That is a very, very beautiful song. The words are so descriptive. I love that third stanza where it talks about the oceans were full of ink and the skies of parchment made, every man a scribe and every stock on earth a quill. That’s not enough to describe the love of God.

Well, as we’ve tried to consider the different attributes and the I guess one way of putting it is the wow of God that I’ve tried to do. And we spent some time in the incommunicable attributes of God, meaning those attributes of God that are in almost every way. beyond description. I mean, we know we can kind of place them, we know it’s true, but we don’t fully understand. We’re finite, God is infinite, so how do you talk about the infinity of God? Or those kinds of things. And those attributes or characteristics of God are indescribable or incommunicable in their largest part.

And then there are those communicable attributes, some that we have not considered, all the omnis, omnipresence. How is God everywhere present? But yet we know God is in heaven on a throne. How do we, how do you figure that out? God is bigger than everything that is. And so we can understand that kind of, but then kind of not. The omniscience of God, that God knows everything. God not only knows everything, he knows everything that could have been if it would have been. The whole idea, you know, if Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented, he knew what would happen. But they didn’t. And we know what happened. And so all of those kinds of things that, yeah, we can understand God knows everything, but God knows more than everything.

Now, sometimes and those of us that kind of grew up in church, we kind of think of those things. Well, of course, everybody believes that. Well, I would just stand before you and say, of course, not everyone believes on that. Even the theologians. As recently we’ve heard within church history, this idea of the openness of God. And those that want to come across and say, well, I don’t want to put God in a box. I don’t want to keep God from being able to think a new thought. Now that may sound righteous. I would say it’s self-righteous. Because you see, the proper idea of the thoughts of God The proper thought of that is there’s no more thoughts to be thoughted. There’s nothing more there because he has thought them all and their God is too small. If you have an openness of God, they think they’re making them larger. No, they’re containing him. And so if you get God right, Pretty much the Bible makes sense and life and sanity and reality comes together. And the fact that Yahweh, that the great I am, that he is self-sufficient, he is self-sustaining, and he is all those things that we’ve considered in the incomprehensible or incommunicable attributes. But then there are those that we understand a little bit more about.

And then we kind of saw that some of the theologians, they divide them out into different categories of his characteristics. And last week we started on what was called the moral attributes of God, where we took a look at the goodness of God. and that God is always good. And I’m not going to re-preach that sermon, but that was the first of what are considered the moral attributes of God.

Tonight, we come to the second division of what is called the moral attribute of God, and that is his love. There probably, this is, I don’t know how I’m going to say this, but I think I’d have to think a bit more. there probably has not been any of the attributes more abused and more misconstrued, mispreached, misapplied than that of the love of God. Now, I put that with a little bit of of reservation because sovereignty is another one. People mess up really a bunch. God is sovereign except for man’s will or something like that. And as soon as you say that, then God is not sovereign. And that’s pretty well abusive of the whole doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

But when you consider Christianity historically, And really, in the early 1900s, and the offset of Neo-Orthodoxy, names like Schleiermacher and Brunner and some other dudes, that they so corrupted the concept of God and that God is love. Now, you can go to 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8 and actually read that. The text says God is love. But unfortunately, they kind of took that being verb is and made it reversed and they just said love is God. And then we got the whole sexual revolution. And as long as you’re loving, or how can a loving God send people to hell? And a loving God would never judge people. And on and on the abuse, you see where I’m going with this idea that this particular attribute or characteristic of God has been so abused, misapplied and just preached wrong and everything. It is horrendously terrible.

Because, you see, the Bible doesn’t say that God is only love, though you would tend to think if you listen to most liberal preachers that like Henry Emerson Fosdick, There’s usually a gesture when I that I give every time I mention that man’s name, Henry Emerson Fosdick. It’s kind of like I want to choke and gag myself. He could pray a prayer that sounded wonderful. And the man, unless he repented before his death. Is underneath the wrath of God right now. I was a truly wicked man that corrupted a lot of doctrine.

