Love God
A Sermon on John 5:42
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?
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.