Colossians chapter one, your Bible is probably beginning to fall open to Colossians now. Chapter one, we're gonna start there. Okay, today I've entitled our message, Knit in Love, K-N-I-T, Knit in Love. I have a daughter-in-law who's really skilled at knitting. She makes these beautiful sweaters and all sorts of things. They look extremely high quality. One of the things that happens when you knit things together is you take those different yarns of thread or whatever it is and you bind them together. It's a very, very tight holding bond between those things that are knitted together. And that's what it means here, knit in love.

So I wanna look at this with you and I'm gonna see here how the Lord exhorts us and comforts us with a goal in mind. Now, in the book of Colossians, all of the epistles and the New Testament, the goal, of course, is to direct our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he directs our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, he's directing us into the love of God. In 2 Thessalonians 3, I wanna read the first five verses here before we get started in Colossians. He says in 2 Thessalonians 3, finally brethren, pray for us.

So the apostle Paul is asking the Thessalonians to pray for them and he helps them to see why. He says that the word of the Lord may have recourse. This was Paul's life. This was the ministry he was given as stewardship over to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ. So he's praying for that.

We should always pray that God would give us the grace to do what he has given us to do. Don't presume that you have what you need. Always go to the Lord for that. If God has given us something to do, then he's also promised with that to give us the grace to do it.

And so he says this, he asked them to pray for him that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. When God's word is preached, God is glorified. God shines in his radiance through his word and this is what he's praying for, that this would happen. When the word of God concerning Christ is preached, the word like a light, the gospel like a light shines and it shines on Christ and we see him.

Verse two, that we may be and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith. So it's clear that faith is the gift of God. God gives it. He has to uphold it. And he will keep us in that faith. If the Lord has had grace upon us and given us faith, he will uphold that faith and perfect it until the day of Christ.

But not all men have faith. Not all men do. He says it right here. Not all have faith. And so what is he praying then? He's asking that they might be delivered from these unreasonable men who don't have faith. Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. We can't do anything to please God unless we do it by faith in Christ. He says in verse 3, but the Lord is faithful. The Lord is faithful, even though not all men have faith, the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil.

You see how he directs us to the Lord's work? It's grace that we're kept. We're kept from evil by God's grace, that's why he's praying. Verse four, and we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which we command you.

And then notice verse five, and the Lord, direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. In this verse, there's a prayer being asked for. And the apostle is praying this prayer as he speaks this to the Thessalonians. He's asking the Lord to direct our hearts, their hearts in particular, into the love of God.

The Lord is the spirit of God. The love of God is God the Father, and into the patient waiting for Christ, God the Son. So we see here the Trinity, the Spirit of God directs us into the love of the Father waiting for Christ in love of his appearing. And so you can see here that in order for us to be directed into the love of God, God himself by his spirit has to do that. And this is a gift from God the Father. This love that we are given to see and know God's love and the love that God has to us is the love of God the Father and into the patient waiting for Christ because that's what faith does by the work of the Spirit of God in us.

He causes us to patiently endure by faith in hope of eternal life which was promised us in the gospel because of Christ who died for us. Now, you can see though in that section in 2 Thessalonians 3 that the goal was to direct the hearts of believers into the love of God. And so in Colossians, we're not surprised that this also is the goal of the apostle. And the way he does that is he says, for example, in chapter 1, he says in verse 2, That to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He directs them to the grace of God given to them by God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives thanks, in verse three, we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. So here he holds up the love of God the Father towards them. that he gives thanks to God the Father for them. And this is the supreme God of glory. This is God the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he shows to the Colossians what he's doing. He's not only writing to them, he's praying for them. And prayer is the act of love for God's people. Praying for others is an act of love. And he goes on, his acts of faith too.

He says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all the saints. So they did love, they did believe, and love always springs out of faith. And he's drawing attention to this in the very beginning of the book. because what he's going to do is to go on in what they've already been given. The Spirit of God gives us the grace both to believe and to love. And love flows from faith because we love him because he first loved us. And we know that love of God by faith, God given faith. And so he's making mention of this and he's giving thanks to God the Father for this.

