Jeremiah chapter thirty one. Let's read these first three
verses again. At the same time, sayeth the
Lord. will I be the God of all the
families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith
the Lord, the people which were left of the sword found grace
in the wilderness. Israel, when I went to cause
him, when I went to cause him, to rest. The Lord hath appeared
of old, or from afar unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee." And one of our ladies was recently
accosted by another woman who admonished her and criticized this pastor and
this pulpit for dwelling too much on sin and, in her words,
not speaking enough of the love of God. Is that right? That's
the way she put it. I readily admit that in preaching,
every time that I stand up here to preach, I try to bring people
down. I try to bring people down because
then there's no place to look but up. The Scripture says, whom the
Lord abases, he exalts. We must first be abased. Barnard,
I've quoted this so many times, Brother Ralph Barnard, an old
evangelist the Lord used, much like he did John the Baptist,
used to say, I'm not trying to get people saved. He said, I'm
trying to get them lost. The Lord must say people. And I am I admit readily admit
that in preaching, I try to make people feel bad about themselves. I don't want you to feel good
about yourself. I try to make people feel bad
about themselves, because if you feel bad about yourself,
you'll feel very good about the Lord Jesus Christ. I try to make people feel guilty,
because when folks feel guilty, then sovereign mercy means something. Not until then. I try to make
men and women feel absolutely, completely helpless, for then
and then only will they look unto the hills, as the psalm
says, from whence cometh their help. until men and women are
brought to utter helplessness. They will not look to God and
God alone for their help. God does not help those who help
themselves. That is nowhere in the scriptures.
God helps only the helpless. So I am trying to make you feel
utterly, totally helpless, because then and then only you will find
someone who has undertaken to be your strength. And I am trying
to make people feel very unlovely. Trying to make people feel very
unlovely. The uglier I can make you appear
to yourself, the more unlovely I can convince you that you are,
the more the love of God will mean to you. The more the love of God will
be precious to you indeed, not until then. Do you understand
what I'm saying? You see, the greatest story ever
told was written by God himself, and it is a true story. It is not fiction. It is a true
story, and it is a story of, we like to say, rags to riches. You know, those are mostly the
stories that we read. The stories that we enjoy the
most are those rags to riches stories, are they not? Most of
the stories with good and happy endings are stories of that sort,
rags to riches. And we have heard these stories
and read them from a child. I'll give you a illustration. The story that everyone knows
in here, even our children, the story of Cinderella. That story
began this this young girl it began by the death or in death
of her family and she was left in to herself and in despair
a orphan and left in poverty. And then she was finally taken
in by someone but she received nothing but ill treatment. She
was a captive. of a wicked stepmother, and at
the hands of her evil sisters, she was brought to utter despair.
Was she not? Utter despair of herself. And
we, when we read that, we hated the terrible things that happened
to her, but she was brought to utter despair of herself. Then
along comes a spirit. A spirit comes along and makes
her fit, or meet, to go and prepares her to go meet the handsome prince. Where did this story come from?
Sounds familiar to me. But she, the spirit, makes this
girl, this Cinderella, beat fits her outfits her to go meet the
handsome prince whom she made and finally married and lived
happily ever after. Now that's a silly man made story
is not fiction. And you see though her beginning
her misery And her utter despair and her poverty made the end
that much more glorious, did it not? It all built up to a
marvelous, glorious climax. If she had started out very wealthy
and met a wealthy prince, it wouldn't have meant that much,
right? But rags to unsearchable, speakable riches made the story
that much more glorious, did it not? And happy. You forgot
all about her beginning, didn't you? Well, that's fiction. That's a mere child's fable. But the story of God's salvation
is a real and a true story. It tells the story of God taking
a beggar off of a dung heap to sit among princes. Taking a baby,
and we heard this from Brother from Ezekiel sixteen, a baby
lying in blood and bringing that child to life and transforming
it into a beautiful woman. Of taking a wretched stinking,
yes, this is the language of Scripture in regards to human
beings. It's not a lovely sight. As I
said, I'm not standing up here trying to make us feel good about
ourselves. God doesn't do that. The story God's story God's gospel
tells a story of God taking a wretched. These are scriptural terms thinking. Filthy. Leper vile leper and
making him or her. Clean spotless and lovely. With the skin of a newborn baby. Of taking a rebellious no good
