Episode 31: The Love of Calvaries Cross

3 this morning.

1 John chapter number 3.

We'll read a verse here and then go to chapter 4.

And I do want to say I appreciate

y'all supporting us each month. That is a

blessing and a help to us and we thank you for

it.

Helps us get on down the road. Amen.

So if you don't like us

today, amen. We'll get on out of the way

and go somewhere else.

1 John chapter number

3.

I'll be honest with you, my

purpose for being here, it ain't got nothing

to do with trying to get you to like me.

I just hope you love Him more

when we leave here today.

1 John 3. Look at verse number 1.

The Bible

says, Behold,

what manner of love the Father hath

bestowed upon us

that we should be called

the sons of God.

Therefore the world knoweth us not

because it knew Him not.

Go to chapter

number 4. Look at

verse number 10.

Verse 10

says, Herein is love, not that

we loved God, but

that He loved us and

sent His Son to be the propitiation

for our sins.

Look down at

verse number 19.

We love

Him

because He first loved us.

John, here

in these verses, he writes to us

about God's love for us.

And I don't know about you this morning, I'm thankful

that He loves us. I don't know

why He would show interest in me.

I do not understand

why He would care for me and

love me, but I'm glad I don't have to

understand it to know that

it is the truth. And one day

I trusted Him. I received

that love and now He loves me

with an everlasting love.

And I thank God for that.

Now the writer of these verses

we just read is John the

Beloved. Really, who more

qualified to write about the love of God

than John the Beloved?

I say that based on several

things. Six times

in the Gospel of John, you'll find

a form of the phrase

the disciple whom Jesus

loved. Now John didn't

write that about himself in arrogance.

He didn't have a high opinion of

himself. John was just

simply writing down what the Holy Ghost told

him to write down. Could

you imagine if you're John and you're just

sitting there writing under divine

inspiration of the Holy Ghost

and you write these words and you

know He's talking about you and you

write down the disciple whom

Jesus loved.

I mean,

John probably said, Lord, now hold on.

Are you talking about

me? John, you know

I'm talking about you. Okay, I just

had to check. I mean,

if I was John, I'd have to take a time out

and make a few laps around the house. Amen?

The disciple whom

Jesus loved.

I wonder if

He could say that about me.

If He could say that about you.

I think

about the Last Supper

as Jesus gathered with

the disciples there in that little upper room.

They all

gathered there that day.

They all sat at the table and

apparently they all sat on the same side of the table

according to one famous painting. I don't know

if there's any truth to that or not, but

they sat there and

Jesus made the announcement

that one of the disciples

was going to betray Him.

And when He announced

that, ten of the

disciples said, Lord,

is it I? Judas

was there and Judas said, Master,

is it I?

Then there was John.

The Bible

said in John 13, 23

now there was leaning on Jesus'

bosom one of His disciples

whom Jesus loved.

Here John was closer to Jesus

than all the rest.

And when Jesus announced that one would

betray Him while the rest of them

were saying, Lord, is it I?

Master, is it I? John perked up

in verse 25 of that chapter. He said,

Lord, who is it?

He knew it wasn't Him.

See, His conscience

was clear because He was closer

than all the rest. So when

Jesus said that, John just jumped up

and said, Lord, who is it?

Let's just have a business meeting right now.

We'll vote that sucker out now.

I don't know about you.

I want to be close like John was.

And we can be.

You can be as close

to the Lord and I can be as close to the Lord.

Let me say, we are as close

to the Lord right here and right now

as we want to be.

You can be

like Peter and you can talk

a big talk, but as soon as things

get tough, Peter's gone.

You can be like Thomas

and say, I'll believe only

if I can touch and see and

feel.

That's a believer that goes on

feelings a little bit too much.

There's a lot of those

today.

You can be like Judas

and you can hang around the Lord his whole

ministry. You can be close by Him.

You can still die

and go straight to hell.

Or you can be like John.

Close.

A clean, clear

conscience.

I think about John chapter number 19

as Jesus is dying on the cross

of Calvary.

There He is hanging there on the

cross, bleeding, suffering,

dying in agony

for the

sins of this world.

The Bible said in John 19

verse 26, when Jesus therefore

saw His mother

and the disciples standing by

whom He loved.

