The Love of God

This morning I'm going to talk to you about a familiar topic, the love of God for His people. I want to make that clear at the beginning because for much of the sermon it's not going to sound like I'm talking to you about the love of God for His people but quite the opposite. I'm going to do this because while the topic of the love of God is familiar enough these days it is not well-understood. And what good is it to be familiar with something but not really understand it. And that is especially true when it comes to who God is and what it means that He loves you. The Scripture that I will be speaking from is John 12.35-43. Please listen as I read it.

John is dealing with a problem. Here is Jesus who has taught Gospel truth to the people. And it's not just that He used words. He performed miracles, which John calls signs. And what is the result after all of this time spent teaching and doing miracles?

Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.

Now, how can that be? Think about some of the miracles: making a blind man see, feeding five thousand, raising dead Lazarus. These weren't miracles done privately for just a few to see. That would be the miracle of the water to wine. Only a few people saw that. These other miracles were public, very public. Lots of people saw them. And yet, 'they still did not believe in him'. Why? How!? And John has an answer. He quotes something from Isaiah.

He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

God has dealt with these stubborn people. He has blinded eyes and hardened hearts. He has removed from them the ability to perceive and respond to Jesus. Or, to put it in the way that John did,

Therefore they could not believe.

Believing was no longer an option for these people. God had taken away even the possibility of doing that. From that point on they were unable to believe. And as a result they would die in their sins. Eternal death.

And it isn't as if Jesus didn't warn them about this.

The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.

They did not take that warning to heart. They refused to come to the light. They refused to come to Jesus. And as a result, the darkness did, in fact, overtake them. Blind eyes and hard hearts. They could not believe.

It's important to know that Jesus' warning was not the first. There had been many warnings. Jesus told the people a parable about this. It was the parable about the vineyard that was rented out to some tenant farmers. The owner of the vineyard, God, sent to these tenants, Israel, to get the rent. Do you remember how Jesus explained it?

When the season for fruit drew near, he [the owner, God] sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.  And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Jesus is not the first to come to Israel on God's behalf. There were all those previous servants, the prophets. God had warned and warned and warned. To no avail. And so, as John reports, God's patience was exhausted. Eyes were blinded and hearts hardened. The darkness overtook them. The point had come so that these could not believe. This is how John explains the lack of belief in the face of Jesus' message and miracles.

Then John adds this comment.

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

So, some believed, even though? Well, you need to remember that for John, there is believing and then there is believing. So, back in chapter 2 he wrote,

Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

John's word translated 'believed' and 'entrust' is the same word. So, these people believed in Jesus, but He didn't believe in them. Their believing was suspect. There is believing and then there is believing. And to make it clear there's this from chapter eight.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus is having a conversation with some Jews 'who had believed Him'. And how does that conversation end?

So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

That doesn't sound like real believing does it?

John also reports Jesus saying this.

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 

That connects with what John wrote about why these men did not admit that they believed in Jesus.

for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

These authorities were seeking glory from others. So, did they believe with a true believing? No, they didn't. So, you see, there is believing and then there is believing.

With this comment about these men John is still explaining the lack of a real believing. Jesus had come after a long line of prophets. He, like many of them, warned the people and even performed miracles. But the people of Jesus' day, like so many of their countrymen through the centuries, rejected the warnings and ignored the miracles. And so, God responded. Blind eyes and hard hearts. From that point on they could not believe. And the appearance of believing in some was just that, the appearance of believing, but not the reality. God cursed them with the darkness that they loved. Forever.

Now, this really is a sermon on the love of God. What I've told you this far is simply to set up what I want you to see about the love of God. There are two things here that can help you understand better His love for you.

Here's the first. God does not love you because that is the only thing that He knows how to do. That is the opinion of so many today. 'Of course, God loves me. What else is He going to do?' Or as someone once said, 'I'm sure that God will forgive me. It's His job.' The assumption here is that there is only one setting on the dial for God: love. That's all He does because that's just the way that He is. He loves people, everybody, unconditionally. It doesn't matter what you do. Well, tell that to the people John was describing. They now know, to their horror, that there is more than one option for God. Yes, He loves, but He also damns. That's what He did to those folk. Blinded eyes and hardened hearts. And He still does that with so many who refuse to heed His warnings.

