This morning, I would like to direct your attention to the third chapter of John, beginning in verse 14, and we will read through verse 17. The title of my message is The Love of God in the Death of Christ. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. I think it's important as we consider the doctrines of grace as they're expressed in the constellation of doctrines known as TULIP, that we emphasize what the Bible emphasizes. We focus on what the Bible focuses on. I think that's especially important for those of us who embrace the doctrines of grace. And sometimes it's easy for us, especially when we come to the atonement, to too often just stress its limitation. And though it is true that there, in fact, anyone who talks about the atonement in any type of historic Christian way has to emphasize some aspect of its limitation. But the fact of the matter is, though, that we have to embrace its limitation, the emphasis in the New Testament is not on its limitation, but on the fact that the cross is the signpost of God's love to man. And God has revealed his love to us through the cross as a way to encourage sinners, the folks who see themselves as totally bankrupt before God and unworthy of his presence as a way to encourage us to come and embrace the one who loves sinners and died for them. We see this all throughout the New Testament. We see it here in the text, God so loved the world that he gave us only begotten Son. In the epistle of Paul to the Romans, the apostle Paul says, God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then the apostle Paul mentions God's love in Christ multiple times in his letter to the Ephesians. We are to know the love of God, which in all of its dimensions, which comes to us through Christ, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. He says, be followers of God as deal children and walk in love as Christ also loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savoury. He tells husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. I love this verse in 1 John, these verses in 1 John 4. Listen to this, beginning in verse nine. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him here in his love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. So all throughout the New Testament, we see this emphasis. And this is where we must start. We need to emphasize God's love through demonstrated in the cross of Christ. But of course, then we have to ask the appropriate questions. The question is this, what sort of love is this that is revealed in the cross? And this is where it's appropriate to consider the extent of the atonement, that this is a love which finds its spring in the eternal Council of the Most High, it's an electing love. The cross tells us about this love. So this morning, I would like to focus with you for a few moments on the love of God in Christ and how the cross tells us what kind of love it is that God has for sinners. And again, I wanna emphasize that the whole purpose of this is to draw us to God's love. through Christ. We should never preach the doctrines of grace solely as a way to draw lines between us and other people. That's necessary, but we can become fixated on a doctrinal position without knowing the God of the doctrine. I want to know the God of the doctrine. I want to know the God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and I want you to know him as well. So there are at least four things that the cross tells us about God's love. Number one, it tells us about God's electing love. Secondly, his saving love. Thirdly, his costly love. And then finally, his worldwide love. So these are the four things I want to consider with you this morning. Number one, the cross tells us of God's electing love. You may ask me, where in the world do you get that in John 3.16? And I get that in John 3, 16, in the words, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Or in verse 17, God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So God sent his son that the world through him might be saved. In other words, these verses tell us about the mission of the son. That Jesus didn't just show up on the face of the planet with no purpose, with no mission. He came. He says in John 6 that, I did not come to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. So there is a purpose. There is a will of the Father behind the cross of Christ. And that purpose is what we looked at last night. It is the purpose of God in election, which explains why Jesus came to die. So this is an electing love. God sent his son, and he sent him with a purpose, and it's the purpose of election. And you see this in other places as well. So for example, in John chapter 10, our Lord tells us about the fact that he is the good shepherd, and then he says this in verse 11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Jesus is the Gesheh, and he has died for the sheep. He's given his life, he's not a hireling. He lays down his life. He says, my sheep, hear my voice, I know them, verse 27, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Here again, you have this, the elect as those whom the Father gave to Christ before the foundation of the world. Jesus is saying, I'm giving my life for them, No one will be able to pluck them out of my hand. They will be infallibly saved. Our Lord has given his life for the sheep. We mentioned a moment ago the Apostle Paul's words to the Ephesians. Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Well, who is the church? The church is exactly those whom God has elected and predestined unto eternal life. The Apostle Paul begins his epistle to the Ephesians by saying, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before him in love. This is the church, these are the ones for whom Christ laid down his life for. And the cross is the ultimate expression of God's electing love. We spent a bit of time last night in Romans 8. I begin in verse 33, but if you go back a verse, actually going back to verse 29, the apostle Paul says, whom God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Whom he called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also glorified. And then on the basis of that reality, the apostle Paul asked the following questions. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son. So the same kind of language our Lord is using in John three. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? That's such a great verse. But for whom did God spare not his own son? For whom did God deliver up Christ to die? And it's the Assal. Who is the Assal? They're exactly defined for us in the context. They are those whom the Father predestined to be conformed to the image of a son, those who are foreknown, those who are called, those who are justified, those who will be glorified. And God loved his people before the foundation of the world. He chose them, set his love upon them, predestined them to be saved through Christ. Christ has come, he dies for them, he's given his life for them. And here's the thing, here's the way we ought to reason to ourselves over and over and over again. Here's the way we need to preach the gospel to ourselves. Whenever we're in a doubt, God's goodness towards us, or is God holding out on us? Or is God not treating me right? We need to remind ourselves that he, has not spared his own son, but delivered him up for us all. And then we need to ask ourselves this question, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? God's already given us the greatest gift. He's already given us the greatest gift. He's already proven that in the death of Christ. So in other words, what all of this comes to show, that Christ came to fulfill the will of the father in his electing purpose. What this shows, is that the atonement is not some vague or uncertain, or the intention behind the atonement is not some vague or uncertain intention, but it is rooted in God's eternal and unchangeable purpose. And also what this means is that Jesus Christ is a successful savior, that he came to save his elect and he will. The atonement, the cross demonstrates God's electing love. the cross tells us of God's saving love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. What did Jesus come to accomplish on the cross? Well, he did not come to give us our best life now. Rather, he came to give us something infinitely better, namely everlasting life, that we might not be condemned, that we might not stand under God's eternal wrath, but that we might be saved. He came to save us from perishing forever under God's just wrath and to give us eternal life in God's presence with never-ending, ever-increasing joy. And I think it's important for us to understand just how this happens, upon what basis God is able to save us. And this is where the cross is so crucial. A lot of people think that God can just forgive sin or that God will just look the other way. It reminds me of a conversation I remember John MacArthur telling of when he was on a plane one time and sat next to a Muslim man who actually was very honest with John MacArthur about, he was on this plane to go do something that he knew was wrong. I'll just put it that way. And MacArthur, knowing he's an Islamic guy, he asked him, well, what do you think God's gonna do about this? And he says, well, I hope that God will forgive me. And MacArthur said, I know God, and I can tell you he won't. Just like that. And of course then he'd share the gospel with him. God does not just look the other way. God is just. God is holy. So how in the world can a God who is holy and just, and if you've ever become convicted of your sins, you're going to wonder this. How can a God who is holy and just forgive me of my sins? If you understand just how deeply you have offended God, You gotta understand that God's not just gonna look the other way. So how in the world can a holy God accept me, a sinful man? And this is where you need to look to the cross of Christ and realize that Christ died not as an example. Well, he is an example. Yes, the apostle Peter tells us that. He is an example, but that's not primarily why he died. That's not preeminently why he died. He died preeminently as a sacrifice and a substitute. Jesus said this in Matthew 20 and verse 28, I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. Well, I love, I think the Apostle Paul put it just perfectly in his letter to the Corinthians when he said that God, God the Father made God the Son to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." What does that mean? What does it mean that God made his son to be sin? Well, it doesn't mean that God made his son to be sinful, because the Apostle Paul goes on to say he knew no sin. So what does it mean that God the Father made God the Son to be sin? Well, it means that he made his son to bear the guilt and the punishment of the sins of those for whom he died. What is able to happen as a result of this is that so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So on the cross, a great exchange is made. God takes the sins of his people, puts them on his son, and he bears them, and he takes the punishment. Jesus Christ, you need to understand, has fully satisfied the demands of God's perfect justice on the behalf of those for whom he died. So in his life, He fulfilled the law of God that we broke. He fulfilled it perfectly. He was the