As our Lord hung on

the cross of Calvary that day,

all the multitudes had fled.

It was just a little handful of women

and John.

John

witnessed with eyes

of flesh

the greatest love.

The greatest love that's ever been shown to this old world.

What we as believers

see through eyes of faith

in the scripture, John saw it

with his own eyes.

He saw the love

of Calvary's cross that was

demonstrated there that day.

And I believe, brother and sister, it's that

love right there that he has in

mind all these many years later

as he writes here in 1 John

chapter 3 and chapter

4. I believe it's the love

of Calvary's cross.

He's got it in mind. I want to preach just for a few

minutes this morning on the love

of Calvary's cross.

John, in

these verses, he describes

the love of Calvary's cross

in three different ways and I'll give them

to you and we'll go eat and fellowship

a little bit, but number one, I want

us to see the manner

of Calvary's love.

Go back to chapter number 3

and let's read verse number 1 again.

He said there

in chapter 3 verse 1,

Behold

what manner of love

the Father hath bestowed upon us

that we should be called the sons

of God. He

makes a reference to this

manner of love.

And I don't know really this morning

exactly how to describe

the manner of this love

other than I can tell you this,

it's not of this world.

It's not a worldly love.

It is not a

sentimental love or a

sensual love.

A lot of

what we talk about in the world today

and in society today when they talk

about love, it's nothing but

sensuality. It's perverse.

This

lost world, they know nothing about

true love.

I see

the signs and

the different things in the advertisements.

Love wins.

Well, they're right. Love wins.

But it ain't their idea of love. It's not

their definition of love.

When I think about the manner

of love, I can tell you this,

its origin is not of humanity,

but its origin of heaven.

It's of heaven. It's a love that

cannot be manufactured.

It can't be mimicked

by religion, although religion's tried

down through the centuries.

You're not going to find this love sitting in a

confirmation class. You're not going to find

it in a confessional booth. You're not going to

find it in the baptistry water.

You're not going to find it in your church membership.

You're not going to find it in

your good works and your good deeds.

And just being a good person,

you don't find this love in any of

those places.

John writes to us

about the recognition of this love in

chapter 3, verse 1. He says,

Behold.

I like that

right there. Behold.

That word, behold,

it means it's something that we ought to

be thinking about. We ought to be

looking into.

I'd say Calvary and what

Jesus did there at the cross for us,

that day, it demands attention.

It's something

we ought to be thinking about.

Brother John in Sunday school,

he was talking about that word muse.

Something you think on.

And then you have amuse means

don't think.

And he referenced amusement parks.

And I was thinking just a couple

weeks ago, I was preaching up in Ohio,

and we took a couple days

and went to Cedar Point Amusement Park.

There's not a lot of thinking going on there.

And I was one of them. I wasn't

thinking. I had to be thinking something though

because every time we'd get to the top

of one of those big hills on a roller coaster

and start to go down, this question went

through my mind. What was I thinking?

I was

thinking something. It wasn't the right thing.

You go to those

places and you don't think. You just sort of

shut your brain off and you're

not thinking. And sadly, we got a lot

of people in America today,

they're going through life that way.

They're not thinking. They're not thinking.

They're not thinking. They allow the

news media and the politicians to do

their thinking for them.

I'll tell you something that demands attention

this morning. It's not the midterms.

It's not COVID.

What demands our attention this morning

is what Jesus Christ did

for us that day on the cross

of Calvary when He laid down His

life, when He gave up the ghost,

when He cried, it is finished,

and He did it all for you and He did it all

for me. Amen. It demands

attention.

We spend most of

our days and most of our week

thinking about everything but

God and Jesus and Calvary.

It's something that too often

too many believers, they've reserved

it for Sunday only.

It's like putting

this jacket on. We

put our Christianity on on Sunday

and head down to the church house.

And then as soon as

we get home Sunday night,

we take it off and we don't put

it back on until the next Sunday.

You don't have Christianity, you've got

churchianity. Amen.

I tell you what Jesus Christ did for

us at Calvary that day, it

demands attention.

It deserves

appreciation.

When's the

last time you really stopped

and thought about and beheld

and showed appreciation

for the cross of Calvary,

the blood of Jesus Christ?

It deserves appreciation.

We show appreciation for all.

All kinds of things in this life.

