WEBVTT 00:01:11.119 --> 00:01:29.199 I have a uh I have something on my mind this morning that I actually told uh Sister Ann there I had three things on my mind this morning, and that's uh uh it's a blessing to have many things on the on your mind, but it's not as it doesn't feel like a blessing when you have to try to speak. 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:31.599 I can only speak on one thing. 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:36.959 Um in the time allotted, and even that's uh a challenge sometimes. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.959 And it would be so with this uh subject that's on my mind. 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:48.879 I'm gonna, at this point, we were talking in the car, you just have to pray and then start walking forward in faith. 00:01:49.039 --> 00:01:57.519 As is much of our life and our walk of faith, sometimes you don't know exactly which way to go, and you just have to start taking steps and ask the Lord to direct. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:01:59.519 Same goes with this. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:10.959 Um there's some things about this that feel like the Lord might be in the matter, but you always wonder, so I'm praying that that He would bless, even in spite of me. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:27.439 Um but I would like to examine with you a short verse that is filled with so much that I literally don't have the time or the knowledge really to be able to express all of it to you. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:35.680 Um but it's on my mind since I woke up this morning and and then a dear brother texted me this morning and and others. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.599 He texts multiple people um every morning. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:41.840 This verse was in that text. 00:02:42.079 --> 00:02:55.360 And and um my my dear daughter yesterday was wearing a shirt that had this text on it, and so there's some things um if you'd like to look with me. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:00.719 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19. 00:03:00.959 --> 00:03:03.280 1 John chapter 4, 19. 00:03:06.399 --> 00:03:11.120 It's not the shortest verse in the Bible, but it is up there. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:16.399 I haven't done a comparison to see how many verses are shorter in words than this. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:29.759 But I also dare say there's not very many verses that are more packed with um deep doctrinal teachings and very practical applications for us in our lives than this verse. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:44.560 As we read the verse, 1 John chapter 4, verse 19, it says, we love him because he first loved us. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:52.400 We love him because he first loved us. 00:03:53.359 --> 00:03:57.759 Now again, this verse is simple and it's and what it's saying. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:03:59.520 It's not hard to understand. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:08.159 I trust everyone in here of any age of understanding can understand the the order in which this is written and what it's talking about. 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:09.599 Who is the we? 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:12.719 That's you and me. 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:21.199 I trust that to be the case this morning that you and me, we are the we and and the us in this verse. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:30.799 No, we're not the only we in this verse, we're not the only us in this verse, but I certainly include myself in this. 00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:31.919 I hope you do too. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:32.560 I know you do. 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:34.399 You're here this morning because you do. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:36.799 It says we love him. 00:04:37.919 --> 00:04:40.879 Who is him in this verse? 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:44.879 This him is our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:04:45.039 --> 00:04:48.399 It's God and manifest in the Son. 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:54.399 It's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, it's the Godhead in his fullness. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:05:02.720 This isn't just Jesus Christ, but we will find as we look through this that it that love of God was manifest in Jesus Christ. 00:05:02.799 --> 00:05:04.000 But we love God. 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:06.799 We love Him. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:11.120 Sometimes I just want to take that in. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.879 Like just for a moment, think about that truth. 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:18.159 I know it's true, I feel that it's true. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:22.079 I don't always show that it's true. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:25.840 And there's some ways, if the if time will allow, if the Lord will bless. 00:05:25.919 --> 00:05:30.720 We'll we'll get into some ways that the Lord tells us how to show that to be true. 00:05:30.799 --> 00:05:32.960 But but just feel it for a moment. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:39.919 We didn't get up this morning, I trust you did not get up this morning, to come out and to see me. 00:05:40.159 --> 00:05:48.480 That I don't think anybody here said, this morning I get to go and listen to Brother Mike talk. 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:52.879 That's not the most exciting thing that you could have done today. 