I misplaced my puffer. So I'm going to have to order
me a new one. So if you hear me coughing, it's just my asthma. Just my asthma. Boy, I'm all ready to preach.
I got my message there, and I'm ready to go. We got to sing first,
though, don't we? Oh, my. Well, please remember Brother
Kevin Kirkpatrick in your prayers. He's at home, his knees bothering
him again. And he had it replaced twice, or he had it replaced
once, and then the unit broke. And then he had to get another
one put in. And they're not sure if they're going to have to do
something else again now. He's in a lot of pain. So please remember
him. Doctors told him to stay off his leg and stay home for
a little while from work. So please keep the whole family
in prayer if you could. And continue to pray for Brother
Newell and Sister Pat. And pray for Jason and Jerry. Keep them in your prayers too.
And lift one another up. We need prayer, don't we? each
one of us. We may not tell each other that
we need prayer, but there's always something, always something to
pray for, isn't there? Always someone to pray for. If
you don't have anything to pray for about yourself, then pray
for one of our church members or pray for the messages as they
go out and pray for the church too. And so we always have quite
a few things that we can give glory to God for. And wasn't
that conference wonderful? I'll tell you. That was one of
the most wonderful conferences I think we've had since I've
been here. It was just to see everybody together too and the
unity within the body and those messages that Donnie brought
forth were just outstanding. Just outstanding. And it was
good to reconnect with my dear brother. I hadn't connected with
him for about, well, we hadn't seen each other in the flesh
for about eight years. And so that was too long. So I asked
him to come up next year. He said, what? Really? And I'm
like, yeah. And he said, yes. So we already
got our first conference speaker for next year again. It'll be
Brother Donnie. And Lord willing, we'll see if
we'll have another one down the road to come up with him. But just to let you know, I already
invited him back. And I told him I wanted that
to be the first of many, Lord willing, be the first of many
visits. It was just such a blessing.
I just thought that everything was just amazing. Thank you,
ladies, for all that you've done. Everything went so smoothly.
It was just incredible. It was awesome. I know I'm going
off, aren't I? Things like that. Conferences
make your pastor proud just to see the body at work in unity.
It's just absolutely amazing. And that's the stuff that just
really You know, yeah, that's right, Rowan, that's right. So,
even he agrees with us, right? So, okay, let's sing our song
here. We gotta sing At the Cross, number
129. We haven't sang that one for
a while, so I thought it'd be a blessing for us to sing this
song. 129, At the Cross. Let's stand
up and sing to our great and glorious God. I'm there I first saw the light,
and the burden on my heart grew heavy. It was there I first,
I received my sight, and now I am perfectly all clear. I was in the ? That I had done ? ? He rolled
up on the tree ? ? Amazing grace ? ? How nice the sound ? ? That
saved a wretch like me ? ? Where I've heard the song of light
? ? And the words from my heart ? ? Holy, holy, holy ? ? In those
days of my faith ? ? I received my saint ? ? And now I am worthy
of him ? ? Lord of my destiny ? where I've heard a song like
? In the burning of my heart, holy
? ? It was there that I met, I received, I served ? ? And
now I am worthy of your name ? ? Oh God, so great is your
love ? in everything, the debt of the Bible. Here, Lord, I give myself fully. It is all that I can do. It was there at my feet I received
my Savior, and now I am worthy of His praise. Brother Travis has the reading
today. It's Psalm 148. Wonderful, wonderful Psalm. This psalm talks about praise
to the Lord. We were talking in Sunday school
about the tongue, how the tongue can be so hurtful, but with God's
deliverance to us to give praises to God and the tongue can give
praise to God, so let us do that. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise
ye him, all his angels. Praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heaven
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He hath
also established them forever and ever. He hath made a decree
which shall not pass. Praise ye the Lord from the earth,
ye dragons in all depths, fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy
winds fulfilling his word, mountains and all the hills, fruitful trees
and all cedars, beasts and all the cattle, creeping things and
flying fowl. kings of the earth and all the
people, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men
and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and heavens. He also exalteth the horns of
his people and prays of all his saints, even of the children
of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord. Let
us praise. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you
for giving us this opportunity to gather together. Thank you
for putting into our hearts the desire to praise you, for you
deserve our praise. We are so undeserving of everything
that you do for us, and yet we sometimes are so ungrateful.
