"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. For God sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
John 3:16, 17. We find from this text that God has provided a means of
salvation. He has manifested his love to the world by giving his only
begotten Son. Dearly beloved, there could not have been devised a better
means of redeeming the world, a better means by which men and women could
be saved. God has done the very best he could to accomplish the salvation
of as many people as possible. If he could have devised a plan more
appropriate, more adaptable to the needs of the soul, he would have
proclaimed it to the world.
EXTENDS TO THE WHOLE WORLD
God so loved the world. We notice that God's love is
great; that his sympathetic heart takes in everybody. He not only loved a
few people in some nook or corner, in some state or island, but he loved
the world and gave his Son that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have everlasting life. In this act on his part we behold the
impartial interest he manifested to all alike, so that none might be lost
who would be saved.
He sent his Son who had been with him in glory. Jesus on
one occasion while he was with his disciples, prayed that God would
glorify his Son, even with the glory he had enjoyed with him before the
foundation of the world. One of the greatest miracles God ever wrought was
when he sent forth his Son, clothing him with human flesh and blood, and
placing him in the world that he might redeem mankind. Was not that a
miracle? It was one of the greatest miracles of which the mind of man
could ever conceive. There seemed to be no other plan of salvation, no way
to redeem men but this way. God was so interested in the salvation of the
world of rebels and wicked sinners, who came through the disobedience of
one man, that he searched all the earth and heaven to find a remedy that
would bring man back to God.
GOD LOVED US FIRST
God loved sinners. In Rom. 5;8 we read that "God
commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us." While we were yet enemies - another text says -
"Being enemies in our minds."
We were by nature the children of wrath, and while in this
wretched state God loved us and reconciled us unto life by the death of
his Son. God wants us to comprehend something of what he has done for us.
He loved a world of sinners that he might redeem them from their sins. If
God had waited until we had become better or wiser, or until we had
received an inclination or disposition to serve or love him, or to obey
and honor him, before he had manifested his love toward us, it would never
have been manifested. John says, We love Him, because he first
loved us. We had never loved God, yet he loved us first. Then our love to
God is predicated upon his love to us.
HIS SON A SACRIFICE
In 2 Cor. 8:9 I read, "For ye know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." We are made
rich through the poverty of God, through the poverty of Jesus; not rich in
earthly goods, or in worldly wisdom and honor, but rich in faith, joint
heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And how? Because the Lord so loved us
that he gave himself a sacrifice. He forsook heaven; he left the glory
that he had with the Father and with the angels; he left all that was
good; all that was blessed to him there; all that made him happy in
heaven; left all and came down here where he suffered hardships, where he
was tempted and tried, called an imposter, hated, despised, rejected, and
finally put to death that he might save you and me from our sins. Thank
God, he has done all this for us. Though he was rich, he became poor, that
we through his poverty might become rich.
Are you rich in Christ? Have you received a Bible
experience of salvation? Have you been blessed with that eternal wealth
which Jesus came into the world to bestow upon you? If you have not, it is
now your privilege, because he died that you might obtain it. He so loved
you that he gave himself that you, through his poverty, might be an heir
with him and share a fulfillment of the promises.
PROVISION FOR SANCTIFICATION
In Eph. 5:25-27 we read, "Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish." In Heb. 9:26 we read that he appeared once in the end of
the world for the sacrifice of sins. Not only has Christ so loved the
world that he gave himself for the world, that the world might be saved
and brought to him and redeemed by the sacrifice; but there was another
phase to his sacrifice; he gave himself also for the church, that
he might sanctify it; that it might be presented to him without spot or
blemish at the last day. Jesus' sacrifice, his giving up of himself to
save the world, includes first the offering of himself for the world that
anybody in any part of it might be saved. Embraced in that sacrifice also
was provision for the sanctification of believers. He loved the church and
gave himself for it that he might sanctify it.
OUR EXAMPLE IN LOVE
And again, we find that he loved the ministry. In John
15:13 he says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends." We have found that this has been
demonstrated many a time in instances where persons loved their
associates, loved their kinsfolk or some one, and risked their lives to
save them from physical death.
