All right, we are starting tonight's lecture with one. point from last time, the wrath of God, and then we'll move into the love of God. So finishing out the thought that we had begun originally, if you want to follow along in your Bible, you're welcome to do so. If you intend to just write the verses down so that you can look at them if you're curious about something, later you can. But we're talking about just a very short snippet here, the wrath of God. A dead preacher who died just in the past year, his name is R.C. Sproul, he made the comment, he said, the wrath of God, part of the wrath of God is his eternal destination of all the unrighteous. It is His holiness that is stirred into activity. And so when you think about the definition of the holiness of God and then you try to attach wrath to it, a lot of times we don't see that, I guess. You don't think about it, but God's holiness, His holiness cannot tolerate sin. And so his holiness being stirred into activity would mean there would have to be a response to sin. And so that response to sin would be his wrath. His outpouring of judgment against unrighteousness. And so in Psalm 7 and verse number 11, this is what we learn. The Bible says that God judgeth the righteous. And God is angry with the wicked every day. So he's angry with the wicked every single day. And it's not something that just comes and goes. In fact, a familiar verse is John 3.36. We always talk about John 3.16, but John chapter 3 in and of itself You just can't pull a verse out of John 3 and just leave it to itself like John 3.16. You need to see the depth of that chapter because it's in John 3.36 that we read that extremely eye-opening verse after we've just read for God so loved the world we read that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but it goes further than that there's a semicolon that tells us there is a descriptor that needs to follow he says the If you don't believe, you will not see life. But the wrath of God abideth on him. It doesn't say he's hit with the wrath of God like a slap. But God's wrath is resting upon the one that does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's a very serious matter. And the last place would be the first chapter in the book of Romans. Now we know when you open up the letter to the church at Rome, the first thing that we are met with is a chapter that goes into the great descriptors of original sin and the depth of the depravity of mankind and in fact it extends into the first three chapters really but the first chapter it's very evident and in Romans 118 we read this for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." So, God's wrath is leveled against ungodly and unrighteous men. And then he goes on to say, who are holding the truth in unrighteousness. And so there's many more verses on the wrath of God in the Bible, but those are three that cover a scope, basically, of a full picture. God being angry with the righteous every day. God's wrath abiding upon the unrighteous, and then it comes from heaven, from God, and it comes upon men. And that's the last. We'll talk about the wrath of God for now. Now we're going to talk about the love of God. So we're going to move into something a little more pleasant, make us smile a little bit. So, the meaning of God's love. Love is an attribute of God. by which God is eternally moved to what theologians term as self-communication. Self-communication. And God didn't need mankind, contrary to what people say. You know, God created man because he was lonely. No, God was perfectly satisfied in himself. The Trinity had perfect fellowship. He didn't need us. So when we talk about the love of God, it is the attribute by which God is eternally moved to self-communication. And as taken from Bancroft's Elemental Theology book, where the full statement is, love is the attribute of God by which he is inclined to seek the highest good for his creatures. and the communication of himself to them regardless of the sacrifice involved. So, you think about the sacrifice that God bore to communicate himself to us, to make himself known to us. It was his own son. That's why when we read John 3.16, for God so loved the world I was taught by a professor that that word so meant this. He meant he so loved the world. And then I actually studied the word in the Greek language and discovered that's not what it meant. It meant God in a particular way loved mankind. He so loved him. Like when we're very particular about something, we're so-so, aren't we? Oh, he's being so particular about that. He's so-so on that. And so the implication of John 3.16 is God so loved. He loved in a very particular way, not just some random big general, some open thing that just covered everything, all the bunnies and all of the pretty birds in the sky. That's not the kind of love we're talking about. It's a very particular love. It's like a sniper rifle type love. It's dead on to what God was aiming at. that He gave His only begotten Son. And that's the sacrifice that was involved to communicate Himself to mankind. In 1 John 3.16, we're told that we can perceive the love of God. He said, hereby perceive we the love of God. How do we perceive it? How can we understand the love of God? Well, John tells us, hereby Perceive we the love of God. There's a way to do it. And he explains it. So what does 1st John 3.16 say? I think it's interesting that John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But in 1st John 3.16, he says, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. This is how you can perceive it. He laid down his life in a particular way for his children. John is writing to the children of God. And he says, and as a result of that, what's the end result of his particular love for us? Since he laid down his life for us, what should we do? He said, we ought to lay our lives down for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Is that what that says? What does it specifically say? For the brethren. is as particular, our love ought to be as particular as God's love in that aspect. He's saying the way you understand God's love is He laid down His love for us. And so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He did, so ought we. And of course it was Gandhi who became known for quoting that verse and leaving out the brethren. Because his whole entire peaceful mission was you lay down your life for everybody, including animals. Because you don't eat a cow. Why? Well, the cow might be one of your relatives. Maybe your cousin Edna died and came back