Ordained by God, Part 2

If you would go back once again
to Romans chapter eight, which section we have already considered
last Lord’s Day. We are in the midst of this great
section on the sanctification of the Christian by God himself
and specifically narrowing it down from chapter six six through
eight. Essentially we are looking at
the divine assistance that the Christian enjoys divine assistance
as we saw from Jesus himself. The fact that we are established
in Christ divine assistance from the spirit in essence that we
are sustained by the spirit of God. And we come to this third
section of divine assistance the divine assistance rendered
by our Heavenly Father himself in that we are ordained. All
of our life is ordained by the Heavenly Father. We began to
look last Lord’s Day at what a lot of people think is just
good common down to earth homespun wisdom. the sage wisdom of the
ages, that all things work together for good. And we saw that while
there is truth to that, that’s not the complete truth. It is not surprising, as we began
to consider last Lord’s Day, that in one of the greatest chapters
in all of the Bible, we come to perhaps one of the greatest
passages and one of the greatest verses In the Bible, many extolled
the great blessing that this little three verse section is
perhaps the most glorious promise in Scripture, said one. One of
the most remarkable statements that this apostle ever made,
said another. And I shared with the Saints
last Lord’s Day that this Romans 828 is one of my personal favorites. If you would go back once again
and let’s consider these three short verses. We’re Paul writes,
and we know that God causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are called according to his
purpose for whom he foreknew. He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. In whom he predestined, these
also he called. In whom he called, these he also
justified. In whom he justified, these he
also glorified. This is the third section in
Paul’s exposition of the help that God has rendered to the
Christian. And Paul says right off the bat that we know, we
have this as both the fact of Scripture that we can look back
and thumb through the pages of Scripture and see that God has
rendered all things for good to those who love him, to those
called according to his purposes. But we also as Christians, we
know this experientially. We know that God causes things
to work together for good. We have seen things that we couldn’t
explain or figure out that God has taken and in his good providence
worked for our own good and we saw last week and we began to
just digest what the extent of that little phrase is all things. All things work together for
the good. Not only are suffering that we endure but even good
things work together for the good. That shouldn’t surprise
us. The fact that we have God’s word the fact that we are indwelled
by the Holy Spirit the fact that we walk together on this earth
and are encouraged Frequently by fellow believers, those things
shouldn’t surprise us. But what does surprise us is
those difficult things work together for good as well. Not only prosperity, but adversity
works for us, not only joy, but sadness works for us, not only
God’s faithfulness in God’s word, but even Temptation and sin works
for us. It brings us to a greater understanding,
a greater need of God’s grace. And it says that all these things
work together for good. They’re all orchestrated by one
great. God. We looked at it, we looked
at the question of whether God was even in this passage, there
are many who said that he wasn’t. There are many who looked at
it and said simply because some. Textual variations have left
out or omitted the word God or because someone inserted the
word God it raises the question of whether God is even in the
passage at all. And we looked and we said that.
We saw that certainly there were some ancient manuscripts that
left God out and that frightened some people because they felt
it led to what we called what they called evolutionary optimism. Exactly what my grandmother believed
right. All things just happened to work out together for good.
The great cosmic force is pushing all things together for good. Well that’s not the case. And
we saw that there are really only three positions that you
can take on that passage, either everything is working itself
out. Or the Holy Spirit, where some interpreters landed, the
Holy Spirit is working all things out. I think it’s an interesting
idea. I don’t think that it’s a plausible
solution to the passage. The only other option is that
God, God the Father, is working things out and he is. God is in this verse. The entire
