What a wonderful subject for us to deal with our God. We started with the God who is. Sometimes we use the theological word aseity. Now that might be a word that you don't know, probably have never heard, but aseity comes from two Greek words, which actually is Latin, ob, which means from. When I teach my Latin students the difference between ob and ad, the D has the hump back to the A, so it's toward. But the B, obviously the hump for the B points away from the A, and that's from. So ob, from. And then the word saiety comes from the Latin word for self. So the aseity of God is that God comes from himself. And surely that's what our confession teaches. That's what the word of God teaches, that he doesn't come from. And so here's the statement that I've made. When a child asks, from where does God come? Many children ask that question. You may have asked that question as a child. And so the answer is, God does not come from, from comes from God. And when I said that to them, it particularly struck Lawrence Lama. He said, that'll be the phrase that I'll remember through all of this. From comes from God. To think about who is this one? Who is this one that we deal with? Who's this one we come before? Who's this one that we're worshiping this morning? When you begin to think of him, you think that he's not a part of this creation. He's other than this creation. And yet, when you consider the creation and the expanse of what it is, well, it's very hard to understand how far it goes. But even worse, even a more mind-dwarfing concept would be, how could it end? Because who would, what would be on the other side? Well, surely it dwarfs our logic. No language or logic can surely express this God, and even his word to us is what we call baby talk. It is just simply a condescension to us, the greater condescending to the lesser, the God who is. And then we talked about the God who is one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, one Lord. You should love him with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your might. Well, again, the God who is three, so the God who is, the God who is one, the God who is three, this wonderful doctrine of the Trinity that there is no analogy, nothing that in this creation could teach us these things. It is a faith issue. God has revealed himself as father, son, and spirit. And that's why we believe it. There's no analogy. Because, you see, the uncreated being is not subject to all of the characteristics of the created being, you see. And so it's a matter of faith. And then Lawrence Lama, I preached on the God who is. He preached on the God who is one. I preached on the God who is three. And then he preached on the God who is all. We go to the, again, to the Latin for omni, which means all, omnipresent, omniscient, all-knowing, and omnipotent, all-powerful, the God who is all. And then I preached on the God who is our creator, our creator God. our covenant God, our covenant-keeping God. And he preached on God, our righteous God. And then I ended with two more sermons, nine in all. I did five, he did four. Then I preached on the God who is revealed in Christ. We call it theologically Christology, the God who is revealed in Christ. Because no man at any time had seen God. And said, well, then what were all these epiphanies? What were all these appearances of God that the scripture talks to us about? From the garden, even there to the apostles, who is this God that has revealed himself? Well, if no man had seen God, meaning God the Father at any time, Then, of course, they saw Christ, for he hath revealed him. No man at any time seen God, but the only begotten of the Father, he hath revealed him. You remember Philip said to Christ, show us the Father and it will suffice. And Jesus says, Philip, have I been with you so long and you do not know me, if you have seen me. You have seen the Father. No man cometh unto the Father but by Christ. If you want to see God, look to Christ. I remember a story, an illustration of this. I had a friend of mine that played football for the University of Georgia. When he played, his name's Chuck Harris. When Chuck Harris played for Georgia, they beat Alabama that year when Rutledge was the quarterback of Alabama, and my friend, outside linebacker Chuck Harris, blitzed him three downs in a row and got to him all three downs to end the game, and Georgia wins. Well, he told me a story that the great coach of Georgia, Vince Dooley, that his son, Derek, who ultimately coached at LSU, but Derek Dooley was a young man, a little boy, and you can imagine how a little boy whose daddy was a coach, how he would love the football players and want to be around them. And one day, Derek was going to his father's office, Vince Dooley's office, and there was one of the players sitting out on the stoop outside the office, And he looked very sad, and Derek said, why are you so sad? He said, oh, I really need to talk to Coach Dooley, but I couldn't get an appointment. He wouldn't see me. And so Derek said, well, come on. I'll take you to him. See? Because the father's office was always open to the son. to whomsoever the Son would bring with him. Well, you see, if you know Christ, you know God. You want to see God? Look to Christ. And then it all built to this last topic, the God who is love. See, it's