Thank you, Al, for that. That's taken out of Genesis,
the 22nd chapter. And those words were written
by John Newton. And that's a great, great hymn. He was a wonderful preacher of
the gospel and a great writer of songs. And we, some of them
we sing, a lot of them we don't. But of course most famous is
Amazing Grace. He wrote that one. He didn't
write the last stanza we sing. He wrote several others though.
And he wrote that one. The Lord will provide. We're
thankful for that. I wonder if you'd open your Bibles
tonight to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. There are seven statements in the New
Testament that have to do with our God, the person of God, and
the nature of God. Our Lord Jesus said, He was speaking
to the woman at the well, He said to her, God is spirit. God is spirit. He is immortal. He is invisible. He is indivisible. And he's everywhere. You can't go anywhere but what
God isn't already there. God fills all things. It isn't
just merely that God is everywhere, though we express it that way,
but he fills everything. That's the immensity of who he
is. He's the infinite God. God is spirit. He is spirit. Secondly, our Lord Jesus said
he was actually taking a reference out of the law in Mark chapter
12 and verse 29, he said, the Lord our God is one God. He's one God. Yes, he's father,
he's son, he's spirit, but he's just one God and not three gods. They're the persons of the Trinity. But there's just one God. And
this is the God we're to worship. So God said in the law, thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Worship God. Worship God. Then, thirdly, and we read this
in 1 John 1 verse 5, God is light. And in Him is no darkness at
all. Lots of times in the Bible, darkness
means evil, wickedness, that which is ungodly, error. Well, God's none of those. He's absolute pure light. In fact, He dwells in a light
no man can approach unto. That's the brilliance of who
He is, the magnificence of who He is. It's like our Lord Jesus
on the Mount of Transfiguration. His visage was altered before
the men so that His face was brighter than even the sunshine
at noonday. Our God, our God is light. He's got to give light too. If
he doesn't give light, we'll be in darkness. And we can't
walk with him if we're in darkness. We're in the darkness of wickedness,
the darkness of error, the darkness of evil. We can't walk with him,
because two can't walk together except they be agreed. And if
you go walk with God, and I want to, it says of Enoch, Enoch,
walk with God. That's what I want to do. That's
what you want to do. And walk with God. I want to
walk with God. Well, if we're going to walk
with God, you got to be in the light. Not error, absolute truth. God is light. And then we read
in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 9, God is faithful. Oh, how thankful I am that God
is always faithful. We read in the book of 2 Timothy,
though we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. There's not
any of us in here this evening who would dare to say, well,
you know, I'm faithful to the Lord. There's lots of unfaithfulness
in our faithfulness, right? We want to be faithful, but we
fail. We're a bunch of failures, aren't
we? That's just facing the fact.
But our God doesn't fail. And he's faithful. He's faithful
to fulfill his covenant promises. Everything God's ordained to
do, he's doing. He's bringing it all to pass.
God can't lie. God can't do wrong. God will never fail to keep his
word. You know, we have a saying, a
man's word, that ought to be his bond, right? Somebody tells
you something, that's the way it is, he'll stand behind it.
That's absolutely so with God. God is faithful. He's faithful
when in this book he makes us a wonderful promise, and he's
faithful when he makes a threat. He makes good on his word. God is faithful. Number five,
God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12 and 29, God is consuming
fire. And if you are in doubt as to
what that means, then you need to read Deuteronomy chapter four
and verse number 24. Consuming fire means this. God
is jealous. God is jealous. Listen to what
it says in Deuteronomy 4, 24. For the Lord our God is a consuming
fire, even a jealous God. He's jealous for His glory. He's
not going to share His glory with anybody. He said in Isaiah,
I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am Jehovah. I am the everlasting God. My
glory will I not give to another. God's jealous for it. Don't you
try to steal His glory. He'll put you in hell for that. You bow before Him. You adore
Him, you worship Him. And don't you try to take any
credit for anything. Because in the Lord we live and
move and have our being. If we believe, He gave us faith.
