The Love of God (Part 4) – Why Did God So Love the World?

Ask the Lord to help you to believe. The Lord doesn’t need a whole lot of people. He just needs some who believe. Well, perhaps for the recording, I’d better read some Scripture references. You may want to mark them down; I’m not going to read them. I am not clear if I will even get to this subject. They are Hebrews 2:12 and John 12:31, Colossians 2:15, Galatians 6:14, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:3, 1 Peter 2:4, Isaiah 53:6. The next are Galatians 5:24, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:6, and Colossians 1:20.

I only have two verses that I’d like to read. Hebrews 4:15: For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have a high priest who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

I’m going to read this. I know you can quote it, but I’m going to turn to it and read it. In John 1:28, these things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day…that was the day John said he was not the Son of God and pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God. I believe that happened that day.

Okay. Verse 28. The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus, verse 29, coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me. I did not recognize Him, but in order that He might be manifested in Israel, I came baptizing in water. And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and remaining upon Him. And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I have seen, and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

Now verse 35 is the next day, which is the third day. Again, the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked upon Jesus as He walked and said, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and they said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying, and they stayed with Him that day; it was about the tenth hour. They spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening with Him.

Here’s the verse I was going to read a moment ago. John 3:16:  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

There was God. There were angels. Later there was man. God couldn’t reproduce and didn’t have a counterpart. Angels had no gender and had no problem. Man could not reproduce and had no counterpart because he was made in the image of God, but they were both a “he.”

When God created the universe, and He began creating living things, everything that was alive…I have said in the past that it reflected God, showed something of God, told us something about God, and pictured some aspect of God. Everything in creation, everything, especially that which lived in creation. I’m going to revise that, and I’m going to say that everything in creation not only showed some aspect of God but also showed some aspect of His longing for what He wanted but did not have.

Now, when God made man in His own image, it was like God took a mirror, looked at Himself, and began creating man. I tell you, God has emotion. Do you know that? God has will. God has mind. God has feeling. God made this man in His image, and He raised him from the dirt. One of the things that that creature had that no other creature had was the capacity to love another, or, say, the capacity to love. Those are the only two creatures in the universe who could love.

Then God made this man live. God was spirit; man was soul, but that soul was a reflection of God’s spirit. Deep within God’s being were life, light, and reality. What else was there? God was young. What else did we leave out? God was alone. God was love, but He was also singular. I said that He was power, and behind that love was all His power. What a frustration to be so totally God, so totally powerful, and no place for love to go.

God made man, and God put every feeling and sense that God had into man. He woke man up, and man stood a living soul. And brothers and sisters, man had the same frustration God had. Man had the capacity to love on the level of the soul, and there was no one to love.