And he also mentions in verse five, the hope that the gospel declares to us, the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you. As it is in all the world and brings forth fruit as it does also in you. You see how the gospel does that? The gospel of Christ produces fruit and that fruit is faith and love. So you can see how in the book of Colossians, he's emphasizing these things in order to knit the hearts of God's people together in love.

He hasn't mentioned that yet, but he's going to mention it. Look at chapter two. He says in chapter 2 and verse 1, for I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh for this reason, he says, know this conflict I have for you, that their hearts might be comforted, be knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. There again, we have the Trinity, don't we? God is a triune God, God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So what he's telling them, though, is in verse one, I want you to know the great conflict I have for you. so that your hearts might be comforted and knit together in love. So there's that word, knit in love, knit in love.

Now, we can see from the whole book, beginning at chapter one, that the Colossians had heard the gospel. It had been preached to them. So that in itself is a huge testimony of God's love. God had sent Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, to preach, to proclaim to them the mysteries of the gospel, mysteries hidden God from the foundation of the world. But he sent the apostle, a servant of Christ, a chosen servant, a servant equipped by God through the Holy Spirit to know the things that were mysteries. and to declare them freely and publish them through the preaching of the gospel. So that is a huge instance of the love of God towards them.

Here they were, completely ignorant of God, living in malice and envy, as it says in Titus chapter 3, hateful, hating one another. And even the apostle Paul here in this book, he says in chapter 1, he says, In verse 21, you were sometime alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

So that was what he was preaching to them. He was preaching to them that God the Father had qualified them. And that qualification had been done by putting them in the Lord Jesus Christ, who reconciled them to God. And then he also mentions later on that he, in verse 14, he mentioned it before actually, that he redeemed them by his blood. And so God the Father having Christ redeemed us, he reconciled us, he translated us from the kingdom of darkness, he put us under the rule and reign of the son of his love, and now the apostle is preaching this to them.

These are instances of the love of God. the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. And so he says in chapter two, he says, your hearts, I want your hearts to be knit together in love. And this being knit together in love, he says in chapter two, verse two, if you look at that, he says, be knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.

You see, when God declares the gospel to us, it produces faith and love in us by the operations of the Holy Spirit, but it also continues to grow. It produces this growth in us in faith and love. And this growth of faith and love causes us to know the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. And so these things are, this is what we're doing week by week, day by day. We're living by faith on the God who gave us his son and Christ who gave himself for us and now proclaims these things to us in the gospel and through preaching.

And so this is what Paul is trying to draw their attention to. God sent Paul, he gave him the gospel. The gospel is about Christ. Christ is the reason the gospel is good news. And it's good news from heaven because it comes from God the Father. And it's good news that's brought to us through the preaching and applied to us by the Spirit of God.

And all of this is the love of God towards us, the love of God. When we contemplate the love of God, there's no end. to our ability, there's no, I mean, we run out of ability, but there's no end to the love of God. We cannot exhaust it, the love of God. All of God's attributes are infinite in their perfections. So we can really never exhaust anything about God and it's not like God is this puzzle put together with all these little pieces and we say there's his love, there's his justice, and his righteousness, and truth, and his power, and his faithfulness.

Those things are just God all together in one, so we can't divide them. But at the same time, because of who we are as people, we assimilate, we understand these things in consideration of each of them. And so that's why the Lord is directing us into the love of God here. And the love of God shown to us is what causes us to be knit together as a body in love. He says in chapter two, look at verse 19. He says in verse 18, don't let any man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility.

That's a bad thing. Voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshy mind. That's not what you want to be. You don't want to be acting humble in order to gain recognition either to yourself or from other people or from God himself. Your humility can never reach the true depths of what you are. So don't pretend that it's meritorious. And to do so is to deny the humility of Christ in his love for us. We should always be directed to him, not worshiping angels.

Christ is the Lord and the creator of angels, the head, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. We can speculate about things we can't see, but it's just an effort to exalt ourselves in the eyes of others. We want the preeminence. That's what pride is, a desire for preeminence among the people of God. That's what Satan did, that's bad.

But now he says in verse 19, not holding the head, we know who that is, it's Christ, from which, notice, all the body, these are all of the members of Christ, these are the believers, the body of Christ are the people of God. They were chosen in him, given to him, joined to him as a body, one with him.