So when we talk about and think about the love of God, we must think about it biblically. We come as presuppositionalist as that the Bible is the only source of inerrant authoritative revelation of God concerning himself. And when we come to this doctrine of God, it is amazing. But when you try to cram it all into a sermon in 30 minutes after a church business meeting, and I kept thinking, how on earth am I gonna do that? And I’m gonna approach it very differently than I did any of the 30 some years that I was pastor here.

Now, what I wanna do is I basically want to divide the message, and it won’t be equal in size, but I wanna divide it up into three sections. Because you see, we have the love of God as an attribute, or what is God’s love like? But when you think of love, you have to think, what is love? Well, love has to have an object. I love animals. Some of you love football. We love our spouses, we love our children. See, love is a, for sake of, I’m thinking broadly now, is a charitable feeling and or action towards those that it has an object. I love White Castle. I love Fellowship Baptist Church. A young man looks into the eyes of this beautiful young woman and says, I love you. So love always has an object.

But love also has to have a demonstration. Because you see, there’s a lot of people that say they love something and that doesn’t mean much. It was Philip Madrid who taught me a cute little phrase and it just causes me, I laughed out loud and all by myself in the study when I thought of it. And I thought, I’m going to throw that in the sermon. when he was still single and he was talking with me and Philip Madrid said as he was looking to get married and he just said if there ain’t no ring there ain’t no thing.

You see love demonstrates itself because it gives. And so you see when we read and if you’re going to talk about you know John 3 16 for God so loved it’s got to have an object. The world. But then it’s also got to show a charitable action that he gave. Now, that’s not the text tonight, but it does prove the concept of what love is and how it’s involved. So as a characteristic, but what I want to do is, is to say with the characteristics, we’re going to just go through and I’m going to list some. I can’t get through them all, but we’re going to list some characteristics of the love of God. And then we’re going to look at, well, who does God love? Who is the object? And then we’re going to find out, in a sense, then what is the action and is there an illustration that we can turn to that really demonstrates God’s love and then how do we apply all of this? So that’s kind of the three-fold action of what we want to do.

There was a Swiss Reformed theologian, Karl Barth, didn’t think you and I’d be using him, but Karl Barth One time, he died in 1968, but he had a chance to come to the United States before that. He had written a commentary on the Book of Romans, which I would not suggest getting. But anyways, unless you like to go to the original source to get some juicy comments. But Karl Barth visited the United States, and while he was here, he went to a seminary. It wasn’t a conservative seminary. But he went to a seminary and he preached in a chapel and then they opened it up for discussion and there was a student there. And the student spoke up and said, Dr. Bart, what is, this is a quote of the question, what is the single most important truth that you have learned as a theologian? Now this guy is, you know, back in that day he was, everybody knew him or didn’t like him, but at least they knew of him. But this student wanted to get one of those juicy tidbits. We had at my seminary, Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter came and we were asking him, we even had John MacArthur before he was on the radar. And we had some interesting guys and we would love to talk with them. about this, but Karl Barth responded to the question. What is the single most important truth that you have ever learned? And here was this well-known. Theologian, and he responded, quote. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so.

Now to him, and while there be a lot of his theology, we obviously would not agree with. That’s profound. And I am convinced that we do not fully know nor comprehend nor experience what we believe is about. God loves you because we’ve allowed the neo evangelicals, we’ve allowed the neo orthodox, we’ve allowed the liberals so much into our mind and thinking that when they only preach love, We tend to neglect it. And so today and tonight, what I want us to do is to consider the love of God in this particular way. Now, it divides up in several ways. So the first part of tonight is going to be academic, and then we’re going to become much more to the text and to preach it.

First of all. Two comments I’d like to make. God loves, and for the objects of his love, God loves objects that are worthy of his love. Now that may sound odd to you. God loves objects that are worthy of love. And that would include God loves himself. And we’re gonna see that towards the end. Jesus is going to say that he loves the father. The father loves him. And there’s the implication, obviously, of the Holy Spirit in that, too. But God loves himself. And that is how God or that’s how the scripture can say that God is love because love has to have an object. Well, who did God love before there was anything created? He loved himself and he’s worthy of that love.