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:59.519 No, we even didn't come just to see each other, though I delight in seeing each one of you. 00:05:59.679 --> 00:06:04.480 It's it's a joy of my week to come here and to see every one of you. 00:06:04.799 --> 00:06:06.399 Because I do love you. 00:06:07.679 --> 00:06:10.639 But really, I came this morning. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.720 I know you did this morning because we love him. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:16.240 We love God. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:24.240 I mean, sometimes you should just say that out loud and hear yourself say this. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:25.759 Profess it to be true. 00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:27.360 I love God. 00:06:29.039 --> 00:06:30.320 We love him. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:38.559 Now, what caused that in you? 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:42.320 What for what reason do you love God? 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:48.080 This verse will tell us the first and primary cause of it. 00:06:48.159 --> 00:06:52.720 The word because means there is a cause in being. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:55.279 Have you ever thought about cause and effect? 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:02.000 We think about, I tell the kids all the time, there's consequences for everything, whether good or bad, that you do. 00:07:02.080 --> 00:07:03.840 There is a thing that follows after. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:10.799 Well, the cause is always the thing that starts, an effect that comes after. 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:13.840 You can't put the effect before the cause. 00:07:14.799 --> 00:07:16.399 It doesn't work that way. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:28.240 If you drop something and then it goes to the ground, the cause is like if you let go, the the power is the gravity, but it failed because you let it go. 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:31.840 It didn't hit the ground, and that's why you let go. 00:07:31.919 --> 00:07:33.120 It's the other way around. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:35.360 And there's many examples I could get. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:39.919 None of them fully examine this because. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:48.559 This because is truly the first and only cause for its effect. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:52.639 The effect in the verse is we love him. 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:56.240 Now, it actually even goes more simple. 00:07:56.799 --> 00:07:58.639 Just the fact that we love. 00:07:59.039 --> 00:08:04.879 Now, interestingly, Maddie's t-shirt yesterday didn't quote this exactly. 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:10.480 It said, we love, comma, because he first loved us. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:13.519 And you know that is absolutely true. 00:08:14.559 --> 00:08:22.399 The cause for any love in this world is the root of all love. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:26.639 God, who it says in Scripture, is love. 00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:32.799 It doesn't just mean God doesn't just love in a verb sense that he has the action of love. 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:36.480 God is the very attribute of love. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:38.000 God is love. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:44.720 There is no other love, not true love, except that it come from God. 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:52.240 We love because He first loved us. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:58.399 Like if my love toward you is true and sincere, it comes from God. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:09.279 My love for my children, as much as I might say, well, I love them because they're my children, which is true, there is definitely not an unconditional love with my children. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:11.039 There is a conditional love. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.480 They were born, they're my child, and then I love them. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:20.639 It's not conditioned on things they do necessarily, but it is conditioned on that they're mine. 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:26.159 The fact is, I didn't love them really, not really, until they were born. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:30.000 I loved the idea of children once upon a time. 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:39.279 I knew that I desired children, I wanted children, and there was this love for the children that God might someday bless me with. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:41.039 Some of you feel that now. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:43.679 You're thinking, someday God may bless me with children. 00:09:43.839 --> 00:09:50.000 If God will bless me with a child, I'll love that child, but you don't love that child, you don't know that child. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:54.559 And when they were when they are born, then you love that child. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:56.480 There's a cause for your love. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:06.079 Well, here there's a cause for our love, and this cause, this cause is before we were ever born. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:17.519 When it says we love him and we love him, period, we love each other and we love him because the cause for our love is he. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:18.879 God. 00:10:19.439 --> 00:10:24.399 God is the cause of all the love that we have in this world. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:26.799 It's the cause of all love that there is. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:44.240 The love that we share, brother to brother, brother to sister, father to parents, extend the family tree out, friend to friend, the love that flows, like we say, from breast to breast between us, is all rooted and grows out from God. 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:50.399 In fact, the love we have, it is from the very seed of God that's in you. 00:10:50.480 --> 00:11:00.079 It's when you are born again of the Spirit of God, it says in Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:05.439 It goes on to say other attributes of the fruit of the Spirit, but I want to focus on love. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:12.159 If you love, it is produced by the Spirit of God that's in you. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:16.159 Because he first loved you. 00:11:16.959 --> 00:11:27.679 Now when, well, let's talk about this word first here, because all the real, to me, the power of this verse is packed in to this word first. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.199 You might say, what does he mean by first? 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:35.199 There's a lot of ways in which the word first can be used. 00:11:35.439 --> 00:11:39.039 And this word uses all of them in this verse. 00:11:39.439 --> 00:11:43.199 For one thing, the word first could be time. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:46.799 When did he love you? 00:11:47.279 --> 00:12:01.679 Yeah, you loved him, you love him actively now, very now present love you have for him, but it's caused by a love he has for you, and that love was first in time. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:04.480 When did he love you? 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.000 When did he love me? 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:10.719 If he loves me now, I tell you he loved me before the world began. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:14.639 He loved you before the world even began. 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:20.959 Before he said, let there be light, he loved God, loved you. 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:36.959 Individually, personally, not in a nebulous idea that God loved man and therefore he desired to have a family of men, of people, human beings. 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.399 He loved human beings, and he's gonna have some of them. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:43.600 He'll just kind of get a number of them. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:51.199 You know, it's like I love, you might say, someone loves, I don't love cats this much, but some people love cats so much, they'll just take in any cat. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:55.759 God does not just love humans, he loved you. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:01.679 He loved each one of his children in a very personal way. 00:13:02.079 --> 00:13:08.959 In a way that scripture talks about that is so intimate that it's a one-on-one situation. 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.480 And in Romans chapter 8, he talks about the word for know. 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:16.559 For whom people he did for know. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:23.519 And that word means have this intimate and loving relationship with before. 00:13:23.839 --> 00:13:24.799 Before what? 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:26.959 Well, before they loved him. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:33.600 The love they have for him is caused by the love he had first in time. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.240 Also before they were born. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:46.959 Yea, in Jeremiah's case, he said, before you were formed in the womb, before I, God said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, knew thee. 00:13:47.759 --> 00:14:01.919 He loved Jeremiah before he even made him in the womb, and he loved you as well, even before you were in this world naturally, even before the world began. 00:14:02.319 --> 00:14:06.959 And not only did he love you, he acted upon that love. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:16.480 He made, he was moved by that love to do some things for you, even before the world began. 00:14:17.199 --> 00:14:25.120 That he, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:32.079 In other words, he did everything necessary so you would be with him in glory. 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:42.000 In Ephesians chapter 1, it says, according, he's blessed us according as he has chosen us in him from before the foundation of the world. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:47.120 That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:15:06.639 So that love that God had for you first in time before the world even began, moved God to move on your behalf, to do what is necessary for you and everything necessary for you to be right where he is in love. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:12.639 In time, but also first can be in place. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:17.439 Have you ever heard like you be first place to be first in place? 00:15:17.839 --> 00:15:29.679 God loved you first in a in a place, in a real place, in fact, in the place where he was before the world even began. 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:48.799 You were on his mind, in his heart, his purpose, his will was toward you in the very heavens and immortal glory that he created when he made all things, and there was a place prepared for you where you would be with him someday. 