point of this whole section, as we saw, was that God is providing
active help. The Trinity, the deity, the Godhead
is providing the Christian assistance. And ultimately, what this renders
to us is an absolute confidence in the sovereignty of God, that
God is in control. That’s the whole point of Romans
8. We have God’s assistance. How can we be afraid of anything?
God is in this verse. And God is at work, even if in
the original. The word God wasn’t included,
God is at work. God is at work working out all
things for our good. We saw that that good means not
only good in this present life, God is going to sustain us. God
is going to provide for us. God is going to work all things
together for good, but ultimately this refers to eternal glory
that ultimately we We stand in glory with God forever, and we
stand fully prepared and fully equipped to enjoy God for eternity. God is working all things together
for good, but not for everybody. We began to see last Lord’s Day
that these things can’t possibly be true for everybody. They can’t
possibly be. It isn’t homespun wisdom. This
is the very word of God, and either God is inaccurate here
or God means something by these verses. But I take the latter. God has a very specific lesson
in mind, and it’s essentially designed to resonate within the
heart of the Christian. Paul spells out with two little
caveats. Who this verse is really designed
for, because all things do not work out together for everyone. We know that God causes all things
to work together for good. To those who love God, let’s
start there today. God causes all things to work
together for good to those who love God now. This little clause
speaks of what we would most easily think of as natural affection. Like that of a child toward a
parent. And in like manner, it illustrates the affection between
a child of God toward his heavenly father. Remember, from last Lord’s
Day, we’re taking things in relative order. Remember I said that?
That the word order of our given translations often is It leaves
a lot to be desired. And if you were to rigidly follow
the original the Greek it would read something like this. I gave
this to you last Lord’s Day. We know and or but that for those
who love God all things are working for good. And the fact that it
has a priority place in the passage makes this little clause quite
important. In simple terms, this clause
to those who love God actually occurs at the beginning of the
sentence, not near the middle or the end of the verse as it’s
actually translated. And that’s not insignificant.
What does it mean? Essentially, when that little
clause falls near the front of the passage, near the front of
the verse, if you will, It points to special emphasis on that little
clause. Those words point to a rich Old
Testament truth. That this love of God, which
is commanded throughout Scripture. Is still the responsibility.
Of man. That we are all still called.
To love God and to only those that love God is Truly, the promise. Carried forth. This love, though. This love, though, goes beyond
just sentiment, it’s not just. Dear feelings toward our heavenly
father, as Lloyd-Jones says, it’s not merely a matter of sentiment
or feeling. Some people think they love God
because they may be aware of certain emotional feelings. Feelings
have gotten quite out of check in the church in our day and
age, and people think that merely that excitement, merely that
feeling is an indication of their deep love for God. He goes on
to say, or they may undergo some emotional experience in a service
that is not love. Love includes emotion, but it’s
much greater than emotion. It’s much deeper. You can experience
emotion and believe that you are loving God, and yet Show
later that you do not love God at all. It’s important to know
what Paul means here by love. It’s only to the Christian, it’s
only truly to the Christian that this verse can be said, because
it’s in our hearts, even as we look back to Romans five, it
was in our hearts that through the Holy Spirit, the love of
God had been poured out, poured out within our hearts. We don’t
love God in and of ourselves. We love God because God moved
first. Now, as surprising as the introduction
of this little clause, this caveat into Paul’s discussion here is
in Romans 8, it shouldn’t catch us by too much surprise. That
God causes all things to work together for good to those who
are called according to his purpose, to those who love God, Those
things shouldn’t surprise us. Love towards God is, after all,
overwhelmingly a biblical idea. From cover to cover, the concept
of developing, cultivating, maintaining and expressing. The highest affection
toward God is a sustained theme throughout Scripture. But as
one begins to consider these passages regarding God’s children’s
love toward him, we see that they easily fall into one of
four categories. Either a command to love God
or the expectations that come with that command or a verbal
expression of that love itself or the blessings that flow from
that. It’s either a command, an imperative
A command to cultivate this chief and highest affection. Or it’s
an expectation that gives to us the attendant duties that
are inherent to that affection. Or it is the expression itself,
the heartfelt expression of that sentiment. Or it is the consequential
good that comes to the one who truly loves God. If you will,
I want to take you on a tour. of those very things. Turn back,
if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 6. I won’t take you to
every passage that we’ll reference, but I do want to begin with this
one. Because this really is the foundation. Deuteronomy chapter
6. And consider, if you would, verse
1. Now this is the commandment.
The statutes and the judgment which the Lord your God has commanded
me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you’re
going over to possess it so that you and your son and your grandson
might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and
his commandments which I have commanded you all the days of
your life that your days may be prolonged. Oh Israel. You
should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well
with you, and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the
God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk
and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might. The words which I am commanding
you this day shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently
to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit up in your
house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and
when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and
they shall be as frontals on your forehead. Now, you know
that the Jews took these things quite literally, they wrote them
in tiny little words, rolled them up on paper and placed them.
