Gospel—J. Hyland
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For the Bible.
Let's go on to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
I'd like to begin this evening by connecting a number of portions of the Word of God. And so for a few moments, we're going to flip back and forth through the pages of this precious book that we hold in our hands, the Bible. And I'd like to begin with a verse near the end of John 3.
John's Gospel chapter 3.
John's Gospel chapter 3.
And I want to read just the first clause of verse 35.
The Father loveth the son and then in Genesis chapter 22.
Genesis Chapter 22.
And verse 2.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of the book of Malachi, last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, chapter One.
Malachi chapter one and verse one. The burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
First, John.
First John chapter one.
I'm sorry, first John, Chapter 4.
And verse 8.
He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation.
For our Sins, Romans, chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 8. But God commendeth his love toward us.
In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's two more portions. Ephesians Chapter 3.
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 19.
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
There's one more portion in the book of Galatians.
Galatians, chapter 2.
Just the last part of verse 20.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Well, we sang this evening together of the love of Jesus, and as this, that him and these verses suggest. I had it before my soul in seeking by the grace of God to present the gospel tonight, to bring before us these scriptures in connection with the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus. Because I believe that if anything will melt the Stony heart tonight. It's to realize how much God loves you, and to realize how much the Lord Jesus loves you and the great cost that is involved in God being able to offer.
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So great salvation through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But I thought it would be well tonight to begin with the two portions that we began with because these portions have to do with the love of God for his Son, the Lord Jesus. I've often said in the gospel when it says in First John the Father sent the Son, isn't that more than if it just said God sent Jesus? Oh it's true God did send Jesus.
But it was more than that. It was the father sending the son. Think of that relationship that existed from a past eternity, and think of a father and a son. I don't have any sons, but I do have two daughters. And I know one thing. If I knew some morning that in sending them out of my home, off to school or to wherever it might be, I knew that they were going to be ill treated, perhaps by the neighbors.
Perhaps by their fellow students at school. And if I knew that perhaps they were going to die, or that I wouldn't see them for a long, long time, I doubt I would send them out. But the Father sent the Son. He sent the Son into this world, the son that he loved. Think of this little expression we began with. Just meditate on it, What feelings it produces in the heart the Father loveth.
The.
Son. And not only was he a son, the Son from a past eternity.
But he was the Son who never did one thing to grieve or displease his Father. You know, we often think in considering the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. We often think of him in his pathway, and how he glorified God in his pathway, and how heaven delighted to open up and all heaven gazed at that blessed object as he walked here in this world and a voice declared, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
But what about from a past eternity? It says of him prophetically. I was daily his delight. Here was a son who never did one thing to displease his father. You've heard me say before, but with my girls, while I love them very much, I can't honestly say that their daily my delight. There are days through their that through their actions they grieve me. It's not that I love them any less, but some days they grieve me through their actions.
But here was the Son that never grieved the Father. And so the Father loveth the Son. But this is the very sun that the Lord that God sent, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we read it in type, by picture, by foreshadow, back here in the Old Testament, where we have in this chapter. And we're not going to go into the story of Abraham and Isaac. Most of us are very, very familiar with it. Perhaps from the very early days of our childhood, we've heard the story of Abraham and Isaac going together.
Up that mountainside.
Where Isaac was to be offered as a burnt offering.
As a sacrifice. And you can just imagine the emotions that must have passed between Abraham and Isaac. And Scripture confirms that this was the son of his love. Take now thy son thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.
And always see the willingness on the part of Abraham to take that son and to offer him.
There on Mount Moriah.
All this has often been pointed out. There was indeed a substitute for Isaac, but for the Son of God there was number substitute.
Think of the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. And as he prayed and said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Was it possible? Was there any other way that God could pour out his love and his blessing on the human race? Oh, no, there was no other way. And so he says, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. He could say the cup which my father has given me. Shall I not drink it? He understood very clearly that there was no other way.
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And who for the joy that was set before him?
Endured the cross, despising the shame.
When we speak of the love of God for his Son.
And when we speak of the great cost of salvation in the Lord Jesus giving his Son at Calvary Cross, does that do something to your heart tonight?
I marvel sometimes.
That folks can sit in a gospel meeting.
And sing a hymn like Jesus Loves Me.
And hear the scriptures read.
And yet the heart remains so hard, so Stony.