So let us continue to praise you. Be with the pastor, give
him the words and message you want us to have. Be with those
that are unable to be here through sickness or whatever situation
may be. Be with those that are traveling
and provide them with safety. We ask these things in Jesus'
name, amen. Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter 14. And we'll read
the whole chapter, which is 9 verses in length. It is the closing
words of the book of Hosea. In verses 4 to 9, we will see
a cluster of the promises of God. And remember, beloved of God,
that all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ for
we who are the people of God. And I want you to remember, too,
who's speaking. The one who will be speaking
these words is the Lord, Jehovah. the self-existent One, the One
who inhabits eternity, the One who is at mercy on His
people in Christ. Hosea, chapter 14, verses 1 to
9. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with
you words and turn to the Lord, saying to him, take away all
iniquity and receive us graciously, so we will render the calves
of our lips. Asher shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ye
are our gods, for indeed the fatherless find it mercy. And look what the Lord says here.
I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from them. What a promise. What a promise. I will be as
the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. They shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do anymore with idols? I have heard him and observed
him. I am like a green fir tree. For me is thy fruit found. Who
is wise? He shall understand these things,
prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are
right, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressor
shall fall therein. Today, we will consider the truth about
the love of God. We will consider the truth about
the love of God. Whom does our great God love?
The name of the message is love freely. Well, we see the answer to the
question I just asked in verse 4. He loves his people. And how
does he love his people? Oh beloved, he loves us freely. Look what it says. I will hear
their backs sliding. I will love them freely. Freely. Why? For my anger is turned away
from him. God loves his people freely,
and his anger is turned away from us. How can that be so? We're sinners, aren't we? All
we deserve is the wrath of God. All we deserve is the righteous
anger of God, don't we, in our natural state. That's what we
deserve. But God tells us here that he
loves his people freely. Now, God loving freely is the
only suitable way that God can love us, because
God loves us. based upon nothing inside us.
Nothing we do, nothing we say, no actions, no works, because
there's nothing in us that would cause him to love us. Is there? So the scripture declares that
he loves us freely, despite who we are. Isn't that incredible? None of us deserve this mercy. That's why you always hear me
say we don't get what we deserve. We don't get what we deserve.
Now, let us consider this word freely in the English dictionary.
I looked it up. This word is defined in the English
dictionary as not under the control of another. Not under the control of another.
Well, what does that do when people say, well, God wants to
save you, but he can't unless you let him. If that was the situation, then
God's under the control of a sinner, isn't he? But this scripture
brings forth that he's not under the control of anyone. And it also says he's not under
the control of another as one wishes. He's not at our beck and call. Now, for believers, He hears
our prayers, doesn't He? And He answers our prayers. But
if man thinks that God is up there just wringing His hands
because we won't let Him save him, they don't know the God
of the Bible. Because it says here that He
loves us freely. And you know what else it means
in English? Without restriction. There's
nothing in us that would cause Him to love us without restriction. So think of that. Think of how
much He loves us without restriction. His love is boundless towards
us. There's no restrictions on His love for us. He loves us
freely, without any cause in ourselves, and He loves us, beloved,
without restriction. That's incredible. No restrictions at all. And it also says, or interference. Now that's a blessing. No one
can interfere or cause him not to love his people, including us. Well, that sure goes against
religion nowadays, doesn't it? Oh my. I love what Bruce Crabtree
said, and I've held on to this. He said, we cannot mess up God's
salvation. You know why? Because it's he
