Transcription downloaded from https://legacy.freechurch.org/sermons/4050/for-his-great-love-wherewith-he-loved-us/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Now I have the chapter we read in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 2 and at the 4th. Ephesians chapter 2 and at the 4th. [0:13] Threat God who is rich in mercy, for His great love for the beloved us, even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ. [0:30] By grace He has saved. I will confine my marks mostly to the last part of Ephesians 4, for His great love for which He loved us. [0:46] It would be quite simple for any preacher I suppose, to preach a series of sermons and that shortness alone. [1:00] One could preach on the break in the writing and thought of the Apostle, but God, that is deep in me. [1:19] God who is rich in mercy, and one could preach on that for a long time. And then we have, for His great love for which He loved us. [1:33] Now this morning I spoke about the background of this part of the text. We have it in Ephesians 1, 2, 4. Where the Apostle gives a description of the unregenerated state of man. [1:50] And the astonishing thing is that instead of coming out against man in judgment, God breaks in and meets us in a different way to what He said and in need of what we expected. [2:09] But God. So here you are something different from what went before. May a person speaks of it or writes it as an object of adoration and wonder. [2:24] That God should have done something contrary to what people deserve and to what people expected. But God. This is not the only place in the New Testament that you come across this expression. [2:44] There is another remarkable instance of it in the account he gives of himself. The account Paul gives of himself. He said that before he was a persecutor and blasphemer. [2:58] But God. God broke in. God as it well broke the chain of events that were going on and that seemed incredible. God broke the chain of sand and came in and brought something entirely different into his life. [3:16] Now God didn't do this accidentally. God had a prior design. Even when man was dead with the best wishes of sins. [3:30] Remember this friends. Everything comes to pass according to his eternal decree on purpose. And when God found man in this state that the Apostle describes children of wrath feeling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. [3:50] It wasn't then that he decided to break in and act contrary to his deserves. He had a prior design in the eternal counsels of the terrors of the Trinity. [4:08] And you also see in it suggested by this God that God is the sole author of salvation. Here is man dead. Man trying to look upon it as being a sepulcher of corruption. [4:24] Children of wrath. Awaiting the terrible curse from the vengeance of eternal times. And nobody can do anything about it. [4:36] Neither the man who is the bad or anybody else who has the spirit of the Trinity. Nobody can do anything about it. But God can. But God. [4:49] The sole author of man's salvation. And there is one more thought that I think suggested by this difference. But it is a matter of hope. [5:04] Now you think of it like this. Read the passage for yourselves. Verses 1 to 4. We all have no conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh. [5:18] Fulfilling the desire for the flesh and our mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath even ourselves. And you couldn't get a darker picture in the whole Bible to describe man. [5:31] It's a terrible picture. But God. And as you look forward to what is to follow. The brightness of what is to follow. Higher exceeds the gloominess and darkness of what perceives. [5:45] The stage to which God is raising man is far higher than the depths to which he descended in sinfulness. Listen to this. [5:58] And you'll see. That's God. Now what did he do? Leaving out just now the reasons for which he did. And that reason that I'm going to preach. But leaving that out for the moment. [6:10] So what did he do? Well, even when we were dead in sin. He made us alive. By Jesus Christ. And he raised us up together. [6:22] That is we and Christ. He raised us up together. And he made us sit within the heavenly places. So, friends. The depth to which sin took us. [6:35] Bears no comparison to the hearts to which grace takes us. Or think of it in that way. And do it after. Well, now. [6:47] He speaks about the riches of his mercy. God who is rich in mercy for his great love for which he loved us. God is rich in patience and in righteousness. [7:03] God is rich in all his attributes. But he is exceedingly rich in mercy. God is rich in patience taught those who would never get mercy. [7:16] Those who never tasted mercy at all. God is rich in patience and out-suffering taunt them who are bares on wrath. But he is rich in mercy taunt those who are bares on wrath. [7:31] Only rich in patience and out-suffering taunt them why they are in this world. But taunt his own people he