Turn with me to 1 John chapter
4. 1 John 4, when I started thinking about preaching here a couple
of weeks ago, I knew immediately what I would
preach on. That's rare. When you're here,
you know week by week exactly where you want to go to your
people. But when you go somewhere, you're
searching, aren't you, for a message and for what it's worth. I hope that's of the Lord. I
knew it. I knew it and never veered from
that, never felt led to go anywhere else. Verse 16, 1 John 4, says, and we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. And the title of the text or
the title of the message is a question. Does God love me? Does God love me? Can I know
that God loves me? This is what he said here, didn't
he? And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
I want to know. I want to know. My name is not
written in this book anywhere. Neither is yours. No one's name
is there. But we can know. And I'm going
to try to answer that in a moment, in a few minutes. It's such a
strange question to the world, isn't it? Does God love me? The
religious world just takes it for granted. Preachers, false
preachers have told everyone for so long now that God loves
everyone that they believe it, and they take it for granted,
and they just assume. They just assume. They would say, what
do you mean, does God love me? God loves everyone, don't they? That's what they think. But the fact is, God does not
love everyone. He does not love everyone. There
are just too many scriptures, aren't there? Your pastor, I
know, has just covered so many scriptures, such as, God is angry
with the wicked every day. God hateth all workers of iniquity.
Esau have I hated. Proverbs 16. Six things that
the Lord hate. Yes, seven. And he's talking
about people. And on and on it goes. There
are just too many scriptures that tell us that God does not
love everyone. And when you tell people that. When you say that, it's shocking,
isn't it? It's shocking. People are shocked
when they first hear that. Some of you know Robyn Pendry,
Kelly and Robyn Pendry. They've been here before. But
Robyn was in Methodist false religion, and she came to hear
it, invited by Kelly, and when she first heard me say from the
pulpit, God does not love everyone. You know, she, what do you mean?
And she told me later that she said, I'm going to go home and
I'm going to prove him wrong. I'm going to search the scriptures,
I'm going to prove him wrong. And she told me, I couldn't. I couldn't find it. John 3, 16,
we'll see that in a moment. But why do we say this? Do I need to say this again?
Do we need to say this? Well, Martin Luther said this.
Martin Luther said, if I do not profess with the loudest voice
that point which the world and the devil are attacking, I'm
not confessing Christ. And there's nothing under attack
more, and nothing more abused than the love of God and the
blood of Christ. The love of God, like the blood
of Christ, is accounted by most people as a common thing. God
loves everyone. They assume it. They take it
for granted. So? Don't they? That's how they're
treated. The blood of Christ died for me. Common thing, trodden
underfoot, the blood of the Son of God. The love of God. When it is the most wonderful
and amazing and glorious and undeserved and precious thing
a human being can have is for God to love them, for Christ
to die for them. And it's only amazing and only
wonderful and only precious to those who know they don't deserve
it. We sang that song, didn't we?
How can it be? Only those, and I'm already answering
my question. How can I know if God loves me?
I'm already answering that, aren't I? Only those who know they don't
deserve it can sing a song like that and say, how can it be that
God would love me? I just don't see how. Amazed
by it. Amazing love. How can it be? God's love is likened to the
love of a father. Is it? In the scripture. The
love of a father for his son, but not for a good son. not for
an obedient son, a prodigal son. The Lord told that story, didn't
he, of the prodigal son. Not the good son, but the prodigal
son who rebelled against the father, who didn't care for the
father, and ran away from the father. And the father, in his
love, waited to be gracious. And when God, you know that story,
when he came back and the father went running and fell on the
neck of that unworthy, rebellious, no good son that didn't deserve
for his father to love him. That's the love of God, you see.
God's love is likened to the love of a husband for his bride,
a husband for his wife, but not a good wife. not a faithful wife,
but an unfaithful wife, like Gomer. Like the story of Hosea,
whose wife, Gomer, who is a picture of the church, his wife, Gomer,
was unfaithful all the time, constantly running after other
things and lovers. But Hosea was a picture of Christ
and loved his bride no matter what. and purchased her redemption. That's the love of God. Now,
all right, let me tell you some things about the love of God
from God's Word. God's love is sovereign, meaning
He loves whom He will. He set his love. Deuteronomy
7. This is one of those foundational
scriptures that we need to learn. Deuteronomy 7. You see, God set
his love upon his people. That means he purposed to love. He had to. There's nothing in
us to love. I fell in love with Mindy when
she was a young girl. And I fell in love with her.
