The Manifested Love of God | 1 John 4:9-10

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Okay beloved, turn with me over again to 1st John chapter 4. We read our passage for today.

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Lots of scripture for this sermon. Lots of good stuff.

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We'll start in verse 7. 1st John chapter 4 verse 7. God's word says,

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Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows

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God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten

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Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved

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God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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Amen. So, you can see from the sermon title, the main subject for this message is going to be the manifested love of God.

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And this is a very, very powerful passage. A lot of good stuff to get from here.

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And, obviously, regarding the main subject, really of the whole chapter, of much of the chapter, is love.

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Is that of love. Agape love in all its various forms and inflections.

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And we started to see last Lord's Day how

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Scripture teaches us about love in the sense of what it is and what it is not.

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And I mainly covered what it is not last time, and how true love is not unstable.

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It's not a constant change of heart. And this

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Lord's Day, I want to focus more on what love is, positively. And speaking of loving one another, you know, after last week's message, my family and I, we re -watched the

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Veggie Tales movie, Let Us Love One Another, lettuce as in the vegetable lettuce. And it was worse than I remembered.

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It was not very good. They kept changing scriptures, and it was kind of a mess. So, it was a little disappointing.

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Because we were excited, since that was a sermon, the verse that I had preached on last time. But, anyway.

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So, this other love chapter, as I like to refer to it, 1 John chapter 4, explains what love truly is, also.

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And what it looks like. So, we see in verse 9, specifically starting in verse 9,

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By this, by this, the love of God was manifested in us.

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That God has sent his only begotten son into the world, so that we might live through him.

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In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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Amen. This is an awesome gospel memory verse.

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I encourage all of us to memorize this passage. It's a great summary of what the gospel is.

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And to share with others, evangelism and things like that. Now, there's a few technicalities that we need to address in this passage.

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So, you'll notice in verse 9, it says that God has sent his only begotten son.

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His only begotten son. And the Greek word there, actually, it doesn't mean that.

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It doesn't mean only begotten. It means unique. Unique. So, his one of a kind son.

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Monogenei. Monogenei is the Greek word. And so, that's what this passage, this word, it's referring to here.

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If it were only begotten, it would be monogenao. Monogenao, but it's monogenei.

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So, genei from the word genus, like genus or class. So, he is one of a kind.

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And the other, you'll notice also the word world.

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You'll notice the word world again in this passage. But this time, it means something different from the previous times in the earlier verses.

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It's not referring so much to unregenerate society. It's referring here more to an actual place or location.

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Because it says that God sent his son into the world.

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Into a place. Namely, earth. He sent him into the world. Into earth.

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So that he could accomplish his mission.

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So, that being said, what then is love?

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What is love? And I know I've preached on this before in a number of sermons. Some of these themes are not new in John's letter.

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But last week was mainly about what it's not. Now, what love is, in summary, is this little axiom that I want to put forward for us.

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It's a really important axiom or principle. To define love succinctly in a very concise way.

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It is that love, God's love is the gospel.

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God's love is gospel. Our love is law. Our love is law.

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Obedience. So, God's love is gospel. Our love is law.

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I want you to think deeply and carefully with me on this. Because it's going to be recurring all throughout this chapter.

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God's love is gospel. Our love is law. Obedience to God's law.

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This is what true love is. It's what verses 9 and 10 clearly tell us.

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It is God's love. It is gospel love. This is the love of God. Gospel love.

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God's love is powerful. It is second to none. And it never fails.

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Never fails. Because God's love never forsakes us. You know, I love how that hymn, that hymn.

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I think the microphone went out. Sorry about that. I love how the hymn that we sing.

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What a friend we have in Jesus. Where it says, do your friends despise forsake you?

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Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll shield and take you. You will find a solace there. You will find a solace in Christ, in God, because he is our rock and our refuge.

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And he never forsakes us. He never abandons us. Even though friends, so -called friends, may abandon us in this world.

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Right? That's the blessing of God's love. God's love never fails and never forsakes us or changes.

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And it's an undying love that is a result of Christ dying for us.

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His love is rich in mercy and wonder and many other incomparable excellencies.

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Excellencies, attributes, properties. Some of which are the following four that I wanted to put forth for you all today.

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I added a couple more from the previous Lord's Day. Four excellencies of God's love.

