For example, if someone asked you to tell them something about God, what could you tell them? If you know the God of the Bible, you could tell them a great deal, because the Bible has a lot to say about the attributes of God. If you do not know the God of the Bible, there is not much you could tell them. For example:
Illus: If someone asked you if you knew (_______), and you did know him, you would be able to describe him. You might say, "Yes, I know him. He is tall, dark, handsome, rich, and all the women who know him think he is a knock out!" (If I gave you that description about ___________ you would know that I did not know him.)
The attributes of God are a description of the God of the Bible. We cannot really tell people about Him if we do not study His attributes. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." If you asked most folks to tell you something about God, the first thing on their list would be, "GOD IS LOVE!"
God's love has inspired many people to write beautiful POETRY...
Illus: Such as this beautiful poem by Helen Steiner Rice,
"Somebody Cares"
Somebody cares and always will,
The world forgets but God loves you still,
You cannot go beyond His Love
No matter what you're guilty of-
For God forgives until the end,
He is your faithful, loyal friend,
And though you try to hide your face
There is no shelter any place
That can escape His watchful eye,
For on the earth and in the sky
He's Ever Present and Always there
To take you in His tender care
And bind the wounds and mend the breaks
When all the world around you breaks...
Somebody Cares and Loves You Still
And God is The Someone who always will.
GOD'S MARVELOUS LOVE has also inspired men to write beautiful hymns.
Illus: One such beautiful hymn is: "THE LOVE OF GOD" Look at some of the magnificent words that describe THE LOVE OF GOD, especially the third verse.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made,
were every stalk on earth a quill
and every man a scribe by trade;
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
tho' stretched from sky to sky.
Chorus: "Oh love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall for ever more endure
- the saint's and angel's song."
GOD'S MARVELOUS LOVE has inspired POETS and SONGWRITERS, and it has also inspired preachers to preach about it. In the previous message you saw TWO things God's Word tells us about His Love. For example we saw that:
1. GOD'S LOVE IS UNCHANGING In John 13:1 we read, "Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father; having loved his own which were in the world, HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END." In spite of the fact that:
a. The disciples fled from Him like scalded dogs,
b. Judas betrayed Him with a kiss, and,
c. Peter denied Him three times. Still, God's Word tells us, "...HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END."
The Bible also tells us that...
2. GOD'S LOVE IS UNENDING In Jeremiah 31:3, we read, "...Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
Illus: We have all seen young couples who seemed to be madly in love with each other. Then after a few short years, that couple that seemed to be so madly in love with each other could not stand the sight of each other. What happened? They did not have real love. They had a "love" that ENDED, but GOD'S LOVE IS UNENDING.
In this message, I will be preaching about THREE more things about GOD'S MARVELOUS LOVE. For example...
I. GOD'S LOVE IS UNBELIEVABLE
As humans, we love people who are LOVABLE. The problem that we all encounter is that there are so many people who are UNLOVABLE.
Illus: In fact, many of those we know do not get ulcers - they give them! We all have met people who were so UNLOVABLE that we could not help but wonder if their mothers even loved them!
Illus: Such is the case with a particular woman who was always finding fault with her church. She went to her pastor one day, and she was highly upset, threatening to leave the church. She said, "I feel that this congregation does not love me." The pastor already had figured out that she was planning to stop coming to church anyway. He had been holding his tongue for a long time, hoping that she would let the Holy Spirit work in her life. Since she had not done that, he decided he may as well let her know the truth. He said, "I think I know what your problem is." She almost went into shock when he told her, "The problem is with you. You are the most unlovable person I have ever met." He went on to explain how:
• She always expected people to come to her to start a conversation.
• She always expected everyone to shake her hand, instead of her shaking hands with them.
• She always wanted people to come to her house but she would not go to other people's houses.
• She always wanted to talk about what she wanted to talk about. She didn't want to talk about what others wanted to talk about.
The finishing touch came when he said, "If you don't straighten up and start working on becoming lovable, you are going to have to HIRE pallbearers to carry your casket!"
Many people in churches are like that lady. THEY ARE UNLOVABLE. We humans can ENDURE SUCH PEOPLE, but we have a hard time LOVING THE UNLOVABLE.
Illus: Many people today can count all their friends on one hand and still have some fingers left over. Why? Because they are so unlovable!
How does God feel about people like this? Again, I remind you that God's love is not based on CONDITIONS. There is not ONE THING we can do to earn God's love - which makes it UNBELIEVABLE! For example, when Jesus was taken by a mob that:
• Hated Him
• Falsely accused Him
• Whipped Him
• Spit upon Him
• Treated Him as the worst of criminals
• Nailed Him to a cross and gawked at Him as He died
He still extended His UNBELIEVABLE, incredible love. He prayed for all who had done those horrendous things to Him. He prayed, "...Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) Jesus' love is UNBELIEVABLE LOVE! If that had been you or I, we would have called fire down from heaven and made them all look like burnt toast!
The Bible tells us that "GOD IS LOVE"! He loves us, even those of us who are UNLOVABLE. We mortals cannot say, "WE ARE LOVE!" Why? Because whether we like to admit it or not, there are some people that we do not care that much for. We do not like to talk to them, be around them, or even like the way they look; and woe be unto them if they cross our paths!"
Much of the love we feel is based on conditions. If people do not meet those conditions they go on the, "You'd Better Watch Out" list! Because we are that way, MANY BELIEVE GOD IS THAT WAY. They not only believe that God is that way, they also TEACH THEIR CHILDREN that God is like that.
