I want you to notice, first of all, the uniqueness of the love of God. God's love is, a few things here, number one, uncaused. It's uncaused. And by that I mean there is nothing that God was influenced by which caused Him to love. There was nothing in me to attract the heart of God. Matter of fact, there was plenty in me to repel Him. There's plenty in you to repel the heart of God. Our makeup is such that having a sinful nature, it would cause him to loathe us, him being holy and us being sinful. By nature, it would cause him to loathe us in our sin, but he is God of love and his love is not based on the object. There is nothing in the object that is meeting a need or a desire that God has. You and I often love that way. When you think about it, natural human love is almost always based on the attractiveness of the object. There's something there that is just really beautiful to us. It may be the looks of a person. It may be the taste of a food. It may be the joy of an experience or circumstance. And we may say, you know what, I'd love it. There's something attractive about that it, whatever it is, that is calling forth from us a response of love. We almost love that way, almost all of us all the time. We're inclined to love people who love us. That's our human nature. We tend to think that God loves that way also. We tend to think of his love for us as based on how good we are or how much we must love him. But he doesn't love that way. Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5 and verse 46 when Jesus pointed out the fact that traitorous tax collectors were inclined to love people who love them? That's the way we tend to love. But God's love is not based on something in us. It's rather based on something in Him. He is At heart. Love. And that's what the scripture tells us, it's his nature to love, it's his very essence. To love. God did not love us because we loved him, right? In fact, first, John four and verse 19 tells us we love him because he first loved us. The theologian Charles Hodge, he said it this way. He said, if God loved us because we loved him. He will love us only so long as we love him. And on that condition. And then our salvation would depend on the constancy of our treacherous hearts. I'm so glad it doesn't depend on that. But as God loved us as sinners, as Christ died for us as ungodly, our salvation depends, as the apostle argues, not on our loveliness, but on the constancy of the love of God. I think it was Charles Haddon Spurgeon many years ago reading a book of his. What was it called? Amazing Love or something like that. But in that book, he referenced that God came and Jesus died for us, not because of anything in us, but all out of motivations that came out of, the way he put it, is the depths of divine love. And that is so true. God's love is uncaused. You consider the people right here in Romans chapter 5 that Paul tells us God loves. He loves in verse 6, the powerless, those who are without strength. He loves also in verse 6, the ungodly. He loves, he tells us in verse 8, the sinners. And even in verse 10, he tells us that God loves enemies. Ephesians 1 verses 4 and 5 tell us this, according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the pleasure of his will. It wasn't because of something in you or me. It was all the uncaused love of God that made him send Jesus, prompted him to send Jesus as our Savior. God's love is uncaused. Also, God's love is unchanging. We know that. The prophet Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 31 3, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. That's the kind of love that God has. James describes God in chapter one in verse 17 as the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God's love is unchanging. And what that means is you often hear said from this pulpit that I can never do anything to get God to love me more. Now, that is so contrary to our human nature, because when people do things that please us, our mindset is we love them more for those things. God doesn't love that way. His love gauge does not rise because I'm doing things that that he wants me to do. His love gauge is the same. That means he not only will not love me more because I do good things, he also will not love me less because I do bad things. His love is unchanging. And Peter reminded us this morning as he read the scripture to us that nothing will ever separate us from that love. Nothing. God's love is uncaused. God's love is unchanging. God's love is thirdly, unbounded. That means it's without limit. It's infinite. There's a depth to which none can fathom and a breadth of it that defies measurement of any sort. Paul says in Ephesians 3 and verse 19, And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. We just can't wrap our heads around that kind of love. Ephesians 2 and verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us. It's unbounded. And then fourthly, God's love is holy. It's not guided by caprice, passion, or sentimentality. Instead, it's governed by principle. You and I love often based on passion. That is really pretty. That is really tasty. That is a great experience. And we often respond like that. God does not do that. His love is pure. His love is completely unmixed with any sentiment like you and I have. And because it's pure, he does not wink at sin. Even within sin of his own family. Part of the family of God, God never winks at sin because his love is a pure love and he is a Holy God, He judges every single sin. That is such a sobering thing. God will judge every one of your sins and every one of my sins. And He's either judged those in His own Son who took on our sins at the cross, or He's going to judge individuals