if you will, this morning to
1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. We've got a couple of special
needs to pray for this morning. God knows. I'm going to start
reading here in verse 7 and read to the end of the chapter. 1
John 4, 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for
love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us. and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
Because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. Because fear hath torment,
he that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because
he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth
God, love his brother also. Here in 1 John chapter four,
you notice love is mentioned. God is love. God is love. God is love. And I wanna hear
in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Herein
is the love of God manifested, that God sent His Son into the
world to be our perpetuation. Now, the title of my message
this morning is The Blessed Love of God, The Blessed Love of God. And I'll say this at the outset,
the only people who know anything about the love of God is the
people who's experienced the love of God. They're the only
ones who know anything about it. And I hope that God in His
mercy today will let somebody else experience that love. But
in this day of talk show mentality, talk show mentality, people get
on television and tell some of the awfulest things on their
self. And then in this day of pop psychology, the term unconditional
love is thrown about. Heard a grandmother tell her
grandson the other day, I love you unconditionally. But this
term unconditional love is thrown about. But in this world, I'm
gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you the truth, this is it. But
in this world, In this flesh, in this fallen nature, unconditional
love is an impossibility. It is. It is. People don't love
unconditionally. It's an impossibility. You know,
whenever you say, boy, I sure love my child. I sure love my
baby. You know why? Because it's your
child. It's your baby. You don't love
nobody else's child like yours. You don't love nobody else's
baby like yours. And then the Lord Jesus says,
love your neighbor as yourself. Now, I like my neighbors. I've
got some good neighbors. And you're my neighbor. But he
said, love your neighbor as yourself. I've never loved anybody like
I've loved myself. You know why? Because the way
I love is that I reciprocate love that's given to me. And
I love people, but it's reciprocated love. You know, it's like, you
know, if you look at it, if somebody shows you a picture, a group
picture, and you're in that picture, who's the first person you look
to see. And nine out of 10 times you say, that's a bad picture
of me. Ain't that right? You see what I'm talking about?
How that love, you know, we look for ourselves in almost everything.
But let me tell you this, our love, our love is based and founded
upon getting someone to love us in return. Getting someone
to love us in return. And we won't love more than we
want to express love. We want people to love us more
than we want to express it back. And that's why people say all
the time, well, do you love me? Do you really love me? I just
don't believe you love me. You don't act like you love me.
You hear people say that all the time. But let me tell you,
there is an unconditional love. There is an unconditional love.
And that unconditional love is in our Lord Jesus Christ. He
has no condition to love us. He has no condition to love us.
You know, God's love is manifested to those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the reason they believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ is because God loved them. Now, wouldn't
you agree with that? If we believe on the Son of God,
it's because God loved us. And he loved us, commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for who? Not the righteous, not the good,
but the ungodly. Let me tell you a little illustration.
A little girl was playing. She wanted to be with her mother
and wanted to be around her mother. And her mother got real busy,
and when she got time, she told her little daughter, says, well,
come on now, come on over, sweetheart. Said, I'm not busy. And the little
girl said, whoa, mama, I'm so glad, because I wanted to love
you so much. And she said, I thought you was
happy playing with your doll. She said, oh, yeah, I love playing
with doll, love playing with my doll. But I get tired of loving
her, because she can't love me back. The mother said to her
daughter, is that why you love me? Because I can love you back? The little girl said, that's
one reason why. That's one reason why. But that's
not the first one and that's not the best one. Because you
loved me when I was too little to love you back. And what a mercy, what a mercy
that our Lord Jesus Christ loves us even when we don't love him
back. What a mercy, what a mercy. And
I tell you what, let me give you seven blessed truths of God's
blessed love. First of all, look with me over
in John 17. We're gonna look at some scriptures. Look at God's
love, John 17. God's love, the first thing about
God's blessed love is this, that it's infinite. That it's infinite. That it's infinite. You know,
preachers are so bad to tell everybody God loves them. God
loves them. But let me tell you something,
the love of God is always manifested toward a particular type of character. And you know, for me, if you'd
have told Esau that God loved him, you'd have been lying to
him. Is that not right? If you'd have told that generation
that perished in the flood, smile, God loves you, and I want you
to know God loves you while they was beating on that ark trying
to get back in when the flood started, that would have been
a mockery. But God's love is like himself. It's infinite. Look what he said here in verse
23. It's infinite. Love has character to it. So
God's love is like his character. It's infinite. Our Lord Jesus,
praying here, said, I in them and you in me, that they may
be made perfect in one. They're one in me and in you.
