We finally concluded last week's
book of Galatians. We'll see about where we'll go
next, what book we'll go next year, but until then we'll kind
of just preach on different topics. As I was thinking this week about
what to preach about, I kind of was tossed back and forth
on three or four different topics. But for some reason this morning,
whenever I woke up, the Lord just really kind of impressed
upon my heart and was on my mind. I mean, from the moment I woke
up this morning, I got up, grabbed my clothes to go in and started
getting ready this morning. I mean, it was just right immediately
on my mind this morning, this passage. So I just figured that's
where the Lord wanted me to go. So after I got all ready and
everything, I went downstairs and gathered a few verses and
thoughts on this passage. We're going to talk today about
the love of God and I'll just say at the outset of
this, I am in no way, shape, or form up to the ability or the knowledge
or the wisdom or the depth to fully discuss and preach on this
subject. It is such a vast subject. immense
subject, it's such a mysterious subject that I'll just be honest
with you, I claim no, thank you, I claim no expertise in these
things. I only can preach as the Lord
has brought me to see and understand, and I hope that it is within
the truth. Now, there's a lot of misconception
about God's love being preached today, being taught today in
the churches of the world, the modern
day churches. Everything's about God's love,
God's love, God's love. And we know the Bible does say
that God is love. That is an attribute of God that's
characteristic of God. God is love and we believe that.
And a lot of times I guess people don't really think we believe
that because they don't really seem to hear us teach that very
often. But it's because we don't teach
it and preach it in the way that the modern churches teach and
preach God's love. We don't preach and teach God's
love as this ooey-gooey attraction or feeling towards people. That's not what God's love is.
It's not how the Bible defines God's love. It's not about what
we think about what God's love is. It's what does the testimony
of God's word say about God's love. And that's how we are to
believe it. We are to believe what the truth
or the record says about God's love. And so whenever we look through
scripture and we, as we have in many times past, we discover
passages that teach us on God's love and what God's love is,
how God's love is shown, and to whom God's love is shown,
then we begin to formulate a doctrine or we see that Christ has given
us a doctrine or a teaching within his scriptures on God's love. He has revealed God's love. Christ has revealed God to us,
whether He's revealed God in His own person as in the flesh,
or as He has given it to us as the Word. Here we have the Word
of God, who is also Christ. Christ has given us His words
by His Spirit. And so we have the very testimony
of God of who He is. And so that testimony supersedes
all testimonies. That testimony supersedes all
other things and we gain our understanding of God's love not
by the world, not by modern churches, not by commentators and creeds
and confessions and psychology, not by our feelings and things. We get our understanding of God
and His love, particularly that we'll be talking about today,
by the Word of God. And so we let that be our guide,
we let that be our instruction. And so often whenever we preach
of God's love, and as we'll see today in these passages that
the Lord has brought to my mind, at least, if we get to them,
we see that God's love in the death or the substitutionary
work of Jesus Christ. That's how God shows his love
to people, is through substitutionary atonement, substitutionary death,
substitutionary life and obedience. Christ's substitutionary work
is God's love towards his people. And whenever we preach the gospel,
whenever we preach God's electing love, whenever we preach God's
particular redemption, whenever we preach God's predestination
to adoption, God's predestination of all things actually, but God's
predestination particularly to salvation, His determining the
destinies of of people and especially the people of his loved, his
elect. Whenever we preach those things,
and to most people that becomes abrasive because they don't believe
in election, they don't believe in predestination, they don't
believe that Christ only died for his people, they don't believe
that it is effectual and not by their decision. Whenever we
preach the true gospel that is antithetical towards the modern
quote-unquote gospels of today, which are truly just false gospels.
Whenever we preach those things, to them it's foolishness. To
them it's not love. We're not preaching love. You're
preaching something else besides love. You should be preaching
how God loves everybody, not how God is doing this or doing
that or is seclusive to these people only and loves these people
only, that God loves everybody just the same. But brethren,
we got a bare record of what the scriptures say. And today
we see in our passage that we have before us and in the few
that I have gathered, we have what the Bible teaches about
this love. And so we want to share the truth
of God's love and not what man wants to hear. See, it's not
going to do me any good to stand up here and tell you what you
want to hear. Okay, what the natural man wants
to hear, I should say. You know, the child of God, the
child of grace, they want to hear what's true about God and
what's true about His love, what's true about Christ and His salvation.
They want to hear that. They desire that. That inner
man longs and feeds off of those things. But the natural man,
it doesn't like these things. It's foolishness to him. He doesn't
care for it. And listen, the people that are
not the children of God, the reprobates of this world, They
will never love this message. They will never love these truths
because they have no capacity to love them. They have no spiritual
life that feeds off of spiritual things. Now, with that said,
the passage that I want to read today here in Jeremiah, there's
a lot to be said about the temporal, historical aspect of this passage
with Israel coming out of exile, of the things that's going on
among the children of Israel in the natural, okay? There's
a lot to be said. There's a lot of history that
we can learn. There's a lot of life lessons that we can learn
about these things. But, brother, whenever we read
these things in the Old Testament, always remember they are to speak
of Christ. They're to point us to Christ.
We're to preach Christ Jesus from these Old Testaments. We're
not here just to give a history lesson, okay? You can read your
Bible And you can get in the Old Testament and study and learn
what the historical record is saying about what happened to
Israel and the people and all that. You can read that. But
we want to, this morning, we want to, as the letter to the
Corinthians, as Paul wrote, we want to not come in the words
and wisdom of man, but we want to preach and teach spiritual
things unto spiritual. We want to compare spiritual
things with spiritual. So today we want to look at the
spiritual aspect of this, not necessarily the historical, temporal
aspect of this passage. Now truly, again, as I said,
this passage comes right in the middle of a lot of historical
things happening to Israel, happening by the prophets, Jeremiah writing
these things, and the work of Hosea, and the exile of the people,
the ten tribes that has vanished, Judah and Israel being being
kept and there's just a lot of stuff that's going on here. But
brother, we want to look deeper than that. We want to look into
the spiritual aspects of that. And so I'm going to start reading
that verse one and I'm going to read down to verse three. It says at the same time, said
the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel and
they shall be my Now, let's keep in mind, and I'm going to stop
there just for a brief second, and remind us, all throughout
the Bible, God declares to His people, and by the way, this
Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a book that has been written
not only to these specific people, and it was written directly to
them. I mean, there is a context into
which they were written to them. But the Bible tells us it's also
for us. We can learn from these things.