00:15:48.959 --> 00:16:12.000 It says in Matthew chapter 25 that someday when the Lord comes again and he gathers together all nations and divides out as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and he says to those on his right, his sheep that he loved before the world began, he says, Come, ye blessed of my father, those that are his family, his children. 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:18.159 Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 00:16:18.319 --> 00:16:25.199 There's a place that he is prepared for those he loves to be before him in love. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:41.600 It's not, it's not just a thought or an idea, it's a physical, physical truth that God is on a throne in heaven, and those that have already passed away from this life that he loves, and two at least that did not pass from this life that he loved. 00:16:41.839 --> 00:16:49.199 Enoch and Elijah, they are there where he is in his presence in a real place. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.159 Not in a fantasy, not in an imagination, in a reality. 00:16:54.480 --> 00:17:10.640 Their soul and their spirits, and Elijah and Enoch's bodies, are right now in the presence of God, and they are seeing the fullness of the love that God had for them in that place before the world even began. 00:17:11.120 --> 00:17:15.839 So he loved you first in time, but also in a place. 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.839 And his love is placed above all other loves. 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:21.920 It's the cause of all love. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:25.279 So it's the it's in first place. 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:28.400 It's the preeminence of love. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:30.640 In order. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:36.480 It can mean in order, like first, second, third, you know, God's love is first. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:43.839 God's love for you was first in order, in order and in ranking, as it were. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.640 Like his love supersedes all love. 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:58.079 So we even in our love that we have that comes from the cause of God's love, it has its falters, it has its flaws. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:03.759 I mean, some of the love that we have, we don't exercise it as we ought. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:09.039 We don't follow the commandments of the Lord and love one another as we ought. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:23.920 Indeed, the greatest commandment of all, when Jesus was asked about the commandments, they were trying to get Jesus to say something that they could trip, that would trip him up, that they could accuse him for, and they asked, What is the greatest commandment? 00:18:24.080 --> 00:18:31.040 Like maybe maybe he would say, keep the Sabbath day, and then say, Oh, what about this commandment? 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:36.720 They they were trying to trip him up, kind of like a dear uh brother and father of the ministry of mine did. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:39.040 One day it was right here. 00:18:39.120 --> 00:18:44.640 And by you, it was he asked me, What's the bet what's your favorite article of faith? 00:18:44.800 --> 00:18:46.160 And that was a trap. 00:18:46.320 --> 00:18:52.000 Um, if anyone, if he ever asked you, if anyone ever asked you, what's your favorite article of faith? 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:56.720 Um, the answer is uh that we believe the scriptures are the inspired word of God. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:00.080 By the way, that's that was his answer that he wanted from me. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:13.120 But when these disciples or these Pharisees were asking Jesus the greatest commandment, they didn't know that they were dealing with the writer of the commandments, they were dealing with the very author of all the commandments. 00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:18.400 So he summarized them into these two great commandments. 00:19:18.560 --> 00:19:26.880 And he says, to love thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, thy mind, thy strength. 00:19:27.600 --> 00:19:30.160 That's the greatest commandment. 00:19:30.560 --> 00:19:36.320 And the second, he gives them a bonus, and it wasn't just a bonus, it's there's a reason he gave it to him. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:42.240 He said, The second is like unto it to love thy neighbor as thyself. 00:19:42.560 --> 00:19:46.560 Then he says, on these two hang all the law and prophets. 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:52.400 Love toward God is the greatest commandment of all. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:58.240 But then he says, love to your neighbor is second and like unto it. 00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:04.800 I'm gonna hold how they're how they're tied together, if time permits, to the end. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:07.759 But that's our greatest commandment. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:15.040 Jesus was telling us the greatest commandment from God to us is to love God. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:22.800 That would make that first in order as far as our love goes. 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:30.240 But above that would be God's love to us. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:34.720 It is first in order of ranking. 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:37.840 God's love to us is above our love to Him. 00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:39.440 It's above any love. 