1 John 3 and verse number 1, as we've been studying concerning God's nature and His attributes, His character these last several months, we've almost come through half the year and still have many of these things to consider concerning our God, we've just looked through His the reality of His holiness and what the Scripture says concerning that. And lastly, if we look specifically at the demand of His holiness, which is His wrath, as we looked at that particular characteristic of God, today we're looking at just the opposite, and that is the love of God, the love of God. And we begin to hear in 1 John 3 and verse number 1, As John would write much here in this particular passage in the first letter of John here, he would write much about the love of God and who God is in regards to his love and the love that he has for us. And we read here in this beginning in verse 1, he says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. What a glorious reality for the child of God. When we understand fully the holiness of God and what the Scriptures declare concerning His holiness, when we understand that about Him, that he will judge every sin, that not one sin will go by. Every sin will receive its just dessert. And then we look lastly at the wrath of God and the fact that his wrath, his judgment, will be poured out upon every single sin. Every transgression against his law will be judged, and it will be judged to the extent that is holy. And we realize in that how guilty we are as individuals before the throne of God, how we have failed, and how many times we have come short of His glory. And then we read here of His love in 1 John 3, verse number 1, when He says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we, Us that are guilty, us that are sinners, us that have consorted in glory over and over and over again, that we should be called the sons of God. What's the difference? What's the difference in the judgment of God based upon His holiest wrath without the reality that every single sin will be judged? And then on the other side of it, we have this wonderful love that is bestowed upon us that we shouldn't even be called the sons of God. What's the difference? Jesus. Jesus isn't there. Christ Jesus is the difference thing. He is the one who has made himself our propitiation, our substitute, that though we were guilty before the throne of God, though we deserve his wrath poured out upon us, we instead have his love. bestowed upon us by Christ Jesus our Lord behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called that we should be called the sons of God. It's not resolved it says therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Let's look at him in a word of prayer before we continue on this morning. Our Father in heaven, we thank you again for this day. We thank you, Father, for your grace. We thank you, Father, for your goodness toward us. We thank you that you've allowed us another time that we can come into your house together and meet with your saints. Father, we just pray that you'd help us in this hour as we look to your word that you'd give us an understanding of each day. An application for our own lives of rejoicing and praise because of the work that you've accomplished for us and that Christ Jesus was made our substitute. That by his substitution we can be called the sons of God. Father, thank you for such a wondrous love that you have for us. Help us now as we look for your word as we try to seek out and understand truly the depths of this love. Help us, we pray, for we ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Now, again, John spends a great deal of time on this love, and I want to more really get into this more next week. It's his love for us. I want to look at what this love is today. God's nature, as we've looked at, is expressed in a variety of ways, and there's all sorts of of the attributes and the characteristics of God that we've looked at over these past several months. We see even in the book of 1 John here and in the book of John, John writes specifically concerning this, we see God is spirit. John 4 verse 24 tells us that. He is light is what 1 John 1 and verse 5 tells us here beside, well, no, I went back too far. Yeah, verse 5 of 1 John 1, he says, This, then, is the message which we have heard of him and declared to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. He is light, and we see in chapter 4, in verse number 8, he is love. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. God is love. We don't even have an understanding of what love is without God. Without God, He is love. He is love. Just like He is life, so is He love. Just like He is life. We have no life without Him. We have no love without Him. We have no life without Him. He is these things for us. He is these things. Life. Love. Life. It is that perfection of God, this love, that He is eternally moved to communicate Himself to us. It is because of this love. And I will read to you a quote from C.D. Cole in his book, The Definitions of Doctrine, here. And he opens up his chapter on the love of God. He says, Henry Drummond says that love is the greatest thing in the world. And from our point of view, love is the greatest thing in God. Without love, His justice would cut us off. His holiness would put us out of sight and His power would destroy us. Love is the one hope of sinners and our great concern should be to