Well, good morning, everyone.
Our reading this morning is from 1 John, chapter 4. 1 John, chapter 4. And our subject is going to be
concerning the love of God or the love of God, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And more particularly, how we
see that love bestowed upon us in the context of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's read together 1 John chapter
4. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they be of God, because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the
Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already
is in the world. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are
of God. He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved 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 Saviour 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. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The Lord Jesus Christ often spoke
of the love of his father, both his own love for his father and
his father's love for him. John, the writer, the Apostle
John, who wrote both the Gospel and these epistles as well as
the book of the Revelation in our New Testament, he seems to
have had a peculiar ear for the words of the Lord with respect
to the love of God and the mutual affection that each of the persons
of the Godhead had one for another. The father loves the son and
the father loves the spirit. And the Son loves the Father,
and the Son loves the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father,
and the Spirit loves the Son. There is a mutual bond of love
between the persons of the Godhead, and that is evidenced throughout
Scripture, both in the way in which the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
of his Father, and also in the way in which God is revealed
to us. In John chapter three, verse
35, for example, we read there, the father loveth the son and
hath given all things into his hand. Such is the love of the
father for the son that all things were committed into the hand
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was this mutuality, this
union between the persons of the Godhead. And in John chapter
5 verse 20, For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all
things that himself doeth. All things are given into the
hand of the Son. All things that are the purpose
of God were revealed to the Son because of the love one to another. The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore,
was the object of the Father's love from all eternity. And this shows us something of
the nature of the love of God. Christ was loved by the Father
as his own Son, from the same nature with him and equal to
him. Therefore, the Father loved the
Son in that equality. Not only is he loved as the eternal
son of God, but he was loved as the mediator between God and
man. God loved a people and he loved
his son because his son took upon himself that role of mediation
between the people of his love and the love that God had for
them. He engaged as the Lord our mediator
on behalf of God's chosen people and the Father. And the Father
loves the Son also because the Son took the nature of that people. He was clothed with our nature.
He humbled himself and took upon himself a body of flesh that
the Father had prepared for him. And the Father loved the Son.
because he took upon himself the nature of the bride. And the father loved the son
because he was obedient in all things to the will of the father. He was subject to the ordinances
of God. And the father loves the son
because he suffered. He suffered for that people of
the father's desire. He suffered for the elect. He
suffered in our place as our substitute and as our surety. And for all of these reasons,
the father loves the son. And here's something that we
should note. The Father loves the Son even in the bruising
of Christ. We're told in the book of Isaiah
chapter 53 that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The Father
took pleasure in the bruising of the sun, not for the sake
of the hurt, not for the sake of the suffering that was inflicted
upon the sun in itself, but because this was the means of the accomplishment
of the purpose, the counsel, the decrees of God. This was
the means of the salvation and deliverance of the people of
his choice. Hereby would that covenant of
peace be fulfilled and the salvation of his people be obtained. The father loves the son and
the son loves the father. The son loved the father and
it was the motivation for all that the Lord Jesus Christ did. that love which he had for his
father inspired him, led him to willingly sacrifice himself. John chapter 14 verse 31 says,
but that the world may know that I love the father and as the
father gave me commandment even so I do. All that the Lord Jesus
Christ did he did out of a passion of love for his Father. And of course we also see this
in the context of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit loves both the Father
and the Son and is loved by both the Father and the Son. In 1
Corinthians chapter 2 verse 10 we read, For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. All things of God are
known of the Spirit, and the Spirit testifies of these things
to us. Everything that is communicated,
everything that is conveyed comes to us through the Spirit. The Spirit of God, as he comes
from the Father and the Son, and he communicates and reveals
those things which the Lord has done and said. The Lord Jesus
Christ speaking about the coming of the Comforter, the coming
of the Holy Spirit in John 16 verse 14 says, He shall glorify
me for he shall receive of mine and remember we've just read
that all things were given into the hands of Christ and that
the Father, for the sake of the love of Christ, he gave all knowledge
to the Son, so all knowledge will be conveyed by the Holy
Spirit. He shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. And in John 16 verse 15, all
things that the father hath are mine therefore said I that he
shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. Hence we see
this three-way unity of peace and purpose within the Godhead. And when we read about these
all things being given, can it really mean that all that the
Godhead shares in this love, that the persons of the Godhead
have one for another, that that is what is going to be communicated
to us, conveyed to us? Can it really mean that all things
will be ours as the people of His choice? Well yes, that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has said here. All things that
the Father hath are mine and he will bring them and show them. and bestow them and give them
unto us. It's an extraordinary statement
that the Lord Jesus Christ makes concerning God's love for us
and our portion in that experience of love. John chapter 15, verse
9. As the Father hath loved me,
says the Lord Jesus Christ, so have I loved you. You see that? As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. The love that the Father has
for the Son, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That same love is the love which
the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has towards the people
of His choice. Think about that for a moment.