who saves us, not we ourselves. And that's what this verse is
bringing forth, that he loves us freely, unconditionally, no
conditions within ourselves, unrestricted. And no one can stop it. And God loves His people without
restriction. He's chosen us in Christ, hasn't
He, before the foundation of the world. He did that. Freely. Without restriction and
without condition. He didn't look down through time
and see who would choose Him. No. Because again, then that
would be a cause within the sinner. But there was no cause for Him
to love us in us. He looked down through time and
saw everyone dead in trespasses and sins, and He chose to have
mercy on this person, and He chose to have mercy on this person,
and on this person. Put your name in there. Isn't
that incredible? So God's love for His people
is without restriction. It all springs from the heart
of God. all according to His mercy and
grace, and it's not based upon anything in us. And He does not
continue to love us because of anything we've done. He loves us with an eternal love,
an unchanging love. Now, that's incredible, because
in this world, men and women can get married, and they can
have a love, and then all of a sudden, in a few years later,
they don't love each other, they say, anymore. But you know, God never says
that. He doesn't say, well, Wayne, you know, you blew it a thousand times a day, and I
don't love you anymore. No. And the marvelous thing about
it is our sin's against him, and yet he still loves us as
his people. You know why? Because his anger's
been turned away. We saw that, look at that verse
again. I will hear their backsliding, I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from him or her. God's wrath is turned away from
his people. How? How can that be? Because God's wrath must be satisfied,
right? It must be. How can it be that
his anger, his righteous anger, and remember, this is righteous
anger, this isn't man's anger. This is righteous anger without
sin. How can that be turned away? By the death and the doing and
the complete, perfect, sin-atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in our place as our substitute. Absolutely wonderful. God says this. For thou art not
a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with
thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight, and thou hatest
all the workers of iniquity. And God hates the workers of
iniquity. You ever hear this? God loves everyone, but hates
the sin. Well, not according to scripture.
It says in Psalm five, five, the fool shall not stand in my
sight. They'll hate us all workers of iniquity. Someone's got it wrong and it's
not God. Right. Therefore, the only way to God. The only way for God to love
us freely is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're
in Christ, from the foundation of the world, he loves you. Now we don't know who those people
are, so the gospel, we preach the gospel to everyone, right?
God does the saving. But the call goes out to all,
it's called the general call, it goes out. Flee to Christ,
he's the only hope for sinners. And you know the one who makes
it effectual? God, the Holy Spirit, right? He's the one who makes
it effectual, and he draws those who he's loved freely from before
the foundation of the world, and he draws them to Christ and
gives them, regenerates them, and gives them faith and repentance
before God. It's amazing. It really is amazing. It's absolutely incredible. Turn,
if you would, to 1 John 2. The Lord declares in that verse
that we looked at there in Hosea, that His anger has been turned
away from a certain people, His people. It says again, I'll read
it again. I will heal their backsides, I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from Him. Now, every one of us broke
God's law, and we did it willingly. And we know to offend in one
point, the law is to break it all, right? We saw that in our
study in the book of James. You offend in one point, you're
guilty of all. So then what does that say about
we humans? We're guilty of all. We broke every law of God, haven't
we? We have. Someone says, well, I've never
killed anyone, but you got angry with them in your mind, haven't
you? And the Lord spiritualized that law and said, you've just
killed your brother. My, oh my. So then it brings
us, we're all guilty, aren't we? Every one of us. Look at
this marvelous verse, though, in 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2. I love this. I love this portion
here. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate. Oh, we have an advocate, beloved.