God-hating, yes, God-hating, every man and woman and young
person by nature hates God. Romans 8, 7 says that. God-hating,
blaspheming, and in the language of Scripture, bastard child,
not cousin, I'm just quoting Scripture. Bastard child whom
nobody will have, and God says, I'll have him. And takes that
child, that ugly, no good, rebellious, like some little snotty-nosed,
rebellious, toe-headed or red-headed boy, you know, to kick you in
the shins. Be like you're going down to
the adoption agency and looking around and finding the worst
one of the bunch and adopting it. That's what God did. And
He loved. There's nothing lovely about
that little kid, is there? nothing lovely at all. He's the
most unlovely of the bunch. That's who God saves and sets
his love upon them and adopts them into his family. Why he
would do that, I don't know. In the end, he transforms them
into a gentle, peaceable, sweet, kind, loving, Christ-like, glorious
He grows up to be a son of God. That's the gospel, you see. And the more we become convinced
of our sins, the more we'll need a Savior. That's what I'm trying
to say in so many words. The more we become convinced
of how unlovely we are, the more unlovely we become to ourselves,
the more lovely Christ will appear to us, and the more amazing the
love of God will be. amazing love. How can it be? Then you'll never be able to
sing that song until you're brought to see your unloveliness. You'll
never be able to sing amazing love. How can it be that thou,
my God, should die for me? Only when you see your utter
unloveliness. The fact that we listen to this
message with such deadness and coldness and dryness is proof
that we don't see it, that we don't esteem the love of God
as we should. Now, I preach the love of God. Every time I stand
up and preach the gospel, I preach the love of God, but not like
the world preaches it. I detest it, I abhor it, I repudiate
it, I despise it, I renounce it every time. The way the world
preaches The love of God is not the love of God. A world of false prophets tell
of a God who loves every man and woman without exception. A God who loves every man and
woman without exception and wants to help them if they will just
let him. And he does what he can for them. And it's all that he can do for
them, and the outcome is left up to them. I despise that. That's blasphemy. That is not
the love of this Bible. That is not the love of Almighty
God. That is silly, sentimental claptrap
made up by men that can do us no good whatsoever. I don't need
that love, I don't want it. It is of no value to me whatsoever,
no more valuable to me than the love of a dog. Is that too plain? I'll say it again if anybody
didn't hear me. I don't need that kind of love. But the love of God, let me say
it with a smile on my face. Not a fake one. The love of God
as proclaimed in the Bible is infinitely glorious, infinitely
effectual, invaluable. We can't do without it. It is
three things, and this is my message, three points. The love
of God. The love of God is electing love. The love of God is eternal love. Can you guess what the third
one is? The love of God is effectual love, electing love, eternal
love, effectual love. Now, this is not just an attempt
at theological terms, but for the sake of memory. All right,
let's look at the text again. The love of God is electing love. Look at verses one through three
again at the same time the Lord said, I will be the God of all
the families of Israel. Now did you hear me when I began
reading these passages? I was quoting from the book of
Romans where Paul said, they are not all Israel which are
of Israel. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, inwardly. That is found in Romans, chapter
two, verses twenty-six through verse twenty-nine. OK? A Jew, an Israelite, a true Israelite,
a true Jew, is someone whom God has chosen. Someone whom God
has chosen. It is the elect people of God. sovereignly elected or chose
certain individuals before the foundation of the world. Where
is that thing? Ephesians one, verse four. God
has chosen a certain number of individuals, a predetermined
number of persons before the foundation of the world, and
he set his love and his affection upon those people and upon them
alone. And the wrath of God and the
eternal punishment of God abides upon the rest, those whom he
did not choose. God does not love all men and
women without exception, but he loves his chosen people. Turn
over to Malachi chapter one with me. Malachi is the last book
in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter one. Now most people,
and I want to preach this message with as much compassion as I
can, and as much tenderness and meekness, but yet with boldness.
How can you do that, preach with meekness and yet boldness? Well,
I want to try. Most people can only quote John
3.16. Can you quote that? It says,
For God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten
son, and whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Now let me say this right there,
you cannot quote John three sixteen without knowing all of John chapter
three. That is one verse among many.
Right away you have erred if you've taken that out of context.