Back in the spring, May,

we had Mother's Day and we

show appreciation for our moms.

In June,

you have Father's Day and

really that's just to prove that

everybody appreciates mom more than they do dad.

We have Veterans Day and Memorial Day

and all these different days

to show appreciation for people.

What about the Lord Jesus Christ

and what He did at Calvary?

Man, we go to the

ball games and people,

we get excited and pitch a fit

and man, they're standing up shouting

and hooping and hollering and you come to church

if you say amen real loud, everybody's turning

around looking at you like, you crazy or something?

What are you so excited about?

Jesus.

Hey, go to the ball game.

Have a big time. Nothing wrong with that.

When's the last time you got

excited about Christ?

When's the last time you got stirred up

about the blood of Jesus Christ

that was shed so that you could be redeemed?

When's the last time that stirred you?

When's the last time that brought tears

to your eyes? You ladies,

you watch the Hallmark Channel

and all the Hallmark movies and

that's fine, nothing wrong with that

except they're all the same.

Amen. They're all the same.

I can tell you within five minutes

who's going to end up with who

at the end of the movie. I mean,

they're all the same.

You ladies will sit there and watch them

and you'll just let the tears roll down

but then you come to church,

nothing stirs you.

Sing about Calvary?

Nothing. Sing about the love of God?

Nothing. And if you do start

to actually get stirred up and the tears,

well, I don't want to mess my makeup.

Let it run. Amen.

I like to get in a good Holy Ghost service

where it gets so thick,

it gets so juicy, it's so wonderful

that the ladies are just letting it run down

their face. I like it. Amen.

That just tells me there's somebody

that they love Jesus more than they care

about how they look. They love to worship

God more than their appearance. Amen.

They're just appreciating

what God did for them.

As a kid,

we used to watch that show

The Price is Right.

Y'all remember that? Come on down.

That announcer, he'd

call out a name.

Here they'd come.

Now let me say, they never came down

that aisle like,

Wow.

Me.

Now, every one of them,

every single time,

man, woman, didn't matter.

Woo!

Here they'd come, running down.

And they didn't even want anything yet.

They just got their name called.

Could I say this morning,

if God ever called out your name

and you answered that call

and trusted Him, you've already won.

You've already got it all.

Amen.

I say it deserves

appreciation.

Amen.

The recognition of this love.

He said, Behold.

I see the reaching of this love.

He said, Behold, what manner of love

the Father hath bestowed

upon us.

I like that word bestowed.

It just gives the idea that

this love is something that is gifted

to us.

Not something you work for.

Do you realize 99%

of the denominations out there this morning

will come to church?

And they'll be taught that

to be saved and to go to heaven

when you die, you've got to have

this work in your life.

You've got to do this and do that.

Jesus is part of it, but it's Jesus

plus this and Jesus plus that.

I've got good news.

It's Jesus plus nothing. Amen.

All you've got to do is exercise

faith in what He's already done.

Amen.

It's bestowed. And I'm glad to tell you

that nobody's beyond the reach of His affection.

Amen.

There's not a person in Alvin, Texas.

There ain't a person in Houston, Texas,

as wicked of a city as that is,

that is beyond the reach of His affection.

The only person that will die

without God and go to hell

is the one that just says no.

The one that rejects the gift

that He offers.

The love that is offered.

No one's beyond the reach of His affection.

You say, preacher, you don't know what I've done.

You don't know where I've been.

You don't know my past, but I've got good news for you.

You just don't understand how powerful

the blood of Jesus Christ is.

One drop of that precious blood,

it can take care of your sin problem.

It can take care of your past.

Put it behind you. Amen.

You used to hear a song

years ago.

There was a line in that song

that said, that same Jesus you've heard of

can take a black heart without love.

He can wash it in red blood

and make it whiter than snow.

And I'm glad one day He did that for me.

If you're lost and undone without God here today,

He can do it for you.

Amen.

I see the relationship of this love.

He says that we should be called

the sons of God.

You realize this morning your name,

whatever your last name is,

it identifies you with a family.

My last name is Waters.

When I was born June 9, 1980

in Little Rock, Arkansas,

there was no discussion about

what my last name was going to be.

No doubt they probably had already decided

and picked between some first names for me

and I'm real glad they chose something normal

like Daniel and didn't get weird with me.