as a cow. And if you ate that cow, you'd be eating cousin Edna. But that's what Indians believe. They believe in reincarnation. Well, God's Word doesn't give any room for reincarnation whatsoever. In fact, it's blasphemous to suggest so. The Bible says after we die, there's one thing, it's called the judgment, and we'll be meeting the Lord. So, very, very clearly, God is showing us the meaning of love and how it isn't something that is just Well, we're just supposed to love. We are, okay, we'll be specific. How do we love? What's love look like? What's love defined as? Well, we ought to just be loving. Okay, well, how do we be loving? What are we supposed to do in that loving? Well, God gives us an example of what love is, and he shows us the scriptural facts of love. In fact, it's in 1 John 4, 8, and it says, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. So if you want to know what love is, then you examine God's love. And when you see God's love, it's a little bit easier than to know how to love. That means you don't love the wicked. the ones that would injure and destroy you. You say, well, the Bible says you to love your enemies and do good to them that curse you. And we'll hear this quoted many times as an excuse to just throw open our arms to someone that would harm our family. and destroy us, and injure us. And of course, that doesn't agree with the rest of Scripture. So then we have to say that there must be a particular thing God's talking about in His love, and He certainly is. In fact, it's in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 45, the Bible says this, 5.45, "...that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." We, being the children of God, need to grasp the fact that God has a general care for creatures. And the reason that these creatures, the evil, get the sunrise and the rain and things of this nature is not because God is being beneficent just to wickedness. He's being beneficent to his children and others are blessed as a result of that. I think about when my dad sometimes would buy a watermelon. He'd buy a watermelon for his family, a big old watermelon. And some of the kids in the neighborhood would be there and dad would get that watermelon and he'd start cutting it and they'd be standing there. They wouldn't say anything because they were a different generation. They didn't go, can we have some? They would just be quiet and stand there. Not like this generation we're in now. And they would just stand there and dad would cut the watermelon and make sure we'd all get watermelon. Would you boys like some watermelon? Yes, we'd like some watermelon. And he'd cut them up some slices and give them some watermelon. Now, did he go by that watermelon thinking, I'm just going to generally be good to everybody in the neighborhood. No, he bought that watermelon. I want to feed this watermelon to my family. But as a result, there was overflow of goodness because of their locale and their association with us. The fact that we were playing together and that we were friends. And so it is in the world. God does send great blessings upon his children and many people benefit from those blessings as a result of that. But there's also a flip side of that that we're not going to get into because we're talking about the love of God. How being in association with the wicked can also get you in trouble as a righteous person if you're not careful. Because when the building falls down, it gets both the righteous and unrighteous. Jesus reminded the Pharisees. So the objects of God's love, the primary object of God's love obviously is His Son. We know that. It was Matthew 3.17 where a voice from heaven declared that this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That's God speaking specifically about His Son. So His Son is certainly the object of His love. In fact, in John 5 20 it says, For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. So Jesus not only heard a voice from heaven, but he also declared that the Father loved him in that particular verse. And then in John 17, Verses 23 and 24, here's what we read. This is the priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, when he's praying for his own, he's praying for his disciples, he said, I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So Jesus is making a very clear declaration. Not only did the Father give approval at His baptism that He loved Him, not only did He say, I know God loves me, but He said, God has loved me from before there was ever a world. So, an object of God's love is undoubtedly His Son. And then, He loves His children. He loves His children. In Matthew chapter number 20 and verse 15, he says, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good? So the last shall be first and the first last. For many be called, but few chosen. He's got a question there in a sense, but he's making a very clear point He can do whatever He wants with His. What's His is His. And we can't say, well, you ought to do this or you ought to do that. And I hear people do this all the time. Well, if God was really a loving God. You ever heard anybody start off a sentence with that phrase? Well, now, if God really is a loving God, or I've heard people say, if God doesn't do such and such, He's going to have to apologize. Well now, stop being presumptuous because God's never going to have to apologize, and He's going to do all of His holy will, and He is a God of love, and He will do exactly what His love dictates. And so we don't ever have to say, well if God is a God of love, because He is a God of love, and He will do exactly what He will with His own. Whatever he chooses. And this is one of the big, big struggles with the sovereignty of God. Man does not want God to be ultimately in charge. They want Him to be somewhat in charge. We want to pray to Him. And make sure He hears us when we're praying and does what we ask Him to do. But God is not allowed to be independent to do what He deems best. Especially if it goes contrary to what we want. We want the people we want saved and we want the people destroyed that we want destroyed. I mean, you know, destroy the wicked Lord and save my bunch. You know, it's kind of the way we tend to be. John chapter 13 and verse number 1. This is what we read now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour was come That he should depart out of this world unto his father and I love this phrase having loved his own Which were in the world he loved them unto the end He loved his own and there was no question about