Love God
A Sermon on John 5:42
Originally preached June 1, 1958
Scripture
42But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
Sermon Description
The fatal blow for the soul is to divide one’s belief in God and Jesus. In this sermon on John 5:42 titled “Love God,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones now sets the stage to consider once again the Jews and their rejection of Jesus. A glorious miracle is the backdrop for the narrative of John 5. This miracle allows Jesus to come to the front of the scene and declare His equality with God. His opening lines in the story include the invitation to come to Him and believe in Him, because to know Him is to know God. The crowd of Jews scoff at His words. Dr. Lloyd-Jones offers reasons for the Jews’ rejection, and ultimately the sinners’ rejection of Christianity. He shows how the rejection goes deeper into the heart and soul. The Jews were entrenched in their belief only in God to the destruction of their own soul. Why were they, along with all sinners, so bound in rejection? Rejection of Jesus stems from a lack of love for God. The tender affections of the heart are cold towards Him. In this sermon, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones provides tests to measure one’s love for God and warns that the soul cannot be divided.
Sermon Breakdown
- The test to apply is the test of love. Do we love God?
- We must love God as he is, not just parts of him that we like. We must accept him in his entirety.
- We must love God with our whole being - heart, soul, mind and strength. Our whole life must be devoted to him.
- We show our love for God by keeping his commandments and not loving what he hates, like the world and sin.
- We can know we love God if we appreciate his gifts, especially the gift of Jesus. Do we receive Jesus with joy?
Sermon Q&A
Understanding the Love of God According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones identify as the real problem with the Jews who opposed Jesus?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, the fundamental problem with the Jews who opposed Jesus was that they did not have the love of God in them. He quotes Jesus' words from John 5:42: "I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you." Despite their claims to know and worship God, and their opposition to Jesus based on their belief that He was breaking God's law, Jesus identified that they lacked true love for God. They had an intellectual conception of God but did not truly know Him or love Him.
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones differentiate between believing in God and loving God?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones makes a clear distinction between merely believing in God and loving God. He points out that even "the devils believe and tremble" (James 2:19), so belief alone is insufficient. The true test is love. He states: "Belief in God is not the important thing... The test is, do we love God." He emphasizes that God doesn't merely call us to believe in Him but to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, as Jesus identified as the greatest commandment. Many people, including those who go to hell, believe in God, but what God requires is love.
What is the first test Dr. Lloyd-Jones gives to determine if we truly love God?
The first test Dr. Lloyd-Jones provides is whether we love God as He is, in His entirety. He explains that true love doesn't pick and choose aspects of God that we like while rejecting others. He says: "To love God at all is to love him as he is, to love him entirely." Many people accept God's love and mercy but reject His justice, holiness, and wrath. Dr. Lloyd-Jones argues that this selective approach reveals a lack of true love for God. Love doesn't discriminate or analyze; it embraces the whole person as they are.
According to the sermon, how does loving God with all our mind manifest itself?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that loving God with all our mind means finding our greatest intellectual delight in contemplating the attributes of God. He says: "This means that your greatest delight is to contemplate the glorious attributes of God. That there is no greater pleasure that you ever have in the realm of mind and of intellect than to be reading about God in this book." It involves meditating on God's glory, majesty, power, love, mercy, grace, holiness, and compassion. It means being amazed at His works in creation and throughout history, and delighting in reading and thinking about Him.
What relationship does Dr. Lloyd-Jones establish between loving God and loving the world?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones establishes an inverse relationship between loving God and loving the world. Quoting 1 John, he states: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." He also cites James: "The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God." He explains that the world is dominated by sin, lust, and desire, and is opposed to God. Therefore, someone who truly loves God will not love the world's values, pleasures, and systems, but will see through its "glamour and glittering show."
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones connect accepting God's gift of Jesus Christ with loving God?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones presents accepting God's gift of Jesus Christ as the ultimate test of whether we love God. He says: "How may I know that I love God? Well, it is that I look at his most priceless gift and I receive him with open arms." He argues that just as we value gifts from those we love, if we truly love God, we will cherish His greatest gift—His Son. He points out the contradiction in claiming to believe in God while rejecting or being indifferent to Christ's sacrifice, saying: "What's the point of talking about believing in God if you don't accept the greatest thing that even he can do?" True love for God will manifest in being overwhelmed by the love demonstrated through Christ's sacrifice.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.