Some people weren't so blessed.

Some people were wondering

what was mom and dad smoking

when they gave me that name.

Thankfully I got a fairly normal name.

A Bible name.

But my last name was already settled.

Because my dad's last name was Waters.

And his dad's last name was Waters.

And so on down the line

it was already settled.

So that name, it identifies me

with the Waters family.

Your last name, whatever it is,

it identifies you with your family.

But I'm glad this morning

there's a God in heaven

that wanted to identify me

as His own child

and He's willing to identify me

as His own child.

Even when I'm foolish.

Even when I make blunders

and I do dumb things.

I'm still His child.

I'm glad to be identified

as a child of God.

The manner of Calvary's love.

Let me say secondly this morning

I see the manifestation of Calvary's love.

Go back to chapter number 4 there

and look at verse number 9.

Chapter 4 and verse number 9.

In this was manifested

the love of God toward us.

And because that God sent

His only begotten Son

into the world

that we might live through Him.

That word manifest, Webster

defines it as clearly visible

to the eye

or obvious to the understanding.

Not obscure or difficult

to be seen or understood.

You realize this morning

because you've got a Bible

and because God has dealt with every man

the measure of faith.

You know what you can do?

You can look in this book

and you can clearly see

the love of God

manifested through His Son.

Jesus Christ and what He did

at Calvary.

It is clearly seen

through the eye of faith.

It doesn't mean that this love

was not in existence

before Calvary

but it was unseen.

It was veiled.

Throughout the Old Testament

of your Bible

you can read through there

and you see types and glimpses

and foreshadows of things to come.

But I'm glad over here

on this side of Calvary

it's not just a glimpse.

It's not a foreshadow.

It's not a type.

But we see through faith in Scripture

what Jesus did for us that day

and how God loved us

in sending His Son

to do that for us.

It's manifested.

Paul wrote in Romans 5 verse 8

that God commended His love toward us

and that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for us.

And by the way

God's love for sinners

is never separated.

From the sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

If you read about God's love

for this world

it's always attached to the death

and suffering of His Son.

You can't know the love of God

without knowing His Son

and what He did at Calvary.

But I'm glad this morning

God made His love for us known

at Calvary.

Lastly this morning

I see the movement

of Calvary's love.

It's something that is in action.

It's something that's in motion.

I'll explain that a little bit more

in a second but look there

in chapter 4 in verse number 10.

Herein is love

not that we love God

but that He loved us

and sent His Son

to be the propitiation

for our sins.

In verse number 19 says

we love Him.

Because we're so good

and holy and sanctified

and wonderful

and delightful

joyful and triumphant

No, we love Him

because He first loved us.

That's the only way we can love Him.

It's because He first loved us.

It's a love that moved towards us.

See God's love for humanity

it moved Him to step out of eternity.

And to step into time

to demonstrate His love for lost sinners.

It moved Him to step away

from a place of perfection

and wonder and holiness

to condescend to a world

of pollution and perversion

and ungodliness and suffering

and He did that just to demonstrate

His love for lost humanity.

It's love in action.

Matter of fact

it's both doing and done.

You say preacher

how can it be both?

How can it be doing and done?

Well I'll say it like this.

It's done in the sense that

Calvary was a one time thing.

It happened one time

and it'll never happen again.

Jesus cried on the cross

it is finished.

That was His way of saying

the plan is done.

No more sacrifices

no more blood of bulls and goats

no more priest needed.

I mean it is finished.

Redemption's plan.

It's done.

It's finalized.

You can't add to that.

I can't add to that.

You cannot improve

on what Jesus did

at the cross of Calvary.

People are still trying

2,000 years later

but you can't improve

on what Jesus did there that day.

It's done.

No more sacrifice needed.

I even said

and think about the fact

that the verses in the Bible

that talk about God's love

for the world as a whole

they're all in the past tense.

Think about John 3.16

for God so loved the world

that's past tense.

That He gave His only begotten Son

that's past tense.

I'm going to come back to John 3.16

in just a second.

But here's the thing about the love of God

you need to understand.

See the world has a warped idea.

Even much of Christianity

has a warped idea

about the love of God.

See we're in a day

where people want to pick and choose

what parts of the Bible

in Christianity

they want and don't want.

