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God is Love
My subject is timeless and cannot be exhausted.
Just reading or quoting this text says it all: God is love. Those 3 little words are so all-inclusive and final that they leave little else to be said. Thus it is with trembling soul and faltering words that I approach this pulpit tonight.
To say “God is love” seems too broad and general for me to get a handle on. For me to get a grip on those three words, I need to see God express himself in a tangible way. John, how has God manifest himself to cause you to make such a sweeping statement? How do you know He is love? What evidence is there that caused this understanding to grip you?
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down [prostrated] his life for us;
John 10:15-18
15As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
17Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
No burly Roman soldier had to wrestle Jesus to the ground and forcibly drag him to the cross where it lay on the ground. They didn’t have to bind him hand and foot to keep him in their grasp and under control so they could nail him to that tree. He willingly and voluntarily laid down his life; no man took it from him. He stretched forth his arms on that cross-piece. He positioned his feet on that tree. He didn’t jerk or flinch when the nails pierced his hands and his feet.
Eph 5:2 says “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Rom 5:6-8
6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
But a self-less laying down of his life on behalf of sinful men is not the only evidence or manifestation of the statement: God is love, for in every act & thought of God there is love. Every command he every uttered, every law he ordained, every precept he laid down – anything and everything that ever came from God is an expression of his infinite love
There is nothing the devil would have you doubt more than that God loves you.
But why is God love? Let me answer with another question. Why does the sun continually radiate light and heat? Because it is the sun, and that is its nature. Even though the clouds may obscure the sun from view at times, leaving us in semi-darkness; above the clouds the sun still shines. Even so, sin in our lives may hide God from our view, but that does not change the immutable law that God is love. Let the clouds of sin be rolled back by the breath of God’s forgiveness as we confess our sins to him, and we will find God is still there and God is still love.
The tides are unceasing in their ebb & flow; seedtime and harvest have no end; the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; the rains fall from heaven, gather on the earth, and ascend by vapors back into the heavens. Even more sure and constant and abiding is the sublime truth: God is love.
But isn’t it possible for God to change so that he is no longer love?
Can light be turned to darkness, heat to cold, age to youth? Can the pull of gravity on earth be turned off? Is it possible for the earth to stand still?
God in his infinite and eternal wisdom has set the forces on nature as they should be for the well-being of man. If it were possible for them to change without the intervention of God, there would be no absolutes.
God is unchanging. He is basic to life. God is absolute. God is eternal. GOD IS LOVE!
Lovely and meaningful song: “I give you Jesus”.
Give someone Jesus and you give him something of eternal value. He will have something to which he can hold.
God is love. That’s the highest height. God is love. That’s the deepest depth …longest length …widest breadth.
Because God is love, he formed man…
” ” , made coats of skins to cover man’s nakedness
” ” , provided a double cure for the poison of the serpent’s sting: healing for our bodies and for our souls.
1 Cor 13 talks about charity: the kind of love that characterizes Christ and is worthy of our emulation.
Love:
is patient, and yet is kind all the long while.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; it waited in the days of Noah
for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Eph 4:1-3 I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Col 3:12-14 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
does not envy,
The nature of God is such that he is never moved to envy. Although Jesus was envied by some, there was never malice or hatred in Jesus towards anyone. Born in poverty, yet he never envied the wealthy. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Raised in obscurity, yet ……. Despised and rejected, yet he envied not…
Joseph dreamed a dream, and told it his brethren, and said, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him;
Rom 13:13-14 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
does not boast,
Phil 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Neb, king of Babylon, vaunted himself against Shadrach…. Furnace 7 times hotter
is not proud
blowing or inflated.
1 Cor 8:1-3 Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.
is not rude
Jesus, the son, never behaved himself unseemly towards Joseph and Mary when he was chided for remaining behind at the temple in Jerusalem
The church house is certainly a place where we ought to behave ourselves in a seemly way.
is not self-seeking
Rom 15:1-3 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
1 Cor 10:32-33 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
is not easily angered
Ps 106:32-33 They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
Matt 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mark 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
keeps no record of wrongs
Jer 18:18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Matt 9:2-5 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
Ps 119:135-138 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.
always protects,
Bear one another’s burdens
Bear his reproach
always trusts
believe God, believe his prophets
always hopes,
Zacheaus
always perseveres
Jacob served 7 years for Rachel
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
never fails
1 Cor 13:10-13 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