We have an advocate before God. Who is he? Well, look at his
name. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. the
righteous. He's the righteous one. He's
the perfect one. He's the sinless one. And then
it says, and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world, all who would
believe upon him. Look at that. Propitiation there. means to expiate, which means
to extinguish the wrath of God. He's extinguished God's anger
and wrath against us for our sins. That's why it says in that
verse there, I will love them freely for my anger is turned
away from him. You know why? Think of this,
beloved, that which was due us That wrath of God that was due
us for our sins, we're the guilty ones, fell upon the sinless one,
the one who's not guilty at all. That wrath of God for us fell
upon him. The wrath for all my sins fell
upon him. And he bore it all. He paid for it
all, so much so that God says, my anger's turned away from me. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those in Christ Jesus, no judgment, who walk not after
the flesh but after the spirit. That's good news, isn't it? That's
shouting news. Makes you want to shout. Glory
to God. What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, my Lord. Now let's go back to our text
and remember that This is the Lord Jesus Christ who's speaking
here, too. Remember, all that God says to
man, he says through Christ. So when God's speaking in the
Old Testament, it's it's the word of God speaking. Remember that it's the word of
when Moses was spoken to from the bush, it was the word of
God who spoke to him. When he Moses was hidden in the
cleft of the rock, and God spoke to him on the mountain. It was
the Word of God who spoke to him. Whenever you see the angel
of the Lord, it's the Word of God. It's the Word before he
became flesh. And all that God has to say to
us, He says through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
God, the Word, existed before he became a man. And so that's who's speaking
here. Now, think of this, too. When he says, I will love them
freely for mine anger is turned away from them. He's speaking
there as a righteous and judge, just judge. But he's the very one who's turned
the anger of God away from us. God himself did that. God himself did that. And he's not under control of
anyone, is he? He does whatever he pleases. When the one who appeared to
Abraham was the Word of God, what's called
a Christophany in theological circles. It just means a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ. So the one who spoke to Abraham
showed up with the two angels was the Word of God. The one,
again, who spoke to Moses in the burning bush is the Word
of God. And how do we know that? Remember
he said, before Abraham was, I am? He identified himself as I am
there, didn't he? Well, how did the voice identify
himself from the burning bush? I am. that I am. Tell them, I am sent you. And then he says in John, I believe
it's John chapter 8, before Abraham at the end of the chapter, before
Abraham was, I am. And those Jews picked up stones,
they knew exactly what he was saying. They knew what he was saying. Oh my. The one who appeared to
Joshua, remember? Remember the one who appeared
to Joshua as a man just outfitted in armor with a sword in his
hands? And he said, and Joshua said,
are you for us or against us? He said, nay, but as the captain
of the Lord's host, I am here. And Joshua fell. He was eating
dirt, wasn't he, when he said that? He said, I'm the captain
of the Lord's host. That's the word of God. That's
a Christophany of the word of God. a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. My. So that's who's speaking these
words here. The Word of God speaking to Hosea. And oh, what wonderful
words we see here. Let us just relish these words. I will love them freely, unconditionally,
without restriction. based upon nothing in them. That's
what the word of God says to us here. Why? Because his anger
towards his people has been turned away because their sins have
been extinguished by the Lord Jesus Christ. Their sins have
been bought and paid for, so much so that God says, I'll remember
them no more. And the word freely means something
given without money or without price. And I ask you, is our
salvation not like that? You can't purchase it. No amount
of money in the world will purchase our salvation, none. There's
no price you can put on it, but it comes with a heavy cost, doesn't
it? The death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the death of the righteous
one in our place. Oh, everyone that thirsts, come
ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. A man or a woman gives freely
when they're hoping for nothing again. When you give something
and you're hoping for nothing, that's giving freely. We don't ask for anything in
return when we give freely, do we? We're not looking for anything
in return. And then we find out we're more
blessed to give than to receive. God says, I love you freely.
He says of his people, I love you. It's so clear there. I will. Now think of who's saying this.
This is Jehovah. This is the word of God saying,
I will. That's as good as done. Right? God doesn't lie. He doesn't say, I'll love them
freely until they mess up. Well, no, we're in big trouble
then, right? He says, I will love them freely
for mine anger is turned away from Him. My, oh my. What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And God's love comes to we who
are His people freely. He asks nothing in return. Now, religion says there's all
kinds of things you've got to do, right? You've got to do this,
and you've got to do that to be saved. There's a group out
there that says you must be baptized to be saved. Now, that's hogwash.
