The Purpose of God's Love — Paris Reidhead

I wonder how many of you have noticed the lovely creche scene that Shirley Straley has prepared for us today. And each week, it seems to me as though each week she outdoes herself with something attractive.

Boy, they're so grateful to you. I appreciate it so very much. I personally get real satisfaction from the almost antique creche scene that comes up when daughters get home. It does serve the events that were there.

The Purpose of God's Love in John 3:16

It puts it into that third dimension, that dimension of reality. For God's soul that he gave his only begotten son, and whosoever believeth in him should not perish. We've seen the fact of his love, of his love for his only begotten son.

And today, the purpose of his love. Let's go to another scene and try to give in to the third dimension, which we have record between the witness of God and Lucifer. Rebellion against God. Overthrow for this long-awaited object of his love.

God's Everlasting Love and Humanity's Creation

Because I've been trying to point out to you that we're loved with an everlasting love. Never was a time when God began to love man. Always has loved us as eternal bridegroom for bride. Because you see, love is incomplete without an object.

There must be someone that receives that love, that understands that love, that needs that love, and is capable of returning that love in such a way as to satisfy the heart longing of the one who loved in the first place.

And so, in the fullness of time, God made man in his image and in his likeness because we can only love that which is like ourselves. Now, he gave to this being attributes that he possessed. Intellect, the ability to think, to imagine.

Emotions, the ability to feel. And volition, the power to choose. And in giving those, he also did a strange and a really a wonderful thing. Exiled his ancient father. He'd recreated it. He'd repaired it.

He'd made it a fit and proper habitation for man. Permitted Lucifer, now known at this time as Satan, to come to Mother Eve alone and to intelligence, her imagination, move on her emotions with the purpose of stirring her will in God's image.

The Fall and the Lie About God's Love

Actually, what happened? She listened and she believed the lie. The lie was this. God doesn't love you. Didn't he say you shouldn't eat that particular fruit? That the day you eat, you'll be like him.

He doesn't want you to be like him. He's keeping the best from you. You think he's your friend? He's not your friend. He's robbing you. That's what was said, inferred by Mother Eve. And she believed the lie.

Redemption Through the Son Under the Law

In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him bring the lie redeemed by believing the truth.

Didn't come into the world to condemn the world. The world was condemned apart from his coming. I think it was the 20th of December that we landed in West Palm Beach, Florida. Going to get as near as we could.

Meanwhile, my folks had gotten homesick for us and moved from Minnesota down to Florida. Moved in the right direction, but they were 40 years too late in making it. At any rate, and the next week, my father took me with him as he had to represent a furniture company.

And he worked in the finance office of this furniture company. He had to call on some people out near Lake Okeechobee, people that were in arrears on the payments of their furniture. By the way, around Lake Okeechobee reminds me a great deal of parts of the sedan.

And I did feel as though I were getting a little homesickness for it. He took me to a packing company right there, manager of the packing company. Seeing what they were doing in New York City. And they had a 26 inch snow storm, 26 inches of snow, hardly the appropriate greeting for a couple of folks.

But at any rate, we'd left that and we were now down in summer again. And we went and I went out into the field in his four wheel drive vehicle and watched them as they gathered, I think it was celery and lettuce, some other vegetables and these long wings that they pick it up and put it on, carry it in and so on.

And then bring it into the packing house and there it was sorted. Boxes with ice, they'd just pull a little chain and ice would come in on a layer and spread it out, put some more in. And then they would seal the box and put it on a pallet.

And there was a, carrying the boxes into this refrigerator. The process, a lot of people were working and I could understand that these were vegetables that would be in the supermarkets in a few days.

The Packing House Illustration of Human Worth

But I was most interested in one man. After the car was filled and ice covered the boxes, and it came and the door was locked and they were wooden boxes. Couldn't see what was printed, it was just the backside up as you walk.

But he picked this up and held it with his elbow and hit it two or three times. And then he stepped away the track and not to sit on some siding for a few days because if it did, what was inside would be lost.

Did it mean that they were intending to ship all the way to New Jersey so that they could feed the swine out on the flats at Secaucus? Is that what it meant? That it was viewed as waste? No. What did that sign say?

There's value here. There's nutrition here. There's good food here. Now with that, can I read John 3 .16 again? And he gave his only begotten son. Value. Tremendous value in this being made in the image and likeness of God.

To be bride to the eternal bridegroom and children to the eternal father. With glory and with honor. In his arsenal and every tool he has. If you've seen cartoons or pictures of the devil, you know it's not biblical.

There's only three times to the pitchfork of God's ancient position. Use any new inventions or new additions to the arsenal and the tool. And yet, he made in God's likeness, made for fellowship with him, one of those three things.

Intended on him to rule with him, to share all that he is and all that he has. Instead of that, willing to become, fail of that purpose and become refuse. Now, even though the produce in that bar at Okeechobee, Florida, Celery Secaucus Wine Farm, recognized that there would be those who would deem themselves unworthy of the high and noble and holy and wonderful calling.

And would decide that they deserved nothing more than the eternal refuge pit. He knew there would be those who'd make that decision and make that choice. And so, he provided a marvelous illustration. He called it Vienna, from which we have gotten our word.

Gehenna and the Consequences of Rejecting God's Purpose

Outside the walled city of Jerusalem, down by the brook Kidron, in a little cove that had been hollowed by the rushing water, the city fathers authorized that the people of ancient Jerusalem could bring their refuge.

Go back 2 ,000 years and you will discover that there were no carcasses used up, no motorcycles or bicycle freight. And there wasn't a tin can anywhere, as though refuge would be so big, did it? What would there be?

