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2004 Ligonier Conference An Everlasting Love The Love of God John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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  Speaker 1: When I was given the subject of the love of God,
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  Speaker 1: it reminded me that a number of years ago, the
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  Speaker 1: publisher that I was working with at the time said
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  Speaker 1: to me, you know, you're pretty intense in your books
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  Speaker 1: and they tend to be a bit combative from time
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  Speaker 1: to time. We would like you to write a more
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  Speaker 1: amiable book. We'd like to sort of, you know, change
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  Speaker 1: your image a little and and maybe have you kind
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  Speaker 1: of reach a wider audience. So could you just write
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  Speaker 1: sort of a non-controversial book for us? And we think
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  Speaker 1: it'll make you more friendly, and we'd like to suggest
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  Speaker 1: that you write on the subject of the love of God.
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  Speaker 1: I did, and I sent in the book. to them
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  Speaker 1: and they sent me back a letter that said, this
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  Speaker 1: is not what we had in mind. This may be
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  Speaker 1: the most potentially divisive book you have ever written. I
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  Speaker 1: was sitting on the Larry King program sometime back, which
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  Speaker 1: is always an adventure for me, and I have a
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  Speaker 1: strategy on Larry King. My strategy is very simple. I
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  Speaker 1: don't care what the conversation is about. There are two
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  Speaker 1: things I want to say. The Bible is the only
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  Speaker 1: authoritative word from God, and Jesus is the only Savior,
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  Speaker 1: and I just look for places to say those two things.
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  Speaker 1: But I was sitting next to Father Manning, and between
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  Speaker 1: Father Manning and Deepak Chopra, who in one of his
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  Speaker 1: books says he's God. And he was so distressed because
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  Speaker 1: he's a rather small guy and he had him cranking
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  Speaker 1: the chair up so he could get up with everybody else.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard when you're God to be shorter than everybody else. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That's a problem, isn't it? But anyway, we were talking,
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  Speaker 1: and Father Manning said, My Jesus loves everybody. And Larry
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  Speaker 1: King looked at me and said, You don't feel that
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  Speaker 1: way about Jesus, do you, John? You... You think if
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  Speaker 1: people don't believe in Jesus and Jesus alone, they're going
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  Speaker 1: to hell, right? And I said, right. And there are
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  Speaker 1: people who question that if you believe that, you could
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  Speaker 1: still affirm the love of God. On the surface, the
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  Speaker 1: idea that God is love is the most tolerable and
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  Speaker 1: the most universally affirmed truth concerning God. And almost everyone
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  Speaker 1: is happy that God is love as long as you
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  Speaker 1: leave it in a simplistic kind of definition. The reality
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  Speaker 1: is that people, in fact, and most professing Christians, do
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  Speaker 1: not understand the love of God. It is far more profound.
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  Speaker 1: It is far more complex. And frankly, it is incomprehensible
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  Speaker 1: and at times disturbing to contemplate. Setting aside the popular ideas,
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  Speaker 1: I want us to look together to several scriptures. You
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  Speaker 1: can preach a topical message once a year if you
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  Speaker 1: ask for forgiveness. So I want to do that and
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  Speaker 1: bounce around a little bit, have your Bible handy. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about the height and depth and breadth
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  Speaker 1: and length of the love of God. At least I
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  Speaker 1: want to give you sort of a sort of a
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  Speaker 1: primary scope to look at this incredibly important reality in
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  Speaker 1: the nature of God and the place His love has
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  Speaker 1: and the panoply of attributes that make up His nature. Clearly,
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  Speaker 1: God is love. 1 John 4 tells us that. The
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  Speaker 1: Bible declares that. But at the very outset, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to have to break that love down, and for our purposes,
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  Speaker 1: just to get a good sense of the overview, we're
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  Speaker 1: going to break it into three categories. Category number one
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  Speaker 1: is God's love for Himself. This is what we will
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  Speaker 1: call intra-Trinitarian love. And this is the starting point of
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  Speaker 1: necessity for all of God's love. Before there was any
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  Speaker 1: creature to love, God was still perfect love and perfectly
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  Speaker 1: loved the members of the Trinity mutually. Open your Bible
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  Speaker 1: for a moment to the fourteenth chapter of John. We'll
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  Speaker 1: look at a couple of passages in John just as
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  Speaker 1: a starting point because obviously we can't get too far
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  Speaker 1: into these things or we'll not be able to cover
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  Speaker 1: the breadth of what we want to say. But in
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  Speaker 1: John 14, Just some statements that establish in our minds
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  Speaker 1: this intra-Trinitarian love. In verse 31 of John 14 we read,
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  Speaker 1: But that the world may know that I love the Father,
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  Speaker 1: and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise,
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  Speaker 1: let us go from here. Jesus said, let's progress toward
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  Speaker 1: the inevitability of the cross, that the world may know
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  Speaker 1: that I love the Father, and I show that love
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  Speaker 1: in perfect and sacrificial obedience. In the 15th chapter, still
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  Speaker 1: in this wonderful upper room discourse, the night of the
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  Speaker 1: Passover with His apostles, Jesus says, Verse 9, chapter 15,
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  Speaker 1: just as the Father has loved me, I have also
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  Speaker 1: loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments,
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  Speaker 1: you will abide in My love, just as I have
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  Speaker 1: kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. Again,
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  Speaker 1: perfect love demonstrated in perfect obedience. In the seventeenth chapter
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  Speaker 1: of John, again we read of this intra-Trinitarian love. Verse 23,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus says, I in them, and this of course as
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  Speaker 1: you know is the high priestly prayer as it's often called,
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  Speaker 1: I in them and thou in Me, that they may
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  Speaker 1: be perfected in unity that the world may know that
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  Speaker 1: Thou didst send me and didst love them, even as
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  Speaker 1: Thou didst love me. Again, this emphasis is in verse 26,
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  Speaker 1: I have made Thy name known to them and will
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  Speaker 1: make it known, and the love wherewith Thou didst love
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  Speaker 1: me may be in them and I in them. Perfect
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  Speaker 1: love in the Trinity. Perfect love from all eternity. Two
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  Speaker 1: expressions of that love I want to sort of pull
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  Speaker 1: out of the text of John's gospel just to demonstrate
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  Speaker 1: something of the character of it. We've already seen that
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  Speaker 1: it's connected to the obedience of our Lord. Therein lies
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  Speaker 1: the demonstration of His love back to the Father. But
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  Speaker 1: I want to show you the Father's love to Him.