And the prayer of justice so many tonight is that as we go over these precious scriptures and the precious truth of the gospel that we have gone over so many, many times before. The prayer of so many is that God would work by his Spirit to open your eyes to see beauty in Christ, that the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus would touch your heart.
There was a youth came to a gospel meeting.
Not unlike this gospel meeting this evening.
And the preacher gave a very, very faithful word on the love of God.
As well as a faithful warning.
And it just didn't seem to affect this man at all. This young man sat there in his face, was blank. Nothing seemed to get through.
And at the end of the Gospel meeting there was a dear old Saint of God, a dear old sister who had known the Lord Jesus for many, many years.
And as this young man passed out of the door of the gospel hall, she reached out and took his hand.
And with tears in her eyes, she said, Don't you love my Jesus?
You know, that just broke the man down. It broke this young person down. It touched his heart to see an elderly person who had loved the Lord Jesus and experienced his love for her for so many years, and to think that she would wait and reach out her hand in love to him. It was what the Spirit of God used to break down his Stony heart to melt him. And he was saved.
Before he passed out into the night that evening. But what about you this evening?
We have not only read verses concerning the love of the Father for the Son.
But we have read, and there are more that we could read, and perhaps with the Lord's help we will quote.
Scriptures concerning the love of God.
For the Sinner.
And the love of the Lord Jesus.
Desiring the blessing of each one.
In this room.
You know this little expression concerning the Lord Jesus. I'm going to take it a little out of context.
A little expression concerning the Lord Jesus when he was here.
He looked at a young man. He was a fine young man.
And he looked at him, and I love what it says, and Jesus beholding him.
Loved him. I want you to take that to heart tonight. You know what? I want to speak reverently and I don't want to bring any levity into this gospel meeting. But if the Lord Jesus were to come here and stand at the at the front of this room.
He could look into every face individually and it could be said and Jesus beholding him. Jesus beholding her, loved him, loved her. It is so personal, so individual. So often we quote in the gospel that verse for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And we think of it in a broad sense, God loving the whole world.
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All the people in it, but all tonight. We want to make it personal. We want to make it individual. We sang at the beginning of the meeting, that hymn that we've often sang from the very early days of our childhood. Jesus loves me.
And just one week ago, I was sitting in a gospel meeting in Richmond, BC, and the brother who had the privilege of standing up and telling forth the gospel that night gave out this very hymn.
From where I was sitting I could see a three-year old girl and she was singing lustily. In fact she was even doing some actions with it that the boys and girls sometimes learn in Sunday school. I enjoyed that so much. There was a little 3 year old girl and she could join in the singing of Jesus Loves Me and she could understand, as young as she was, that Jesus loved her.
You know there's nothing. The human heart craves more.
Than love.
People go to the bookshelves and they buy love stories.
But the greatest love story that has ever been told is the love story that is unfolded in this precious book.
It stirs me sometimes because you know people, they will go and they will buy those love stories. They will spend hours reading them. They will turn a button to listen to love songs, as they say.
And yet you come to them with the greatest love story at all of all.
And they don't have ears to hear. They don't want to hear it. But tonight, as we read, God is commanding or recommending His love toward us.
Do you really realize in your soul tonight that God loves you?
Do you really realize in your soul tonight that God loves you?
Some time ago there was a computer virus.
That circled the globe in less than 24 hours.
Is a very, very, at least from the standpoint of those that propagate these things. It was a very successful virus.
It was a virus called the Love Bug.
And it seems that even top software engineers couldn't resist opening an e-mail message that said I love you.
And analysts said that the success of that virus.
Had as much to say about the human heart as it did about the vulnerability of machines in the cyber society in which we live.
People crave love. People above all else. Desire love. There was a survey done in the United States and several thousand young people.
Were interviewed and one of the questions was what do you desire above all else in life?
And the response, more often than not, was.
Love.
You know there's not a lot of love in this world tonight. You know, the last days before the Lord Jesus comes are characterized.
As it says in the New Testament, without natural affection, you know, there's a lot of kids living on the street today. Their parents don't love them. Not only do they not know where they are, they don't care. There's a lot of young people in the detention homes of this continent.
Because they feel unloved and they went out after something that they thought was going to satisfy them, or they simply tried to rebel against society.
As an outlet for their frustration.
You know, you see bumper stickers. I love this. I love that people don't really understand what love is because love is of God. And as man turns his back on the light of God's word, and as he turns his back on God and on his Son, the Lord Jesus, he really has lost an understanding of what love is. And so tonight was my desire to bring us right into the presence of God, with the word of God before us.
