The Love of Advent

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

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Our focus this morning will be on verses six through eight.
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So Romans chapter five, verses one through 11.
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Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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And not only that, but we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope.
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Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
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For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
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For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
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But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
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For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having now been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
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May God bless his work, to our hearts, to our lives, and for his glory.
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I was assigned the task, the subject of God's love.
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When I first began to think about that subject, I found myself in my mind rather blank.
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And that blankness stayed with me for a while.
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And I was blank and empty in my mind not because of the scarcity or the lack of scripture or teaching on that subject of God's love.
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But I was rather empty in my mind because of the largeness of the subject, because of the immensity of the truth, not because of the scarcity of the truth.
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If you will, I really was overwhelmed by the subject of God's love.
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Let me put it to you this way.
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If I asked you to climb the highest height in Florida, you might very quickly and easily devise a plan to do that.
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Not much to speak of.
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But let me ask you now, if I brought you to the foot of Mount Everest, and I gave you the same task, if I told you at the foot of Mount Everest that you needed to climb to the top, perhaps you would have the same reaction that I had, your mind would begin to go blank.
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How could I possibly conquer such a height? How could I possibly overcome the sheer immensity of something like Mount Everest? My friends, the thought of God's love is so high a truth.
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It's so immense.
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It's so lofty.
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It's so far above us that to go back to that analogy, I feel as if all we can do this morning is perhaps take a pick and take a shot at the bottom of the mountain and hope to chip off a piece.
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Because I assure you, none of us could ever fathom the height of Mount Everest.
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And the depth and the breadth and the length of the love of God.
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And if you think you can, you're sadly mistaken.
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The thought of love, the love of God.
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It's amazing how the scriptures put it.
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God is love.
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We could stop there and just ponder that for the next hours and not be able to comprehend that.
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God is love.
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You know, we live in a time when the truth about love, even in basic ways is so mishandled.
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We live in a day when the truth about love is so mishandled and so misused.
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And love is so often pledged from one person to another person only to be broken and ruined, not even a few minutes after.
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Love is something that in our day, we truly struggle with.
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It's amazing to me that in America, that there are more people divorced than are married.
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Think about that.
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And yet, when people come together to be married, they pledge to love one another.
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And so not only is it the fact that we as people cannot even get love straight in the smallest of ways, how could we possibly ever understand the greatness of God's love? And yet, and yet that is what we desire to look at today.
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Which one of us would make that kind of an exclamation? Not that you love, but you would say, I am love.
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God is love.
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Which one of us would want to demonstrate the foolishness of our own mind and heart to make a statement such as I am love? And yet, if you think about it, we are created in the image of God.
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And as such, in some ways, we do mimic the love of God.
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We can demonstrate love towards one another.
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We can do it in various ways, but we truly cannot understand it in the setting of God's love and the greatness of it.
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And I wanted to add this thought to you to think about this as we go through this, as we look at what Paul states in Romans chapter five.
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Let me ask you to think about this.
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In the scriptures, you will not see that I know of anywhere where an angel says he loves.
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Other than the Lord Jesus Christ as the angel of the Lord, you will never find in the scriptures where an angel demonstrates love or says that he loves.
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And the reason why I bring that up is because I want to try, as we look at Paul's words here in Romans five, to demonstrate that the greatest demonstration of God's love is to be found in redemption.
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The greatest demonstration of God's love is to be found in redemption.
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Now, think about the angels.
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The angels are sent to be messengers of God.
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And there are elect angels who never fell and have no need of redemption.
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And there are also angels that fell and they have no offer of redemption.
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They are chained in darkness until that day of judgment.
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And in that way, angels cannot truly understand the love of God as it's laid out in redemption.
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Let me ask you to take a few minutes with me and look at the text, specifically verse six through verse eight, to demonstrate God's love.
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For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
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For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
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Now, I read from the New King James, as most of you know, and many of you read from the ESV, and I believe in the ESV in verse eight, it says, but God shows his own love.
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In other places in the New King James, in another translation where that word is used, demonstrated, really is translated as commends.
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God demonstrates his love.
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God commends his love.
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God shows his love.
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The heart of the word, as I was able to understand, is in a sense, somewhat twofold.