It was something about her that I fell in love with. That's not
God's love. He set his love on her. Like
the picture of the child in the field in Ezekiel. There was nothing
lovely about it, was it? Lying there and it's sin, it's
pollution, that's a picture of everyone. And it says God came
by when I passed by, it was a time of love. I decided to love you. Look at Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy
7 verse 6 through 8. He says, Thou art, and this is
Moses speaking from God to the people, Thou art an holy people
unto the Lord thy God. Where was Israel? Were the Israelites
sinless people? They were the biggest sinners
on earth. He calls them holy. Because God said so. Read on. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you. nor choose you, because you were
more in number than any people. You were the fewest of the people.
But because the Lord loved you, He just did. He just did. He just set His love upon you.
And He swore concern in you. See, the love of God is sovereign.
He purposed to save and to love whom He would. And His love is
like His mercy. It's sovereign. His love is like
His grace. It's sovereign. He gives it to
whom He will. Nobody deserves mercy. That's
the meaning of the word in it. His love is sovereign love. Look
at 1 John in our text, 1 John 4, verse 9. We're going to get
to this question in a minute. Does God love me? Verse 9, it
says, And this was manifested, the love of God toward us. Toward us. Not that we love God. but he loved us, he said. Verse 10, hearing his love, not
that we love God, but he loved us. He loved his people before
they were born. You know that passage in Jeremiah
31 and Jeremiah 1 verse 5, the Lord says, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. People use that as a wrongly,
as a anti-abortion slogan, don't they? But that's not talking
about everyone. That verse is talking about Jeremiah.
He went on to say, I loved you and ordained you a prophet. In
Jeremiah 31 verse 3 says to Israel, to Israel whom he loved, Jacob
have I loved, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And
therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Here in verse
9 it says the love of God toward us, doesn't it? Toward us. Look
at verse 16. We've known and believed the
love that God hath to us. Verse 19. We love him because
he first loved us. Who's the us? Learn a simple
grammar lesson. A personal pronoun. us. Who's us? It's not everyone. Look at verse 4. Year of God little children have
overcome them. Greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are
of God, he that knoweth God heareth us." Us and them. Us and them. See that? Who's the us? Verse 1 says, Beloved. For whom he did for, no, that
means for love. He did predestinate, call, justify
and glorify us, his chosen, his people. Verse 7, beloved. Verse
11, beloved, beloved, beloved. God wrote this letter to his
church like you would write a letter to the one you love and you'd
sign it, wouldn't you? Dear, my dear beloved wife, wouldn't
you? What if some woman picked that up? I wrote a letter to
my wife, said, my dearly beloved wife, I love you, everything
I have is yours, and I'll love you to the end, and no matter
what, and all my inheritance is for you. And some woman picked
that up and said, look at there, he loves me. Oh no, no, no, that's
not to you. Beloved, beloved, beloved, beloved. God first loved us. God's love
is sovereign. God's love is eternal. God's
love is unchanging. Now this will cast out fear.
If we can find out that God loves us, if I can be sure that God
loves me, it should cast out fear of being cast out. Do you not, do you not, do not
we all think, we know Christ is coming and we think, I hope
I'm one of his. Don't you? All the time. I know
you do. I do sometimes think, well, I
hope I'm one of the Lords. I hope when He comes I'm not
left out. Well, if I can find out that
God loves me, if He loves me, it's forever. It's everlasting. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Having loved His own, John 13 says, He loved them to the
end. It never quits love. Perfect
love is to the end. It never fails. It never quits.
Real love never quits. God will never say, I don't love
you anymore. Whoever He loves, He loves them
to the end. People say that all the time. I don't love you anymore.
That means you never did. God will never say that to his
people. I've loved thee with an everlasting love. God's love
is perfect. That's the next thing, perfect.
