THE LOVE OF GOD I
TITUS 3:4
I must admit that I have preached on the subject we will be looking at today on several occasions. But it is a subject that we do well at looking at over and over again. It is obvious from the Bible that we do learn by the three “R’s” Repetition, repetition, repetition.”
As I stand up here this morning I want to give you five statements that are somewhat similar.
1. I love God
2. I love my wife
3. I love my children
4. I love each one of you
5. I love to play golf.
Now I say that each statement is similar because I have used the same word to describe my feelings towards very different things. I does not take a great deal of intelligence to realize that while I use the same word to describe my feelings towards these objects the emotional range of those feeling are quite different.
I love God very differently than I love my wife. My love for God is a love like I have for nothing else. It is a love of awe and respect, a love of gratitude, I love God because He first loved me.
My love for my wife is different then my love for my children. I love my wife more then any other person in the world. I love her so much that I can honestly say that I would give my life for her. This also includes passion for my wife. The way I display the love I have for my wife differs greatly then the way I would display my love of God, my children, or anyone else.
My love for my children differs from that of my love towards all of you. The love I have for them is displayed in my feeling that I must protect them, watch over them, rebuke and discipline them. (Although sometime I feel that way toward some of you). I feel I must provide for their needs. Again the way I display my love for my children differs from that of how I would display it for anyone else.
I can say honestly that I love each one of you, not in the way I love God, my wife or my kids, but I do love you. I love you in that I want to see each one of you grow spiritually. I want each one of you to be joyful and happy. I love in that I want you to receive that very best that God wants to give to you. I love you in that I can display that love to you.
And of course it is well known that I love golf. But once again the love I have for golf is of course a very different emotional feeling then the love I have for the others things I have mentioned. I cannot show golf how much I love it, I cannot display to golf love because it is animate object. My love of golf is simply a selfish love in that it is something that only I benefit from.
So we can see how we use the word love to describe totally different feeling that we have for different things. Because of the way our language uses the word love this causes some to misunderstand how God loves us, and how much God loves us.
Please turn with me to our passage for this morning, that is going to be Titus 3:4. Titus 3:4 “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,”
That Bible speaks here of the love of God appearing towards man. Now because of how we use love in our own language, in our own culture, I believe that we tend to misunderstand the love of God. So for the next two weeks I want to talk about that love of God, what it means to us, and how it is applied to us.
There are two Greek words used for love in the Bible. One is “AGAPE”. This word is often used in reference to the type of Love that God has. I believe that the best way to describe this love is to say that it is seen in the fact that God would sent down His Son to die for you and I on that cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
The other word used in Scripture for Love is “PHILEO”. This word for love has more to do with “tender affection”. It is not quite the love that AGAPE love is.
There are of course different tenses of these words in Scripture as we shall see.
The Greek word in our passage for today “PHI-LAN-THRO-PIA”. Which tranlates “love toward man”. It comes from two words, “PHILEO” which means love, and ANTHROPOS which means “man”.
So in our passage we see that the love that God had toward man has appeared through His Son Jesus Christ and the Salvation that He has purchased for us with His blood.
With that said let us look at some things reguarding this love for man that God has demonstrated.
We should first understand that Love is part of the very nature of God. We see in the Bible that it points out certain things concerning the nature of God. In John 4:24 we are told that God is spirit, in other words God is omnipresent. He is not confined to material bodies as we are. We cannot be in more the one place at a time yet because God is spirit He can be, and is present everywhere at all times.
In 1 John 1:5 we are told that God is light. Light within the Scriptures is often used as a metaphor for holiness or purity, which of course our God is. While darkness is the metaphor for evil. God who is light shine into the darkness, convicting men of sin and bring us to repentance.
The Bible also tell us that “God is love”. Listen to 1 John chapter 4, verse 7-11. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (pro-pish-e-a-tion) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
He we are told in very plainly that God is love. Love is God’s very nature. Just as God is spirit, just as God is light, God is love. God simply does not just love us, but He is love. God defines the term love in the truest sense of the word. He gives life to the very idea of love.
We hear a lot about the love of God today. Many have projected the love of God as being a sappy, everything is ok kind of love. While we hear this kind of talk about the love of God most of these people are total strangers to the true love of God. Today God’s love is seen as being one that over rides the rest of God’s nature. We have taken the love of God and patterned it after human emotion. Because of God’s love many believe He will wink at sin, and allow that which is unholy into his presence.