But that's a glorious verse. I love that verse. John three
sixty four God so loved the world but that verse is not talking
about the scope or the extent of God's love. If you remember
by the Ken Wymer preaching here from that text years ago I remember
it like yesterday he's the one that first really opened this
passage to me. That verse is not talking about
the extent of God's love or that is the world. It's talking about
the manner in which God love God so. In this way, God loves. And you remember, John, you've
got to go up to John 314 to hear the gospel. Barnard used to say
the gospel is not found in John 316. It's found in John 314.
There's no mention of blood there, but there is in John 314 as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so, must the
son of man be lifted up. There you have the crucifixion,
don't you? And then so on. So that's a glorious
passage. God so loved the world, but the
world there, that word world does not speak of every individual
that was ever born. Listen to me now. The word world
there in John 316 is not talking about every single person that
was ever born any more than Margaret you remember in the passage where.
The Pharisees when a crowd of people were gathered around the
Lord. And they were following him as a big crowd and the Pharisees
said well look at that the whole world is going after him. You
remember that. You remember that the whole world. No that wasn't talking about
every single individual that ever lived it was a figure of
speech to mean that everybody. It seems like everybody and the
word world in John three sixteen is talking about a people out
of every tribe, nation, kindred, tongue, blood from under God's
heaven, but not every single individual. I know of at least one person
in all the scriptures that God named by name and said he hated
him. And that's what's found here in Malachi one Look at verse
Malachi one look at it you have a Bible or one next to you look
at Malachi one verse two the Lord said I have loved you say
of the Lord verse one the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel
by Malachi I have loved you say of the Lord yet you say or where
in has thou loved us how tell us how. And then they go speak
of electing love here. Tell us how you've loved and
this is the greatest glory of God's love is electing. All right, God says was not Esau
Jacob's brother, saith the Lord. Here you have these two boys.
Both the same and no different from the same womb, same family,
had the same upbringing, same raising. And the scriptures in
Romans 9 said even before they were born, before they'd done
any good or evil. Read on, God says, Yet I loved
Jacob and I hated Esau. Is that what your Bible says?
That's what the Bible says. I don't know what your Bible
says. That's what the Bible said. We say that means love less.
Well, read on. Does this sound like love less? I hated Esau and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste. for the dragons of the wilderness.
If it is loveless, I don't want any lesser love. That's hatred. The word means odious, utterly
detest and abhor and despise him. Now, I had a man that turned
a few verses or chapters over to Matthew six, Matthew six. Turn over here. I had a preacher
Argue this with me before. Matthew chapter six. No, five,
I'm sorry, Matthew five. I had a preacher argue this with
me before. Look at verses forty three and
onward, our Lord is speaking here and. And he says, you have
heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thine enemy. I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. On down to verse forty-eight,
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect, or mature, complete, like he is. Had a man argue with
me and say, see there, God tells us to love our enemies because
God loves his enemies. Not all of them. God tells us to love our enemies,
but he doesn't have to. Huh? Is God subject to his own law? When God says, thou shalt not
kill, let me ask you this. Why does the scripture say the
Lord killeth? Everybody that dies, he kills
them. But he tells us don't kill. But that doesn't apply to him.
He tells us to love our enemies, but he doesn't have to, does
he? Am I stretching the point? Now,
the amazing thing is that God does love some of his enemies. But not all of them. But the
amazing thing that we should keep in mind and consider and
praise God for is that he does love any of them, you see. He
doesn't have to love, he shouldn't love any of them. Why should
he? Why should God love anybody? That's the marvel of the love
of God, electing love, in that while we were yet enemies, sinners,
the scripture says. God loved them. There's amazing
love. The world talks about love. We talk about amazing love. The
world talks about love. We talk about electing love,
sovereign love. See, the marvel of God's love
is that nobody deserves it, and that though everyone deserves
wrath and anger and judgment, some get love. And oh, what love they get. Oh, what love they get. And as
I said before, if you see your utter unworthiness and unloveliness,
you can sing the song, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus
of Nazareth and wonder, and I'll be wondering this throughout
eternity, how he could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean. I won't stand before him and
say, you ought to love me. I'll say, how could you? That's
why people sing throughout eternity and never grow tired of it. Amazing
love. Not until then will you ever
sing that song with any conviction. This world doesn't sing that
from the heart. They sing it from the lips. That's
what our Lord said, didn't He? They draw near with their lips,
singing amazing love when their heart is far from believing that
the love of God is amazing. Electing love. Undeserved love. unmerited love,
free love. I've given this illustration
so many times, you know it by heart, but I'll tell it again. It's the best illustration I've
ever heard concerning God's elect in love. Listen to me. When I
sought to marry that girl there, when I met that girl there and
asked for her hand in marriage What do you. Just suppose that
I had asked her to marry me I said would you marry me Melinda. Got a little money. Would you. Marry me. And she says well. Do you love me. I'd say oh yes. Oh yes I love you. I love all
women. You're a woman, and I love all
women. Would she marry me? Huh? She'd be a fool to marry me,
wouldn't she? She'd think I'd be going out loving women, all
women. Does that shed any light on the
love that this generation's talking about, the love of God? Huh?