Another division of this, and this one I cringe a little bit, but I can’t prove myself wrong, and that is, or the theologians and the theology books, but that God loves angels. I don’t know that we have an authoritative text on that, but the closest might be that he declared it good, and that’s going to lead us to the third one. There’s nothing in an angel that is not worthy of love. Now we’re talking about elect angels, the angels that did not fall. And then the third is, is that God loved creation. That he looked at what he had created and it was good. He created it because he liked it. He demonstrates common grace. which is another part of the moral attributes of God, and all of God’s attributes, remember, interconnect with all of them, with each other.

So God’s love for himself, God’s love for unfallen angels, and God’s love for creation. And that’s one reason why when it talks about that there will be a redemption, that the whole earth groans and travails until the day of redemption. And so God loves objects worthy of his love.

But we’re a little bit more understanding of this one. God loves objects unworthy of his love. And the first one. You may remember, we were talking about this earlier, about when I had a service and it was interrupted by a person over on this section, and the security people became, I think this was the, or at least the part of the division, because God loves objects worthy of his love, and the first is, God loves Israel, but they’re not worthy of it. They were a bunch of backbiters, constantly complainers, even so much that he told Moses, I’m gonna wipe them out. And I think it was probably right about there is where that sermon got interrupted because it wasn’t done yet. He’s also going to redeem them. But he loves them, but they’re not worthy of his love.

God loves all unbelievers. God loves mankind. Because we are created in his image, They can experience good and bad from the Father of lights. God loves unbelievers. Remember when it even talks about some of the sins, and such were some of you. Later on it says, and we who were dead in trespasses and sins, he made us alive in Christ. How is that true? How is that possible? Because he loved us.

But then the third division is, is God loves the elect, those that were chosen in his son. That is a salvific love, an eternal love, part of, in a sense, the dealings of God the Father before the world was. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. And so through the benevolent love of God, salvific love of God, there is this love of benevolence that God has towards all. But, 1 John chapter three and verse one talks more about this love for God’s elect. Those, let me put it this way. God loves with a special love those who love his son. And that is a special relationship.

So let me ask you, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? I mean, and that’s a thing that only you can answer within your own heart and mind. Do you have a love for Jesus Christ that you know is real? I love him. I don’t love him as much as I want, But I honestly can say, I’ve given him my life. I want the input of Jesus Christ in my life. I love Christ.

Then John wrote, 1 John chapter three and verse one, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now are we the children of God. And it has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in himself purifies himself even as he is pure.

Behold, what manner of love, what kind of love, what super abounding out of this world love. that the Father has for us. And tonight, what I want to spend some time, we’re going to go through some individual attribute characteristics, but then I want to get to the text and say, how does this flesh out? And what does it look like, biblically speaking?

Well, some of the attributes of love that God has, the love of God, for example, is uninfluenced. Now you know, a certain love that we think of in kind of our life on earth, thinking a young lady and a young man, she may try to get to that young man through his stomach and cook him a good meal. And what is she doing? She’s trying to influence, to get his attention. That doesn’t work with God. God doesn’t need his attention gotten. And you can’t do anything to do that anyways. Because he knows everything about you. 100%. You see, God’s love is uninfluenced.

Deuteronomy. Chapter 7 verses 7 and 8 reads this way. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. Now this is with respect to Israel. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to his fathers, to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

See, his love and his choosing Israel as a people among all the other nations was uninfluenced. God loved them. And he chose them and there was nothing in them that would bring about his choice for them, nor his love for them. That same thing is true for us. That’s why it becomes futile for a sinner to say, I’m going to get rid of some of my sins so I can get God’s attention and he’ll love me for it. That doesn’t do it. You’re still underneath the wrath of God. God chose the elect in Christ and it was uninfluenced. That is why God is sovereign. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. You don’t like that? Well, the thing created can’t talk back to the creator and say, why did you make me this way? Because God’s love is not only uninfluenced, God’s love is sovereign. He chooses whom he loves.

