God Is Love

And we read from verse seven, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.

Amen. Now once again we return to our studies on the doctrine of God, this being the fifth occasion when we've considered together something of the teaching of the Bible in relation to the great God whom we love and worship here at the Tabernacle. And this evening it is my privilege, and I carefully select that word, to speak to you about the love of God, the love of God.

There is no subject that enthuses my heart, that warms my soul more than the love of God. And one always likes to proclaim the gospel of God's love, not only here, but wherever opportunity presents itself. But before we come actually to our study tonight, let me remind you of what I think has been the logical approach that has been taken thus far to the doctrine of God and our consideration of the doctrine.

We looked first of all at some of the objections that people make today concerning the existence of God. And then we examined together some of the so-called proofs to demonstrate that God exists. And then I spent a little bit of time painting to you the biblical approach to the existence of God.

This comes not through scientific knowledge. It comes not through intellectual discovery, but rather it comes through faith. Let him that cometh unto God first of all believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

And then we sifted in piecemeal fashion the evidence of the Bible referring to the person of God. And we came to the conclusion, I feel, that God is personal. And there were things that followed from this.

We related the concept of personality to human beings. And we said that personality itself causes varying characteristics, things that mark you out from other people. Some folks are shy.

Others are more forward. Some are timid. Others are bold, and so on and so forth.

Well, are there any prominent features in the personality of God that stand out in the Bible? And I suggested to you that most certainly there are. And particularly two that call for our special consideration. That the concept of God is a holy God.

This is what the Bible teaches. God is holy. And then the concept that God is love.

And you will see later on, I hope as we study this subject through in your notes, you will see the reason why first of all we looked at the idea of the holiness of God before we considered, as we're going to do now, the concept of the love of God. So that's what's left for us at the moment. To look at the scriptural teaching on the idea of God being a God of love.

And later on I want to relate the concept of the God of love to the concept of the God who is holy. You remember last week I almost apologized for having to make this distinction. Because it's not that there are two separate factors in the personality of God that are completely divorced one from the other.

But they're interrelated. The holiness of God and the love of God. They all flow together.

They both flow together in His character. But I want us particularly now to consider the doctrine of the love of God. And later on as time permits I want to relate this to the concept we've already studied together of the holiness of God.

And though as I've confessed the very thought of preaching on the love of God warms my soul, nonetheless there is a note of caution and hesitation that I feel is required of the preacher when he speaks on the idea of God being a God of love. I say that because the keystone of all liberal theology, of modern theology, is the idea that God is a God of love. Now the liberals, I am saying, start from this very foundation in their theology and they go on to say that because God is a God of love He will never consider separating eternally anyone from Him.

The love of God is so great, so mighty, they say that whether a person has been a nightingale or a Hitler, God will embrace them. In other words, they argue for what is technically known as the doctrine of universalism, that everybody ultimately will be saved no matter what they have done. And I say that that teaching springs from the concept of God being love.

And then again I've got a sort of hesitation at the back of my mind in preaching on this subject because modern philosophy also agrees very much with the idea of God being a God of love. And the philosophers will applaud the statement in the scripture of God is love. Not only do they applaud it, they invert it and they say love is God.

And the Bible doesn't say that because by the time they've done with God, when they think of love in terms of God, then they reduce God to a mere abstraction, a relationship that exists between people. God is not someone who is personal to be worshipped and adored, someone who is holy to be feared, but rather God is expressed in human relationships and, as I say, He becomes a very impersonal force in our world. Well, the Bible does not subscribe, as you would gather, to these modern ideas promoted by liberal theologians and by contemporary philosophers.

So what is necessary for us is to come to the Bible and to use the Bible's own definitions in understanding what the word of God means when it says God is love. All right, let's move on a little further in our studies. And let me put up a question at this particular point.

Let me ask, how does love express itself? How does love manifest itself? Now, you remember when we're talking about the idea of God being personal, I related it first to human beings. We understand what personality is because you're a person and I'm a person and we reckon that a person could think and feel and make decisions and so on and so forth. All right, how does love express itself on the personal plane? Because the Bible tells us that love always comes from God.

The source of love is God. So as love is expressed from one man to another man, as we examine it, we should get some indication, some insight into the love of God and the way that God will express His love. And I suggest to you that the first thing that love requires and must require is an object.

Love cannot exist in a vacuum. You take the young fellow, shall we say, who comes into the tabernacle one Sunday evening and he's sitting in the gallery. And it must be a very unique occasion, but he's distracted from the sermon.

He's not concentrating. And his eyes are fixed upon some young lady in the opposite gallery. And all of a sudden, to quote Greek mythology, Cupid shoots his arrow and that's it.