Lord, do you love me? Yeah, I love all men. Even the
ones in hell? Well, yeah. God loves all. I don't want that. I don't want
that love. That's what she'd say to me.
I don't want your love. I want a husband who chose me
over other women, who set his affection on me. You see, if
I tell her, yes, I love you, not Jane, not Susan, not Sarah,
Not Mary, you. You're the apple of my eye. You're
the joy of my heart. You're the object of my affection.
You, I want you. Would she marry me? Take me,
I'm yours. That's what she said, wasn't
she? That's what she did say. That's
what I said. Wrote her little poems, told
her my love for her. I didn't write little poems to
other women. That's what people do with the Word of God, don't
they? They say it's for everybody, indiscriminate. No, it's not.
It's a love letter to God's people, where God says, I love you. All right, it's electing love.
You see that? And number two, look at verse
three again in the text, Jeremiah 31. It's electing love and it's
everlasting love. everlasting love. Verse three
says, The Lord appeared of old unto me. He didn't appear of
old to everybody, did he? He didn't appear to the Gentiles.
He didn't appear to the Jebusites, and the Hivites, and the Hittites,
and the Perizzites, and the Idites, and the Idiotites, all the other... He appeared to the Israelites,
didn't he? Nobody else. They had salvation,
nobody else. electing love, he said, The Lord
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love." Everlasting love. Now, English was my best subject
in school. You might not think it, but it
was. I might not be able to say, I can spell it. But I know something about plain
English. If I know anything about plain
English, I know that that word everlasting means, if you'll
break it down, it means it lasts forever. Huh? You know that? Henry, how much education did
you, how far did you get? Eighth grade, something like
that? Do you know, you understand that,
don't you? I'm not belittling you. I'm saying even a child,
my daughter, eight years old, can understand everlasting means
it lasts forever. Right, Hannah? Andrew? Why doesn't the world see that? Huh? It's everlasting. If I know
anything about English, I know that eternal means it doesn't
have an end. Now God says here that everyone
he starts loving, he never stops loving them. Right? And really, eternal, you really
want to get down to it, really eternal means that he always
did love them. There was a time when he didn't. This is love, when it talks about
everlasting love, this is love before, during, and after. You
can talk about eternal or everlasting, it's love before, before the
world began, he loved the people. During, it's during our lifetime,
when we were born, and after, after we die, he'll keep loving
us. Before, during, and after. Before
birth. God loves his people before they were born. before they even
were ever. Glint in there is someone to
say in their father's eye or mother's eye before they were
born. Let me ask you this. How could
God? Love something that didn't exist. How could he do that? Well, known unto God are all
his works from the beginning. It's nothing as if it didn't
exist. God knows everything. He sees everything in eternity
and not in time. That's a mystery. But let me
give this illustration. You ladies have had children.
I wish Jenny was here right now. She could really relate to this.