That's what that is. Salvation's of the Lord, period.
Right? It's of the Lord. It's unsought
of by the receiver. It's unmerited by the receiver.
We do not deserve it, and we can never pay the price demanded
for it. We can't pay for one of our sins,
let alone all our sins. And Christ Jesus paid the price
that God demanded for all our sins. That's how valuable his
blood is, and that's how valuable we are to him. Remember at Brother
Richard's funeral when we looked at precious in the eyes of the
of God is the death of his saints, that means valuable in the Hebrew.
We're more valuable than the choices gem in this world to
God. That's how valuable we are. We're
so valuable to God that the word of God came to this earth and
became a man and died in our room and place. We're so valuable
to God that he did that for you and I. That's amazing. That's amazing. And God loves his people freely
in Christ. He does not accept our works
as payment for our salvation, no. He loves his people freely
without a cause in us. Without a cause in us. You know
where the cause is found? In himself. Because he's pleased to do so. My, oh my. God says, I will. Look at this, I will. Let's look
at this little verse again. It says, I will. I will. Now
when God says something, when he says, I will, nothing can
alter that. When God says, I will,
nothing and no one can alter that. It's a fact. He says, I will. Love. This is the eternal love of God.
This is a love unlike any love in this world. It's eternal. It comes from the one who is
Jehovah. He says, I will love them. God's elect. God's elect. Chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And then he says, freely,
without a cause. I will love them freely, without
a cause, without any cause in us, all because it pleased Him
to do so. And only in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. God has forgiven us for Christ's
sake, and in Christ Jesus our Lord. So to give freely and to
love freely is without enticement. It's to love without persuasion. We can't persuade God to love
us. We can't cause him to love us.
He loves us because it pleases him to do so. Just let that sink
in. That's something that we can
just roll around in our minds all
week, can't we? It's incredible. This is what
makes this promise so amazing. This is why God's love for his
people is so amazing, because there is no cause in us, no merit
in us, no deserving in us for this great love. And it's a great
love. It's an eternal love. It's an
eternal love. Now we use the word freely when
a favor is conferred without being sought after, such as the
effect of God's love because he has loved us freely, we are
born again by the Spirit of God, by his power. And then we seek
him. See, we don't seek him in our
natural state. We seek him because we're born
again of the Holy Spirit of God. And why are we born again to
the Holy Spirit of God? Well, because Christ died for us. Why
did Christ die for us? Because we were chosen by the
Father in Christ before the foundation of the world. Goes right back to the source,
doesn't it? The love of God. And he has loved us freely from
eternity. I can't really wrap my mind around,
I'll be honest with you, that just make me fizz as I was putting
this message together. Your brain says, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I love them. The love I have
for my family and even for you all doesn't compare to this love,
does it? And God says, I love you without
any conditions, without anything. There's no good in you, but I
still love you. My! Again, this is what makes God's
grace amazing. Christ has redeemed those he
loved freely from eternity. those the Father gave him. He
loves them freely in our text, and because of this great love,
God the Holy Spirit regenerates us, grants us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, gives us repentance before God. We
never had any of that before the Lord saved us, did we? We
weren't repentant before God, before he saved us. We didn't
have faith in Christ. We didn't praise God with our
lips before he saved us. But now, now we have a new heart. And as a result of being freely
loved in this way, and because of the faith given to us, we
trust our eternal souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. We rest and
trust in him. We rest in his finished work.
We rest in the one who redeemed us at Calvary's cross. who purchased
our souls. And we also now clearly see that
salvation's of the Lord, don't we? That it's a gift that he's
given us, based upon nothing in us, just because he loves
us. And he loves us freely. I love that without restrictions. That means his love's unchanging. If there was restrictions on
his love, we'd be in deep trouble, wouldn't we? But there's no restrictions
on his love. What a savior. The one true living
God has loved us freely for eternity, we who are his people. His love
has been set upon us for eternity. Before there was ever a world
or angels, his love was set upon us, beloved. And it's never changed. That's amazing love. And He's
loved us freely from eternity, without condition. Scripture says, here have mercy
on whom here have mercy, right? And compassion on whom here have
compassion. And he has loved his people freely.