May believe that their view of the love of God will over ride God’s wrath and judgment. This simply is not the truth. But we will speak more on that next week.
Any view we have of God’s love must be based on the Holy Scripture, the infallible word of God. So what is God’s love like, we have seen that He is love, but what kind of love.
The first thing I want us to understand concerning what God’s love is like is that it is “Uninfluenced, unconditional, and that God is totally sovereign in His love”. Now I don’t meant to hurt anyone’s self-esteem this morning, but what the Scriptures teach is that there is nothing in us that attracts God to us. God does not look down upon us and say what wonderful people we are I think I will give them my love. Paul reminds us in Rom. 7:18; “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.”
The love which God has for us is free, spontaneous, and uncaused. Two verse I want to point out that show this to be true. First Duet. 7:7-8, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Now in the immediate context the Lord is speaking to the nation of Israel, but in the broader context the Lord is speaking to His chosen people throughout time. God choose to love them not because of anything they had done, not because they were the best nation around, God choose to the love simply because He was God.
The same is true with us, 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love Him because He first loved us.” God does not love us because we first loved Him, He does not love us because we were righteous in our own right. We love God because He first loved us by his sovereign will.
If you think about it all our love is caused. Why do you love your spouse? I first fell in love with Darleen because I found her attractive, and because she loved me back. I continue to love her for basically the same reasons. Now if she where to quite bathing and brushing her teeth, and went out at was unfaithful to me, and started treating me bad, I would cease to love her as I do now. Because our love unlike God’s is conditional.
Same with our children. Why do we love them like we do? Because they are our children. Suppose that you could go back in time, and you brought home the wrong baby, and the child you have now was brought up by someone else. You of course would be ignorant of the fact. But you would not love that child as you do now, because you would not know that that child was yours. You see our love is conditional, it is caused, but God’s love is not.
Along these lines we also need to realize that God’s love is sovereign. Since we all agree that God is sovereign, and the Scripture states that God is love, then God’s love must be sovereign. God is not bound by any outside law, He is a law unto himself. He always acts according to His pleasure. Because God is God he does as he pleases, and because God is love he will love whom he pleases.
Romans 9:13 tells us, “As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” There is no reason in Jacob why he should have been the object divine love then there was in Esau. The both had the same parents, they were born at the same time, being twins, yet the Bible tells us the God hated one and loved the others, WHY? Because it pleased Him to do so. His love is sovereign!
Now while we may not like the sound of that, who hear would have it any other way? Suppose God’s love was based on something outside himself and his good pleasure. If that were to happen God would no longer be God, He would be controlled by something outside of Himself.
Further were would that put us? Does anyone here want to stand up and say that I am worthy of God’s love. That I am worthy of death of Christ which displays God’s love. I cannot think of anything more arrogant.
I want to say that Romans 9:13 is not as simple as it may have just sounded. If fact we are going to look a little closer at that passage next week.
But for now we need to realize that God’s love is sovereign, uninfluenced, and unconditional, and we ought to praise Him everyday for it.
Let us also understand that God’s love is eternal. We all would agree that God is eternal, He had no beginning and He will have no end. God transients time, He created time. Now because God is eternal, and God is love, then it only stands to reason that God’s love is eternal.
There is no beginning to the love which God has shown us, as there will also be no end to the love which God as shown us.
Listen to Jer. 31:3; The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
We need to realize that there was never a time when God did not love us. Even before we were born God loved us. Even before God called forth the heavens and the earth, God loved us. God in His Eternal nature as always loved His people. Doesn’t that encourage you to know that there was never a time when God did not love you.
Further there will never come a time when God’s love will cease. His love remains from everlasting to everlasting.
Let us praise God as well that His love is infinite. In fact everything about God is infinite. His essence fills the heavens and the earth. As we look to the stars we stand in awe over that fact that they seem to go on forever. Yet God’s presence fills every space, and His reach far exceed the furthest star.
May the stars we see at night, that seem to go forever into the night sky, may that reminds us that God’s love is the same. His love is infinite. God’s love knows no bounds. It has no limits.
Listen to Eph 2:4; “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,”
No matter how often we fall God’s love is still there. If we have placed our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, if we have placed our faith in His blood to cleanse us from our sins, we can be assured that no matter what sins we commit, no matter how many times we fall into temptation, no matter how many things we let go undone, God will love us.