I think she's down in the nursery. But you ladies that have had
children, did you love that baby when it was in your womb? Huh? When that baby was in your
womb, before you knew whether it was a boy or a girl, whether
or not it was completely whole, healthy, did you love it then? Huh? Come on. It's the only way
we can really understand this. You loved it before it was, didn't
you? You loved it. Us men, we can't enter into this. We can't really enter into this,
but the ladies can. God Almighty considered us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. We were in Him, in Christ, and
He loved us. And He had to consider us that
way because if He had waited until after we were born, He
would never have loved us then. Right? If my mama and daddy,
if my mama had waited until after I was born to start loving me,
she'd have sent me back if she could. I don't want to take him
back. Give me the afterbirth. Send
him back. Somebody said there was an argument
in the hospital when I was born about who got to slap me. I'm making jest here, but it's
true, isn't it? If God had waited to see how we'd turn out, he'd
never loved anybody. Huh? He would never have loved
anybody. But he saw us in Christ. Let
me give you another illustration well during let me get to this
God loves us during our lifetime he loves us before we were born
he loves us while we yet live during or even while we were
dead in trespasses and sin even though we were rebel sons any
of you ever had some of you do have rebellious children. And then you might have some
children that are are Do you love the role model children
more than you love the rebellious children? Did you stop loving
the rebellious children? Have you ever? Will you ever
stop loving? That's the story of the prodigals,
isn't it? The prodigal son. The scripture says, God commended
his love toward us, his chosen people, not all, toward us in
that while we were yet sinners. And that word doesn't describe
us very well. We're the sinners. Exceeding
sinfulness of sinners. But Christ died for us. God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. God loved
you, Terry Kenderly. The reason I know it is because
you know him. The gospel came to you. You know
him. You believe him. But he loved
you when you were a no-good, wretched, drunken bum, buddy. That's inconceivable, isn't it?
Huh? I mean a wretch, a rat. Me? Joe,
Park, you're common now. There was a time when you were
worse than that. Right? God loved you then. In Christ. He had to have seen
you in Christ, right? Because here's what the Scripture
says. God is holy. Listen to me now. Listen to me now. Or, oh, Brother Griswold, you
should say, watch it now. God is holy. He can't love sinful
things. It's not within his nature to
love sinful things. Do you love maggots? Huh? If you go down to your garbage
can every morning and say hello to the corruption in the bottom
of that can, that is us by nature. I'm not making this up. This
is a scripture. Isaiah chapter one, read it for yourself. Do
we love maggots? God can't love sinners. He's holy. It says the moon is
not pure in his eyes. The sun, the stars, isn't that
what the Scripture says? Do not shine purely in his eye. How much more abominable and
filthy is man, he says, that drinks iniquity like the water.
God can't look with love upon such a creature. He loves holy
things. The Scripture says the righteous
Lord loveth what? Righteousness. He wouldn't be
God if he loved iniquity. And that's me, altogether. I am sin. Well, how can God then
look upon such a one and love them? That's why he had to consider
us from the beginning in Christ. That's why we have always been,
in a sense, eternally accepted, loved, beloved, before loved,
in the beloved. in Christ. He saw us in Christ. Let me illustrate this. Beauty,
you know the old saying, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
Right? Beauty is in the eyes of the
beholder. It's true. We look at a lump of clay. We
look at a lump of clay, a ball of wet dirt, and we see nothing. We see that's worthless, that's
good for nothing. What good is that? The potter,
the potter is not beholding the clay, is it? The potter doesn't
say, yeah, it is worthless, it's no good, it'll never amount to
nothing. Well, it won't in and of itself. But the potter says,
I see something. I see what it's going to be.
I see what I'm going to make it to be. And the potter says,
what's this? And he molds it and you see a
beautiful vessel come out and you say, well, I didn't see it
in that lump. And the scripture says the same
thing in Romans nine. And of the same lump, he's able
to make one vessel under honor and another under dishonor. Of
the same mass of humanity, which has no beauty in and of itself,
no value whatsoever, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
He beheld us as we would be, not as we were, not as we are,
but as we would be, a son of God. And God says, and this is
what God's doing before the angels of heaven, before us, before
all the world, he's saying all of our lives, what's this? And
in the end he's going to say, behold what I have wrought. and everybody's going to give
us. I never would have thought it could be done. Right, Joe? I never would have thunk it.
I never would have thought that anything could be made out of
that mass. But would you look, would you
just look what God has done. What God has done. Beauties in
the eyes of the beholder. And after. God loves us after. Like a marriage vow, all of you
took a marriage vow. You know, all that have been
married, that is, have taken a marriage vow. And you promised
to love in, boy, aren't these shallow words, love through sickness,
through in health and in poverty and in wealth and all of that,
all of those lies that we make, you know, before God and before
men. But God took a vow. He took an
oath. He was like a marriage, like
a marriage. God promised. He said, I love
them. Her? Like Gomer on that auction
block of sin. Her? That prostitute? That no
good, filthy, you going to take a wife and hoard them? Yes, her. Oh, here's some pretty ones.