He says here, not holding the head from which all the body, all of God's people, by joints and bands, because a body has these joints and bands which holds it together, having nourishment, ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God. There's that word, knitting. Knit together. Why? With this nourishment that flows from Christ the head to each member in the body is the nourishment from Christ and it ministers. It causes the body to minister, just like your body does here. Your hand, it does whatever you need to do. And your heart pumps. All these things work together for the body, not just for itself. What if your heart said, yeah, I'm going to be just for myself, my own blood supply. You'd die, and the heart would die too.

So everything is meant to be together. The body is not a member, it's a bunch of members, and they're all joined together. And he says here, the way they're joined is being knit together. Knit together, and we understand that now, this knitting is a knitting that is a bond of love, okay? And the fantastic thing here is that this nourishment flows from Christ to the body members and the result of that is this ministering of the body to the individual members from each other in love. And this is the way the body is built up.

That's why it's so essential that we're all together as a body. How can you minister to one another if you don't, if you're not with the members of Christ? You can't speak to one another in love unless you speak to one another, you see. And you can't serve one another unless you serve one another. And so it's fantastic to think about how all of this nourishment flows from Christ to his people. And that nourishment that flows to them is used to serve one another in love, to exhort one another, to do what Paul is saying to them.

I came to you. I was sent by Christ. He gave me this grace. I labored by this grace, and I preached the gospel to you. This stewardship entrusted to me of the mysteries of God, I've preached it to you, and I labored, and I suffered for the gospel's sake. And I endured all kinds of suffering and even death for your sakes. And so he raises their awareness of this, not to puff up himself, but to knit their hearts together in love.

Because if God has done this, sending his servant, and Paul considered the gospel weighty, so weighty that he was willing to lay down his life for those to whom he preached the gospel. You can see that the gospel was true. The gospel was of significant value to him. And he understood the message of the gospel, that it was God's love for his people in Christ. And therefore, the preaching of the gospel enlightens their minds to the glory of God, the radiance of his person shining in Christ in order to save them from their sins. And this is all designed by God. to knit us together in love.

Amazing, isn't it? Amazing. They had heard the gospel, they had heard this truth, and they had heard it as good news, news of God's grace to sinners who were under the power of Satan, but they were delivered from that power. Now they're under the rule of Christ by his spirit. And God has given them life by His Spirit with faith through the preaching of His Word out of a spiritual death into spiritual life and faith in Christ. This is amazing, isn't it?

And so Paul thanked God. He thanked God the Father for this, and he preached Christ to them, and he prayed for them, and they believed, and now they loved Christ, and they loved his people, and they lived in hope. The hope declared in the gospel, and they knew it was by Paul's ministry.

In chapter one, look also at this. And we read these things, we pass over them quickly, we may even wonder why they're there. But he says in verse 6, the truth of the Gospels come to you as it is in all the world, brings forth fruit as it does also in you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. You see what produces fruit?

Hearing and knowing the grace of God in truth. Not some man-made religion. This is God's grace. In Christ, it's the grace of God in truth declared from God himself. That's amazing, isn't it? That God would send his truth from glory by his son through the power of his spirit in the preaching of the gospel to sinners chosen beforehand.

And he says, verse seven, this is a small thing, but it's huge. He says, as you also learned of Epaphras. What's he doing here? Our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ. You see, the body is to recognize that every gift given to them in the ministry of the word and the ministry to one another is God's given privilege to them to live by faith upon Christ. And so out of that faith in what the gospel declares we are in Christ, so to live according to that truth. And Epaphras now is a minister from Christ with Paul, a fellow servant with Paul to Christ for them.

And what does that do? It knits them together in love with Epaphras. And then they realize that this is the pattern. Here's our master. Here's his servants. What are they doing? They're giving themselves for the ministry of the gospel because he wants to direct our hearts into the love of God. That's amazing, isn't it? And this is why you can see the flow here in Colossians, where he first draws attention to God the Father.

He speaks of how he desires his saints to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, which, of course, has to do with their eternal salvation and eternal glory with Christ as the children of God. He says in verse 10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, which can only be done by faith in Christ, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. You see, first drive the stake of what you are, what God has done in Christ, then Having declared that to you, having believed and received that and being persuaded of it, you stand upon it, you live upon it, and you live out these things according to what God has said in his word. And it gives you this, verse 11, you strengthen with all might, according to his glorious power, through the gospel of Christ, that you might be able to, in all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, give thanks to the God the Father.

