I. GOD’S LOVE IS GREAT (Ephesians 2:4-5).
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)."
Look at the three previous verses. The man in sin is DEAD, DOMINATED, and UNDER THE WRATH OF GOD. Man’s condition in sin is HELPLESS and HOPELESS. "BUT GOD. . . ."
We have lessened the force of what this verse means by the way we use the word "great." We say that a meal was "great." We say that a movie was "great." We say that a speaker was "great." Yet none of these things even begins to measure up to what the Bible means when it says that the love of God is great. When God tells us that His love is great, He is telling us that it is so great that it goes beyond our own ideas of greatness and our own understanding.
John 3:16 was the verse through which D. L. Moody learned to appreciate the greatness of God’s love. Moody had been to Britain in the early days of his ministry and there had met a young English preached named Henry Moorhouse. One day Moorhouse said to Moody, "I am thinking of going to America."
"Well," said Moody, "if you should ever get to Chicago, come down to my church and I will give you a chance to preach."
Moody did not mean to be hypocritical when he said this, of course. He was merely being polite. Nevertheless, he was saying to himself that he hoped Moorhouse would not come, for Moody had not heard him preach and had no idea of what he would say should he come to Chicago. Sometime later, after Moody had returned home, the evangelist received a telegram that said, "Have just arrived in New York. Will be in Chicago on Sunday. Moorhouse." Moody was perplexed about what he should do, and to complicate matters he was just about to leave for a series of meetings elsewhere. "Oh, my," he thought, "here I am about to be gone on Sunday, Moorhouse is coming, and I have promised to let him preach." Finally he said to his wife and to the leaders of the church, "I think that I should let him preach once. So let him preach once; then if the people enjoy him, put him on again."
Moody was gone for a week. When he returned he said to his wife, "How did the young preacher do?"
"Oh, he is a better preacher than you are," his wife said. "He is telling sinners that God loves them."
"That is not right," said Moody. "God does not love sinners."
"Well," she said, "you go and hear him."
"What?" said Moody. "Do you mean to tell me that he is still preaching?"
"Yes, he has been preaching all week, and he has only had one verse for a text. It is John 3:16."
Moody went to the meeting. Moorhouse got up and began by saying, "I have been hunting for a text all week, and I have not been able to find a better text than John 3:16. So I think we will just talk about it once more." He did. Afterward Moody said it was on that night that he first clearly understood the greatness of God’s love.
II. GOD’S LOVE IS INFINITE (Ephesians 3:18-19).
"May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
How can we comprehend the infinite love of God? We can know it, but only in part. We have been touched by His love and bathed in part of it; yet the fullness of such love lies forever beyond us as the vastness of the universe lies beyond the finite, probing eye of man. God’s love is boundless and unfathomable.
One of our seldom sung hymns puts this aspect of God’s love in memorable language. It was written by Frederick M. Lehman; but the final stanza was added to the song afterward, when it was found written on the wall of room of an asylum by a man who, before he died, had obviously come to know the immeasurable extent of God’s love.
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell,
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win:
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
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
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Chorus
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall for evermore endure—
The saints’ and angel’s song.
This is our song, if we have come to know in part that great and immeasurable love of God toward us through Christ Jesus.
III. GOD’S LOVE IS SACRIFICIAL (John 3:16).
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Martin Luther called John 3:16 "the heart of the Bible—the Gospel in miniature."
"God" . . . The greatest LOVER
"So loved" . . . The greatest DEGREE
"The world" . . . The greatest NUMBER
"That he gave" . . . The greatest ACT
"His only begotten Son" . . . The greatest GIFT
"That whosoever" . . . The greatest INVITATION
"Believeth" . . . The greatest SIMPLICITY
"In him" . . . The Greatest PERSON
"Should not perish" . . . The greatest DELIVERANCE
"But" . . . The greatest DIFFERENCE
"Have" . . . The greatest CERTAINTY
"Everlasting Life" . . . The greatest POSSESSION
God’s love is a giving love. How much does God love you? God loves you so much "that he gave his only begotten Son."
In the New Testament THE CROSS IS MADE THE MEASURE OF GOD’S LOVE:
• "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, CHRIST DIED FOR US" (Romans 5:8).
• ". . . the Son of God, who loved me and GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME" (Galatians 2:20).
• "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and GAVE HIMSELF FOR IT" (Ephesians 5:25).
• "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR US. . . ." (1 John 3:16).
• "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that GOD SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON INTO THE WORLD, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS" (1 John 4:9-10).
• "Unto him that loved us, and WASHED US FROM OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BLOOD" (Revelation 1:5).
God sacrificed His own Son, and Christ sacrificed His own life for people who are some totally unworthy and undeserving of anything.
God loves you! Do you know that? God loves you! He has demonstrated that love for you in Jesus Christ!
IV. GOD’S LOVE IS UNCHANGEABLE (Hosea).
This is perhaps the most wonderful aspect of all. The heart of the matter is that God loves in such a way that nothing you or I have done or will ever do will alter it.