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Number one is that God's love is redemptive. God's love is redemptive.

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Number two is that God's love is restorative. God's love is restorative.

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Number three is that God's love is regenerative. God's love is regenerative.

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And the last one, number four, is that God's love is reformative. God's love is reformative.

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Now, in terms of distinguishing these, you can classify these excellencies of God's love in two basic categories.

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The first one is the forensic category. And if you remember, recall the sermons that I preached on union with Christ, that the forensic is the legal.

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It's the status. It's that which is a status that we receive from God's love.

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So that would be the redemptive and the restorative excellencies of God's love.

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They are forensic. They are pertaining to status and legal status and that kind of thing.

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They are objective and, yeah, they're objective promises of God in that sense.

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The second category is renovative. Renovative excellencies because they are transformative.

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So they are renovative or transformative, or another word we could say is experiential, practical.

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They are lived out in that sense. That would be the regenerative, right?

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The regenerative and the reformative. Regenerative and reformative.

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So these are the two basic categories for these four excellencies of God's love.

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So the first one is really the foundational one, that God's love is redemptive.

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God's love is redemptive because God's love forgives us all our sins.

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All of our sins. And how is our redemption accomplished?

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How is it accomplished? It's accomplished with one word.

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One word. And that's a pun intended there. One word and that is

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Christ. Christ himself. Christ himself is the word that accomplishes our redemption.

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That is how it is accomplished. It is by his means. His atonement.

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His atonement. His sacrifice. His propitiation of God's wrath.

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His satisfaction of God's wrath on our behalf. And that's exactly what verses 9 and 10 in 1

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John chapter 4 reveal to us, right? It is that by this love, by this the love of God was manifested, displayed in us.

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Now in us really means for us. It means for us or toward us.

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In our case. In our favor. In our favor. Which is a restorative quality of God's love.

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God's love restores us into God's favor. That God has sent his only begotten.

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Now again remember his unique son. His one -of -a -kind son. Which also presupposes the triune

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God. There is a trinity in the Godhead. There is this father. There is the son as well.

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Into the world that we might live through him. Live through Christ.

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This is a reformative love here. That is explained. That we might live through him.

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And be conformed to him. In this is love. Not that we have loved

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God. Because of course we didn't love God. Prior to him saving us.

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He loved us first. And that is why he loved us.

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So he loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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All our sins. To which we all should say and shout a hearty amen.

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This is God's redemptive love. God's redemptive love.

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It is the most foundational. And that is again tying closely to the union with Christ.

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That I preached on earlier in 1 John. Because it points to the forensic.

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The justification. Those categories being foundational. Those doctrines.

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For the other ones to take root in. Now God's love is powerfully redemptive.

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And exercising the analogy of scripture then. Turn with me now to Romans chapter 5.

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Romans chapter 5 starting in verse 8. Romans chapter 5 verse 8.

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We see another awesome powerful word from God. That correlates much of what the

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Apostle John is describing. There we go.

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Is describing for us. Romans chapter 5 verse 8.

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But God demonstrates. Demonstrates. Manifests. His own love toward us.

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For us. In our favor. In that while we were yet sinners.

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Christ died for us. He died for the ungodly. Much more than having now been justified by His blood.

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We shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. That's propitiation right there.

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Once again. For if while we were enemies. We were reconciled.

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Past tense. To God through the death of His Son. Much more having been reconciled.

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Now we shall be saved by His life. Amen. Now there's another corollary.

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There's many corollary passages. But one of them. That's particularly relevant.

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Is Ephesians 1 7 through 8. Which says in Him.

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In Christ. We have redemption. We have redemption.

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How? Through His blood. Through His blood.

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The forgiveness of our transgressions. The forgiveness of our transgressions.

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That is redemption defined. It is the forgiveness of our sins and transgressions.

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According to the riches of His grace. Which He caused to abound in us.

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In all wisdom and insight. Amen. This is

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God's redeeming love. That is the essence of. What redemption.

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Means for us and accomplishes for us. The forgiveness of all our sin.

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So. It's it goes without saying that. This is one of the most foundational doctrines in all of Scripture.

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Because God's gospel of love. God's gospel of love toward us.

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In our case. In our favor. Is a gospel of propitiation. Of a satisfaction of God's wrath.

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Okay. God's gospel of love. Is a gospel of the satisfaction.