discover God's love to us. To discover God's love to us. Without His love, There's no hope, you see. It is because of His love that God has communicated Himself to us. It is because of His love that we have this record of Him written for us from the mouth of God. He has given us His word of life by us that we have this. And we have this understanding of Him. And so it is a marvelous thing to consider God's love. Now, as we stated already, this is really the only doctrine, the only characteristic of God that the world cares anything about. They don't want to hear about any of the rest of them. They just want to hear about His love. But it is His love. It is His love for His love by His love that we have every communication from God given to us that we might know Him. that we might know Him, and that should be our desire and our heart to know Him more and more, that we would learn of Him, that we would grow in Him, that we would be able to find Him in His Word and know that He would indeed astound us as it astounded John here in our tent. We should be called the sons of God. It should astound us what God has accomplished in himself for us. This morning I want us to look here at what the scripture says concerning this love that God has, what this love is made up of as he gives us record of it in the Scriptures. First of all, this love is uninfluenced. It is uninfluenced. There's not anything that bears on that love to bring that love to pass. This is a love that God freely has. and that He freely gives, not based upon anything else. No qualifier. No qualifier. This love is uninfluenced. There's nothing in the objects of God's love that prompts this love. There is nothing in you that God looks at and says, oh, look at that, I love that. Nothing in you. Nothing in you. All, all because He wanted to, is His love given to us. In Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter 9 and verse number 16, Paul says, So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Funny thing we've done. It's all of Him. It's all of Him. And so there's nothing in us, nothing in the objects of God's love that prompts His love. Man loves for reasons in the objects of His love. There's something about that thing, that object that we see, that we love. There's something about it that draws us to it. It doesn't work that way with God. There's nothing in us that draws God to us but His own will. But His own will. His own love for us. Because when we realize who we are, when we realize truly how we are so far against God in this pledge, enemies to Him even in the pledge, There is nothing about us, nothing about us that he would have love for us in. It is all by his choice, all by his choice that God would bestow his love on us. So John would say, behold, behold what manner, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called God's love is free. God's love is spontaneous. God's love is uncaused. God's love is holy according to His will. Deuteronomy chapter number 7. Look with me here a couple of verses. Deuteronomy 7 verse 7 and 8. of this passage, Deuteronomy 7, verse 7 and 8. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, And because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." Talking to the nation of Israel, they said, look, there's no reason because of you that God's love is on you. There's no reason, because of you, that you were his choice. It's all because of him. But one reason he gets here, there in verse number 8, he says it's because he would keep the oath which he had sworn under your fathers. But why did he give the oath that he swore? Because it was all his choice again. Wasn't anything in them, even. But it's simply because of his 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19 John writes here 1 John 4 and verse number 19 we love him because he first loved us We love Him because He first loved us. It's nothing in us. It's holy according to His will. Even while we were yet sinners, the Bible says God loved. Romans chapter 5 and verse number 8, Paul makes that declaration there concerning God's love for His people. He said, but God commended His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God commended His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So His love is uninfluenced by anything outside of Himself. It is wholly by His choice. It is wholly by His will whom His love is extended to. His love's not only unending, but it is also an eternal love. It's eternal simply because he is eternal. The immutable, eternal God has an immutable, eternal love that he gives, you see, because it is his very character. It is the very person he is. He is love, he is eternal, hence his love is an eternal love. Look, Jeremiah chapter 31, Jeremiah chapter number 31 and verse number 3, Jeremiah 31 and verse number 3 Jeremiah 31 and verse number 3, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I have loved you with an everlasting love and it is because of that love I have brought you to myself. That's what he declares of Israel. That's the reality for every single one of God's children. It is an eternal everlasting love that God has for us and it is by that love that he has drawn us. And it is only by that drawing that you and I can even know Him and know His love. That's what the Lord says in John chapter 6. We can't come to Him except we are drawn of the Father as He brings us to Him. And so it is an everlasting love