That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and listen
to this now, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. How do you reckon God loved his
son? How much do you reckon God loved his son? And here it says,
I want them to know that you've loved them just like you love
me. That's what he's telling us here.
And then he says in verse 24, it says, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that
they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou
lovest me before the foundation of the world. That's how, if
he loved Christ and God says that you love them like you love
me, then that means he loved us before the foundation of the
world. Is that not right? And then look what he said down
in verse 26. And I've declared unto them thy name and will declare
it. I've told them about you, I've
manifested yourself to them. And listen to this, in the love
wherewith you have loved me, that love that you love me may
be in them. And that's what he says, what
he's saying is God's love is like his character. And he's
the son of his love. And ever how he loves his son,
he loves us right now. right now. And he told us the
reason he declared the name of God and declared God to us is
that God's love might be made manifest in us. When he told
us about God, and he told us about his power, and he told
us about his love, and he told us about his authority, and he
told us about his sovereignty, he says, ever how God loved me,
that's how he loves you. Oh my, and you look at the character,
look at the character of those whom he loved. Look at the character,
let's look at ourselves. Look at the type of people that
he loved. And then you'll get just a little
conception of the infinite character of his love. And it's Christ
declared the Father that the love of God may be in us. And I'll tell you, it's infinite
love that makes us to know him. All right, let me give you another
one. Galatians 2.20. Look at this one. Look in Galatians
2.20. So God's love is infinite. Infinite. You know, and here's the thing.
God's love's not looking to you to do anything. Not only is it
infinite, like God is, It's eternal as God is eternal. God loved
us from the foundation of the world. So I, you know, when Adam
was created and put in the Garden of Eden, God loved us before
he ever put Adam there. Before he ever even created this
world and spoken into existence as it is now, God loved us. Before
he ever put oxygen in the air for people to live on, God loved
us. Now that's hard to grasp, ain't
it? Before He ever said, let there be light, and divided the
day from the night, God loved us. When He inhabited eternity
and nobody was there but Him and the Son, God loved us. How do you get a hold of that?
How do you get a hold of that? You see, that's what I'm telling
you. We don't know anything. We cannot love like that. But He
can. Why? Because He's God. He's God. And I tell you, not only is it
infinite in its Power and character, it's individual in its choice.
Look what he says down here in verse 20, Galatians 2.20. Paul
said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live, now listen to it, it's individual now. Individual
in its choice. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me. and gave himself for me. God's
love is particular. God's love is particular. He
loves a particular people. And Paul says, you know, he said,
who loved me, and Paul was astonished that Christ would love him. That's
why he talked about how God commendeth his love, and love is manifested
in the way it was manifested. He loved me, gave himself for
me, and when he talks about gave himself for me and loved me,
he's talking about he did this for the chief of sinners. Look
back over in chapter one, look what he says about himself. Gave
himself for me, he calls himself the chief of sinners. chief of
sinners. Look what he says back up here
in verse 13, chapter 1. This is what he, here's how he
describes himself. He said, you've heard of my manner
of life, my conversation, the way I lived in time past in the
Jews religion, Jews religion, not Christianity, not trusting
Christ, Sabbath keeping, law keeping, ritual keeping, ceremonial
keeping. And he says, and how that beyond
measure, I could not measure how I persecuted the church of
God. I lost track, I lost measure
of how many people I persecuted and took to jail and had warrants
for and wasted it. I wanted to waste the church
of God and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in my own nation, Jewish nation, being more exceedingly zealous
of the tradition of my fathers. But wait a minute, that's what
he was like. when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, and listen to this, and called me
by His grace to reveal His Son in me. And I tell you what, beloved,
and then I might preach Him among the heathen. And that's what
he's saying here. He said, this is the kind of,
he said, he loves me. And that's the most amazing thing,
that he could love anybody, anybody. But he said, I'm the chief of
sinners. But Christ gave himself, loved me, and not only did he
love me, but he gave himself for me. Gave himself for me. Paul never got over that. Never
got over that. Never got over it. And over in
Galatians 2.21, he says this. He said, I'm not gonna frustrate
the grace of God. Because if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead. I'm not gonna frustrate God's
grace. And how could he frustrate God's grace? By saying or believing
that God loved me because he found something in me to love.
