Men love to think of God as love,
because what they love to think of
in their estimation of what love is
they love to think of a God
who isn't going to punish them for their sin.
They love to think that they can go on in their sin,
and that they can then have glory at the end,
and they're going to deal with a god
who's more like Santa Claus than the Biblical God,
and he's going to "ho, ho" them all the way in there
and it all be great and all be glorious
and yeah, they accepted Jesus back then,
and lived in all their sin
and they're going to have their cake and eat it too.
They're going to live their life of sin
and they're going to get glory at the end.
And so they like to extract the love of God,
but let me tell you what, God is like that sky
Oh, this is even a small picture for me to even liken it to Him,
but you can not take
one of the hues of color out of the great umbrella
of the twilight sky and do justice to it,
and in the same way, the Bible says God is love,
but the Bible also says God is what?
(various responses from the room)
There are four propositions set forth to us
in all of Scripture that says, "God is..." and then a word.
God is light. Where's that one? Does anybody know where that is?
1 John. Absolutely right. Are you memorizing 1 John too?
1 John. God is light. We heard God is love,
there are two other expressions in our Bibles
that set forth propositions about the attributes of God in that same way.
God is... a consuming fire.
Anybody know where that one comes from?
Hebrews.
God is light.
God is love.
God is a consuming fire.
Basically, love seeks the greatest welfare,
where hatred seeks the least welfare.
It wants to damage, destroy, hurt...
Love wants to cause the greatest amount of joy,
the greatest amount of pleasure,
the greatest amount of well-being,
the greatest amount of joy, the greatest amount
of goodness that can be imparted possibly to another person.
That's what love is.
We know that. We feel that.
You feel you're loved by somebody.
When they're ready to invest their time,
their money, their efforts in making you happy.
Because here's the thing, God created us...
This is not a bad thing, by the way,
but God created us to want to be happy.
To want to seek pleasure.
To want to have that well-being.
He has created us to want joy,
to want goodness, to want happiness,
Anybody here want to be miserable?
Anybody here want to suffer?
Listen. Sometimes people say crazy things like,
"oh, look how much they hated themselves, they committed suicide."
I guarantee you people do not commit suicide
because they hate themselves.
They commit suicide because they love themselves,
and typically, they commit suicide because they have
come to a place of such pain and misery in this life
that they really believe that death
is going to free them from that.
Or they hate somebody or despise somebody enough
that they think that their own death is going to inflict pain on another.
But they do it for reasons that they actually think
are going to bring some relief to them.
You see, it's built into us to want happiness.
But then right here is where sin comes in,
the deceitfulness of sin...
Sin is a lie. Because what does sin do?
What's the lie of sin?
Come follow me and I'll give you happiness.
And see there's where the allurement is...
You know, you get the teenager.
Alcohol says, "Come, come. This will be fun."
Sin doesn't all of a sudden show the guy in the gutter;
the guy we deal with down in the inner city
that's slept all night in his vomit,
he's lost his whole family, he's lost everything he owns.
He has nothing left. He stinks like a sewer pit.
He has nothing to his name.
He doesn't know where his next meal's coming from.
Sin doesn't show you that. It says, "Come. I'll give you fun."
And you know what? The Scripture says
there are pleasures in sin, are there not?
But, for a season, and you see love doesn't entice people to sin,
because it's only for a season
and it's not for people's greatest well-being.
But if I draw somebody to Christ,
now there's an expression of love,
because there is pleasure forevermore at His right hand.
God is love. And I'll guarantee you this,
I truly believe it.
That that same emotion that welled up in Christ
when He loved that one man who walked away,
and when He loved that whole city that He would wail for them.
If you're here and you're not saved,
yes, folks, there is a day coming
when His Father will say to Him,
"Ok, My Son, it's time. It's time.
The time has run out for the sinners,
and Our expressions of kindness
that are meant to lead them to repentance,
have come to closure.
It's done."
And those who have trusted Him are going to be swept
into a world of love.
We're going to be swept into the perfections of that inner-Trinitarian love
It's true already, but there we'll see Them.
Father. As He can be seen with whatever senses we'll have,
the meek shall inherit the earth.
He's going to come down to dwell among those people
in a new heaven and new earth
It says we are going to see Him,
the pure in heart, they will see God.
Swept into this world of love,
and we are going to have love for one another,
and Christ will love us,
and the Father will love us,
and the Spirit will love us,
and we will see eternal expressions of the love
that the Father has for the Son
actually shed upon us, because we are in Christ
and what is Christ's is ours,
and what His inheritance is we have in Him,
and we will just be consumed in this
and who can recognize what this is,
but for those who reject such expressions of love
that are offered to you who have sinned;
your transgressions are deep,
and as I said last week,
they are mounting up on your shoulders,
and for you to be offered pardon and such love,
when you have hated God and you have despised Him,
the day's going to come when it runs out.
The kindness of God towards Christ-rejecters
is going to come to an end one day.
The love of God and those expressions
and His rain falling on you,
and the sun shining on you...
the day's going to come
when the Father says, "That's it.
They've filled up the measure of their sin.
My Son, they will not be a grief,
they will not bring tears from You,
they will not bring sighs from You anymore.
It's done."
But today, while it is still called today,
you are bid to come to Him.
Today is the day of salvation.
Today is the day to flee to Him,
and find yourself consumed
in these very expressions of love.
God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
and I'll tell you what,
you come to Him, you trust Him,
you put your faith right there,
You will find yourself swept into this whole thing,
in Christ, into a love that God doesn't have for everybody.
He has a special love for His children
that only those who have been
partakers of it even in this life can know of.
Like you found here, men swept up into expressions of it.
The most loving thing God can do is show you Himself,
and overwhelm you with visions of Himself.
That is the love.
Moody had to cry out for it to stop.
Isn't that what you want? Don't you guys want that?
Such expressions of love that this world knows not of...
God is love.
Amen.