It don't work that way in Christianity.

This isn't Golden Corral.

It's not some kind of glorified buffet

that you just pick and choose

the parts you want.

That's what people are trying to do today.

I like that.

Give me some of that.

But now, yeah.

You know why they do that?

Because parents have raised their kids

that way at the house.

When I was growing up

you ate what was on your plate.

I never one time

sat down at the supper table

and said I don't like that.

I may have said that

but I probably got my jaw smacked

or my rear end busted.

I sure never saw mom one time

get up and go put a microwave pizza

in the microwave

or a corn dog or something

because I said I don't like that.

Now we didn't do that.

We ate what was on the plate.

Now, there's still some things

I don't like.

There's still some things

that I'm not crazy about.

Some foods.

So if I go to the buffet

I'm not going to get those things.

Like give me that, give me that, give me that.

I don't want that.

Now if you were to have me at your house

and you fixed a meal for me

and you fixed my plate

I'm going to sit down

and I'm going to eat whatever's on that plate

whether I like it or not.

And I'm going to be thankful.

I'm going to be thankful for it.

But see now what we've got is people

they come to the Bible

and they come to church

and they say well I like that

but now I don't want that.

Yeah I want to hear about the blessings

but now don't talk about obedience

and submission to God.

I want to hear about heaven

but don't talk to me about hell.

I don't want to hear about that place.

Tell me about the love of God

but now I don't want to hear about

the wrath of God

or the judgment of God

but you can't.

You can't have one without the other brother.

It's either all or nothing.

And we got a lot of people

they just want to pick and choose.

That's carnal Christianity right there.

That's shallow Christianity.

You need to learn to eat everything on your plate.

Brother Bolton gets up here

and preaches a message

and it makes you happy.

Hallelujah.

Shout the victory.

What a blessing.

But if you come in the next week

and he drops the plow

and he's ripping on sin

and I mean he's laying it out

straight.

He's nailing it to the wall

and you're getting your toes all stepped on.

Swallow that too.

Amen.

You want to know why churches like Joel Osteen

and Lakewood's filling up?

Because he just gives the people

a bunch of sugar

and a bunch of sweets

and a bunch of cotton candy

but they ain't getting filled up.

They're not growing.

Amen.

It's stagnant.

It's stale.

It may taste a little bit sweet

for a few minutes

but it ain't going to get you through the trials.

It ain't going to get you through

the storms of life.

Amen.

But I mean the preaching of the Word of God.

Preaching the whole counsel of God.

It'll help you every time.

I was preaching.

I'm still talking about the love of God.

I was preaching

a couple years ago out in Texas.

Well, we're in Texas.

North Texas.

Preaching on hell one night.

A young lady met me in the foyer

after the service.

She said,

Brother,

Waters,

how do you think God,

a loving God,

could allow anybody to go to hell?

I said,

young lady,

it's like this.

God sent heaven's best.

He sent His Son.

He sent the greatest gift

this world's ever known.

He died the most awful,

tragic death

for the sins of all mankind.

I said,

and for somebody to live their whole life

rejecting that

and refusing that

and saying no to that,

when you die

and you're

you stand before God

as a lost person

at the white throne judgment,

that day,

you're not going to be looking

in the eyes of love.

You're not going to be looking

in the eyes of mercy.

As He says those words

to the lost,

depart from me,

ye cursed,

into everlasting fire.

No, no,

it's not going to be

eyes of love that day.

I'm saying this,

if you want to know

the love of God,

this is the time.

Now is the time.

Don't wait until it's too late.

See,

the world

and even a lot of Christianity,

they try to promote

a love that is very unbalanced.

They talk about the love of God,

but they don't tell you

the other side of that thing.

Right now,

He offers His love.

It is available to everyone

that will receive it.

But if you reject it,

it ain't going to work out

too good for you in the end.

Now is the time.

It is the time

to know the love of God.

We're talking about

love and action.

It is done in that sense,

but we're talking about

John 3, 16,

for God so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son.

It's past tense,

but watch how the tense changes

in the middle of the verse,

that whosoever believeth in Him

should not perish,

but have everlasting life.

I'm saying that part of John 3, 16,

the first part,

it's done,

but yet it's still doing

in the second part.

You know why?

