AMAZING LOVE! By Pastor Greg Hooker ...God is love (I John 4:8). My friends, consider these three simple, yet profound words spoken by the Apostle John – “…God is love.” John didn’t say God was loving, but that God ‘IS’, by virtue of His nature, perfect love! In other words, He is the very essence of love – love is God, God is love and consequently, God is the ‘only’ true source of love. As His children, we are simply mirrored reflections of God’s radiating love, letting the Light of His grace shine in a dark and inhospitable world. As we gaze into the heavens at night we see the brilliance of the moon against the blackened sky. That light is only the reflection of the sun. It behooves each of us, therefore, to keep our mirrors – our lives – polished and free from smudges, so the love of God will shine brightly. Over the years of my Christian life, I have come to realize that many of God’s children (present company included) have developed a wrong perception of God. So often we see Him as a fearsome Dictator seated on His throne of Divine judgment, lightning-bolt-arrows poised in His hand, ready to strike us down when we err, or sin against Him. We view Him as someone to fear and dread; a monster, so to speak, hiding under our spiritual beds awaiting the precise moment to pounce and render retribution. As a result of this distorted view of God, we search for the nearest corner, cower down and hope He cannot find us. My fellow believers, is that what our Heavenly Father is really like? Does He wait for the opportune time to squelch us like a common insect if we get on His nerves, break one of His commandments, or annoy Him? I submit to you, God is ‘nothing’ like that at all – far from it! He is our Father, and we are His beloved children bought with a tremendous price and there is nothing that we can do, or not do, that would cause Him to love us more or love us less! The love of God will follow His saints through the portals of Heaven and will follow the unrepentant sinner to the brink of Hell. Think about this: For those of us who have children, we know they often do things they shouldn’t do. They get into trouble, cause shame and invoke your anger and displeasure. Does that lessen our love for them? Of course not! They are still our flesh and blood and no matter what they get into, we still love them with a parental love. Yes, we sometimes use the “rod of correction”, but our love never wanes; it remains in full force, ready to envelope them with arms of compassion like the return of the Prodigal Son. That is how our Heavenly Father relates to His children! Notice the specifics of the return of the Prodigal – although he chose to leave the company and fellowship of his father and wallow in sin and shame, he still ‘remained’ his father’s son via virtue of his physical birth, blood-line and relationship with his father! In like manner, our Heavenly Father allows us to ‘wallow’ in our sins and disobedience until we get covered in mud and find out that sin isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and like the prodigal son we get sick and disgusted with our wicked ways and return to the ‘fellowship’ of our Father, though our relationship established by the ‘New Birth’ with Him never faltered. Now would be a good time to stop and thank the Lord for His wonderful grace and mercy! You may say, ‘You don’t know what I’ve done, where I’ve been, and the terrible rap sheet I have! How can God still love me after I’ve messed up my life so bad?’ My friends, that is when the love of God shines the brightest – in the darkness of the night! Listen to what God says about His love for sinners, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “While we were yet sinners…”! Before you and I were saved there was absolutely nothing worth redeeming about us – NOTHING! Like a broken clay vessel we deserved to be cast head-long into the dung-heap of fire, brimstone and eternal destruction from the very presence of God. The Bible describes our very best as “filthy rags”. The passage in Isaiah 64:6 reads like this: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Now I don’t mean to get vulgar about what I am about to reveal, but what the Prophet Isaiah was alluding to is this: Our “righteousness” in the sight of a Holy God is as “filthy rags”, a reference to the menstrual-flow-rags of a woman’s period and according to Levitical Law, deemed to be of utmost uncleanness. So you see, your absolute best works and good behavior in the sight of God is filth – total and utter rubbish! Nevertheless, even after we add up our finest which equals nothing; God still sheds the light of His love upon us! Just take a glance at the cross for confirmation – see the Lamb of God beaten, bleeding and buying our eternal salvation with His own precious blood! Doesn’t the holy, pure and undefiled blood that Jesus shed stand in stark contrast to the polluted, vile and utterly despicable “filthy rags” of our sins?! If you are familiar with the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, you know it was a chest of sorts overlaid in gold, supported by wooden stays, with a ‘mercy seat’ or lid to cover it. Upon the top of that lid were two golden cherubs facing each other standing strict guard as they looked down on this golden lid. In side of the ark were three items: 1) some manna (representing God’s provisions for His people), 2) Aaron’s rod that budded (a symbol of God’s authority), and 3) the Ten Commandments (representing the law of God). Once every year the high priest would come in to the tabernacle with the blood offering of a bullock and sprinkle it on that golden lid, or mercy seat. Then the Almighty God would descend above the bloody mercy seat between the two cherubs. As God hovered over the mercy seat, He would look down upon the sins of the people (represented by the contents of the ark) and could not see the people’s wickedness . . . why? Because all He could see was the blood! What a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ – the ultimate sacrifice for our sins! Christ shed His own pure blood on the altar of the cross, then ascended into the Heavens and sprinkled it on the mercy seat covering our sins. Now, when the Father looks down upon us, He sees nothing but the blood of His Son! In the sight of the Father we are pure and clean, without any spot or wrinkle – “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”! “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands [the earthly tabernacle housing the ark], which are the figures [picture of Christ sacrifice] of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 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. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:24-28). My fellow brothers and sisters, “…God ‘IS’ love”, so much so that He provided the ultimate demonstration of love by allowing His precious Son to take our place, endure our shame, and redeem us back to a glorious and eternal relationship with the Father! Glory! Now, hold on to your seat; I am going to reveal a passage of Scripture that ought to make the stones of the earth shout for joy! Are you ready? Here it is: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39). May I recommend you go back and read that immutable, interminable, promise over and over until it is engrained in the innermost recesses of your soul?! When I read this passage, I picture the Apostle Paul penning these words as he is shouting glory hallelujah running down the streets of Corinth! Go Paul go! Whoohooo! Let the world know we have a God, which in spite of our vile disposition, loves us to the utmost extremes! Paul possessed a strong, unwavering confidence that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that can separate us from God’s love! There is no hostile force present in the universe – no demons crawling in Hell below, no creature hovering the heavens above, no living thing slithering in the oceans depths, no conquering enemy, no friend or foe, no watery or dusty grave, no grizzly death or glorious life, no sin of commission or sin of omission, no habit or addiction, no harsh word or lie, no failure or fame, no heartache or trial, no sadness or sorrow; NOTHING shall separate us from the love of God which is made possible through the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord! To God be the Glory! “God ‘IS’ love”! ‘The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star And reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled And pardoned from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure The saints’ and angels’ song.’ - Song written By Frederick M. Lehman
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 23:52:57 +0000
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