The Love of God for the World
I. God is Love
1 Jn 4:8-11
A. Gods love differentiated from the worlds in that He loves you no matter what and it has no conditions. The world so often will only love someone for achievement or what they can or cannot do. The world loves pretty looking people, and those with lots of wealth and charisma. But ask someone that is poor, or who lacks charisma about the worlds love and they will tell you. Many of these people whom are without Christ, or whom are born again but not walking in the spirit feel insecure and no wonder considering how the world loves people.
B. Gods love is unlimited--Psa 139:7-12
C. The direction of Gods love
1. God loves His Son
2. God loves Israel
3. God loves the elect (Col 3:12)
4. God loves the world (Jn 3:16)
II. 10 Commandments
The 10 Commandments are what brings conviction to the sinner and how the sinner can see himself or herself as convicted before a holy and righteous God.
Exodus 20:3
“Thou shall have no other gods before me.”
We live in an age of antinomianism—an age that is against law. Western society is addicted to having few laws and maximum flexibility. We call people that choose to abide by the word of God and refrain from indulging in sinful lusts “legalists”.
We choose to abide by God’s laws because the first commandment assumes theism, and not just theism but monotheism. God is superior to the false gods of our day (in the forms of paganism, world religions, philosophies, self-fulfillment, and other forms of idolatry). The first commandment calls for ultimate allegiance to God. In our day there are many things to worship in place of God. While not all these things are necessarily evil, desiring them above God is. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34). What we truly desire and treasure will consume all our time. Those who claim to have no treasure worship themselves. Oscar Wilde once said, “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” Today many worship other things besides God, and Christianity is filled with believers who put other gods before the one true God. Anyone can fall prey if they are not in the Word daily and spending time with God. The best defense is a healthy fill of the Word of God.
The EIGHTH Commandment
Exodus 20:15
“Thou shalt not steal.”
Many people think that this commandment only refers to money and possessions, but stealing can cover so much more. Often when I witness to people I ask if they have ever stolen anything. Most of the time people tell me that they have not, but when I ask if they have ever stolen time from their employers by texting, Facebooking, emailing, or chatting when they should be working, most admit that they have stolen something.
The SEVENTH commandment
Exodus 20:14
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
We live in a day where this commandment is being violated left and right. Sex is all around us. It’s in our TV, our music, our books, our newspapers, and all over the internet, and is hard to escape. Our society thinks it’s perfectly okay to sleep with another man’s wife, sleep with someone you are not married to, etc. The youth of our day are constantly having sex, and so few feel remorse about it. Marriage is under attack, and so many live with their spouse and avoid getting married. Our entire society is in danger because of our disobedience to the seventh commandment. Albert Mohler says:
Adultery begins a breakdown of order that threatens the entire society, first how can we trust each other if we cannot trust each other in our most intimate commitments? If we cannot maintain trust and fidelity within the small and inherently meaningful universe of marriage, how can we trust each other in commerce, in politics, in business, in culture, in life?[2]
We need to get back to purity and obeying the word of God. God blesses those who obey Him. Those who are pure going into marriage may be rare, but they will be blessed.
III. The Cross
A. He absorbed the wrath of God.
B. Jesus came to die to take away our condemnation.
As I mentioned before, Ezekiel 18 says a soul that sins, that soul shall die. In Revelations 22 it says, “Whosoever was not found in the Book of Life was cast in the lake of fire.” In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story of a rich man named Lazarus...a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. The rich man, when he died, went to hell. And in hell, he asked Father Abraham to raise up from the dead so that his brothers may believe upon...Jesus and not go to this place of torment. But Abraham said that they had Moses and the prophets. If they did not believe the all- sufficient word of God, they would not repent even if someone rises from the dead. Many people are headed to hell. They are headed to the place where the fire does not stop, where the darkness never ends. Torment forever. None of us want that. And that’s why He came to die for you, so that you don’t have to go there.
C. The next reason why Jesus came to die, is to bring us to God.
Do you know what the word gospel means? Gospel means good news. The gospel is the good news at the cost of His son’s life, Jesus. God has done everything necessary to (concentrate?) us with what will make us eternally and ever increasingly happy, namely Christ. Christ is...(?)3:18, Christ suffered once for sin, the righteous from the unrighteous, so that He might bring us to God.
D. The next reason why Jesus came to die is to give us eternal life to all who believe upon him.
As I mentioned John 3:16 earlier, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”...that might be in Romans, but John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes upon Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus made it plain that rejecting eternal life He offered, and John 14:6 says, he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” By that statement He is condemning all who came before Him and all who came after Him as liars. Yes, all religions that do not acknowledge Christ are wrong. Actually all religions are wrong besides the gospel message. Those who trust Christ will not, may not be put to shame. He (?) to redeem mankind. First John 2:2, it says that He is the atoning sacrifice, not only for our sins but for the sins of the whole world.