He's attracted to this person and who knows, it's been done again before rather in the tabernacle. The two have become friends and sweethearts, man and wife and so on and so forth. But the point in using the illustration is this, love has expressed itself on an object.

Love must do that. There must be an object for love to exist. And this is the same with the love of God.

When the Bible says God is love, by implication it is telling us something about the doctrine of God. It's not for me this evening to speak to you about the Trinity, a very hard doctrine to understand. We'll come to that a little later in our series.

But the very statement that God is love presupposes a plurality, if not the Trinity, in the Godhead. It presupposes that God has always had an object, if you like, on which to bestow his love. And this is underlined in the scriptures.

Here is the Lord Jesus, for example, praying to his Father, possibly on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane. And the Lord says, Father, he's referring to the love that God bestowed upon him before the very foundation of the world. Thou lovest me, says the Savior.

John 17, 24. This is the word I'm trying to get. Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.

You see, God had an object on which to fasten his love. God loved the Son, and the Son loved the Father. And later on, as we shall see from the studies, the Holy Spirit is involved in the giving and receiving of divine love.

But there's something else that's important on the human plane about love. Not only does it need an object, but human love is characterized by two things. And they seem to be absolute opposites, but you think them through and you'll realize that they don't contradict one another, or cancel one another out.

There is within human love the element of selfishness and selflessness. Now, go back to my young friend in the gallery, whose attention is fixed upon a certain young lady. Now, really, the springboard of his love is selfish, is it not? Those of you who are married, those of you who have a great love for another person, you analyze the origin of your love.

It's selfish, isn't it? And here is this young fellow, and he desires the companionship of this girl. And perhaps he's already putting the proverbial cart before the horse and thinking of the time when they will be engaged and married and so on and so forth. He's fascinated by her.

He must have her. He loves her. And yet, that very selfish element that there is in love gradually is transmuted.

Inasmuch as to gain the affection of the loved one, one becomes selfless. And here is that same young fellow standing, shall we say, at the front of the church. It's the occasion of his wedding, and he pledges himself to his partner.

He loves her more than anyone else. He'll love her in poverty and in wealth, in sickness and in health, and so on and so forth. You see, there's a selfishness and a marvelous selflessness that love eventually transmutes itself into.

Now, think this through on the divine plane, and it's exactly the same. Oh yes, we often think of the selfless love of God, and that's a tremendous thought. God loved us to the extent that he allowed his own son to be sacrificed on your behalf and on my behalf.

And yet, having made this qualification, I don't think I need to hesitate to use this word in regard to God. There's almost a selfishness in the divine love that is wonderful. You think of this, and the thought is overwhelming.

God desired your love. He wanted you for himself, as much as my young friend wanted the girl for himself. Almost, you could say, that the source of divine love has a selfishness to it.

Now, you understand that in the qualification that I've just been making, the selfishness that transmutes itself to a selflessness. And here is the Bible teaching us about the love of God, and it says you have an analogy on the human plane. Now, lift that up to the absolute degree.

Lift it up to the zenith, and then you'll begin to understand a little about the love of God. Loves us selflessly. Loves us because he desires our love.

All right, let's move on a little further. Love on the human plane has its own language, does it not? This young fellow who, incidentally, there's no one that I've got my eye on when I keep looking up into the gallery there. This young fellow, he's falling in love with this girl.

Now, he's going to express that love. There will be a language. And it's the same in the Bible.

The love of God is presented in living terms, in eloquent terms, in choice vocabulary in the Old Testament and the New. And notice that I mentioned the Old Testament. That's important.

Why? Well, you see, there are some people, some very clever scholars today, who tell us that the concept of the love of God is restricted to the New Testament. Now, this shows the shallowness of their own study of the Old Testament. There was a heretic who lived at the close of what we call the early church period, who tried to make the deduction that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were opposite.

They were antagonists, enemies. Why did he say this? Well, because the God of the Old Testament, according to his theorizing, was a God of wrath, a God of anger. But the God of the New Testament, he's a God of love and compassion.

But again, the whole notion is preposterous. It shows that people have not read the Old Testament very carefully. And in the marvelous language of the first few books of the Bible, for example, the book of Deuteronomy, you read of the love of God.

Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse seven, speaking of God's love for the Hebrews, we read, the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. What tremendous logic is that? The Lord loved you because he loved you. And when you go on into the reading of your Old Testament, you come across marvelous expressions that depict the love of God to Israel.

Very often in the authorized version, the word, the Hebrew word for, or rather the Hebrew word that expresses this affection of God is translated with the English love. But it's not always as descriptive as it should be. That is, our translation is not.

Because sometimes the love of God in the Hebrew is conveyed with the idea of to have in one's bosom. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse three, you could translate the reference there to the love of God in terms of he had his people in his bosom. And then on another occasion, indeed on several occasions, the idea of the divine love is portrayed in Hebrew with the words to cling onto.