The love within the Godhead is the same love to us. The same love. The same love
in nature, in degree, in extent, in range, in scope, in magnitude. What was it the hymn writer said? Wide, wide as the ocean, high
as the heavens above, deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Saviour's
love. I, though so unworthy, still
I'm a child of His care, for His word teaches me that His
love reaches me everywhere. and hence Paul's words about
the extensiveness of God's love and Christ's love to us in that
famous passage at the end of Romans 8. It's inseparable and
we are inseparable from it. It is an absolute, enduring,
unremitting love. It is as absolute and enduring
as the Father's love for the Son and the Son's love for the
Father. It is yours and it is mine entirely,
wholly, totally. as the children of God. This
morning I want to look at some of the aspects of that love. That love which the Father has
for the Son, the Son for the Father, and both for the Spirit
and vice versa. And see that as that love comes
to the people of God's choice, it takes upon itself a number
of characteristics. And I want to think of five aspects
of God's love to us. Now there are probably many more
things that we could say about the love of God and perhaps we'll
turn to some of these other things on another occasion but just
for today, just for this morning, I want to think about five aspects
of God's love towards us. First of all, it is everlasting. It's an everlasting love and
then it's a distinguishing love. It is an effectual love It accomplishes
what it is sent to do. It is an unconditional love. It doesn't change because it
finds change in us. And it is an inspiring love,
a love that inspires the recipients of it and motivates them. in
the way in which they act. So let us take these five points
and look briefly at them. First of all then, God's love
is an everlasting love. When we think about the everlasting
love of God, we must think about it in the context of the immutability
of God, the unchangeableness of God. Malachi chapter 3 and
verse 6, the Lord tells us through the prophet there, I am the Lord,
I change not. He doesn't alter, he doesn't
change, he's not different one day and then another. He doesn't alter over time. The Lord God exists in eternity
and he is unchangeable, he is immutable, there is no mutation
with him, there is no alteration. I am the Lord, I change not. Now if the Lord doesn't change,
then his love doesn't change, nor indeed do the objects of
his love, ever change. If the Lord loves one day, then
he loves the next day. If he loves one year, then he
loves the next year. If he loves one person, then
he always loves that person. There is an enduringness, a continuity,
an unchangeableness about the love of God. And that drives
us, it leads us to consider the love of God in its everlasting
aspect. In Jeremiah chapter 31 verse
3, the prophet there says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto
me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. There the Lord himself reveals
to us that there is an everlasting love. a love that doesn't begin
simply in time and certainly doesn't begin based on something
that the creature performs. It's a love that is everlasting,
a love that predates anything to do with the creature, a love
which God has for us before ever time began, before ever we did
or thought anything. It's a love that extends from
eternity and is experienced in time. It began in eternity and
it is manifested in time. It is the ground of God's covenant
purpose towards us. Paul speaks of God's foreknowledge
and that foreknowledge is another word that is used to describe
everlasting love. It's a foreknowledge or an everlasting
love upon which our election is founded and our calling is
assured. Child of God, why have we been predestinated
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? It
is because God loved us. Why is it that we are called
in time by the preaching of the gospel? Because God loved us. Why is it that there is an absolute
certainty of heavenly glory? because God loved us. It is the love of God that inspires
his work towards us. It is out of a heart of love,
this enduring, eternal, everlasting love that all of these other
blessings and benefits flow. The book of Ephesians that Paul
wrote to the church there at Ephesus is a great letter, a
great epistle with respect to God's eternal love towards us. In the opening verses of Ephesians
chapter one, verse three, we read these words. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
Everything that we have, all the blessings that are granted
to us, bestowed upon us, are God's gift to us. How have they come? According,
Paul continues, as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. It is this love. It is that we
should be possessors of that love and from that love comes
every other blessing that we have. Our predestination, our
election, that sanctification that set us apart to make us
holy and blameless before Him, all comes to us because of the
everlasting love of God to us. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. And then in the next chapter,
look at chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4. But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved. You see what Paul is saying here?