If we repent, He gave us repentance. If we're alive, He gave us life. If we breathe out to God in prayer,
He put that breath within us. There's nothing of ourselves
except our sinfulness. All good things are of God. Our God is a consuming fire. And then 1 Peter chapter 2 verse
3 says, the Lord is gracious. He's gracious. And you go over
in the book of Exodus, that's one of the Lord's names, gracious.
He's a gracious guy, full of grace. He's full of grace and
truth. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world, and that's what was said of Him. That's what John said
of Him. He came full of grace. Full of grace and full of truth.
I wonder how many times you as a child of God, you've drawn
of that grace. You have many times, haven't
you? You've dipped into that grace, and yet there's just as
much grace there after you dip into it as there was before you
went after it. There's an ocean of grace in
the heart of God. Come to Him and find grace, grace
in your hour of need. The Lord is gracious. And then there's this one. In
1 John chapter four, I direct your attention to two verses.
First of all, verse eight. He that loveth not, 1 John 4a,
he that loveth not knoweth not God. Four, here's something else
about God. God is love. And then drop down to verse number
16. And we have known and believed
this love that God has for us or to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in God,
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. I mention in all things of the
providence of God, This song that Alan sang, written by John Newton. I love
reading about John Newton. If you've ever read his biography,
I'm sure you found it to be a great blessing. And if you haven't
read it, you ought to read it. And it isn't. In fact, I think
I've got a copy, my copy of The Life of John Newton is in the
church library. You ought to read it. It won't
take you long to read it. You're fast readers, I'm sure,
and you don't forget anything you've ever read. So you go ahead
and read The Life of John Newton. It'll do you good. It'll be a
great blessing to you. But you know, John Newton, he
had his office. He had his study. up near his desk, up on the wall. He had two verses of Scripture
written. Now, these weren't, he didn't have framed, like y'all
used to do, framing, you know. He didn't, no, it wasn't like
that. He actually, he painted them right on the wall. Would you like to read those
two verses? Let me show them to you. Look at Isaiah chapter
43. And I don't know who you're in
the wall painting. But I tell you, if you's ever
gonna paint something on your wall, these two verses would
be wonderful verses to paint on your wall, or if you want
to put them on, put them, frame them, and hang them on your wall. But this is what John Newton
had. These two, these are his two favorite verses. Isaiah 43,
are you there? Verse four. Isaiah 43, verse
four. This is the Lord speaking, and
Newton wrote, the Lord, he said, he spoke to me. He wrote this
for me. And I say, Brother John, he wrote
it for me too. He wrote it for all of his children.
This is what he wrote. God said, since thou has been
precious in my sight. You know what that word precious
means? Valuable. Esteemed very highly. Since thou has been precious
in my sight, thou has been honorable. Honorable. and I have loved thee. He wrote, he said, I read that
every day. I wanna be reminded of the love
of God for this poor old sinner every single day. I have loved
thee, therefore, will I give men for thee, people for thy
life. Let me tell you something, God
loves his people so much, he'll move nations if necessary. to do what's best for his children.
That encouraged John Newton, the love of God. And let me give
you another, the second reference. This is back in the book of Deuteronomy,
chapter 15. He painted this one too. He wrote this, or he painted
this up on the plaster. That's what he wrote, up on the
plaster. He wrote this, Deuteronomy 15, 15. And thou shalt remember that
thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God
redeemed thee, therefore I command thee this thing this day. He
said, these two things are always kept before me because I can
read them on the wall. The love of God and the redemption
of God. Well, that's two worthy subjects
to keep before you all the time. God's love toward us and God's
redemption of us. You see, it is because of God's
love for his people that he redeemed us. He redeemed us. Let me speak to you on this subject,
God is love, and address, first of all, the subject of the love
of the Father. When we speak about, and I'll
ask you to go back to 1 John chapter four, when we speak about
the love of God, we're referring to that which is real, we're
referring to that which is precious, We're not talking about a general,
oh, you know, God cares for everybody. That's not what we're talking
about. We're talking about the love of God's heart for his people. You know what it means to love
somebody. You know, there are lots of people
you like and you care about them, but there's some people, they
got a special, they got a special place reserved in your heart. Like that woman back there. She's
got, I just, I fell in love with her. I love her. Like my children
and my grandchildren. There's a love and they can't,
that love can't ever be killed. It can't ever be stamped out. It's a real affection of my heart. Like my love for Nancy, that's
because she's a lovely person. But when we speak of the love
of God for us, there was nothing lovable about us. There wasn't
anything to draw forth the love of God. There wasn't anything
that God, as He looked at us, there wasn't anything to attract
His love. to cause God to say, you know,
that's such a wonderful person, I'm going to love him. That's
not the way it was at all. That's the reason the Lord said
in the book of Hosea, I will love them freely. That's what
he said, I'll love them freely. You know what that means? There's
no reason in them why I should love them, I'll just love them
freely. That's the reason God loves you.
