God Is Love -- 1/21/07 (Eternal Realities)

Sunday, January 21, 2007

GOD IS LOVE
I John 4:7-10,14-16,19

What do you think of this statement: "God is love"? Is it true or false? You say it is true. Is it specifically stated in the scripture that God is love? How many times? The precise statement "God is love" is found twice in the Bible. Do you know where? If you have been reading I John, you will know. We will find it, as we begin reading in I John 4:7. Let’s read 4:7-10,14-16,19…

7. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9. 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. 10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins…. 14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16. 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…. 19. We love him, because he first loved us.

So God’s Word does indeed tell us that God is love. But that leaves us with a question: What does it mean? Yes, God is love, but what does that mean? While the statement seems very simple and direct, I assure you that the vast majority of people in our society have very little understanding of what it means. Rather, this is one of the most twisted truths in all of the Bible.

Let me just give you a couple of examples from my recent experience. A few months ago a young man about 20 years old came to the Sunday morning service. That morning the title of the message was "Our God, a Consuming Fire." Later we talked about it. He commented that what he heard was very different from what he was used to. He said, "I thought God was always there for me. But what you said this morning was kind of scary." I assured him he did have good reason to fear. That young man would have said "Amen" to "God is love," but he had no concept of what that means.

Not long ago I received a card from a man whom I have visited with over the phone a time or two. It was a thank-you note, but he also included a couple of these little cards. It reads…

If you have a friend, a loved one, or even a complete stranger that is
having difficult times, tell them:
"Even in dark times,
God’s love and light will shine through"
Then turn this card over and give it to them to look at what God has created.

Then when you turn the card over, you see the sun’s rays coming through the clouds, with these accompanying words, "God is truly always with you, just as this light shines thru the darkness…" Then he encloses a poem that he wrote 14 years ago, but one which he passes out freely. It reads…

My life is a special journey,
Between my God and me,
I choose not always the path he sets before me,
Those of joy, pain and sometimes sorrow.
Not until the last songbird sings its last song,
And the doves of peace cease to fly,
Will God pull down the curtain before heaven,
And explain the reasons why.
Until that day arrives,
I will be one with Him,
For in Him…
I have found my light, my peace, his love within,
And without that, I would certainly be no more.

Now lest you interpret this in the light of Jesus Christ and what He has done, I must tell you that this man professes to be a Buddhist. You see, the "god" he is talking about doesn’t care whether you are a Buddhist, a Christian, or an atheist. After all, "God is love." This man and most in our society see God like some kind of heavenly Santa Claus. Regardless of what the Bible may say, God exists to make life nice and comfortable for us.

This morning we need to make sure we understand the meaning of "God is love." We need to be reminded of the depth of that love. Before we can begin to understand what it means to love God and love others, we must come to grips with "God is love." There is only one place to find the meaning of that truth, and that is in the Bible, which is God’s written revelation of Himself.

We don’t have to go far. Verse 8 ends with the words, "God is love." Now let’s read again verse 9, "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." Again, most everyone would say "Amen" to that statement. Yes, God sent Jesus into the world so that we might live through Him. Add to that verse 14, "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." Praise God!

But we can’t stop reading there. While it is certainly true that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world, that we might live through Him, that does not tell us HOW God made Him the Savior or how His coming will bring us life. To say that God sent Jesus to give us life is only a partial gospel. To say only that God sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world is to assume way too much. We don’t have to assume; we have only to read verse 10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

I. No Natural Man Loves God

Did you hear that? "Herein is love, not that we loved God…" Do you get the idea? If we want to define this love, this agape love (which word is used 46 times in this letter), we must not begin with man. John does not mean to say, "Man loves God, and God loves man, but the starting point is the truth that God loves man." No, that isn’t it. From the context of scripture, he must mean something more like this: "When we want to divine agape love, we can’t start with man, because man has none of this love for God. To begin with man would mean the distortion of God’s love."

This is where we run into the trouble with language. Love is a very popular concept in our society, and that is an understatement. Our society is in love with love. But you know the problem as well as I. We use the same word when we say, "I love peanut butter" as when we say, "I love my wife," or even, "I love God." We must understand that John is talking about a love that goes far beyond anything this world knows. That is why it wouldn’t be a bad idea to reserve a completely unique word for this kind of love.