Now, we’re going to come back to that. But basically, God, the word of God is clear when it says God is angry with the wicked every day. God hates all workers of iniquity. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. But when you’re talking about God, it’ll also talk about the fact that he can love them with a benevolent love demonstrated. You see object, but demonstrated through common grace, the rainfalls on the righteous and the wicked. But it’s not all the same kind of love when we try to equalize God’s love. You just simply cannot do that. So there’s the love for Israel. The love of God is uninfluenced. First John chapter four verse 19 says we love because he first loved us. And so God is the initiator and it is uninfluenced and it’s of none. No good in us for how much good is in man. Not one thing. There’s none righteous, no, not one. There’s none that seeketh after God. There’s none that doeth good. God’s love is sovereignly given. God’s love is uninfluenced.

And God’s love, and this is where this becomes, it’s an attribute of God, we can understand it, but then it goes beyond us. God’s love is eternal. Jeremiah chapter 31 verse three says, the Lord has appeared of old saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. Ephesians chapter one and verses four and five, as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. He chose in love before the foundation of the world, uninfluenced, and sovereignly disposed. God’s love is sovereign, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us to adoption as sons to Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his goodwill.

So part of the, it is a good God who chooses to exercise benevolent love to all, Sovereign love, salvific love. You see there’s different divisions of how we come to these things and to take the biblical data and to see how it is given. But it’s eternal. Our God’s love is like this. Just remember these as characteristics. The love of God is infinite. Ephesians chapter three and verse 19. To know the love of God which passes all knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. God so loved the world. What are the parameters of God’s love? We don’t know. God’s love is infinite, sovereign, uninfluenced, and eternal.

God’s love is immutable. James chapter one and verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights to whom there’s no variableness nor shadow of turning. But then we go to that Romans eight passage. When we look at, does God’s love change? What if I sin? Can I sin too much that then God would not forgive me? What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge to God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and further is also risen, who is at the right hand of God who makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Now this is addressed to believers, those that know Christ and are born again. Who or what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, as it is written, For your sakes we are killed all the day. We’re accounted as sheep for the slaughter yet in all these things We are more than conquerors through him who loved us and I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creative thing shall be able to separate us from what the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Brethren, that’s God’s love for us. It’s kind of like the whole deal. Nothing can separate us. So when you’re going through a persecution, you’re going through a trial, God loves me. I know it either that or you’re calling the Bible a liar and bearing a false witness.

God’s love is holy. And when it approaches even his own children, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. It’s a heavenly love. But all of this shows that God is a personal God, but God’s love is gracious.

Also, John 3 16 would mention that or Romans 8 5 8 or 5 8. Yeah, but God commended or demonstrated his love towards us. God loved you. And your first recollection of God loving you. God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. The testimony of scripture. No greater love hath any man than this. What? You lay down your life for your friend. And what did Jesus do? And he did it while we were sinners. While we were the enemies of God. And he loved us through that.

So it becomes all, it’s a holy, gracious, sovereign, infinite, sovereign, yet all of these characteristics of love are demonstrated in these things. It was R.C. Sproul who said, quote, God’s love is giving sacrificial kindness and forgiveness where it’s undeserved. And that’s called grace. Illustrated by Hosea. Think of that wife. Think of that unfaithfulness. Think of that ugliness, that rebellion. But the love of Hosea was holy, true, powerful, forgiving. He loved her and then he went and bought her. Now, that is just a bit of an introduction on some of the characteristics of what this love is like.

But what I want to do now is something that I’ve never quite done before. And that is to just to just dwell just a little bit of the depth of the love of the eternal father. Father’s love for his son and its relationship, and what does that do to me? because I want you to keep these other things in the back of your mind. But this is really where I was driving.

Take your Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of John and chapter. Well, I want to be at the last verse of Chapter 14. So if you turn to Chapter 15, that’s where we’re going to go up into this. The Gospel of John, Chapter 14. Or 15, whichever you want to go on that page. This morning, Pastor Ryan made mention of the fact that he couldn’t go through all of the set up and that it is such a rich passage of scripture. And I was kind of glad he didn’t go down into all of this or I might have to change something. It is so powerful in these verses that we’re going to see.