as we bask in the warmth of God's love. And we ought to do that.
We ought to do like Brother Newton to, as it were, put the verse
of Scripture on the wall where God says, I have loved thee.
And let's every day meditate upon that and think about that
because the God who loves us can't ever do anything and will
never do anything to hurt us or cause us a needless tear. He loves us. And we say, and
I would say about my wife, I love her with all my heart. Well, think about the very heart
of God. You know how he loves his elect? With all of his heart. Well, I can't even begin to comprehend
that. I can't begin to take that all
in. God is love, God is love. I know God is spirit, God's one
Lord, God is light, God is faithful, God's a consuming fire. All of
these things, God is gracious and God is love. God is love
and he loves me. Had somebody said to me just
a day or two ago, Pastor, I love you. That helps me, thank you. I appreciate anybody loving me,
because there's nothing to me. But there are some people who
I believe really love me. And I don't doubt their love. But think about this, God loves
me. God loves you, people who are
in Christ Jesus. And He's always loved you. That
love never had a beginning, never had an end. Now my love for my
wife, it had a beginning. And it'll have an end. When I
die, our Relationship is husband and wife, that ends. We remain
brother and sister in Christ forever. But that ends that kind
of love. The love of a husband for a wife,
or a wife for a husband, that ends. But the Lord's love, it's
endless. Listen folks, it never had a
beginning. It never had a beginning. Listen
what the Lord said to brother Jeremiah. He said, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Now what do we know about God? We know of God, he's from everlasting
to everlasting. As long as God has been God,
that's how long he's loved us with all of his heart. Now, if
I could ever grasp just a little bit more of that, oh, how soothing
that would be to my poor soul. He loves me. The love of the
Father. The love of the Father. You notice
what he says here in verse 16, and we have known and believed. We have known and believed. How
do we know the love of God? Well, it's in the word of God.
It's in the word of God. And I hear people talk about,
well, oh, I know God loves us, because look, these beautiful
flowers that we can enjoy. Well, that's not an evidence
of the love of God. That's an evidence of the mercies
of God. The goodness of God to everybody.
I know God loves me because he sent rain to my garden. Well
now wait a minute, He sends rain to the just and the unjust. You
cannot be certain of the love of God based upon all of these
things that we see with our eyes. How do we know that God is love? That He loves sinful people?