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Of His wrath. Through Christ. And His life and death on our behalf.

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There is the beautiful. Reconciliation. Of. Our sin to God's righteousness.

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And propitiatory sacrifice on the cross. This is. This is. The amazing answer to all our problems.

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All of them. Are solved. Fundamentally at the cross. At the cross.

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It is the foundational doctrine. Of. The Bible. One of the most.

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And. Which is why again.

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Verse John. First John chapter 4 verse 10 says. In this is love. Not that we love

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God. But that. He. Sent. He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation.

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For our sins. Now. Again. This is a very important axiom.

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That we need to internalize in light of the many attacks. Upon this doctrine. That I've been.

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That I've been. How do you say. Flooding the church.

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From all sides from within the church from without the church. This doctrine is one of the most attacked.

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And undermine doctrines. Of all. Because it is. It is so powerful.

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The atonement is central to Christianity. And propitiation is the very heart of the gospel.

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Those are axioms. To absolutely live on.

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And stake our entire salvation. On. That very claim. That very claim.

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Because remember. First John. Chapter 2. If you turn back with me a couple chapters.

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To chapter 2. And 1st John. Where. The apostle.

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Announces for us. A very similar. A very similar.

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Gospel proclamation. In this.

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In this passage. Let's try this.

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One more time. Okay. So.

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1st John. Chapter 2. God's word says. And he.

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I'm using the amplified here. And he. That same Jesus. Is the propitiation.

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For our sins. All our sins. The atoning sacrifice.

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That holds back the wrath of God. That satisfies. The wrath of God. Rather. That would otherwise be directed at us.

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Because of our sinful nature. Our worldliness. Our lifestyle. And not for ours alone.

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But also for the sins of all believers. Throughout the whole world.

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Amen. That is. Gospel proclamation. Founded on.

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Christ's propitiatory. Sacrificial atoning work. On the cross.

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And the word propitiation. All pretty much always means the same thing. It has very.

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Very. Few variations. The means.

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It basically means the means of appeasing. Wrath and gaining the goodwill.

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Of an offended person. Especially with respect to. Sacrifices for appeasing.

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Angered deities. And this is why. This is why. So many people reject this doctrine.

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Because they don't like the idea of an angry God. Or of the wrath of God. Which the

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Bible is full of. The wrath of God. You have.

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You have false teachers like Keller. Who fundamentally redefine. And reject.

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Reject the wrath of God by redefining it. This is a very unsavory doctrine in the eyes of the world.

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And in many who are. Supposedly in the church. But are in fact. Antichrist. Because they teach a false gospel.

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And by. Because they reject this doctrine. And. That's what it means.

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That's what propitiation means. And it's all over the

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Bible. Old and New Testament. It is to make satisfaction for.

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To appease. To assuage. To pacify the wrath of God. So that God is no longer angry at us.

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Because his justice has been fully satisfied. In Christ's death.

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No. Mark these words beloved. Carefully. You cannot be saved.

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Apart from a gospel of propitiation. Because God is just.

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And he will by no means. Clear the guilty. There has to be a payment.

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For our sin. And you must believe. The true gospel of God's love.

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And propitiation. It's both. It's both.

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And I want us to. Hear me out carefully here beloved. Because there is a very prominent attack.

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On this doctrine. By other false Christian religions.

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Namely. One of the big ones being Eastern Orthodoxy. Eastern Orthodoxy.

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Because they utterly reject the doctrine of propitiation. Because. They claim that it splits up the divine will.

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And this is a big. This is something that we need to understand. Because it pertains to the

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Trinity. Because in the doctrine of the Trinity. There is only one divine will.

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Even though there are three persons in the Godhead. There is only one God. And that one God has one will.

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So. The three persons of the Godhead never do anything independently.

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They are all united in a single will. And that's what Jesus said. When he came down.

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I came not to do my will. But the Father's will. Who sent me. So.

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They say. If God only has one will. Then how is it that God's wrath is being poured out on God.

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Because Christ is the God man. Right. How do we make sense of that. And they say that we are guilty of Nestorianism.

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That's an ancient heresy. That taught that Christ was two persons. Rather than one person.

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The God man. Rather he is a separate divine person. And a separate human person.

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This is heavy duty stuff. But we need to understand it.

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Biblically. In light of God's whole counsel. And one of the reasons they often say this.