And in the reference I gave you from the, from the book of Psalms there in your notes, you will see that the 91st Psalm sustains this translation, 91 and verse four, he shall cover thee with his feathers. He shall, I'm sorry, verse 14, because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. Again, a translation could be because he hath clung upon me, therefore will I deliver him.

So there are choice verbs used in the Hebrew language to describe the love of God. And then there's other terminology too. How often do you read in the Old Testament about the loving kindness of God, the pity of God, the mercy of God, the favor of God? The Old Testament, it's not an exaggeration to say oozes with loving language depicting the relationship of God to the Hebrew folks of the Old Testament days.

And what wonderful expressions you find in, say, the prophecy of Hosea, where you get the nearest that the Old Testament comes to, to saying that God is love. The 11th chapter of Hosea, God referring to Israel says, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. Goes on to say, I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them.

I drew them with the cords of a man, with the bands of love, and so on and so forth. Down further on in the chapter, how shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? For I am God and not man. Well, I've said enough, I think, to demonstrate the fact that the love of God has expressed itself to the Hebrews in the Old Testament era, and that there is a language of love, a choice language of love, that is evidenced in the pages of the first part of the Bible.

And what is true of the Old Testament is also true of the New. And very often the New Testament refers to love, and as you're probably aware, the Greek language has various verbs to describe the emotion of love, two which are particularly prominent in the New Testament are the Greek words agapail and philio, and that first verb in particular has a most intimate meaning. It's the love directed by the mind, the love of esteem, the love of choice.

And philio, that refers to the warmth, the warm emotional love of the heart. But it's the agapail that's the most intense, the most intimate sort of love. Now, let me set this for you in relief by means of an illustration.

Here's Peter being questioned by the Savior in connection with the fisherman's love for the Lord Jesus. Do you remember how at the end of John's Gospel we see the Savior putting the question three times to the fisherman, do you love me? And the fisherman doesn't want to use the word in the most intimate sense. He doesn't want to respond with the word agapail.

He wants to respond with philio. But as far as the Lord Jesus is concerned, he wants a love that's the most intense that Peter can possibly offer. That's the love that Jesus requires from men and women who believe in him.

And it's love in its highest form that describes God's affection towards the world. Now, if the Greek verb is agapail, the noun is agape. And when you read about the love of God in the New Testament, it's virtually always in terms of agape, for God so loved the world.

Again, the verb is used there. When Paul speaks about love in his great sonnet of love, the first chapter, or rather the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, he uses the word agape. And there he describes what in effect constitutes love at its highest level.

And this is the love of God directed towards the world. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So I say to you, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the language of love is rich.

It expresses itself eloquently and marvelously, the love that God has towards this world. Well, let's come on and deal with another aspect of our study then that's important at this stage. We've referred to how men and women express their love one toward another.

How has God demonstrated his love towards society? How has he demonstrated his love to us? Oh yes, it could be argued in the Old Testament. He demonstrated his love by sending the prophets to the Hebrews to teach them. He demonstrated his love by giving them a land.

He went on to show that he loved them by giving them his law, by entering into a special relationship with them. But all this is just an introduction to the greatest demonstration of the love of God that the world has ever seen. What is it? The advent of Jesus Christ.

We read in the passage from John's Gospel, or rather from John's epistle and the first chapter, and sorry, the fourth chapter and the ninth verse, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that God loved us. Here is a demonstration of God's love as he sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die on our behalf.

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. How do I see the love of God? What is its illustration? John says, in this was manifested the love of God. How do you mean, John? Well, in as much as Jesus Christ was sent into the world by his Father to illustrate the divine love towards each one of us.

And of course, the love of God is classically illustrated in the person of Jesus Christ. It's illustrated in the teaching of Jesus Christ. Remember how one occasion he related three parables that spoke about lost things, and he went on to show, particularly in the parable of the lost Son, what the love of God involved.

I think that there is scarcely a more wonderful picture in the whole of the Bible than the concept that we're given of the Father in the story of the prodigal receiving the Son back to himself. You remember how he rushes down the hillside, and he flings his arms around the boy, and he says, this my son was lost, but is found. He was dead, but he is alive again.

Now, to whom was the Lord Jesus referring when he related the story? To none other than this great God Almighty. How fantastic this is. How stupendous that this God has loved me with such an everlasting love that he receives me back to himself, as does a father taking back into the family circle a wayward and a rebellious boy.

Well, not only in the teaching of the Lord Jesus, but also in his actions, he demonstrates the love of God, his compassion towards the lepers, his concern for the poor and for the blind, his acknowledgement to the thief on the cross who was dying alongside him that today thou shalt be with me in paradise. The whole sum of the life of Jesus Christ is underlining the fact that God is a God of love, here in his love, demonstrated, says John, in the person of the Savior. Ah, but you're not to think in terms of only the second person of the Trinity displaying the love of God to the world.