There is a love, an everlasting love, that God has for the people
of his choice. A love which has its source in
the eternal nature of God. and a love which is revealed
in time by the bestowing of the benefits of that love, our calling,
our salvation. in time as we experience God's
love through the revelation of the Gospel to us and the gift
of grace and faith and it will continue to be revealed in eternity
as God gives the blessings of grace and glory. As God glorifies his people,
binds us to him in that eternal union and allows us to enjoy
his presence forevermore in that day which is yet to be revealed. Hosea, in the Old Testament talks
about bands of love, bands that bind, bands that hold us tight,
bands that constrain us, the bands of love that bind us to
God and unite us to Him. Not that they emanate from us,
but they are bestowed upon us by God. God's love is always
referred to in the past tense. It is always, I have loved you. The great end and object of that
love is the eternal union with God, the union of the bride and
the bridegroom, the people of God and Christ, the lover of
their souls. And in glory we will enjoy and
we will be blessed by those bands of love which have bound us to
our precious Saviour. The love of God is everlasting. But also the love of God is distinguishing. And I want us to think about
that also this morning. It is a distinguishing love. It isn't a general love, it isn't
a universal love, it isn't a love that flows to everyone without
distinction. It distinguishes and God has
a people upon whom he has placed this love and they are distinguished
from all the other children of Adam because of that love of
God. This shows us the blessedness
that we have. Now the text that is often used
as perhaps a proof text with respect to the distinguishing
love of God or the particular love of God is the reference
to Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. And rightly so. The Apostle Paul
uses this example from the Old Testament as the vehicle by which
he teaches us about the distinguishing love of God when he is writing
in the book of the Romans and multiple times throughout Scripture. there is a reference to these
two boys. These two boys still in the womb
of their mother, not yet born, never having done anything, never
having thought anything, no works as far as they are concerned,
neither good nor bad, but that the purpose of God according
to election might be revealed. God loved the one and hated the
other. God shows that he had love for
Jacob. and he passed over Esau. God's love is particular, and
it is taught as being particular throughout scripture. We can
use this proof text of Jacob and Esau, and rightly so, but
we don't need to simply depend upon one verse or one statement. God's particular love is seen
on every page of the Bible. It is seen in the choosing of
one and the passing over of another and the bestowing of blessings
on one, whether it's one individual, whether it's one family, whether
it's one nation, God has a choice and he reveals his purposes and
all his ways and ultimately the great plan of salvation through
his own choice, the purpose of his will. Universal love, God's
love for everyone, is neither scriptural nor true. And to say God loves us all is
patently false. Preachers need to be careful.