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Is because they'll say. You have to start with the doctrine of God. And fit everything else into your understanding of God.

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And that's why they reject propitiation. Because they claim it splits up the will of God.

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And results in Nestorianism. Which is a heresy. Which we would agree with. That Nestorianism is a heresy.

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But we disagree that what we teach is Nestorianism. Now, here's part of the problem.

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And because they also say. That Christ's death was a mere separation of the soul from his body.

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That was it. It was a separation of his soul from his body. There was no wrath poured out on him.

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They fundamentally deny that because of the will of God being united. Now, what sayeth the scriptures?

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That's what we have to ask. What sayeth the scriptures? Because this is of utter importance.

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Right? So, the reality is that you cannot just start with God. You cannot just start with God.

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Even though the doctrine of God is obviously of primary importance. It is of the most important doctrines.

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However, there are other doctrines that are also of first importance.

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First importance. Note those words. Remember where they come from. And we must also make systematic sense of them.

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In light of the whole counsel of God. And not compromise one at the expense of another.

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For I, the Apostle Paul, deliver to you as of what importance?

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As of first importance. What might that be? What I also received.

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That Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures.

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Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15. What is he talking about?

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He is talking about the gospel. He is talking about salvation. In other words, the

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Apostle Paul, through the breathed out words of God, is revealing to us that the doctrine of salvation, the gospel, is also of first importance.

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In fact, that is the one doctrine that is explicitly stated that way.

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The gospel is of first importance. And the gospel obviously has other doctrines involved in it.

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It has the doctrine of God. And it has the doctrine of man. And the doctrine of salvation.

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This is the combination of what is most important, most fundamental, primary doctrines in the scriptures.

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This is why. Because the Bible tells us what they are. It is not just the doctrine of God.

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It is the doctrine of man and the doctrine of salvation. In addition to the doctrine of God's word.

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Which fundamentally are what were at the heart of the conflict with Rome during the

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Protestant Reformation. Right? It was the doctrine of justification.

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How are we made right with God? By faith alone. Apart from works.

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Was the Protestant response. Is the Biblical response. And on what authority do we base truth and everything on?

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Is it scripture alone? Or scripture and the magisterium of Rome, which often erred and contradicted themselves?

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In the words of Luther. Right? So, God, man, salvation, his word.

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These are fundamental primary doctrines, which the scriptures tell us they are. And a failure to grasp any one of these primary doctrines can lead to fatal error.

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And a false gospel. Because that is what the Eastern Orthodox Church has. That is what the

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Roman Catholic Church has. They have false gospels because they fundamentally deny these doctrines of salvation.

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They fail to take into account what scripture says regarding this doctrine of propitiation.

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And I want us to have it crystal clear in our minds, beloved. Because it is so important.

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Turn with me to the Old Testament. This might be surprising. But one of the clearest passages in the entire

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Bible of the doctrine of propitiation is in Isaiah 53. Otherwise known as the fifth gospel.

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Because it is so explicitly clear about what God has done for us. Let's allow

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God's word to speak to us and to conform us according to its truth.

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And not try to twist and distort it onto our destruction. Like others have done.

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Beloved, so follow along with me here. Isaiah 53. I'll start in verse 4.

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Surely our griefs he himself bore. Who is that he? Beloved, that he is the suffering servant.

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The suffering Messiah. Christ Jesus. Prophesied many centuries before this happened.

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It actually came to pass. And our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken.

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Smitten of God and afflicted. We rejected him. But he was pierced through.

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For what? For our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

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Crushed by whom? Who did the crushing? Ask yourselves that. The chastening for our peace fell upon him.

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Who chastened him? And by his wounds we are healed.

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Yahweh. There's your answer. Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

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It is explicitly stated. Yahweh, God the Father, has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

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On that tree. And cursed him with his wrath.

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And for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living.

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That for the transgression of my people. Striking was due to him.

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Who considered this? That striking was due to him. It was due to Yahweh.

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But, now skip to verse 10. I was, sorry, my apologies. I was skipping around here.

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That was verse 8. But Yahweh, verse 10. But Yahweh was pleased to crush who?

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To crush him. Yahweh, soak that in, beloved.

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Yahweh was pleased to crush him. Putting him to grief.

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If you would place his soul as a guilt offering.

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He will see his seed. He will prolong his days. And the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.