that He has for us. And in that everlasting love, in the reality of that everlasting love, it is not only outside of time in the sense that it has always been and always will be, but in the working of time, this Love is still there because it's still working, it's still accomplishing in the time that he is drawing us to himself. God loves you. Let's go back to Ephesians 1 real quick. Let me read this to you. Ephesians 1 and verse number 4 and 5 of this passage. Well, Paul wrote some wondrous words here in Ephesians. God did wonderful things right before us. Ephesians 1 verse number 4. According as he hath chosen us in him. In whom? In Christ. God the Father had chosen us in God the Son, in Christ, He says, before the foundation of the world. Before anything else was made. Before anything else was even done. Before anything else was in existence. God already had His love sat among his people already and all the workings of history all the workings of time since the since eternity all the workings of it is God accomplishing His love for us, bringing to pass our reconciliation to Him that we might know, behold, what manner of love God has bestowed upon us. Before anything else, God's love is already set upon us In Him, in Christ, who has chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. In love has predestinated us unto the adoption of children. by Jesus Christ to himself. He chose, again, that was before the foundation of the world, he has chosen to make us his children. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good, not according to anything we've done, according to the good pleasure of his will. Ah, what everlasting, wonderful love the Father has for us. So His love is eternal. Loving us from eternity past proves to us His love is unfinished because it is an eternal love yet future. And so it is His love continues. The love of God is not only eternal, but as we already looked a little bit at, it is sovereign. It is sovereign. God is sovereign. He is under no law. He does as He pleases. He does as He pleases. And that which He does is right. That which He does is good. That which he does is holy. That which he does is righteous. All that he does, all that he does, he does so according to his sovereign will. His love, then, is also a sovereign love. It is based upon hearing. It's not based upon anything else. It is according to his will that it is given, Romans 9 and verse 19. He gives us an example here that we might understand a little bit about this reality as he is comparing for us Jacob and Esau. And as we've been studying on these days, we've been looking at this particular life of Jacob and Esau here the last several weeks, and we've been looking at these two brothers and what the Lord is accomplishing in their lives, and we've already looked and seen that there is absolutely nothing about Jacob that is worthy of the love of God. just as there is nothing worthy of Esau for the love of God. We see these two brothers and quite honestly, just looking at who they are and looking at their lives and their coming up, we probably, because us, we've probably been to Esau before we've ever been there. But that's all I've got to say. He doesn't look. He doesn't look at these two and say, okay, which one is the better? No, he just... Jacob. Jacob had my love. And so he tells us there in verse 19. Romans 9 and verse 19. He says, Thou wilt save him unto me. Why does he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? These guys had seven parents. They were twins. Both were sinners. And so, God's choice is God's choice. Why does he get on all? In other words, why is it that we're held to a different standard than somebody else's health. Why is it that his love is bestowed upon one and not another? And that's, again, this is the question that so many have. How's that fair, people say? Because he's sovereign. Because he's God. And God does as he pleases. He does as he pleases. in the realm of his creation and none can say how dare he. It's not the fact that we read verse 13 there he says as it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated. People get caught up on the word hated there and that really bothers them when they see that God hated Esau. And that immediately tells me that they have not considered it deep enough yet. Because it's not the fact that he hated Esau, it is the fact that he loved Jacob. That should be what astounds us. That should be what shocks us. Not that he hated Esau, but that he would love Jacob! Because when we understand who we are before God, when we understand truly the wonder of the character and the person of God, what should astound us is that He has love for any of us. Every single person who has ever experienced the love of God is unworthy of the love of God. Every single one who has ever experienced the grace of God is unworthy of the least of His grace. Every single one who has ever experienced a blessing from God, and let me tell you, every single person that is alive on this earth today is experiencing the blessings of God. And there is not one of them, not a single one in all of this creation that deserves His blessing. So it's not that he hated Jacob or hated Esau, but that he loved Jacob. That he loved Jacob. That he loved the Indians. God's love is holy. Holy by His choice. It is a sovereign love that God has for us. Sovereign love. He is sovereign in the smallest details. He is sovereign in the big scheme of things. He is sovereign in everything. in everything. He rules over it all. And so his love is a sovereign love. His love is infinite. His essence itself heals heaven and earth. His wisdom and power are without any limits. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 4. Ephesians 2 and verse number 4. He tells us here that God's love is a great love. A great love. He begins there in verse 1 and describes through who we are and then verse 2 and 3 describes where we come from. In verse number 4 he explains the challenge there. He says and you hath he quickened made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Dead in trespasses and sins. God has chosen, God has accomplished, he is the one that gives us life. And then he describes the death of those trespassers in his verses 2 and 3. He says, where in time past he walked according to the course of this world. according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." We're no different from the rest of the world. No different. Our lives are made in the same fashion. Our hearts, our flesh is after the same things that the rest of the world is after. We are no different. All of us were dead in trespasses and sin. Born that way, lived that way. But God, What a wonderful passage, what a wonderful phrase that we find in the scriptures, but God, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loves us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive with Christ. My brothers, ye are saved. By grace, you're saying. So what is the difference between us and the world? What is the difference between God's people, those who have experienced His love? What is the difference between us and the rest of all of creation? Christ. Christ. And why Christ? Because God said so. Because God said so. But God, He intervened for me. He intervened for you. He stepped in when you could not do anything yourself. There, in first Christ, you see it. He stepped in. He stepped in. and gave Christ and gave Christ to take away the problem of our sin that now that sin is removed we can now experience His love we love Him So he first loved us. His love is infinite. In chapter 3 of Ephesians verse 19, Paul tells us here in this passage that his love passes knowledge even. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. It's beyond understanding. It doesn't make sense to us. It doesn't make sense to the world. We struggle against the understanding of God. The vastness, the depth of God's love for His people, it has acknowledged. His love is infinite. His love is immutable. It does not It does not change because He does not change. That is the reality. Of all the attributes of God, He is the immutable God, and being immutable, being the fact that He does not change, then all of His characteristics do not change. And if they do not change, then those whom He has given His love to, that love will not change. In James chapter 1 verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom he is no variableness. Neither shadow of perverse. God does not change. He does not change. And because He does not change, His love does not change. He is immutable. His love doesn't diminish in any way, and we see as we look at this study concerning Jacob. Jacob is an example of this fact. God's love does not change His people. Notice in John 13 and verse number 1, John 13 and verse number one, this is the last supper, the night the Lord would eat, the last Passover with his disciples before his arrest here and his death on the cross. And it tells us here in the latter part of this verse, verse one of this passage, it says, Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hours had come, and he should depart out of this world unto the Father. And listen to this, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. He loved them unto the end. His love does not end. And he knows, listen, he knows they're going to run and stagger. He knows Peter's going to deny. He tells him he's going to deny him three pounds that very month. He knows their failure. He knows how they're going to come short. He knows even later on, after he's gone, after he's empowered them by his Spirit, he knows their sins, he knows their mistakes, and yet he still loves them until the end. He's willing, He's ready to fulfill His hour and go to the cross and die for us anyway. He loves us, not only Him, but us to the end. His love does not change. He is immutable. It is a holy love. God's love is not regulated by sentence or feeling, but by principle. God will not weep at sin, even in his own people. But rather, it is the very expression of his love for us when he chastens us, when he brings punishment to us because of our sin. That's what Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 there in verse number 6. When he says here, but for whom the Lord loved him, he chastened and scourged every son whom he received. If you have the love of God, if you know Him, if you know His love, then you know what it is to be thanks by Him. You know what it is to have His heavy hand of conviction on you. If you've truly experienced His love, you know exactly what it is to have that hand of the Lord on you. When you fail, when you sin against Him, when you come short, when your mind is on this world instead of on Him, you know that heavy hand of conviction, that hand of chastening. He says He does that because He loves us. For whom the Lord loveth, He chastens. He says, and serves in every son whom he received. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chastened not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. If you don't have the chastening of the Lord on you, if you don't have His hand of conviction on you, then you need to examine, am I one of His? Do I even belong to Him? Because He tells us there, He chastens every single one whom He's received. Every single one that are His, He chastens. Because His love is still holy. His love is still holy. He demands holiness. He demands holiness. Unless you are a sinner, you and I ain't holy. This is only in Christ. His love is holy. The love of God is gracious. God favors those whom He loves. Romans chapter 8 and begin with me in verse 32 and read down through the end of this passage with me. He favors those whom He loves. His love is gracious. Verse 32, He said, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Can't nobody lay anything to us. Can't nobody point anything at us. Look at her! That's what Satan tends to do. He is that accuser and he is constantly accusing. He can't let go of her. Because it's God that justifies. It's God that justifies. There's no way anything is lethargic or problematic. It's God that justifies. Who is He that can give it? It is Christ that does. You can't receive any higher payment than that. You can't receive any higher payment for our sin than the blood of Christ Jesus. He's the one that died for us. Who is he that condemneth his cross that died, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also made the intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? subjugation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. All of those things have been brought against God's people throughout the ages, and even today still these things are being brought against them, and does it separate them from the love of Christ? As it is written, he says in verse 36, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Can they separate us from the love of Christ? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Hearing the stories of the martyrs before us, those that would give their lives in the service of Christ, and what you find even at the death of those dear sons of God, the love of God was more evident in the moment of their death than any other time in their life. It shines out of them. For I am persuaded, Paul says, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is nothing, there is nothing that can separate us from the eternal, immutable love of God. Nothing. That which he has set in motion from eternity past to accomplish in us will be accomplished exactly as he has sought it out to be done. There is nothing that can change that reality. Absolutely nothing. His love will be accomplished, even to the end it will be accomplished. Our Lord favors. He favors those whom He loves. Understand Christ Jesus died. Christ Jesus died on the cross not to make God love us. He died on the cross because God loves us. The reason, the very reason he died is because our Father loves us. Hope. What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called Son of God. 2 Corinthians chapter number 8. 2 Corinthians chapter number 8 and verse number 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. This is the very thing that he describes in chapter 5. In verse number 21, as he describes how this took place, when he says, For He, that's God the Father, hath made Him, Jesus, God the Son, to be sin for us. He knew no sin. He was perfect. He was holy. He was righteous. He was just. There was no sin upon Him at all. There was none that could be laid to His charge. He who knew no sin became sin for us. How did He become sin for us? He took my sin and He took your sin. He took the sin of all of His people. Past, present, and future. He took all of that sin and bore it upon himself on the cross of Calvary. He took that sin and took the punishment for that sin there on that cross for us. Just like the Old Testament describes as the priest would bring those sacrifices, or people would rather bring the priest the sacrifices, as they would present that lamb or that bull before the priest there, they would lay their hands upon it. And as their hands were upon that animal there, the priest would cut the throat of that beast and bring blood out of it on behalf of that one to symbolize, I'm placing my sin here upon this animal. I'm placing my transgressions upon this one, and it's going to die in my stead. Now the purpose of that, As God would tell us, the very reason this was done was to show what Jesus was going to do when He would come. That when He would go to the cross to die, and I say it, He was absolutely innocent. Christ, just good. No skin upon Him at all. He was absolutely pure. There on that cross, my sin would be put on Him. There on that cross, your sin would be put on Him there. And there in our place, as our substitute, He bore that sin and was made sin for us. Paul says in verse 21 that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was made sin for us that His righteousness might in turn be given to us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we, that me, that you, should be called the Son of God. What wondrous, eternal, infinite, sovereign love our God has for us. Behold, what manner of love. So pray that you bring us up. Let's all stand together.