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One is that to demonstrate, to commend, to show, means to put on exhibit, to make manifest, to display in order to prove.
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God demonstrates his own love.
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God puts it on exhibit.
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God lays it out for us and proves it before our eyes.
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And it also carries the thought that in order to do that, in order to demonstrate, in order to commend, in order to show, that as I hope to show you what Paul does, he uses a contrast.
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He demonstrates what other ways love is exhibited.
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And then in contrast to that, he shows, proves, manifests the love of God.
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And I think you and I would agree that that's a good way for us to understand things, not only to have it made visible to us and exhibited and manifested, but also to draw a contrast to these two truths about God's love, that man can love in the image of God, but my friends, God's love far exceeds as Mount Everest would the highest height in Florida.
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In its truth, in its reality, in its sheer immensity of it.
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If I give you two diamonds, Christmas time, right? K-jewels, all these different things.
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I'll give you two diamonds and one will shine and it'll have a brightness, it'll have a brilliance, it'll have a luster.
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And then I will give you another diamond and that one will really shine.
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If the brilliance of the one that I give you second will far outweigh the brilliance of the one that I give you first.
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And I'll ask you ladies, although men probably, I don't know, diamonds.
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But if I asked you ladies and I showed you two diamonds and they both had a brilliance and they both had a luster and they both shine, but the one that I showed you second so far outweighed the brilliance and the brightness of the first one.
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Ladies, where are you going? You see my friends, that's the way I believe in some sense that Paul lays this out when he speaks about the love of God.
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So let me ask you to think about this.
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And this really is the essence of what I wanna try to get across this morning.
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If anyone ever asked you to explain the love of God and people will ask that, we meet people at all time and they'll say, well, prove to me that God is love.
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Show it to me, I don't see it.
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Look out in the world, I can't see love.
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I see all kinds of things, but prove to me that God is love.
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If anyone ever asked you to do that, then listen, tell them with no hesitation, tell them that the greatest evidence, the greatest demonstration, the greatest distinction that could be made of God's love is found at the cross of Christ.
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No hesitation, my friends, don't get caught up in trying to prove.
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Listen, we are not to prove the love of God, we are to declare the love of God and take them to the cross because at the cross of Christ is where God's love shines its brightest.
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Don't waste your time when you have before you in the cross of Christ, the greatest exhibit, demonstration of the love of God.
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John puts it this way, he says, in this, the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.
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In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son.
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Look at verse eight.
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God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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I wanna try to get some understanding to that this morning.
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If you look at verse six, look what Paul says.
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He says, for when we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
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God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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And Paul in verse six, I believe begins to open up and expose what that means.
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He says, we were still without strength and that Christ died for us.
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We were without ability.
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You see, that's one of the great things about God's love is that God's love comes to us without any ability of ours.
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Remember what the prophet said? He said, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots? And then he says, how could you that are evil, accustomed to evil, do good? We were without strength.
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Friends, you and I had nothing to offer him.
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There isn't a man, woman, child in this world.
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There isn't a child of Adam in and of themselves that can offer anything to solicit God's love.
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So we are without strength.
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We are bankrupt.
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We are totally unable to offer him anything because we were dead in sin and trespasses.
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Now I'm sure as many times as we say it, it should help us more and more.
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I'm sure you would agree with me.
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If a person, if a being is dead, they are without strength.
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They are helpless.
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They have no ability.
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They have nothing to offer.
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They have nothing to bring.
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They give nothing.
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They are dead.
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God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, that's the condition that we were in when God demonstrates his love to us.
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I'm gonna ask you to turn to one other scripture this morning and it's in the Old Testament.
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I'm asking you to turn to Ezekiel for a minute.
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Ezekiel chapter 16.
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Because I believe in Ezekiel 16, we have such a clear demonstration, if you will, of this very principle of being without strength and of being a sinner.
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I'm gonna read the first eight verses.
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And as you sit here this morning, and as you think about the love of God, if you care about the love of God, if that matters to you, and I assure you someday, one day, whether you believe it or not, it will matter to you.
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That's right.
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Amen.
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Listen to this.
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Before we even read this, when men fall down before Christ, they will confess that he is Lord.