is rich in mercy. And what is mercy? [7:42] It is the outflow of lack. Now we are rich because of abundance and variety, because of greatness. Now why is he rich in mercy? What is mercy? Well we have the answer here. I don't invent answers to these questions. [8:05] God who is rich in mercy for or on account of his great love which he loves. That's why he is rich in mercy. And it is all important that we should ever bear this in mind. [8:21] You see, I say it's all important because there is a shame, kind of a sentimental, kind of thinking which makes the gospel a shame. [8:39] They say that God is rich in mercy because he took pity upon people. Now it's perfectly sure, perfectly certain that God took pity upon us. [8:51] But why do we take pity upon us? Well you know you say, friends, that we take pity upon people that we don't love. Man's pity and even man's benevolence does not necessarily imply love. We account to people when they need it, if we can, that we don't love. [9:17] Well there will be quite a difference in our attitude to them. But I am quite sure that if anything comes the way that deserves our pity and don't help, we give them that. [9:29] But not because we love them. But God didn't do that sort of thing. God didn't die like that. It wasn't that God took pity and then showed mercy to us. Took pity and then because we would have lost his table. That is not at all the case. [9:46] Now then, I always like to warn you against these shouts, these sentimentalities that are being substituted for the glorious truths of the gospel. [9:59] Why then did God have mercy upon us? Why is God reaching mercy at all? It is on account of his great love, which he now does. That is the answer and that is the only answer. [10:14] Now then, let us consider this love. Being the fountain of all that God is towards his own people. Let us consider it a little while. [10:29] For God, for his great love. Now when God is mentioned here, the word used implies the persons of the Godhead, the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. [10:45] It wasn't only God the Father left us. Although it is to his love that salvation is attributed to it. But God the Son and the Holy Spirit left us as well. [11:00] And this love is not a sentimental emotion. You know, people sometimes fall in love and they don't know what they fall in love for. [11:14] People fall in love inintelligently. People fall in love and they shouldn't have fallen in love. Because that falling in love is not reasonable or not intelligent. Now that is not love. That is not real love. That is only the temporary stealing of an emotion. [11:41] But love in God is not an emotion. When a person is in love, he knows it. But when we speak of God's love, we don't speak of it. [11:53] It is something that came to him at a particular time. And something that moves the way we are moved by any emotion. It is something far grand than that. It is something far more comprehensive. Something that we really cannot very well understand. [12:15] Except for very small measure and with the help of human terms. Now that is why the word love is used. When God loves it is an act of his will, purely an act of his holy will, of a sovereign pleasure. That is love, the love of God. [12:36] Now the reason for which I am giving you this, expressing these thoughts to you, is that, I suppose the gospel of Jesus Christ has never been detracted more by anything than by a misconception of God's love. [12:58] I think I would rather listen to a man telling a congregation. Something that is quite in scriptural. That is plainly, manifestly in scriptural. [13:13] That is a man telling a congregation. That is a man telling a congregation. That is a man telling a man, in a sentimental way alone, of the love of God. He is giving the people a warm pressure. And is preaching a false gospel. What he says is that God loves, God cannot but love everybody. God is sure to love. God's love won't let him do anything that we don't like. [13:43] This is what people preach. God loves people in such a way that he will not do anything that we don't like. Well, now if it were my theme to, after what gets that, I would have plenty of arguments. But my point is that this is not the love, the divine love of which the apostle speaks. [14:08] It is something that is something that is more exalted. It is our necessity of a statement that God is love. God must love himself. [14:21] And you see, what we love ourselves is selfishness and defeat. We act selfishly then. When we love ourselves more than we love other people, we act selfishly. [14:34] But God must necessarily love himself because of what he is. But there is no selfishness in the love of God. It is all righteous and it is all holy. [14:47] Now this love is great in the nature of it, which I will try to explain to you. See, there is an infinite distance between what I have been saying about this love and the greatest human love. [15:05] We hear of it. We hear of it. We hear from