In a certain town stands a monument in honor of a man who
in his effort to save a child from being mangled by a moving train, lost
his life. Losing sight of his own danger in beholding that of the child,
he made a dash, seized the child and hurled it from the track. He saved
another, but only by the loss of his own life. Thus we may honor men for
deeds of benevolence. There is no greater human love than that a man lay
down his life for his friends; yet divine love died for us while we were
yet enemies. Jesus loved the ministry, and especially did he address the
ministry when he said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the
servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends;
for all things that i have heard of my Father I have made known unto
you." He loved those who were to preach the gospel, and gave his life
for them. May the Lord help us to love one another as Christ loved us.
In St. John 13:34-35 we read, "A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if
ye have love one to another." In the Old Testament we may find
precepts where God has commanded us to love, but there is a new
commandment in the New Testament of Jesus Christ. The salvation of God
puts into the hearts of men a love that was never in them in the Old
Testament times. Christ had introduced a new commandment, "That ye
love one another." To what extent? Here he tells us, "As I have
loved you, that ye love one another." As Jesus loved his disciples,
as he loved the church, so we are commanded to love one another. Do we
love one another as Christ loved us? We can obey this new commandment of
the New Testament. We may have the very same love in our hearts, and we
may love as Christ loved. Have you this love in your hearts? We have an
example in the persons of Aquila and Priscilla of whom Paul said in Rom.
16:4 that they laid down their own necks that he might be spared. That was
a true example of sacrificial life; a love they felt for the apostle Paul
which made them willing to lay down their own lives rather than that he
should die. We may never be called upon to sacrifice our lives upon the
chopping block for our brethren, but we are called upon every day to
"lay down" our lives in the form of deeds of kindness, for the
salvation of men and women. God help us to keep such love burning upon the
altars of our hearts. God expects us to do our very best for the salvation
of men. If we fulfil the will of God and do all he wants us to do for
Christ in the world, we will do our very best to serve the Lord, to love
our brethren, and to save the world from their sins.
EFFECT OF BROTHERLY LOVE
"By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples if ye have love one for another." There is a way by which
we may convince others that we are the disciples of the Lord. I suppose
that every professed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ desires to make
proof that he is a child of God. We all have a desire within us to
establish the fact clearly in the hearts of those who know us that we are
the true disciples of the Lord.
I want my friends and my enemies to have confidence in my
profession of faith. Jesus tells us how we may convince people. "By
this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to
another." May God stir up a righteous desire in our souls to convince
the world that we are the children of God. Everybody that comes in contact
with us, everybody who witnesses our lives, will be impressed by the fact
that we love one another, and that will be a proof that we are the
children of God. According to the testimony of Christ, there are twin
graces, which, if clearly manifested in us, will effect the salvation of
men. These are love and unity. If we have love one to another, we are
going to convince the world that we are true worshipers of the Father.
Convince a man that you love him, and you can reach right out and get hold
of him. Some people say they love God, but they do not love their
neighbors as themselves. If we do not love the brethren whom we have seen,
how can we love God whom we have not seen? If a man does not love the God
that dwells in his brother, he cannot love the God that fills heaven, for
he is essentially the same in both. In nature the child is like its
Father.
KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS
We read in John 14:21, "He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him." We prove to God that we love Him by keeping
his Word; and we prove to the world that we love God by loving one
another. Can we do it? "He that hath my commandments and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me." God knows who loves him. I have known
persons who hid their tobacco about their clothing somewhere and would use
it on the sly. Oh, beloved, God can see right into your pockets. He knows
what is in you. His Word is a powerful spiritual X-ray and quick to
discern. The idea of people trying to hide when God looks right into the
hearts of all men and knows them and their doings from the dawn till close
of day. God helps us to be honest at heart and see to it that we are
actually what the Lord requires us to be in this world.
If we love him we will keep his commandments. In 1 John
3:16-18 we read, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid
down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in
tongue; but in deed and in truth." We would not have known that God
loved us if he had not sent his Son into the world to die for us. A
positive proof of God's love to us has been manifested. He could have
remained in heaven and could have sent angels down here to have warned and
threatened us, and reproved us, and sent judgments into the world and
condemned us, but God proved his love to us in that he sent his Son to
redeem and to save us.