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:47.360 We can love God with all our soul, our heart, our mind, our strength, which Jesus said is the greatest commandment. 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:55.440 But even then, it will not even touch the love that God has to us. 00:20:55.600 --> 00:20:59.120 Because God's love is first, it is higher. 00:21:00.080 --> 00:21:10.960 If his thoughts are above us as far as the heavens is above the earth, his love is equally as far above our love as the heavens is above the earth. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:14.400 God's love is higher than anything we can imagine. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:38.640 Now, one day, I believe, when we are conformed to the image of Christ, when he's changed our vile bodies to be made like unto his glorious body, I think that our love will rise to a level of order, to a level of ranking that's heavenly, that's perfect, that's without flaw, without sin, without blemish, and we'll be able to love God. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:47.519 I don't know if it's still gonna reach the level that his love for us is, but it's gonna be a higher order. 00:21:47.840 --> 00:21:51.680 It's hard for me to say that we could ever love God like he loved us. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:53.920 How could I think that? 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:57.279 But I know I'll love him more in heaven than I love him now. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:04.000 But but I when I think about the fact that I do love God now, that's overwhelming in itself. 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.960 But it's because his love's higher, his love is ranked above mine, it's first. 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:12.400 Also, the word first can be importance. 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:21.200 And God's love is far more, it's far more important that God loves us than that we love him. 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:26.240 I'm not meaning to diminish the importance that we love him. 00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:30.160 And I'm not talking just about a feeling of love. 00:22:30.320 --> 00:22:36.720 Now I'm gonna move into action, but it is far more important. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:41.519 It is first in importance that God loved us. 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:54.800 In the chapter here that we're looking at, where he writes this, it's almost a summary of verses about God's love to us that come above this verse. 00:22:54.880 --> 00:23:00.320 It's like this verse comes in at the end and summarizes everything he had said. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:09.759 And when he goes back to John to the third chapter in the first verse, John writes, Behold, what manner of love? 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:12.880 The Father hath bestowed on us. 00:23:13.040 --> 00:23:19.440 Now that's when love goes beyond a feeling and into an action. 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:22.240 He has placed love on you. 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:25.120 And John says, just to behold that for a moment. 00:23:25.360 --> 00:23:37.600 Like think about the way, the manner of love, just the not just what he did, but and also why he did it. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:40.560 And what came out of it. 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:46.160 Think about the love God has placed on you, that he's bestowed on you. 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:52.800 It caused something that we should be called the sons of God. 00:23:53.120 --> 00:24:07.040 His love toward us as a father to his children, the action that he did in love brought about the fact that we're his children. 00:24:07.840 --> 00:24:29.040 It's really, when we think about how children come into the world, we should, because God designed natural things, and God used those in his word to tell us about our relationship with him, we should understand the connection. 00:24:29.360 --> 00:24:40.400 Now, certainly it is higher, and it's uh God, God's ways are above our ways, and we can't fully understand this. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:44.080 But children do not choose their parents. 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:47.920 That is a knowledgeable fact. 00:24:48.080 --> 00:24:54.080 Everybody knows there isn't a single one of you in here who said who went to the parent row. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:55.120 You looked in the glass. 00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:58.080 Now, normally parents look in the glass and they see their children. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:01.680 It's not the other, you don't look out and say, I want that parent. 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:03.920 Nobody chose their parents. 00:25:04.560 --> 00:25:08.880 Your parents, they brought up you about. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:10.320 Now God created you. 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:12.000 God is the one who formed you. 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:16.320 God created formed before I formed thee in the womb, he said, I knew thee. 00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:22.480 But understanding that the action that brings about children is parent, not child. 00:25:22.800 --> 00:25:24.240 Same thing with God. 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:29.120 Behold, what manner of God bestowed on you that we should be called the sons of God. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:38.320 He chose you, and he did what was needed for you to be with him, to be his child. 00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:45.600 God loved you, and then he moved with love to you to bring you to his family. 