We can understand things. There's principles. There's facts
about God. There's the testimony of Christ. All these things are written,
but brethren, this is written for the children of God. It's
not written for the reprobate. This Bible is not written for
those who are not the children of God, it is written for the
children of God, that they might know their God, that they might
know themselves, that they might know the salvation that's been
given to them through the Lord Jesus Christ, how it was accomplished,
how it is handed down to them, and what their future looks like. It teaches about all these things.
And at the center of every bit of it is Jesus Christ. And so
always remember whenever you're reading your Bible, These things
here are for God's people. This is words for them. It's not words for just everybody
that's out there. Everybody thinks, well, hey,
we can just pick up the Bible and read it and understand it.
No, only those who are God's people, who have been given understanding,
who have been converted of the Spirit, who have been quickened
of God, given the Spirit of God in them, and that Spirit has
quickened them and given them repentance to understand and
acknowledge the truth. They are the only ones who can
know the spiritual aspects of this book. And so whenever God
says that he will be a, uh, that they will be a people that he
is going to, uh, I will be the Lord at this time says the Lord,
I, uh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel and they
shall be my people. We hear all throughout scripture.
God talking about this very thing. He said, I will be their God
and they will be my people. I will dwell with them and they
will dwell with me. We hear about this union between
God and his people. Now, remember, whenever we speak
of Israel, even though there was a natural Israel made up
of a nation of people, Whenever the Bible talks about Israel,
especially in the New Testament, whenever we begin to talk about
Israel on the spiritual aspect of these things, Israel represents
all the elect of God. That's every elect person from
Adam down to the last person that will ever be before the
Lord comes. That's the elect of God. That's
who Israel represents. Israel is the whole of all the
elect. Okay. And so there's several
different names that the Bible uses to speak of the elect, whether
it be the elect or whether it be the beloved, whether it speaks
of, uh, of Israel, whether it speaks of Judah, wherever, whenever
it speaks of, uh, of the, the family of God, whenever it speaks
of the church. Okay. The church speaks of the,
of those on this earth that has been gathered up out from among
the elect. And it is made up of gathered
bodies of elect. So it always, at some way, is
describing the elect of God. And he says that he will be a
God to them and they shall be my people. God only has one people. And that is the spiritual Israel
of God. That's who we are talking about.
And we see that throughout the New Testament. And I don't have
time to go back and show all those things, but Paul makes
that very clear in Romans chapters 10 and 11. He makes that very clear. He
says, hath God cast away his people?
God forbid, for I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham and the
tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. See, it's not he hasn't cast
away all of Israel. He's cast away everyone except
those that he has foreknew, the ones that he foreknew. He's not
cast them away. He says, What ye not what the
scripture sayeth of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God
against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
they have downed thy altars, and I am left alone. and thy
seed my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so,
then, at this present time, also there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if by grace, then there's
no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then there's no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which ye seek it for. But the election hath obtained
it, and the rest were blinded." So we see here that Israel is
distinguished between those who are the ones that God foreknew
and the ones that God did not foreknew. We see that also in
chapter 9 when God wrote, "'For they are not
all Israel which are of Israel, They are not all Israel who are
of Israel, which are of Israel, are from the nation Israel. Not
all the people that are in the nation Israel are of the true
and spiritual Israel. He said, neither because they
are the seed of Abraham will the seed of Abraham in the flesh.
Those are all Israelites. If you're a seed of Abraham,
you're an Israelite. The Seagulls make a distinction. There is
a physical seed and there is a spiritual seed. OK, it's not
the physical seed that is the children of God, but it's the
spiritual seed. That's why it says neither because
they're the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac
shall I seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh. These are not the children of
God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
So whenever we speak of Israel in the spiritual aspect or in
the spiritual term, we are speaking of the spiritual children of
God, which are the elect of God. So he says, at the same time,
said the Lord back in Jeremiah, will I be the God of all the
families of Israel and they shall be my people. Now, there is no
ifs, ands, or buts about this. God didn't put this up, I'm sorry
guys, my nose is just itching to death. God did not put this
up for grabs. He didn't give them a choice
and say, here you go, you're either gonna choose me and be
my people or not. Now I know some are gonna go
to the scripture that says, you know, choose you this day whom
you will serve. That is not talking about salvation. That is not talking about being
the elect. That is not talking about eternal
destinies. That is talking about temporal
service to God. Because in that passage, God
gives a warning not only to the wicked, but also to the righteous. That if the righteous forsakes
his righteousness and does that which is wicked, then they too
will die. Okay? So if that's talking about
salvation, then it's saying that there is a way to lose your salvation. And we know the Bible teaches
that we can't lose our salvation. Okay? So this is talking about
the people of God. It's talking about the spiritual
people of God. God is their people. And it says
they shall be my people. How does God know? How does God
have the how can God say they shall be my people? Well, that's
because he is predestinated before the foundation of the world,
those who would be his. He is declared before the foundation
of the world that he would have a people for himself and in love
he has elected these people and given them to Christ and that
Christ would redeem these people that these people would be his
people. It's not a maybe. There's no
chance involved in this. That's why we're not fatalists.
Fatalism works on chance. It happens because by chance
this takes place. We don't believe in chance. We
don't believe in fatalism. Fatalism is a chaotic thing.
Everything comes to its fatalistic end, determined end, out of chaos. But yet God is not the author
of chaos. God is a orderly God. He has purposed all things. So
therefore it's not chaotic. It's not chance. It's not just
out of nowhere a fatalistic thing. God is, it's a deterministic
thing. God has determined all things.