Because I worked, because I prayed, because I was honest, because
I was sincere, and because what he's saying is I'm not gonna
frustrate God's grace by saying that God loved me for anything
he ever found in me. Ah, he couldn't find anything
in me. And let me tell you this, you don't have to look at this
one. And it's not only is it infinite, not only is it individual
in its choice, it picks the people it chooses to love. But it's
everlasting. But it's everlasting. Jeremiah
31, three says this, that God says this. He said, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. And then listen, and with cords,
Cords, I see cords out there. And with cords of loving kindness,
I have drawn thee. Drawn you, drawn you. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. If God's love was ever based
upon how good we are or how bad we are, then it would be lost
when we got bad or when we failed to be good enough. Is that not
right? So its duration or continuation doesn't depend upon either of
them. It does not depend upon how bad we are, how good we are,
or anything about us whatsoever. If it was based upon that, I
would have lost the love of God long ago. But we cannot entice,
we cannot conjoin, we cannot merit or make God love us. And I remember trying to do that. I remember trying to always stay
on. I put that article in the bulletin this week. I never will
forget when I found out God wasn't mad at me anymore. I was always
trying to make peace with God on my terms. Always trying to
get right with God on my terms. If I could live good enough,
if I could live holy enough, if I could give enough, if I
could pray enough, if I could read enough Bible and memorize
enough Bible verses and preach enough and be dedicated enough,
then God would bless me and God would meet my needs if I did. That's frustrating the grace
of God. And I'll tell you what, we can't
entice Oh, listen, I'll get God to love me. I'll tell you what
I'm gonna do. I'm gonna dedicate myself to the Lord, and I'm gonna
start living good. I'm gonna start living for Jesus.
And you can't conjole Him into it. My grandkids can conjole
me into a lot of things. We can't merit it. We cannot
make God love us. And since we can't make Him love
us, there's nothing we can do to make Him cease to love us. Nothing we can do can make him
cease to love us. Let me illustrate. David, man
after God's own heart. A man after God's own heart.
God chose him to be king over Israel when he was still tending
sheep on the hillsides. One day David being the king,
oh what a king he was, but one day he saw another man's wife
and he took that other man's wife and when he done that he
committed adultery and then he had relations with her and they
had an illegitimate child. And when he found out that she's
going to have this child, he said, what in the world am I
going to do? So her husband come back, and he is so, he said,
well, listen, go down there and call him in off the battlefield
now. This is the great warrior. David had him brought in, says,
listen, go spend a few days with your wife. Spend a few weeks
with your wife. Thought he'd cover it up. He wouldn't do it.
He said, I'm not gonna go back into the war. I'm not gonna do
it. I'm gonna lay right here. So David called his general in
and said, listen, you put him right up in the heat of the battle.
Word come back, you rise dead. So they had that child and the
child died. Then he married her. Now he's
still a man after God's own heart. Did God quit loving him when
he'd done that? Did God say, I've had all of David, I can
stand? I'm not gonna put up with David ever again. You know what
David said when he got old and he was getting ready to die?
The last words of the sweet psalmist of Israel, you know what they
were? God hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and sure. I mean, David, I mean, God chastised
him severely. And what about Simon Peter? Twice,
twice, he presumed, he had such presumption and arrogance that
one time the Lord Jesus told him, he says, listen, I'm gonna
go up to Jerusalem and be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and the Jews, and I'm gonna die up there. I'm gonna die. Simon
Peter said, far be it from you, Lord. That's not gonna happen.