00:25:46.080 --> 00:25:50.400 We have adoption in our modern way of doing things. 00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:56.240 It's not always the way adoption has ever been done, but the idea of adoption has been around forever. 00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:11.200 The idea that you would take someone that was not naturally in your family and through all legal means bring them into your family, and they would be, as it were, your child. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.600 In our American legal system, it's irrevocable. 00:26:17.840 --> 00:26:27.279 When you have adopted a child, they are your child as they changed the birth certificate and say that documented you were born to this person. 00:26:27.840 --> 00:26:31.840 Well, there was legal means to make that happen. 00:26:39.120 --> 00:26:42.720 It was bestowed, it was acted upon in a legal sense. 00:26:43.120 --> 00:27:07.200 God, you know what it is if you take a child that you love so dearly, um, and you just take them with you because maybe they were in a bad situation and you want to rescue them from, so you take them and you go somewhere safe, and that you could have them with you in love, and you could care for that child and make sure they're safe because you love them. 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:08.720 You know what they call that legally? 00:27:08.800 --> 00:27:10.000 That's kidnapping. 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:15.440 It's not, you can't adopt a child without doing all that's necessary. 00:27:16.320 --> 00:27:19.600 And we have been adopted into the family of God. 00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:24.320 You've you've been born into the family of God because you're born of God, but but he also adopted you. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:25.759 We were in another family. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:32.240 We were in the family of sin, of Adam, and he's done everything legally needed. 00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:41.600 So there is no charge that can be laid not only upon you, but there's no charge that can be laid upon God that he's unjust in bringing us into his family. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:50.000 He's done everything required that you would be his child, and the enemy could never say, That one's not yours, God. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:55.360 No, he says, I have bought and paid for this with the blood of my son Jesus Christ. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:57.680 He has adopted you into his family. 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:00.080 That's a bestowing of love. 00:28:00.320 --> 00:28:02.640 Now, how did he bestow that love? 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:19.920 We um get back into the fourth chapter, and we say, um, let's start with, I'm gonna say, uh, well, I want to skip the seventh verse and back up to it a little. 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:22.400 But he says, verse 9. 00:28:24.080 --> 00:28:29.680 In this was manifested the love of God toward us. 00:28:29.840 --> 00:28:31.759 That's a bestowing of love. 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:36.080 That's love moving in a direction, God to us. 00:28:37.040 --> 00:28:40.080 And it says, in this was manifested it. 00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:45.600 God's love was always toward you, but it was now visible and open to see. 00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:59.200 Because that God sent his only begotten Son, that's Jesus Christ, God sent Jesus Christ into the world that we might live through him. 00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:07.680 There is a the bestowing of the love of God toward us, you can see it openly in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:29:07.840 --> 00:29:09.840 He goes, herein is love. 00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:18.160 So herein, in this action is the embodiment of the love of God toward us. 00:29:18.800 --> 00:29:25.440 In this action, not that we loved God, remember, because your love is second. 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:29.840 Your love is second in time, absolutely, because you weren't even there. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.320 Your love is second in place. 00:29:32.800 --> 00:29:34.240 You love God here. 00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:38.880 He loved you in heaven before you were even here. 00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:41.840 It's in order and ranking. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:45.840 God's love is first and in importance. 00:29:46.080 --> 00:29:49.920 It's more so much more important that God loved you in this case. 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.560 He says, Not that we love God. 00:29:52.800 --> 00:29:53.840 That is not true. 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:58.480 It is true that we love him, but that's not where love is defined. 00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:03.279 That's not how love is embodied or encapsulated, our love toward him. 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:06.160 Here is love, herein is love. 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:19.200 He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:21.600 Now, all of that is love. 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:26.240 You can't leave off the second clause and see the love of God. 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.480 So the love of God is not herein is love that God sent his son. 00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:36.640 That's not love, that's the movement of love toward us. 00:30:36.800 --> 00:30:46.800 But if we don't see the finality of Christ as the propitiation for our sins, we're not looking at the love of God. 00:30:47.120 --> 00:30:50.240 The love of God is not just that he sent his son. 00:30:55.360 --> 00:30:59.680 He did, he showed love to people, everyone he met. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:07.680 He, I mean, you might say he didn't show love toward those Pharisees that he called hypocrites and generation of vipers, but those were not his. 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:09.680 He said, Ye are not of my sheep. 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:13.840 But see, he showed his love to the poor, to the lame, to the blind. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:26.480 He showed his love even to the dead, and that he raised the widow's son from the dead, he raised Lazarus from the dead, he raised Jairus' daughter, uh, who was about 12 years old from the dead. 00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:45.200 He showed his love in many ways in a temporal blessing, but the encapsulation, the fullness of the love of Jesus Christ, which is the love of God toward us, is found when he died for our sins. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:52.960 Don't forget the part about it's for our sins, too, because he didn't just die on the cross. 00:31:53.360 --> 00:31:55.200 Many people had died on the cross. 00:31:55.360 --> 00:32:05.040 There were two other people dying on the cross at that very moment, but neither of them were dying as a propitiation for sins, as a satisfaction. 00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:06.800 That's what that big word means. 00:32:07.040 --> 00:32:13.840 Like a not only uh to cleanse the sin, which is ex, I forget that word. 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:15.519 I'm not big on the big words. 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:20.240 Propitiation is not just expiation, that's that's the other word. 00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:26.880 Expiation is like the cleansing of the sins, to expel it, to get it out of here, right? 00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:30.640 But propitiation involves more than that. 00:32:30.800 --> 00:32:37.600 It also involves the uh making holy and without any guilt or blame. 00:32:37.840 --> 00:32:41.680 Not just the consequences are gone, but the cause of them too. 00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:50.960 He didn't just pay for the sins you commit, he paid for the very sin in you. 00:32:51.279 --> 00:32:53.600 He took away sin itself. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:33:02.720 It is true that he paid for every single sin, not a single, what you might think is small sin, will miss him. 00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:05.040 He's not gonna, oh, he missed that sin. 00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:09.920 He got every one of them, but he also took care of sin itself. 00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:14.960 He conquered sin, death, hell, and the grave. 00:33:15.120 --> 00:33:17.120 He conquered it all on the cross. 00:33:17.279 --> 00:33:29.279 This that God's love toward you was that Jesus Christ did everything necessary that you would be with him someday before him in love as his child. 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:38.880 So this love that God has toward you, its importance, it far exceeds anything that we can offer back to him. 00:33:39.120 --> 00:33:45.600 But the next verse does tell us what we should do with this love. 00:33:45.840 --> 00:33:49.120 Remember, the importance is that he loved us. 00:33:49.360 --> 00:33:54.480 So if we don't do this next bit, it's not gonna undo the love of God. 00:33:54.640 --> 00:34:01.040 In fact, in Romans, he says, Romans chapter 8 says, What can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? 00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:03.200 And the answer is nothing. 00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:08.320 There is nothing that can separate you from the one who loved you first. 00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:16.960 But what can separate my heart, my mind from feeling the presence of my God here? 00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:25.519 He goes, beloved, if God so loved us, if that's the manner in which he loved us, if that's the magnitude. 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:35.759 The word so has two meanings, and and I'd have to start the clock over to talk about this, but um, the word so can mean in the manner, like behold what manner of love. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:40.719 God so loved us in this way, but it also can mean in a magnitude. 00:34:41.039 --> 00:34:45.039 He so loved you in such a big way, right? 00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:46.400 And it means both. 00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:50.960 Just like the word first means all four of these things, the word so means both. 00:34:51.119 --> 00:34:54.639 He loved you in this way, and he loved you in this magnitude. 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:58.320 And it ties in with John chapter 3, verse 16. 00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:02.639 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. 00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.279 This is how much and in what way he loved you. 00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:14.559 His son came, Jesus Christ came into this world to redeem you from your sins. 00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:16.880 And he completed that work. 00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:22.799 He laid down his life for you, and that's how he loved you in the action he did. 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:30.879 He goes, if God loved us that way, and with that much, he says, we ought also to love one another. 