"LOVERS OF GOD"
“LOVERS OF GOD”
Romans 8:28; John 3:16; 1 John 4:9; Romans 8:32
I desire to speak to you at this time about lovers of God, believing that we are all lovers of God.
Deborah says, “Let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might” Judges 5:31 — a remark that should be well noted as coming from a woman. She is a model for all sisters in the Lord; she was marked by personal victory. She dwelt under her own palm tree (Judges 4:5), and in judging Israel she called attention to the commandment of the Lord. “Hath not Jehovah ... commanded”, she said. Judges 4:6.
No doubt she had read the book of Deuteronomy, as the other books of Moses, but particularly that book. It is the one in which the law of God is regarded in its spiritual bearing. Moses, nearing the end of his course, had become accustomed to look at things spiritually; he speaks of circumcision as applicable to the heart. “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart”, Deuteronomy 10:16. He says, too, “Hear, O Israel ... thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart”, Deuteronomy 6:5. The prophet Micah raises the question, “What doth Jehovah require of thee?” Micah 6:8. It would be immoral for anyone to suggest that there is no divine requirement from us, and the requirement is that we should love God. It is not a grievous requirement, surely, but one that is expressed in the keeping of His commandments. And so Deborah calls attention to the commandment of God and the commandment carried out led to a tribute to God. “Then sang Deborah and Barak ... on that day”. Judges 5:1. What was accomplished was attributed to God, and in attributing the victory to God everyone came into his share, the tribute ending with this, “Let them that love him be as the rising of the sun”. Judges 5:31.
[p. 74] The sun, I suppose, is the most prominent feature in the testimony of creation — in the physical system; it speaks of divine goodness as dominant. No one can be here for God save one who is so possessed with a sense of divine goodness that he is superior to evil, and not only superior to but dominates the evil. It is he who knows God, and as knowing Him loves Him, who thus shines; indeed, it is that which Romans contemplates as the fruit of the gospel in the believer, that he overcomes evil with good. In overcoming evil with good, we are like God, and we shine as the sun.
You will all recall how the Lord, when approaching the truth of the assembly in relation to the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 17), being on the mount with Peter, James, and John, is transfigured, and His countenance shone as the sun. That was for those who were present; and they were the representatives of us all. They were to be impressed with the majesty of Christ as dominating evil in this world — as possessed of divine good, and so dominating the evil. As Peter says, “were eye-witnesses of his majesty ... when we were with him in the holy mount”. 2 Peter 1:16. There was, in the countenance of Christ there, the expression of the dominance of good over evil, and it is only in the sense of this that one can be here in “the kingdom of the heavens” according to God, who “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good”. Matthew 5:45.
I am persuaded that God would bring about this very thing at the end of this period. The dispensation in which we live is not to go out in darkness, it is not to disappear like a flickering candle which burns out and disappears. It is to end as it began — not in quantity, surely, but in quality. God is particular about quality, and so He would bring about lovers of Himself. In the great apostasy one of the marks is that men will be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. 2 Timothy 3:4.
[p. 75] That is a word that should appeal to every young heart here, for the enemy is subtle to minister pleasure — to minister that which affords pleasure to the natural man. There is the woman who “flattereth with her words”. Proverbs 2:16. It is what she says. It is what is presented in living persons (or rather I should say dead persons morally). The young are brought into contact with persons who are abandoned to what is wicked, who speak forth filth, who flatter with their tongue. Men as they are — degraded — are flattered, and in that way kept under the power and influence of Satan — lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And yet, beloved brethren, the dispensation in which we are began with the full shining of God, it was revelation; and every baptised person is introduced into it externally; “baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Matthew 28:19. Hence the guilt of those who, instead of loving the God into the light of whom they have been introduced through their baptism, and it may be through their birth as born of Christian parents, love pleasure; and God resents it.
The dispensation is particularly marked by the knowledge of God, and the revelation of God has in view that He should be known in every heart. And so the Lord Jesus has come in mediatorially. We shall be at a great disadvantage in regard to the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, unless we understand that He has come in mediatorially — that One equal with God has taken a place relatively lower, has become a man, that He might bring all into the knowledge of God. That is what His great mediatorial service has in view — to reveal God, and conversely to bring man into the knowledge of God, so that God may be all in all. Hence He rules in order to put down all that is against God, all that lifts up its head against the knowledge of God, and ultimately He will deliver up the kingdom unto Him who is God [p. 76] and Father, that God may be all in all. This mediatorial service of Christ is proceeding, and is operative in every believer, to the end that there should be brought down in him every element of opposition to God, everything that is inconsistent with the revelation of God in Christ, to the end that God may be all to you, and that He should be in you — that you may be a lover of God.