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  Speaker 1: Turn to the fifth chapter of John. And I find
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  Speaker 1: this to be one of those compelling chapters, not unlike
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  Speaker 1: the 17th chapter. In the 17th chapter of John, you
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  Speaker 1: are in the Holy of Holies. You are in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of communion between the Son and the Father. And
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  Speaker 1: here is much the same kind of reality. The words
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  Speaker 1: belong to Jesus. Chapter 5, verse 19, Jesus therefore answered
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  Speaker 1: and was saying to them, truly, truly, I say to you,
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  Speaker 1: the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is
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  Speaker 1: something He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does,
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  Speaker 1: these things the Son also does in like manner. For
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  Speaker 1: the Father loves the Son and shows Him all these
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  Speaker 1: things that He Himself is doing And greater works than
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  Speaker 1: these will He show Him that you may marvel. For,
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  Speaker 1: verse 21, just as the Father raises the dead and
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  Speaker 1: gives them life, even so the Son also gives life
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  Speaker 1: to those whom He wishes. Verse 22, for not even
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  Speaker 1: the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment
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  Speaker 1: to the Son in order that all may honor the
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  Speaker 1: Son even as they honor the Father. He who does
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  Speaker 1: not honor the Son does not honor the Father who
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  Speaker 1: sent Him Truly, truly, I say to you. he who
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  Speaker 1: hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has
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  Speaker 1: eternal life and does not come into judgment but is
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  Speaker 1: passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say
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  Speaker 1: to you, an hour is coming and now is when
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  Speaker 1: the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
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  Speaker 1: God and those who hear shall live, for just as
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  Speaker 1: the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave
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  Speaker 1: to the Son also to have life in Himself, and
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  Speaker 1: He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is
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  Speaker 1: the Son of Man. Now we can stop there. You
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  Speaker 1: know what that says? Everything that the Father has, He
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  Speaker 1: gave the Son. Everything. The Son does what He sees
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  Speaker 1: the Father doing in verse 19. The Father shows the
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  Speaker 1: Son everything that He Himself is doing. Here is the
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  Speaker 1: magnanimity of the love of God. He holds nothing back.
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  Speaker 1: All His power He gives to the Son. Verse 21 says,
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  Speaker 1: Just as the Father raises the dead, gives them life,
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  Speaker 1: so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.
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  Speaker 1: God has the power to raise the dead, so does
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  Speaker 1: the Son. God has the right to judge, verse 22,
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  Speaker 1: but He's given all judgment to the Son. God is
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  Speaker 1: worthy of all honor, but He's given equal honor to
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  Speaker 1: the Son. God is the one to be believed, but
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  Speaker 1: He gives His word to His Son who also is
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  Speaker 1: to be believed. The Father gives life, the Son gives life.
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  Speaker 1: The Father executes judgment, the Son executes judgment. The magnanimity
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  Speaker 1: of the love of God To the Son is that
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  Speaker 1: all the Father's knowledge, all the Father's power, all the
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  Speaker 1: Father's secrets, all the Father's privileges, all the Father's honor,
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  Speaker 1: He gives to the Son and holds nothing back. And
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  Speaker 1: the Son, in perfect reciprocal love, says that all that
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  Speaker 1: He has is only what the Father has given Him. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: He celebrates the expression of perfect love in consummate generosity
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  Speaker 1: that holds back nothing. And in John 6, verse 36,
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  Speaker 1: we come to a familiar portion of Scripture which takes
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  Speaker 1: us to a second illustration of how the Father loves
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  Speaker 1: the Son and the Son in return loves the Father.
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  Speaker 1: In John 6, verse 36 and following. We'll start at
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  Speaker 1: verse 37. Jesus says, all that the Father gives me
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  Speaker 1: shall come to me. Now here you come to the
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  Speaker 1: glory of redemption. The Father loves the Son so much.
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  Speaker 1: that He gives to the Son a redeemed humanity. You understand,
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  Speaker 1: don't you, that God loving sinners is secondary and God
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  Speaker 1: loving His Son is primary. He loves sinners insofar as
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  Speaker 1: by loving them He can express His love to His Son.
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  Speaker 1: We're nothing but an elect bride the Father's love gift
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  Speaker 1: to the Son. That's why he said, all that the
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  Speaker 1: Father gives me, all that the Father gives me. No
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  Speaker 1: man comes unto me unless the Father what? Draws him.
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  Speaker 1: And also in John 17, you have the very same
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  Speaker 1: reality expressed a couple of times in Verse 11, I
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  Speaker 1: am no more in the world, yet they themselves are
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  Speaker 1: in the world. I come to thee, Holy Father, keep
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  Speaker 1: them in thy name, the name which thou hast given me,
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  Speaker 1: that we may be one, that they may be one,
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  Speaker 1: even as we are one. While I was with them,
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  Speaker 1: I was keeping them in thy name, which thou hast
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  Speaker 1: given me. Verse 24, I desire that they also whom
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  Speaker 1: thou hast given me be with me where I am.