And he's going to make sure that everything happens according
to his purpose. Okay. So it says, thus saith the Lord,
verse two, thus saith the Lord, the people which were left of
the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when
I went to cause him to rest. Now, again, there is some actual
physical historical aspects to what happened here. But let's
look at this on the spiritual side. Let's think of the spiritual
things. The people which were left of
the sword, the people who did not come under the wrath of God,
who the sword of the Lord had not been pointed at, okay? If you remember, the Bible says
of the elect of God that he has not appointed us under wrath.
The Bible says, blessed are they, or blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputed not sin or blessed is the Lord who has not seen
iniquity in Jacob, nor hath he beheld perverseness in Israel,
for the child of a king is among them. Okay. We see that there is a people
that the wrath of God does not abide upon them, that they were
not appointed under wrath. that they have never been under
God's wrath. Listen, the elect of God have never been under
the wrath of God. Okay? And some will say, well,
the Bible says that we who by nature were children of wrath.
Yes, it says children of wrath, not children under wrath. Okay? It says we were children of wrath,
meaning that we were wrathful in our nature We were wrathful
to God. We hated God. We were enemies
of God. We were at enmity against God. We did not like this God of the
Bible. We did not want this God of the
Bible. And so we were by nature children
of wrath. Okay? But even though we were
children of wrath and we were like those children of disobedience,
The Bible says that we were not appointed under wrath. We were
not appointed, meaning we were not appointed to receive wrath. The Bible says that there is
therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We were never appointed under
condemnation and wrath. We deserved it. In our natural
man, we have sinned against God. We deserve God's wrath. This
body is not going to be glorified. It's going to be dissolved and
a brand new body is going to be given to us. The natural man
can do nothing to please God. It can do nothing to gain merit
before God. The natural man is just sinful
in every aspect. But yet the child of grace, that
inner man, the person that we are that's born from above, that
person has been loved by God and that person has never been
appointed under wrath, okay? But to receive grace and mercy
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, thus saith the Lord,
the people which were left of the sword found grace in the
wilderness. See, here we are in this wilderness
This world's not our home. This place is not where we belong.
The Bible says that we are not of this world, that we are from
above, that we have been born from above. So that's where our
home is. And we're just like pilgrims
passing through a foreign place. And just as the children of Israel
wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, so the child of grace
wanders in this wilderness until his appointed time to either
be taken to the Lord or whenever Christ comes back and the end
of days is there. We have been placed in this wilderness
and we wander in this fleshly man. All it can do is live off
the wilderness. But the child of grace longs
for a place besides this place. We desire and see a city like
Abraham. We see a city not built with
hands. We see a place that's Further
on down the road, we see Christ. We see all the spiritual things
in the promise and the heirship of what we have in Christ Jesus.
And so we look to those things, and even though we are in this
wilderness, we are not of it. We are from above. It says, Thus
saith the Lord, the people which were left of the sword found
grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause
him Notice that God had to cause them to rest. God had to cause
them to rest. We don't rest in our own ability. We don't rest until God gives
us faith to see Christ as our substitute. Christ is our rest,
okay? He is our Sabbath. Whenever we
see Christ and what He has done for us, we enter into that rest
and we cease from our labors. We cease from trying to provide
a righteousness before God, and we trust in Christ's righteousness
on our behalf. So we see that this is talking
about the people of God, right? We're talking about the elect
of God. And so I say all this and I've said all this so that
we might get the context of God's love. Whenever we speak of God's
love, we speak of God's love to his elect. Now there is a
love of God towards Christ as his chief elect, and as his seed,
we are also the elect of God. Why? Because we are in him. We
are his seed, okay? And so we are the elect of God.
But we are specifically talking about God's love for his elect
people. Now look at verse three. It says,
the Lord hath appeared of old unto me." Now, before that, we
see God talking. At the same time, saith the Lord.
Okay? The Lord has been talking. But
now, here is the people talking about what the Lord has said.
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, and here's what
the Lord said to the elect of God. Yea, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore, And that therefore
is very important. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Now, what I want to do today,
brethren, is I want to look at that passage in verse 3. And
I kind of want to break that down just a little bit. Let's
look at the first portion of that. It says, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee. Now, like I said at the beginning
of this thing, This is something that I cannot fathom. It goes
further beyond any reaches that my mind can even go to, which
isn't very far. But it's unfathomable to understand
how a holy and righteous God can love a slug sinner like me. Why does God... See, it isn't
about, I can't believe that God doesn't love this one or that
one, okay? It's how could God love anybody?
How does God love anybody? All of us, all of us have sinned
against him. All of us have been enemies against
him. All of us, by nature, are unworthy
to be in his presence as God. But yet God showed love to us. And I don't know how that is.
I don't know why that is other than that was the purpose of
God. That's the only answer the Bible
gives us is because He says that He has purposed it. It was His
pleasure to do so. The Bible says it was His pleasure
and the determinate counsel of God, He determined that Christ
being our substitute and causing the ability for God to be just
in Justifying us so that we could be with him and not be under
wrath and not be destroyed. But that love that's there. God did that for us, and I don't
understand why, but he says, I have loved thee. Brethren,
listen, if you're a child of grace, God truly does love you. It isn't just a fake thing. It
isn't just something that we say. God truly does love you. He doesn't love you in a superficial
way. And as I said earlier also, he
doesn't love us in this ooey gooey way, but we'll get to this
here in just a minute. But let's look at some verses
where the Bible talks about God's love towards us. And listen,
there's a bunch of verses. I'm only going to deal with a
few this morning, but there is a bunch of verses that speaks
of God's love to his people. But the first one I want to look
at is in Malachi, or excuse me, is in Malachi. You know, Malachi. I turned to Micah, but... Malachi. It's in Malachi, the last book
of the Old Testament. Look in Malachi chapter 1. I
want you to pay close attention to the context of how God words
this. Malachi chapter 1. It says this, the burden of the
word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. So Malachi's writing
it down, but these are God's words. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
So right there, God is telling his people that he loves them. The word of the Lord to Israel.