Verse 18 says there's no fear in love, true love. See love
believeth all things, hopeth all things, love never faileth,
love doesn't rejoice in evil. True love, that's the love of
God. God is love. Philpott brought
this out. Wonderful thing. This is not
something God has. It's what He is. It's what He
is. God is mercy. God is love. This is the way He is. It's not
something He shows. It's who He is. And if we can
find out that He loves me, you have nothing to worry about. No fear. Shouldn't fear. Perfect
love. If you truly love, there's no
fear. Fear hath torment. Oh, I hope she loves me. Hope
she'll stay with me. Hope he loves me. Right? That's
torment, not perfect love. I know he loves me. Have nothing
to worry about. Our children, maybe they take
it for granted. I'm sure they do. But I never
worried about my parents kicking me out. They should have. Man, should they have ever kicked
me out. But like that prodigal, even
when I ran away and came back, they treated me with love. Cast out fear of being cast out.
So does God love me? God's love is effectual. God's love is saving love. God's
love is powerful love. Whoever God loves, He saves.
Wouldn't you? You love your children? You do,
don't you? Would you save them if you could?
Would you save them if you could? Why, there's no doubt about it.
That's a foolish question, isn't it? Well, does God? What kind of love is it? My dad
made these points one time. You know the points, six stubborn
statements. I know you preached it. But number one, if God loves
everyone and some go to hell anyway, what does the love of
God have to do with anything? Huh? If Christ died for everyone
and some go to hell anyway, what does the blood of Christ have
to do with anything? Good question then. Few people are asking.
But now the love of God is saving love. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I'm going to bring you. I'm going to draw you with cords
of love. You're not getting away. What
kind of love would it be if your child was out in the middle of
the street? This is what people say about God. He loves them,
but he doesn't want to violate their will. You know, they have
a free will, and they're out in the middle of the street,
and a car is coming. Oh, I hope they'll choose to get out of
the way. What kind of love is that? It's
not love at all. What would you do? What would
you do? You'd dive out there. You'd sacrifice
your life for that child, wouldn't you? You'd lay down your life.
That's exactly what God did for his people. Here in His love,
verse 10, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He laid down His
life. He laid down His life so that
we won't die. He said, I die that you may live.
That's loving. Everyone whom God loves, He saves
them. Everyone whom God loves, Christ
died for. Their sins are gone. He sends
the Holy Spirit to round them up. And they're coming, buddy. God's love is powerful. God's
love is in Jesus Christ. God's love is in Jesus Christ,
Romans 8, 39. The love of God is... Who shall
separate us? It goes on and on to say that. Who shall separate
us from the love of God? Shall death, angels, prince of
power, any of these things? No. Because the love of God is
in Christ. In Christ. All whom God loves
He gave them to His Son, whom Scripture says, He shall not
fail. He'll save every one of them. And that's what Christ
said, didn't He, in His prayer to the Father in John 17. All
you've given me, I've kept. Not one of them is lost. Not
one of them. And He sent Him to be made sin
for them. Behold, what manner of love.
God's love was to Noah, wasn't it? How do you know God loved
Noah? put him in the ark. He put him
in the ark. He said, Come thou, Noah, into
the ark. And God put him in the ark, and
what does it say? God shut him in. The love of
God was in that ark, wasn't it? Not outside. The wrath of God. The love of God was in that ark.
How do you know that God loved Israel and not Egypt? How do
you know God loved Israel and not Egypt? Israel was under the
blood. Everyone in Israel was in the
house under the blood. That's how you know. God's love
is in Jesus Christ. And we have known, he said. Now,
all right, here's the question. Does God love me, though? I know
He loves Israel. Even David said it. I know God
is good to them that are of upright heart, but as for me, I don't
know about me. Does he love me? Here's several
evidences, several evidences I believe, well I know the scriptures
teach us that we may know the love of God. Our names are not
there, but the character described. Brother Scott used to say that.
Brother Scott Richardson, he said, you can't claim the promise
in scripture unless you fit the character described in the promise. He can't claim the promise unless
you fit the character described in the promise. All right? Romans
8, 28 says, We know that all things work together for good
to them that love God. All right, here it says we love
Him. John said we love Him. The Lord
asked Peter, Simon, do you love us thou may? He said, yea, Lord.
We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. But we do love Him. I mean the
God of the Bible. The true God. Start telling people
about the God of the Bible. See if they love Him. When Paul wrote Romans, he said
they're haters of God. They don't love God. They hate
God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God in foolishness to him. The natural man hates
the God of the Bible. God who reigns and rules over
all. The God who alone has free will. Who does as he will with
whom he will just because he will. The God who chooses whom
he will. God who loves whom he will. Who
shows mercy to whom he will. Whom he will he hardeneth. That's
the God of the Bible. That's the God of the Bible.
