tried to build a tower that reached Heaven. They failed miserably. People try to do the same thing today.
All over the world many people are trying to attain a relationship with God but Man’s attempt to reach God’s level never succeeds because we are sinful. But God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us.
Jesus left the Heights of Heaven. All the glory that was His, He left behind to come to the earth to live as a man. He came to teach us how we should live and to provide for us the Way to Heaven.
Jesus is “The Way.”
He is not “a” way to Heaven...
He is not “a good” way to Heaven.
He is the only Way to Heaven.
Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life... and no one comes to the Father except by Me.”
How do you measure the Height of God’s love? Jesus left the Heights of Heaven and came to earth “to seek and to save those who are lost.”
3. The Width of God’s Love.
* How do you measure the width of God’s love?
When my daughter, Kellie, was small she would tell me she loved me. I would ask her how much. She would spread her arms out wide and say “I love you this much!!”
How much does Jesus love you?
*** He loves you this much!!! (Spread arms)
He was beaten, whipped, crucified.......
The Bible says that Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, a Man who knew no sin “became sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in HIM!” (2 Cor. 5:21)
He did this to pay the price for our sins..... (Wages of sin is death)... Jesus paid that price for us so that we could have eternal life. In truth, the price for your sins will be paid for either by His death on the cross or it will be paid by you by spending an eternity in a place called Hell where you will suffer forever and ever.
BUT... God loves you and does not want you to go to Hell. He wants you to experience His love forever in Heaven with Him.
4. The Depth of God’s Love.
** How can a person measure the depth of one’s love?
** It cannot be measured by what one thinks... “I think I love you” turns into “But, I thought you loved me.”
** It cannot be measured by what one feels... Feelings + emotions change.... But True Love never fails
** It cannot be measured by what one says.... Some Fathers tell their kids they love them but never really show it. My Dad only rarely told me he loved me, but he showed it every single day by the way he sacrificed for me.
True love is not about feelings or emotions at all.
It is governed more by what we do.
It is an Act of the Will. It is a choice.
And the depth of one’s love can be measured by what one is willing to sacrifice or give up. How can you measure the depth of God’s Love?
* Romans 5:8 “God demonstrated His love toward us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
** God gave His very best on the Cross. Jesus gave His very life to give us eternal life. But we are not automatically saved just because Jesus died for us. We are not saved simply because we know and believe that He died on the cross and rose again.
Many people are hanging their hopes of eternal life on simply knowing and believing these things but unfortunately they will still die and go to Hell. Others are hoping that some kind of emotional decision they made in the past is going to get them to Heaven but that is not enough either.
*** Salvation does not come through an intellectual knowledge of God..... but it is hard to put true saving faith in someone you do not know about.
*** Salvation does not come through just an emotional decision.... although when people place true saving faith in Christ it is often emotional.
HOW DOES ONE RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE?
1. Repentance
2. Place faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior
3. Receive Jesus Christ as Lord.