on their head as if God was speaking with a rigid literality there.
What he was saying is that these things should be imbibed and
taken down deep into our soul and they should affect everything
that we do. This love of God that it was
commanded. You know what, Jesus repeats this command. And to
set the context, and this is one that I’m not going to take
you to in Luke, in the Gospel of Luke. It says that a certain
lawyer, this isn’t one like, you know, this one, not one you
call when you get a traffic ticket. This is a guy who knew the law
of God. And a certain lawyer stood up
to put Jesus to the test, if you can imagine, and said, teacher,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what
is written in the law, how does it read to you? You know how
to get eternal life. You know how to secure it. And he answered and said, you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and love
your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said to him, you’ve answered
correctly, do this and you will live. Jesus wasn’t being harsh. Jesus essentially is calling
him to repentance. What he wanted him to realize
is you haven’t ever really loved God perfectly a single moment
of your life. What you really need is repentance.
Not pride. But wishing to justify himself. He said to Jesus, and who is
my neighbor? Jesus gave him the answer. To love God. the Shema and he
probably like any good Jew repeatedly recited this throughout the day
morning and evening. The same exact response was provided
by Jesus himself on another occasion in Matthew chapter 22. Another
lawyer came to Jesus and asked him a question saying teacher
which is the great commandment in the law. Tell me which one
is the best. Which one is the one commandment
we must obey? And he said to him, you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind. This is the great and foremost
commandment. What Jesus was doing was graciously
and mercifully calling him to repentance, if only he would
look at his heart and realize. We don’t love God like we ought.
We’ve never loved God perfectly, and the natural man doesn’t love
him at all. Our whole heart is called to
be given up to the love of God. We can’t lower the standard and
really understand this passage this morning. The whole heart,
the whole being of our existence as these verses lay out the immortal
part of our lives, the physical part of our lives, the intellectual
part of our lives, the moral part of our lives. Everything
is to be vigorously given to the absolute love of God. John
Gil, Spurgeon’s predecessor in his pulpits, said this, we must
love God with all our hearts. We must look upon Him as the
best of all beings. We must look in himself most
amiable and infinitely perfect and excellent as one whom we
lie under the greatest obligations, both in gratitude and interest.
We must prize him and value ourselves and our elation to him. We must
please ourselves in him and devote ourselves entirely to him. Our
love to him must be sincere. It must be hardy and fervent. It must be a superlative love,
a love that is strong as death, but an intelligent love. And
such we can give good account on the grounds and reasons of
it. It must be in an entire love. He must have our whole souls.
We must be served. He must be served with all that
is in us. And, you know, the shocking thing
that that lawyer upon whose testimony the story of the Good Samaritan
is built. Do you know what he responded?
He basically said, all this I have done. I’ve loved God. I’ve loved my neighbor. The shocking
thing is that he claimed that his love to God was perfect.
He thought that he had fulfilled that obligation perfectly. We’ll
talk more about that one as we close this morning. If you’re
still in Deuteronomy, look at Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy, Chapter 10, it is
absolutely a command of Scripture. That God be loved. and that we
love him. Look at Deuteronomy 10 verse
10. I, moreover, stayed on the mountain, Moses speaking, 40
days, 40 nights, like the first time. And the Lord listened to
me that time also. The Lord was not willing to destroy
you. Then the Lord said to me, Arise, proceed on your journey
ahead of the people that they may go in and possess the land
which I swore to their forefathers to give them. Now, Israel, what
does the Lord require of you but to fear the Lord your God?
and to walk in His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the
Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today
for your good. You know what? These aren’t the
only places. These things punctuate Scripture, as I’ve already said,
throughout the Scriptures. One other occasion you can jot
it down. We won’t go there this Lord’s Day. Joshua chapter 23.
