Nov 14
15
Because he first loved us
by Spurgeon
“We love him because he first loved us.” -1 John 4:19
There is no light in the planet but that which proceeds from
the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but
that which comes from the Lord Jesus himself.
From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God,
all our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great
and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than
because he first loved us. Our love to him is “the fair
offspring” of his love to us.
Cold admiration, when studying the works of God,
anyone may have.
But the warmth of love can only be kindled in
the heart by God’s Spirit.
How great the wonder that such as we should ever have
been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvelous that
when we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display
of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never
should we have had a grain of love towards God unless it
had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us.
Our love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed
abroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must
“be divinely nourished”.
Love is an exotic– it is not a plant which will flourish
naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above.
Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it
received no nourishment but that which could be drawn
from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither.
As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly
bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by
manna from on high.
Love must feed on love.
The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.
“I love you, Lord, but with no love of mine,
For I have none to give;
I love you, Lord; but all the love is yours,
For by your love I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in you.”
BEWARE OF FALSE TEACHERS
2 Peter 2: 1
There are false teachers today as there were before Christ came, as there were during our Lord’s earthly ministry and as there were during the days of the apostles. (Deut 13: 1-5; MT 24: 24-25; 2 Cor 11: 3-4; Phil 3: 1-3; Col 2: 8)
First, false teachers come appearing as God sent messengers (Mt 7: 15) but they preach craftily, bringing in damnable heresies. They may preach redemption by the blood of Christ, that the Lord bought them, but they deny the successful redemption of the elect of God accomplished by our Lord. They will not declare in simple, clear words that Christ died for the elect, only for the elect, accomplished putting away the sins of the elect and that all the elect of God shall be called through the truth of the gospel.
Christ is the Prophet, Priest and King. He is God who cannot fail. From the foundation of the world our King has moved all things to bring the true word of the gospel to each of his elect. Christ is the Prophet who teaches the truth in the heart of each one of his elect. Christ is the Priest by whom atonement is fully accomplished. In private, they may tell you Christ died for the elect. They may even put it in a statement of faith. But what do they preach before all men? (1 Cor 1: 17)
Secondly, they make sinners think sinners contribute in some small way to salvation. They exalt the sinner to be a god by taking away the offensive truth that sinners are helpless maggots unable to do one thing to save themselves. (Gal 5: 11) The unregenerate religious man cannot bear to hear that salvation is of the Lord, apart from the works of men, because it diminishes man; the regenerate man cannot bear to hear man exalted because it diminishes his Lord and Savior. False prophets really believe that the gospel will lead men into sinful lives (Jude 1: 4) The truth makes a man cleanse himself of the idolatrous, garbage man peddles but it only leads him to Christ. (Rom 6:1-15; Gal 2:17-18) Paul was labeled an evil doer, even bound in prison, for preaching that the believer is complete in Christ, apart from works. (2 Ti 2: 9) All false preachers and heresies deny, in some way, the redemptive work Christ accomplished (1 John 4:1-3).
Set all preaching in the light of Christ’s eternal Sonship and humanity, his sovereignty and suretyship, his perfect righteousness and effectual sacrifice, his high priestly work and intercession, his exaltation and second coming, and beware of false prophets! (1 Cor 1: 29-31) Clay Curtis.
The Love of God
James Smith, 1860
What subject can be compared to the love of God? What subject is so sweet, so profitable, so full of wonders!
God, loving his people.
The infinite, loving the finite.
The Creator, loving his creature.
The Most High God, loving a worm.
The Holy One, loving the unholy.
The Sovereign, loving his rebellious subject.
The Eternal God, loving poor sinners in his Son. For God puts us into Christ, and there he blesses us, saves us, and loves us with an infinite love.
I want to think over, to meditate for a little while, on the love of God this morning. Holy Spirit, it is yours to enlighten the mind, and to direct the heart into the love of God. O direct my heart into this glorious subject, and shed abroad the love of God in my heart, that tasting its sweetness, and feeling its power–I may write from experience on this delightful theme!
God loved his people first. No one ever loved God, or wished to love him–but as the effect of his own love. We love him–because he first loved us. He loved all of his people before time began, as he says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
God’s love was fixed upon, and flowed out to his people freely. That God loves his people is clearly revealed, and powerfully proved; but WHY did he love them? How did he come to fix his love upon them? How did he come to reveal and communicate that love to them? This he has not told us. He has assured us that it was not for anything in them, or done by them. He loves freely. He loves–just because he will love, or because it pleases him to love.
His love is great beyond expression or conception. No one can possibly conceive the greatness of God’s love, and if it cannot be conceived, then it cannot be expressed. It is as vast as eternity, and as infinite as his own divine nature. How wonderful, that God should love one like me–and love me with such a love!
His love is fraught with every blessing, and is the fountain from which flows every good. Yes, in the love of God is comprised and comprehended, every blessing that can be conferred on sinners in time, or be enjoyed by believers in eternity.
The love of God is as unchangeable as his nature. He is without variableness–and so is his love. His works may change, do change, must change; but he is the same, and as he is, so is his love. It ever was, what it is; it is, what it ever was; and what it is, it ever will be.
His love is eternal in its duration. Once fixed, it is fixed forever. Having loved his own–he loves them unto the end. No object of his love is ever lost. No one cared for by him, will ever perish. He is able to keep us from falling, and we are kept by his power, through faith unto salvation.
God’s love is sweet and powerful, and it wins over all its objects to itself. God is loved–because he loves. The sweet power of his love, as displayed in the gift of his Son, and as shed abroad in the heart by his Spirit–wins us over to himself, and we love him–but never feel as if we loved him enough.
Oh, that I could enter into the love of God more fully! Oh, that I felt the love of God more powerfully! Oh, that I could love God more heartily and constantly, in return for his love to me! Oh, to illustrate and commend the love of God in my temper, conduct, and conversation with my fellow-men!
Nothing will make me happy–but this love.
Nothing will make me holy–but this love.
Nothing will give me strength and energy for duty–but this love.
If I realize that God loves me, loves me infinitely, loves me eternally–then I can do anything for God, I can suffer anything from the hand of God.
God’s love to me, is like . . .
light in darkness,
manna in the wilderness, and
a sweet song in the night.
God’s love to me, is . . .
my joy in sorrow,
my solace in suffering, and
my life in the midst of death.
God’s love to me, will make me happy anywhere, satisfied with anything, and raise me above the most trying circumstances of time. O may this love comfort me in my lonely hours, in seasons of sickness and sorrow; and may it inspire me with courage, in every conflict with the foe.
Father of mercies, God of love, may I know and believe the love you have to me! Precious Lord Jesus, you are the proof and exposition of the Father’s love! May I study you more, know you better, that so I may rejoice in your Father’s love! Heavenly Comforter, it is yours to reveal, unfold, and impart the love of God to poor sinners; do more clearly reveal, more fully unfold, and more plentifully impart–the love of God to me, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God!
BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US…
-Spurgeon, “Love”
“We love God, because he first loved us.”
Christian, he loved you before time began,
and when in eternity he dwelt alone.
He thought of you before you had a being.
When as yet the sun and the moon were not–
when the sun, the moon, and the stars slept in the mind of
God, like unborn forests in an acorn cup, when the old sea
was not yet born, long before this infant world lay in its
swaddling bands of mist– it was then that God had inscribed
your name upon the heart and upon the hands of Christ
indelibly, to remain for ever.
And does not this make you love God?
“We love God, because he first loved us.“