who have refused to accept that sacrifice and accept that love and have sought to gain some kind of favor with God on their own, which they'll never be able to do. Then they'll spend all eternity being judged for sins. And God never wanted them to do that. Because he's a loving God and it's not his will that any perish, but that all would come to repentance. So God's love is unique. He doesn't love the way we do. He doesn't love the way anybody that we know loves. It's unique. But then I want you to notice, secondly, the manifestation of that love. When you want to demonstrate your love for your children or your nieces and nephews or people that are close to you, how do you and I go about doing that? We spend time with them. We give them hugs. We touch them. We do things for them. We delight in that. Parents love to do things that are going to be a joy and a help and a blessing to their children. Well, how does God manifest his love to us as his children? One way is this, He's always correcting us. And that's out of His love. Remember what Hebrews 12 says, several verses there, but verse six tells us, for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. So he's always correcting us. And we ought to always view that. We ought to always view the correcting work of God in us as an expression of his love for us. Can you just think for a moment, what would your life be like if God allowed you to go your own way and do your own thing and he never, ever corrected you? Can you just think for a moment, where would you be today? What would be the sum of your life if God just let you do your own thing? And you know, in God's correction, he gets just as strong with us as he has to, to get our attention. Sometimes just the still small voice of his spirit that speaks to us in the moment of our sin and says to us, hey, that's wrong. and He brings conviction to us, and we acknowledge that, we agree with Him, we repent of that, confess it to God, God gives us forgiveness. But sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes we just push right on through that, and then God gets stronger with us in our lives, all because He loves us. And he's gonna keep driving, and as one preacher long ago, or maybe it was in a book, the hound of heaven just keeps going after us because of his love. He's a loving God. And he manifests that love by always correcting us. And then he manifests that love by always remembering us. I don't think I'll ever forget these verses here on the screen. Isaiah 49. Probably been 30 years ago now when I came to see these verses for the first time in such a dramatic way. Listen to what the prophet Isaiah is saying here. Can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Hear what the prophet is saying? The prophet is saying, can a woman, a nursing mom, forget that child that she is nursing, that's so dependent and so resting in her care? Can a loving mom forget her child? And then look at what he answers. Yea, they may forget. That's hard for us to imagine. How can a nursing mom forget her child? But here's what God says. Yea, they may forget, but not me. Yeah, I will, I forget. Will I not forget thee? Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. I mean, God is using here an example of nature, a nursing mom to describe what seems to you and me to be nearly impossible. But still possible. And then he takes that example and he contrasts that human example with his own love for us, that will never be me, he says. He's always remembering us, even when we don't think he is, did you know that? Even when you think God has forgotten you, he has not forgotten you. He will never forget you. And then thirdly, always sacrificing for us. We know that. For God so loved the world. What we're remembering today, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Romans 5 in verse 8, you know this verse, but God commendeth, God demonstrated his love to us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then 1 John 4, you know, these verses and this was manifested the love of God toward us because God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. That's the manifestation. The Apostle John is reminding us of the love of God here in his love. Not that we loved God. But that he loved us. And send his son to be the propitiation for our sins. You know what that means? That means that God will meet every need I have because of his great love. That's what it means. He will meet every need that I have. Because of his great love, he will make whatever sacrifice is necessary. In order to meet the needs of his children. Because God is love. So that's the uniqueness, that's the manifestation of God's love. And that should finally call forth a proper response from you and me. And that response is trust. Because of who God is and the way God loves, The manifestation of all of that, why should I not trust him? With whatever it is. 1 John 4 verse 18, the Bible says there, there is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear. Tozer writes, fear is the painful emotion that arises at the thought that we may be harmed or made to suffer. This fear persists while we are subject to the will of someone who does not desire our well-being. The moment we come under the protection of one of goodwill, fear is cast out. You think of that. I was thinking when I was reading that quote, I don't know why, but my mind immediately jumped to those terrorists. You remember a few years ago when we were seeing these, I'll never forget this image, the picture of these people that have been brought out and they're standing in orange jumpsuits looking out at the ocean. You remember this? And behind them are men in black masks. And they're