Now, let's see if I can explain this to you so that you can fully grasp what I'm getting at. Didn't I say to you before that the very notion God is love indicated more than one person in the Godhead, because God must have an object on which to fasten his love. So, God loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the Spirit loves the Son and the Father, and so forth.

The Trinity exists in an atmosphere of love in an age gone by. Now, in the very demonstration of God's love to the world on Calvary's cross, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are involved. The apostle Paul tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

He goes on to say of the Father, he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all. You see, God the Father and God the Son are involved in demonstrating the love of the Godhead to the world. And this, I say, is how God expresses his love to society in the person of Jesus Christ, and the whole Trinity are involved in the drama of redemption.

Well, we've gone so far along the line of describing the love of God, of referring to the Old and the New Testament, and picking out the choice words that are used to describe the love of God. There remains just one more thing for me to do, and that is to relate the love of God to the holiness of God. Now, the reason why in our series on the doctrine of God I started with the holiness of God and not the love of God is because in the English language we are impoverished.

We are very restricted in our way of expressing the idea of love. Now, you're all aware of this. There's that sentimental, slushy, slippery type of love that's churned out in the cheap journals and what have you on television and theater and stage, and that's not the sort of love of the Bible.

And this is the reason, I say, why you need to start with the concept that God is holy before you deal with the idea of God being love. Because, you see, the temptation is to inject into the Bible a modern connotation, a modern idea of what love is all about. But the Bible defines love.

It has its own language to describe it, and it always relates the love of God to the holiness of God. Now, this is a very interesting point. I would go so far as to say this from the pulpit this evening.

Whenever you read of the love of God, remember that God's love is perfect. Let me express that another way. Change it a little, but the idea is still the same.

God's love is holy. And when you come across the idea of God as a God of love taught in the Old Testament and the New Testament, to ward off any modern connotations of the meaning of the word love, it would be a good thing for you to put holy in front of the word, to use holy as an adjective, and to refer to God's love as the holy love of God. It was the holy love of God that sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world, the holy love of God that is demonstrated on the cross of Calvary.

God directs his holy love to men and women, and it's at the cross that man is stripped of his impurity, of his sinfulness. God in the person of the Son dies on the cross of Calvary, and as we learned last week, he takes upon himself the sinfulness of men and women. And he who was always holy love and existed in a relationship of holiness and love to the Father becomes defiled and repugnant in the eyes of God.

And thus the cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This was the cry of the Lord Jesus in a nature that was foreign to him, something he'd never known before. He became sin for us. Now why did he become sin for us? Because my dear Christian friend, you and I were repugnant in the eyes of God.

Oh, he loved us, yes, but his holiness, which always qualifies and defines his love, his holiness was put off by our sin. And it's the very love of God in all its purity, in all its holiness, that is demonstrated on the cross, you see. Jesus Christ, if you like, drops the mantle of his purity.

He drops the mantle of his holiness. And he takes upon himself our filthy garments of sinfulness. And there at the foot of the cross, what do you see? I think I said this last week, but it bears repeating.

What do you see at the foot of the Roman gibbet? Do you just look upon the scene of soldiers gambling for the garments of the Savior? No. At the foot of the cross, if you have any spiritual perception at all, you see a garment of holiness, a garment of love that's left there for you and for me to put on. And we who were so repugnant and leprous with our sinfulness in the eyes of God are transformed.

We are made new creatures. We have partaken of the very holiness of God himself. We have been made like unto his Son.

And all that God the Father saw in the Son in an eternity gone by and caused him to love the Son, God now sees that in you and in me. Oh, my friend, I don't say this to make a pious point from the pulpit. But really, when you're dealing with these things, there is hardly human language to convey the depth of the teaching of Scripture when it refers to the holy love of God.

That love has been shed abroad to this world through Jesus Christ. And you and I who confess the Lord Jesus as our Savior have been made holy through the love of the Lord Jesus. God's love has made man holy.

God's holiness is no longer offended by man's sin. And this is what Paul means when he talks about us being accepted in the Beloved. We're accepted in the very family of God, drawn into the very orbit of God's love that was known before by the persons of the Trinity.

You and I are taken into that very holy atmosphere. And this great God of creation loves you and he loves me. Here I was in my sinfulness.

But as the hymn writer says, there is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice, a Holy Spirit's energy, an advocate with God. Yes, my friend, God is a God of love, but God is a holy God. And when you speak about the love of God to men and women, qualify it with the adjective holy, because that marks out its uniqueness in this world.

Amen.