all about Christ. The existence of God. Who created all of this? Well, the Bible teaches us it was Christ. And just in case you missed that, and not anything made that was made if he had not made it. Now, the Trinity, well, obviously, it talks about Christ. It is, Christ is the issue. The Nicene Creed is about Christ. And then ultimately, the creed of Chalcedon, the Nicene saying that he is fully God, the Chalcedon creed, he is fully man, God, man, Emmanuel, God with us, you see. Well, the God who is all, well again, all powerful. And I actually, my last day in Malawi, the last thing I did is I witnessed to a Muslim who was trying to tell me Christ was not God, and I was able to share the gospel with him, that indeed, if you've seen him, you've seen God, and he holds all things together. By him, all things consist. And I told the Muslim, even you now. He said, well, how can someone be the creator and die. I said, just like when you die, you're not moving into non-existence. You're just changing your location. And you'll stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to give an account, even you who deny him. Well, it's all about Christ. And that's why we meet here in the name of Jesus. That's why we call upon Christ. That's why in these dark hours that these families are going through and we're walking through these dark hours with them, it is the hope of Christ, you see. It moves to him, this covenant, this Christology, all coming to this crescendo, the God who is love. First John chapter four, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another for God, for love is of God. And everyone that knoweth or loveth, I'm sorry, is born of God and knoweth God. And he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested The love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son. So you see, he is defining love now, agape. Love is not an emotion. It is an action. For herein is the love of God. that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, an appeasement for our sin, appeasing the wrath of God. 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 has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world and whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. Now that doesn't mean that you have to confess it in order for God to dwell in you. That means if you can confess it is because God dwells in you. And we have known and believe 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's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? This commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his brethren also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is forgotten of him. So again, you see, it is not believing that makes us born. We are born so we can believe, you see. And everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. And by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is, Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. So here, three points on the love of God. First of all, love is his character. Second of all, love is his choice. And thirdly, love is what connects us to him through Christ. Here is the love of God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It is the character. Now we must look at these attributes of God. The reason we call them attributes and not characteristics is because the Bible attributes these things to God. All we can know about God is what the Bible says. There's no intuitive knowledge. The transcendentists that were in the middle of the 19th century, they were just wrong when they believed they had some intuitive knowledge of God. So they didn't need the Bible, hence trans, beyond transcendentists. They transcend the Bible. Of course, they did not. They were wrong. They were heretical. And they cause much damage in their heresy. And so we only know God through God's revelation to us. And so these things are attributed to God. Every attribute of God permeates every other attribute of God. We shouldn't set these attributes in opposition to each other. There are those that would set the love of God against the wrath of God. But let me tell you this, there's more love in the wrath of God than in the love of man. God is love. He defines love. He gives us love. And every attribute permeates every other attribute. They're not in warfare, open warfare. They don't contradict each other. So we see when God is holy, It is a holy love. And it is a loving holiness. In fact, we talk about the wisdom of God. Well, it's a loving wisdom. And it's a wise love. And we could go through every attribute of God doing this, you see. Because it is one, God is one. In one act, he is what he is. He does what he does. You see, we have to divide him up to understand him because the Bible's baby talk, but we could not understand God if he just simply gave us a full view of himself. In fact, that's what he told Moses. No man can see my face and live. Now Moses was given a blank check. Ask me anything you will and I'll give it to you. Wow, I'm wondering what I would ask for. But Moses didn't ask for one thing except this. I want to see all your goodness. Well, he asked the impossible. God says, no, you can't do that. No man will see my face and live. My glory would consume you. But I tell you what I'll do. I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'll