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Can I get an amen to that, beloved? This is the gospel of God's love.

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And God's propitiation. Notice how plainly the

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Bible says. Yahweh was pleased to crush his own son.

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To crush his own son. Putting him to grief. So, yes, beloved.

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Even though in the triune God, there is one divine will. Yet, nevertheless.

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God the Father poured out his wrath on his son.

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And we have to make sense of that. Because the Bible clearly teaches it. And if you reject it, you do not have the gospel.

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You do not have a gospel that saves. That is the dynamic in the

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Trinity. There are priorities in God's role. And that is why the redemption that God purchased for us is a triune work.

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Because it took a triune God to do it. A triune God. The Father who, yes, it's the entire divine will for wrath to be poured out.

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But it was the Father's primarily pouring out the wrath on his son.

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And it was the son that satisfied that wrath. Because Christ became the

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God -man. He became a man. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. For that very purpose.

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To give his life a ransom for many. A payment for sin.

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That's exactly what Isaiah 53 says. Right? The very heart of the gospel lies here, beloved.

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And placed his soul, Christ, as a guilt offering.

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That is what we must understand. It is an amazing love.

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How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amen? That is the beauty of God's love.

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Fascinating. And so, note this well, beloved.

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Another axiom of fundamental importance. You cannot understand God's love unless you understand

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God's wrath. You cannot understand God's love unless you understand

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God's wrath. And what happened on the cross. The triune work of God.

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In which the father satisfies the wrath on the son. And the spirit also convicts the world of sin.

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And regenerates those who believe. And grants them faith. All that work of redemption is accomplished by our triune

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God. And the Bible clearly teaches us this.

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So we cannot deny it. So, I want to close us out today, beloved.

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With the second excellency of God's love. Now there are many, like I said, there are many excellencies to God's love.

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These are just a handful of them. That particularly stem from what the apostle is telling us in this passage in 1

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John chapter 4. But note the second one, that God's love, in addition to being redemptive, is also restorative.

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This is our second forensic category of God's love here. It is restorative.

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Now what do I mean by that? God's love not only restores to us the benefits that we lost in the fall.

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The fall of man, the fall of Adam. But in fact, surpasses them with even more blessings and benefits.

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God's love is so amazing that it goes beyond the restoration of what we had in the garden.

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It gives us more. More than that. Than the bliss of the garden. And that's, you'll find, there are so many.

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I'm only going to cover a few of these restorative blessings.

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But turn back with me to 1 John chapter 3. Since that's the letter we're dealing with. In 1 John chapter 3, you'll see one of the amazing blessings of God's love.

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Restorative blessings of God's love. God's restorative love is such that, 1

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John chapter 3 verse 1 tells us, See how great a love the

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Father has given to us. He gave it to us by grace through faith alone.

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That we would be called children of God. And we are.

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We really are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know

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Him. And so, beloved, that is one of the restorative blessings of God's love.

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We are now children of God. Adopted sons and daughters into God's family.

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That is a forensic restorative blessing. That is a result of God's love being poured out on us.

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Through the work of the Triune God. And culminated in the life of the

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God -Man Christ Jesus. That is the amazing love of God.

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Now, 1 Peter chapter 2. Turn with me there now. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. This is such an amazing thing to study.

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These gospel promises, beloved, because they give us so much peace and hope. To look forward to the future as well.

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Not only to the here and now. Which even though we struggle with sin and the flesh.

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Yet we have so much more to look forward to. Beloved, on that blessed day.

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When we are reunited as a family in the household of God in heaven. 1

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Peter chapter 2 verse 9. But you, beloved, are a chosen family.

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A chosen family. You are adopted into the family of God. A royal priesthood.

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A holy nation. A people for God's own possession.

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Every single one of those is a restorative blessing of God's love. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him.

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Who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And into His marvelous light.

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That's one of the renovative benefits, right? The regenerative benefits and the transformative benefits.

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For you once were not a people. But now you are the people of God.

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You had not received mercy. But now you have received mercy. Through the work, the precious life and death of God's Son.

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Because God, the Son, the God -Man, absorbed the wrath of the

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Father. He who was pleased to crush

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His Son. For the redemption of all our sins.

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That is awesome. That love, beloved, there is nothing on this earth that compares to this kind of love.