All people don't love that God. God's people do. Every one of
them does. Brother Norman Wells just preached
for us Wednesday night. Brother Norman, you know Brother
Norman, I think you wouldn't forget him if you met him. 6'5",
tiring fella. But he said, my dad came out
there to preach in Oregon for them 30 years ago. And he said
he preached this message. Same message we preach all the
time. Sovereign God on a throne. Sovereign mercy. Sovereign grace.
And he preached that message. God loves his people. Chose a
people. And Norm said, after it was over,
I hated that man. He said, I hated him. Now you know what now? He loves
him. He can't mention my father's
name without big old tears in his eyes. What made the difference?
God loved Norman. God taught Norman. God showed
Norman. You're not worth loving Norman.
But I've loved you. I chose you. I set my love on
you. I love whom I will. And Norm
realized, I didn't deserve to be loved. Oh, thank you, Lord,
for loving me. And now he loves that God. He
loves that God. Loved the God he once hated.
See? If you love God, He loves you.
The holy and just and sovereign God. The one that reigns. Everyone
does it. God loves you if you love His
name. If you fear His name. This is
what sets apart the people of God from the people of the world.
They don't fear. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. The name of God is blasphemed by everyone. The name
of God is on the lips, on the tongues of most everyone, including
young people today, isn't it? How does it make you feel when
you hear them speaking God's name in that way? Doesn't it
cringe? Don't you cringe when you hear
it? Have you ever been reading a book, some kind of book, and
the person starts taking God's name in vain? I want to keep
reading that. Why? You love His name. You reverence
his name. You respect his name. Don't you? What if somebody was throwing
around Dwight Moody's name all the time? Just throwing around
Dwight this and Dwight that. Make you mad, wouldn't it? You
respect your father too much. You love him too much. He's too
dear to you, isn't he? You honor him. Honor him. You
fear him. Those that God loves, they love
him. They fear his name. They love
his name. His name is who he is. Don't drag it in the mud.
Don't bring it down. If God loves you, you love God's
truth. You love God's Word. You love
His Word. Do you love everything you've
heard thus far? That's the truth. I've told you the truth, haven't
I? So help me. God's people love the truth.
God has given them a love for the truth. Everyone doesn't have
a love for the truth. But all whom God loves, He gives
them a love for the truth. They love the truth. They love
the Word of God. Most people hate it, turn away
their ears from the truth. But God's people turn their ears
to it. He that is of God, heareth God's Word. No matter what it
says. No matter if it condemns us.
You know, it's a blessed thing, it's a good thing if you're convicted
by the Word of God. If you feel guilt, if the Word
of God convicts you, that means you're led of the Spirit of God.
That means the Spirit of God dwells in you. Holy Spirit convicting
you of sin and righteousness and judgment as it is in Christ.
That's the love of God. That's the Spirit of God given
to you by God who loves you and keeps convicting you of your
sin and making you cry unto Christ and trust Christ. That's the
love of God. Be convinced of sin. Love God. The woman, the Canaanite woman,
when she came to the Lord and he didn't answer her, remember?
Did she get mad? No. She knew she didn't deserve
for him to answer her. And then he said, I've not come
but to the lost sheep of Israel. I have an elect people. And I've
just come for the elect. Did she get mad? No, no. And then he said it's not fit
to give the children bread to dogs. He called her a dog. Well,
she's going to leave now, isn't she? No, no. What did she say?
Truth. Truth, Lord. It's all true. Everything
you say is the truth. Whatever you say about me is
the truth. Even the word of God that calls you a dog. Even the
word of God that calls you a worm. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. God's
people love, that's true, it's true. If God loves you, if God
loves you, you love God's Son. You love God's Son. Turn with
me to John 17, John 17. See the love of, the salvation
of God It's love put in the heart of God's people, shed abroad
in the heart of God's people. It's like a marriage, isn't it?
They're all the bride of Christ, and they all love Him. Heaven
is the marriage supper of the Lamb, and everyone there loves
Jesus Christ. Gabe and I love the same woman,
and she has a woman now, 30. We love the same woman, don't
we? We're united in our love to her. her and all of God's
people. They love the same husband, the
same person. That's what we're here tonight
for in this morning. That's why we're here, isn't
it? To worship the Son. The marriage supper of the Lamb.