And he states that fact right here before us in our text. Our
labor cannot get God to love us. Things we do, our works,
cannot get God to love us. No. No effort on our part will
cause God to love us. No, he loves us freely despite
ourselves, despite the fact that we're sinners. And he states
that fact right here in this text. I will love them freely. for mine anger is turned away
from him." My. Do we deserve this love? Do we deserve this mercy? No. Amen, brothers. He said, nope,
nope. We don't deserve it at all. The
fierceness of the wrath of God is what we deserve. That's what
we deserve. We deserve the fierceness of
the wrath of God. That's what we, by our sins,
that's exactly what we deserve. But you know what? It's been
turned away. It's been extinguished in Christ
for his people. We sing that song, shadow of
a great rock, right? He's our hiding place. We're
hitting him. So think of a big rock in the
desert, in the middle of a desert. I always, when we sing that song,
I always picture a huge rock, gigantic rock like you used to
see in the Oregon coast. Huge rocks, immovable. The waves
crash against it, that rock is still standing there. But I often
think of in the desert in the Middle East, huge rock maybe,
right? And someone goes behind that
and a huge sandstorm just comes flying against that rock. And
that rock just gets beat on and beat on and beat on and beat
on and beat on and beat on and beat on. And the person is safe
behind that rock. That's what Christ did for us.
The wrath of God just. For our sins. Fell upon the sins. That's what makes his word so
great when he said it is finished. God's anger has been turned away
from us, beloved, because it fell upon our Savior in our place. Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer. He purchased
our eternal souls. He extinguished the wrath of
God against us. And therefore, we see in our
text, I will love them freely and mine anger is turned away
from them. What caused Christ to come to this world and die
in our place? What caused him to suffer in our place? What
moved him to satisfy God's law in our place? Well, we see it
right here in our text. I have loved them freely. That's what caused him to come
here. He said, I come to save my people
from their sins. And he did it, didn't he? He
did. But the motivation was this,
I will love them freely. That's an eternal love set upon
his people. And when God says, I will love
them freely, no prayers, no tears, no good works by us, no alms
giving are an inducement to that love. Think of this, you know,
there's nothing in us that would cause God to love us. You know
why, too? Think of this. He loved us from
eternity. We weren't even born. We hadn't even done anything. And he's loved us from then in
Christ. This is sovereign love, beloved.
This is majestic, powerful, almighty love, and it proceeds from the
heart of God. So let us marvel at this. God
loves us because he chooses to love us. So we can therefore conclude
that there's nothing in us that would attract God's love to us.
Nothing in us. We're sinners from the top of
our heads to the bottom of our feet. Where then is the origin
of this love found? We'll turn, if you would, to
Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Where's the
origin of this love found? Because God's love existed before
there was ever a man, right? God's love for us existed before
we ever were. Because we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That means before the
world was even created. As Spurgeon says, before there
were angels and stars, before He created anything, He loved us. This love of God existed before
there was any good in man to consider. Look at this in Romans 9, verses
11-13. for the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth." Look at that. The purpose of God, according
to election, not of works, not by anything we've done. This
is before the children are even born. It was said unto her, the
elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. A vessel of honor and a vessel
of dishonor, right there before our eyes. And then look at Romans
9, 21 to 23, this is bought forth, look at this. Hath not the potter
power over the clay? You ask any potter if the clay
has ever told them that they can't make that clay into something,
they'll look at you like you're from outer space. Right? But yet man thinks that
man reigns over God in salvation. Look what it says here. had not the potter of power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory? Now, that's God's word. That's
not my opinion. You read these things to people
sometimes, and they say, well, I don't believe that. Well, then you
don't believe the Word of God. Your problem's not with me. Your
problem's with the Word of God. And I delight in this. I'm amazed
that God has vessels of honor, vessels of mercy, and that I'm
one of them. No cause in me. to be a vessel
of mercy, no cause in you to be a vessel of mercy. And yet
God's people are vessels of mercy, prepared unto glory. When did
he prepare that? When we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Well, some people say,
well, that's not fair. I'll tell you what, I don't want
fair. I do not want fair. Because fair would be every one
of us is in hell. I praise God for his mercy. So the covenant of grace and
the covenant of works, which we see in the Old Testament,
the covenant of grace in the New Testament, the covenant of works in the
Old Testament, are as far apart as the North Pole is from the
South. The Old Covenant says, do this and live. The New Covenant
says, look to Christ and live. Look to the one who's accomplished
the work of salvation. in our living eternally as God's
people is a result of God loving us from eternity, is a result
of what this verse brings forth, the fact that he loves us freely
because his anger has been turned away from us. Remember, Christ
is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That which came to pass in time
is all planned and purposed by God in eternity. And we cannot stand before God
on the grounds of our goodness, because there's none good, the
scripture says. Right? We're all guilty before God.