Because I want you to see, sometimes we read them because there’s other things in these verses. We tend to flee and we get to them real quick, but we skipped over some of the other things because we look at love, say, OK, God loves me. Let’s go on. No, let’s take a look at this. I read one author today and he said, I was awestruck by searching the scriptures to see where does it ever say that Jesus loves the father? Well, here’s one.

The Gospel of John chapter 14, verse 31. And also, please listen to some of the repetitiveness and why. But that the world may know, that’s key. Why is the love of God so important? Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Why is the love of God so important? It’s for the gospel. But that the world may know that I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here. Now, this is part of that very rapid scene that’s going on, you know, from the upper room. And that’s going to be the Garden of Gethsemane. And then we’re going to go through the mockery of the trials. And then we’re going to go to the cross very quickly tonight. Pay attention as we go through here.

He then takes that time. And he says, chapter 15, verse one, I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. And he goes on and talks about fruit bearing and so forth. Look at verse nine of chapter 15. As the father loved me, I also have loved you. Now, if that just doesn’t blow your socks off, you don’t have socks on. How much does Jesus Christ love you? He loves you with a love kindred to the love of the Father for him. I’m starting to feel like a low peon here. Well, keep paying attention.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. And we all know that, you know, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you, you know, keep my commands, it shows love. Well, this is going to come out very important. Just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. I’m going to get ahead of myself because the clock is just so moving way too fast. What was the commandment of the father? Son. You need to die. To redeem a people. And that’s the only way they can be redeemed. You see, love demands obedience to commandments. And he’s already said there, I have kept my father’s commandments and I abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy will remain in you and that your joy may be full. Verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. So how are we to love one another? As Christ loved us, as the father loved him. They shall know we are Christians by our liking, by our love. To what depth? Be willing to die for one another. No greater love has no one than this, that to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Well, there’s more things, and this is the idea of where he’s gonna go, but look at verse 17. These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me. So you see, this is for a testimony. The love of God and how it affects us is the testimony to the world that God so loved it that he sent his only begotten son.

Well, we go on at this particular point. If you look at chapter 15 and, well, verse 9, we’ve already considered that. At the end of this, as we go on in these things, he says in chapter 15 verse nine, let me read that one again just to bring this in. As the father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. So abide in his love. Then what happened right after that? Well, if you go, it says that then they went to the garden and the garden of Gethsemane. Well, no, I’m gonna take that back. As we go on in chapter 15, it goes on. We’re in the gospel of John. We’re gonna skip through these things. There’s more indication of some more teaching and Jesus talking about the joy and so forth.

Now we’re gonna go to the high priestly prayer of our Savior. In John chapter 17, this is before Gethsemane. And we know the fact that Jesus prays for himself in verses one through five. Jesus prays for the 12 disciples, or less one, Judas, from verses six through 19. And now verse 20, to bring it up to include us. Now, we don’t normally think about it, well, Christ prayed for us, but I want you to see from the concept of love. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you. He’s praying for us, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and that the glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me, okay, and here it is, and that you have sent me and you have loved them as you have loved me.

What profound love. How does the Father love us? with the same kind of love he did for the father. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me. Be with me that where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. And we’ve already seen that include the elect in Christ.

Oh, righteous father, the world has not known you, but I have known you and these have known that you sent me. and I have declared them your name and will declare that the love the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them

now notice what it says and when Jesus had spoken these words he went out with his father he went out with his disciples over the book kindred where there was a garden in which he in which he and his disciples entered And Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place. And that’d be the Garden of Gethsemane, where they were praying and so forth.

If you go to the Gospel of Luke, it should be remindful to us to think about this. How did Jesus show his love to the Father? I keep his commandments. What was the commandments? But you see the profundity of the words in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our Savior loved the Father. The Father loved the Son. The Father and the Son wants to obey the Father.

But Father, if it be possible, if there’s any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, your will be done. I love you, Father. And what that love was gonna look like? Well, this morning we saw at the trial, the mockery of the trials, smitten in the face, scourged in the back. I loved your phrase, the pieces of flesh flying around, hitting the wall and on the floor. As he goes to the cross, This was repulsive to him, yet his love persevered through the ugliness of what he was gonna go through.