that. He cares for his own He loves his own and he loved him to the end of his life here on earth his physical life And so we know that his children are most certainly the object of his love and his care. Now there's many verses we could go to for comfort in that fact, but just because of time and wanting to cover the material, I just selected a couple. Now, we see the meaning of love, we see the scriptural fact of God's love, and now we're going to see, or we saw the objects of God's love, which was his son and his children, and now we're going to see the manifestation of his love. How does he manifest that love? We perceived it according to 1 John. 316, that He laid His life down. That's how we perceived His love to us. So that is a manifestation of His love. John 316 is certainly a manifestation of His love. He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, and that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So the cross is a manifestation, certainly, of His love for us. But another manifestation is what the death on the cross procured. This is a manifestation of it. It is full and complete pardon. But just that manifestation alone, that yes, he died on the cross, but what was the purpose of that death on the cross? But what did it do? Well, it paid full the price that we owed for our sins and it completely pardoned us. So his children are direct recipients. The objects of his love are direct recipients of the manifestations of his love. That's the way it is in any home. You have an earthly father. The object of his love is his wife and children. And the manifestations of that love always fall upon them first. He's a good father. So he goes to work and he brings home $10 and the The manifestation of that love, he says, let's buy groceries and feed the children. And of course, with $10 today, you're not going to buy much but a few cans of Beanie Weenies and some ramen noodles. But at least he spent his $10 on his family. It manifested on them. And the manifestation for us is this full and complete pardon. Isaiah 55 in verse 7 says, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." It's not just that he gets a pardon, but his pardon is abundant. It literally means it is filled with many blessings. So it's like a governor pardons A guy from prison, he's been in prison for 30 years on death row, and after 30 years being there he gets news that he's been pardoned. And he says, you mean I'm free to go? And they say, you're free to go. And they give him one suit of clothes and they send him out the door. And he steps outside the door and the governor's waiting there in a limousine and he says, get in the car man, I'm taking you to a steak dinner tonight and after the steak dinner I'm going to take you to a to a cattle ranch that I bought for you. You're going to take over the cattle ranch. It'll be all yours. It's a multi-million dollar cattle ranch. Your wife and children that have been 30 years in the wings, they're all there waiting on you. They've got grandkids and all that's going to be yours." He's like, just a pardon was enough. I mean, just the fact that you said that I'm no longer going to have to face the death penalty and I'm free, that's enough. But y'all put a new suit of clothes on me and I thought, now that's an addition. I get sent out the door and you're waiting on me in a limousine, taking me to steak dinner and then giving me a cattle ranch. What's all that about? That's this abundant pardon. It's not just that, okay, you're not gonna die and go to hell. Now I'm backing off. I've saved you, but that's all I'm gonna do. That's modern Christianity. Modern Christianity is Jesus saved me, now I'm going to live like I want to live. And then every time somebody approaches me with the gospel, I'm going to tell them, oh no, I was saved one time when I was seven years old. I prayed a prayer. I remember specifically doing it. I said, Lord, please come into my heart, save me, take me to heaven when I die. I said all those things and I meant it from the bottom of my heart. But I'm living like I'm still in bondage every day of my life. And I live that way and then I die that way. Well, there's no abundance in that pardon. So you say, I just got to pardon. Well, pardon me, but that's not the salvation that's described in the Bible. The salvation of the Bible gives an abundant pardon. It now makes me want to live differently. Sanctification is all about the fact that I'm not like, I don't love the same things I loved yesterday as much. I love them less. And I'm guessing that tomorrow, because the way sanctification is working, that I'm going to love the things of God more tomorrow. I'm going to hate the things I was loving today a little more. And I'm just constantly becoming more and more holy as I'm being sanctified. It's the mark of a believer. That the believer truly is becoming more like Christ. I remember the first time It was explained to me in the passage of 1 John, we confess our sins, He's faithful and just, and we repent of our unrighteousness. You know, for a long time, I just thought he was saying the same thing twice. And, you know, at first it's plain to me that he's forgiving you and it's your justification, but then he's also cleansing you from unrighteousness, he's sanctifying you. for what you're talking about. That's very true. And we're going to look at that verse, and when we get there we'll look at it a little bit further, but that is the essence of 1 John 1, 9. He's not double speaking, he's not stuttering, there's no scribal error, nothing like that at all. In fact, he's just making the point. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But then there's more. He'll continue to cleanse us. Because in the Greek there, He cleans and cleans and cleans and cleans and cleans. It is perpetual cleansing, the way that the word in the Greek is written there. So, that's the promise of God. The words of man are, well, a fella can get saved and live like the devil and he's still saved. Can't do anything about it. That's just the way it is. It was one of them bad deals. You got a lemon, basically. You got a lemon in that salvation. Because, you know, sometimes we can all own a Toyota. Does anybody here own a Toyota? We can all own a Toyota. But the truth is, not all Toyotas are fantastic. Sometimes there's a lemon in the bunch. And that's the way we look at Christianity. All those 25 kids that got saved at that big youth rally we had, only one of them are still in church. But the rest of them, I know God saved them. Jesus said, I won't lose any of my own. And he says, and I'll finish the work that I began in them. And he says, I will cleanse them. Well, will he or will he not? Either he's lying, which he ain't, or maybe we're trying to make the love of God something that God never said it was. Fruitless. Because the love of God always bears fruit. Always. And if it doesn't, what did Jesus say happens to the tree? It's cut down and it's burned. Now what do we know about something being cut down and burned? That's the sign of judgment that's being cast into hell. There's just no two ways around it. I mean, you can't dodge this truth of God's love that it is very particular, very particular. And it is genuine in that it manifests itself in a full and complete pardon in our life. And isn't that what we want in salvation? I mean, at least I do. I'm thankful for that. Alright, it also manifests in how he ministers to his own children. One place we read about the ministering to his own children is in the book of Deuteronomy. It's a story Not completely at the end, but in chapter 32, there's already been a huge amount of the retelling of the law, and you get to Deuteronomy 32, and he tells us something about his portion. And this is it. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 9 says, For the Lord's portion is his people. It's his people. That's what's important to him. Jacob is a lot of his inheritance. You know, the world rushes to talk about the holy land of Israel. No, no, no, no. It's the people that are his portion, not a chunk of dirt, not real estate. This real estate is going to burn up one day. This real estate is going to be a pile of ashes. But his portion is his people. He found him in a desert land and in the waste, howling wilderness, he led him about He instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. That's the Lord's portion. His people won't have a strange God with them. They'll be worshiping Him. They won't be bowing down to the things the world bows down to. It'll be foreign to them. They will reject what the world is calling on them to bow down to. So God's love is just, His manifestation of His love is just that particular. It's to His people. And so we praise the Lord for that. Also though, something else is his love is so manifest in that he's going to chastise his children. That's something else he's going to do. And we read about that in the book of Hebrews. Familiar passage of scripture, Hebrews chapter 12. Most children that have ever been raised in a Christian home have heard these verses, probably taught to them. Haven't you, Titus? And it says this, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 6, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now God's wrath is not resting upon them, but His chastening hand is. And there's a difference between a chastening hand and a wrathful hand. When there's fire ants in my yard, my dad doesn't say, let's go chasing the fire ants. We'll take a few fire ants and we'll spank them or we'll thump them a little bit to let them know we're serious and we tell them they need to move along to somebody else's yard. If you're a child and you're chasing them, you take a stick and stir them up, they just move to another spot in the yard. That doesn't get rid of them. But we pour out wrath upon them. We make sure they're obliterated. We get rid of them completely because we don't want them in our yard. And so there's a huge difference between the chastening of God and God's wrath. He tells us. that for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." If you're a son, you will be scourged, you will be chastened. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? So if you're not being chastened, then there's a question. Now, there's a misinterpretation of this in the modern evangelical world. The thing they like to say is if somebody's life is going smoothly, then God is not chastening them. They imagine that the less you have to do with God, the easier your life is. So in other words, if I've got a smooth life and I've got a lot of money and I don't go to church and I'm perfectly happy and I'm healthy and I lived to 90 years old and I die, that's evidence that you didn't belong to God because you were never chastened, you know. So obviously He chastens His sons. And that for some reason, when sinners or having all sorts of trouble, we a lot of times will argue, see, those sinners must belong to God because God is evidently chasing them. But that's also a stretch. Because the Bible says that God is going to confound the feet and tangle up the feet of the sinner, the ones that have rejected Him. He's also going to bring sorrows upon them, multitudes of sorrows. There's going to be all sorts of troubles for the sinner. So we have to be extremely careful because chastening on the one hand and punishment of sinners in this life on the other hand are not the same thing and they can be distinguished. How can they be distinguished? By this verse. If ye end your chastening, that doesn't mean if you can just handle the beaten. If you endure it, you pass through it and are now a corrected son. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? So when my dad would chasten me, when dad would take a stick to me, it would bring me in line to his teachings. evident that I was his son. Because I received the chastening of my father, I endeared it as a son. How do sons receive chastening? Get that butt popped. He's acting like a fool. Sorry, you know. He received it as a son. It was proof he was a son because he endured that. Had it been some stranger popping, he would have kept screaming, running around looking for his father. But when dad popped him and brought him in line, He was received as a son. Right back to his father. Sorry dad, I'll walk right here beside you. I'll do what you tell me to do. Getting a little crazy? Pow! Sorry dad, I knew I shouldn't do that. I won't ever do that again dad. Pow! Rings him. I mean that was my life. I mean it happened about every 15 minutes. But my dad kept receiving me back as a son. Every single time he'd receive me back as a son. There was never a time my dad finally said to me, okay, I've spanked you 20,000 times today. I'm through with you. You're no longer my son. Because his chastening always reeled me in. So for the ones that seem to be being chastened, the ones that seem to be getting just punished upon punished upon punished upon punished, and you never see repentance that lasts for more than till the crisis is over, God's not dealing with them as sons. He's dealing with them as sinners. Chastening always does something else. So let's keep reading. But if you be without chastisement, whereof are all partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. That's what you do when you're chastened by the father, you give him reverence. You turn around and you say, oh, I revere you, dad, because you are chastening me. Another further evidence that this person really belongs to that dad. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. And here is the clinch pin. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Never did enjoy a spanking. Nevertheless, afterward what happens? It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. The ones that get the spanking will produce peaceable fruit. It'll happen. It'll happen. So we see the spankings from God come into someone's life and we see them repent and turn to God and reverence Him and say, man, I'm going to be faithful. I'm going to do what I need to do. I've lived wrong. I need to do right. God is right. And they live right and they try to get their life straightened out and they walk in an obedient fashion. And then sometime down the road, they sin again and God does the same thing to them again. That's normal. That's normal. What's abnormal is for somebody to say, yes, I believe in God and I'm a Christian and never show him reverence. Never. And that is confusing. But it is the mainstay of modern evangelicals today. The modern church tends to feed on that type of mentality. He also manifests himself in what theologians call co-affliction with the oppressed. This is what we mean. In Isaiah chapter number 63 and verse number 9, and there's many more verses in the book of Isaiah that cover this, but this is just a good source verse to begin looking at Him manifesting His love toward us in being afflicted along with us. It says, in all their affliction, He was afflicted. And the angel of His presence saved them in His love and in His pity. He redeemed them and He bared them and carried them all the days of old. We know what the New Testament says about this and the Old Testament as well, even in the book of Isaiah, that He bore our sins. The wrath that was to be on us, He took it. He was afflicted in our place. While we were in sin and bearing the affliction of sin and the wrath of God was abiding on us, He bore that. It was removed from us. And so in His substitution, He was afflicted along with us. He suffered along with us. Only we didn't suffer to the extent He did, because He paid the price fully and perfectly. So, that's one way that theologians view the manifestation of God's love. So, it's in those five separate ways that we understand it best. It is that in Christ's sacrifice on the cross, in offering full and complete pardon, how He ministered to His own, how He chastens His children, and finally, his co-affliction with the oppressed, with the ones who were sinners that he was substituted for. Alright, now we're going to talk about the quality of God's love. And we're not talking about the quality of good, better, or best. What we're talking about is the qualifiers, the things that when you look at God's love, you say, these are those qualifying marks that prove His love. is truly from Him, is truly genuine love. And there's ten of them, and I'll read them to you, then we'll look at some verses. Number one, His love is complacent. Number two, it is compassionate. Number three, His love is affectionate, just like a father is to his children. Number four, it's benevolent. Number five, it's merciful. Number six, his love is uninfluenced. Number seven, his love is eternal. Number eight, it is infinite. Infinite. And number nine, it is immutable, meaning it never changes. And then finally, his love is holy. It was A.W. Pink in the Attributes of God that said God's love is not regulated by caprice, passion, or sentiment, but His love is regulated by principle. God will not wink at sin. His love is pure. It is unmixed with any malden sentimentality. Our love is definitely mixed with sentimentality, isn't it? I mean, when we love somebody, sentiment plays a lot into it. Those are those human emotions and weaknesses that We struggle against regularly and say, oh, I don't know if I can do that. I remember, Dad, we were raising rabbits one time and the rule was we couldn't name the rabbits. Because as soon as you named a rabbit, you'd eat him later and you hated to eat Fluffy. Because when you call something by name for a while and then you've got to chop his head off and skin him, it just had some deleterious effect on a little boy's mind. I became sentimental over them rabbits if I named them, but if I never named them, I'd just grab them and move them from cage to cage. Dad would say, I need cage four. All the rabbits in cage four except the mama moved down to cage number six today. I could go down there and get them all out. I named them by number. I'd go, one, two, three, four. That's how I named them. That way I'd stay No sentimentality to those rabbits. And when it came time to kill them and eat them, I could eat them and enjoy them. But if I ever named one, I was doomed. And I had an old buck down there. Man, I really thought he was handsome. Just the prettiest rabbit you've ever seen. And I named him Thunder. And boy, he'd sound like thunder sometimes when he would do his feet, you know. And he's just a big rabbit. Thunder. Toughest rabbit I've ever seen. And one day Dad said we had to cull out some of the bucks. They were old. Thunder had to go and he was struck by lightning that day and it killed me. I just remember thinking, and Dad said, you named that rabbit didn't you? I said, yes sir. I had to tell him I named him Thunder and so he gave me his foot. That was terrible. Were you lucky ever since? That rabbit wasn't very lucky. I had no luck from it. And he was even more unlucky. So, his love is complacent. When you hear the word complacent, do you ever think anything good? Normally when we use the word complacent, we're saying the person isn't trying to do better at his job anymore. He's become complacent. Isn't that what we say? Well, he's not trying. He's not even trying in his studies anymore. He's just complacent. And what we mean by that is he ceased to try. That's not what the biblical use of the word complacent would be. And we would find an application of it in the book of Zechariah chapter 3 and verse number 17. And, excuse me, not Zechariah, Zephaniah. I mean, it might be in Zechariah 2, but in this particular point, it's Zephaniah. Zephaniah is one of