Now again, there was a temporal, physical aspect to this as God's
people, as God was using the nation of Israel as a type and
foreshadow of the elect of God. But yet this is speaking of the
spiritual people of God. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
But the people say, just like I just said a minute ago, I don't
know how God can love me. How in the world can a holy God
love me And so the question might arise, okay, well, if you've
loved me, how do I know that? How do I know that God has loved
me? In what way have you shown your
love? Well, God's shown his love in
a couple of ways, the Bible teaches us. And here we see, yet ye say
wherein hast thou loved us? And God responds, was not Esau
Jacob's brother? Now, why did God say that? He was, if you remember, Jacob
and Esau were twins, right? They were twins. Esau was born
first, came first, and then Jacob came out of the womb second.
But if you remember, Jacob came out clutching the heel of Esau
whenever they were born, okay? They came out almost as if it
was one child, but there was two children. There was Esau,
there was Jacob. And because Esau came from the
womb first, he was considered the eldest child. He was considered
the one who should receive the birthright according to tradition
and custom. He should receive all the promises
of the inheritance. But God did not choose Esau. He chose Jacob. Even though Jacob
and Esau were twins, they came from the same mother. who was
giving birth from the same father, Isaac. And Isaac, who was the
child of promise of Abraham. So we see that Jacob and Esau
both were children of the flesh from Abraham. But as we just
read in Romans 9, it's not the children of the flesh who are
the children of the promise, but the ones who are the children
of Isaac, the ones who are the ones of promise. And God had
already determined. Turn with me. Well, it says it
here, too, but I want us to read in Romans 9 because I want you
to see this. Romans chapter 9. As many believe that Romans chapter
9 is talking about nations. This is talking about God electing
nations, not God We're talking about individual election, but
national election. Okay, if God elects a nation
over another nation, is that still not God electing one and
not another? If God elects Israel as his elect
nation and all the promises, including the everlasting covenant
promises, are only to them, then that means all the Gentiles are
without hope. You say, well, all this stuff
says, yeah, but hey, You're saying here that Romans 9 is speaking
of the elect as it pertains to the nation of Israel, not the
elect according to Esau or Edom. The Gentile nations were of Edom,
brethren. The Gentile nations were from
Esau. It was only those who were of
Isaac. It was only those who were of
Jacob. who were considered Israel. And
so, Edom, Esau, they were not part of that covenant promise. Okay? And so, if you want to
break Romans 9 down and say these are nations, then you're saying
here that, hey, Esau didn't get it and he was an Israelite according
to lineage. So, All of Esau's line doesn't
get the promise, and if you're talking about the promise, you
gotta add in some salvation there, too. Because this whole passage
here in Romans 9 is talking about salvation. It's not talking about
choosing one nation over another nation. But look what it says
in Romans chapter 9. In verse 10 it says, And not
only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, For the children, Esau and Jacob, be not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God
according to election might stand. See, they didn't do anything
good or bad, and it was before they were born. Not of words, but of him that
calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. When in reality it was usually
just the opposite. The younger always served the
elder because the elder had the birthright. He had the prominence.
Okay? In this family, that would have
been Zach. Sorry girls, you would have been
out. Because the women didn't get the birthright. It was to
the sons. It was to the men. Okay? And so that would have been to
the firstborn son. In this case, it would have been
Zach. And so the reverence, the honor would have been towards
Zach as the firstborn son. Now y'all remember that. I'll
let that go to your head. He says, it was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger as it is written. Now here it
is, the as it is written is talking about where we're at in Malachi. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved. but Esau have I hated." Now, keep that in mind. We're
going to talk about that here just a little bit. But notice
here, God's choosing of Jacob over Esau had nothing to do with
whether Jacob had done good or bad. God's love for Jacob had
absolutely nothing to do with Jacob being good. As a matter
of fact, we know by Jacob's life, he wasn't good. And all the things
that we read about Jacob, Jacob was a surplanter. Jacob was a
deceiver. Jacob was one who didn't trust
God. And so we know that Jacob wasn't
a good man versus Esau who was a bad man. We know that God did
not choose based upon whether anybody had done anything good
or bad. And He doesn't choose among His people the elect and
the reprobate. He doesn't choose. He doesn't
look down and say, who's going to choose Him? He doesn't look
down and say, that person was really a good person, so I want
to love them. God chooses who He will love,
irregardless of the person. He has chosen out of His own
purpose and pleasure. And so that is what God is saying
here in Malachi. I have loved you. You want proof
that I have loved you? Well, here's the proof. I chose you. and I didn't choose
them. The very fact that I chose you
and not them shows that I love you because only those that I
love I choose. And all those that I choose I
redeem for myself. I reconcile to myself. I bring to myself. I make them
my people and I will be their God. There is this relationship
of love and worship and reverence and exaltation, worship, that
we have towards God. And the only reason we have it
is because God has loved us. And that love that God has shown
unto us, he sheds that love abroad in our heart so that we have
a reverence and a love and a fear and a desire for God. And in Malachi he says, the way
that I have shown you that I have loved you is that I have elected
you and not elected them. That's exactly what he's saying
in Romans chapter 9 whenever he's making the argument. I chose
Jacob over Esau, not according to whether they'd done good or
bad. I did it out of the sheer purpose of my will. I chose Jacob
and not Esau. It didn't have anything to do
with Jacob or Esau. So brethren, whenever we realize
God's love for us, we got to know that God doesn't love us
because we're lovable people. God doesn't love us because we're
valuable people. I hear that all the time in modern
churches today. You're so valuable. God loves
you. You know, God, you're so valuable
that God couldn't let you go. You're so valuable that God couldn't
let you go to hell. He snatched you from the fire.