Illus: How many times have you heard parents tell a child, in the middle of his temper tantrum, "God doesn't love you when you act like that"? Say that often enough to children, and they will believe it and will grow up thinking that God does not love them whenever they displease Him. They need to be told that God does not love their disobedience, but God ALWAYS loves them! Regardless of how evil they are, God loves them. HIS LOVE IS UNBELIEVABLE!
Someone may ask, "Preacher, can you prove that God loves the wicked sinner?" I most certainly can. In fact, You can answer that yourself when you answer the question, "What motivated God to send His only begotten Son to earth to die?" HE CAME TO DIE FOR SINNERS!
Illus: The ULTIMATE TEST of love is when someone is willing to lay down his life for another. God loves the sinner so much that He laid down His life for them. In Romans 5:8 we read, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Yes, He died for us! GOD'S LOVE IS UNBELIEVABLE! He not only loved the LOVABLE, but He also loved the UNLOVABLE. Also...
II. GOD'S LOVE IS UNDESERVED
Each year there are many people who do all they can within themselves to change their lives, especially at New Year's. They make all kinds of resolutions, saying that they are going to do better than they did the year before. The majority of them have broken every resolution within a few weeks that they had made.
One thing we might ask ourselves is; "Why do people want to change their lives?" There are several reasons why people make these New Year's resolutions, such as:
• Some want to change their lives because they hate themselves for becoming SLAVES to a life of sin. They recognize that sin has ruined their lives.
• Some want to change their lives because they know that their family and friends will NOT TOLERATE them the way they are any longer; that they had better make a change, or else!
There is a third reason why people make New Year's resolutions. It is because THEY WANT GOD TO LOVE THEM! They are convinced that unless they DO SOMETHING, God will not love them. The fact is, GOD IS LOVE and God loves them with the greatest love that they can be loved with.
IT IS TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO EARN GOD'S LOVE! Yet you can rest, assured, that because God's love is 100% pure love, He could never love you with a greater love than He has already loved you with. It doesn't matter what you do. You could never earn God's love.
Illus: If we could earn God's love. it would be like saying that one thing that is perfect, can be more perfect than another thing that is perfect. A perfect thing cannot be improved upon. If that were possible, then it was not perfect in the first place. God's LOVE is PERFECT! GOD IS LOVE, and God's love toward you is always perfect, and has always been perfect.
His LOVE IS UNDESERVED! Let me show you two scriptures that show us that we cannot earn God's love.
• In Revelation 1:5b, we read, "...Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." This is a very important verse.
Notice, IT DOES NOT SAY...
• He washed away our sins and then He loved us.
IT SAYS...
• He loved us and then He washed away our sins.
Illus: Some feel that if they could get rid of their sins, then God would love them. These do not seem to realize that God has always loved them. There is nothing they can do to EARN HIS LOVE.
Also, let me show you another scripture that teaches that WE CANNOT EARN GOD'S LOVE.
• In Isaiah 38:17 we read, "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back."
Again, we see that His love came first. That is, He did not cast our sins behind His back until He had first loved us. IT IS BECAUSE HE LOVES US THAT HE CASTS OUR SINS BEHIND HIS BACK! We cannot EARN His love, or salvation.
HIS LOVE IS UNDESERVED. Also...
III. GOD'S LOVE IS UNMATCHED
When you hear a professing Christian who is always talking about how much he loves the Lord, you should be suspicious. Why? Because he is telling you something about himself. He is telling you that he does not know much about GOD'S MARVELOUS LOVE. If he knew anything about God's marvelous love, he would not be wasting his time TALKING ABOUT HIS LOVE, he would be talking about GOD'S LOVE. Why? BECAUSE OUR LOVE IS NO MATCH FOR GOD'S LOVE.
Illus: Did you know that we, as parents, love our children much more than they love us. Why? They love us because we feed, clothe, and shelter them. They love us because we are good to them. If you want proof that we, as parents, love them more than they love us, the next time you tell your children that they cannot have that $190.00 pair of NIKE shoes, watch how long it takes for you to become their worst enemy. It will be later, when they are older, before they will fully appreciate and love us for who we really are. Now they love us with a conditional love. As they observe our loving them unconditionally, then they learn how to love that way. Meanwhile, they would try to drain us of everything they can drain us of.
Mature Christians talk about GOD'S LOVE because they know that their little, puny love can not even be compared to THE MARVELOUS LOVE OF GOD.
Conclusion: Aleida Husissen, 78, of Rotterdam, Netherlands, smoked for 50 years, and for 50 years tried to give up her harmful habit - but she was never successful, that is, until recently. She has now given up cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. The secret? Leo Jansen, 79, proposed marriage to her, but he refused to go through with the wedding until Aleida gave up her smoking. Aleida said, "Willpower never was enough to get me off the tobacco habit; love did it!"
When we recognize God loves us the way He loves us, two things will happen:
(1) IF YOU ARE A SAINT, YOU WILL BE MOTIVATED TO DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN POSSIBLY DO TO PLEASE HIM.
God's Word states, "If ye love me you will keep my commandments." Every time you obey God you are saying, "God, I love You!" That is what God says we must do to show our love for Him.
(2) IF YOU ARE A SINNER, YOU WILL WANT TO COME TO THIS SAVIOR, WHO LOVES YOU.
If you do not come, you break His heart. He has done everything that He can to prove His love for you.
(#1)
I. GOD'S LOVE IS UNCHANGING
II. GOD'S LOVE IS UNENDING
(#2)
I. GOD'S LOVE IS UNBELIEVABLE
II. GOD'S LOVE IS UNDESERVED
III. GOD'S LOVE IS UNMATCHED