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And when men are sent into eternal punishment, listen, the cries from hell will not be because of the flames, how terrible they will be.
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And they will not be because of the things that are lost, how terrible they will be.
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You wanna know the worst cry from hell that will ever be spoken is what have I done with God's love? What have I done with Jesus? So if you sit here this morning and you're not concerned, I assure you, one day you will.
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Amen.
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So read the word, think about it, consider yourself.
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Ezekiel chapter 16, verses one through eight.
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Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say, thus sayeth the Lord God to Jerusalem, your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan.
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Your father was an Amorite.
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Your mother a Hittite.
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And as for your nativity, on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you.
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You were not rubbed with salt, nor swatted in swaddling clothes.
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And no, I pitied you to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you, but you were thrown out into the open field when you yourself will loathe on the day you were born.
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And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, live.
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Yes, I said to you in your blood, live.
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And I made you strive like a plant in the field and you grew and matured.
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You became very beautiful and your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
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Look at verse eight.
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When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was a time of love.
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So I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness and I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you and you became mine, says the Lord.
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And I washed you in water and I thoroughly washed off your blood and I anointed you with oil and I clothed you in embroidered cloth and I gave you sandals of badger skin and I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk and you could read on and on.
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Friends, that's where we were.
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We were as helpless, we were as hopeless, we were as vulnerable, we were as empty as a baby tossed out, dying in its own blood in an open field.
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And my friends, if that doesn't move your heart, then you have a heart of stone.
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Amen, amen.
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And that's when God passed by.
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It says when God passed by, it was a time of love.
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And that's why I say to you, the greatest demonstration of God's love is found at the cross.
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Because it is there where the Son of God emptied himself because we were without strength, because we were hopeless, because we were helpless, because we couldn't clean ourselves before God, we couldn't feed ourselves, we couldn't do anything.
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God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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What wondrous love is this, friends? Listen, how could any of us be dry-eyed this morning? The God, the eternal God, the God who needs nothing to add to himself, the God who is altogether glorious, he saw us in the condition that we were in, and he loves us, and he demonstrated that love by sending his Son to God, got this cross.
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The sinless Son of God, as our brother prayed.
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The bright and morning star, the Lamb of God, he died a sinner's death out of love for sinners.
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And so love what the Apostle John says when he says, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, us, the sin, my friends, God did not come to you if he's come to you, if he saved you.
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He did not come to you when you were upright.
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He did not come to you when you were clean before him.
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He didn't come to you when you were independent.
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No, no, friends, just as it describes in Ezekiel 16, God passed by, and when he passed by, it was a time of love.
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And so when Jesus came, it was a time of love.
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You know, men can't even figure that one out.
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Men can't even figure out what Christmas is all about.
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Maybe we should just do what Starbucks does.
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Instead of writing Merry Christmas on our cups, we'll just write Merry Coffee.
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We don't even know why Christ came, but I'll tell you why he came.
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He came because his coming was a time of love.
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Think of it, my friends.
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Think of what the Lord Jesus Christ allowed.
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He allowed sinful and wicked men to abuse him and mistreat him.
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He allowed wicked men to bear false witness against him.
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He allowed wicked men to mock him, to beat him.
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He allowed wicked men to cause him to carry a cross that he never deserved, never merited.
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He allowed men to drive spikes through his sinless hands and through his sinless.
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He allowed wicked men in love to stretch him out on a cross.
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You know why they did that, friends? They did that with the hope that the weight of the one they hung on the cross would so weigh down that they would suffocate themselves.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever should believe on him should what? Not perish, but have everlasting life.
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And you know the craziest part? There are so many today that don't care.
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They don't care about everlasting life.
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They don't care about the son of God.
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They don't care that he took on what he did not deserve.
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Do we know anything, my friends, this morning of the height or the breadth or the length or the depth of the love of God, which is in Christ? And you know what? As much as the beatings and the mockings and the cross and all those things, they move us.
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You want to know the truth? That's not what's so moving.
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What's truly moving is that the father in love forsook the son and the son cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it was because he was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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Amen.
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That's what caused the sweat drops of blood was that the father would so bruise the son out of love for sinners.