You're so valuable to Him. Listen, brethren, we are not
chosen of God. We are not loved of God. We are
not redeemed of God. Christ didn't die for us because
we are savable, because we are inherently good, because we have
some sort of a worth before God. Matter of fact, the Bible says
that we are as grasshoppers, that we are as nothing, counted
as nothing before God in our natural self. The Bible says
that the intent of our heart is only wicked continually. That's how God views us. The
Bible says that when at the end of the day that all we can account
ourselves as is unprofitable servants. The only thing that's
good about us is Jesus Christ. And the only thing that God loved
us for is out of the sheer pleasure of His will. So we can't ever
look to ourselves and say, hey, I was loved of God. Because I'm
a good person. If you were only loved with God,
you'd have been... You know, we can't ever boast or have pride
in the fact that God has shown love to us. God loves us because
He has loved us. Not according to anything that
we have done. But here, we see that God loves us in one of the
ways that we know then is because God elected us. Now, look, if
you would, at John chapter 14. And I already tell you this is
going to have to be a two-part John chapter 14. Look with me if you would, down
to verse 23. Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. So if a man keep my word, my
father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our
abode with him. Now, someone's gonna say, whenever
you read that, outside the context of all of scripture, they're
gonna say, aha, see there? God doesn't show his love towards
us until we first love him. We first show our love to him.
We gotta come and love him first. We got to love and choose Him.
How many times have you ever heard somebody say that God has
given us free choice because God wants people who love Him? God wants people. That's not
true love. If you're if you're forced to
come to God, that's not true love. God wants people who truly
love Him. Well, here's the fact of Scripture.
There is none that seeketh after God. That's the truth of Scripture. They say that there are people
seeking after and that have a love for God that wants to come to
God. But God says, nay, nay. There
is none that comes to me. There is none that seek after
me. The Bible says that we are enemies
of God, not lovers of God. So see, the very opposite is
true of who we are. Unless God changes our heart
first. See, there has to be something
that happens, and I'm gonna get into that later. But here we
see, someone may say, there you go, you gotta love God first,
you gotta choose Him, make Him the Lord of your life. You gotta
decide for Jesus, use your free choice to choose your destiny. You gotta choose this day whom
you're gonna serve. Right there it says that, well,
brethren, the people that say that have yet to read John 16.
Look at John chapter 16 and verse 27. I'm sorry, this is another verse
that sounds like the one we just read. We'll get to the verse
I was meaning here in just a minute, one John. For the Father himself
loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came
out of God. So here again, it sounds like
the Father loves you. And the reason that God loves you
is because you loved his son first. And because you loved
his son now, Father loves you. Well, we know that that's not
true in the way that that's being interpreted that way, right?
The Father himself loves you. That's a statement of fact. How do we know the Father loves
them? Because they love Christ. You say, well, wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's what I just
said. The Father loves them because
they love Christ. That's why God started loving
them. That's why God loves them is because they love Christ.
No, no, no, no. That's not what it says. It says
the Father himself loveth you. And the reason that that is a
statement of fact is because you are loving the Son. Say preacher. I don't know what
you're talking about. You sound like you're running
in circles. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 14. On John 4 and verse 19, we love him because he first
loved us. If any man say, I love God and
hated his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, How can he love God whom he has not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth
God love his brother. Jesus said that if you loved
the Father, you would love me. So we got to use this to shed
light on what was said in John. See, they don't contradict each
other. The Bible doesn't contradict itself. This right here says
we love Him because He first loved us. Matter of fact, back
up to verse 14. It says, And we have seen and
do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the
world. Now we'll talk about that as
we progress through this study. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him and He in God. Again, statements of fact. If
we confess that Jesus is the Christ, that he's from God, and
he's the Christ, then God dwelleth in him. And we know and believe
the love that God hath to us. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love, and we love Him because He first loved us. See, that's why I say back in
John chapter 16, Whenever He says, the Father
Himself loved you because ye have loved Me, it is a statement
of fact. That's how we know those people
are of God, because they love Christ. And the only ones that
can love Christ are the ones that have God dwelling in them. See, people, whenever you take
Scriptures out of its context, When you don't take the whole
of Scripture, you come up with weird doctrines that teach that
God loves us because we love Him first, whenever the Bible
is just the opposite. Matter of fact, if you're still
in 1 John, which I don't know where I turned away from it,
1 John chapter 3 verse 1 says this, 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. There's that wilderness part
again. Strangers, pilgrims, okay? But here we see the Father has
love. I have loved thee. How has God loved thee? He has
elected us and set his love upon us by electing us for himself. And those that he has elected
for himself, what does he say? I have loved thee, but what kind
of love is it? Well, we just read it's not a
love based upon anything good or bad that we do. It's a love
that's based upon God's eternal love for us. It's an eternal
love. Look back at our passage in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 33, excuse me, 31 through. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. That's the kind of love that
God has loved us with. It's an everlasting love. An
everlasting love. Now, there's some things that
we need to understand about this everlasting love. If God has
loved us with an everlasting love, is there ever going to
be a time that God ceases to love us? No. Why? Because it's everlasting. Was there ever a time that God
didn't love us? Before. Before what? Well, you really have no point
of reference because it's everlasting. If everlasting is everlasting,
then God has ever loved us. So there's not been a time that
God has not loved us. That's why I say, whenever the
Bible says that we are not under the wrath of God, the wrath of
God is God's hatred being poured out upon a person. Whenever they
experience the wrath of God at the final judgment, when the
wrath of God is poured out, and listen, brethren, It will be
the full wrath of God. It will not be tempered with
love because God has no love for the non-elect. God has no temperance in his
justice. See, today we have cops, we have
attorneys, we have judges who feel sorry for people sometimes. And they may look at somebody
and say, well, that person's never committed a crime. They
love their family. They're an outstanding member
of their society. They just accidentally messed
up on this. And so, you know, I'm going to be lenient on that
person. Listen, there is absolutely positively no lenience with God. God is going to punish you with
all the punishment that is due for your sins. Unless you're
his child. There's not going to be any removal
of wrath from the wicked. And so when God loves us with
an everlasting love, then that means that there has never been
a time that God's wrath has been upon us, as I said before. There
couldn't be, because God's love is everlasting. He doesn't hate
us with a holy hatred, and then at some point starts loving us. That would not be an everlasting
love. That would be a lasting love from that point forward.