mythology and from ancient history. We will read of people who sacrificed themselves and the love of one brother to another. We will hear of the love of David and Jonathan and examples like these. [15:25] Well now, if all these. Well now, if all these are added together, it all comes, I don't say it all comes short, but it all comes infinitely short of the love of God to his own people. [15:40] Now friends, we are here in a little where we cannot swim. In an ocean where we cannot sow the depths. Anything that is infinitely beyond the biggest that man can measure or tell us is infinitely beyond us. [15:59] You know the world, you know the world. You know the world, the meaning of the world. You know the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world, the world. It is infinitely beyond us. Now this is the way God's love is, beyond our love. It is our holy love. And it is our righteous love. Now this is what the people, those people who give up all the view of it, go entirely wrong. [16:22] You see, maybe you heard tonight, perhaps you had a death in your home, perhaps you had an illness. [16:33] Now this does not prove that God doesn't love you. It does not. The love of God is our righteousness. And there is nothing shorter than this, that when we go wrong, when we are disobedient, God is sure to hurt us. [16:52] And he is going to hurt us because his love is our righteous love. You know the sense that an intelligent parent, when there is something wrong with him, if a parent sees his child doing something that he ought not to do in any sense of the word, and he allows them to do it and doesn't be buggered. There is something wrong with that parent. [17:16] If that parent loves, he doesn't love righteous people. Now God doesn't let his people off. He chases them because he loves them. This is why he chases them. [17:32] Now then, I wish people who make difficult things in their province, I wish they would attribute that to the love of God to them, rather than complain and murmur. Why is my dear Savior? Why is my son like this? Why have I lost my parents? [17:55] Why things don't go like this with me? You know the way people complain and murmur against God. And I wish more than any, that my people and myself and all others would attribute these things to the only thing that can account for them. [18:13] And that is the love of God that doesn't leave us to go on in a predestive condition that can seek salvation. [18:24] Now then, regarding its mission, I alluded to that before, regarding its mission, it is great love. The length and breadth and height of it, the length and breadth and depth and height of it, nobody can tell. [18:41] It is dimensionless love. As God cannot be measured, neither cannot love be measured. God's love is as great as God. And who can measure it? Who can tell how great He is? [18:59] Well, it is as great as God has said. Without dimension, without bound. It is a boundless, abandoned, inexpressible love that God has. [19:17] Somebody put it in a dish, I suppose, which you have all heard. Could we rethink the ocean thing? Where the whole sky of parchment made? [19:32] Where every blade of grass sacrily, and every man ascribed by thread it, to tell the love of God above would drain that ocean dry. [19:47] Nor could the scroll, nor could the scroll contain the whole, nor stretch from sky to sky. That's beautifully put. Beautifully put. And it is certainly the truth. [20:02] Now then, it is great because of itself. The self of this love. It is that love, or the love of this great God. But God, in all his greatness and magnificence and majesty, this great and wonderful God, it is He who loves us. [20:23] For his great love, which loves us. He is the Creator. And as I am as a Creator, as beyond no comprehension, He counts the number of the stars. He names them every one. He made all things that we see. [20:40] The heavens and heaven can't contain. And it is this great God, whose greatness is inexpressible, who has love us with this great love. [20:53] And when we say that God is the Lord of all things, that is true. When we think of the universe, the Lord of all the earth, and we say that He is God of all the earth. [21:08] Well then, by comparison with His love, we have said nothing. Now you think of it, friends. Think of the vast explorations that have been made of this universe that God made. [21:21] And people know but little of it. They acknowledge that themselves those doors. They have only touched even the fringe of it. Going to the moon is nothing. That's only like taking a step. [21:36] That's only like walking a millimetre on the two feet, in comparison with the vastness of the universe. And yet God is significantly greater than all that. [21:48] And when you have said that He is Lord of all that He created. Not only that He created these things, but that He is Lord of all that He created. You have said nothing. If you compare this with the vastness and the vastness of His great love. [22:06] His love is