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To show from God's word that God truly loves us.
But you know, there's a solemn side to the gospel.
And we would be less than faithful tonight if we didn't seek at some point in this meeting to reach the conscience.
Yes, the love of God is what melts the heart, but the conscience must be reached.
You know you don't flatter someone and tell them they're going in the right direction if it's going to lead to disaster. If you truly love that person, that's not love.
And in love to your soul, tonight God in his Word has given many faithful warnings.
When the Lord Jesus was here.
He lifted up his eyes, and he saw the multitude, and he had compassion on them. He loved those that he came to serve and to bless and to draw around himself. But he was faithful with them. In love, he said, flee from the wrath to come. In love He warned of Hellfire and judgment.
And tonight we want to give a solemn warning.
You know, God is not only a God of love, but God is light and God is holy.
And God cannot shower His love upon you or bring you into blessing and relationship with Himself and overlook your sin.
He cannot do it. God is righteous. God is just. God is holy.
But God has found a way.
That he can shower his love upon you and upon me.
In the giving of the son of his life.
That's why the Father sent the Son. That's why God sent the Lord Jesus here into this world.
Oh, I wish tonight we could tell you just something of the love of God. If you could just get a little taste of it, if you could just get a little hold of it in your soul.
Passive telling. It passes knowledge. Nevertheless, on the pages of this blessed book, over and over and over again we read of the love of God. But you know, God hasn't only told us He loves us, but He has proved that love.
I want to go back just for a moment, to the verses I read in the book of Malachi.
Because there we read The Burden of the Word of the Lord by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
You know, when we look at the people to whom Malachi was sent, to whom Malachi was writing, they were a pretty rebellious people.
A pretty rebellious people, but simply a reflection for our purposes tonight. A reflection of what is in each one of our hearts.
We're all rebellious by nature. We had that brought before us so very clearly in the meeting this afternoon.
We're rebellious by nature. We're enmity at enmity with God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But there was a message for that rebellious people. There was the word of the Lord. And tonight there's a burden and there's a word from the Lord. I have loved you, saith the Lord. But you know, if we had read the next expression, it's very solemn. And you say, Wherein have ye loved us?
Are you going to say that tonight? Are you going to despise the love of God tonight?
If you sit here in this meeting in your sins, and when this meeting is completed, you get up and you say I don't want it, and you say not tonight, and you go out one of these doors and you are still in your sins, you are really like these people who said and wherein have ye loved us? You're despising the love of God.
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And it makes me tremble to realize that if you continue on in that course of things.
The day will come when you will lift up your eyes in hell, in the lake of fire.
And the love of God will be no longer available to you. Salvation will no longer be available to you.
And you will remember.
A verse like John 316.
And other verses that you heard.
Gospel meetings like this.
And they will eat at your conscience.
For all eternity.
All we're not fooling tonight. It's serious. It's solemn. Sometimes I see young people on the back rows and they're not listening. They're smiling, they're talking to others. But this is serious tonight.
God loves you, but you are a Sinner.
And God is warning you tonight.
That if you do not avail yourself of that love.
And the provision that that love has made through the Lord Jesus and the work of Calvary. The day will come when you will go to hell. Not unloved, but you will go to hell.
And the memory.
Of hearing about the love of God.
It says of hell. It's a place where the worm dieth not.
And the fire is not quenched.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us.
You know, sometimes people say they love us.
And we watch to see if they really mean what they say. And maybe after a while you say, well, that person says they love me, but they sure don't act like it. They sure don't treat me like they love me. They sure haven't proved their love. We like people who not only tell us that they love us, but we like people who prove their love. And God has not only told us that he loves us.
But God has proved His love in the greatest possible way. In this was manifested the love of God toward us.
Remember one time in meditating on this verse? In fact, we were taking it up at a children's Bible hour and was one of the memory verses for the week. And we would try to explain the verses simply as possible for the boys and girls each day. And when we came to this verse, I wondered what Webster's dictionary had to say about the word manifested. That's not a word.
The children use very much in this day and age.
But I looked it up in Webster's dictionary and I've enjoyed it ever since, manifested to clearly show. And you know, God tonight has clearly shown His love to you and to me in the giving of His Son. And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. I'm going to repeat a little story that I've often told in the gospel.
But I think it illustrates this point very well. When I was growing up in Canada, we studied a great deal of British history.
And we studied a great deal about the life and work of that explorer, David Livingstone.