You say, well yeah, well that's where it starts. God starts loving
us when we choose Him. Like that verse said, when we
start loving Him, He loves us and He loves us from now on.
That would be lasting love. But this says everlasting love. Eternal love. There is never
a time that the elect of God has ever been outside or out
from under God's love. And if we are in God's love,
if we are under God's love, if we are the objects of God's love,
then that means Christ is our substitute and that God only
sees his righteousness. So there is no condemnation for
us whatsoever. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Brethren, listen. God loved you
before you were born. God loved you before your parents
were born. God loved you before Christ died on the cross. God
loved you before anything was made for the foundation of the world.
Back in eternity, before God ever decided to start creating, God loved you. If you were His,
He loved you. And listen, that love is never
going to change, because God does not change. That love will
go on and on and on and on and on and on. No matter how many
sins you commit, God's love does not change. No matter how many
times you walk away in disbelief or doubt, How many times you
indulge in your carnal sin, God still is going to love you. Now
that's not saying live any way you want because once saved,
always saved. I am not, I am not saying that. I am saying that God's love,
again, is not dependent on anything good or evil. If God's love is
not dependent upon how much good you do, it's also not taken away
for much evil that you do. God's love is irregardless of
your activity. He loves you. That's what God's
love is. God's love is a determinative
love. He is determined to love you
despite who you are and what you do. God is determined to
love you. It's deterministic. And we also learn that God's
love is an effectual love. That God's love is displayed. Again, we see it displayed in
the fact that He gives us love for Him. But we see that this
love is given to us in a loving kindness. Look at our verse there.
Yea, I love thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, So here he's
saying, because I have loved you, I have done this. In loving kindness, I have drawn
thee. In loving kindness, I have drawn
thee. Now let's look at this loving
kindness just briefly here. I got about another five to ten
minutes in the morning. I want to look at this. Romans chapter
five. Romans chapter 5. Look at verse 8. It says, but
God commendeth His love towards us. God commendeth His love. God shows His love. God displays
His love. God manifests His love. How does
God show? Well, we've already learned one
way, is that God chose us, God elected us, God set His love
upon us, and the way that He shows that love that was given
to us in eternity, in time, He shows it this way. God commended
His love for us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Christ didn't die for us because
we did anything good. Christ didn't die for us because
we paid the right amount of money. Christ didn't die for us because
He just felt sorry for us. Christ didn't die for us so that
we might have the opportunity to choose Him. Christ died for
us to show God's love for us. Now get that in your mind. God
commended his love towards who? Us. Who are us? Well, here he's
talking to, he's wrote a letter to the Romans, right? This is the letter to the Romans.
Paul, servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated
unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made the seed of David according to the
flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
Verse 7. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, called to be saints. This letter is to the elect of
God. It's a letter to the people of God. It's a letter to the
Christians. It's a letter to the saved. It's
a letter to all those who are in Christ Jesus, the beloved.
That's who it's to. And so whenever he says here
that God commended his love towards us, who's he talking about? He's
not talking about anybody outside the context of who this scripture
is meant to be for. This scripture or this letter
was written to those who believed upon God, those who were God's
people, the ones that God loved. The ones that God sent His Son
for. The ones that God had elected
before the foundation of the world, not according to what
they had done, or not done, but according to His purpose. He
chose them, loved them, and in showing that love for them, sent
Christ to die for them. That's who Paul is talking to
here. He said, God commended his love
towards us and that while we were yet sinners, not when we
cleaned ourselves up, not after we did the law, but while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So is the Bible true
when it said Christ died for sinners? Yes, but he died for
certain sinners, not all sinners, but certain sinners. So you've
got to keep in context what the Bible says. Much more than being
now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath
through Him. See, the very fact that Christ substituted
in our place, we don't have to have the wrath. That's why God
did not appoint us to wrath, because He appointed His Son,
wrath, on our behalf. He made him who knew no sin to
become sin so that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. For if we, when we were enemies,
We were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only
so, but we also joined God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. See, God showed his loving kindness
by sending Christ to die for us. And what's the most famous
verse in the Bible? Does anybody know? What do you
think is the most famous verse in the Bible? John 3.16, right? And every time
we talk about sovereign grace, Christ dying for just the elect
and things such as that, everybody comes and says, as if we had
never heard or read this passage, well, have you read John 3.16?
Wait a minute, is that in the Bible? Let me look. Well, let's
read John 3.16 in the context of what we've just listened to,
what we've just read throughout the scriptures. Let's read John
3.16. For God so loved the world. How did God love the world? That's
the question. Remember, we started at Malachi
chapter one. You have loved us? Well, how
have you loved us? For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son. How have you loved us? I have
chosen you. How have you loved us? God commendeth his love to us
that while we were yet sinners Christ died for. Us, who is us? The saints, the ones in Christ
Jesus, the beloved. Oh, so this verse isn't talking
about everybody, it's just talking about, it's just talking about
those people, right? The ones who are loved with God,
who were elected. The ones of God who are the beloved,
right? That's exactly who it's talking about. Look, it says,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever, ah, there you go, preacher, whosoever will
may come, whosoever will may choose freely, whosoever has
a choice, you got a choice. John 3, 16 is a verse about free
will, free choice, whatever you want to call it. Some people
actually say, God didn't give us free will, he gave us free
choice. That's the same thing. For me to have free will means
that I have a free choice to do whatever I will to do. You're not getting off the hook
by saying free choice instead of free will. You're saying the
same thing. That would be me saying that
God, oh, we don't preach predestination, we preach determinism. It's the
same thing. for whosoever. God gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him, that in the Greek actually
says, so that the believing ones should not perish. See, the purpose
that God sent His Son is to be a substitute for them so that
they would not perish. Remember what we just read? Let
me get back to it. Romans chapter 5. For God committed His love towards
us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more
than being justified by His blood. We are saved from wrath through
Him. We are saved from wrath through
Him. Why did God send His Son to show
His love for us? And He showed His love for us
by damning His Son instead of us. By pouring wrath out upon
His Son instead of us. So that through Christ experiencing
wrath, our deserving of wrath was paid in full. So that we
would not have to be eternally under God's wrath, but eternally
loved. Why? Because God loves us with
an everlasting love. That means we are everlasting
outside and under away from His love. That's what propitiation
means. God is, Christ has been the propitiation
for us. The word propitiation means without
or out from under us. When Christ died for us, He propitiated
God's wrath. That means it turned God's wrath
away from us. He diverted God's wrath. And
He diverted it to Himself. God's wrath is not upon us. And
the reason that God didn't appoint us to that is because He appointed
His Son. So whenever we read John 3.16,
this is not a free will, free choice verse. This is just saying
the statements of fact. The whosoevers are the ones who
are the believing ones. And who are the believing ones?