standing right behind each one. And at the command, they're going to end up just slitting the throats of all of these people. And my mind just went to when he's talking about that, that fear is the painful emotion that arises at the thought that we may be harmed or made to suffer. And my mind went to immediately that. If I were in that setting and I'm sitting, I'm standing, I'm actually on my knees in that picture and I'm looking out at the ocean and on my shoulder is the hand of an enemy. One who does not want my good, he intends to harm me dramatically. That would be so fearful. But then imagine. that in those moments, in comes representatives from my country. In comes a familiar face. In comes someone who is bent on my protection and my safety. And all of a sudden, that fear begins to subside. Somewhat. And then finally, when I'm in full safety. Terzi goes on to write a child lost in a crowded store is full of fear because it sees the strangers around it as enemies. In his mother's arms, a moment later, all terror subsides. The known goodwill of the mother casts out fear. When I read that I was reminded, I shared this before with us maybe many years ago when we lived in Chicago and Janice and I had taken the kids uptown, we were in uptown Chicago right by the planetarium there and the Shedd Aquarium right by the lake and crowded as ever as it normally is down there and all of a sudden we look around and we cannot find Jessica. She's just a little girl. We can't find her. And we began to look and look, and we cannot find her. That was a moment of terror for us, losing her in that moment, and we were frantically searching for her. And then, by God's grace, we see her. And we knew exactly what Tozer is writing here. fearful, but then coming right into the arms of someone that she knows, that's not a stranger to her, that she knows has goodwill toward her. And perfect love, which we are not as parents, but perfect love casts out fear. So that's our response. This is who God is. This is the way he manifests his love And so we respond in faith and trust that a God who loves that way, I can trust that God. A God who loves, and can we just remember this, it's very personal, it's very intimate, God loves me. God doesn't love populations, he loves people. He doesn't love masses, he loves men. Just as Brent saying to us this morning, here is the wonder of it all. That God loves me. Now, did you know that? Do you sense that this morning, that God loves you? That whatever it is that you're going through is not because it may be a hard thing and maybe no one else knows about it, but you do. You feel it inside of you. Do you? Can you sit here this morning and see God loves you even through that experience? And never has it been more demonstrated than in the fact that Jesus died for our sins. And that's what we're remembering today. And you may be here today and you say, you know what? I'm not sure that God loves me. I hope you'll be able to see from several scriptures that we looked at this morning, God does love you. Matter of fact, he loves you more than anyone else ever has or ever will. He loves you with a perfect love. And you can trust him. You can trust him with the most important and intimate and eternal part of you, your own soul, your destiny, you can trust him. Matter of fact, he's the only one that can be trusted. You can't trust you to take care of your soul and you can't trust anyone else. Only God. And he wants you to trust him. He wants you to come to him in faith. He wants you to say to him, God, I'm a sinner, but you loved me and you sent your son Jesus to die for me. And I'm depending on what he did for me on the cross to save me from me. To rescue me in my sins and to give me life. God wants to do that for you. because He loves you. And that's what we're celebrating today. And if you're here today and you're uncertain about that or you want to know more about that, following our service this morning, please stop me. I'll be at the back. Please stop me on your way out. And we would love to talk to you or put somebody with you that could help you to know the great love of God and how He demonstrated that in dying for your sins. Let's pray together. Lord, we have sought to stretch our hearts to the high shining love that you have. And we are so insufficient of it. The task is too great. And we pray that your spirit would just stir in our own hearts and convince us of just how deeply you love. And give us joy this morning as we reflect on a manifestation of that, the most significant manifestation of it. As we remember, as we remember your death for us on Calvary, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. As we celebrate this morning, the Lord's table. Given our time, I'm not going to read the passage that we normally read. Many of you are familiar with this. I do want to just encourage you, if you're here today and you know Jesus as your Savior, you may not be part of our church family, but we welcome you to observe the Lord's table with us today. You know the Lord, you're seeking to follow the Lord in your life. The scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 11, when we observe this table, we approach this table not casually in any way. How can we be casual? about God sending his son to die for us. How can we be casual about our sin being so heinous and so ugly that it would require nothing short of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross? We can't be casual about it. And so Paul is reminding us this morning, the church, we gather for that, we gather examining our own hearts and not in any casual way, but reflecting as much as a finite human being can reflect on the infinite love.