I wanted to show in these passages how this mediatorial service of Christ brings out what God is. First, in John, He is seen in the bosom of the Father. “The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father” John 1:15; that is to say, we are presented at the very outset, with Christ as He is at the present time. He was ever, I need not say, loved of the Father, but the Holy Spirit is speaking in the present tense, and He was writing long after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, so He says, “The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father”. The Father has Him. The Father, beloved, has His Son in His bosom. Think of the influence that there is at the present time in the realm of the Spirit, the Son being there! We are baptised to the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Spirit — the Son being in that place of affection, and the Holy Spirit here operating. And then the past — “He hath declared him”. The revelation is a past thing, it abides. But the present influence of divine Persons, beloved, operating and effective here, is what is called attention to.
And then in chapter 3 we have the gift. I am speaking now, very briefly, of the greatest subject that one can speak of, and I am quite conscious of one’s meagreness as to it. But we have in chapter 3:16, the gift. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son”. The Holy Spirit in this passage occupies us with the extent of divine love, it is expressed in the gift. And in this connection [p. 77] you have the very greatest thing stated — that eternal life is available to every one who believes. One cannot enlarge on these things for want of time, but grouped around this verse are the most wonderful things, as you might expect. If the Holy Spirit wishes to impress us with the extent of divine love, He brings before the eye the great results, so that the believer stops and looks; as was said of Moses, “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see”, Exodus 3:4.
How many sermons have been preached from this verse, who can tell? But I am afraid there have been a great many more sermons preached than persons who turned aside to see the great sight! When the Lord saw that Moses turned aside, He called to him, “Moses, Moses”. Exodus 3:4. And so I appeal, dear brethren, to every one here, have we really turned aside to see this great sight? In relation to it you have the new birth, in relation to it you have the uplifted Son of man, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness” John 3:14; in relation to it you have the truth of His Person — the Son of man who is in heaven, who knows; in relation to it, too, you have the whole world in view for blessing, and you have the great blessing of God itself — eternal life. I ask myself, dear brethren, as I would ask you, have we turned aside to see this great sight? If we do turn aside, we shall love God. When Moses turned aside, and Jehovah said, Moses, Moses, He signified to Moses how interesting he was to Him. He was known of Him, as it is said, “If any man love God, the same is known of him”, 1 Corinthians 8:3. And if God pronounces your name twice, you may be sure that He wishes to convey to you His knowledge of you — not now simply what you are, but His knowledge of your love for Him; you are an object with Him.
Now in the epistle we have this same statement, “His only-begotten Son”, but the point there is the love of God to us. “Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world”. In the gospel we have necessarily a wider bearing; the platform of the gospels is necessarily wider than that of the epistles, but the epistles bring the thing treated directly to us; God is thus known in nearness. In John 3:16 it is “God so loved the world that he gave”. The thing is placed on its widest basis — the fullest possible divine thought, the gift, and the love expressed in the gift. But in the epistles it is, “Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God” — now it is brought down to Christians. And it is not simply that we might have eternal life, but that we might live through a Person — “that we might live through him”. We have the love of God thus brought near as applicable to ourselves, and the result is that we live by or through the only-begotten Son. You see how the Persons are brought in, dear brethren; we have the love of God as to us expressed in the fact that the Son was sent, not ‘given’ — it does not say given here. I think it is very fine that the ‘gift’ is on such a wide platform, but when we come to the saints it is ‘sent’. I do not say that the word ‘sent’ does not apply in John 3, for it is indeed stated there, but “God sent his only-begotten Son, ... that we might live through him”. How much enters into that, beloved, as to the Son’s readiness, as to the Son’s availability! for He said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”. Hebrews 10:7. He was available, and hence He was sent, that we might live through Him. This is not something in the future, it is a present thing. The believer is in the presence of the love of God to himself. I am in the presence of the love of God to myself. He sent His Son that I might live. It was a question of the will of God to express His love, and the obedience of Christ to carry out that will, so that the love might be manifested. Has that love been manifested [p. 79] in my heart — that God sent His only-begotten Son that I might live through Him? Am I deferring it? Am I putting it off to the future? Am I living? Divine Persons have operated that I might live through the Son.