This is a point made by one of the greatest stories in the Bible, the story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife, Gomer. Hosea was a preacher. One day the Lord came to him and said, "Hosea, I want you to marry a woman who is gong to prove unfaithful to you. You are going to love her, but she is going to turn from your love. Nevertheless, the more faithless she becomes, the more faithful and loving you will be. I want you to do this because I want to give Israel an illustration of how I love them. Your marriage will be a pageant. You will play God, and the woman will play the part of Israel. For I love Israel with an unchangeable love, but she runs from me and takes other gods for lovers."
Hosea did as God had told him to do. So the Book of Hosea tells us, "The Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived, and bare him a son" (Hosea 1:2-3).
At this point of the story God intervened, for He had said that He was going to order each stage of the relationship between Hosea and Gomer. God intervened to give a name to this son. "Call his name Jezreel," God said. Jezreel means "scattered," for God was going to scatter the people of Israel all over the face of the earth. After a time Gomer conceived again and bore a daughter. "Call her name Lo-ruhamah," God said. Lo-ruhamah means "not pitied." God was saying that the time would come when He would "no more have mercy upon the house of Israel" (v. 6). Finally, another son was born and Hosea was told to call him Lo-ammi. Lo-ammi means "not my people." "For," God said," ye are not my people, and I will not be your God" (v. 9).
If the story stopped at this point the ending would be exceedingly dismal, and the pageant would be illustrating the opposite of the unchangeable love of God. But it does not stop here, and God intervenes again to tell how the story will end. "I am going to change the names of those children one day," God promised. "I am going to change Jezreel to Jezreel." It is the same word but with a second meaning, a change from "scattered" to "planted," because in the anicent world the same gesture by which a man would throw something away was that by which he would plant grain. God was promising to plant the people once again in their own land, as He has done in our own generation. "Moreover," said God, "I am going to change Lo-ruhamah to Ruhamah and Lo-ammi to Ammi because the time is coming when I will again have pity upon those who will have again become my children." The Bible says, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God" (v. 10).
The time came in the marriage when the events that God had foretold happened. Gomer looked around and caught the eye of a stranger. Before long she had left with him, and Hosea was alone.
The life of a woman like that goes downhill. For is she had left Hosea for the company of a man who could give her a Cadillac and a diamond necklace this year, it is equally certain that the year following, when the first lover had grown tired of her, she would be found with a man would could give her a gold earrings and an Oldsmobile. The year after that she would be in a fake fur and a Ford, and the year after that she would be pulling something out of the garbage heap. So it was with Hosea’s wife. The time came when she was living with a man who did not have the means to take care of her, and she was hungry.
The final act of the drama was approaching. The time came when Gomer sank so low that she was sold as a slave in the city of Jerusalem, and God told Hosea to go and buy her. Slaves were always sold naked. Thus, when a beautiful girl was on sale, the men bid freely and the bidding always went high. Here was Gomer. Her clothes were taken off. The bidding began. One man bid three pieces of silver. Another said five . . . ten . . . twelve . . . thirteen. The low bidders had dropped out when Hosea said, Fifteen pieces of silver." A voice from the back of the crowd said, "Fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel of barley." "Fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel and a half of barley," said Hosea. The auctioneer looked around for a higher bid. Seeing none he declared, "This slave is sold to Hosea for fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel and a half of barley." So Hosea took his wife (whom he now owned), put her clothes on her, and led her back to his house.
You say, "Is that a true picture of God’s love?" Yes, it is! That is how God loves you. Listen to what the Bible says about it: "Then the Lord said unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, ACCORDING TO THE LOVE OF THE LORD TOWARD THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, who looked to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: SO WILL I ALSO BE FOR THEE" (3:1-3).
In this story we see the greatness of the unchangeable love of almighty God! God loves you and me like that! We are the slave sold under the bondage of sin. We are the one placed upon the world’s auction block. The bidding of the world goes higher and higher. At this point Jesus Christ, the faithful bridegoom, enters the slave market of sin and bids the price of His blood. "Sold to Jesus Christ for the price of His blood," says the Almighty God. So He bought you. He clothed you in His righteousness. And He led you away with Himself, saying, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you."
"I HAVE LOVED THEE WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE" (Jeremiah 31:3).
Though you may be unfaithful to Him, He will never be unfaithful to you.
Though you may fail Him, He will never fail you.
Though you may forsake Him, He will never forsake you.
APPLICATION
You say, "What does that have to do with me?" It has everything to do with you. Are you one who has never known that love, never realized that Jesus Christ loved you like that, that He still loves you? To be touched with such love is to throw yourself at His feet in adoration and marvel that you could ever have violated such a great and unalterable compassion. Won’t you allow the hardness of your heart to melt before God’s love and allow Jesus Christ to be your Savior?
Perhaps you are one who has already done that. You have believed in Christ, but the reality of that love has become distant for you and you have never fully realized that the love of Christ is to become the pattern of your love. He is to be your model. You need to ask whether your love has been great, whether it has the character of that love which is infinite, whether it is a giving love, whether it is unchangeable. Ask it now. Does you love change when the person whom you love does not respond quickly? Or does it hold firm? Do you continue to love when your wife, husband, child, or friend does not seem to see things the way you do and contradicts you? Do you love as Christ loves? You are called to show forth that love; for as others see it they will be drawn to the Lord Jesus.