I'm not gonna let that happen. And our Lord says, get thee behind
me, Satan, for thou don't delight yourself in the things of God,
but in the things of men. Well, later, when our Lord Jesus
Christ told him, finally, the hour has come, and this is gonna
happen, Simon Peter says, Lord, I'll go to death with you. I'll
go to prison with you. I'll die for you. And our Lord
looks right him in the eye and says, Simon Peter, Simon Peter,
you know what? Before the rooster crows in the
morning, you're gonna deny me three times, three times. Now,
if God's ever gonna quit loving a man, he'd love a man who would
deny him, deny him. But you know what our Lord said
to him? Simon, after the resurrection, Simon, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Simon, Simon, do you love me? Oh Lord, I do, I do, I do. Simon
Peter, do you love me? He said, oh Lord, oh Lord, you're
the only one that knows. He's the only one. If God was
ever gonna let somebody go, well he'd ought to cease loving people
like that. But that's the kind of people he loves. Sinners,
people who has no stability unless he gives it to them. that has
no strength unless he gives it to him. And how many times in
our lives, I'll just speak for myself. God only knows how many
times I've denied him. God only knows. I certainly don't
know. And I'm ashamed of every one
of them. Oh my. You know, we can find a thousand
reasons for God not to love us, and we can't find one why he
should. Not one why we should. And then
in John 3.16, not only is it everlasting and infinite and
individual, but it's universal in its extent. It reaches out.
John 3.16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Now, what does it mean that God
so loved the world? What does it mean? He said, oh,
John said over there in 1 John 4, this is what we believe, that
God sent his son into the world to be the savior of the world.
Did he save the whole world? Did he die for the whole world
and everybody in it? No, no, of course not. because
everybody's not same. But when he says that he so loved
the world that he gave, that means his love extended beyond
the Jewish nation. It extended back out into the
world. And Ruth is an example of that.
And Rahab is an example of that. They're Gentiles. But anyway,
what it means was that God will love people out of every nation.
There's not a nation on the earth. where God hasn't got some of
his people that he loves. And he gave his son to manifest
that love. And then what race? There's oh,
how many races there are. There's the black race, the white
race, the Chinese race. The Indian race, there's all
these races all over, you know, all over the world, different
types of races. And they all speak different
languages. But God speaks every language. The love of God can
be manifested to a Chinese man, and we couldn't understand a
word in the world he ever said to us. But God can love him.
And oh, listen, not only that, but he don't care what color
you are. He don't care what color you are. God's people say, well,
He really does not care what color a man is. God don't see
color. God, you know, and his son's
not a blonde-headed man. I'll tell you, God doesn't see
color. We're the only one who sees color. We're the only one
that's in it in race. And he don't care what your creed
is. He don't care, you know, I'm a Catholic, I'm a Baptist,
I'm a Methodist, I'm a Charismatic, I'm a Pentecostal. I'm a Baptist,
what kind of Baptist? Southern Baptist, General Baptist,
United Baptist? American Baptist, free will Baptist. Well, I'm a Christian, Church
of Christ, Christian Church. He don't care what creed you
are. Oh, I'm a Calvinist. He don't care about that. He
don't care about your creed. He don't care about your education.
I'm a perfect example of that. He don't care about your education
at all. Oh, listen, I tell you what, there's nobody that was
more brilliant than the Apostle Paul. He was a brilliant man,
brilliant. But you know what he said about
himself? I'm a chief of sinners and though I be the chiefest
apostle, I am nothing, nothing. And he don't care about your
character. I tell you what, you can take that fellow's word to
the bank. That don't mean nothing to God. Take your name. And whatever
class you're in, people love class, you know. Oh, that fella,
boy, he lives, he lives, boy, that guy lives, man, he lives
way up there. He lives way up there. I couldn't
begin to keep up with it. They don't care about man's wealth.
I don't care how much money a man has or how poor he is. He could be, he could have multi-millions
and millions of dollars and he could not make it from paycheck
to paycheck. That don't have nothing to do
with it. He said, oh boy, if he understood my position, you
know, I've worked my way up from being the janitor till I'm running
this outfit now. Can you believe that? And not
only that, but I got to hold my bruise traps and I pulled
myself all the way up. Gotcha. What does that mean to
me? Oh, Mr. Spurgeon said, well,
if you ever meet a self-made man, you meet a poorly, poorly
made man. But oh, listen, and here's the
thing. God's love, God's love is expressed
out to every tribe on the face of this earth, every kindred,
every tongue, and every people. When we say, and people use this
all the time, said, well, you all preach God's a respecter
of persons. No, no, He is not a respecter of persons. He's
not a respecter of persons. Men are respecter of persons.
I mean, if I went into the presence of the President of the United
States, I don't care who he was, I would act like I had some good
sense, and I would try to dress appropriately and act appropriately. But God's not impressed by a
man. He's not a respecter of persons. We respect people. We respect people's wealth. We
respect people's positions. We respect people's power and
all that, and authority, and character. But God doesn't pay
a bit of attention to those things. He truly respects nobody's person.