In Romans 8:3 we have the expression, “His own Son”. Romans 8:3. These expressions, beloved, are not accidental, they are deliberate. God would induce love in our hearts for Himself. And so too in Romans 8: 32, we read “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” We have the gift; we have the will of God in the sent One; and then we have a beautiful touch in the reference to God not sparing Him. How easily we spare when it comes to the things of God! How sparing we are with our pocket-books sometimes, and yet in 2 Corinthians the pocket-book of the saints is touched after the love of God is unfolded. Then again, how easily one spares oneself — one’s body; as Peter says to the Lord, “Pity thyself Lord, this shall not be unto thee”, Matthew 16:22, margin. How often we use these terms in regard of ourselves; how we do pity ourselves, and take our ease in consequence, forgetting that it is the time of the altar, it is not the time of the bed. It is not the time for sitting down, letting our hands hang down, it is the time of the altar — the time of privilege. God spared not His own Son, and sparing not His own Son He spared not Himself. If I “turn aside” Exodus 3:3 to look at this, I love God, and if I love God in the light of this, I do not spare myself. As one said, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls” 2 Corinthians 12:15 — that is the principle.
You see, these are all phases of divine revelation, and all divinely intended to induce love for God, and as lovers of God, we shine. If I take John 3:16, I shine universally; I am not narrow. If I love God in the light of that passage, I am evangelical, and I [p. 80] shall not spare myself in evangelical energies. If I see the love of God to us, that He sent His Son that we might live through Him, I love the brethren. “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20; hence the commandment that “He who loveth God love his brother also”. 1 John 4:21. You see how the revelation of God, as thus apprehended, produces lovers of God; first in evangelical energies, and then in love for the brethren — I see how much they are to God. As it says again, “He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”, 1 John 3:16.
There is just another word referring again to Romans 8:3: “His own Son”. “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”. Here it is God’s own Son sent in connection with a particular hindrance; that is to say, “sin in the flesh” stood in the way of God, and it stood in the way of man. “What the law could not do, in that it was weak”, not in itself but “through the flesh”. Think what it meant to God to send His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin! How He felt His beloved Son being made sin; “and for sin!” “He was made a little lower than the angels”, we are told, “for the suffering of death”. Hebrews 2:9. Did God not feel His humiliation? He did, beloved. Now if I apprehend God in that light, I shall go down. If I see that because of something a certain divine end cannot be reached, I must go down. It may be I am standing in the way. The principle is to go down — humiliation. I refer to that as a feature that enters into our love for God. Those who love God will be like that; there will be a readiness to go down, to be humiliated. Think of our Lord Jesus Christ, beloved! Think of the extent of His humiliation! The Lord of glory,
[p. 81] the Upholder and Creator of all things — that He should be here a lowly Man in the likeness of flesh of sin; and that then He should be for sin, for He was made sin! How little we understand it! But it enters into the revelation of God. I beg of you to notice the words ‘own’ and ‘only-begotten’ throughout these passages, so that God may be before our souls, that we may be lovers of God.
Then, too, we read, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. Romans 8:28. God contemplated having lovers, He has gone to the utmost expense, so to speak, to have them, and He has got them. It is a question for each one of us as to whether he is amongst them. And then a wonderful thing comes out — that those who are lovers of God are “the called according to his purpose”. Ephesians 1:11. The two things go together. As I have come to love God, I am ready for Ephesians, hence Romans introduces me, or prepares me for Ephesians. I find, as a lover of God, that God had me in His heart and in His mind before the world was. Can anything exceed that, dear brethren? I am “called according to his purpose”. Ephesians 1:11. I am prepared now for Ephesians, where I am taught that I was foreknown; that I have been predestinated unto sonship through Jesus Christ to God. If you read Ephesians you will find that God is the dominating feature. It must be so. Even in regard to the assembly it is “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen”. Ephesians 3:21.
I believe the Holy Spirit would lead us in these last days to a knowledge of God, that we may be lovers of God, that there may be the shining like the sun, and that the dispensation may go out in brilliancy. May God bless His word to us!