those Old Testament minor prophets that we're going to get to one day on a Sunday morning. And one Sunday morning, you're going to walk in there and we're going to be preaching from the first verse of Zephaniah. Probably in about 10 years. But in Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 17, this is what it says, The Lord thy God The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. Notice, He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. And the word rest there is where we get the idea of complacency. It's not that God has stopped trying. This is all about the amazing power of God and what He's going to do to you. And one of the things that He says is He will rest in His love. And the idea is in His resting, He's completely satisfied. His love has been completely satisfied upon you. It's when He has done everything that He said He was going to do. So when did this verse come true? When was this verse fulfilled? Does anybody want to guess? Absolutely. He said on the cross, it's finished. I've done everything that is necessary for His love to be completely manifest at the cross, didn't He? And when God raised Him from the dead, literally vindicating Him, Well, he's dead, we're done with him. And then God raises him. Now, everything that he promised, everything that he said he was gonna do, he said he was gonna rise after three days. He can kill the body, you know, but it's gonna rise. He was vindicated, and the Bible word for vindication is justified in that instance. He was justified. And so his love rested at that moment. It did everything. It was pushing for, through all eternity to that moment, He is now complacent. We see the application of that in the Lord's Day, in that the Sabbath was when God rested from all His works, and that the Lord's Day is when Jesus and God and the Trinity received from the work of justification. They were complacent. Yeah, that's beautiful. And very true. And the Bible says that He's our Sabbath. He is our rest. In other words, that's how we see the complacency of God or the completion, that finality of God's love is in Him as literally the day of rest, the Sabbath. And so, That's a quality of God's love is that it's complacent. The second is that it is compassionate. And of course we already read the verse where it talked about in Isaiah 63 that in all their affliction He was afflicted, in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, He bared them, He carried them all the days of old. That's compassion. That is a constant compassion. You're bearing the one that can't walk. You're carrying the one that can no longer go on. You know, we see pictures of people in battle, you know, and these soldiers, they pick up their soldier buddy and they get him off the field and they carry him and how tender and careful that looks. But God's, it goes much deeper than that. It is compassionate. to the fullest. It's also affectionate. It's affectionate. I have a few verses here for that one starting in John 17 in verse 22. This is what we read. Jesus saying in his priestly prayer again. This is really the Lord's prayer. This is the prayer the Lord prayed. The model prayer We call the Lord's prayer. It's not the Lord's prayer. That's the model prayer. This is really the Lord's prayer is John 17 And he says this and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. Remember, we're talking about the quality of God's love being affectionate. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them, and thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." So he's praying to the Heavenly Father, Lord, let them be with me. Make sure that they can be with me and that they can be one with me even as I'm one with you. He has this most affectionate display of his love for his children. God, I want them involved in all of this that you've done for me. So let my death result in that very thing. And so, not only is he complacent, compassionate, and affectionate, he is benevolent. In Luke 6.35, the scripture says this, But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great. And ye shall be the children of the Highest, for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. And he is. Really, if you look at the graciousness of God, I mean, the ungrateful and the... or unthankful and evil are not running around dodging meteors all... meteorites all the time. They're not dodging lightning bolts all the time. I mean, the unsaved are not going around in the world constantly under some barrage of plagues and crows trying to pick their children's eyes out. I mean, that's not what's happening. You don't see that in the world. In fact, One of the troubles that the psalmist was facing was he was saying, why do the wicked prosper? Remember that? Why is it that the wicked seem to always be prospering? They seem to be. Well, this is just a merciful way that God deals with the pitiful creatures on this planet. And then his love is uninfluenced. It's uninfluenced. What did I say? Did I say His love was merciful yet? Did I? It is merciful? Okay. I've already done? I did benevolent? Let's do it's merciful. And I've already read this verse once tonight. It's Isaiah 55 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him. and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." So he says, turn to the Lord and to our God, he says, because if you will, He'll have mercy on you. He'll have mercy. That's the promise of God to every person on this planet. If you turn to me, I'll have mercy on you. But you have to turn to me and I will abundantly pardon. His love is uninfluenced. Uninfluenced. And here's what we mean by it not being influenced. In Deuteronomy 7, in verse number 7, we read, The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because You were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people." So he says, when God looked on the children of Israel, he didn't go, wow, that's a big nation. If I pick them, they'll be astounding. The world will see this big nation and say, hey. He said, no, but when I picked you, there was less of you than any nation. How many came out of the Uruk-Haldis with Abraham? How many? Three? Yeah, I mean there was nobody. Maybe, maybe Nephew Lot had a wife. Maybe, but we're not told that he was married when they came out of Ur. So it was just this tiny little group of people. He said, you know when I set my love on you, he said, there was nobody. You are not a big nation. But, he says in verse 8, because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which you'd 