Now, why is it important that you hear this? My answer is simple. I want you to see that God's love for you isn't something that He is somehow forced to do because there is nothing else that He can do. No. He loves you because He has chosen to do that. He could damn you. And who could complain? Don't you deserve to be damned? You do sin, after all. Lots. But He has decided not to do that. He has decided, instead, to love you. And that makes His love something much bigger than the weak, sentimentalism that many equate with the love of God. God's love for you is a strong love and decided love. It has nothing to do with some cutesy love that has no strength behind it, or the love of a senile grandfather. That kind of love works fine when life is good. But it’s worthless when life gets hard. God's love for you is just as strong and decided as is His damning of others. Do not be fooled by the counterfeit. God could have just as easily damned you along with all the rest. But He decided not to. And He never will.

And that leads to the other thing that I want you to see about the love of God for you. He will always love you. Always. And the love that He has for you and always will have for you is that strong, decided love. And that will make the difference when you hit the wall, when life seems to be falling apart, when the question that demands an answer will be, 'Does He love me now? It sure doesn't feel like it. Does He?' A 'No' answer will leave you in despair, trying to deal with life on your own. That never works. The response, 'I'm not sure', isn't much better. But a 'Yes, He loves me even now', will give you the ability to ride out the storm, the ability to entrust yourself to that love, the ability to hope in your God, and, as a result, to see Him work wonders in your life because of His love.

But, of course, that leads to the question, 'Why?' 'Why will He love me in that way, always? Why won't He damn me like so many other sinners? After all, I sin - a lot.' Here, remember God's promise. 'I will be your God…' That's God's covenant promise to you. That's why He will always love you and not damn you. 'But how does that work? Is it automatic? Don't I have to do something?' Well, this is where it gets interesting - and amazing. Yes, of course you have to do something. You have to believe Jesus. And that sends so many of you into a tailspin. And it does that because you think about the quality of your believing. You are afraid that you won't believe well enough. And you remember how John wrote about those who believed but not really. 'Couldn't that happen to me also?'

Let's consider the quality of your believing. If you are at all honest, you will agree that your believing isn't all that good. It isn't sincere enough, doesn't believe enough, isn't consistent enough. In fact, it's pretty weak. So, looking for a believing that is a good, solid kind of believing, you know, something that will impress God, well, that will result in despair. You don't believe that well, and you never will. And if you know yourself at all you know that's true.

So, is there any hope that you could be assured of God's love for you, with your weak believing? Oh, there is. But it's not tied up with the quality of your believing. Instead, it's about the nature of your believing. True believing, the faith that maintains that covenant relationship with God, the faith that assures you that God will love you always, is the kind of believing that knows all about its weakness, its lack of sincerity and its inconsistency. Knowing that, this believing repents. Listen again to John's quote from Isaiah.

He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

What is this turning? It's repentance. If those people had repented, God would have healed them of their rebelliousness. So, the difference between a true believing and one that is a fake is that true believing repents. How could it not? True believing isn't all that good. It isn't sincere enough, doesn't believe enough, isn't consistent enough. In that regard it's just like fake believing. But true believing knows all about this. So, when the Spirit points out some sin, some way that someone's believing is failing, that's when there is repentance. That's when the person with true belief turns. This is just being honest with God. 'Yes, You're right, Lord. My believing faltered there. That's sin. I am sorry that I did it. Please forgive me and change me so that I don't do that again.' Honest repentance. And by the way, your repenting isn't that good either. It isn't sincere enough, doesn't repent enough, isn't consistent enough. So, this doesn't work because you repent really well. You repent about as well as you believe. This works not because you repent well but simply because you repent.

So, you see, God has decided to love you. He is committed to seeing you thrive. He could have damned you. Would that be unjust? Would you have a good reason to complain about that? But He didn't damn you, and He won't. Never. He's given you a promise. 'I will be your God…' And what do you have to do to maintain this covenant relationship? Believe and repent. Believe Jesus. Believe Him when He tells you about the love of God for you. Believe Him when He tells you that His life, His death and His resurrection assure you of God's powerful love. Believe Him as He directs your life. And when the Spirit points out those times when you don't believe Jesus, those times when you sin, repent. Turn from your sin. Don't worry about how well you do this. Just do it. The person who is assured of God's love is the person who believes and repents, over and over and over.

So, prepare yourself for a life of believing and repenting. And a key to that is prayer. Ask the Father to bless you with an honest relationship with Him. Ask Him to bless you with the ability to see how very weak your believing and your repenting are. Ask Him to bless you with the desire to quickly repent when the Spirit points out some sin. And ask Him to do all of this so that you might do better at following Jesus and enjoying the love of God before a watching world.