In Joshua, chapter 23, he’s addressing the people in the same manner. In verse 11, he says, take diligent
heed. To yourselves, to love the Lord
your God, it is a command of Scripture, but it is a command
that is not just a command that issues forth feelings that calls
that we love God with some kind of a feeling. There are expectations
appended and descriptive of this kind of love. Let’s look at some
expectations. You can try to keep up if you
want, I would actually prefer that you just grab a pen and
jot some of these down, Deuteronomy, chapter 11. Deuteronomy, chapter
11, verse one, you shall therefore love the Lord your God and always
Keep his charge, his statutes, his ordinances, his commandments.
Obedience is to attend our love to God. It is to define our love
to God. You cannot say that you love
God if you’re not willing to obey him. Joshua 22. Just preceding the passage I
just shared with you, only be very careful to observe the commandment
and law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you. To
love the Lord your God and walk in all his ways and keep his
commandments and hold fast to him and serve him with all your
heart and with all your soul. You know something, perseverance
and service is to attend our love to God. It’s not love for
a moment. I’ve used this in many weddings
that I’ve done. People have this idea of, you
know, falling in love, right? I think they got it from Elvis,
right? I can’t help falling in love with you. That’s not what
the Christian does with God. That’s not what we’re supposed
to do with our wives. We don’t fall in love because
the implication there is that we can fall out of love, right?
We are to love passionately and deeply. We are to persevere in
our love and service to God. It’s not just a fleeting thing.
It’s not for a moment. Psalm 97. Psalm 97 issues forth some expectations. Hate evil. Hate evil you who
love the Lord. Hatred of sin and mortification
thereof is to attend our love to God. We can’t say that we
love God and entertain sin at the same time. Matthew chapter
10 issues forth some expectations. He who loves father and mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. We are commanded in these
verses to love God. It’s just an expectation. It’s
assumed that we love God. The command is that we not love
others greater than God. J.C. Ryle said of these particular
verses, we must never explain any text of Scripture in such
a manner as to make it contradict another. Our Lord did not mean
us to understand that it is the duty of Christians to hate their
relatives. It’s silly. It’s a silly idea
that somebody would take this verse and twist it to mean that
Jesus said, oh, hate your brother, hate your mother. He goes on
to say that would be to contradict the Fifth Commandment. He only
meant that those who follow him must love him with a deeper love,
even then that of their nearest or dearest relatives. If the
claims of our relatives and the claims of Christ come into collision,
the claims of relatives must give way. We must choose rather
to displease those we love most upon Earth. Than to displease
him who died on the cross, we love God. And it has an expectation. Jesus, speaking in the Gospel
of Luke, gave us another expectation when he said, no servant, Luke
16, 13, no servant can serve two masters. For either he will
hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. His implication there is that
we are to love God and we’re to love God more than money.