pass by. I'll cover you with my hand. And when I pass by, I will drop my hand And you will just see a fleeting glimpse of the hinder glory, or the Shekinah glory, Shekinah glory of God. And when he saw just a glimpse, his face shined with that glory to such a degree that the people of Israel said, cover your face, for it reflects the glory of God. And who can bear it? So God had to condescend to us. And every attribute of God supports every other attribute. No attribute cancels or corrects another one. I remember going to a hospital room one time, and this woman was saying concerning the preaching, well, I need to hear more of the love of God than the wrath of God. Well, I let her talk for a little while, and then I finally said to her, ma'am, you don't need to hear about the love of God or the wrath of God. You need to hear about God. And that's what we do. And as preachers, we must be very careful not to succumb to the temptation to only speak those things to the human ear that the human ear will accept in their humanity. We must be very careful to preach the full-blown revelation of God, that we should indeed preach all the counsel of God concerning God, and not be concerned about what men will or won't tolerate or receive. We must preach God. And when we preach God, His Spirit, If it will come and reveal him, then we will embrace this God in the full manifestation of who he is, not pitting one attribute against another, correcting one attribute with another. Because God is love does not mean that he is not just. We see this in the incarnation of Christ, right? When Christ came into the world, he was full of grace and truth, you see. And we beheld him, John writes in the first chapter of John, and we beheld him, the only begotten of the father. And in first John, he says, and we beheld his glory. We touched him, we handled him. This Christ, and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and true. If he came with just grace, well, he would have been indulgent of our sin. If he came with just truth, he would have damned us all in our sin, but he came with a balance of grace. and truth balance together. It is his character to love. God can do nothing but love, you see. And even in a manifestation of his judgment, in a manifestation of his truth, in a manifestation of his wrath, we see it's permeated by the love of God. Love for himself. God is the highest being. And we would expect the highest being to do the highest ethical good, the highest moral good. And what is the highest good? What is the chief end of man as we are taught by the Bible? Well, the chief end of man is to what? Is to love God and to glorify God forever. This is the highest thing. that God himself has commanded of us. Now we would expect that the highest creature, I'm sorry, the highest being, not a creature, but the highest being would be doing the highest thing. There's nothing higher than God honoring and glorifying and loving self. And so therefore, We love him, honor him, and glorify him. Because if we glorified and honored self, we are not the highest. We are the lowest. Though we manifest the image of God, we indeed are not morally, that is by our nature, morally right. Something must happen to us. to change us, and when it does, then what will we do? When the spirit of the living God comes to us and manifests Christ to us, what will we do? Well, I tell you what we'll do. We'll embrace him, and we will love him. And no matter what he does, we will say, it is right, will not, the judge of the earth, do right. But it's not just his character, but it's also his choice. He's not a robot. He's not something that is influenced by something outside of himself. Love flows from God's will. Not from him, any necessity laid upon him. For everything is below God, nothing above God. He commands everything, nothing commands him. God was under no obligation to create this world. He was under no obligation to redeem sinners or to extend grace to anyone. He chose to do so. out of his own love. Now, I can answer questions, what, how, when, where, but the one question that I cannot answer is the answer, why? Why should he love me so? Why should my savior to Calvary go? Why should he love me so? Love is not a reaction. That is, God didn't look at us and pity us and reacted to that pity. No, that's not what he did. Love is not a reaction. It is an action, a free and sovereign act, a free and sovereign choice of God's own will. It doesn't flow from any necessity. God defines love by his choosing. Now, human love is conditioned or based on some attraction, or it's based on some benefit. We get some benefit from something we love, or we get some emotional pleasure out of loving someone, you see. But it's all based upon us. It all comes back to us. It all comes to the point of what does it do for me? But God's love is not like this. His decision to set his favor on undeserving people is what defines this law. Now we go to the Greek here and you must go to the Greek. That's why preachers must, if you're not willing to study the Greek and Hebrew, then go do something honest. But if you're going to be a pastor, you must give yourself to what is really the breathed out word of God. All Scripture is breathed out of God. Translated in 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is