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Nothing. The Gospel is so precious and unique. There is nothing like this love.

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Nothing like it. And Revelation, let's round this out with Revelation chapter 1.

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Revelation chapter 1 verse 5. We have a foretaste and can eagerly anticipate the blessings, the restorative blessings that await us.

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That await us to be enraptured by God's love.

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In the consummation of all things. Revelation chapter 1 verse 5.

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And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

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To Him who loves us, loves us, and released us from our sins.

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How? By His blood. By His blood.

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By the satisfaction of the Father's wrath. And He has made us to be a kingdom.

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A kingdom. So not only are we children of God, we are kings and queens in God's kingdom now.

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He made us to be a kingdom. And priests to His God and Father.

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We are priests and kings and queens. To Him be the glory and the might forever and ever.

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Amen. Amen. That's right baby.

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So, Revelation 5 .10 similarly says. And you made them to be a kingdom.

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And priests to our God. And they will reign upon the earth as rulers.

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As joint heirs and rulers with Christ. Kings and queens.

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Beloved, that is one of the amazing restorative blessings of God's love.

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Restorative love. And finally, let's capstone God's restorative love with Romans chapter 8 verse 30.

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Romans chapter 8 verse 30. This is where all of this comes to a full circle and consummation.

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Because God's love will do all of these things and even more.

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Because God's love will also glorify us. Romans 8 .30.

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God's word says. And those whom He predestined, He also called.

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And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified.

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He also glorified. He will resurrect and glorify us on that precious last day.

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He will glorify us, beloved. That is God's restorative love. It surpasses what even

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Adam and Eve had in the garden. Adam and Eve did not have

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God's glory. They failed to attain God's glory. Because they disobeyed

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God. And remember what the Bible says. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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They didn't earn it. They didn't have it. Yes, they were sinless. But there was a probationary period that God placed on them.

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And if they had passed, they would have earned it like Christ did. But they didn't. That's what Romans 5.

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And all of these places where it talks about the first Adam failed miserably. And the curse of Adam's fall made us all guilty in him.

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So that the sin of one man led to the condemnation of all men. All of us. But by the righteousness of one.

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The other Adam. The first Adam. The second Adam. The last Adam. We are made righteous in him.

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Beloved, and not only are we made righteous. We are fully glorified and made perfect. Like unto him.

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As we are increasingly conformed to the image of his son. In our sanctification.

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Which we will explore further. Lord willing, next Lord's Day. When we dive into the renovative, transformative, experiential benefits of God's love.

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The regenerative and the reformative excellencies of God's love, beloved.

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And with that, let us go ahead now and bow our heads in the word of God's prayer. Excuse me, in the word of prayer.

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Our dearly precious beloved father. We thank you so much

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Lord for calling us your beloved. For loving us so much. So much

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Lord. That you sent your unique one of a kind son.

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Your precious son. To become a man. To become flesh. And to suffer, bleed, and die.

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To live a perfect righteous life. To earn what Adam could not. And failed to do so.

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And to also pay the full satisfaction of your wrath, father. Of your wrath on that tree.

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On the cross. Bearing the curse of all our sin. And your punishment. Lord, we thank you so much for this precious truth of your gospel.

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The gospel by which you save. Because it is the power of your power unto salvation.

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To all those who believe. And we thank you father for this precious love. This amazing love, father, that you have for us.

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This redemptive love. This restorative love. This regenerative love.

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This reformative love. Father, thank you father for these precious truths. These precious promises that you have given us in your word.

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Help us, Lord, to bask in them. To glory in them.

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To look forward to them. To have hope in them. In these promises that you have sealed for us. And guaranteed us on the cross, father.

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Where Jesus said, it is finished. Lord, thank you for your precious gospel.

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Lord, and help us also and encourage us to share these amazing truths.

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To those around us or to our neighbor. As we love our neighbor.

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To share with them. And be salt and light to them. In these things,

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Lord. To be priests and kings that you have called us to be.

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A royal priesthood, Lord. As we become ambassadors of your good name to others.

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And be living epistles and testimonies of your love to others. And show them what

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God has done for us. What you have done for us, Lord. We thank you, father. We ask these things in the precious name of your almighty son.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church.

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Where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

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Christians. Who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

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If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area. Or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries.

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Such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and Thorn Crown Network podcast. Please contact us at thorncrownministries .com