Amazing, isn't it? This is the life of a believer. We walk by faith, we live by faith, and this faith is God-given grace from the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, which produces love in us towards God, towards Christ, towards one another. And it's a knitting, it's a bond, and this bond is the result of love.

There's nothing stronger than love, is there? Nothing is stronger than love. It was for love that the Lord Jesus Christ came from glory, for love that he lived his life as a servant, for love that he gave himself a ransom for his people, for love that he rose again and ascended and took his place on the throne of glory, that in love he might deliver them from all the things that he died to save them from. to bring them to himself, to present them to himself in love, as holy and without fault and blameless. It was in love. The love of God is the spring from which all of our salvation flows. Amazing, amazing, wonderful God-wrought task.

So they knew that this was by Paul's ministry. They knew he labored. They knew he had suffered. They knew all these things were done in order to bring the gospel to them. They knew that the faith that they had was by the life-giving operations of God and the truth of Christ's blood shed for the forgiveness of their sins. And having been forgiven of their sins, now reconciled to God, redeemed by Christ's precious blood. And they knew that Paul prayed for them.

And all these things would have this effect. You see, love genders love, doesn't it? Love causes us to love. There's a scripture in Colossians. If you want to turn to chapter three, he says this. In verse 21, look at this verse. It seems like it's just taking care of clean up stuff at the end of the book, but it's not. It's not just that. He says in chapter 3, verse 21, fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged.

It's easy to do as a father. We want the best for our children, but we run out of patience. We're impatient with how slow they seem to be to understand, and then forget, and then have to tell them again and again the same things. And so we tend to become angry with them, and we provoke them to wrath. That is not what God the Father does. Amazing. He's the perfect father. The best father on earth is but just a shadow reflection of what he is to us as the perfect father. He does not provoke us to anger, does he? No. We would be discouraged. What does he do?

When we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God by the Holy Spirit. And so we see these things here. So the believer is always directed to Christ and from Christ to God the Father, and seeing the Father's love and compassion towards us in His Son, and then seeing that through the ministry of the Word by His servants, whether they be like Paul, where he was preaching and teaching, In person and by letters, they saw through his preaching and teaching Christ who was born, who suffered, who lived and suffered and died and rose and intercedes for us. And even in Paul, they saw it very tangibly in Paul's own life and in Epaphras. So this is all meant to direct us into the love of God. Now, I want to, I'm doing that deliberately trying to get you to see these things that this love that the apostle is talking about here is the love God gives.

It's true that we do not love God until He first loves us. There's nobody on earth who loves God until God first loves them. If a person loves God, it's evidence that God has loved them. If a person does not love God, it's their fault. But a person cannot bring themselves from the pit of their sin and rise up and fulfill what Jesus said was the most important command, which is to love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and strength.

Christ alone could do that. And he did it in the sacrifice of himself to save us from our sins. In that, we see the love of God. In 1 John chapter 4, I want to remind you of these words in 1 John chapter 4. It's unbelievable what God has done for us. He says this, he says in verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

So you can see right there, no one can love God unless he's born of God. And we certainly didn't produce that, did we? To think so is to have a complete upside down view of God's grace. But here he says in verse 8, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we don't know God, we don't have faith in Christ. We can't know God's love.

He says, and this was manifest, verse 9, 1 John 4, verse 9. In this was manifested the love of God toward us. How did God make known His love? Well, this way. Because God, God the Father, sent His only begotten Son, Christ the Lord, into the world that we might live through Him.

We were dead. Dead in sins, in our minds, enemies of God, by wicked works. And our thoughts, everything we thought we did and everything we did was opposed to God. Hostile in our minds, haters of God, he says. And we were hateful because of that. But God, when we were that, sent his son into the world that we might live. To deliver us from the death our sins deserve. He sent his son that we might live through him.

He goes on to explain. herein is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, that sacrifice offered to God in satisfaction to appease his wrath, honor and satisfy the justice of his law and fulfill the righteousness of his law.