And as the crown of thorns placed upon him, I love you, Father. As the nails go into the hands, I love you, Father. The father could look at the son, I love you, my son. Trials and tribulation. Well, we sang that song this morning of a mighty fortress is our God. You know, don’t fear God. I’m sorry. Don’t don’t fear man who after they kill you, there’s nothing more they can fear God. But Jesus didn’t fear God. He loved him.

Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. Father, receive my spirit. But the profundity of the love of God and its ultimate crux is when the eternal Father, sovereign love, all those things, everything towards love of the Father, when Jesus uttered those words, Why have you forsaken me? True love, eternal love, sovereign love, God’s love forsakes no one. And how do you describe it? God turned his back, I don’t know. How does a God, the Father, who is spirit turn his, he doesn’t have a back to turn on. But there was a change of something going on there.

And then afterwards, the relationship restored. But the love of God demonstrated. At that point, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, opened up the gate to all who repent, believe, that you can have sins forgiven. And he did it out of love for the Father. The father required it, not neglecting his love for the son. He has that, but he loves us with the same soul. We would not exist if the father did not, or if the son did not follow the commands of the father. Go figure. Do you, do I comprehend the amount of love that it’s taken. He was forsaken. So we would never be forsaken.

Well, what do we do with this? Well, first, John, chapter four, verse 19 of chapter four, verses seven through twenty one. Too much. Not enough time to read the passage, but it deals with the fact. And we’re to love the brethren, see your brother, sister and Christ is loved of God the same and as much as you are and you’re to love them. And you may be called upon it someday to even die for them. And that’s true love. Because you see, love has an object. We are to love God and we’re to love one another.

We are given a tremendous gospel to take to this world. True story is told of a little boy who was very, very sick. And they treated him, he had a blood disease. He had a rare blood type and a rare blood disease, but he survived. And even, I think he was, before he was probably six or seven, he had a younger sister that came down with the same disease. And his sister was not responding. And she was the only way that it would, that their little girl probably would survive. was with a blood transfusion. And he, the little boy, had the same blood type. And it had a pretty good prognosis and everything. And the doctor asked the little boy, he said, the doctor asked if he would give his blood to his sister, Mary, so that she could live. And the little boy hesitated a little bit, but then he said, yeah, I’ll do that. So the day came, they took him to the hospital and they hooked him up. And as the procedure was ending, the little boy was kind of pale and sickly. And as the procedure was ending, the little boy said to the doctor, so when is it that now I die? Remember what the doctor asked. I identify with this because I’m a literalist too. She needs your blood. He thought all of it. And that they would take all his blood out. But for his sister to survive, it was the only way.

Well, that just pales into total insignificance when you consider the son of God. Who shed his blood so we could live. And it’s all motivated and has the blanket background. of the love of God. Now, that’s because God is love. And it holds commands upon our life to love one another. But there’s another, as we said, all these attributes, characteristics of the personhood of God, they all interact. Because you see, there’s also something else. It’s called the wrath of God. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. And that’s what we see at the cross is the wrath of God against sin so that we who are sinners can be made righteous in Christ forgiven purchased. and experience eternal life through the grace of our wonderful Lord God and King.

Next week, we’re going to consider the wrath of God, the other side of this characteristic that also tempers and also keeps us in reality. Not everyone experiences the love of God. I trust you have. The love of God is real. Our God is willing to receive all those that come to him by faith. You come. he will receive because he is a God of love.

Would you stand with me tonight as we close? Our Father in heaven, we are struck by the phrases of love that our Savior has for you. And that the love you have for him And as he was confronted with his obedience to your commands, that without the shedding of blood that you would receive, there is no forgiveness of sin. Yet it was your divine plan. That we would be forgiven and our Savior was obedient. Father. We’re amazed. We are humbled. We are reminded of the greatness of our God, the humility and the ugliness, ultimately, of mankind, but yet the glorious gospel that saves sinners. Help us, Father, for eternity to worship our holy and loving God. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.