At last, and did my Saviour bleed? And did my Sovereign die? That He abode, that Sacred Head, Such a woman. At the cross, at the cross, Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rolled away Well, it's there by faith I've received my sight And now I am happy all the day All the day Thank you, Brother Bobby. Appreciate that song, At the Cross. Good old faithful hymn that the church has been singing down through the years. We invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 John chapter 3. We looked at verse number 2, We shall be like him. Last time, this time we shall look at verse number 1, Lord willing, What manner of love. 1 John chapter 3 and verse number 1. It's not a question what manner of love, question mark, no. It's behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God. The Apostle John is just overcome by the kind of love, the sort of love that there has to be for God Almighty to call us the sons of God. So we understand and see that this passes knowledge. Ephesians chapter three and verse number 19. Ephesians chapter three and verse 19. and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. So the love of God passes knowledge. So we're going to just consider what sort this is and not love itself, because you can't really define, I can't, Maybe you could, but if you look at 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8, we understand that we're out in deep water because 1 John 4, 8 says, for God is love. Then 1 John 4, 16 also has the same three letter, excuse me, three word definition of God. God is love. Now we know that God is holy, Well, the angels stand in his presence singing, holy, holy, holy. But you can't find in the Bible where it says, God is holiness. And we know that God is just. He is going to reward everyone according to their deeds and do that justly. But we don't find in the Bible where it says, God is justice. But we do find in the Bible where it says, God is love. So we are definitely telling you that the love of Christ is beyond knowledge. We read that to you in Ephesians 3.19. So we're not here to tell you what love is, but we're here to look at what John says, and we want to put the emphasis on that word manner. Behold, What manner, what sort of love is this that we should be called the sons of God? First John chapter four and verse number 10. We'll start reading with verse number seven. First John four, seven. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." Very simple. If you have love for the church, by this shall all men know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. You can't love God's people unless you're born again. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Verse John 4, 9. In this was manifest the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we through Him might live. Now, this is the verse I wanted to get to. 1 John chapter 4 and verse number 10. Herein is love. Let's let the Bible say what is love. Herein is love. Not that we love God, And I found a lot of people over the years of my sojourn here in this Christian walk that are just thrilled to death that they love the Lord. And I hope they do. But it seems to be a serpe emotional kind of affection and not the love of God that God put in their heart. You're not saved because you love God, you're saved because God loved you and caused you to love him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Herein is love, number one. Not that we love God, negative, positive, number two, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the atonement, the atoning sacrifice, The King James says, the propitiation for our sins. And you know that verse and you can quote it very readily. John 3, 16, for God so loved, what manner of love, what sort of love was it? It was such a love that God sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's the kind of love it is. Herein is love, not that we love God. Your emotionalism, you're getting excited about being excited. You're getting thrilled about being thrilled. Listen, folks get excited at a ball game. Folks get excited at a car race. Folks get excited at a birthday party. But dear soul, just because you get excited about religion, doesn't mean that you're born again. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent his son to be an atoning sacrifice for us. Look at Matthew chapter 22, and let's let the Lord give us an understanding, a wider understanding of love. A religious man comes up to Christ and asks him a question. Matthew 22 and verse number 36. Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Pick out one, Lord, and tell us which one is the greatest commandment. And if he said the wrong thing, they were going to have a way to argue with him. But listen to what he says. Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second, the second great commandment is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." So we understand and see that if you look at Romans 13 in verse number nine, Romans 13 in verse number nine, for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, for love is the fulfilling of the law, dear friend. Love is the fulfilling of the law. If you have God's love in your heart, love seeketh not its own. It's not puffed up. It's not easily provoked. First Corinthians chapter 13 gives you some definitions of love. There's a quality of holiness and goodness in the hearts of those who have the love of God within them. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be atoning sacrifice for our sins. For God so loved the world that he gave. You can't love without giving. Some people can give without loving because they want to get something from you. They give you some gift to get you to give them more back. Give them back more than what they gave you. So that's not love. But this all giving is not love, but all loving will be giving. For God so loved that he gave his only begotten son. Gave what? Some little token? No. His only begotten son. This is God the Son. And he's going to give him. Amazing what great love this is that we have shed abroad in our hearts. And that's what John is saying, stating, not asking the question, what matter of love is this? But behold, What manner of love is this that we should be called the sons of God? What a great love that is. John chapter 15, beginning with verse number 12. We're looking at what manner, what sort of love this is. It's beyond imagination. It passes understanding. And this is what God has bestowed on you if you are born again. John chapter 15 and verse number 12. This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. You can't do that just by joining a church. You can't do that just because you got baptized. You can't do that just because you are a Bible toter and memorize verses. Dear soul, you can only do that if God has placed himself who is love within you. He said, this is my commandment that you love one another. How? As I have loved you. How did he love us? in that he did not even hold back his own blood, and the life is in the blood. Let's read on. Greater love, and here he is going to talk about the greatest love there is. There's no greater love than this. What? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. cease to follow your own desires, cease to follow your own inclinations, and help the brother, help the sister out, even to the place where the Lord Jesus Christ literally laid down His life. No man taketh my life from me. I have this commandment from my Father. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it up again. There was no way that the strongest Roman soldiers could have muscled him down and put him on that cross if he didn't want to go there. It was impossible. And even if they had got him on the cross, they couldn't kill him. He wouldn't have died. When did he die? After he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. when he saw that his father was forsaking him in order that his death might bring the life of all of God's elect people, all of those that were chosen in him from before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, 4. Then he said, then I gladly lay down my life that God may have what he wants. And that is I can't even speak, and it's just unspeakable love. John 15, verse 12. This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. If you find a human being that is obeying the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have a friend of God. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." Wow, what an amazing statement. Can you imagine God the Son listening to the inner voice of God the Father? And then what did He do? Came and told you everything the Father told Him. What an amazing thing that is. He said, you're not my servants, you're my friends. Number one, because you do whatever I command you. Number two, because I tell you everything that my Father has told me. You have not chosen me, verse 16, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of my Father in my, you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you. These things I command you that you love one another. Love, herein is love, not that we love God. Here is the greatest love that you keep my commandments. And I want you to understand and know this. You didn't choose me. Somebody said, I found the Lord. And I say, he wasn't lost. God found you. You may have felt like that you found the Lord because you didn't have any life in the Spirit before that, and you were awakened like Lazarus in a tomb of deadness and stinking flesh, and God awakened you and brought you out into light and life. And you say, well, I just found the Lord. Not really. He found you, but I understand what you're saying. But understand this, herein is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us. Herein is the definition of my friends. You have not chosen me. You say, well, I chose the Lord. Seek ye the Lord when? While he may be found. When may he be found? when he's looking for you. Dear soul, the lost sheep doesn't go looking for the shepherd. The shepherd goes looking for the lost sheep. We're dead in trespasses and sins. We have not chosen him. We have not loved him. Not that we love God, but that he loved... The initial work of bringing you into spiritual life was exclusively God's. God did that. God saved you on purpose. God came to you where you were. God came to you at the times before appointed and at the bounds of your habitation, when he would and where he would, because that's where he had placed you. And God sent his Holy Spirit to you at that place at that time and put his love in your heart. Then you started loving God and loving those that God had chosen. But don't, don't mistake it. You did not originate that. God did. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. You are my friends. Why? Because I have chosen you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. This love, dear soul, is God has, and I hate to say it, it sounds so simple, but it's true. God has the initiative. God has the incentive. God is the one that started everything. He is the first cause. So God loved you first so that you would love him. God chose you in order that you might choose him. So we have somewhat of an understanding of the awesomeness of the Apostle John when he says, Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called, the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Dear soul, the harlot church just told us, well, you need to get saved so you won't go to hell. You need to get saved so your mama won't quit worrying about you. You need to get saved so that you can join the church. But dear soul, that's not what it's all about. Being born again is what we call being saved, is to put you into an intimate relationship with a loving God that came seeking you, that chose you. The harlot church does away with the intimacy between the believer and God. And said, well, it's just the church. You're in the