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  Speaker 1: So when you talk about inter-Trinitarian love, You're talking about
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  Speaker 1: the love that exists primarily expressed in the language between
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  Speaker 1: the Father and the Son but not to leave out
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit within the Trinity expressed in texts such
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  Speaker 1: as we have just read. We must begin then with
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  Speaker 1: the primary intra-Trinitarian love because it leads to the other loves.
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  Speaker 1: Because God the Father perfectly loves the Son, salvation is planned.
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  Speaker 1: as the father seeks a bride for his son, as
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  Speaker 1: the son in perfect obedience and perfect love for the
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  Speaker 1: father is willing to pay the price for that bride,
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  Speaker 1: the immense price of redemption, obeying the father's will out
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  Speaker 1: of love for him and becoming a substitute and receiving
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  Speaker 1: the wrath of God for all who would believe. God
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  Speaker 1: loving us, God loving people, rises out of God's creating
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  Speaker 1: people to redeem a bride for the Son of His love. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that's a glorious subject in itself. I'm only introducing it
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  Speaker 1: tonight because it's really not the focus of this particular address.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go to a second category of love, having sort
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  Speaker 1: of letting that sort of settle in our minds for
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  Speaker 1: a moment. I want to move to the second category
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  Speaker 1: of love, which is critical for us to understand. That
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  Speaker 1: is God's love for humanity, God's love for humanity. It
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  Speaker 1: is true, God does love men and women. God does
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  Speaker 1: love the world. There is a love of God which
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  Speaker 1: is unconditional. You hear that used so many times, that adjective, unconditional.
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  Speaker 1: You would think that's the demanded adjective to describe God's
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  Speaker 1: love finally, ultimately, but it is not. But there is, however,
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  Speaker 1: an unconditional kind of love, an unlimited kind of love,
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  Speaker 1: an indiscriminate kind of love, a love extended to all people.
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  Speaker 1: It's like Titus 3, 4, which says, God's love for mankind, krestetes.
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  Speaker 1: There is a kind of love extended to all men.
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  Speaker 1: And it is a necessary love because God's nature is love.
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  Speaker 1: And if God has any interaction with human beings, it
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  Speaker 1: will be based upon His nature. If you have an
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  Speaker 1: interaction with another human being, another person, you are interacting
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  Speaker 1: with whatever the components of that person's character and personality are.
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  Speaker 1: And when the sinful world interacts at all with God
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  Speaker 1: or God with them, the truth about God will be manifest.
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  Speaker 1: And the truth about God is that He is love.
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  Speaker 1: And so love is part of that relationship. A few
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  Speaker 1: passages that are important in that regard. Matthew chapter 5.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew chapter 5. And I want to show you a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about this sort of unconditional, indiscriminate, general, unlimited
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  Speaker 1: love that extends to all people. Matthew chapter 5 verse 44.
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  Speaker 1: I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those
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  Speaker 1: who persecute you in order that you may be sons
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  Speaker 1: of your Father who is in heaven. Never are you
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  Speaker 1: more like God than when you love your enemies. God
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  Speaker 1: loves His enemies. God's love is not restricted to the redeemed.
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  Speaker 1: This is an unqualified, unconditional love. Another illustration of this
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  Speaker 1: is found in the tenth chapter of Mark, which I think,
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  Speaker 1: is sort of tucked into that tenth chapter and perhaps overlooked,
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  Speaker 1: unless you're reading thoughtfully. Verse 17, as he was setting
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  Speaker 1: out on a journey, a man ran up to him,
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  Speaker 1: Mark 10, 17, knelt before him, began asking him, good teacher,
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  Speaker 1: what shall I do to inherit eternal life? This is
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  Speaker 1: the well-known rich young ruler. And Jesus said to him,
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  Speaker 1: why do you call me good? No one is good
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  Speaker 1: except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder,
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  Speaker 1: do not commit adultery, Do not steal. Do not bear
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  Speaker 1: false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother.
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  Speaker 1: And he said to him, teacher, I have kept all
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  Speaker 1: these things from my youth up. There is a deluded man.
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  Speaker 1: There is a confused man. Here is a man who
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  Speaker 1: cannot receive eternal life because he does not understand the
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  Speaker 1: wretchedness of his own condition. He believes himself to be
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  Speaker 1: righteous and In spite of the fact that he would
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  Speaker 1: not accept the diagnosis that Jesus gave of his condition
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  Speaker 1: or endeavor to expose, it says in verse 21, and
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  Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated by this, and looking at him,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus felt a love for him. Amazing. Looking at this obstinate,
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  Speaker 1: self-righteous rejecter, Jesus felt a love for him. And he
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  Speaker 1: said to him, one thing you lack, go and sell
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  Speaker 1: all you possess, give to the poor, you shall have
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  Speaker 1: treasure in heaven, and come follow me. There are two
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  Speaker 1: conditions upon which this man would put himself in the
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  Speaker 1: place to receive eternal life, and one was to understand
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  Speaker 1: that he had broken the law of God, and two
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  Speaker 1: was to understand that he was being asked to submit
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  Speaker 1: to the lordship of Christ whatever Christ commanded. But in
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  Speaker 1: neither case would he respond And verse 22 says, at
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  Speaker 1: these words his face fell, he went away grieved, for
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  Speaker 1: he was one who owned much property. And Jesus' comment
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  Speaker 1: was how hard it will be for those who are
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  Speaker 1: wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. Here was a
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  Speaker 1: man who didn't enter the kingdom of God, and yet
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  Speaker 1: Jesus had a love for him. God loves humanity. There
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  Speaker 1: are four ways in which we see this unconditional, indiscriminate love.