Don't want them. Not the righteous. Sinners. There's one. I'm going
to marry him. Are you going to do it in sickness?
I'll show more of my love and sickness. He'll know my love
like he never known it before. Sickness? In poverty? Yeah, I'm
the one that brings it to him. In poverty? And what about death?
Till death do us part, that won't part us either. The analogy stops
there. We stop loving our mate after
we die. After both of us die. God doesn't. That's when the love of God really,
really starts to reveal itself. Then and then only we really
see how he. Eternal before, during and after. And lastly, the love of God. God's love is electing everlasting,
and it is the actual. He actually didn't hear anything
else. You better hear this. Look at
the text again. Jeremiah thirty one three. The
Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea? I like his language,
don't you? Yea? And that's what I say. Or, Yeah! I know a man, Donny Bell says
that all the time when he hears something he likes preached from
the pulpit. A man says, God's sovereignty
says, Yeah! I like that. I catch myself doing that, too.
Yeah! God says, Yeah! And I cheer. That's my cheer, isn't it? Yay! This is good news. God says, I have loved thee,
thee, yeah, thee, with an everlasting love. Forever? Yes, forever. Forever. Therefore. And God just doesn't stop there
and say, I've loved you. Now, I've done all it can do.
All I can do, now the rest is up to you. I sure hope you make
it. Right? That's what the world
is saying. I sure hope you make it. No, God said, is this glorious? Is it conjunction, you English
major? Therefore, I have loved thee. I set my affection on you with
an everlasting love. I'll never stop loving you. I'll
love you through all eternity. I'm going to do something about
it. You see, my love isn't helpless
love. It's effectual love. It's saving
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Not might, not maybe, not hope
to. If you'll let me, I've drawn
you. No man can come unto the Father,
or come unto Christ, except what? The father which hath sent him,
draw him, draw him over her. All that the father chose to
love, he gave to Christ to save. He gave to Christ to save. And
Christ came down here and lived the life God demanded of us,
and then he gave us that life or imputed that, charged it to
our account. And then Christ, the Scripture
says, proved a greater love that no man could prove. He laid down
his very life. He gave his life. He was made
sin. Everything odious and hateful
and vile and despicable about me, Christ was made it. And God
saw Christ hanging on that cross and killed me, punished me, which
I deserve, and every sinner whom he chose. that we about me made
the righteousness of God in him Christ God punished my sins in
Christ and God killed Christ in my state. That's the gospel
if you were. Christ paid the price for my
redemption in full. There's nothing left to be paid
the scripture says he obtained eternal redemption for. You want to talk about the love
of God, you've got to talk about it in these terms. There is no
love. As I said before, what kind of
love is it if God loves people that are in hell today, huh?
If God's everlasting love is everlasting, that means He still
loves everybody that's in hell, doesn't it? Huh? What good is
that? That's awful. Would you send
your child to a burning inferno for eternity? That's hideous to think about,
isn't it? That's blasphemy. That's not the love of God. The
love of God saves them. It doesn't damn them. It doesn't say, I've loved you
with an everlasting love, therefore I'll damn you. No, it says, I'll
save you. Why? Because I love you. I love
you. Turn over to Hosea real fast.
Hosea chapter eleven, and I'll quit with this. I'll quit with
this. Hosea chapter eleven. This is
the loving kindness. God drawing us to himself. Drawing us. The scripture says
the goodness of God leads us to repentance. A man just doesn't
one day decide to change his ways. Savingly. He doesn't do it. He may change
his ways, but he doesn't change his heart. Heartfelt repentance
that needs not to be repented of you know we made a repentant
we change our way we got religion while back that we need to repent
of knowing John. I made a profession of faith
that I've repented of since then Lord forgive that that was a
show. That was an emotional experience
I didn't know you. The goodness of God leads us
to repent of The Scripture says by grace you say through faith
and even faith is not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Faith is
not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Look at Hosea
11 verse four. Scripture says God says I drew
them with cords of a man. With bands of love. I was to them as they that take
off the yoke. on their jaws and laid meat on
them. Boy, what a text that is. I drew
them with cords of love. We won't just sit up and start
loving God. We just don't up and decide one
day, I'm just going to love God. I'm just going to believe. Do
we? Uh-uh. It's a gift of God. God flirts with His people. You
know that? He flirts with them. He woos
them, like I did her. For three years, I courted her. It took that long. It took three
years. I courted her. And finally wooed her. Right? I finally wooed her. I finally
fooled her. Tricked her. God doesn't trick
us. I'm not kidding. God does woo His people. He does
flirt with us. He does show tokens of love.