We know it from the Word of God. That's how we know. In fact,
that's the only way we can know anything is from this book. This is the full and final authority. God is love. Now, there are people who say God
could have loved everybody or he could have hated everybody. Well, I suppose God could have
loved everybody should he have chosen to do so. But I don't
agree that God could have hated everybody. I don't agree with
that. Though all deserve to be hated,
though all deserve to be despised, God must, He must love because
He is love. And love must be expressed. Love must be made known. Love must be revealed. If you
love somebody, you're gonna make sure they know that you love
them. And we tell each other, husbands
and wives tell each other this. I love you, honey. I love you. We make that known. And God has
made known his love to us in his word. We know. We know, this is what it says,
and we have known the love of God. How have we known the love
of God? He gave his son to die for us. That's how we know the love of
God. Look back up here in verse number 10. Or in verse nine. Right after saying in the eighth
verse, for God is love, he says, and this was manifested, and
this was demonstrated, and this was evidenced, the love of God
toward us because that God, he sent his only begotten son into
the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Where is it now? This is the
word of God. Where is God's love? Herein is
love. Not that we love God, and we
do love him. We love him because he first
loved us. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. But if you wanna talk
about love, we don't talk about our love. That's the reason I
don't pick out that song, Oh, How I Love Jesus. I do love the
Lord Jesus, but I can't sing, Oh, How I Love Him, because my
love just frankly isn't worth singing about. But his love for me, now that's
worth singing about. His love for me. Hearing His
love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. Well, how have we known that
love? How do we know God loves sinful
people? He sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's how we know. 2,000 years
ago the Son of God died on a cross that God might be just and the
justifier of all who believe on Jesus. And when we see in
the Word of God Christ Jesus suffering and bleeding and dying
for the ungodly in order to reconcile us to God, there's where we see
the love of God in the gift of His darling Son. We have known the love of God
by the gift that He gave. The gift of His only begotten
Son. And we have known the love of
God by the revelation of His grace. He has made known that
love to our hearts. As it says in Romans chapter
5, He has shared His love abroad in our hearts. And you know what
the result is? We love him. We love Him as He's
revealed in this book. We love Him as the Sovereign.
We love Him as the Savior. We love Him as our surety. We
love Him in every one of His characteristics and attributes.
We love Him. He has shared His love abroad
in our hearts. We know, we know the love of
God. We know it this way. He's caused
us to love Him. I love the Lord. The psalmist
said that. The psalmist said, I love the
Lord because he's heard my cry. How many times have you cried
out to God in prayer? Oh, countless times, right? And
he's heard you every single time. We know the love of God because
he hears us when we pray. He's always interested in what
we've got to say. We're his children. I know sometimes
as parents, and a lot of us, our kids have grown up, but even
now sometimes, your child, your adult child, or maybe in case
your children are smaller, they come to you and you say, just
a minute, I'm busy with something right now. And so the kid goes
away. The Lord has never turned you
away, has he? How many times have you come
to him? Has he ever said, I'm too busy running the world to
listen to you? Well, of course not. I'm too busy exercising divine
providence to listen to your feeble words. No, no, no, no. The Lord would never, never have
that attitude toward his children. He says, speak. I'm listening. in the still, small hours of
the early morning when everybody else is asleep and you wake up
and you're burdened about something. It may be a sin in your life. It may be just a trouble or a
trial or some difficulty, something that you're burdened about and
you pour your heart out to God. It's just you and God. It's as
though there's nobody else in the whole wide world that God
is listening to except for you. Isn't that wonderful? That's
how we know the love of God. He's revealed His grace to us. And He's given us a desire to
cry out to Him for mercy, for grace, for salvation, for forgiveness,
for righteousness, and for help in our time of need. That's why
John says, we have known the love of God. We've known it.
And you know it by experience, don't you? the people of God,
you know my experience, the love of God. And he not only says
that, he says, and we have known and believed, we believe the
love that God has to us. I rest in this love. And I tell you, I get great comfort
from this. God doesn't love me because of
anything I did. And therefore, he's not going
to stop loving me because of something I might do. Yeah, through the years, I don't
proclaim, I don't say I'm a counselor. But sometimes husbands and wives
come to talk to me. And several years ago, a wife
came to me and a husband too. He abused her, and I won't tell
you where I was at, because obviously I don't want you to know who
it was. But he'd get drunk and beat her
and beat the kids. I tried to help him, and he refused
any help. And I tried to talk to him and
her, and she'd cry. And he was sitting there like
this, you know. Weeks went by and she came to
me and she said, Jim, I used to love him, but I tell you,
I think he's killed my love for him. Well, that's an awful thing,
isn't it? He's killed my love for him.
He's hurt me so bad time and time and time again. I don't
think I got any love in my heart left for him. Boy, that's bad. And I cried with her. But let me tell you something.