Last week we read that foundational command of God, found way back in Dt. 6:5, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." That command is repeated a number of times in Deuteronomy and a couple more in Joshua. But the truth is that natural man finds that he does not love God. Though the word "love" is not used in passages such as Rom. 3:10-18, the message makes it clear that man does not love God. Rom. 3:10-18…
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17. And the way of peace have they not known: 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom. 5:10 indicates that before we were reconciled to God through Christ, we were the enemies of God.

Here is the point – this love can never be defined by starting with man, for man in himself does not love God. A man or woman may have a certain sentimental disposition toward God; he or she may speak kindly of God; but no human being in his own self loves God with this agape love.

II. God Demonstrated This Love By Sending His Son to Be the Propitiation for Our Sins

So in defining this love, we must not start with man, but with God. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He…" Don’t start with man, but start with God. Man doesn’t love God, but God…

Go back again to I Jn. 4:9, "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." This verse is very similar to that verse we know so well, 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." That is a wonderful verse, but it has been taken and twisted to fit man’s own desires. In our deceived religious culture in America, we need to stop quoting John 3:16 and start quoting I John 4:10.

Why do I say that? Because many (if not most) of the people who quote John 3:16 don’t realize how its message is taken by our religious society. God sent His Son into the world so that we can have eternal life. All we have to do is say we believe in Jesus, and we will go to heaven. That’s a half truth, at best. Many of the people who are "believing" in Jesus are believing in a Savior of their own making. The only Jesus that can save and give eternal life is the One whom God sent to be the propitiation for our sins.

And why do people in our religious society have little or no understanding of the concept of propitiation? Surely it is because that is a big word. No, that isn’t it. Then it’s because it is complicated and hard to understand. No, that isn’t it either. Listen to me. It is because we pay attention to what we want to pay attention to, and we prefer light little sayings that tend to make us feel better. I’m speaking to me too. This is the way we have become. We may spend hours trying to master some new computer program, but how much time do we spend meditating on the cross? Where is the man who will say with Paul, "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world"?

III. What Is Propitiation?

First of all, let’s read the passages where the term "propitiation" is found…

Rom. 3:24-25… "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
1 John 2:2… "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
1 John 4:10… "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

In addition, the same Greek word is used one other time in the New Testament, Heb 9:5, "And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly." In this verse, the basic word that is translated "propitiation" in Rom. 3:25 is translated "mercy seat" here. Keep that in mind, as we will mention it later.

Let me give you some basic definitions of "propitiation." These descriptions are about the same, but perhaps the variety will help us to grasp the truth…

…Propitiation means to satisfy the demands for justice.
…The word "propitiation" used in the New Testament means "to turn away the righteous anger of God we deserved by an offering of sufficient value."
…Another description is "the offering of a sacrifice or gift of suitable cost in order to pacify the wrath of God. The offering or sacrifice here referred to is the death of Jesus Christ."

In order to understand this concept, there are a few truths that must become a reality in our thinking. Basically, they are these…

1.God is absolutely holy and righteous and cannot tolerate sin in His presence. Ps. 15; Ps. 24:3-5.
2. Man is a sinner from birth. Even his most righteous deeds are like filthy rags. Ps. 51:5; Rom. 5:12;
Is. 64:6.
3. Because God is holy and man is sinner, God’s wrath abides on man. Rom. 1:18; Jn. 3:36;
Rom. 2:6-11; Eph. 5:6; Rev. 6:14-17.
4. Unless something is done about this situation, man will be forever separated from God in hell.
This is the final result of God’s wrath. Mt. 7:21-23; Rev. 20:14-15; Matt. 10:28.

So we see that natural man has a great problem. He is under the wrath of God. If a person should die in that condition, he has no hope, for "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). So what can a person do? Can he go out and buy "anti-wrath" insurance? No such insurance exists. Can he work very hard until God will accept him? No, for we read in Ps. 130:3, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" No one shall stand. So what can man do?

The truth is simply this – there is absolutely nothing man can do. The natural state of man is death, as described in Ehp. 2:1, where it is stated that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. What can a dead man do for himself? Absolutely nothing.