Christ is that. And that's what the publican pleaded in Luke 18, 13, God be propitious. Look upon Christ, the one who is by your love, the propitiation to God for our sins. Verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. This is the epitome of the work of grace, is that we would love one another, because that's God's love working in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he's given us of his spirit. That's the way we love. It's the fruit of his spirit. That's the way we believe.

Verse 14, and we have seen by faith 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 dwells in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. You see, knowing, believing the love God has to us, God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells 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's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.

You see, think on those words in your own time, especially meditate on them and see the love of the Lord. It starts with Him. It continues with Him. It redounds to His glory. It will bring us to Himself. He will present us to Himself, holy and without fault, in love, in love. This is God's will. This is God's work. And that's why He directs our hearts to Himself, the love of God. We know that from Colossians 2, as Paul writes to them, his desire is that they would be knit together in love, that love would be the bond between them. And I mentioned that love is very strong.

It says in Genesis 29 that Jacob, you know who Jacob was, he served seven years. He served Laban seven years for Rachel. And you know what? To Jacob, they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her. That's strong, isn't it? All the years of his labor for Rachel, just a few days. because it was worth it to have her. Now, Jacob is just a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rachel is just a picture of the church. The Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, for that church.

Jacob, it says in Hosea 12, verse 12, Jacob fled into the country of Syria and Israel served for a wife, for a wife he kept sheep. That's what the Lord Jesus did, didn't he? He left glory. He came into this world, this world of Syria, of ungodly, they didn't know God, and he came into this world and he served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. He kept his father's sheep. They were his wife.

What amazing love. It says in Hebrews chapter 12, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, for joy, is joy of love for his people, did this. Don't we have confidence then in his love? Don't we?

By his own word, he says he loved his people. He left glory. He laid his life down for them. He gave himself for them and he served for them to have them. And it seemed little to him because of his great love. His love for his people exceeded all measure of what he gave. Can you understand that? I cannot.

But in the song of Solomon, In chapter eight, I wanna read these words to you. The Song of Solomon, chapter eight. I've always pondered this verse and marveled over it. He says in verse seven, let me get there, of chapter eight, he says, verse six, set me as a seal upon thine heart, a seal.

He just puts this this mark, this impress, this this signification of the person loved upon him. He says, set me as a seal upon your heart. This is the Church of God praying to the Lord Jesus Christ according to his will. Set me as a seal upon your heart. Can you pray that? Oh, how I love the words that God gives us to pray, Lord, Lord Jesus, set me as a seal upon your heart. He says, as a seal upon your arm. God's work, his work of love.

For love is strong as death. Jealousy as cruel as the grave, as the coals are of our coals of fire, which at the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love. The waters of ungodly men cannot quench the love of Christ. The everything that Paul lists in Romans 8. He says, who and what can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Many waters, all those things, cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contempt, because you can't buy it. You can't buy the love of God.

God himself loved us in Christ, and that is the love of God. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. The Lord knit you together in this love. You see, we have the same Lord, the same Savior, the same Redeemer, the same account of the gospel, the truth of his death and what he accomplished, the same ministers to all of the church was given to us too. so that we have this common bond between us of love, knit together because of our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his common accomplishment for us as sinners to bring us to God and make us holy, to wash us from our sins, to forgive us of our sins. Love genders love.

When someone forgives you, you are kindly affection toward them. If you know you've done wrong and they say, I forgive you, I just don't even see that. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, love doesn't count. It doesn't make an account of wrong. The Lord does, that's the Lord. He doesn't make an account of our wrongs because in the blood of Christ, he fully accounted for them. That kind of love genders love, doesn't it? Faith, faith in Christ redeeming work, genders love to Christ. God forgave us because of Christ for his sake. God freely forgave us for Christ's sake. That genders love, doesn't it?

It was God's love that sent him and God's love that sacrificed him, God's love that plunged the sword of his justice and sheathed it into the heart of his son for us. That's love. That's what God says is love. That is the way God manifested his love to us.

And this is a common bond that we have as believing sinners, isn't it? Oh, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. It knits us together. But here's the thing. This bond, this knitting that love is between us, this is the very thing that knits us to the Lord Jesus Christ. But not our love to him, but his love to us. His love to us. This is fantastic. This is amazing.

That the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is the glue, the cementing bond that holds us in union to himself. Not our faith in him, not our love to him, but his love to us cements us in union with him. And you know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't you?