Words are what we use, and if we speak lies to men by telling
them that God loves them when we have no authority to do so,
then we are doing no good to their souls. Jacob was loved. And not even was it all of Jacob,
or as he was subsequently called, Israel. And then we find from
Jacob come the children of Israel. Not only was it Jacob who was
loved, not even all the children of Israel were loved. but there
was a covenant people within that group that were Israel. And we see that in the New Testament
days extended beyond the borders of Israel, even to the isles,
even to the ends of the earth. And we see the Lord Jesus Christ
being revealed as he who came into the world in order to deliver
the people, the elect, the people of God's choice. Deuteronomy
chapter seven and verse seven and eight speaks about this distinguishing
choice of God. Moses writing on this occasion
says, the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you
because you were more in number than any people. For you were
the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you. And the Lord must be true to
himself. As the father loves the son and
the son loves the father, so the father loves his people. So the Lord Jesus Christ loves
his people. And having set his love upon
that people, he must be true to himself and he must be true
to his promises. And there is always consistency
of purpose and practice with God. In the outworking of his
love, we will constantly see how consistent he is. Those for whom Christ died are
those whom the Father loved and those whom the Holy Spirit sanctified
in Christ. There is consistency in the redemptive
purpose. Those to whom grace is extended
are the beloved of the Lord. Those to whom faith is given
are the beloved of the Lord. Those to whom the Gospel is sent
when a preacher comes and God the Holy Spirit takes that message
and applies it in quickening power to the soul of an individual
are those who are beloved of the Lord. And that's the clear
testimony of Scripture. The everlasting love of God is
a distinguishing love and it comes to one and it passes over
another. And that's the clear testimony
of the Word of God. Paul says in Thessalonians, 2
Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, Paul continues,
stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Now the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you. You see what Paul is saying here
again in these verses? It is because of God's love towards
us that we have been chosen, chosen to salvation. through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The work of the Spirit in the
giving of grace, the setting us apart from the rest of the
men and women of Adam's race and believing the truth as it
is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 4, verse 19, we
read it together earlier. We love him because he first
loved us. And in Hebrews 12, verse 6, we
see another aspect of the distinguishing love of God, where there the
writer says, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. In the Old Testament, in Jeremiah
chapter three, verse 14, we read, I am married unto you, and I
will take you, one of a city and two of a family, and I will
bring you to Zion. Why is it that there are so few
apparently have a love for God? Because God loves that little
flock. Because God loves in a distinguishing
way, in a particular way, that one of a city and two of a family. Because he has chosen in his
covenant purpose to draw out from amongst the men and women
of this world a particular people and to distinguish them by bestowing
his love upon them. Isaiah 43 verse 3 says, for I
am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I
gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. He goes on
in the same vein and a few verses later to speak about Babylon
and Chaldea. These were nations, these were
empires. of the Old Testament and the
Lord says that for the sake of the love of his people he gave
these great empires over in order to draw out one of a city and
two of a family, distinguishing love. Since thou wast precious
in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. The distinguishing love of God
is as biblical as the everlasting love of God. It is everlasting,
it is distinguishing, and it is effectual. The love of God
is effectual. It does what God says it will
do. Men like to talk about their
free will. They will decide, they will choose. Well, I say to you this morning,
woe upon you if the Lord God leaves you to your free will. God must save his people from
their sins and he does exactly that. He sends his love upon
them to deliver them from their sin and from their condemnation. What was it that we read previously
in Thessalonians? The Lord said, those who are
beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory. John, the apostle in John chapter
six, verse 44, relates there the words of our Saviour when
the Saviour says, no man can come to me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. and I will raise him up in the
last day. There is a work by God the Holy
Spirit as he is sent forth from the Father with this purpose
to draw, to draw men and women, to draw people that God loves
to himself. And that drawing, that making
willing, that overthrowing of the rule of sin and the dominion
of sin and the life of individuals and the coming in of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit into the very heart of an individual,
there to commune with him, is a work of grace and it is a work
of God. It is written in the Prophets,
the Lord continued in that section, they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. We sometimes think that there
are just a few who believe these doctrines, these truths of God's
sovereign grace and everlasting love towards his people. But the reality is that there
is exactly the right number because everyone that hears these words
Spoken in the gospel, applied by the Holy Spirit, learns the
truth of the gospel and comes to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. God's love for his people secured
their predestination. Their predestination secured