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  Speaker 1: Number one is what theologians have always called common grace.
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  Speaker 1: If for a moment you could look at Matthew chapter
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  Speaker 1: 5 again, you would notice the latter half of verse 45.
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  Speaker 1: where He says,' Love your enemies in order that you
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  Speaker 1: may be sons of your Father who is in heaven,
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  Speaker 1: for He causes His Son to rise on the evil
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  Speaker 1: and the good and sends rain on the righteous and
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  Speaker 1: the unrighteous. And if you only love those who love you,
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  Speaker 1: what reward have you?' Tax collectors do that. God loves
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  Speaker 1: those who don't love Him. And that love is manifest, listen,
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  Speaker 1: in an earthly, physical, temporal fashion by rain and good.
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  Speaker 1: You understand that, of course, because you know that the
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  Speaker 1: soul that sins, it shall die. The wages of sin
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  Speaker 1: is death. And yet the world is constantly, from the
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  Speaker 1: very start, populated by people who sin and sin continuously
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  Speaker 1: in an unbroken pattern and go on living. And it's
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  Speaker 1: not as if this is outside the control of God
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  Speaker 1: because it's in God we live and move and have
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  Speaker 1: our being. And God says to Adam, in the day
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  Speaker 1: you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will die.
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  Speaker 1: And Adam lived over 900 years. What is that? And
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  Speaker 1: so did all the other sinners that are listed there
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  Speaker 1: early in Genesis, living for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of years. Can you imagine, by the time you get
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  Speaker 1: to be 60 or 70, your life is so full
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  Speaker 1: of sin, what would it have been like if you
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  Speaker 1: lived to be 900? How would you like to deal
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  Speaker 1: with that memory bank of garbage? The very fact that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord lets the unregenerate get up in the morning
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  Speaker 1: and smell the coffee and have a good breakfast and
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  Speaker 1: kiss the person they love and hug a baby and
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  Speaker 1: go off to a stimulating career and enjoy a great
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  Speaker 1: meal and a comfortable car and a sunset and a
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  Speaker 1: beautiful seascape and hear music and enjoy all of the
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  Speaker 1: common grace of life. is an expression of God's love
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  Speaker 1: for humanity. He loves all men unconditionally in that physical,
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  Speaker 1: temporal sense. And we have to understand that that is
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  Speaker 1: God's love. Listen to Acts 14, 17. He did good
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  Speaker 1: and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying
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  Speaker 1: your hearts with food and gladness. Who is Paul saying
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  Speaker 1: that to? A bunch of idolaters who tried to turn
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  Speaker 1: Paul and Barnabas into gods. That's common grace. The second
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  Speaker 1: way in which God loves humanity is compassion. Compassion. And
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  Speaker 1: certainly it's tied into the reason that God expresses common grace.
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  Speaker 1: God's love for mankind is revealed in His universal pity,
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  Speaker 1: His universal grief over lost souls. Ezekiel 18.32, I have
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  Speaker 1: no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God finds
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  Speaker 1: no pleasure, no satisfaction there. I always... I love reading Jeremiah,
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  Speaker 1: particularly when I'm feeling sorry for myself. I need somebody
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  Speaker 1: to cry with me. Jeremiah 13, listen and give heed.
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  Speaker 1: Do not be haughty or proud. For the Lord has spoken,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: give glory to the Lord your God before He brings
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: darkness and before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: And while you're hoping for light, He makes it into
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: deep darkness and turns it into gloom. But if you
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: will not listen to it, listen to this, my soul
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: will sob in secret for such pride and my eyes
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: will bitterly weep and flow down with tears. That's the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: compassion of God weeping through the eyes of Jeremiah. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: at the end of the book of Jonah, chapter 5,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: down there in verse 11, God says to Jonah, should
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: not I have had compassion on Nineveh? Just because you
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: hate the Gentiles doesn't mean I do. It's the 48th chapter,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I think, of Jeremiah, if I remember right, around verse
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: 30 and following, where God literally weeps and wails over
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the destruction of Moab. Moab was cursed, but God found
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: no pleasure in their iniquity or their judgment. And then
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Matthew 23, 37, what is Jesus saying? Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: How often I would have gathered you as a hen
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: gathereth her brood, and you would not. You just kill
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the prophets that are sent to you. In Luke 19.41,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: he says he looked over the city and he wept.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: And he wept over the tomb of Lazarus. Why? Because
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: he was sorry Lazarus died? No, because he wanted Lazarus dead.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Don't you remember he stayed up by the Jordan until
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: he was good and dead? Until he'd been dead for
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: three days. And the Jews didn't embalm. He would have
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: been in some seriously bad shape by then. He was
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: not weeping because Lazarus was dead. He was weeping because
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: he was absorbing the horrible consequence of sin, namely death,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: for all. This, you know... This is a love of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: compassion that is not motivated by the present value of someone,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: but by the lost value. When Moses wanted to see God,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: God said, I'll show you my compassion. There's a third
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: element of this love for humanity, and I guess we
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: could put it in the category of warning. God's love
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: for mankind is revealed in his incessant warnings. all through
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the Scripture. We won't take the time to recite them.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I always think of a text that I first heard
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: from R.C. many years ago when I listened to a
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: series on the holiness of God. I think it's in
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: that series, taken out of Luke 13, where they came
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and asked Jesus about the tower that fell on the people,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and then the people who were in worshiping, and the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: soldiers came in and sliced them up, and Jesus' response was, hey,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you better take a look at your own life. Same
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: thing's going to happen to you. You're not exempt. It's
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: not that they were any worse than anybody else. The
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: fact of the matter is, it's only grace and love
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: that gives you another breath. You know, when you think
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: about that text in 1 Timothy 4.10, it's a very
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: provocative text. Where it says that God is the Savior
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: of all men, especially those who believe. I know that's
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: disturbed a lot of people. Universalists like that text. Right?