Service to God and service to our fellow man is to attend our
love to God. We can’t say that we truly love
God. If we don’t make those things
second to him and if our service to him and to others doesn’t
flow naturally from that. Here’s an expectation. Jesus. preparing to go to the cross,
talking to his apostles in John chapter 14 verses 15 through
24, which verses I’ll read only one. It’s enough. If you love
me, you will keep my commandments. There are great expectations
in scripture, this is one of the chief. That if we are going
to say that we love God, we are going to keep his commandments,
we are going to obey him. One pastor said love is the grand
secret of true obedience to God, I love that. How do you how do
you obey God? You start first, not with obedience,
you start with love. You start with reminding yourself
of all that God has done for you, and our response naturally
flows from that obedience notwithstanding. He goes on to say, when we feel
towards Him as children feel towards their own earthly dear
Father, we shall delight to do His will. We shall not find His
commandments grievous or work for Him like slaves under the
fear of a whip. None work so well as those who
work for love. The fear of punishment, the desire
for reward are principles of far less power. They who do the
will of God best do it from the heart. We love God. And because
we love God, we seek to obey him. Now, I said that, as I’ve
already pointed out, there are four categories. You can break
these verses up and you can park them, nestle them perfectly in
any one of four. There are the commands, there
are the expectations, and there are also these simple expressions. This is very brief. Psalm 181,
I love you, O Lord. Psalm 3123, O love the Lord,
all you His godly ones. Psalm 116, I love the Lord because
He hears my voice and my supplications. To God said one is the essence
of piety. That’s where we begin our worship. Now, I said that there were four
categories in the last is blessing. What blessings come from loving
God? Plenty. If you’re still in the Old Testament,
I don’t even remember where I parked you. Find Exodus if you could. The book of Exodus in chapter
20. And look, if you would. Look at you, if you would, at
the beginning of verse one, then the Lord spoke all these words,
saying, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other
gods before me. You shall not make for yourself
an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven or under the earth
or pardon me, what is in heaven above. or on the earth beneath
or in the water or under the earth, you shall not worship
them or serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, I
am a jealous God, visiting iniquity on the fathers, on the children,
on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. But showing
loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep
my commandments, God’s loving kindness is a blessing promise
to those who love him. Deuteronomy chapter 11, jot this
one down. Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses
13 through 15. It shall come about if you listen
obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today
to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart
and soul, that he will give you the reign. You say, well, don’t
we just naturally enjoy that? Doesn’t God owe us that in some
sense? That he will give you the rain
for your land and its season, the early and the late rain that
you may gather your grain and renew your wine and your oil.
He will give grass to your fields for your cattle and you will
eat and be satisfied. The blessing of God’s providential
care is a blessing promised to those who love them. God doesn’t
owe anybody anything. Certainly not to those who hate
him. Deuteronomy 11, chapter 11, verses
22 and 23. If you are careful to keep all
the commandment, which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your
God, to walk in His ways, to hold fast to Him, then the Lord
will drive out these nations from before you. He will dispossess
nations greater and mightier than you. God’s protective care
is a blessing promise to those who love God. Deuteronomy 30,
verse 19. Life and blessing, he says, are
before you. A life of blessing is promised
to those who love God. Deborah the prophetess, who was
one of the judges in Israel, ends her song, if you will. Let your enemies perish, O Lord,
but let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun. Overwhelming
blessing. is promised to those who love
God, Nehemiah chapter one, verses one through six. I beseech you,
O Lord, verse five, O God of heaven, the great and awesome
God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those
who love him. The blessing of a promise keeping
God is promised to those who love him, and then you begin
to look at the Psalms and they roll one after the other. May
they prosper. Psalm 122. Psalm 145. The Lord keeps all who love him. But the promises and the blessings
aren’t limited to the New Testament. Paul quotes one of the most profound
in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. When, in
verse nine, he says, things which eye has not seen and ear has
not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all
that God has prepared. There are unspeakable blessings,
Paul can’t even describe them, and he uses an Old Testament
verse to communicate it, that for those who who love God, there
are unspeakable blessings. 1 Corinthians 8, 1-3, if anyone
loves God, he is known by him. How do you begin to describe
that, especially in 1.2 minutes? To know God and to be known by
him is a blessing that is promised to those who love God. To have your heart intimately
be able to sync up with God’s own heart. To know what it is
to be known and loved by a God. Ephesians 6 24 Grace be with
all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s divine enabling
grace is promised to those who love him. James 1 12 The crown
of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him that we
are heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who
love him. Peter says it in his opening
chapter of 1 Peter, that if we love Him, verse 9 says, obtaining
as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
Final salvation is a blessing that awaits those who love God. Everything. Everything to the
Christian. Everything. Every good and perfect
gift is a blessing from God. And so we see that this caveat,
this promise that God causes all things to work together for
good. The promise is not for everyone. It’s not, but only
for those who love God. As one pastor rightly characterized
it, no criterion could be more discriminating. For love to God
is both the most elementary and the highest mark of being in
the favor of God, the unbeliever cannot. be in this camp. This cannot refer to the unbeliever.
