The Love of God — Ian Paisley

The Love of God as the Greatest Subject

I want to speak to you about the greatest of all subjects in this world of ours, the subject of the love of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John's Gospel, chapter 3 and verse 16. In this summary of the scripture of the good news of Christ, which of course is the Gospel of Christ, we are confronted with the measurements of the love of God.

O the height, O the depths of mercy, O the length and O the breadth of love, O the fullness of salvation, pledge of endless life above. The first measurement of this love is the height of God's love. How high is this love?

The Height of God's Love

It is so high that no man can ever ascertain how high it is. We seek to measure, but we are confronted with the distances. We are face to face with its lofty height beyond all human understanding. Its height is measured in its cost, its sacrifice, its gift, its bestowal and its freedom.

Here is its height that he gave his only begotten Son. The love of God stretched from the lowest part of the earth to the uttermost part of the highest heaven. It stretched until it reached the highest of the heavens, the utmost of the mountain tops, the untrodden altitudes of God himself.

Who is the highest of the heavens? Who is the utmost of its heights? Who is the untrodden altitude of God himself? Why? The Lord Jesus Christ himself. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

The Eternal Son and the Cost of Salvation

Mark it well, the only begotten Son. There is none like him. He is the only Son of God. There is none like him. He is the only begotten, the eternally begotten, the divinely begotten Son of God. Begotten, not made.

The eternally begotten Son of the everlasting Father. There is none equal to him. He has no competitors for equality. He transcends them all. This is the highest that love can reach. This is the highest love can give.

The love of God outstretched to arrest the Son of God so that he could become God's love gift to this sinful world. The love of the highest drew Christ from the highest right to where you are in order that he might take your sins and remove them away forevermore.

How great is this love of God to me? It reaches to the highest to secure for me the sacrifice which alone can take away the sin of the world. Christ is the only Savior for he alone is the highest. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.

He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. We may not know, we cannot tell, the pains he had to bear, but we believe it was for us he hung and suffered there. Oh the height of the love of God to reach up to obtain a sufficient sacrifice to take away our sins forevermore.

The Depths of God's Love for Sinners

The second measurement of this love is the depths to which it stood. God loved sinners, that's true. God loved great sinners, that's true. God loved many sinners, that's true. God loved all types of sinners, that's true.

For example, he loved fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate persons, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. The Lord Jesus himself says of these people, such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.

Yes, this love reaches down to the depths of the vilest of sinners, but it reaches down to the whole entire world of sinners. God so loved the world, the world of sinners, guilty sinners, ill-deserving sinners, ill-deserving sinners, undeserving sinners.

To what depth does this love plunge? Down, down, down to the blackness of hell's murky depths and overwhelming distant oceans of the darkness of evil. Damned black sinners Jesus conceived, for his love reaches to the awful and lowest depths to which the darkest sin can take the blackest sinner.

And when they hung him on the cross, they wrote his name above him that all may see the reason we forevermore must love him. Oh, to what depths Christ's love searches for you and searches for me. Through what penetrating darkness he undertakes to find you, this sheep that was lost.

You cannot be lost when Christ has come to find you and find you he shall, he must, he will. No sacrifice is too difficult for his love and no opposition can quench it. But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through ere he found the sheep that was lost.

Out in the desert he heard its cry, sick and helpless and ready to die. The love of Christ can reach you, the love of Christ can save you, the love of Christ can get you home to heaven. Say not I am lost forever.

Christ's Love Incarnate Saves the Lost

Cry out to Christ who is love incarnate and he will save you. Christ's immeasurable love can bring you to the place where you can shout and please God you will shout I am saved forevermore. The third measurement of the love of God is the breadth of Christ's love.

The Breadth of Salvation for Whoever Believes

How broad is this love, the wondrous love of God. Here is its breadth that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Notice this offer is not for the worker. Salvation is without money and without price.

The trust of the whosoever in the whosoever's savior swings a believer into the whole breadth of the love of God. Oh my friend, nothing that you can do can get you into the embrace of this broadest of all loves.

Your tears cannot save you, your church cannot save you, your penitence cannot save you. Only trust Jesus and Jesus alone and the love of God will overwhelm you, spirit, soul and body. Trust in Jesus for no one ever perished who trusted Christ.

God's love gift is available to you right now. Cry out to Christ the person whose Christ is a saved person. Invite him into your heart right now. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Just as I am thou wilt receive. Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve because I promise I receive. O Lamb of God, I come. The devils in hell cannot find one reason why a person that trusts in Christ is lost.

Is it not written, in that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out? Let this grand and glorious and simple gospel soak into your soul. All the believing ones are seeing. Receiving and believing are one and the same thing.

Listen to this simple truth. But as many as received him, to them give he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. See it, my brother. See it, my sister. To receive Christ is to believe Christ.

And the everlasting certainty is everlasting life. The last measurement of the love of God is the length of it. Should not perish, but have everlasting life. Ah, here is the length of this saving love of God.

The Everlasting Length of God's Saving Love

It is forever. It is everlasting. It cannot end. It is for all eternity. To perish, what is that? That is to lose all hope in Christ. All light in life. All trust in God. All peace in death. All bliss.

All union with God forevermore. But this can never happen to you if you experience his everlasting love. You cannot drown a person until you get their head underwater. As long as their head is above water, they will live.

Christ is the living head of the church. He can never be drowned. Because he always lives, we shall always live. He says, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. Salvation is forever.

The work of grace once done by God in the sinner's heart can never be undone. Oh, the love of Christ is boundless. Broad and long and deep and high. Every doubt and fear is groundless. Now the word of faith is nigh.

Final Appeal to Trust in Christ

Jesus Christ for my salvation came by water and by blood. Clear. I stand from condemnation in the risen Son of God. My sins were laid on Jesus when he died on Calvary. I pray God that right now in your heart you will pray that great prayer.

Then, O my Lord, prepare my soul for that great day. Wash me in the precious blood and take my sins away.