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: God's the Savior of all men. But God is the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Savior of all men. men, especially those who believe. Melissa,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: a little adverb there. In what sense is God the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Savior of all men? In a physical and temporal sense,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: in that He withholds from the sinner what the sinner
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: deserves when he deserves it. And it is that that
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Paul says in Romans 2 is the patience and forbearance
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: of God that you should have leading you to repentance.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: New Testament, the Old Testament, filled with warnings. Filled with warnings.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: There's a fourth category of this unconditional love. And I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: guess we could call it... The gospel offer. God's love
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: for mankind in the broadest sense is revealed in His
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: incessant and extensive offer of the gospel. Go into all
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the world and preach the gospel to everyone. Everyone. The
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: path to salvation has been made known to all. That
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: which may be known of God, Romans 1, is in
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: them It is that logical process built into the mind,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that cause and effect pattern in human thinking that is
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the operation of logic. I mean, it's basically the simple
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: building block upon which all reasoning takes place. And when
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: you get into that pattern, it takes you back to
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the ultimate cause, and then God puts Himself on display
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: in His creation. Chapter 2 of Romans, it tells us
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: that He's written His law in our hearts. And He's
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: given us a conscience to react to that law and convict, accuse,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: or excuse. Christ is the light that lights every man.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: There is a path built into the human heart which
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: when followed leads to truth and to God. And as
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: we are faithful to proclaim to the ends of the earth,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to the hearing of the gospel. Hyper-Calvinists tell us we
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: shouldn't preach the gospel to everybody because we don't know
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: who's the elect. That's not what the Bible tells us.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Every sinner, as far as I know, I have to
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: operate on this basis, every sinner that I meet, if
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: he or she believes in Jesus, will be pardoned and saved.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: John 6, 40. This is the will of my Father,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: will have eternal life. And I myself, Jesus said, will
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: raise Him on the last day. The divine Savior is
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: revealed to sinners indiscriminately. In an unlimited fashion, to the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: ends of the earth, we are to go with this message.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Whether it's Psalm 34, 8, which says, Oh, taste and
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: that trusts in Him. Proverbs 1, 24, I have called
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and you refused. I stretched out my hand and no
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: man regarded. Or Isaiah 55, come buy and eat, buy
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: wine and milk without money and without price. Or Isaiah 65,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: called by my name. I have spread out my hands
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: all the day unto a rebellious people. And in Matthew 22,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a king
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: who made a marriage for his son. And he sent
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: forth his servants to call them that were bidden to
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the wedding, and they wouldn't come. Luke 14, which says,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: A man made a great supper and bade many send
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: his servants at supper time to say to them who
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: were bidden, Come, all things are ready. And they all
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: with one consent began to make excuse. Jesus said, Come
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: unto me, all you that labor and have your laden,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I'll give you rest. Jesus said, Him that comes to me,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: I'll never turn away. And so there is in this
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: extensive gospel offer a manifest love to humanity. Thomas Boston,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the Puritan preacher, used the analogy of a king. It
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: was like a king, he said, appointing a physician for
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the nation. And that physician was available to all the people,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the official doctor of that society. Whether people chose him
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: or not, he was the official physician for that nation. Well,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Jesus is the Savior of the world, declared so by
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: God and available to all who come to him for
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: spiritual healing. In John 5.40, Jesus said, You are unwilling
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: to come to me that you might have life. We
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: can't forget that. That is God's love for humanity. God
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: loved the world so much that He provided a sufficient Savior,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: but sinners refuse to come and are guilty for that refusal.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, you will die in your sins, and where
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: I go, you will never come because you didn't believe
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: in Me. That takes us to the third aspect of
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: God's love, not only God's love for Himself, intra-Trinitarian love,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: and God's love for humanity, but God's love for His own.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: God's love for His own. Listen carefully. Though God genuinely
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: loves the world, He loves them enough to give them
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: common grace. He loves them enough to feel compassion for
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: and extend it to them. He loves them enough to
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: warn them. He loves them enough to give them gospel opportunity.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: That love has no limit in extent, listen, but it
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: has a limit in degree. This is always challenging for us,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: but nonetheless true. He loves and saves in a temporal
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: physical sense all men. But He especially loves and saves believers.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: His love for His own is eternal. It is limited
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: in extent and unlimited in degree. It is conditional and
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: And it is uninfluenced. It is a love based upon
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: nothing but sovereign determination. Turn to John 13. Of all
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the passages where in a straightforward and direct sense you
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: can see this love, this is foundational. John 13. Our
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Lord here is on the brink of His own death,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: gathered with His disciples obstinate blockhead apostles, the OU of
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Little Faith Association. And they're gathering together to celebrate the Passover,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: the night that, of course, Judas would betray Him and
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: He would be then arrested and murdered. And I just,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: verse 1 captures me now before the feast of the Passover,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: depart out of this world to the Father. Listen to this.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Having loved his own who were in the world, he
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: loved them to the end. Having loved, past tense, with
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: ongoing force. Having always loved his own who were in
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: the world, he loves the world, but there's another kind
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: of love. We know he loves the world. But He
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: has another love for His own who are in the world,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: and what is it? He loved them to the end.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: And I think the Lord picks a really marvelous time
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: to have John express that, because the disciples at this
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: point in the upper room are having an argument about
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: which of them is going to be the greatest in
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: the kingdom. I mean, they're just so self-centered, so immature, selfish, ambitious.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Jesus had told them what was going to happen, and
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: as He is there in the shadow of the cross
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and the dark night is falling over Him, all they
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: can think about is their own glory. And here in
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: their ugliest moment, when they are utterly indifferent to His
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: coming suffering, when whatever the indications of His own sorrow