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Let me ask you to go back to Romans and we just try to draw out for a moment or two the contrast a little bit further as I believe the apostle does.
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And he gives two examples in Romans chapter five.
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Romans five, six, when we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
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And the two examples are there in verse seven.
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For scarcely for a righteous man will one die.
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Then I believe he gives us a second example.
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Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.
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I'll just consider those two for a moment.
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For scarcely for a righteous man would one die.
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Now my understanding of this righteous man is that he is an innocent man.
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He's neither done anything good or anything evil to you.
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He's a person who in that sense has had no real impact on you.
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He's basically done nothing for you and you would be willing out of love to die for that person.
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You would be willing to say, I will pay his debt.
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I will be his substitute.
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I think the apostle certainly has it right.
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Scarcely for a righteous man would one dare to die.
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How many of us would do that? Someone we don't even know.
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Someone that hasn't really benefited us.
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Someone that has really no real effect in my life.
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I'm just gonna go and I'm just gonna be a substitute for them.
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I'm gonna take upon me what they deserve.
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I think that's why he says it that way.
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Scarcely for a righteous man would one dare to die.
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We can't even open the door for one another.
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Think about it.
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Get out of my way, it's my world.
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We don't know anything about love.
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And yet, scarcely for a righteous man would one dare.
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I suppose if you had to try to make an analogy, I suppose maybe the good Samaritan falls into this group where he saw someone in a horrible condition, helpless, hopeless, unable to remedy himself, unable to lift himself up, laying there.
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And he goes and he picks him up and he carries him to the inn and he tells the innkeeper to take care of him.
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And he tells the innkeeper, whatever he needs, I will pay.
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And then he tells him, man, I'm gonna go away and I'll come back and if he owes you anything more, I'll take care of it.
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Maybe that's an example of someone who would dare die for a righteous man.
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And the reason why I said that is, if you will, look at the second contrast.
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He says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.
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I take this good man to be someone who has done good for you, someone who has been profitable, someone who has advanced your life in some way.
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Maybe it's someone who has, I don't know, championed a cause that you agree with.
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And you're willing to bear his pain because he's the champion of your agenda or your understanding.
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And maybe he's added to you in a personal way and maybe he's so enhanced your life in a good way that now you're willing to lay down your life for him.
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And yet I say to you that to me is even still difficult.
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Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.
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But look at verse eight, but God, see it? So he lays out these two examples for us.
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And he sets them up in a sense as a contrast, as I said before, and then you come to verse eight, but God, but God demonstrates his own love.
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The love of God, not the love of man, not the thing that we call love.
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This is God's love.
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God demonstrates his own love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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You see, my friends, God's love is demonstrated not to the innocent, but to the guilty.
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God's love is not demonstrated to the good, but to the bad.
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And that's what makes God's love so unique and so high and so exalted, so lifted up.
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And again, I'm gonna say it again because I just can't stop thinking about it.
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Men, women, children despise the love of God as it is seen in Christ Jesus.
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They're not just indifferent, they despise it.
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They hate it.
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They rebel against it.
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It's not just the fact that they have to acknowledge that God is God, they have to acknowledge that they're not.
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The cross is the greatest example of our inability and of Christ's ability, of our hatred and his love.
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And that's why I say to you, whenever anybody asks you to explain God's love, take them to the cross.
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And if they move away, take them back.
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It's where we were, my friends.
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We were so darkened by sin.
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We were so wretched and ruined.
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We had hearts of stone.
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You know what the prophet says in the Old Testament concerning Israel as far as their understanding of God? He says, you're dumber than an ox.
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He says, you're dumber than a donkey who knows where his master's crib is.
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What does God do in the midst of that? He sent Christ to die for us.
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I don't know where I'd be, do you? Where would you be without him this morning, Prince? Where would you be without Christ? Where are you concerning the love of God? Is this, am I just some fool getting all worked up? And it really doesn't matter to you because you'll be out of here shortly and you can go eat, watch the football game, and you can do whatever you want.
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You can go back to your life of sin and you could despise the love of God.
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And I assure you again in that day, one day, if you wind up in hell, you will be crying out, what have I done with the cross? Not what did I do with my money? What did I do with my kids? What did I do with my, it'll be what have I done with the love of God? While we were still sinners.