Jesus loved us and laid down his life for us and said we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. God has not asked anything
of us that he has not exemplified before us, and it is not too much if he
requires us to lay down our lives.
LOVE'S CONSTRAINING POWER
An example of the love of God is seen in the life of
the apostle Paul. When he sent for the elders of Ephesus he related to
them that he had taught from house to house and warned the people
concerning the things of the kingdom of God, and he said, "I shall go
down to Jerusalem not knowing what shall befall me there, save that bonds
and afflictions await me." The spirit had testified and he was
conscious that he would meet with persecution, but he said, "None of
these things move me." Beloved, we need more of that sacrificial love
in our hearts which will constrain us to do willingly the things that the
Lord has commanded us to do. The love of God constrains men to push out
into his service. He gave his very best for us, and now, in return,
because we love him, we should do our very best for him.
"But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how
dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in
word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." Let us love
according to the word of God. Let us prove to the world and to the
brethren that we love them. We need love that will not only pull a man out
of the water to keep him from drowning, but that will snatch immortal
souls out of sin to keep them from suffering the torments of an unending
hell.
How are we going to prove that we love the world? By doing
like Jesus did; like the apostles did; like the whole primitive church
did, and all our examples before us have done, by loving and serving and
sacrificing and saving.
Can you tell how we are going to prove the love of God if
we do not prove it in this way? We may think that we love God, we might
truly profess that we love God; but unless we keep his commandments, we
would make God a liar. The apostle said in his epistle (1 John 2:4),
"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a
liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in
him." We cannot afford to profess love to God when we do not keep his
Word. "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God
perfected."
LOVE FOR THE LOST WORLD
We want the world to know that we are saved; to know
that we are interested in their salvation; and I might add, that the
salvation of the world depends largely upon what we shall do to save it.
The church and the blood of Christ are God's means of saving the world.
God's part is done, the tidings are ready to be told, but we are
responsible for the preaching of the gospel. God will hold us accountable
for the souls of men we might save, and what an awful thing it will be in
the judgment day if it shall be found that we have the stain of the blood
of human souls upon our garments!
In Ezekiel, chapter 9, is recorded the prophet's vision of
how a man with a writer's inkhorn was commanded to go through the city and
put a mark upon every one who was sighing and crying because of its
abominations, and six men with slaughtering weapons to slay everybody that
did not have the mark of God on him. One did the marking, but it took six
to do the slaying. How awful that the whole city of Jerusalem was given
over to its sins, and there were only so few that were spared. How would
it be today if the angels of the Lord should be commanded to pass
throughout the church of God and put a mark upon everybody that is
sacrificing, weeping, toiling, wrestling with God because of the sins of
this world?
How many would get the mark? Would you get the mark? How
many of you are weeping and praying for thee salvation of the lost and
dying? This is an open question; you can give a secret answer. Take into
consideration the responsibility resting upon you. How many bear the mark
of the Lord Jesus Christ?
When someone is murdered a clue is sought by which to find
the guilty party. Perchance a knife or a garment which has the stain of
blood upon it is found and by this evidence it is proved that a certain
man is the guilty one. The arrest is made, and he is convicted upon
circumstantial evidence and must suffer the penalty because he has the
stain of blood upon his garments. How many of us will be free from the
blood of souls at the judgment? God will bring every work to the judgment,
whether good or bad, and he knows whether you are doing your best for God.
If the blood of souls is found upon us at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
those stains will result in our final conviction and banishment from the
presence of God for all eternity. Paul, exhorting the elders (Acts 20),
testified, "I am free from the blood of all men, for I have not
shunned to declare the whole counsel of God." God wants ministers in
the church that are not afraid to declare the full gospel; not afraid to
preach Jesus Christ. He wants those who can say, with the apostle, "I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth." We ought to be as consecrated
as Paul was. Oh, for that willingness in the church - "as much as
in me is." Are you willing to preach, to pray, to give, to
sacrifice, to love, and to serve "as much as in you is"?