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: were as He gathered with them in intimate fellowship for
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: hours that night, they never picked up anything. This was
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: when they were the ugliest of all. And it says
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: He loved them ice-cold. Tell us. Who is it that
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: he loved? His own. Who were in the world. Eis
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: tell us. What does that mean? It means in one sense.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: To the max. Unto the end. In the sense of
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: complete and perfect and full. He loved them to the max. Yes.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Another way to say that would be He loved them
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: to the end of His capacity to love them. And
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: that cannot be said of His love for humanity. It
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: could say He loved them to the last. They deserted Him.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: They denied Him. They were ashamed of Him. They were cowards.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: They were disloyal. They were fearful. They were scattered very
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: soon from this time. And do you remember when they
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: rendezvoused up in Galilee after His resurrection? What was Jesus'
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: thrice-repeated question to Peter? Peter, do you what? Do you
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: love me? Do you love me? You see, Jesus was
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: used to Love being demonstrated by obedience because that's how
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: he loved his father. And Jesus had told Peter to
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: go to Galilee and wait for him, and Peter went
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: back to his old career. He loved them in their disloyalty.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: His love for them is so astonishing. You can see
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: it in the events that follow. When you get into
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: his promises in this Passover evening, this legacy of Jesus
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: that He gives to them, promises them all these things.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: He pledges His love to them. He shows His love
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: to them by washing their filthy feet while they were
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: debating who was the greatest, and none would stoop to
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: do that. He shows His love to them later on
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: in the garden. You remember the soldiers came in the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: garden to take Jesus captive, and Jesus knew very clearly
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: that these men could never survive if they were taken captive.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: He knew that. He knew that it would be more
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: than they could bear, more than their faith could handle.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: And so John 18 says that when they came to
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: take Jesus, Jesus went forth, moved, didn't hide, moved right
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: toward the Roman cohort and officers of chief priests and
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Pharisees with lanterns, torches, and weapons, verse 4 of John 18.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: He went forth and said,' Whom do you seek?' In
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: other words, he said, I want to know what's on
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: your orders. I want to know who the warrant is for.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: And they answered him, Jesus the Nazarene. He said to them,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I am he. When therefore he said to them, I
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. Boom.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Just the sheer force of his name. The name of God.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: I am. I am. And again He said to them,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazarene.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: And He was affirming by their own lips that they
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: had absolutely no right to take those disciples prisoner. Why?
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Verse 8, He said, I told you I am He.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: If therefore you seek Me, let these go their way. Why?
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: They couldn't have handled it. It would have been more
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: than their faith could bear. And so He protected them
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: And he said this, verse 9, that the word might
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: be fulfilled which he spoke of those whom thou hast
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: given me, I lost not one. Did you understand that passage?
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: What Jesus is saying is, if I allowed them to
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: get into that situation and be arrested, I would have
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: lost them. You say, wait a minute, wait a minute,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: wait a minute. He can't lose his own, that's right.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: He can't lose his own because he won't lose his own.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Not just because He said He won't, but because He
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: enforces what He said. He never lets you be put
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: in a position where your faith could fail to that degree.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: He protected them from what would have been shattering to them.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Later on after the resurrection, He forgave them even though
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: they didn't believe in the resurrection, and they're walking along
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: talking to Him and moaning about the fact that He's dead.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: He restored them even though they were disobedient. He sent
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: them His Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 2, and empowered them
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: to preach the gospel. He loved them to the max. And,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: of course, He showed it on the cross. Greater love
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: has no man than this, that He lay down His
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: life for His friends. This love, by the way, is eternal.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Because in John 14, Jesus said, Stop letting your heart
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: be what? Trouble. You believe in God, don't you? Believe
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: it were not so, I would have told you, for
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: I go to prepare a place for you. And if
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: again and receive you to myself, that where I am
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: there you may be also. And you want to know something?
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: There are no empty rooms in heaven. The rooms He prepares,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: He fills, which means He keeps the people to whom
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the rooms have been promised. They don't oversell heaven, nor
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: do they undersell. He faces the cross, sin-bearing, agonizing, execution, painful, lonely, forsaken,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Yet like a father who loses himself in the love
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: of his children as he himself faces death, Jesus makes
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: sure he holds on to his own. And then as
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: he knows in his own heart, he's going to the
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: cross and he's going to be separated from the Father.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: When he says, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, he's expressing whatever
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the reality of that separation was. I think he anticipates
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: that in John 17 when he says, Father, I kept
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: them while I was here, now you keep them. It's
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: almost as if he says, I've held on to them
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: up to now, in that moment when I might not
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: be able to hold on to them because I am
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: bearing the wrath for the sins of all who would
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: ever believe, Father, hold on to them. This is what
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the hymn writer said, the love of Jesus, What it is,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: none but His loved ones know. It is not just
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: that general love that gives common grace, compassion, warning, and
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: gospel opportunity. It is this love that is way beyond that.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: It is this saving love, this covenant love. And honestly,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: I could never, ever preach a sermon on this subject
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: without going to Ezekiel 16 because it is the greatest love.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Illustration of this, you have to turn to Ezekiel 16.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: And I think at an earlier Ligonier conference, when I
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: was speaking on a related subject, I drew attention to
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: this chapter. This is so monumental to me. Here is
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: this covenant love, this unbreakable love, this love which Romans
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: 8 says you can never be separated from. And it's
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: so graphic. It's just an unforgettable chapter. The word of
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: the Lord comes to Ezekiel in verse 1, son of man,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say, thus says
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: the Lord God to Jerusalem, your origin and your birth
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: are from the land of the Canaanite. Your father was