It says in Jeremiah 31.3, In fact, you might want to turn there. Jeremiah 31. We refer to this very often, but I want you to be sure you see the full verse here. He says in Jeremiah verse 31.

Verse 1, At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel. In other words, every believer, every child of God, born by the Spirit of God and given faith in Christ. He says, I'll be the God of all the families of Israel and they shall be my people. This is covenant love. This is a love that was that was a love that chose us in Christ, a love that made covenant with Christ in the blood of his son and gave us everything, all the spiritual blessings of heavenly things in Christ.

We're complete in him who is the fullness of the Godhead, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the unsearchable riches of Christ are ours. given freely by God. That's what he's saying here. Thus saith the Lord, the people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Now, in the wilderness of our flesh, in the wilderness of this world, God has caused us to rest.

He's declared the gospel of Christ, finished work, our redemption, our eternal redemption obtained by his blood. Verse three. The Lord hath appeared of old to me, saying, Yea, God's love didn't begin at the cross. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, therefore, underscore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. You see, what precedes the drawing? The love, the everlasting love of God in Christ.

Look at Romans chapter five. This is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? The love of God the Father seen in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, and I'll just quote this as you're turning to Romans five in Revelation one, he says, unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. That's the love of Christ. The apostle Paul in Galatians two said, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The love preceded the gift. The love was the reason for the gift. That's the love of the Son of God.

In Romans 5, he says, in verse 5, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. To him that, verse 5, sorry, Romans 5, and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. What a gift that He would give us His own Spirit. Remember now, 1 Corinthians 2, we can't know the things of God unless the Spirit of God makes them known.

What has God done there for? Because of His love. Because of His love for us, He has drawn us and He has given us His Holy Spirit in order that He might shed abroad in our hearts The love of God. And what is that? Verse 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We were weak, impotent, had no power to do one thing in obedience to God because we hated Him.

We loved our own preeminence. We loved our own desires. We pursued our own recognition. We were idolaters. We preferred our own selves to the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne of glory and in the glory and the esteem of God. That's our heart by nature. And yet, when we were yet without strength, in that way, in due time, Christ died. And he describes this again, the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Someone who is very assiduous and very careful to keep all the outward morality of the law, he's a righteous man. Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man, someone who truly gives his money and supports whatever is necessary in the kingdom of God. For a good man, peradventure, some would even dare to die. But God, there's another class of people.

He commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, the wretched, the vile, the dunghill livers, God commended, He made known, He manifested His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, that's love. He says the same thing in Ephesians chapter 2. Look at that with me. See how the love of God is is without our contribution, without our merit.

In fact, with our demerit, with our sin. He says in Ephesians 2 verse 1, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. And we know from 1 John 2 that whoever loves this world, the love of the Father is not in him. According to the prince of the power of the air, you are servants of Satan, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

They're labeled that way. Verse three, among whom we all had our conversation, our lifestyle in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. There's no distinction. We were all just as wicked as any wicked person.

He says, verse 4, notice, But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins, and He has quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places.

That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's love, isn't it? Love to the helplessly lost, hopelessly lost. Only God can do the impossible and save us. This is the love of Christ.

His love chose us before time began, and it was a choice obviously unto salvation, a choice of love. He chose us to be holy. He chose us to be without blaming Christ. He chose to give us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And then, even when we were sinners, He made us alive through the gospel preached by the power of His Spirit because He had already forgiven us for Christ's sake.

He gave us life to know the love of God. And this knowledge of the love of God knits us together. And I could just go on and on here, but we're gonna have to close it here. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be knit, be knit. Ask the Lord, pray. Lord, direct our hearts into the love of God. This was the purpose of writing this book. And what a glorious thing it is. Knit, bound, held, glued, inseparable. Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?

Nothing, nothing. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word sent by your spirit to reveal Christ Jesus our Lord, and in Him to see yourself and your glory and your love towards us, having answered every one of your perfections to the infinite nth degree, so that we know that everything has been done by you in Christ, out of love, with no contributions of our own except the contribution of our sin that would alienate us from you, but you've brought us to yourself at the price of the death of your Son. You've purchased us out of our own sinful iniquity and adultery, and you've brought us to yourself. What love is this? Knit our hearts, we pray. Direct our hearts into the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.