Like the same story of Gomer. where she was given tokens of
love, and she thought she got it at other places when it was
Hosea all the time. Remember that? And the Lord be
good to me all my life. And he was acting and working
upon me years before. Years before I knew him. He flirted with me by his Holy
Spirit, wooed me, and romanced me, and drew me to himself. Rumi chords of love. You say
see there you see there. That's how God first does it.
He should tell you he loves you. No, no, not so. I've spent a
long time now proving that we must first see how unlovely we
are. That's what God does. He shows us that we're unlovely
and then tells us of his love for us. These chords of love.
This is like faith. You ladies have had children.
What was it that united that child to you? The umbilical cord. And faith is just like that cord.
It's just like that cord. It's an umbilical cord that unites
us to God by Christ. We live by that. Just like a
baby receives its life, its nourishment, everything from the mother, faith
is that umbilical cord which unites us to God through Christ. While we're here on the earth,
we live by faith, don't we? Well, what does the Scripture
say? It says someday that silver cord will break. God will sever it. We won't live
by faith then. We'll live by sight. We'll live
by sight. Just like a mother, when she
gives birth to that baby, does she hang on to the cord? Huh? No, they can't. They're separate. She hangs on to the baby, and
the baby hangs on to her. And someday, someday, we will
actually be in His arms. God Almighty is going to put
His arm around you. Do we preach the love of God?
Someday, He's going to put His arm around you. Yeah, you, individually. Somehow
or another, Nancy, you're going to know the love of God personally,
as if there's nobody else there. Christ's going to put his arm—it's
going to be an eternity. He'll have time to get around
everybody. I don't know how this is, but
he will. And he says that he loves us, and he'll tell us. He'll whisper it in our ear.
We won't have to read it. We'll hear him say it, like Psalm
50 says. I am thy salvation. I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. We'll see it, won't we? Oh, I
know it's true. We'll see it. We'll know, even
as we've been known. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Oh, praise you, Lord, for your
lovingkindness, for your goodness to me all these years. You're
mine. I'll not let you go. You're here
to stay. You'll never perish. And I'll
end with this illustration. And I've said this before, but
it's the best I can do. I love my daughter. You love
your children, don't you? Some of you have more than one.
Do you love one more than the other? No. You never would have
dreamed that you could love, after you had the first one,
Jeanette, after you had Wendy, you loved her, or you didn't
know that a human being could love something so much, did you?
And you thought, when you became pregnant with Kevin, you thought,
I don't see how I'm going to love him like I loved her. Didn't you? Sure you did. Do
you? Yeah, you do. God, as a people,
as the sands of the sea, The stars in the sky loves them all
just the same, everlastingly, infinitely. He loves them, loves
them. And I love this girl, though. I love her dearly. I love her
as much as a human being could possibly love another human being.
I do. She'll never understand that
until she becomes a parent, will she? She'll never understand.
I'll never understand the love of God until I become like Christ,
really. But I love her. I'll never stop
loving her. And right now, I attempt to provide
her every need. I do. Everything. Whenever we go someplace, all
she has to say is, Daddy. And I, what do you need? What
do you want? You know how it is. I do. I provide her with everything
that she needs. Sometimes I don't give it to
her. Sometimes it's hurtful to her. take them from her. God
does that to us, too. But if possible, I would provide
her with everything possible, and I would ensure her complete
and utter safety for all time and eternity, if it were possible. If necessary, in order to save
her life, I would lay down my life in a minute. That's exactly
what God Almighty did for His children. And it was necessary
to say that he laid down his life. And it is not only possible
for God to ensure our utter and complete and eternal safety. It's absolutely certain. He can. If I could, I would ensure her
safety. God can and does. You see? Now that's love. That's love. I remember the story of Brother
Barnard. I think it was Brother Barnard. Somebody forgive me if it's the
wrong. Bye.