Because every time a sinner

who's lost and undone without God,

every time he gets under conviction

and realizes he's a lost sinner

and he needs to be saved

and he trusts Jesus Christ,

what was done some 2,000 years ago,

it starts in motion all over again.

What was done many years ago,

it starts doing all over again

for every lost sinner

that'll come to Jesus

in faith and repentance.

It's both doing,

and done.

And if you'll,

He's already made a move toward you.

Now, if you'll make a move toward Him,

that cross and that love,

it's in action all over again.

Brother Lester Roloff,

many years had homes down in Texas,

and again, I keep forgetting I'm in Texas today.

We go a lot of places, y'all.

It's Texas.

This week and Georgia next week

and New York the week after that.

That's evangelism.

So sometimes I don't even know where I'm at.

But we are in Texas, right?

Somebody, yeah, okay, yeah.

Just making sure.

He had homes many years down in Corpus Christi

and he tried to help troubled young people,

boys and girls and men and women.

And he would take some of them girls

around to churches with him

when he would preach.

And he'd put them girls up in a choir loft like this

and they would sing a song.

He would sing to them.

And they would sing back to him.

He'd sing,

Tell me, do you love Jesus?

They'd sing back,

Oh, yes, I love Jesus.

Are you sure you love Jesus?

Yes, I'm sure I love Jesus.

Tell me why you love Jesus.

This is why I love Jesus.

Because He first loved me.

Oh, how I love Jesus.

Because He first loved me.

You know the writer of that old hymn there,

Oh, How I Love Jesus?

He wasn't just writing about how much He loved Jesus.

He was writing about how He could love Jesus.

We love Him because He first loved us.

This morning I'm just trying to tell you that I'm glad

that there's a God in heaven that loves me

and He has shown His love to this whole world.

It's available to all.

If you'll just come to the end of yourself and trust Him.

And if you ever get in that love, you ain't getting out of it.

Amen.

I'm glad this morning as His child,

I'm kept by the power of God.

I'm in His hand and I ain't getting out.

You ain't going to jump out.

You ain't going to fall out.

You ain't going to slip out.

He's got a big hand and He's got a good grip on His children.

And I'm glad that He loves me.

He loves me on my good days,

but thank God He loves me on my bad days.

He loves me on Sunday, but He still loves me on Monday.

He loves me when I get it right,

and He still loves me when I get it wrong.

He loves me when everything's going good,

but He still loves me

when everything seems to be going bad.

Amen.

He loves me when the Republicans are in office,

and He still loves me when the Democrats are in office.

He loves me with an everlasting love.

I'm glad one day I got in that love,

and I ain't getting out.

Amen.

I'm glad to know today that He loves me

even though I don't deserve it.

He loves me even though I didn't have enough money to buy it.

He loves me even though I'm not highly educated.

He loves me, and I'm glad.

Thank God that He loves me like He does.

Kyla Rowland wrote a song many years ago.

She wrote a lot of good songs.

She's in heaven now,

but I guess one of my favorites,

that first verse said,

I started a journey many years ago

looking for rest and peace for my soul.

I found it at Calvary,

and truly I say,

it's satisfied then and gets better each day.

You can't beat the love of God.

But have you trusted Him yet?

Are you saved?

If not, it'd be a good day to get saved.

A good day just to trust Him,

and not just know about His love,

but actually experience this love.

Let me ask you this.

You say, preacher, I know I'm saved.

That is settled.

Hallelujah.

Do you appreciate what He did for you?

Do you give attention to what He did for you?

Are you beholding this manner of love?

Or is it just something you got settled 40 years ago

and you haven't thought about it since?

If it's been a while,

you might want to find you a place at this altar

and just love on Him a little bit.

And the sweet thing is,

is He'll love on you back.

And if you're lost today,

if you'll just come to Him and trust Him,

He'll save you.

Let's stand at our feet if you're able this morning.

Lord, I pray you'll bless the invitation.

I pray that hearts have been helped today.

Maybe somebody was a little bit discouraged

when they came to church this morning.

I hope they've been encouraged.

But if there's one here today that's lost,

I pray they'd get saved before it's too late.

I pray they'd get that settled.

Have your will and way in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you need to come this morning,

stay playing and sing today.

Just talk to the Lord.

Do business with Him.