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. There's another thought on that too, is there were only a handful that came out of the Uruk-Haldi. How many came into Egypt when they came at Joseph's bidding? About 70. There's an argument as to exactly how many, but we'll just go with the number 70. I think you did a breakdown of those one time and we counted all of them. So 70 people came out. That was a tiny bunch of people going into the land of Egypt, like the most powerful nation in the world. And he says, but I loved you. It wasn't because you were an amazing group of people. And then in 1 John 4, 19, we read that familiar verse that just basically sums it all up. We love Him. But there's a reason we love Him. And so when somebody tells you, I just decided one day I was going to love God. Well, there's a reason you decided that, because He first loved us. He first loved us. Now, so His love is uninfluenced. There's nothing we did, there's nothing we could do, there's nothing we could even come up with in the future that could in any way make God love us. The manifestation of God's love, the quality of that love, is all on God, uninfluenced. And it is eternal. It's an eternal love. And there we go to the New Testament, where Paul wrote to the church that Timothy was the pastor, the book of Ephesus. Ephesians. He was in the town of Ephesus. It was in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians. Ephesians chapter number 1 and verse number 4. The Bible says, according as he hath chosen us in him, when? Before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. It's eternal. It was before the foundation of the world. And in Jeremiah 31.3, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, have I drawn thee." He said, let me tell you how I've loved you. I've loved you from forever, and I'm going to love you forever. That's why I've drawn you, because I loved you. So his love is eternal. You're saved here tonight. If you're a Christian because God loved you before the foundation of the world and it was manifest in the cross and the fact that he drew himself to you and saved you in this life. He's not going to save you in the afterlife. You're not going to die unconverted and then somehow Maybe us on this end will get you there." When my aunt passed away, my uncle went to the Catholic priest over there in St. Florine and said, how much will it cost to get Norma into heaven? And he said, well, it doesn't work exactly like that, but $5,000 would get her a long, long way. And he said, well, how much would it take to get her into heaven? And the priest said, $7,000 and we can work something out. That's good, good. Not with gold or silver or precious stones. This redemption doesn't come by way of George Washington's Benjamin Franklin's and who else? Lincoln's and all of the greenbacks you could imagine. That's not how this salvation comes. So, praise the Lord that His love is eternal and He will, with loving kindness, draw those whom He has set His love upon. And the quality of his love is infinite. It's infinite. And we see that also in the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter 3, in verse 19 it says, And to know the love of Christ, and here's how he describes the love of Christ, And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. So he's saying now, we know the love of Christ, but really we cannot even begin to you know, touch the hem of the garment. It passes our knowledge that she might be filled with all the fullness of God. So Paul's goal for the church at Ephesus was that they would be filled, he says, with all the fullness of God. And he says, but to know that love of Christ, it passes all understanding. All our knowledge, we cannot grasp the love. So it's infinite. It goes beyond our ability to truly Understand it. That's why when we think we've got something in Scripture nailed down and and I believe me I've had so many things nailed down and Then later I'm continuing to read the Word of God or I hear a sermon preached and what I thought I knew so well is upside down now and I have to say wait a minute. This is what God says if he says it I That's the way it is, and I need to accept the fact his love, the knowledge of his love is infinite. It passes knowledge. 9thly, right? It's immutable. Immutable. It won't change. His law's not going to change. There's not going to be a divorce court for Christians in God. We're not going to have to go before Judge Judy and have our standing with God ever brought into question if we are His. In John 13, 1, and as I read, I told you in times past, one of my favorite verses, he makes that statement that he's about to depart out of the world, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. To me, that's just one of the most human, emotion-packed things that Jesus has said about the Lord Jesus Christ. How tender. How tender. You know, when I'm dead, I really hope, Ida, that if I die before you, I hope that somebody comes up and whispers in your ear while you're standing there at the casket, crying and shaking my body. They come up to you, they whisper in your ear, and they say to you, He departed out of this world loving you and he loved you to the end. I want him to be able to say that to you. I really do. So if I die before, somebody whisper that in her ear when she's trying to jerk me out of the casket. The only reason I say that is at my granddaddy's funeral, my grandmother did jerk my granddaddy out of the casket and it was terrible. I'll never forget it. I was an unconverted 9 year old, 8 or 9 year old and I remember she trying to pull her away and she wouldn't turn loose and that casket turned over. Please do not mention that to my mother. Freaks me out every time we talk about it. But anyway, I'm okay now. It didn't affect me too bad. But it's such a compassionate love that he has for us. It's unchanging, immutable. Now there's a series of verses that we read a lot of times when we talk about the love of God and to me they're always worth reading. I can read them aloud to the congregation every week and I wouldn't tire of reading them when we talk about God's love for his children. It's just awesome. My wife, Oh, it was so neat today. Something happened today. And it happens sometimes, but not all the time. But we were getting out of the van, and she said, are you going to have to go? And I said, yeah, I got to go. I got to run to the accountant, and I got to do such and such. She goes, OK, well, then give me a kiss. And I leaned around, kissed her. And she goes, that's it? That's all? Oh, I'm sorry, here's some more." And I kissed her and she goes, that's still not enough. Oh, now I was getting silly, right? But I kept giving in. And she smooched me two or three times pretty good. And I was just like, that was really neat. I could do that all the time. That's how I feel about these verses. when we talk about God's love toward His children. I love them. They're beautiful verses. They're not my favorite verses in the Bible. Everybody's like, you got your favorite verse in the Bible. These aren't my favorite, but they are way up there in the top ten. Romans 8.35. Listen to what they say. They're just beautiful. Pay attention to them. Relish these things. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I read a book by a guy. His name was Harlan Popov. Has anybody read that book, Tortured for His Faith? I believe that's the title of it. That's Richard Wurmbrand. This is Harlan Popov. I think it's called Tortured for His Faith. And he's a Baptist minister. that was tortured in a communist prison, similar to Wurmbrand, and Wurmbrand was more of the state church guy when he said, no, we're not going that route, and wouldn't do it, and they tortured him. But Harlan Popov, it was just an intense story, and that was one of the verses that just kept sticking in his mind. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Because they kept wanting him to say he didn't love Jesus. That's what they wanted him to say. He'll just say this. He'll just say, don't love the Lord, don't love God. He said, you can't separate me from that. He said, even if I were to say it. I wouldn't be separated from it." They said, well, that's all we want you to do is say it. Well, no, I'm not going to say it. Shall tribulation, the very first question there, the very first thing, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. I mean, he's saying that's what's written is going to happen to you. So you just need to expect that. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 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. Lord it is Unchanging nothing it's going to and I love that. I love that portion of scripture. It's it's beautiful and then The verse that we're not at just yet in the Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon chapter number eight. And I'm telling you, the more that I'm studying the Song of Solomon, the more it's becoming one of my favorite books. I'm just so full of the Song of Solomon right now. In fact, for the past two days, I have spent in excess of probably eight or nine hours in my study Just in the Song of Solomon. And I am so distracted by that book right now. In a good way. It's just helped tremendously. And in Song of Solomon 8, in verses 6 and 7, this is what it says. Set me as a seal upon thine heart. As a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire which hath the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love. Neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." In other words, if you gave everything, if you said, all the wealth I've got, I will give for that just to have love, I would say, what you're offering isn't worth a dime. It's not worth anything. And powerful on the immutability of love. Absolutely gorgeous verse. Okay. Need to put blue up when we get home. I just got a text. Very, very important notice from your mom, I guess. And let's make sure that the rug in front of grandmother's back door is not already wadded up. Alright. And the last one is His love is holy. His love is holy. We've already looked at a dozen or so verses on that particular thing, so we're going to pass on it. We're going to take about a two-minute break, and so if you need to stand up or stretch or something, and we're going to do the mercy of God, and then we're going to be through for tonight. The mercy of God only has two points, so we won't be there very long. So let's take a quick break. Talking about the mercy of God, Someone has to pay for their sins. So here are the scriptural facts of God's mercy. Here's scriptural facts. In Psalm 103, in verse number 8, the Bible declares this. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. Not just that he's merciful, he's plenteous in mercy. So he is full of mercy. He's a merciful God. It was Jonathan Edwards that was known to say in one of his sermons, quoted quite a bit saying this, but as far as we know, he only said it one time ever in his life. It's funny, we kind of think these guys went around saying these great phrases all the time. But he basically said, and I'm not quoting him exactly, that right now I deserve to be in hell. At this very moment, I deserve to be in hell because of my sins. But God in His mercy pardoned me, and so I didn't get the just penalty. Although I deserve to be there right at this moment, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 said, But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us. Again, Luke 1.50, And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. Luke 1, 72. He says, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenants. This was the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to do these very things. 2 Corinthians 1, 3. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mercies, and the God of all comfort. One of his titles is the Father of All Mercies. What a title. So if you're seeing any mercy, He's the Father of it all. In Titus chapter 3 in verse number 5, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. So there, that goes back to one of those attributes of God's love in that we called it what? Uninfluenced. So listen to this verse again. Not by works of righteousness which we have done. So he's not influenced by any works of righteousness. So why did he save us? According to his mercy he saved us. We deserve a just penalty. But according to His mercy, He saved us. How? By the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. This is the mercy of God in that the penalty that you and I deserve, which is hell, the wrath of God, instead fell on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, and He became the substitutionary death for us. Thus being the true Lamb of God, the Passover. And we thank God for it. That's where we're going to stop tonight. We'll pick up on the grace of God in two weeks. Pastor Josh will be here next week. And he'll be here as long as everything is normal. So if anything changes, then he won't be here. But that's our goal. So y'all have any questions about what we've looked at? Anything you may have missed that you want me to repeat?