The law has found us all guilty. And if we have the love of God
spread abroad in our hearts, then we have it freely from God.
It's been given to us. It's been given to us. He is
the origin of this love brought forth in this verse. God is the
one who's loved us freely. And the love of God that's in
our hearts for our brethren, the love that we have for our
brethren, the love that we have for the gospel, the love that
we have for Christ, all comes from Him. All comes from Him. It's a fruit of the Spirit. Scripture
says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If God stands bargaining with
man, saying, I will bless you if you do this, or if, if, if,
if, if, then that love's not freely given then. Because it's
conditioned on something they do. God's love is set forth in the
scripture to be greatly admired. Why? Because his ways are not
our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. His thoughts
are higher than the heavens, beloved. And his ways are higher
than our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
If God loved a man or a woman because of something in us, then
there would be nothing commendable or wonderful about that love.
Right? But the fact that he loves us,
the fact that he loves us when there's absolutely nothing in
us to deserve that love, This is wondrous love. This is wondrous
love. The fact that he loves us freely,
this makes God's love amazing. The fact that there's no cause
in us, this makes God's love amazing. Remember, we love him
because he first loved us, right? When did he first love us? from before the foundation of
the world in Christ, yeah, in eternity. So if there's something good
in man, some virtue or any acceptable faith, then man ought to be loved
by God. Or God would be unjust, right?
But because, beloved, there's nothing great about loving a
man, there's nothing great about loving a man because he deserves
to be loved. There's nothing great about that. But for God
to love, but for God to love a man who is bad, a man who's
evil, from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot, for
a man to love God like that, when there's every reason to
hate him, that's wondrous love, isn't it? That's wondrous love. We're sinners from the top of
our head to the bottom of our feet. We're bad. We're evil. And yet God loves his people
with an unchanging, unrestricted love. It's amazing, isn't it? It's
amazing. Who made us to differ, beloved? God made us to differ. He made
us to differ. Who has he made us to differ
in? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? Nothing in ourselves. We're just
like everybody else in our natural state. And our text is telling
us here that he loves us freely, without a cause, and it all originates
in the heart of God. God the Father, remember, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the three are one, right? God the Father loves us freely,
God the Son loves us freely, and God the Holy Spirit loves
us freely. They're all God. Oh my. Jehovah the Father, Jehovah
the Son, the Word of God, and Jehovah the Spirit, God the Holy
Spirit, they all love us. Now let us consider the practical
use of this wonderful promise here. This is a death blow to
anyone who's trying to go about to establish their own righteousness. This is a death blow to anyone
trying to make themselves acceptable before God by something they
do. God will love God will love us not for any
merit in us, because we have no merit before God and Him.
No, He loves His people freely. Again, there's nothing we can
do that can make God love us. He loves us freely. And this promise, this doctrine
that God loves His people freely, it gives us comfort, doesn't
it? This is a comforting doctrine.