If He did, if He respected somebody's person, what would happen to
us? What would happen to us? And let me show you in 2 Corinthians
5. 2 Corinthians 5. Let me show you something. Oh, God's love, it's infinite
in His character, it's individual in His choice, everlasting. Universal in its extent. I remember
being in Mexico one time, and there was an old man there, and
he didn't even know how old he was. Didn't have any idea how
old he was. And asked how he got there, and
he had to tell how many days it takes him to walk somewhere.
He didn't have even a concept of miles. Well, how far is it
from where you live to where the sun sets? Well, that'd be
three days' walk. That's how he looked at things.
Didn't know how old he was. Just knew his name. Didn't know
when he was born. Didn't know anything. But he
got up and they interpreted for him. An old man, just a little
old bitty tiny fella. Oh my. And he got up and they
interpreted it for him. And you know what he talked about?
He talked about the Lord, Jesus loving him and saving him. and manifest himself, and then
he started thanking God for the preachers that come there and
preach the gospel to him. Didn't know how old he was. Probably
couldn't count. Y'all remember Elmer Blaylock?
You could put his name in a boxcar, read letters on a boxcar, and
he couldn't read it. Bless his name. God's no respect
of persons, is he? Huh? Oh, ain't you grateful he's
not? Huh? Ain't you grateful he's
not? And then it's constraining in his power. Look what he said
here in 2 Corinthians 5.14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we, this is the judgment we make, that if one died for
all, if Christ died for all, then we're all dead. They all
died in him. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them, and rose again. The love of God is
constraining in its power. And when he talks about here
the love of Christ constrains us, it's not our love for Christ
that constrains us, it's Christ's love for us that constrains us.
That's what he's talking about. Not how much we love him, but
the love of Christ constrains us. It's his love for us that
constrains us. And the apostle here is talking
about the greatness of our Lord's love to us, not our love to him. And when he says the love of
Christ constrains us. Christ's love for us, it constrains
us. And what does that mean? It controls
us. It has such a profound effect upon us. It governs us. The love
of Christ constrains us. It coerces us. It presses us. It impales us. In fact, it's
the governing influence in our life that controls our life.
It's Christ's love towards us, not our love towards Him, His
towards us. That's the constraint and influence
in our life that constrains us and keeps us from doing things
that we would do because of His love towards us. It's the governing
influence in our life. Our Lord said it like this, if
a man loves anybody more than he loves me, he's not worthy
of me. And what he's saying is that
his love is so constraining to us that our love has to be reciprocated. And that's what he's talking
about. And believers are so constrained by a sense of the love of our
Lord to us that we give ourselves to him. Ain't that what he says,
that we live not unto ourselves? We don't live to ourselves anymore.
That we died for all that henceforth we should not live unto ourselves,
but unto him which died for us. That's what we do. We live for
him, not for ourselves. Our life, when we talk about
Christ is our life. He's not the most important thing
in our lives. He's not the greatest thing in
our lives, but he himself is our life. We don't have any life
apart from him. And so we give ourselves over
to Him. We give ourselves, Lord, here
I am. Would you take me today? Would you have me today? I give
myself away to you today. And believers are so constrained
by a sense of the Lord's love to us that we give ourselves
to Him. And I'll tell you what, and we
live unto Him that died for us and lives for us. It's faith
in His person, in His glorious person, faith in His love. Are
you, do you rest, do you actually rest in the love of Christ? Do
you rest in Christ? Do you actually rest in Him?
Do you believe in His person? Do you believe that His great
love wherewith He loved us? Faith in His having died for
us? These are the things that constrains
us. How in the world could I go out here and live in the world
and live to myself and live to my flesh and let me, my flesh,
be the controlling principle in my life? and have my mind
and my heart and my soul and the members of my body be dedicated
to something else besides Him. You see, He's the source of us.
He is our life. And we give ourselves to Him.
I used to say all the time, you get out your ink pen and you
just say, here Lord, I give myself to you. And you know what? As
sorry as we are, as sorry as we are, you know what He does?