Well, there'd be the skins of watermelon, because they had those. Some of the worn out basket mats that they used to put around the back of their house, those they would, or they didn't use them for fuel.

Well, there'd be refuge. There'd be some that they'd take, but they were pretty frugal. They didn't have an awful lot. I mean, it wasn't a very big place, but it did have certain animals that died. Strangely enough, when you get nitrocellulose piled up and it begins to get a little wet, what happens?

It heats, and sometimes it starts to burn. And sometimes when it doesn't burn with a lot of flame, it stays just that little small, for which they were made and by their choice to continue in their rebellion against God and for sanitary reasons for the universe.

It's associated, whosoever believeth in him should not be wasted, fail of its intended purpose, or by final decision rest in that place that wisdom and love determined had to be the evil that was in it.

And so those will decided that they see in his grace. Whosoever believeth in him should not be wasted of the necessity of going into that. And the condition was whosoever believeth on him. Now, remember what Mother Eve did as she listened, came from God's ancient foe, her emotions responded and her will was activated.

Belief as More Than Intellectual Agreement

She would follow this new voice, intellect alone, that belief is nothing more than concurrence with a box full of ideas. He is not a believer who can pick up the 39 articles of the Church of England and say, I guess they're okay.

Or sure, I hope not the believing that's here to agree with the statement of faith or a list of biblical Bible verses or a doctrinal expression or the creed. We're not talking about a function of the intellect alone.

Believing apart from intellectual agreement, distinguished between things are different. Intellectual agreement is only one third of believing. There is wanting. Eve wanted to be like God. She wanted to rule her own life.

That's what it means to be like God. They turned everyone to a woman. She wanted to do what she wanted to do. She wanted to determine how to be happy. So, Mother Eve, therefore, had emotional response that's involved in believing.

Not only intellectual agreement, but emotional response. And then there was a volitional expression. Believing always leads to action. And in this case, it was an action. Now, believing, therefore, whosoever believeth in him should not perish has the same three elements as the intellectual element, as that truth concerning the nature of God and the nature of Christ, as the gift of God's love.

The Three Elements of Saving Belief

The emotional element, I do want to have the fulfillment of God's purpose for my life. I want to be all that he would have me be. I want to enjoy my reason for being. I want what the enemy promises, but he can't produce it.

Only God can promise fulfillment. You see, it was because God's the one who made us. And he made us in such a way that nothing can complete and fulfill it but himself. He took care. After all, he's the designer.

He's able to design into it locks so that nothing else can succeed, nothing else can satisfy, nothing else can command. Then there's volition. What is it? Well, it's twofold. One, it's a renunciation of our right to rule.

Repentance and the Sovereignty of Christ

Because remember what the argument of the enemy was to Mother Eve. You shall be as God continues down to the present. Why it's so hard for people to receive Christ? Because they've got to renounce their right to be God in their lives.

That's what repentance is. A change of mind about who's to be boss. Not easy. The ruling and governing and all of a sudden you decide that somebody else is going to be in charge. Going to govern and rule.

That's repentance. Renunciation of right to rule. And then the other element, a commitment to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. A total commitment, as long as one lives, as long as one has being, to the sovereignty of Christ.

Now, that's to the sovereignty of Christ and to the authority of his word. Very difficult for us to say that. The people would say, Amen. But it would mean that no woman would have her hair cut, never have it cut, and never would wear a sleeve above the wrist, never would wear a gold ring.

It would be, in some spiritual environments, that would be a commitment. Another would be that the women should ever and always wear a white cap. That the men should never wear a necktie. I have no umbrage.

Some of my dear friends have been in groups where these elements are seemingly of great importance to them. All I am saying is that the commitment to the sovereignty of Christ is not to the sovereignty of the opinions of men.

It's the sovereignty of the Son of God and the Word of God. Do you understand? Otherwise, one comes into a place of terrific bondage. So, I'm not seeking to see you put into bondage to anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ and the sovereignty of his word.

So many times we go so far beyond the word. Well, I've known people that were so much holier than the Lord Jesus was that if he was there, they'd have been embarrassed for him. I remember one occasion I was telling my people who become so critical of the problem I had.

I've been trying to get speakers. For instance, I kind of doze, as I frequently want to do, and I dreamed. In the dreaming, I dreamed that I had asked the Lord if I should send Abraham down and teach us about faith.

Then I said, no, Lord, we couldn't use him. After all, he had that problem with Sarah down there in Egypt. I couldn't use Abraham. Well, I went through the whole roster of the saints, and there wasn't one of them I could invite to our missionary conference.

It wasn't one of God's honored servants that we could have put on our... Talking about a commitment to the person of the Son of God and a commitment to the Word of God. Whosoever believeth on him. What does that mean?

Personal Commitment to Jesus Christ

That means repentance of your right to rule for total abnegation and refusal to any longer be God and to let the Word of God and the Son of God to have sovereign place in your life. Believe on the Son of God.

More than just an intellectual bundle of ideas, a personal commitment to the person of the Son of God. That's what it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should personally commit himself to the total authority of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to his Word, should not be, but should begin to live now in the full meaning of life and go on living that way.

Prayer of Gratitude for God's Redeeming Love

Good news. We thank you and praise you that you loved the world and you gave your Son. Oh, how grateful we are to thee, Father, that you have a noble purpose, a high and a holy and a precious purpose for us.

Not only in time, but throughout eternity and somehow to date. What it means to perish, to be wasted, to fail of intended purpose. What it means to believe to the sovereignty of thy Son and of thy Word.

To that end, Lord, bless us as we go now into the hundred and sixty-eight hours. We meet again at this place for the Tellery-Duke Fellowship. In Jesus' name, amen.