Again, the only ones who are believing on the Son are the
ones who have God dwelling in them. See, we can't believe on
the Son unless we have God dwelling in us. This verse is for the
elect of God who are born of God. You say, well, preacher,
that doesn't say that. It's funny. What are the verses
just right before John 3, 16? Look at verse 3. Nicodemus, who
came to Jesus by knife. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. Wait a minute. The context of
this verse, the context of this conversation is being born again. You got to be born again. before you can see the kingdom
of God. Look at verse 5. Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeneth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit. And Nicodemus
answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered
and said, Art thou a master of Israel? Thou knowest not these
things? It's been taught in the Old Testament for ages. But yet
here you are claiming to be the Pharisee of Pharisees. You're
the representative of the Pharisee people coming to me on their
behalf to question me on whether or not I am who I say I am. And
you come to me as the head of the Pharisees, and you don't
know this. He says, verily I say unto thee,
we speak that we do know. Anticipate that we have seen,
and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things
and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly
things? Friend, that's like what we're talking about today. See,
a lot of people are going to want to look at some of these
verses. They're going to want to look at it in a carnal way, in a fleshly way,
in a non-spiritual way, just like Nicodemus. You mean we got
to get back up in our mother's womb? Be born again? Jesus is like, that's not what
I'm talking about. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. That's the fleshly stuff. We're
talking about spiritual things, Nicodemus. You have to be born
of the Spirit. You have to be born from above.
You have to be of those people who were in Christ Jesus as His
spiritual seed. Those are the ones who are the
believers. Those are the ones who are of God. Those are the
ones who see and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. He says, if
I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. That whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, so that the believing ones again
in the grief. It's not that whosoever, but whosoever is not even there.
It says that the believing ones, that the believing ones should
not perish but have eternal life. Christ died so that those who
were Christ's by God's giving them to Christ, those that belong
to Christ would not perish. Well, how are they not going
to perish? Well, someone has to stand in their way for them
because the wrath of God is going to be poured out on all wickedness,
the Bible says. that God will not acquit the
wicked, that God is not going to turn away a blind eye and
overlook everyone's sin. Everyone's sin, every person
that has ever been created upon this earth, their sin is going
to be dealt with. It's either going to be dealt
with in Christ as the substitute, or it's going to be dealt in
their own flesh. If you are Christ, Christ took
your wrath so that you would not perish. That's the context
of John 3.16, brother. The whole Bible. The whole context
is not free will, free choice. God loves us with an everlasting
love and therefore in loving kindness. See, God had to show
a take coming kindness and do something for us so that we might
not only know that God loved us because we don't know that
God loves us unless God does something in kindness on our
behalf for us outside of us. That's the eternal legal work
of Christ. Or unless God does something
experientially in us by putting his spirit in us and giving us
spiritual understanding and growing us in knowledge See, we would
never experience God's love. We'd never know it. Because it's
not naturally discerned. It's not naturally known. It's
not naturally felt or seen or desired even. So God in kindness,
loving kindness, has brought us to a place where that we can
know. Look at Ephesians 2, 4 and 5.
I'm going to have to hurry. Ephesians 2. I'm already over
there. Ephesians 2. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace
You are saved. So in loving kindness, God commended
His love towards us by sending Christ to die for us. John 3,
16, Christ came and died for us so that we would not perish.
And look, in loving kindness, God gave us His Spirit. He quickened
us. See, that's what God has done
in loving kindness. And in that loving kindness,
we're going to find out here next week. It's God drawing us. It says, Even when we were dead
in sins, have quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are
saved. If you want to look at 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse
16. Scripture says, Now our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved
us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace. So here we see that God has given
us a consolation and a good hope. Now this hope isn't a hope so,
a maybe so, This hope is undergirded by faith. Faith is a substance
of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. He has given
us a full assurance of faith and a full assurance of hope.
The Spirit has been given to us to bear witness with our spirit
that we are His. So God, who has loved us, has
given us an everlasting consolation. What is a consolation? That is a peaceful spirit or
a feel good, right? To be consoled is to be made
to feel good. Have you ever heard or watched
a game show and somebody that didn't win, they said, we have
a nice consolation prize for you? You know what that is? It's like we was watching Jerry
Seinfeld stand up yesterday. And one of the things he said
is to come in second place is the worst thing in the world
because you were the first loser. You are the best of all losers.
He said, a consolation prize is basically saying, you didn't
win, but we got pity on you. And so we're gonna give you some
little prize. And if you remember, especially
back when I was a kid, on those game shows, usually they give
them a board game of the game that they were actually playing.
I'm like, here, you take home the Wheel of Fortune board game
or something like that, you know, and everything like that. Oh,
gee, Chuck, thanks. The word consolation is the Lord
has given us, in loving kindness, has given us a consolation and
a hope through grace. And then lastly, let's look at
1 John chapter 4. We'll have to finish all this,
the rest of this study up. We'll learn next week. 1 John
chapter 4. Look at verse 8. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. There's where the Bible says
God is love. I mean, it equates love with
God. God is love, that's His character, that's His nature,
that's who He is. And let me just say this on the
side note, and we'll learn and we'll see this next week though.