He takes us. Every day, every minute, every
hour. As sorry as we are, He takes
us. And oh my, we give Himself, ourselves to Him. And what constrains
us, what causes us to give ourselves to Him? His love for us. We no longer live for ourselves
or act by ourselves. He's got to do the work. So let
me give you another one, John 13.1. John 13, one. Here's another one. John 13,
one. Constrained by the love of God.
Constrained by the love of Christ. Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own, listen
to this, which were in the world, He loved him to the end. It's
unchanging in its purpose. It'll never change. And you know
what it says here? Having loved his own. You know
what John 1 says? That he went unto his own and
his own received him not. That's the Jewish nation. Here
he comes, having loved his own. And where did he love him at?
While they were in the world. And what do we do while we're
in this world? We do lots of things. Oh, we
do lots of things. And these men that he loved,
the men he's talking about here, and us, which were in the world,
I'm going to leave them, but I having loved them, he loved
them unto the end. And they did lots of things while
they were in the world. Lots of things. Peter denied
him three times. Peter actually laid hands on
him one time. And when they was over, and he
was over in the garden of Gethsemane, and he's asking him, he said,
can you just stay awake and pray with me one hour? Can you stay
awake one hour and watch for me? Can you do that? And he went
off and prayed to come back, and there they was, they was
all sleeping. They all slumbered and slept. Huh? No, John and
James, you know, there's going through Samaria and the Lord
Jesus, they say, they went through there and they wouldn't receive
the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't want him there. They
didn't like him there. They didn't want anything to
do with him. And John and James said, Lord,
you want us to call fire down from heaven? And we'll burn this
outfit up just like Elijah did. Oh, and he loved his home, which
we're doing. Oh, let's call in, how many times
we see something, we'll say, boy, I wish God would do something
to them. Well, you just hold on, he's
going to. Oh my, and then you know, he's
walking along one time and they got to arguing among themselves.
Peter said to John, said, listen, I'm the most important one in
this 12. John said, oh no, no, it's not you, it's me. His brother
James said, ah, you two, neither one of you know what nor where
you're talking about. I'm the one that's most important in this
business. I'm going to be the one closest to him. And our Lord
said, what was you talking about all along while you was walking
along? And they know they had to tell the truth because he
already knew what they was talking about. They know they had to
come clean. And you know what they said? They said, well, we
was talking about who's going to be the greatest among us.
Simon Peter said it's going to be him. John said it's going
to be him. James said it's going to be him. Matthew said, oh,
no, it's me. And our Lord Jesus Christ said, you know who's the
greatest among you? You let him be the one that serves
the other 12. You gonna be great? You start waiting on everybody
else. You wanna be somebody? You take care of everybody else.
You wanna be chief? Well, then you take care of everybody
else. You be the servant. You be the
servant. And then he said, He that exalteth
himself. He that sets himself up. You
know what God said he'll do? He said, I'll humble him. I'll
humble him. You find somebody trying to be
somebody, you found somebody God gonna humble sooner or later.
And I'm on pretty, and I'll tell you what, I'm, you know, there
ain't no sense acting like you're somebody. There really ain't.
There really ain't. There just ain't no use to act
like we're somebody. I could walk in any place up
here in town, any office, any business, and I'd walk in there
and say, you know who I am? Don't have any idea. Don't have any idea. Walk in,
Kroger's in there and said, listen, you all know who in the world
I am? Well, I hope you gonna buy something while you're here.
But that's the way people are. And I tell you what, this is
a true story. This is a true story. There's
a fellow, he's dead and gone now. Oh my goodness, this man
was a pill. I mean, he was a pill. To be
around him would just drive you nuts. Well, he thought one time
he was going to move here. And this fellow retired when
he was in his 40 and making $15,000 a year retiring. Walks around
with a white $100 bill stuck in his shirt. And he walked into
a real estate office over here in Tansy, wanted to look at some
property. And he waited and waited and
waited. And somebody finally spoke to him. He said, listen.
I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm here to look
about some property. Well, we ain't got time right
now. He said, if you ain't got time for me, I ain't got time
for you. And he walked out of there. Of course, I was praying
for the Lord not to send him here. You know what? Last thing in the world, I wanted
him here. But oh, the Lord took care of that. But he got upset
because they didn't pay enough attention to him. They didn't
jump fast enough for him. And I tell you what. I'm not,
God helping us, we're not gonna dance to anybody's tune but the
Lord Jesus. But oh, listen, which were in
the world. And I tell you what, not only
did these fellas in the world gonna call fire down from heaven
and slumbered and slept and the Lord, and Peter denied the Lord,
but they said, well, the Lord's gone. What are we gonna do now?