as great as love. His love is as great as love. And His great concern is the objects of His love. God who is reaching mercy for His great love. Well, will He love us? [22:20] He love us. Now take that busy world for a minute and let us hand it in. He loved us. Well, one thing about us is that we didn't deserve it. We didn't deserve it in the land. We are as in deserving of the love of God as the very devil. Do you believe that? [22:44] We are not as bad as the devil. We are not nearly as wicked as the devil. But we are as in deserving of God's love as Satan is. And it is not in deserving of the man. In other words, there can be no measure at all of man's in deserving of God's mercy. He is as in deserving of that. [23:12] Or if we put it in another way. There is nothing in us. And there can't be nothing in us. That we would never deserve the love of God toward us. We are as in deserving of that. We couldn't be more in deserving of that. [23:30] We are as in deserving of that we are. And even if we could be worse than we are. We couldn't be any more in deserving of that we are. A man cannot be more in deserving of that. A man cannot be more in deserving of that. A man cannot be more in deserving of that. A man cannot be more in deserving of that. Well now, these are the objects that God learned. The objects of the land. [23:55] Now, in these objects of the land. There was natural hatred to them. Even when we were dead in sin. [24:06] And there was nothing but put in action, corruption, no sinness. Even then, God loved us. And you have this word here. And it is really a marvelous word. [24:21] His great love for which He loved us. Even when we were dead in sin. If we are converted. It is not such a man that He loves us. But even when we were dead in sin, He loved us. [24:34] And now, this is how the Apostle. And now, this is how the Apostle shows the magnitude, the amazing love of God in Christ. And the greatness of this love of God in Christ. Even when we were dead in sin. God loved us. [24:51] Now, I said in the morning that he is more loads than dead. But naturally, in all its loads and loaves can be looked upon. Now, I don't want to talk crudely or to give you illustrations that may seem darker. I don't want to do that. [25:15] But to show you what I mean. You know what forensic experts are sometimes to do the most indecisive of things. Well, as I please have emerged, these pathologists have to do things that, it is only, I suppose, because of their training that they are able to do it, it comes to them gradually. But there are loads of things. We couldn't do them. We couldn't be in there. We couldn't do them. [25:43] But they do them. But they do them with help. They have help. To do them. Otherwise, I suppose that even they could stiffly control the task. Now, that's nothing in comparison with the modern, loathsowness of sin. [26:03] And with God's sake. And with God's sake. And with God's sake. It is said of God that He is so pure a life that even to behold sin. It has no stupid love. And yet, when we were dead in Thessalonians and Sain's, God loved us. [26:20] Here is His love. Here is His love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us. Now, there is another thing about this world, that makes the love of God even more wonderful still. [26:38] Will His great love for what He loved us? And who of us? Well, friends, whatever anybody says, it doesn't mean, regarding the, taking it in the sense of the redemptive love of God, it doesn't mean the whole of mankind. [26:57] Now, this is the teaching of Scripture. There are some that God learns. And there are some whom a soul hates. [27:11] And the astronomy thing is, that we should be a man, those He loves. If He loved everybody in the world the same way, with a redemptive love, that would be amazing, beyond words. [27:30] But the fact that He doesn't love everybody in the world in the same way, it makes it more amazing that He doesn't love anybody at all. Why should He love you? You know what you were like, earlier on in your life? You know how you lived? You know how you thought? You know the kind of imagination you have? You know the hatred of holy things? Why then should God love you? [27:57] Well, He did over His great love, for which He loved us. And one of the most wonderful things about it is, that it is delective. It is, it is, it excludes all. It's inclusive of the inmate. [28:15] And another thing about this word is this. He loved us individually. I mean this special redemptive love of which Paul speaks to the Ephesians. He loved us. And He loved us all apart, as it were, on a row. [28:35] He loved us every individual, just the same. God doesn't love with redemptive love, any person, any more than another. He didn't love Peter, or James, or John, any more than loves you or me. If He loves us with adeptive love, He loves us all to see. [28:57] Jacob had two wives, Richel and Bia. And he loved Richel so much, that that will have served for fourteen years for her. They