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Not easy to think about, is it? There's just, there's too much to it.
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Let me read to you what Paul says in Titus chapter three.
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You don't have to turn there.
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You know it.
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If you want to read it, that's fine.
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In Titus chapter three, he says this.
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He says, remind them to be subject to rules and authorities to obey and to be ready for every good work.
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To speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.
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Look what he says.
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He says, we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
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But when, there it is again.
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Romans chapter five, he says, but God, Paul in Titus says, but when the kindness and love of God our Savior towards men appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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Friends, if you ever get over the cross, you've never been to the cross.
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How's that? I don't care if you've been a Christian for 50 years, 60 years, tell me that there isn't times when the very thought of the sinless son of God bearing your sin account doesn't break your heart.
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And if it doesn't, there's something wrong with your heart.
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For God so loved the world.
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Listen, for God so loved me.
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I can get over God loving you, but I can't get over God loving me, friends.
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I know what I was.
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I know what I am.
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And I know whom I believed it.
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And I am persuaded because of his love that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day.
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If that don't make it amen, I don't know what will.
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If that don't get you worked up, my friends, nothing will.
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If the love of God doesn't excite your heart, it's because you don't care about the love of God.
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You've never experienced the love of God.
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You don't know the love of God.
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He bore in his body what I deserve.
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But God, you read that verse all day, verse eight.
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But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
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He loved us before the foundation of the world.
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He loves us with an everlasting love.
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And then when he created us, he passed by and he saw us dead in our sin.
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And his time that he passed by was a time of love.
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And he loved every single one of us the same way because he loved us in Christ.
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No special kids.
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Which parent truly loves one child above another? Sometimes some of our kids give us some reasons to say, I'm not really sure.
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Which one of us wouldn't go to their aid? Which one of us would say, I love this one, but I don't love that one.
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No, no, friends, if we're a child of God, we're loved with this love that is so high and so exalted and so, in that sense, unfathomable.
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And so let me close.
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Let me ask you this question this morning.
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Do you love him who is love? Do you love him, friends? I'm not asking you if you go to church.
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I'm not even asking you if you give money.
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I'm not asking you if you're a good person.
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I'm not asking you if you're living in adultery or fornication.
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I'm not asking you if you're a thief.
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I'm asking you, do you love him? Do you love Jesus? Is the love of God manifest in your heart? Are you gonna fall down in that day? Remember, remember, every eye shall see him when there only be two statements made.
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Lord Jesus, I love you, for you died for me.
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Lord Jesus, who saved a part from me, I never knew you.
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That's right.
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Amen.
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That's right.
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I'm gonna read in closing something from Isaiah.
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Just listen.
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If you don't love God this morning, if you cannot see the love of God, if you don't understand it, here it is, friends.
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Here's the invitation.
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Listen, we're a reformed church, aren't we? We believe in the sovereignty of God, don't we? We believe that God can do anything he pleases to do.
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And yet, and yet, God gives an invitation.
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And here it is.
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Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
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You who have no money, come, buy and eat.
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Come and buy wine and milk without money and without price.
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Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good.
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And let your soul delight itself.
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Let your soul delight itself in abundance.
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Incline your ear and come to me.
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Here in your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.
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And indeed, I've given him as a witness to the people, a leader and a commander for the people.
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And surely you shall call a nation you do not know and nations who do not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
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Seek the Lord while he may be found.
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Call upon him while he's near.
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Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him.
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And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways in my thoughts and your thoughts.
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May the love of God be further impressed in our hearts and in our lives and forevermore.
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Let's just close in prayer before we take part in supper.
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Our Father in God, again, we have, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface, Lord.
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We're still at the bottom of Mount Everest, Lord.
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We still cannot fathom how you could love sinners like us.
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And yet you do.
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You sent the Son to die and to take what we rightfully deserve.
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Oh God, help us this morning to love.
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Those who do not know you, know you and help those that know you to know you more.
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May we continually wonder what manner of love our Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God.
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In Christ Jesus, our Lord.
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Let's stand and sing together.
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Number 205, Away in a Manger.