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite. I mean,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: the bottom line here is this is a This is
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: a basic address given toward Jerusalem and Israel for her abominations,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: her idolatries. The Amorite and the Hittite, simply general names
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: for the dwellers in Canaan. And here refer to the
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: pagan origins of the people of Israel. And to the
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: fact as well that the people of Israel had gotten
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: involved in pagan conduct and pagan idolatry. Jerusalem is very
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Canaanite-ish at this point. And he reminds this nation in
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: verse 4 of her birth. As for your birth, on
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. The
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: imagery is just so vivid. This is a throwaway baby.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: You were a throwaway baby as far as the people
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: from whom you came were concerned. When a baby was born,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: of course, the cord is cut. The baby is washed, cleansed,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: rubbed with salt as a disinfectant, wrapped carefully in cloth
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: and cared for in a tender way. He says in
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: verse 5, No, I looked with pity on you to
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: do any of these things for you, to have compassion
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: on you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: for you were abhorred or hated on the day you
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: were born. This was not uncommon. When Israel, as it were,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: was thrown out of Egypt, when they were cast out
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: into that field, hated and despised. Verse 6 says, When
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I passed by you, saw you squirming in your blood.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: I said to you while you were in your blood, live.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: I said to you while you were in your blood, live.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: And I made you numerous like plants of the field
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: and you grew up and became tall and reached the
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: age for fine ornaments. Your breasts were formed and your
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. And
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: then I passed by you and I saw you and behold,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: you were at the time for love. So I spread
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: my skirt over you Covered your nakedness. That was a
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: custom that symbolized espousal. I took you to pledge to
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: you to marry you. And I passed by you and
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I saw you, he says. And I took you for
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: my own. I swore to you. I made a covenant,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: a promise. I entered into a covenant with you so
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: that you became mine, declares the Lord God. And so
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: I bathed you with water, and I washed off your
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: blood from you, and I anointed you with oil, and
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: I clothed you with embroidered cloth, and I put sandals
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: of porpoise skin on your feet. I love the environmentalist
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: to read that. I wrapped you with fine linen and
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments. I
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: put bracelets on your hands and necklaces around your neck.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: beautiful crown on your head. You were adorned with gold
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: and silver. Your dress was of fine linen, silk, and
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. So
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty, as God
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: is talking about, I think, the glory of the Solomonic era,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: isn't He? Your fame went forth among the nations. Remember,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: the Queen of Sheba came and just said it was
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: beyond anything could ever be described. Oh, verse 15, you
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: trusted in your beauty, you played the harlot. That's a
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: sad story, isn't it? I mean, just imagine if this
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: were an actual account of a man who did this
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and took this person and did all this and then
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the woman played the harlot. Well, that's what Israel did.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: You poured out your harlotries on every passerby who might
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: be willing. You became a prostitute, a street walker. You
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: of various colors, played the harlot on them, which should
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: never come about or happen. This is talking about the
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: idolatrous high places in Israel. You took your beautiful jewels,
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: made of my gold, my silver, which I have given you,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: made for yourselves male images that you might play the
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: harlot with them. This is idolatry. And then you took
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: your embroidered cloth and covered them and offered my oil
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and my incense before them and my bread, which I
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: gave you, fine flour, oil, honey, which I fed you.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: You would offer before these false gods a soothing aroma.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: And then you took your sons and daughters whom you
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: had borne to me and you sacrificed them to idols
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: to be devoured. You burned your babies on the altar
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: to Molech. You slaughtered my children and offered them up
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: And besides, verse 22, all your abominations and harlotries, you
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: didn't remember the days of your youth when you were
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: naked and bare and squirming in your blood. You forgot
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: what I took you from. Down in verse 28, you
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: were not satisfied with harlotry with the Assyrians and the Philistines.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: You played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: You multiplied your harlotry in verse 29. It just goes
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: on and on like that, describing this horrible behavior. And
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: you were worse, he says in verse 46 and 47,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: you were worse than Samaria and your sister, taken captive
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: in the northern kingdom, you're worse than Sodom. The end
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: of verse 47, you acted more corruptly in all your
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: conduct than they did. And of course, with shameless abandon,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Israel flaunted herself, before all the idols that surrounded the nation,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: spurned the loving, loyal grace of God and became devoted
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: to the insanity of worshiping idols. And, of course, in
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: this chapter as well, you have the pledge, as it were,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: in verse 35 down through verse 43, that God's going
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: to bring the Babylonian captivity. He talks about wrath there.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: And then in verses 44 to 59, more of the
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: iniquity and the sin. We won't take time to go
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: into all that. But drop down to verse 60 and
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: we'll kind of wrap it up at that point. The
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: first word in verse 60 is amazing. The Lord has
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: just said in verse 58 about your lewdness, your abominations,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: and how you have despised the oath, you have broken
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: the covenant. And then he says, nevertheless, I will remember
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: my covenant with you in the days of your youth
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. There
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: will be a day, he said, when you will remember
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: your ways and you will be ashamed. Verse 62, I
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: will establish my covenant with you. You shall know that
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: I am the Lord in order that you may remember
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: of your humiliation. I know how I'm going to humble you.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to humble you by forgiving you. Isn't that amazing?
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Amazing how gracious God is to a people who of
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: His covenant. Sodom was destroyed. Samaria, unredeemed, disappeared. And Israel
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: was worse than Sodom, and Israel was worse than Samaria,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: yet God forgave Israel. To those whom He chooses to
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: love in a covenant way, His love is perfect, complete, saving,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: and eternal. Listen to what Jeremiah 31.3 says. I have
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have drawn
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: you with loving kindness. Before the foundation of the world,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: God set His love upon His own. Is that not true?