seemed to have as one day, for the love that he had to her. [29:16] And it's astonishing love that would make a man feel for three years, as short as one day. He loved her that much. And yet another wife, Leah, and he didn't love her at all. He hated her. [29:31] Well now, friends, God doesn't do this sort of thing with those who are united to Christ Jesus. He doesn't even go to the extremes that Jacob went to. He doesn't make any selection by way of living one more and one less. He loves them all the same. [29:51] I know that you find that hard to believe. And I know perfectly well what you would say in conversation with me, what does he say in the matter? You would say, well, surely he loves Paul more than he loves me. Surely he loves you more than he loves me. [30:09] But then don't you ever allow yourself getting to that line of thinking. That line of thinking is not scriptural. It's not worthy of God. You think like that. I know what makes you do it. It's a sense of your own worthiness. But you must not only have a sense of your own worthiness. You must have correct theology with that sort of thing. [30:31] And it's most important that you should have correct theology. Now this is correct theology. That God loves you if you have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. [30:42] This love is the same as he loves anybody else. Now it is great in his manifestation. This love manages itself. It is quite possible for human beings for one to be in love with another. And for the person who is loved never to find doubt that the other person loves him at all. He may go to his grave and never know that he was loved by this person. No one, sir. Well, because he never said anything about it. [31:10] Because he never did anything to show it. And how can a person tell if another is in love with him or if he loves him. If the person who loves doesn't show it. He cannot tell. He has no other means of knowing in love. But by his acts. By his manifestation. [31:28] By his manifestation. Well, no, this love is great in his manifestation. And it is manifested in the way of mercy. And it is manifested in the way of mercy to the chiefest of sinners. God who is rich in mercy. [31:44] And this is manifested in love. And this is manifested in the way of mercy. And this is why humanity is alive. And this is why humanity is alive. But remember this. Love is greater than mercy. God is rich in mercy. But he is not as rich in mercy as he is in love. His love is as great as that. [32:07] Now it is difficult for me to explain this to you. Because I don't want you to get the impression that I am limiting any of the attributes of God. Which I am not. [32:19] But if love is as rich in mercy as I am. But if love is as rich in mercy as I am. But if love is as mighty Amazon. So to put it. That flows to a bewildered, lost, and hopeless world. [32:33] If mercy is that. Then love is the ocean from which this river flows. And the ocean is greater than the river by far. [32:45] There was a time when mercy was not. There was a time when there was no mercy. There was a time when there was nothing but God. And then there was no mercy. There wasn't any need for it. [32:59] And then there was a time when the angels were created. But there was no mercy then. There didn't need mercy. And there was a time when some of the angels sinned against God. But there was no mercy then. It didn't please God to show mercy to the angels like them. [33:15] But there was no mercy. But there was no mercy. But there never was a time when there wasn't love. And when there wasn't love to sinners in the heart of God. So in that sense. And for these reasons. Love exceeds mercy in its greatness. [33:37] By now you see the fruit of love. You see the fruit of love. You know love. By the giving. By not only by what it says. But also by giving. Love gives. [33:52] And God so much. He loved the world. He loved it to that much. He loved it to that extent. That he gave his only begotten Son. [34:11] And not only. And not only does he show his love. By giving his Son. There is another way regarding his Son. By which. He shows that he loved. [34:22] Not his sorrow. That he loved it. Not his Spice. He loved it to his Son. And not his Spice. He loved it to his Son. And here you have his beloved Son. Between heaven. And their crucified five wicked men. And torrents of wickedness. [34:35] Pouring upon his head. And giving deception. Divine deception. Over in the land. And yet his love is sustained. Jesus Christ. To pay it all. What love? Oh you say it's love to Christ. Yes indeed. [34:51] Yes indeed that is true. But more than that it's love to you. This is why the many wolves could not quench the love of God on the cross, the love of Jesus. [35:02] It was love to you that have held his son and sustained him when he was there ever since in his own body. So you see the manifestation of it not only in giving but also in sustaining, in sustaining his son to do his work. [35:22] And also his love is