church. It's just us together, you know. But they're so, don't leave God out. God is the whole enchilada, if I can say it like that. Without Him, we could do nothing. That's what Jesus said in the fifth chapter of John. Without me, you can do nothing. And there, so we see that God came looking for you. God came to give His love to you. But what manner of love was it? It was such a love that we should be called the sons of God. God didn't save you to say, well, okay, you can come to heaven now. You can build a cabin in the corner of glory land and sit over there in the dark and stay away from the rest of us. We'll just keep you out of here. Listen. God birthed you into his kingdom by birthing you into himself, by birthing you into his love, by making you to be higher than the angels and standing in the holy presence of God and being made like him. We shall be like him. Why? For we shall see him as he is. Now, What manner of love is this? Go with me to 2 Samuel. And I've been very disturbed and concerned about this portion of this message, but I can't get away from it. So you pray for me that I would not lead you astray and that these things would be relevant to this message. 2 Samuel chapter 7. What manner of love is this? Begin with verse number 18, and then we're going to get into some more depth that I want you to see. Because the word manner has really been impressed upon my heart and mind. What sort of love is this? I can't define love itself, for God is love. I could define God, I could define love. But I can't. But we're not talking about what is love, we're talking about what manner, what sort of love did God bestow upon us that we might be called the sons of God. Now listen at David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse number 18. Then went King David in and sat before the Lord, went into the tabernacle. And he said, who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight. Look at it from God's viewpoint. It was but a small thing in God's sight. That's what manner of love it was, O Lord God. But thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. Now, this is what I want you to hear. 2 Samuel 7 and verse 19, the last sentence. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? If we're going to understand Anything, any degree of definition of what manner of love it is, we've got to ask ourselves that question. Is this the manner of man? No. For man in his own selfishness, apart from regenerating grace, he's not going to love you at all. He'll be good to you in order that he might get something out of you. but this is not the manner of man. What sort of love? What manner of love? It's not the manner of man. This is far above anything that we can point to as the manner of man. I've had people be good to me. I have had people be good for me. But dear friend, no one ever cared for me like Jesus. No one ever cared for you like Jesus. Listen, people may be good to you at a particular time, but then later in life with a different sort of circumstances, they can become your enemy, the same people. So David asked the question, and is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant. There's no sense of me telling you, you made a bad deal, Lord. You made a bad choice. You got the short end of the stick. There's no need of me talking any further to you, because you know who I am. For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant know them. You need to really meditate on these verses. You need to ask yourself the question, and is this the manner of man, O Lord God? What manner of love is this that we should be called the sons of God? And he said, Lord, you did it for your word's sake and according to your own heart. You did it because you wanted to. You did it because it pleased you. hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant know them. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears." Isn't that amazing? So we understand and see, dear soul. Hold your place in 2 Samuel, but let's go to Romans chapter 5. We're coming back to 2 Samuel in just a minute. Romans chapter 5 and verse number 8. Romans 5, 8. But God commendeth his love towards us in that, watch it, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What did Jesus get when he saved you? Separation from his father, death on the cross, spittle all over him, smiting him and cutting him with reeds, hateful, spiteful people coming by, wagging their heads at him. And what did he get? He didn't get anything from me. The reason that I have anything is because he gave everything to me. That's what John is stating. What manner of love is this? What sort of love is this that we should be called the sons of God? It's amazing. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Ephesians chapter two. Still holding on to 2 Samuel, but we'll be there in a minute. Ephesians chapter two and verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherein he loved us, when, even when we were dead in sins, had made us alive together, has quickened us together. that Christ, wait a minute, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When did he do that? Even when we were dead in sins. Dead, putrefying, smelling, rotting flesh. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What did God get when he saved you? What did God get when he saved me? Death. Don't roll away the stone, by this time he steaketh. Jesus said, roll away the stone. Did not I tell you that if you would believe me, you should see the glory of God? Why is Lazarus dead, Lord? John chapter 11. He is dead, Jesus said at the beginning of that chapter, because of the glory of God. God would make sure that we were absolutely dead that we were dead in trespasses. We were dead in sins. God loved us to make sure that everybody would know that when they saw us alive and refreshed and walking in the spirit and walking with God and God telling us the things that the father told him, they would have to know, well, he didn't do it. That sinner didn't do it. That preacher didn't do it. I knew him before he got saved. He didn't have anything but his own lust, and he was always wanting to express himself in his sinful nature. How in the world can he be now a child of God, a son of God? What manner of love is, folks, this is a love beyond anything that anybody knows. And like I said, God is holy. The angels sing, holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty. They cease not to sing that. The seraphim, the cherubim sing that before the presence of a holy God. But you can't find in your Bible where it said God is holiness. But it says God so loved the world, and yet we can find in our Bible two places, 1 John 4, 8, 1 John 4, 16, God is love. This is beyond religious understanding. And John is just astounded. And he's saying, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that people like us, that creatures like us, those who were dead in trespasses and sins, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Since God is going to get from us praise and honor and glory in our glorified state throughout all eternity, that's why He saved us. That's how come he came to us. That's why he came to us while we were yet sinners and while we were without hope and without God in this world. And we had nothing of our own. We couldn't claim anything as good for ourselves. God wanted us to know that he did it because of the manner and the sort of love that this is. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. All right, 2 Samuel chapter 1 and verse number 26. David is weeping over the death of Saul and Jonathan. He's weeping over his dear friend, Jonathan. And I want you to understand something about this. In 2 Samuel 1, 26, he says, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. All right, get ready now. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. What sort of love was that, David? Well, there's the physical, sexual love between a man and a woman. You can read about it in Ecclesiastes. And as Solomon the king writes his love letters to the Shulamite maiden, he begins to talk about things between the man and the woman. But David said, I have experienced that love with women, man and woman. And people said, we made love. No, you didn't. You can't make love. You had sex, but you didn't make love. And you know, it's funny to me that people are so given to one another that nine months later, they're at the divorce court wanting a divorce. Why? Because all of that height, of excitement died out. Then they started looking around for somebody else. So that's what David's talking about. This is not like the love between a man and a woman. This is not a physical love. This is not homosexuality. Don't even let that enter your mind. This is the kind of love that supersedes all other kinds of love. And David is talking about a spiritual love, like Christ was talking about, that you love one another how? As I have loved you. That's what kind of love this was. I wanted to bring you to this. As I say, I had Reservations about bringing this up, but the Lord impressed me with it, and I'm just gonna follow the Lord and let you have it and you deal with it because God told me to tell you about it. Okay. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, my brother Jonathan, that you love one another as I have loved you. Thy love to me was wonderful. What manner of love is this? It's a wonderful love. What manner of love is this? It's a love that passes the love of a man to a woman. This is a spiritual love. This is God loving in us, God loving through us, God loving for us, God's love to us. This is God is love in you. See, I can't convey that. I can just present it to you. But the Holy Spirit has to make us understand what manner of love this is. Go back with me to 1 Samuel, chapter number 18. 1 Samuel, chapter 18. in 1 Samuel chapter 18 in verse number 1. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul, get that, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. We're not talking physical here. It's not talking about bodies. It's talking about souls. I told you it was a spiritual love. This love is beyond the love of a man with a woman. This love is wonderful. What manner of love is it? What manner of love has the Father bestowed upon us? It is a love that did not receive anything back when he made application of it. Why? For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were dead in trespasses and sins, What did Jesus get from Lazarus? A stench in his nostrils. A rebuke by his sisters, Mary and Martha. Don't roll away that stone. Didn't I tell you if you would believe, you should see the glory of God, but they didn't hear that. He got rebuked by his sisters. That's what manner of love this is. God saved you in spite of everything that hell and the harlot church and your sin had to bring up against him. What did God receive when he saved us? Separation from his father, death on the cross. He became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the likeness of God in him. What manner of love? I don't know. Can I use a word? It thrills my soul to know that God bestowed such love upon me. It's breathtaking. I can't describe it. I possess it. It works within me. And I told Grace Baptist Church years ago, and they didn't really understand what I was saying, but I was trying to be honest with them. And I looked across this very pulpit into that congregation, and I said, I don't really love you. Now that kind of upset them, but it got their attention. That's what I wanted them to do. That's what I wanted to do. Excuse me. It got their attention. Let me lubricate my vocal cords. But after I said that, I don't really love you. They said, Brother Gene, we can sense the love of God that you have for us when you preach. That's been amazing to me. So they say, we know you love us. I said, well, let me define it. It's not me that loves you. It's God in me that loves you. It's