You have wronged God thousands and thousands of times. But you
can rejoice in this, not in the fact you've wronged Him because
we weep over our sins. But you can't kill the love of
God for you. Isn't that wonderful? And every time you go to him
and say, Lord, I have messed up again. Lord, I have failed
you again. Lord, I have sinned again. Lord,
I hadn't loved you like I should. Lord, I got so busy, so occupied
today, you were scarcely in my thoughts. And Lord, I'm embarrassed
to even admit it. But I know you know, and I'm
so sorry. I'm so repentant. Oh God, forgive
me. You know what? He forgives over
and over and over again. And that love that he has for
you in Christ Jesus will never wane. It'll never
get any weaker. It's always a roaring flame in
the heart of God. Boy, that helps this poor old
sinner, I'll tell you to know that. We have known and believed and
believed the love of God for us. We rely on that love. I got
confidence in that love. I rest in this love. The Lord said to Isaiah, I have
loved thee. I can rest in that. I rely on that love. I do rely on it. This is the love John is speaking
about. The love of God for poor sinners.
Let me give you a verse of scripture. Turn over to John chapter three. Let me show you this. Look at John chapter three. And you know these verses well,
John 3, 14, 15, and 16. And I can already see I'm not
gonna finish this message. I'll finish it Wednesday night,
but I do wanna give you this. John 3, 14, and as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted. He must be lifted up. You remember
what happened back yonder in the wilderness? All the Israelites
were bellyaching against God, murmuring against God. And he
sent these fiery serpents, poison in their bite. People died. And Moses said, oh God, oh God,
show these people mercy. Lord said, put up a serpent of
brass. And then you just spread the
word, tell people, Everybody who looks at that serpent of
brass, they'll be healed. And they were. And our Lord Jesus, talking to
a Pharisee here, talking to Nicodemus, he goes back and he draws this
illustration from the Old Testament. And we can be sure that Nicodemus
knew this story. because he's a master in Israel. He was a teacher. He was a professor
of theology in the seminary. And our Lord Jesus says, now
think about this, Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. And everybody who looked to that
brazen serpent lived. Even so, even so, must the Son
of Man be lifted up. You see, we got bit. We're bit with the serpent of
sin. And I'll tell you, folks, we
died. We died. We're spiritually dead, and we're
heading toward the grave, and unless God does something for
us, we're heading toward second death. But God sent His Son. lifting him up on a cross for
poor old sinners like us. The Lord said, even so must the
son of man, he must be lifted up. He must because God ordained
it. He must because God purposed
it. He must because this is how we'll
be saved. He must because this is how sin's
gonna be put away. He must because this is how righteousness
is gonna be brought in. He must because this is the way
God's justice is gonna be satisfied. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, lifted up to die. Christ said, and I, if I be lifted
up will draw all unto me. This he spake concerning the
death that he would die. Watch it, verse 15, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. In other words, just like everybody
who looked to that brazen serpent was healed, everybody who looks
to Jesus Christ crucified, the Lord of glory, they live. And that's what I point you to
him tonight, look and live. Look and live. You've been bitten
by the serpent of sin. You can't get rid of the poison
yourself. That's impossible. This is why
Christ Jesus died to save the sinners. Look and live, poor
sinner. And here's what you'll find.
You'll live. In fact, if you look, you're already alive. You're already alive. Ain't that
right, Alan? You're already alive. And then we get to verse 16.
Here's the reason for this. You see, John 3, 16, it's a lovely
verse. I love this verse of Scripture,
but people in religion say, this is the gospel. No, this is the
reason for the gospel. This is back behind the gospel. The gospel is that The Son of
Man must be lifted up. That's the good news. That's
the gospel. The substitutionary atonement
of the Lord Jesus. This is the reason for it. Because
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have Everlasting life. Here's the tenths of the love. What is the tenths of the love?
God so loved. This love didn't have a beginning. And it'll never have an end.
God so loved. Here's the magnitude of his love.