The marriage... The Lord gave the parable of
a king, a certain king who made a marriage supper for his son. To the honor of his son. It's all about the son. John
17, look at verse 24. Our Lord is praying to the Father
and says, Father, I will that they whom also whom Thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. If you love Christ, you love
His glory, don't you? And if you love His glory, you
can't stand anyone to take it away from you. You can't stand
for anybody to diminish his glory, take anything away from what
he's done. You can't stand that. Read on. For thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world, O righteous Father, verse 25,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee and these
have known thee, that thou hast sent me. And I have declared
unto them thy name and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them. Now what is this love of God?
Who does God love supremely? Jesus Christ. He said it out
loud twice, didn't he? From heaven. This is my beloved
Son, my only begotten well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him. The Father loves the
Son, John preached, and hath given all things in His hand.
God loves the Son. And everyone whom God loves,
our Lord said, He puts this same love in them. They love the Son,
too. They love the Son, too. We have
the same offspring, don't we? We love them. We all love them
with the same love. Same love. We're down here to
celebrate Sophie and Hannah's birthday. Because we love them. It's all
about them. God's people meet together because
they love the Son. It's all about Him. If God loves
you, you love the Son. If God loves you, you love God's
salvation. Scripture says, let such as love
thy salvation say continually, all the time, the Lord be magnified. Salvation's of the Lord. The
Lord be magnified. Such as love thy salvation. We
love God's salvation. We love sovereign love. We love
that God's love is sovereign because we know if He hadn't
chosen to love us, there's nothing in us that He'd
ever find worth loving. Like election. I know he's quoted
this. We got all the same illustrations
from the same man. Stole them. Spurgeon said, I
know that God chose me before the foundation. I know he had
to because if he'd have waited until after I was born, he never
would have chosen me then. That's the love of God, isn't
it? We know that. God's love is sovereign. We love
that. We love His sovereign mercy. We love His righteousness. We
love the righteousness of Christ imputed. We know we don't have
any. Ours is filthy rags, don't we? We love that our righteousness
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. We love that. We're so thankful
that our salvation is completely dependent upon the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. We love that. Everyone doesn't
love that. Those that God loves do. We love
God's glory. Man can't stand and preach God
high enough for those that love Him. A man can't stand and preach
too much Christ for those that love Him, can they? Brother Scott
Richardson, I find myself listening to him quite a bit these days.
Love that man. But a woman once came to him
and actually said this, and derision. She said it in derision. She's
been critical of him. And she quit shortly after. She
said, I got it written down right here in the Bible. She said,
all you preach is Christ, Christ, Christ. That's all you preach.
Every time, Christ, Christ. And old brother Scott said, would
you write that on my tombstone? Why does he preach Christ? He
loves Christ. Why do you want to hear Christ?
You love Christ. Your salvation is in Christ.
John, every time he said, the friend of the bridegroom loveth
the voice of the bridegroom. And John, every time they came
to him, he would say one thing, behold the Lamb of God. Next
day, behold the Lamb of God. What's he going to preach today?
Behold the Lamb of God. He loved Christ, loved His salvation,
loved to hear about Him. If God loves you, God's holy. If you love God, you hate sin.
You hate sin. You've got to. It's the opposite
of what God is. And that means you hate yourself.
If God loves you, you hate yourself. No one that loves himself can
love God. Everyone that meets God hates
himself. God gives a new heart to hate sin. And it's a heart
that hates self. It's a broken heart over its
own sin. In Ezekiel 36, when the Lord
said He would do all these things to Israel, He said, I will cleanse
them. I'll gather them. He said, I'll
give you a new heart. And what it goes on to say, and
you will loathe yourselves. You're going to hate yourselves
for the rest of your lives. You're going to hate yourself
for the sin that caused Christ to be put on that cross for you.