the Holy Spirit in me that loves you. This love is above the love of a man for a woman. And the lover says, come and let's have our field of love till the morning comes. and what kind of excitement that is. But this is above and beyond that. That has an ending. But this does not. That was of the flesh. But this is not. This is beyond and above. It's eternal, it's spiritual. What sort of love did the Father have to call us sinners, the sons of God? I call you not servants, I call you friends, because I have told you everything the Father hath told me. Now that's the Son calling you a friend. Let's go to the rich man's house. and the rich man brings you in and you got old raggedy clothes on and you smell bad because you ain't had a shower and he brings you in and he says to his wife honey look who I have adopted and the son is over there in the background and he looks around and says oh my soul what do you think that natural born son of that rich man is going to think about you. You were not born of his mom and daddy. You stink. You don't have any money. Everything you're going to get is going to come from the source that that son gets his upkeep from. And do you think that son is going to say, oh, goody, bring him on in. He gets part of my inheritance. But what manner of love is this? God's son said, you're my friends. I'm not going to call you servants. The rich man's house, the son said, daddy, you're going to adopt him? Well, yeah, he can wash my car. He can shine my shoes. And the father said, no. We're not going to make him a servant. He's going to have all the rights and respects of a son. Wow. Wow. What? Get out of the way, Michael. Get out of the way, Gabriel. Move back, you seraphim. Move back, you cherubim. Move back. The church of the living God, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, my bride is coming in. These are my people. What matter of love is that, that the Father has bestowed upon us that sinners like us that didn't choose him, wouldn't choose him, couldn't choose him, that he chose us. What matter of love? What kind of love is that? What sort of love is that? David said, Jonathan, my soul It's distress for you. You're dead and gone and I miss you so bad because the love that we had together was greater than the love of a man for a woman. That's what sort of love it is. It's a spiritual love. 1 Samuel 18 verse 2. And Saul took him, took David that day and would not let him, would let him go no more home to his father's house. Wouldn't let David go back to Jesse. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. That's what manner of love this is. God loves you as he loves his own soul. He could not command you to love your neighbor as you love yourself. if he did not love you as his neighbor as he loves himself. I told you I couldn't preach this. That's beyond definition. That's beyond instruction. It has to be experienced. And you will come to the same exclamation that John had. Behold, what manner of love is this, that God should bestow on us that we are the sons of God. I'm not going to heaven to build a cabin in the corner of glory land, like the harlot church wanted us to believe. I'm not going up to heaven to see mama teach angels how to sing. I'm going to heaven to be involved with the glory of Almighty God. I'm going to heaven to be involved with the heirship of the Lord Jesus Christ, co-equal, co-heirs with Christ, heirs together with Him. My soul. What manner of love is that? I don't know. I'm telling you, it's beyond anything that I can make you understand. I'm just trying to make you see that we have been sold a bill of goods because the harlot church told us that the salvation was a far less than what the Holy Spirit is teaching us in this lesson today. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as he loved his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David. That robe was color purple. Nobody was allowed to wear that except those people who were of the king's house. Take this robe and put it on him. Put this ring upon his finger. put new shoes upon his feet, and killed a fatted calf. For this my son was dead, and he's alive again. This my son was lost, but now he's found. And God, and the Son, and the Servant begin to rejoice, and to make merry, and to enjoy themselves." God's happy about this. This is that which God is permitted to do because he found us in deadness, in a lost condition, without God, without hope in the world. And it allows God the opportunity. And I know I'm not going to get in. Listen, I know I'm not saying this right. I'm doing the best I can. It allowed God to express himself in the glory of his love. And it made us know that John 3, 16 wasn't just a verse to memorize when we were kids in Bible school, in vacation Bible school. But it is a grown-up verse. It is a verse that now I can say, and I say it with a tearful heart, not that I'm sad, but that I'm rejoicing and I'm blessing and praising Almighty God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, I'm not a Jew, I'm a Gentile dog. I'm not an apostle. Dear soul, I did not study the law like Moses gave. Listen, I've learned what I've learned by the Holy Spirit teaching me in Bible study in these years that God has called me to preach. I don't have any privilege. But now I have all the privileges in the world, and in the world to come, and so do you. If you're born again, I can't stand among the Pharisees, the high priests, the chief priests, the scribes. They would not have anything to do with me. They see me, they cross the street, walk by on the other side, but not Jesus. He came to where I was and said, roll away the stump. Master, by this time, he stinketh and I dideth. Dead in trespasses and sins. But God didn't save me to keep me out of hell. God didn't save me to say, well, I hate to see him, you know. Go to the guillotine and get his head chopped off. Yeah, let's keep him, but put him out there to, you know, serving the king out there in the field and chopping cotton or whatever. No, no, no, no, no. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, that's me, that's you, that's whosoever, believeth into him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Aren't you glad? You say, well, what manner of love is that? Yeah. That's what we're trying to consider. What manner of love is that? And God made a covenant with us like Jonathan made with David. And God took his righteousness and put it upon us. Their robes were the righteousness of the saints, the scriptures say. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, God has given that to you, the sword of the Spirit, which it's yours to fight the devil. One little word shall fail him. And to his bow and to his girdle, everything that signified Jonathan now signifies David. Who is that coming, Yonah? Well, the clothes look like Jonathan. Yeah, but as he gets close, you see, well, that's the son of Jesse. That's David. And dear soul, let me ask you something. The Bible said God's going to send his angels to get the elect off the earth and bring them into the presence of his glory when the trumpet shall sound and God shall descend with the shout of an archangel and he shall send his angels to gather his elect from the four corners of the earth. How are they going to know who they are? They're not going to have a barcode over their head. they're going to get all the Davids that look like Jonathan. Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Glory to God Almighty. I'm not saved to keep me out of hell, and it will. I'm not saved that I might be a slave, a servant, I'm saved to be a friend of Jesus Christ, and so are you. For God so loved His orderly arrangement. Look up that word, for God so loved the orderly arrangement that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Behold what manner of love God has given us. Jeremiah chapter 29. I need to leave you with this. Jeremiah chapter 29, beginning with verse number 11. Jeremiah 29 11. For I know the thoughts that I think told you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. You don't have to go to the preacher to get him to pray for you. Do it yourself. God's waiting on you. He wants to hear from you. You don't have to go and pray to Mary and get her to pass a note to Peter and let him hand it over to Jesus. There's nothing between your soul and your Savior. God has bestowed upon you a love that brings you into the being of a son of God yourself with all the privileges. You shall call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. And you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. What does that verse number 11 say? For I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. Thank God, good. There was a son of Jonathan, and we don't have time to get into it, but 2 Samuel 9, it begins with David saying, hey, is there anybody left in Jonathan's house, in Saul's house, that I may show kindness to for my friend Jonathan's sake? That's what it says, 2 Samuel 9.1. And David said, is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? They said, yep. There's a crippled boy named Mephibosheth, a loathsome person. When they heard that Jonathan and Saul were killed, The nurse grabbed up the five-year-old son of Jonathan and took off running with him because it was the custom to kill everybody in the house of the one that previously reigned. And she saved his life. But somehow or another, she stumbled and fell, and that boy's legs got crushed, and he couldn't walk anymore. He was lame on his feet, and you couldn't walk, dear soul, in the spirit until the Lord saved you. And David said, where does he live? He said he lives in the land of Lodibar. What does that word mean? The land of no pasture. You are without God and without hope in this world. And Jesus was seeking you. You didn't know it. What manner of love has the Father bestowed upon us? The shepherd went looking for the sheep. Is there yet anybody for Jonathan's sake? because my soul is knit to him, and I promised him in a covenant that I will take care of his family. Yep, there's one named Mephibosheth. Tell him to come here." Mephibosheth came trembling, thinking David was going to kill him, because that was the custom in that day, to kill all the previous king's family. And David said, I want him to come and eat at my table. He said, therefore, in verse number 10 of 2 Samuel 9, and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for Mephibosheth, and you bring him the fruits for food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread always at my table. And then in verse number 11 of 2 Samuel chapter 9, He says, Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, watch it, as one of the king's sons. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. I lived in a land of no pasture. I was crippled from a fall. The previous king had been slaughtered. King Adam had let me down, and now I couldn't walk. And yet there was a great king that came and called me to himself and said, I want you to know that I'm bestowing upon you all the land you lost. All these people are going to serve you, but you're going to eat at my table continually, and you're going to be as one of the king's sons. My soul, what wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul, what wondrous love is this, that God should bestow upon us the title of the sons of God. May God bless you. Thank you. ♪ When this passing life is done ♪ ♪ When, as set yon glaring sun ♪ ♪ When I stand with Christ ♪ Looking o'er thy spinnish gory, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, But not till then how much I owe. When I hear the wicked call, Rocks and hills to fall When I see them start and shriek On that fiery day to drink Then, Lord, shall I fully know But not till then how much I owe When I stand before Thy throne Blessed in beauty, not my own When I see Thee as Thou art Lovely with unsinning heart Then, Lord, shall I fully know