Each time we turn back to Him with a repentive heart God is there to show His love through His forgiveness. His love will not run dry because of our sin and stubbornness. It has no limits.
We can also praise God that His love is Immutable. In others words God’s love does not change. It remains the same.
Sometimes our love does change. Perhaps there is someone in your live that you once loved but now that love has waned. I think we all have had close friends that for some reason or another we have drifted away from and our love for that person changed in intensity.
I think of the person who was my best man at my wedding. We grew up together. And for many years we were inseparable, we did everything together. I loved him like I loved my own brothers. But over the years we have drifted apart. After I got saved we had few things in common. I do not even know where He lives, if he is married, of any details. Sadly I will admit that the love I have for him is no longer what it was.
But God’s love is different, it does not change. Even when we drift away from God He still loves us, just as much as He always did, and always will.
Let us also realize that God’s love is Holy. It is not a mushy love. It is not the type of love we spoke of at the beginning of my sermon. A love that ignores injustice, or winks at sin. God’s love is Holy, righteous and pure.
It is not a love that is regulated by passion of sentiment. God love is dictated by His Holiness.
We need to realize that God’s love can never conflict with His holiness. His love cannot override His holiness.
Because God’s love is holy he must punish sin. And because God’s love toward us is holy there are times when God must chasten us.
I think of the words in Heb. 12:6; “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." If God did not love us with a Holy He would not care what we did, He would not care about our rebellion. He would not care whether we obeyed Him or not.
Let us see that discipline reveals love. We can see this in our children. When I stand at the door as we leave the morning service. I see children who try to run by to get out, (Sometime I see adults too), but there parents catch them and rebuke them for trying to leave without them. They do that because they fear them getting hit by a car. They rebuke them because they love and care for their children.
The same is true with God. He loves us so therefore there are times when He must rebuke and discipline His children. But it is always done in love and because He wants what is best for us, He cares for us.
Lastly let us learn that God’s love is gracious. What I mean when I say that is God’s love is displayed to us through acts of love.
How does your spouse know you love him or her, by your actions. How does your child know you love them? By your acts towards them. We cannot know if someone loves us, if there are no acts to demonstrate it to us.
God has displayed his love to us in the most amazing way. He gave His Son for us.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Also remember 1 John 4:9 “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”
On a hill called Calvary we have the supreme display of the love of God. God gave His Son on the cross that we might live through Him.
You see we are dead in our sin. And the acts of righteousness that we do are filthy rags to God. He is Holy and we are not. We think we do good because we compare ourselves to each other, but God compares us to himself. And when we compare ourselves to God, we can see how sinful we really are.
But God displayed His love to us through His Son. As Titus 3:4 states “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,”
When we place our trust in that display of love. When we place our trust in the blood of Jesus Christ to wash us of our sin, we receive the benefits of the Love of God, and that is eternal life.
Another way in which the graciousness of God’s love is displayed is that when we do place our trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We receive the power of God through the Spirit. We receive gifts that allow us to in turn show our love to the God who saved us, and also to one another.
So what is God’s love like? Uninfluenced, unconditional, and sovereign. It is eternal, it is infinite, it is immutable, unchangeable, it is Holy, and it is gracious.
Doesn’t that encourage you? It should. I know it does me!
People, God has displayed His love by sending His Son for you and empowering you. Now how about you displaying your love to God. We need to display our love toward Him by obedience. As 1 John 4 states that need to happen by loving one another. Look around, look at the people God loves, look at the people that God loved so much that He gave his only Son to die on the cross. Now I ask you how can you dare not love one another? How can you dare not love one that God’s holds so precious? Not to love one another displays your lack of understanding of God’s love, and just plain disobedience.
Let each one us display the love we have for God by giving our all to God, and by loving each other.
To those of you who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. I am telling you today you need Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. You need Him to cleanse you of your sin. Do not wait another day, another second to come to Christ. I am not going to have you raise your hand, or come forward or anything like that. I am just going to tell you, accept the love of God, accept Christ.
If you have made a decision for Christ today then I need to speak you to put you on the road to displaying the love you have received.
Let us each one go from this place displaying that love, the wonderful, amazing, eternal, unchanging, Holy, gracious, love of God. AMEN??
LET US PRAY