The unbeliever doesn’t have God’s blessing awaiting him. Let’s
be honest. The loving God thing is not popular,
is it? It’s not common. It doesn’t describe
the vast majority of people. This is a rare thing. Unbelievers
don’t love God and truth be told, they hate him. Romans 1, which
verses we studied for months. Paul begins to give this list
in Romans 1 28, just as they did not see fit to acknowledge
God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, and
then he unloads this list of descriptives filled with all
unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice. They are gossip, slanderers,
haters of God. Haters of God. But that’s a common
sentiment. That’s a common feeling towards
the divine creator. By sinful men. The only time
in Scripture this particular word Greek word is used, but
in light of all the rejection of God that we’ve seen humanity
rejecting God. This is an appropriate place
to plug in this particular word because it’s the truth. They’re
God haters. Paul said it in 2 Timothy as
well. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Realize this, that in the last
days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips,
without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God. They were designed to be one
thing, their functioning completely outside and contrary to what
God had designed them to be. James 4. Friendship with the
world is hostility, enmity toward God. Jonathan Edwards said of
that great truth that we are at war with God, which catches
unbelievers off guard. I’m not at war with God. Do you
know what I heard one person use a word An epithet towards
God yesterday that I couldn’t I wouldn’t repeat to my most
solid Christian friend is a word that I would never utter, and
that’s what he called God. Jonathan Edwards tells us why
the strictness of God’s law is a principal cause of God’s enmity
against man. If God were one that did not
so much hate sin, if he would allow them gratification of their
lusts in some degree, if his threatenings were not so awful
against all sinful indulgence, if they weren’t so absolute,
if his displeasure could be appeased by a few tears, a little reformation
or the like. Then they would not be so great
enemies, nor hate him so much as they do, but God shows himself
to be an implacable enemy. to their idols, and He has threatened
them with everlasting wrath, infinite calamity. For all they
do in the service of their lusts, this makes them irreconcilable
enemies to Him.” For Paul here to say, we know
that God causes all things to work together for good. To those
who love God, that brings us to a very profound point. Because something out of the
ordinary is taking place. It’s plainly understood that
every believer loves God, that that’s what it is to be a believer.
And only believers love God. But the problem is, we didn’t
love God, not in our natural condition. Nobody can love God,
really, until God has moved upon him. And so the fact that we
now love God ought to be a constant source to us of encouragement. The fact that we love God, that
we truly love God. Because if we love God, we have
absolute proof that God did something. 1 John tells us we love him because
he first loved us. And we know that it has to do
with God and his love. There’s no way in the world that
we would have ever developed this highest kind of love for
God. We wouldn’t even develop a warm
fuzzy for God on our own unless he did some kind of a prior work
in our heart. But now somehow something is
different. We’ve been radically changed and whereas we once naturally
hated God, We were haters of good, lovers of our pleasure,
lovers of our sin. Now we are suddenly said to be
lovers of God. That’s profound. It’s amazing. It’s absolutely
fascinating and something has changed. But what and how? We’ll take it up next Lord’s
Day. Let’s go before God. Our merciful God, even as we
begin to ponder this profound truth of these blessings that flow
to those who love God, this blessing that You will work everything
out for good. Lord, we can’t even begin to
conceive all of the good things that can and will And have come
our way. But Lord, we know we know our
own hearts. We know that we did not love
you, not in our own sinfulness. And there are many even here
today that do not know God and they do not love him. The Lord
Jesus died for those. He died to call them to repentance.
And it’s only then and there that we begin to see Christ for
who he is. And that natural affection for
Him returns. We begin to love God as we ought.
God, grant grace to any this morning who do not know You.
Call them to repentance. Show us, Father, how we may love
You more. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.