by inspiration of God, but it's breathed out of God. Just incidentally, if you want to do a good Bible study, go to all the 3.16 passages in the New Testament. So just hear Matthew 3.16 and and Mark 3.16, just go there. It's a very interesting Bible study. But here's a 3.16 passage, you see. All scripture is breathed out of God, you see. It is that which comes forth from him. And so he teaches us in this word that it is indeed a choosing. It is indeed his favor. And so we must go to this Greek and this Hebrew to see exactly. And indeed, our confession says that we must go there to settle these issues, not to the English or not to the Latin or not to the French or the German. We surely don't need to go to the Chichewa as what they speak. in Malawi. We don't go to that. We go to what is actually breathed out of God, and that's the Hebrew and the Greek. So what is this word? This word for love, obviously translated. Now in English, we just have one word, love. We love hot dogs and we love our wife. Obviously, that's two different loves, right? We love our children, and we love our football team. Well, obviously, I hope that's two different loves, you see. But all we have is this one love. But Greek is much more expressive. They have three words, one never used in the three basic words. There's some derivatives of those, but three basic words. And so the first one, eros, is never used in the Greek, never used in the Greek New Testament. We get the word erotic from that, it's never used. But the other two are phileia, or phileia I should say, and agape. Now you've probably heard the word agape and you've probably heard the word phileia. Philadelphia. We have a Philadelphia, Mississippi and a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Probably some Philadelphia, numbers of different states have Philadelphia. Phileia means love. Adelphos means brother. So Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. And in fact, that word Philadelphia or Philadelphos is used in the great New Testament talking about brotherly love. Philia is this warm, sentimental love. It is this emotional kind of love. It's this attachment to the thing, to the object that you love. because maybe you see some value in it. But the other word, agape, many of you, if you don't know any Greek word, you probably know that one. Agape, this is the love of God. What is agape as compared to philia or eros? Well, agape brings value. Agape doesn't look for value in the obvious. Agape brings value to the object. God's loving is a decision, a choice to set his favor on undeserving people. Now I would talk to you about love in the terms of grace and mercy. Grace and mercy sometimes used interchangeably in the Bible, but if we were to define them and we were to use them technically, grace is God giving you what you don't deserve. And we sing it. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, now am found, was blind, But now I see it was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believed, the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins. Listen to what the Lord says now. This is a concept way back in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy. I mean, if the preacher decided and said, look, next week I'm going to start a stirring sermon series on the book of Deuteronomy, you'd probably be going, really? Deuteronomy? Come on. Maybe Leviticus would be a little better. Listen to what it says, Deuteronomy chapter seven. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any person. For ye were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. Now he gives another reason. But literally, here's what he says. The Lord set his love upon you because the Lord loved you. And because he would keep the oath, which was an oath sworn in love, he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, that 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. What is the evangelical application of this? My friend, we were in the house of bondmen. We were under the slavery of Pharaoh. And there was no hope of ever getting out from under that until the Lord called a reluctant prophet and sent him to Pharaoh and filled his hand with miracles and led his people out of bondage. Now, if you don't see the gospel in that, then you are blind to the gospel. For once we were in our sin. Long our imprisoned spirit lay fast bound by nature's night, our nature's. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke. The dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose up, went forth, and followed thee. Romans 5, 8, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for you. God giving you what you don't deserve, but mercy. It's God not giving you what you do deserve. What do we deserve? I'll tell you what we deserve. The wrath and curse of God. But God wouldn't have it. God decided in a choice that he would love us. And not in a mass. Not in a mass. but individual. Here's the infinite nature of the love of God, the love of Christ, that he can bestow upon you all of his love as a person, knowing you before I created you, he said to Jeremiah and to all of us before I created you and your mother's womb, I knew thee. He knew us before we knew ourselves. Herein is the love of God, infinite, eternal, marvelous love that he would come to you. You know, much of modern preaching has been going on for almost a century. Much of modern preaching is that you just get in on what God has done in Christ. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches us that it comes to us by a choice of God. I don't know why so many people dislike that. I don't know why so many people want to war against that and fight against that. What a wonderful concept. We love him because he first loved us. He came to us. and bestowed the love of himself upon us and shed abroad by his spirit the love of God in our hearts, which caused us the first object of that love is God himself in Christ. And then the objects continue to our brothers in Christ and then to our wives, to our children, to our husband, to our enemy. this love of God. So love's not a feeling, but it's God's deliberate choice to bless, save, and be faithful to you. To you. Now, if my wife came to me and said, I love you. But after all, I love everybody. It'd take a little bit off the edge of that. Oh, you love me because you love everybody. Isn't that great? Well, we know that's not the love of a husband to a wife and a wife to a husband. Out of all the people in the world, I've forsaken every one of them for you. I have forsaken every man, the woman says to her husband. I have forsaken every man in the world that I might manifest my love to you. And again, the husband to the wife, I've forsaken every woman that I might give my love only to you. Herein is this love of God. Not that God forsook everyone else, but the love of God is this, that he particularly and peculiarly loved you, just as I am without one plea. But, so I've got one, that thy love, just as I am without one plea, but that thou bidst me come to thee. You see, he's bidding you, right? O Lamb of God, I come. All we see sometimes is the coming. Stop frame. Back up two frames. And what has happened, you see? He's loved us. And he's given himself to us. Well, God's choice gives love this preeminence. Since his love arises from his eternal will, and not, and not from the changeable circumstances. It is secure and steadfast. This is why the scripture describes his love as everlasting. Jeremiah 31 verse three, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I've loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness. Now, that's the Hebrew word for grace, kesed, sometimes hesed, loving kindness. Have I drawn thee. It's his nature. It is God's nature in action. When we understand love is God's choice, we understand that his decision to love flows perfectly out of his character. He is love. So when he chooses to act, it's always loving, even if it's not what man would call love. When you go through some tough time, it's very easy to be tempted to say, where's the love of God in this? How could he love me and allow this? Because man has a defective understanding. And God's love is much bigger than that. Well, love is his connection to his people. It's relational. You realize that all the Bible is about God acting, with men, dealing with men, with people. It doesn't start with a systematic theology, but it starts with people using relationship. And so God's love is not in the abstract. And so that's what a lot of people preach it. It's just in the abstract that God loves some people somewhere. But that's not how the Bible teaches this love from the beginning with his people of Israel. It was a peculiar and particular love of all the people, you see, of all the people in the world I've chosen you. And don't think I did that because you were a righteous people, because you were not a righteous people. And so. He entered into this covenant with them and with us. I used to, because I was raised in a dispensational church that didn't speak much about covenant, if at all, though we knew that the old covenant, the Old Testament, the New Testament, but this covenant, I had to catch up on these kind of thinking. But you see, but this covenant, It's how God, a condescension to us, this covenant, and this love is covenantal. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. If you're in Adam, you're going to die and be damned. If you're in Christ, you're going to be resurrected to the resurrection of the righteous, you see. You must be in Christ. Here is the love of God, this covenant relationship that God brings to you in Christ. And so it's connected to us through Christ. Here's what the apostle says in Romans 8, 38, for I'm 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. God's love joins his people to himself. And the last point I would make is that it's an ongoing connection. It's not only the beginning of our relationship, but it's the continuation of our relationship. God shows his continuing love through the spirit, through prayer, and through his word. This love is the reason we can call him father, approach him, as his children, this love of God. Oh, how he loves me. So, why would my savior, the Calvary, go? Why would he love me so? Well, I don't know why. I just know if you're his child, he does. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that the ones believing into him should not perish, but have. everlasting life. How do I know that God loves me? It's a simple question. I told you I could answer one or how questions just not why. How do you know? Because you love him. Let's pray.