Praise God that something was done! It was God Himself who sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus came into this world deal with the hopeless situation of man. He was that valuable price which was paid on behalf of our sins. 1 Pet. 1:18-19, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

Come back to Rom 3:24-25, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Notice those words "to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." It was the death of Christ on the cross that turned away the wrath of God from sinners like us. It was there that Jesus paid the price for our sins. He satisfied the justice of God by taking our place at the cross.

Make no mistake about it, justice demanded that we be punished for our sins. Yes, justice demanded that we be separated from God for all eternity. Man chose to forsake God, so let Him be cast out the multitude of His transgressions (Ps. 5:10). But it was Jesus who went to the cross.

Think about that cross. What was it that happened there? Yes, the Son of God was crucified. The nails were driven into His hands and feet. Yes, they put a crown on His head and a robe upon Him, and there they mocked Him and ridiculed Him without mercy. The pain of crucifixion almost defies explanation.

But listen to me, that wasn’t what the cross was about. The agony of the cross was described by Jesus Himself, when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26:39). What was this cup? It wasn’t the pain inflicted by the nails; it wasn’t the agony of trying to get enough breath to sustain life; it wasn’t the humiliation heaped upon Him by those who mocked. All of those things put together do not explain the cup that Jesus dreaded drinking. So what was the cup? The cup Jesus dreaded was none other than the wrath of God. Jesus became the object of the Father’s wrath.

The truth of that doesn’t come home to us until we meditate on the identity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was not just a man, but He was God in the flesh. "In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1-2). Jesus had been with the Father for all eternity. They had never been separated even for a brief moment. And even when the living Word came into this world as the lowly Jesus, He still had perfect fellowship with His Father. He confessed that the Father always answered His prayers (Jn. 11:42). With absolute integrity, He could say that He always did those things that pleased His Father (Jn. 8:29). What peace was His, as He quietly said that He and His Father were one (Jn. 10:30). But what agony Jesus experienced when He cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was the cup that He did indeed drink, and it was bitter indeed!

And who was it that put Jesus on that cross? Ultimately, it was God the Father Himself who sent Jesus to the cross. Isn’t that what we read right here in I Jn. 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Is this not the clear message the Lord gave us through the prophet Isaiah in Isa 53:10, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." It pleased the Lord (God the Father) to crush His Son on that cross. This, my friends, is love.

Jesus’ death satisfied the justice of God. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, and it cost Him dearly. Is it any wonder that Paul said, "For I determined not to know anything among you save (except) Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2), and that He also said, "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…" (Gal. 6:14). We sang it in those simple words..

He paid a debt He did not owe;
I owed a debt I could not pay.
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace.
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.

Now consider that other verse, Heb. 9:5, where the word else where translated "propitiation" in the New Testament is here rendered with the term "mercy seat." "And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly." How beautiful it is that propitiation is linked to the mercy seat. Do you remember what the mercy seat was? It was the covering for the ark of the covenant, that box which was placed in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies and applied the blood of a spotless lamb to the mercy seat. He had to take blood for his own sins and for the sins of the people. And remember, he had to do it again the next year, and then the next year, and so on. The sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat is a beautiful picture of propitiation. The applying of the blood turned away the wrath of God, which rested on them because of their sin.

And what did the mercy seat look like? What were the features of this covering for the ark? Many of you will remember that there were two cherubim above the mercy seat. They were actually a part of the mercy seat. (Show the model). These cherubim guarded the presence of God. Rmember also that God chose to set His presence in the tabernacle (and later in the temple). And within the tabernacle, His presence was especially in the Holy of Holies. And in the Holy of Holies, God’s presence was particularly upon the mercy seat. So there we have the picture of propitation – God’s wrath being turned away when the blood was presented in His presence.

Praise God for the reality, which is in Christ. Let’s read about that reality in Heb. 9:1-14,24-26…
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4. Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5. And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. 6. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9. Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10. Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God… [24] For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Yes, Jesus is the propitiation for sins. Every person who enters this world is under the wrath of God. But praise God that Jesus offered Himself as the propitiation, that God’s wrath might be turned away from us. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. He experienced the wrath of God on the cross, that we might not have to pay for our own sins by eternal death in hell. Praise His holy name!

Conclusion

Yes, God is love, but I suggest to you this morning that it is absolutely impossible to have any understanding of that truth unless we get a grasp on the corresponding truth that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." This is God’s love, and it is the only love that will have any eternal significance.

Let’s close by singing "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Pay attention to the words of this song.

Prayer