God, how much did he love? He so loved. He's so loved. This is infinite
love. Well, what's the scope of His
love? God so loved the world. In other words, His love isn't
limited to the Jewish people. It's from people of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. He loves the world of His elect. Hey, as I read in the Word of
God, I find there are two worlds. The world that our Lord Jesus
died for, the world that God loves, and then there's that
world that Christ didn't even pray for. He said, I pray not
for the world. And I promise you this, I'm not
a theologian, but I know this. If our Lord Jesus didn't, if
he didn't pray for the world, That means he didn't die for
the world. And God didn't love the world, that world that the
Lord's talking about there in John chapter 17. There are two
worlds. But there is the world that he
loves. And there is the world that he
died for. There is the world that he draws
to himself. The scope of his love. It's big. I tell you, the heart of God
is big. He's got millions of children. He loves them all with
all of his heart. We had two children growing up.
God divides your time between them. And you always got to be
equal with your gifts and everything. Otherwise, one will say, hey,
he got more than I did. She got more than I did. That's
the way it is. That's the way it is with kids.
Y'all know if you got two kids. If you just got one kid, you
don't know. But with the Lord's children,
he loves them all equal. All of the love of God that he
has in his infinite heart, and I'm talking about things now
that I really can't comprehend. Alan, I'm in waters way over
my head now, but all of that love that God has in his heart,
it's all yours. It's all yours. It's all yours. It's all yours. It's all yours.
It's all mine. All of that love. And that is,
that's an ocean you can just swim in. And you can just enjoy
God's love. And you know, when we get to
heaven, when we get to heaven's glory, like Brother Lloyd ended
into the heaven, heaven of heavens last Wednesday. He's just fully
basking. in the love of God in Christ
Jesus. He's enjoying the presence of
the Savior. Isn't that wonderful? That's
the reason we talked about yesterday in the funeral, and both the
sons did such an excellent job. There's sorrow, but there's joy.
There's a time of rejoicing. Get to go home and see the Savior.
Now, people don't understand that. I'll tell you what, if the love
of Christ Jesus has ever been shed abroad in your hearts, and
you see who he is, and you see his beauties, and you see his
glories, you'll kind of be anxious to see him. And I know there's
that little thing in the way called death. Yeah, but he'll
deal with that. He has the grace to get you through
that, and even make you not even be afraid of it, even to welcome
it. I try even to welcome it. And what's the nature of his
love? God so loved the world that he
gave. See, real love gives. Real love is unselfish. Because real love always seeks
the greatest interest, the greatest interest and the well-being of
its object. That's the way it is. That's what you talked about
your daddy yesterday, taking care of your mother. That's because
real love takes care of the object that he loves. Well, the Lord
our God, the nature of his love, it's a given love. And here it
is, he gave his only begotten son. The Lord said to Abraham, He said, take now thy son, thine
only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee up into the land
of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one
of the mountains that I will tell you of. And in that story,
Abraham pictured God the Father giving his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to die for us. What kind of love is that? For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man Some would even dare to die, but God commended his love toward
us. He manifested his love toward
us. He put on display his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now that's love. That's love. We had our fist in God's face,
spit in his face, One old writer said, we tried to rape his glory. And what did God do? Sent his
son to die for us. Oh my. What's the design of his love? That whosoever believeth on him
should not perish. And the result of it is, but
have everlasting life. And I'm telling you, you believe
on the son of God, Cast yourself upon Him. It's like Brent read
to us yesterday in 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul said, for I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep
that which I've committed unto Him against that day. I've committed
unto Him. Commit your soul with all of
its sinfulness, with all of its neediness, with all of its cares,
committed to Christ Jesus. That's believing. Believing. And you know what? You'll have
everlasting life. That's the sweetest story that
ever was, I'll tell you. And I never get tired of telling
it. And I hope you don't get tired of hearing it either. That's
the love of the Father. I'll tell you what I'm gonna
do. Wednesday night, I'm gonna talk to you about the love of the
Son. If you'll come back, I'll come back. Actually, I'll come
back whether you come back or not. And I hope I'll have somebody
to preach to Wednesday night.