They got their fishing poles and their nets and they got back
on the boat and they went back fishing. but having loved his own, which
were in the world. Where were we at? In the world. But he still loves his own with
no matter what we do. And then let me show you the
last one, Romans 8. I believe this is the last one,
yeah. Let me show you the last one. Unchanging in his purpose,
infinite, individual in his choice, everlasting. But look in Romans
chapter 8. I love this one. I love this one. It's inseparable
towards its object. Whom God loved, he's gonna love
them. He's gonna love them. Jacob had
a loved, and look what it says here. Romans 8.35. It's inseparable
towards its object. Now listen to this, Romans 8.35.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Not our love
for him, but his love for us. Who's gonna separate us from
Christ's love for us? Who's gonna separate us? Tribulation
gonna do it. I've seen some of you tried very,
very greatly. You ain't quit yet. A distress,
oh, I'm so distressed. I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. I don't know how
I'm gonna deal with this situation. Or persecution, or going hungry,
or not having clothes to wear, or getting in some kind of a
peril, or somebody calls a sword out after you. Oh, look what
he says. Verse 37, nay, no, no, no. In all these things, in all these
things, tribulation, peril, persecution, famine, nakedness, sword, in
all these things, we are more than conquerors, listen to this,
through him that loved us. Every time you go through a trial,
every time you go through something, every time you get through it,
Christ got you through it, and you conquer that, and then you
wait, you know to wait more and more and more, and after a while,
you understand that this is the Lord doing this, and you know
that God's gonna get you through it. And that's why he goes on
to say here, he said, I'm persuaded that death ain't gonna do it.
Everybody here has lost somebody that they love dearly. Everybody
in this building today has lost somebody that they love dearly.
And it's hard, it's hard. But death, even our death, won't
separate us from the love of Christ. Life, got a new baby,
got my grandchildren, I gotta take care of them. Nope, life
ain't gonna do it. Angels ain't gonna do it. Principalities ain't
gonna do it. Power's not gonna do it. Not
things going on right now or things that are gonna happen
tomorrow. There's nothing too high, nothing too deep, and there's
not any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing, nothing. And that's why some of you been
at this, some of you been at this 40 years, 45 years, And you know what? When you die,
that's when you're gonna really find out what the love of God's
about. Let me give you five things real quick, why we love Him. I told you about seven things
about His love. We love Him, what's the first
reason? Because He first loved us. Everybody here, everybody
answer that. Why do we love Him? Because He
first loved us. Not only that, I love the Lord
because he hath inclined his ear unto me. Not only that, but
he said, I love the Lord because you know what? He preserves me,
he keeps me, he saves me, he keeps me. And we love him, you
know why? For we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God and are called according
to his purpose. We love him because all things
work together for our good. And then 1 Corinthians 1, Chapter
one, verse two, let me show you this. And then I'm done. Oh my
goodness. Because he works and because
of what he prepared for us. Look what he said here in 1 Corinthians
2.9. Because what he prepared for us. 1 Corinthians 2.9. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them Listen to this,
that love Him. God's prepared some things for
them that love Him. But now listen to it. But God
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. Some of the things
He's got prepared for. God has a mansion. He's promised
it out where He is that we'd be with Him. The Spirit searcheth
all things, the deep things of God. Well, I hope that was a
blessing. I certainly hope it was. God's
love for us. God's love for us. Our Father, in the precious,
blessed, glorious name of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,
thank you for your great love and patience with us. O Lord,
thank you for the great love wherewith you loved us, even,
even when we were dead in sin. Thank you for your mercy and
your love given us in Christ before the world began. And Lord,
I know, we know, every one of us know, we don't love you like
we should. We don't love you like we will.
And we don't love you like we are going to one of these days.
Father, we do love you. And we thank you for the, oh,
bless your holy name for this love you've given us. Shed it
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And Lord, I thank you
for the day. Thank you for these ladies and
others that's prepared food here today. We offer thanks for the
food. We offer thanks for the love
that went into it. We offer thanks for the hands
that prepared it. We offer thanks for the message,
cause it to be fruitful and effectual. In our Lord Jesus' name, amen
and amen.