And as you know, David Livingstone was an explorer for the British government and he mapped out a good part of Africa.
As a pioneer to that continent.
But you know, David Livingstone went to Africa with a far, far greater desire, from his writings and from the biographies that others have written, that he had tremendous opportunities to take the gospel to those who were in darkness.
But the story is told of David Livingstone on one occasion.
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Staying in a certain community, a certain village.
Preaching the gospel.
With a great deal of blessing, and his wife and his young child were with him.
But David had a desire to go down that river a little further, to take the gospel to another tribe of natives that he knew had never been reached before.
But those he was staying and working amongst warned him not to continue up the river. They said if you go up the river, you'll never come back.
But David Livingstone's soul burned for the blessing.
Of those natives.
And one day against the Council of many.
He and his wife.
And their baby got into their boat and started that journey.
I don't know how long a journey it was, but when they neared their destination they were startled.
By cries on the shore, screams and war. Whoops.
And as they looked, they could see figures running through the jungle, brandishing.
Spears and other weapons of war.
As they approached the shore.
David tried to make those natives understand that he had not come to harm them.
But that he had come in peace.
But nothing he could do seemed to convince them. Those natives stood on the shore, ready to take his life the moment he set foot out of that boat.
And after some hesitation.
David said to his wife.
Give me the baby.
You can just imagine the emotions that must have run between a husband and a wife, a father and a mother.
As they're on the shore, those natives are ready to kill them.
And David says to his wife, give me the baby.
And after a pause.
With great reluctance, David's wife handed them the baby.
And David stepped out into the shallow water.
And as he waded towards shore, he held out the child to those natives in his outstretched hands.
And they say that the effect was amazing, that immediately those natives quieted down.
Immediately they laid down their weapons because the child held out to them.
Showed to them very clearly that David had come in love.
And I thought of that. And David was able to stay amongst those natives and preach the gospel, and history tells us that many were saved as a result. But oh, tonight God has given his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. He's clearly manifest his love in the giving of that blessed One, just as David holding out that baby clearly showed his love for those natives.
So the Lord Jesus and God the Father has clearly shown His love in the giving of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we look to the cross.
Can we doubt the love of God?
Think of the Lord Jesus as he walked here in this world.
It wasn't popular.
No, it says. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
But he goes on to Calvary's cross.
Picture for a moment the Lord Jesus.
God's beloved Son standing before Pilate.
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And think of the heart of God the Father as he looked on.
As they slapped his blessed face, as he, they plucked the hairs of his cheek.
As they scourged him.
As they beat that crown of thorns into his blessed head.
God the Father sought all.
They are what it must have meant to the heart of the father see the son so treated.
Would any father here stand by?
If their child was being treated in that way, I think not.
And then to see the Lord Jesus at the end of it all.
Taken out and LED to Golgotha.
LED outside the city of Jerusalem to Calvary.
And as they took and pounded those nails into his hands and feet.
What must have gone through the heart of God the Father?
Would any father here have stood by?
Let somebody treat his son, his child, like that. I dare say not.
And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world.
But there was more to be accomplished.
Than just the physical abuse of the Lord Jesus at the hands of man. Awful, awful as that was.
And after all had been accomplished according to the Scriptures, as to the heart of man coming out in their treatment of the Lord Jesus.
God said that's enough.
And the sun was blackened.
And God laid my sins.
On the blessed Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus bore my sins in his own body on the tree.
You know, many in the last year or so have talked about going to see the passion.
And I have no doubt that God has used it in the Blessing of Souls.
Do you know, I have said to those who have been so affected by the physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus that are portrayed in the Passion.
I have said don't forget you didn't see the most important part.
Because nobody saw the most important part. Because all the physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus, as awful, awful as they were, as indescribable as it was, none of those sufferings atoned for one sin. It was those atoning sufferings in those hours of darkness where no eye saw or penetrated.
And at the end of it all, the Lord Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He cried out farther into thy hands. I commend my spirit.
He laid down his blessed head.
And like none other before her or since.
He laid down his life, he said of his life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father.
But let's just continue, and for a moment to view in our minds eye Calvary.
There's darkness over all the land for three hours.
And then in John's Gospel, we read.
That their desire was to remove those bodies from the crosses as quickly as possible.
And not to interrupt or spoil their religious rights and ceremonies connected.
With that day and that time.
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And we find the soldier comes to the thief on one side of the Lord Jesus and he breaks his legs to hasten his death. Same with the malefactor on the other side of the Lord Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, and again scripture is very, very clear, when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith.