Just because God is love and that's His nature doesn't mean
that God is not wrath. God can coexist as both love
and wrath. You say, well how is that? Well
if you want to know God's love and wrath, or God's love and
justice, God's holiness and God's justice. Just look at the cross. We see the greatest expression
of love by Christ on the cross. But we also see the greatest
expression of God's wrath, Christ on the cross. God who spared
not his own son Bible says. He didn't spare his son. God's
wrath is so immense. And I've heard people say that,
say this all the time. There is a thread of truth to
this and delivering the truth about this. But this, you think
that God is going to spare you in your sins whenever he didn't
even spare Christ who had no sin or somebody else's sin? Christ died for somebody else's
sin, and yet God punished Christ with all the punishment that
God could meet out. There was no wrath left. The
Bible says that Christ drunk the cup of God's wrath. He drunk
all of it, meaning that all of the wrath of God, and just think
of the wrath of God. I mean, look, you look in our
world today, and you see tornadoes, you see floods, you see avalanches.
We watch videos on TV, and we see all kinds of them. of things
that you just never would, I mean sinkholes opening up and whole
neighborhoods falling in. You see a mountain coming down
the side of the thing and just this avalanche of snow just demolishing
everything that's below it. You see volcanoes and giant lava
coming out and covering over a city, destroying it. You look
in the Bible and you see God destroying whole nations over
certain sins. Sodom and Gomorrah, what he got
to do, he destroyed them all by fire. rained down fire and
brimstone, destroyed the whole entire city and everybody in
that city. God sent a flood and except for
eight people, God killed everything except the two of each animal
that was on the ark and the eight people that were in there, God
destroyed everything on the face of the earth. But the wrath that God pours
out for sin is going to be way more than that. And Jesus took
all that. God didn't let up a little. God
didn't just say, well, here, let me give you a little. No,
God poured out all wrath upon Christ. And it wasn't even his
sin. It was ours. So you think God's going to be
lenient to those who have actually sinned? No, sir. He will not be lenient to them. He that loveth not, knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God towards us. So this is how God showed his
love. Because that God sent his only begotten son into the world
that we might live through him so that we might not die, so
that we might not be under wrath, so that we might not perish.
Again, the context of John 3.16 is found all throughout scripture,
yet so many people are missing the gospel of it. Christ didn't die for a offer. Christ didn't die for a possibility
that someone could get saved. Christ didn't die so that someone
might have the chance to choose Him. Christ died and His dying
actually made it to where God would not pour out wrath upon
them. So if Christ died for them, there is no wrath. We hear our loved ones, our friends,
our neighbors, we hear our family members preaching and things
that God is loving everybody and that Christ died for everybody,
but you have to choose whether or not that salvation becomes
applicable to you. on the cross poured out His full
wrath on His Son so that it says here, He did that so that we
might live, so that we might not perish, so that we might
be justified. He didn't do it so that it might
be possible that we choose Him. He did it so that we wouldn't
have to do it. Therefore, if anybody has been
under that death, under that blood, there isn't a choice in
the matter. God's already declared there's
no condemnation for you. There is no sin forgiven. See, you didn't have to choose
that. God chose it for you. But in loving kindness, He gave
it to you. That's grace. We are saved by
grace. He says, here in His love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. He was the propitiation for our
sins. The wrath of God should have
come down, but Christ propitiated that. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we also ought to love one another. No man has seen God
at any time If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love
is perfected in us, or matured in us. Brethren, listen, the
love of God is a great thing. It's a mysterious thing. But
oh, what a wonderful thing it is. What a wonderful thing it
is. We don't deserve it. It's not
because of anything good that we have surely done. Now, Lord,
really next week we're going to look at the rest of that verse
and see how it pertains to us as well. Does anybody have any
questions or any comments or anything that you'd like to say?
Father, once again, we are humbled by the vision of Christ that
we see in this pages of scripture. Father, we bow the knee, we bow
the head, we bend our heart to the King of Kings and the Lord
of Lords. Even now, Father, as I've completed this sermon, and
I'm thankful for the things that you brought to my mind. I'm thankful
for the verses that you laid upon my heart this morning. But
even at the end of all these things, I still feel unworthy
and incapable of telling of your love, of what Christ has done. But Father, Lord, I pray that
by the Spirit of God that you might teach your people not only
the knowledge of it, Lord, but that they might truly, in their
heart, that they might truly know it, that they might experience
it, that there might be a hope within them, that they might,
by faith, trust you for all that you have done and lean not onto
their own understanding, that they might not seek after their
own righteousness, by their own works and by their own needs,
that they might truly live in the rest of what Christ has done
as our substitute. Father, I pray that if there's
any here today that is your child that you have yet to bring forth,
convert, give repentance to. Father, Lord, I pray that you
would turn their heart, turn their mind, let them believe
upon Christ. Lord, of those who have done
so, Lord, I pray that they might confess that, that they might
profess that before the church, that they might seek after baptism
as you've commanded us to be baptized. We believe that we
are to be baptized to show forth what Christ has done on our behalf,
to follow after you, like you've commanded us to do in this New
Testament church, and that we might, by that baptism, that
we might see in remembrance the things that Christ has done for
us, and that they might be added to the church and that they might
grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and
also become a part, an active member of this church that labors
in the gospel along with us, Lord. And we just pray that you
might do that, Father, that you just might grow this church,
not numerically, that we We long to see other people, Father.
We long to see them come. If there's others that believe,
we pray, Lord, that you'd bring them this way. But we long that
you might grow us in maturity in the faith, maturity in our
relationship, one with another, and our love for one another,
and our love for you. Lord, we know that we cannot
love you perfectly, and we know that we cannot love our neighbor
perfectly. Christ had to do that for us just as much as the Old
Testament law. He had to love us and love you
perfectly. But Father, as you shed that
love abroad in our heart, and you perfect that love in us,
we pray, Lord, that you would let us show these acts of love
towards our brethren. And we pray that you'd keep us
in unity. Lord, I just thank you again
for all that you've done for us in Christ Jesus. We ask it
all in his precious and holy name. Amen.