perfect sacrifice. He was the perfect lamb. And on the cross, he suffered completely the debt of sin that we owe to God. Or consider the way the apostle Peter put it. And there are other reasons I love this passage, but 1 Peter 3.18, for Christ also hath once suffered four sins. The just for the unjust. So there he is, a substitute. He is the just in the place of the unjust. That's how he suffered for sins. Why? That he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. My friends, Jesus Christ died, so we're gonna be brought to God. Now my friends, listen, the reality is that every one of you will be brought to God in some way. The Apostle Paul put it this way, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You have it there in Matthew 25, there's the sheep and the goats, they are all there at the judgment seat of Christ. But it is not a happy ending for those who are not of Christ's sheep. So what does Peter mean when he says that we may be brought to God? He means that our sins have been taken away so we might be brought to God as a father. So we might be brought to God as the one who loves us and into his fellowship. or the way the Apostle Paul puts it to the Ephesians, in Ephesians 2, where he says, through Christ, we have access by one's spirit to the Father. The door's been opened. We now can come into the very presence of God through Christ. Why? Because he took the very thing that stood between us and God, our sin, which alienates God from us, and us from God. He took it out of the way. He bore. are the punishment for our sins. So yes, God does not just look the other way. Jesus has fully satisfied the domains of God's law on the behalf of those for whom he died. And it's why, have you ever wondered why John would say this in 1 John 1, where he says, if we confess our sins, what? He is faithful and just. What? Just? How can God be just? I mean, we're talking about confessing sins here. I mean, I'm really waiting to hear about God's mercy. I'm really waiting to hear about God's grace. So I would have expected John to say, if we confess our sins, he's gracious to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's true. But he does not say that, he says God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. How in the world is God just in the forgiving and cleansing of our sins? And the reason is because for those who are in Christ, for those who belong to Jesus, who now have his righteousness because he took their sins, it'll be wrong for God not to forgive them. It'd be unjust for God not to forgive them. And so he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. I love the story of Martin Luther. They're in the Wartburg Castle and the devil came to him with a list of his sins. And Martin Luther said, is that it? And he said, no, I got more. Here's some more. And Luther said, is that it? He said, no, here's some more. And finally, this scroll filled the whole room. And Luther said, is that it? And the devil said, I think that's it. And Luther said, you can write on the bottom of that, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. So in other words, God forgives us, God receives us, God gives us eternal life, not because of anything in us. And it's true that God does this for those who believe, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's true. We need to encourage those who are outside to put their trust in Jesus Christ because the Bible says those who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We need to understand that we are not encouraging faith because faith is the basis of our salvation. It's not. It's not the ground of our salvation. Faith is simply the empty hand. that receives God's gift. The gospel is not a new law. The gospel is the good news that beggars who have nothing to commend themselves before God can receive everything through faith, by looking away from themselves to faith in Jesus Christ. Let me ask you this morning, does this love mean anything to you? As you hear this, Are you yawning your way through this? Or are you captivated by this? Do you understand your need of this kind of love? And I think if you don't, it's probably because you've been blinded to the sin in your life. You know, it's amazing, isn't it? And I know this because I know it's true of myself. How that we can convince ourselves that we're really not all that bad. But let me ask you this, would you be okay with your inner life being broadcast to the world for just the next five minutes. Why do you think that you're okay then with God? My friends, we are not basically good, we are basically bad. This is the point of God so loved the world, like the way Dia Carson puts that. The point here is not that the world is so big, but that the world is so bad. In John 1, we read, Christ came into the world and the world did not receive him, they rejected him. The world is a bad world. This bad world, this miserable world, this sinful world, this rebellious world, this is for whom Christ died. Again, as we mentioned last night, Christ did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. We need justification because we are all under the wrath of God. Paul says, this is the gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Why do we need that? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness. God so loved this world and God did not have to rescue us. but he did through Christ. It tells us of God's saving love. Number three, the cross tells us of God's sacrificial love. God so loved the world that he gave. There was a giving here. There's a cost to God. You know, the Apostle Paul, when he talks about the gospel in Romans 3, he uses kind of a double emphasis upon God's grace. being justified freely by his grace. Now, Paul could have just said, God justifies us by his grace, because what does grace mean? Free. But Paul says God justifies us freely by his grace. He's emphasizing something there. In other words, salvation does not come at any cost to us. Why? Because Christ bore the cost. So Paul goes on to say, whom God... I'm gonna have to go to the passage now, because my retrieval The access in my brain has been cut off for some. All right. Being justified freely by his grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus, so there's the cost to God, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Propitiation means wrath bearer through the faith in Christ, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. So this came at no cost to us, but at incredible cost to God. So consider the cost to the father, for example. I think a very good way to think about this is to think about what God asked Abraham to do. So God promised Abraham a son, and God in Abraham's old age gave him a son, and then a few years later, God tells Abraham, take your son, your only son, take him to a mountain and kill him there. And Abraham, amazingly, got up early in the next morning to obey God. Goes to the place, ties Isaac down, has the knife in his hand and we know the knife is about to plunge into the, he's gonna obey, he's gonna go all the way when God stops him. But think about, though the Bible doesn't say a lot about Abraham's, the psychological life of Abraham in that moment, but especially for those of you who are parents, you can imagine the anguish that Abraham must have been feeling at that moment. The pain of putting his son there and of killing his son. But Abraham was not perfect. You know, our Lord says, if ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? God is perfect. So the love that the Father has for the Son, infinitely superior to the love we have for our own children, the anguish of the Father giving his Son. But then think about the cost it was to Christ himself. You hear it on the cross when he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me as he bore the sins of men hanging there upon the cross, this terrible, terrible death. But it was not just the physical aspect, we know, it was his bearing in a way that we cannot see, the sins of all for whom he died. You know, I think one reason why hell is eternal is because finite men can never propitiate God's infinite wrath. infinitely just wrath, but Jesus did it in a few hours. As one hymn writer put it, he drank damnation dry. This is incredible cost. I love the way the apostle Paul put it to the Corinthians. As he's talking about giving, drops this incredible theological truth right there in the middle of all that. And he says, for you know the love, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. What poverty? You know, theologians call the incarnation and the earthly life, the earthly ministry of Christ, the humiliation of Christ. He was humiliated, born in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, the curse of death on the cross, being buried, continuing the power of death for a time, as the catechism puts it. He was humiliated, rejected of men, dying an unfathomably bad death. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and his son came willingly. It's God's sacrificial love. And then finally, the cross tells us of God's worldwide love. Brothers and sisters, we embrace the doctrines of grace, but let us never ever feel uncomfortable talking about God's worldwide love. Because the Bible does, right? God so loved the world. So what does this have to say about the extent of the atonement? I think it says at least three things. It tells us about the worldwide scope of the gospel. It tells us about the exclusivity of the atonement and the perpetuity of the atonement. So first of all, it tells us about the worldwide scope of the gospel. I think we don't appreciate, really as we ought, here living in the 21st century, that as our Lord put it to the woman at the well of Samaria, salvation is of the Jews. and that for 2,000 years, God had primarily limited his saving activity within the confines and limits of a single nation, namely the nation of Israel. But when Jesus came, what does he tell his apostles upon his ascension? Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. The point here is that now the gospel is going to all the world. And we read the impact of this, for example, in Revelation chapter five, as the lamb is being celebrated. When the lamb had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sung a new song, Revelation 5, 9. They are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof. So the book is the book of God's redemptive plan. Christ alone was worthy to take that, to fulfill and execute it. Why? For thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. That's the emphasis here. God still loved the world. It's no longer just for the Jews, it's for all of the world. You see this language used with respect to world similarly, I think, in Romans 11. So for example, I think this is very illustrative. of the meaning of world in John 3, Romans 11. In Romans 11, Paul is talking about God's future plan for Israel. And throughout this passage, he is contrasting Gentile and Jew, the nations with Israel. And this is what Paul says in verse 11 of Romans 11. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? That is, has Israel, according to the flesh, has Israel stumbled and unbelieved that they should fall, never to rise again? And Paul says, God forbid, but rather through their fall, salvations come to the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. So again, you just have this contrast between Jew and Gentile. Look in verse 12, this contrast carries over. Now if the fall of them, that is the Jew, be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them, the Jew, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. So you see the parallel, the contrast, first of all, between Jew and Gentile, Jew and world, and the parallel between Gentile and world. That's the point of John 3. It's not saying that Christ gave his life for every single person who's ever lived or whoever will live, but that Christ gave his life for a people out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. This is not all without exception, it's all without distinction. It tells us about the worldwide scope of the gospel and why we should be eager, either ourselves or in support of others, to see the gospel reach to the ends of the world. Number two, it tells us about the exclusivity of the gospel of the atonement. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. In other words, Jesus Christ, through the death that he accomplished on the cross, through his redemption, is the only way to the Father. There is no other way. Our Lord says in John 14, verse six, that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. He is not a way. He is the way. He's the exclusive way, because he is the only one who's worthy to take the book, the open and seals that are up, to work redemption. The only way to the Father. It's why the apostles would tell the Jewish St. Hendren, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Know their name. Christ is not a tribal deity. He is the God of the whole world. All authority is given to him in heaven and earth. If you will come to the Father, you must come through Christ. Not through some kind of vague spirituality, but through Christ. And thirdly, tells us of the perpetuity of the atonement. In other words, gospel of the world means He's not just for Jew, he's for Gentile as well. It's not that one part of the world gets saved this way, another part of the world gets saved, everyone is saved the same way, but also in every generation. This is for all time. And therefore we should place due emphasis upon the whosoever believeth. that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. As I said a moment ago, faith is the open hand of the beggar. What an encouragement this is. You may be asking, how could this be true of me? So I consider what God did on the cross through Christ, that he died for the sins of even the chief of sinners, but I just don't see how that could apply to me. I don't see how I could open my hand and expect this free gift to be dropped into it. Well, this is why I think the context is so important. Going back up to verse 14, Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. You know the background of this, what happened here? Israel in the wilderness, these are bad people. And God sent serpents into the camp because they were bad, because they were wicked. They were constantly disobeying God. They were constantly grumbling. They were constantly doing the wrong thing. They were constantly in unbelief, despite all that they had seen. And these snakes, these poisonous snakes began to bite people. They began to die as the poison was coursing through their veins. And so they come to Moses and they say, Moses, Deliver us from this. And so Moses goes to God and God says, here's what y'all want you to do. Take a pole, put a bronze circle on the top of the pole, sit in the camp, and whoever looks on that will be healed. Now my friends, that pole was not put there. And that bronze circle was not put there so that people could look because they were good. The people who were bitten were bitten because they were bad. So if you this morning feel the poison of sin coursing through your veins, and you feel the death of sin upon your life, I encourage you, as Moses lifted up the serpent of wilderness, look to the Son of Man, because the Bible says whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now what do we do with this? Let me conclude with four encouragements. We've seen that the cross is the display of God's love, and in particular of God's electing love. Christ came to fulfill the will of the Father, to save the elect, those upon whom God set his love from the foundation of the world unconditionally. We see it's the expression, the ultimate expression of God's electing love, of God's saving love in Christ, who died as a sacrifice and a substitute for our sins, of God's sacrificial love, God so loved the world, he loved the world in this way, that he gave his only begotten son. And of God's worldwide love in Christ, what should you do with this? Well, number one, as the text encourages, as all the New Testament encourages to do, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Again, the point of faith is we don't encourage people to believe because their belief makes them worthy. That's not the point of faith. Faith does not look within. It looks out. It does not look to achievements or to goodness. It's a trust in the perfection of Christ and his righteousness and his atonement. Look away from yourselves. Look solely to Jesus Christ. Number two, let the love of God in the death of Christ motivate you. If you've given yourself to Christ, if God's drawn you by grace to Christ, let the love of Christ motivate you to give yourself wholly to him. I love the way the apostle Paul puts it, again to the Corinthians in chapter five. He says, the love of Christ constraineth us or compels us. Why, Paul? Why are you willing to be beside yourselves, appear to be beside yourselves to others? He says, whether we be beside ourselves is to God, whether we be sober is for your cause. Why are you willing to be like this, Paul? The love of Christ compels us. Why does the love of Christ compel you, Paul? Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And then he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but in him which died for them and rose again. And how do you show that you love Christ? Well, Jesus tells us, doesn't he? If you love me, what? Keep my commandments. The apostle Paul says this in Romans chapter 15. I love this. Esaias saith, there shall be a root of Jesse and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles and him shall the Gentiles trust. Who will the Gentiles trust? The one who rises to reign over the Gentiles. Who will the Gentiles love? The one who rises to reign over them. For to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. All my friends, Christ is the best of kings. He is the greatest of lords. And let the love of God in Christ motivate you to give yourself more entirely to him. Let the love of Christ constrain you, compel you, Two, full hearted obedience. Three, let the love of God and the death of Christ fill you with hope and peace and assurance. You know, one of the things that, as I studied for this, I was impressed with is the fact that the doctrines of grace, I think more than their competitors, because this is biblical, feels a person who really grasped as they should with hope. Because it tells us that at the end of the day, our salvation does not depend upon our goodness or our initiative, but upon the grace of God in Christ, the unchanging grace of God in Christ. And that Christ's death was not just to get us to the point where we can now, you know, get over a hump to where we can now earn our keep with God, but that having died for us, Our sins are fully paid for, past, present, and future. Fully paid for. And that when we fight, when we fight the sin in our life, we're fighting forgiven sin. I like the way Toplady put it. From whence this fear and unbelief? Hast thou, O Father, put to grief thy spotless Son for me? And will the righteous judge of men condemn me for that guilt of sin which Lord was charged on thee? Complete atonement thou hast made, and to the utmost farthing paid, whatever thy people owed. How then can wrath on me take place, if sheltered in thy righteousness, and sprinkled with thy blood? If thou my discharge hast procured, and freely in my room endure the whole of wrath divine, payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine. Turn thou my soul, unto thy rest. The merits of thy great high priest speak peace and liberty. Trust in his efficacious blood, nor fear thy banishment from God, since Jesus died for thee. And then finally, go and imitate the love of God in your life. Isn't this what the Bible says over and over again? We've mentioned some of these passages. Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love. How? How are you to walk in love? As Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for us, sweet as money and silver. Husbands, love your wives. How, Paul? As Christ loved the church. How? And gave himself for it, that he not presented to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. To believe the doctrines of grace and to treat our spouses, our children, let's admit we're all guilty of this, with harshness, or our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, to be unforgiving or bitter is a shocking contradiction. We need to be like Timothy, Philippians 2. I always shudder when I read this because again, I know what is in me. I know the selfishness is in me. The Apostle Paul says, all seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christ. And my prayer often is, God, please let me not be like that. But if you go back a verse, this is what we should be like. Paul says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state, for I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. I want to be like that. Well, people are hard. I'm hard. You know, Elizabeth Dodge wrote that book, Marriage to a Difficult Man, about Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Well, I think every man is a difficult man on some level, and every woman is a difficult woman on some level, and every child is a difficult child on some level, and every family member is a difficult family member. So how are you motivated when it's hard to love your neighbor as yourself? Remember the love of God in Christ. So these doctrines are not to kind of hover in the stratosphere, kind of in vague abstract concepts. We ought to believe them for the sake of our souls and then let the aroma of the love of God in Christ be shed abroad throughout our life. I know I need more of that in my own life. And I hope this encourages you as it does me to be followers of God as dear children and to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that, Lord, how could we even begin to even think that you would love people in this way, and that you would provide an atonement that we could not provide for ourselves, we could never have, not in a million years, that you have done so in Christ. Full atonement thou hast made, to the utmost farthing pay, the whole of wrath divine, through Christ and the Lord, but we know it's true because you reveal it in your word. But these are not, these are not the musings of religious men on these pages. These are the words of the living God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. So may we hear them. May we see and savor the love of God in Christ. And may it permeate our life in every way. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.