manifested, for this is an activity in giving the Holy Spirit to the world, in giving his spirit to call us to Christ. [35:33] Why are we not left without being called? Because of his great love. And to sanctify us, to make us whole. My friends, your holiness, your complete holiness, if you believe in Christ, is as sure as God's love is sure. [35:50] Yes, remember, I would for our living words cast a doubt on the greatness of the love of God. But if I cast a doubt on the ultimate issue of my own soul and body, if I cast doubt that I shall one day be lost, or that I shall not be perfectly holy, I am casting doubt on the greatness of the love of God. For it is by the greatness of the love of God that I shall remain completely holy. [36:19] And my complete holiness, if I am a believer, is as sure as the greatness of the love of God. And of course, one would show his greatness also in saying that not only did he quicken us, but he raised us up to gather us, and he made us fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. [36:42] But I have no time to speak of that. It is great in its timelessness, nor in its eternity, if you like. I told you already that there was a time when mercy was not. And there would be a time when mercy would not be. [36:59] That is to say, in heaven, there is no mercy shown in heaven. There is no need for mercy in heaven. And there would be no mercy shown to the lost in heaven. So there would be a time when mercy would have no exercise. [37:12] At least as it has learned. But there never would be a time when love would not be exercised. Love would go on flowing and flowing eternally, never-sisting in all its greatness and wonders. [37:27] Because this is timeless love. I have loved, you said God, with an everlasting love. It is our love. It is our love that has no beginning. And this is part or an element in its greatness. [37:43] Uninscrapeness and changeableness. It is our love that never changes. It is our love that cannot change. Now I suppose there are very few loves that cannot. There is no love at all that cannot change. [38:00] And I suppose in many cases love does change. Love gets cold. I suppose the love of everyone gets a little bit cold. [38:11] Except ours, they are very dearest. You know how it is with human beings. But there can be no change in the love of God. It can't become bigger than it is because it is infinitely great and you can't add anything to what's infinite. [38:27] And it can't get any bigger than it is. The love of God is as great towards us as it is towards the angels or as it is towards the saints in glory. [38:41] You think of the saints in heaven. Well you know God loves them. God loves them with a great love. Well friend, you may be an object of pity. And you may be thinking that you are vile and foul and the cheapest of sinners. [38:55] I tell you tonight. I tell you tonight that in God's redemptive purpose and acts, God loves you as much as he loves the saints in glory. [39:07] You see, it can't be added to you. It can't be made bigger than it is. It is infinitely great. It is as great as God. And you can't add to the greatness of God. [39:22] No chapters make the afflictions an indication of change. I mentioned this already. No condition in life, nor even backsliding, can change the love of God. [39:38] I brought your attention, I remember, for seven years ago to what the prophet reminded me, the way he expressed it. And I think it so marvelous. Oh, I like to go back to it and I like to read it when I am conscious of my own departure and backsliding from God. [39:56] The prophet of God to the prophet, likenesses to a faithful and treacherous wife. Now there is many a man who forgave one act of his fidelity in the case of his wife. [40:10] Many a man who forgave that. Some people would never forgive it, but some people do forgive. But his fidelity goes on and on and on and on for years. In other words, to put it in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, without missing words, without missing words, if a woman is unharled for years and years and years and years, how can a husband continue letting her? [40:32] Well, this is the picture that did a man who forgave. And he says, after all this has been described and all this has been put to her, through her hypersension, he says, through the prophet God says, through him, turn unto me, backsliding children. [40:51] That's not all. For I am married and to the Lord. All her hypersension and forsooth did not break the marriage union that was between him and his people. He did not cause his love to cease. He did not even change his love. He didn't make it any less. [41:15] Oh, my friends, what a wonderful God we have. What greatness there is in the love of God. For even that we would question. For even that we would change. [41:28] Well then, it is far beyond our hypersension. We have, this is what I am trying to say to you, that the greatness of this love is far into the young age that we can comprehend. And it can