00:35:31.199 --> 00:35:33.279 That ought means you owe it. 00:35:33.519 --> 00:35:34.480 You owe a debt. 00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:41.440 We sang a song this morning as Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. 00:35:41.599 --> 00:35:46.159 There are some of our hymnals that have slightly different wording, and I like them both. 00:35:46.319 --> 00:35:48.079 And I like them both for this reason. 00:35:48.319 --> 00:35:55.359 Jesus did pay all the debt I owe to God for my sins. 00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:57.920 He washed me white as snow. 00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:04.159 But another way that some of the hymnals say is Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. 00:36:04.319 --> 00:36:06.079 And I certainly feel that to be true. 00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:07.759 I owe him everything. 00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:09.920 I can never repay it fully. 00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:12.480 You know, you you feel the same way. 00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:16.159 You can't repay God for the love he has bestowed upon you. 00:36:16.319 --> 00:36:21.039 But God's given us how we ought to pay. 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:27.199 How we owe him, what we owe is this that we love one another. 00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:29.359 And how do we love one another? 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:35.599 The way we can't love him to the magnitude that he loved us, but we can love him the way he loved us. 00:36:35.839 --> 00:36:41.519 We can love in the way that's sacrificing for others, that's esteeming others better than self. 00:36:41.679 --> 00:36:47.759 That's not self-serving, looking for how I can benefit, but how I can serve others. 00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:56.879 Um, we'll go to John's gospel account and read some of the words of Jesus to us. 00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:16.639 As he writes in the 14th chapter, and in verse 15, he says, If you love me, if ye love me, keep my commandments. 00:37:17.359 --> 00:37:29.839 Now remember the two commandments that Jesus said, all of the law and prophets are wrapped up in, encapsulated in love God and love your neighbor. 00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:34.719 Those two things fulfill the will of God. 00:37:35.359 --> 00:37:39.119 He says, if you love him, do that. 00:37:39.359 --> 00:37:40.559 Do that thing. 00:37:40.879 --> 00:37:49.199 Now, the question is not then flips to where he says, Well, if you don't do that, you don't love God. 00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:52.639 That's not the reason for the if-then statement. 00:37:52.879 --> 00:37:57.199 It's more of a um self-proving. 00:37:57.519 --> 00:38:05.519 God is not looking at your com your keeping his commandments to figure out if he loves you. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:07.679 God loved you first. 00:38:08.239 --> 00:38:13.039 God loved you first in place, in time and place, in order and in importance. 00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:26.079 But God is looking at our actions so that whether he might say to us, Well done. 00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:28.239 You know, there's rewards. 00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:32.079 He says to the servant, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 00:38:32.319 --> 00:38:34.159 Enter into the joy of thy Lord. 00:38:34.319 --> 00:38:37.199 I want to enter into the joy of my Lord. 00:38:37.279 --> 00:38:41.359 I want to feel his smiles down upon me. 00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:50.799 As a parent that is pleased with their children, I don't want to feel the distance that never separates you from God. 00:38:50.879 --> 00:38:55.440 But the there's a distance between me and my dad when I wasn't in doing right. 00:38:55.599 --> 00:38:58.399 And that distance, I don't want to feel that with God. 00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:05.279 He tells you, you want to, if you love me, if you love God, and I say, I do love God, I love him. 00:39:05.759 --> 00:39:07.599 He says, Keep my commandments. 00:39:07.839 --> 00:39:15.679 We move forward into the 15th chapter of John. 00:39:19.279 --> 00:39:24.000 And in verse 9, he says, As the Father hath loved me. 00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:29.599 Christ says, As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you. 00:39:30.319 --> 00:39:32.559 Continue ye in my love. 00:39:32.879 --> 00:39:40.480 Now, again, this is an aspect of right here in this life and feeling the love God has for you. 00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:41.759 Continue in it. 00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:47.920 It doesn't mean like if you don't do these things, his love for you goes away because that can't happen. 00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:52.480 He's talking about whether you're walking in it or not. 00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:58.799 If you're feeling it or not, he says, He loved you, so continue you in my love. 00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:03.519 If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. 00:40:03.759 --> 00:40:05.759 That's like being in the house, okay? 00:40:05.839 --> 00:40:07.440 You abide in the house. 00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:13.119 When my kids are off and doing all their various activities, they are still in my family. 00:40:13.199 --> 00:40:17.359 They're still in my household, but they're not in the house. 00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:20.879 I want to be abiding in the love of Christ. 00:40:21.039 --> 00:40:24.079 I want to feel his love in my life. 00:40:24.319 --> 00:40:25.519