their calling. Their calling secured their justification,
their justification, their glory. Step after step after step is
effectually accomplished, all finding its source in the everlasting,
distinguishing, effectual love of God. In Romans chapter 8 verse
31 we read, And God's love is unconditional love. not given, not bestowed because
God saw good in us or merit in us, not granted for reward, not
because we would believe as so many teach today. That simply
confuses cause and effect. Our belief, our faith is the
fruit of God's love towards us. Love is the cause, not vice versa. Romans 5 verse 6 says, when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. In the little book of Titus,
Paul writes there in chapter 3, verse 3, for we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Brothers and sisters, is there
not great comfort for weak sinners here? Paul says we are foolish
and disobedient and deceived. We are self-serving, hateful
sinners and God's love comes upon us. God's love doesn't alter,
it doesn't change because it finds us to be so needy, because
it finds us to be so contrary. He changes us, he makes us into
what he would have us be. And this is also an attribute,
an effect, a fruit of God's love towards us. It is constant, it
is sure, it is faithful and it is dependable love towards us. The Scottish hymn writer and
preacher, Horatius Bonner, he wrote of every true believer's
experience of God's love. He said, my love is oft times
low, my joy still ebbs and flows, but peace with him remains the
same. No change my saviour knows. I change, he changes not. The Christ can never die. His love, not mine, the resting
place. His truth, not mine, the tie. God's love towards his people
is unconditional and it flows to us eternally. distinguishes between one and
another, it is effectual in what it accomplishes and it is unconditional,
not changing, though it finds change and alteration in us. And finally, God's love is inspiring
love. It inspires those to whom it
comes. The Lord's people, his church,
his sheep, his bride, they are motivated, like the girl in the
Song of Solomon, a beautiful picture of that love relationship
between the bride and her groom. We are motivated by the love
of God. It is love, not law, not command,
that causes us to act. We worship God for love's sake. We love him who first loved us. We react, we respond out of gratitude
for the things that he has done for us. We love God because he
first loved us. We love his person. We love his
word. We love his works. We love his gospel. These things about our Lord,
our Saviour, Jesus Christ, they thrill our souls when we hear
them spoken of, when we commune together in them, when we speak
together. Those that love the Lord, they
speak often one to another about these things. and as we speak
together of them, as we dwell upon them and commune in them,
so they inspire and they thrill and they motivate our actions. We worship God because we're
motivated by his kindness and his goodness to us, the love
that he has for us. We dwell in his love, we draw
comfort from it, we are encouraged by it and we are consoled in
our hardship and in our troubles, our times of difficulty and persecution
because of God's love towards us and the promises that he makes
in it. and we love one another, our
relationships together as the body of Christ, as the family
of God, are moulded together by that love of our great example,
our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ. It was a sacrificial love. It
was a willing, a voluntary love which brought him to the cross.
He laid down his life for his people because he loved us. And
greater love hath no man than this, than that the Lord Jesus
Christ should lay down his life for his friends. And as we see
that, characteristic, that quality in our Saviour. Does it not thrill
us and does it not cause us and mould us into that pattern of
love which he has been the great exemplar of? We love to serve our Saviour. We serve him with our time. We
serve him with our resources. We serve him with our treasure. We are inspired by the things
that he has done for us. So the Apostle Paul writes in
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 14, the love of Christ constraineth
us. We're no longer pursuing the
lusts of our flesh with complete disregard to the things of God
because Christ has revealed his love to us and he has changed
us, he has altered us. There has been a conversion,
an alteration in our souls and it is for the sake of the love
of Christ that we are constrained to follow him. And then Romans
chapter 15 and verse 30, again the Apostle writes, for the love
of the Spirit, strive together in the Gospel, be united in the
Gospel, strive together, both in upholding the Gospel, maintaining
the Gospel, proclaiming and preaching the Gospel. It is for the love
of the Spirit that the people of God are bound together in
these great doctrinal truths. And in 1st John, chapter 4, verse
16, there's a lovely little verse that says, we have known and
believed. the love that God hath to us. We have known and believed the
love that God hath to us. We have known that everlasting
love and we've believed that it is everlasting. We have known
that distinguishing love and we believe that it is distinguishing. We have known it to be effectual,
unconditional love, and we believe it to be so, for we find it in
our own life's experience to be so. And we are inspired and
motivated by it. 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. Brothers and sisters,
this morning let us remember the love of God is a deep well
of spiritual experience and promise. From the love of God flows every
refreshing blessing of grace and mercy to his people. Let God's love, that true scriptural
revelation of God's love, be a source of our comfort and encouragement. And let us meditate much upon
it. We shall never plumb the depths
of God's love. We will never empty its goodness. It is infinite love. but we shall
be blessed in every application of it to our souls. Let us therefore, with John the
Apostle, seek to dwell much in the love of God. Amen.