and the sin that's in you. Like Paul said, a wretched man
that I am. Like David said, my loins are
filled with a loathsome disease. And you love Christ so much you
want to be just like Christ. And you want to be done with
this old man that's nothing like Him. That's the love of God. See God's, your name's not written
there. But the character is. The evidences
are. If you love, if God loves you,
you hate sin. And you hate yourself. If God
loves you, Look at 1st John over in 1st John 3 verse 14. 1st John 3 verse 14. If God loves you, you love the
brethren. You love the brethren. Verse
14. We know that we've passed from death unto life because
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Do you know how much It talks
about this. The whole book of 1 John is about
this. Christ's last commandment. Before
he was leaving, he said, this commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you. And this is
another evidence. God's people love each other. They love the brethren. Look
at 1 John 4 verse 13. I'm going to quit. 1 John 4 verse
13. It says, Hereby know we that
we dwell in Him and He in us. That is God and God's Spirit
and the love of God. Because He hath given us of His
Spirit. His Spirit is in us. What is
the fruit of the Spirit? What is the first fruit of the
Spirit? Galatians 5 verse 22. No. He loved God first. He loved God. And he that loveth
him that begats, loveth him that is begotten. That means Christ
and that means Christ's people. Those that are born of God. He
loved them. Now, this love of God for brethren is supernatural. It's of God. If God loves you,
you actually love the brethren in Christ as you do, as you would
your flesh and blood. That's right. That's right. That's not natural. I have a brother. I have one
brother, one sibling left out of four. And I love him. I do
love him. I do. I don't love him like I
should. I do love him. He's my brother. He's my blood.
You love your kin, don't you? We do. That's just natural. But
you know, I would rather be with you than him. Give me a choice. I'd rather
be with Tony back there, any day. Now that's not natural. That's just not natural. That's
God-given. God loves you. You love God's
people like you love your flesh and blood. There you go. And
the reason being is because in glory and heaven there are no
relationships. except in Christ. No male, no
female, no Mary, no given Mary, no husbands, no wives, no fathers,
no mothers. We're all the bride of Christ
and no relationships. And that starts here. God creates
that love now for the brethren. That's what Peter said. He said,
love is brethren. We can get mad at each other. Oh man, my brothers, my brother,
my second brother was mean to me. And you know, I didn't do
anything to deserve it. I did. But he was so mean to
me. And we had knock-down drag-out
fights. We really did. But to this day,
I cannot remember what one of those was about. If you had asked
me, I'm not holding a grudge. I don't remember. I don't remember. That's the life of a brother. And he said, you love one another
as Christ loved you. And they do, they do. If a brother, if so-called a
brother can hold a grudge and keep that grudge and not forget
it and forgive, it's a dangerous sign, dangerous sign. God loves
you, you love the brethren. If God loves you, and let me
quit with this, He calls you by the gospel. He'll call you.
Call him. Whom he foreknew, he called. Calls by the gospel. And He doesn't
just call you once, He keeps calling you. And keeps calling
you by the gospel. And keeps calling you. And He'll
never let you leave. And He keeps calling you back.
And you keep coming back. And how many times you run away,
he calls you and you keep coming back. We have a dog named Charlie. And if we didn't love him, I'd
have shot him a long time ago. Gabe would have shot him last
week when we were out of town. Why? He's prone to wander, isn't
he? You can't take your eyes off
of him. He'll run, won't he? Who was
with you that day? Jerry. You know Charlie, don't you?
Men admit it. Is Charlie good for anything?
Come on. Be honest. He's good for nothing. Why are
we loving? We decided to. We chose him out
of the litter. There were many. We chose him.
We set our love on him. We paid too much money for him. Way too much. We've paid anything
that's been too much. But we set our love on him. And we love him. He's not worth
loving. He's always running off. But you know what we do? We go
after him. We called him the other day.
Just the other day. I was headed somewhere in the
morning. He ran off. I said, I'm not going
after him. I'm not going to get him again.
I'm not. But I did. I did. I love him. Worthless as he is, I love him. If this gospel keeps calling
you, If you keep coming back, if you can't stay away, God loves
you. And I will say a few things about
how He chastens those He loves. He chastens them. You chasten
your children, don't you? You approve them, you rebuke
them, you correct them. You put the rod on them, don't
you? If you don't, you don't love your children. And that's
the same with the Lord. You don't chase other people's
children, do you? As much as you'd like to. But you don't,
do you? You're chasing your own children.
And that's who God loves, whom He's chasing. Does God love me?
Do you love God? God of the Bible? Do you love
His Son? Do you love His Word? Do you love His truth? Do you
love the brethren? Do you hate yourself? Do you
hate sin? Do they keep calling you? God
love you. May the Lord bless His Word to
you.