be a matter of experience. [41:45] You see, it is far beyond our hypersension. It is, it is, a child, a mother, a child, who is on the beach, and dipping his foot or dipping his hand, or putting his finger in the ocean and putting it on his tan. [42:00] can and he would get to know in his experience that the ocean is soft. Well he would know that much. And that's about all that he could know. Well now all that we can know is this, that God's love is sweet. But we cannot comprehend its greatness, that is it, and it is the earth. [42:20] But it can be a matter of experience and it is more than a matter of notion of new notions. Oh my friends, anybody could tell you objectively that God's love is great because this is revealed in Scripture. [42:37] Remember that. You see, a clever scientist, a knowledgeable, and a very knowledgeable scientist, could, I suppose, he could fascinate us by telling us the magnitude, the greatness of the universe. [42:55] But that would be in a purely speculative, objective way. This is not part of his own experience, it's only a matter of his knowledge that he learned from books and from studies, a matter of his own knowledge and exploration, a matter of his own scientific conclusions and so on. But that is not the way Paul spoke at all. He said, for his great love, when he learned this. [43:19] And how did he know that love was great? Not only because the Bible told him, but because he kept it being pulled and shed abroad in his own heart. And he knew it was great. His poor limited heart couldn't take very much of it, because it took a lot. But that was how he knew as a matter of his feelings. [43:41] Somebody has said, Lord, thy love can ne'er be measured. Not thy mercy hath be told. Thou hast more within thee measured than a sinner's heart can hold. [43:56] And how true that is. And how true that is. His great love will be loved. Now this is another wonderful thing regarding the great love with which he loved. [44:07] Because of his great love, God, God capacitates the human heart that he loves, to have marvelous experience and notions of this love that he has to live. [44:23] Our hearts are glad and deep. But the grace of God does something to us when it comes. This love of God does something to us when it opens our hearts. [44:36] That our hearts become marvelously big for the containing of his love. It enables us to receive as much of that love in our experience in the world as good. [44:52] God is pleased to give us. This is what he gives us. Now those who have loved like this have a desire to know this, to know more and more and more of it. [45:05] I think it was John Wesley who said, O love, Thine, how sweet Thou art! When shall I find my willing heart all taken up by me? [45:17] I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst, I thirst to prove the greatness of redeeming love, the love of God to me. [45:29] Now this is true of every Christian in Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man and Man, the faith, they strive to prove the greatness of redeeming love. And my friend, the bliss of saints exists in this, consists in this, that it is an ever increasing knowledge and experience given of this great love of the Atlantis. [45:56] Now when I reach a sermon like this, I am terribly conscious all the time of my own limitations and of the little I can say about it. I don't know how much you understand. [46:11] All I know about myself is that I understand a little of it. But I know that when I pronounce the benediction and go home, I will be full of miscarriage because I see that I haven't done nothing really. [46:25] I will be describing to you the greatness of the greatness of the love of God. Words of another can do this. Now what are you going to do? Well friend, you go tonight to the throne of grace. And if you have never tasted the love of God in your own soul, the great love will be with you. [46:47] You ask God in all sincerity and with earnestness to give you this experience of this marvelous, the great love in your own heart. And if you get one moment of it, if it just flashes through your heart like the lightning girl from one end of it, heavens to the sky, you'll never forget it. [47:11] You'll never forget it. And you'll know more of it than in even the ages would to talk to you for an eternity about it. It's in here you get to know it. Not through another, but through the Holy Ghost, what it is nearer of us all. May God give the Lord this experience. Amen. Amen. [47:31] Amen. of thy love to them. [48:03] When thou knowest us all, we pray that those who are not sincere, those who have not a desire, that fish thee, that pay thee for thy salvation, may come to have it through the preaching of the word and the working, the mighty, actual working of thy spirit. [48:24] For Jesus' sake, amen. If free comes and comes to the Lord, what are you who will be? [48:43] If free comes and comes to the Lord, what are you who will be? [48:55] Thank you. [49:25] honor to love God today