One of the most popular beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody, and the very fact that it is so popular with all classes ought to be enough to arouse the suspicions of those who are subject to the Word of Truth. God�s love toward all His creatures is the fundamental and favorite tenet of Universalists, Unitarians, Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Russellites, etc. No matter how a man may live � in open defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatever for his soul�s eternal interests, still less for God�s glory, dying, perhaps with an oath on his lips � notwithstanding, God loves him, we are told. So widely has this dogma been proclaimed, and so comforting is it to the heart which is at enmity with God, we have little hope of convincing many of their error. That God loves everybody, is, we may say, quite a modern belief. The writings of the church fathers, the Reformers or the Puritans will (we believe) be searched in vain for any such concept. Perhaps the late D. L. Moody � Captivated by Drummond�s �The Greatest Thing in the World� � did more than anyone else in the last century to popularize this concept.
It has been customary to say God loves the sinner though He hates his sin. But that is a meaningless distinction. What is there in a sinner by sin? Is it not true that his �whole head is sick� and his �whole heart faint,� and that �from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness� in him? (Isa. 1:5,6) Is it true that God loves the one who is despising and rejecting His blessed Son? God is Light as well as Love, and therefore His love must be a holy love. To tell the Christ-rejector that God loves him is to cauterize his conscience as well as to afford him a sense of security in his sins. The fact is, the love of God is a truth for the saints only, and to present it to the enemies of God is to take the children�s bread and cast it to the dogs. With the exception of John 3:16, not once in the four Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus, the perfect Teacher, telling sinners that God loves them! In the book of Acts, which records the evangelistic labors and messages of the apostles, God�s love is never referred to at all! But when we come to the Epistles, which are addressed to the saints, we have a full presentation of this precious truth � God�s love for His own. Let us seek to rightly divide the word of God and then we shall not be found taking truths which are addressed to believers and misapplying them to unbelievers. That which sinners need to have brought before them is the ineffable holiness, the exacting righteousness, the inflexible justice and the terrible wrath of God. Risking the danger of being misunderstood let us say � and we wish we could say it to every evangelist and preacher in the country � there is far too much presenting of Christ to sinners today (by those sound in the faith), and far too little showing sinners their need of Christ, i.e., their absolutely ruined and lost condition, their imminent and awful danger of suffering the wrath to come, the fearful guilt resting upon them in the sight of God: to present Christ to those who have never been shown their need of Him, seems to us to be guilty of casting pearls before swine.
If it be true that God loves every member of the human family, then why did our Lord tell His disciples �He that hath My commandments, and keepeth hem, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him.� (John 14:21,23)? Why say �he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father�? if the Father loves everybody? The same limitation is found in Prov. 8:17: �I love them that love Me.� Again we read, �Thou hatest all workers of iniquity� (Psa 5:5)! �God is angry with the wicked every day.� (Psa. 7:11) �He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God� � not �shall abide,� but even now � �abideth on him.� (John 3:36) Can God �love� the one on whom His �wrath� abides? Again, is it not evident that the words, �The love of God which is in Christ Jesus� (Rom. 8:39) marks a limitation, both in the sphere and objects of His love? Again, is it not plain from the words �Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated� (Rom. 9:13) that god does not love everybody? Again, it is written, �For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.� (Heb. 12:6) Does not this verse teach that God�s love is restricted to the members of His own family? If He loves all men without exception, then the distinction and limitation here mentioned is quite meaningless. Finally, we would ask, Is it conceivable that god will love the damned in the Lake of Fire? Yet, if He loves them now He will do so then, seeing that His love knows no change � He is �without variableness or shadow of turning�!
Turning now to John 3:16, it should be evident from the passages just quoted that this verse will not bear the construction usually put upon it. �God so loved the world. . .� Many suppose that this means the entire human race. But �the entire human race� includes all mankind from Adam till the close of earth�s history: it reaches backward as well as forward! Consider, then, he history of mankind before Christ was born. Unnumbered millions lived and died before the savior came to the earth, lived here �having no hope and without God in the world,� and therefore passed out into an eternity of woe. If God �loved� them, where is the slightest proof thereof? Scripture declares �Who (God) in times past (from the tower of Babel till after Pentecost) suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.� (Acts 14:16) Scripture declares that �And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.� (Rom. 1:28). To Israel God said, �You only have I known of all the families of the earth.� (Amos 3:2). In view of these plain passages who will be so foolish as to insist that God in the past loved all mankind! The same applies with equal force to the future. Read through the book of Revelation, noting especially chapters 8 to 19, where we have described he judgments which will be poured out from Heaven on this earth. Read of the fearful woes, the frightful plagues, the vials of God�s wrath, which shall be emptied on the wicked. Finally, read the twentieth chapter of the Revelation, the great white throne judgment, and see if you can discover there the slightest trace of love.
18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
John 3
35The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. 36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
God changes his mind based on people's repentance. God has given ALL things to Christ, and whoever believes will be saved. Whoever does not believe will not be saved. Those who do believe are "elected". Jesus compares himself to the bronze serpent in the wilderness. "Look and live". The Israelites had to "look" to the serpent in faith to be cured from the poison, in the same way we must "believe" in Christ to be saved from sin. We are saved through faith.
Luke 7:50 Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
John 8:24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins."
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Ephesians 1:13 In Him you also [trusted], after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
1 John 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 Timothy 2:5 For [there] [is] one God and one Mediator between God and men, [the] Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under [her] wings, but you were not willing!
John 5:40 "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."