Came there out blood and water, and I want to stress just for a moment the value of the blood of Jesus.
Because it is indeed the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, that cleanseth us.
From all sin there is no other cure. There is no other remedy for sin apart from the blood of Jesus redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
The Apostle Peter states, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness.
Of sins.
Is the blood of Jesus precious to your heart? Tonight, it's precious to the heart of God.
Is it precious to your heart? Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb? We sometimes sing that hymn. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
But you know, there's more to the story of love.
We find that they came and those who loved him took him down from that cross.
And prepared his body and laid it in a new tomb.
But he didn't stay there, did he? Because Christ died, He was buried, and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
The Lord Jesus is not in the tomb tonight.
Nor is the Lord Jesus in this world tonight the way he was when he walked amongst men 2000 years ago. No, there came a moment after he had given ample testimony to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead. There came a moment when his feet left the Mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more.
And that's why we sing that gospel hymn. There is a savior on high.
In the glory the Lord Jesus, God has raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand.
Because God is satisfied and glorified with the work of Calvary and the Resurrection, the Ascension and the glorification of Christ are God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. They are the proof that God is satisfied.
But again, we want to bring it back, and we want to bring this home to our souls tonight.
As we speak of the love of God in giving his Son, as we speak of the love of the Lord Jesus in coming into this world, what does it mean to your heart? Has that love touched your heart tonight?
The love of God. The love of Jesus.
Philip Bliss.
Was a hymn writer an evangelist?
Who was tragically killed, I believe at the age of 36 in a train wreck with his wife.
At Ashtabula.
Ohio.
And he wrote many hymns.
Some of which are on the gospel hymn sheet we sang from this evening.
He wrote many children's hymns, but if you notice in his hymns he has an appreciation of the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus because he tells the story that early on in his career he went to a gospel meeting in Chicago.
Conducted by the evangelist Dwight L Moody.
And at the beginning of this gospel meeting, the crowd was singing that chorus, Oh, how I love Jesus. We've all sung that course, oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me. But you know, as they sang that chorus, Mr. Bliss got to thinking, it is wonderful that I love Jesus and that I can join with this crowd, oh, how I love Jesus. But he concluded in his thoughts that there was something even more precious than that.
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He said there's something greater than the fact that I love Jesus and that is that Jesus loves me and he went home that evening and he wrote that gospel hymn that we've sung many times. I am so glad that our Father in Heaven tells of his love in the book he is given.
Wonderful things in the Bible. I see this is the dearest that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. You know, just as an interesting sidelight.
As I say, Mr. Bliss and his wife.
In returning from Rome. Their home in Rome, PA.
To Chicago.
They went over that trestle in that train. It was winter time. It was the end of December. And the cars in those days were wooden railway cars heated with potbelly stoves. And when those cars tumbled over the trestle, it was just like a tinderbox that went up in flames. Mr. Bliss got out. He couldn't find his wife. He returned to the blaze to try to find his wife. They never were seen alive again. But what's interesting is that the Lord allowed that his briefcase.
Survive that fire. And when that briefcase was opened, there was the unpublished manuscript of perhaps the last hymn that Philip Bliss wrote. It's on this hymn sheet I will sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous love. To me it was a man who appreciated the love of the Lord Jesus. Can you sing of your Redeemer tonight at the end of this Gospel meeting?
And we have presented tonight the gospel so very, very feebly. How can we tell you how much God loves you? How can we tell you how much Jesus loves you? But at the end of this gospel meeting, could you really join in the singing of that hymn I will sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous love to me?
You know we read that verse tonight in Galatians 2. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I read this verse last of all because again, I want to make it very, very personal. Sometimes with the boys and girls in Sunday school, we encourage them to be able to put their name into that verse. And I love to quote this that verse like this, the Son of God who loved Jim.
And gave himself for Jim. Could you stand beside me tonight?
And put your name in that verse.
Could you truly say the Son of God who loved and put your name in that verse? If you can't, oh, I want to plead with you At the end of this gospel meeting, come to Jesus. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord.
We sing a little song in Sunday school. He loves you. He wants you. He died to redeem you, only believe His word. Are you going to believe tonight? Are you going to come to the Lord Jesus and receive salvation? I'd like to sing a hymn in closing.
Hymn #7.
All to us, love to us. Wondrous love. The love of God to me brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary hymn #7, if someone could start it.