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: And He loves them with an everlasting love. In Ephesians 2,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: it says this love forgives, this love gives life, this
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: love promises eternal glory, this love grants to us kindness
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: and produces righteous behavior, and it's all of grace. In
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Ephesians 5, it says this love cleanses, purifies, makes holy, nourishes, cherishes.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: In Luke 15, it says this love lavishes, rejoices, overlooks
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: past sin, restores, enriches, prodigal son. In Romans 8, it
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: says this love is inseparable, unconquerable love. Now, that leads
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: to a final question. Why did God not choose to
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: love everyone like that? Isn't that the question? And anytime
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: you pose a question, why, about God's ultimate sovereign determination,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: you are outside my limits. But I'll give you a,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: I'll give you a good guess. And maybe not a guess.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: The reason God did not choose to love everyone savingly
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: is because the love of God is qualified and controlled
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: by His glory. By His glory. By His glory. God
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: is not obligated to be the unqualified equal opportunity Savior
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: of everybody. God is not the prisoner of His love
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: and He is not the prisoner of man's expectation. God's
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: love is never separated as if it is superior or
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: dominant over all His other attributes such as justice and
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: holiness and righteousness and wrath. In the end It pleased
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Him to do it as He did it because it
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: gave Him glory. And if the gospel is for some
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: a savor of life unto life and death unto death,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: it is because God determined that it should be. For
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: the purpose of His eternal glory, He does what He does.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: While He feels compassion for all, He warns all He
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: calls for the gospel to be preached to all. He
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: is still glorified in the salvation of some and the
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: condemnation of some. And I guess the hard question is,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: if we didn't make that choice, why should we be condemned?
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: And the answer is, you did make that choice. That's
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: clear in Scripture. It's not apart from human rejection that
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: we are condemned, but because of it. No matter how
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: far you go back trying to discern this in the
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: mind of God, it's really bound up in nothing more
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: than His glory, and we rest there. Let me close
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: with Romans 9. R.C. addressed this in our conference so ably.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: I just want to make a couple of quick comments
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: on Romans 9 because this is where you end up.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: when you're talking about the love of God. The question
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: that comes in the first five verses of Romans 9
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: is simply why if God has brought His gospel into
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: the world and His glory and His covenants and His
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: giving of the law and temple service and promises and
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: gave to Israel the right to the heritage, the patriarchs,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: and brought Christ from the line of Abraham, if God
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: has done that and God has blessed them all with
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: such immense blessing, but Paul says, look, I have great
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart because they have
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: all this and yet they don't believe. The question is,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: why if they had all these privileges is Israel not saved?
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: The answer is shocking. Verse 6, has the Word of
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: God failed? No. They are not all Israel who are
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: descended from Israel, neither are they all children because they
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: are Abraham's descendants. From the very beginning, God never intended
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: to save all of them, but rather it was through Isaac.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: That leaves Ishmael and his bunch out. And then he
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: comes down into verse 11 and starts to talk about
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: the twins, Jacob and Esau. And before they had done
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: anything good or bad in order that God's purpose according
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: to His choice might stand, not because of works but
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: because of Him who calls, it was said to her,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: the older will serve the younger. That was absolutely sovereign.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Before they were ever born, God determined what would happen
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: just as it is written, Jacob I love but Esau
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: I hated. Malachi 1. And what you're hearing there is,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: the answer to the question is, God never intended to
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: establish a covenant love with all of those Jewish people.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Never did. Well, verse 14, what do we say? That
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: sounds like injustice. Injustice. Do you know what his answer is?
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Shut up. Right? May it never be. Don't even voice that.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Do you remember verse 15 says? Do you remember that
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: he said to Moses in Exodus 33, I will have
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: mercy on whom I have mercy. I'll have compassion on
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: whom I have compassion. And it does not depend on
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: the man who wills or the man who runs, but
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: on God who has mercy. That is just as clear
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: as it can be. There's nothing ambiguous there at all.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Then he goes on to give an illustration of Pharaoh,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: hurrying down to verse 19. You will say to me then, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: why does he find fault? I mean, if this is
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the way it is, who can resist his will? And
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: this answer, again, is so interesting. Oh, man, who are
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: you who answers back to God? It's the same answer.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: Keep your mouth shut. The thing molded will not say
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: to the molder, why did you make me like this?
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: Will it? Doesn't the potter have a right over the
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: clay to make from the same lump one vessel for
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: honorable use and another for common use? I mean, that's
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: so obvious. You can't miss it. If you're the potter
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: and you're making the pot, a pot doesn't talk to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: a potter. It's a huge gap. Huge. Pots don't talk. Huge.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: And the gap between a pot and a potter is
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: infinitesimal compared to the gap between you and God. You
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: don't talk. What if, verse 22, this is the answer.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: So what if God wanted to demonstrate His wrath and
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: make His power known? And thus endured with much patience
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. He did it so
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: in order that He might make known the riches of His, what? Glory.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: The riches of His glory. wouldn't shine as brightly if
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: it weren't against the backdrop of His judgment. In the end,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: it's His glory. I rest there. I'm okay with that.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Are you? I'm okay with that. Let God be God.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: You know, prisoners who are handed pardons, like us, escape
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: death based on that pardon. We don't go around questioning
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: whether such pardons were granted to everybody. We grab our
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: pardon and run. Father, we thank you for our time
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: tonight to consider your great love, your everlasting love. It
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: is mystery. We understand that. We cannot unscrew the unscrutable.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: We cannot fathom the depths. We are pots. You are
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: the potter. Your glory is everything. Glorify Yourself, Father, as
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: You choose to do. Put Your great majesty in all
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: its fullness on display for all the holy angels and
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: the redeemed saints to see both now and forever. Amen.