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Love Series # 4

Love of God (b)

Fred Coulter - February 25, 1995

Now on my travel this past week I found that one of the most important things that, as we discussed the last time on the love of God, was that what’s missing in the churches of God is understanding about the love of God. And that’s a shame, because they all focus in the law, which we need to keep. There’s no problem with keeping the laws of God. We understand that. But everything… all the laws of God are attacked so much, that everybody is so busy defending them, that they never have time for the love of God. And they don’t understand the love of God, they don’t understand how to apply it, and in many cases we find that people live their whole lives in the church and never understand about the love of God at all whatsoever. And that is a shame. So I think what God is doing with the churches - it’s not just happening here, but it’s happening in the Church of God Seventh Day and Seventh-Day Adventist Church. I just heard when I was over in Grand Junction that there’s a Seventh Day Adventist Church that just went to Sunday-keeping. So you know this thing is really kind of a much bigger thing than we’ve anticipated. Because here we are, just our little old group doing what we see in the Bible that is right, but out there in the world there are so many things going on that once in a while we come across it and we say, “My, this really is significant.”

Well let’s just review a little bit concerning the love of God. Let’s go to 1 John 4. Now let’s just review a couple of things here and then we will get into the love of God as it is expressed to the world. Because the love of God is also expressed to the world, if people would just realize and see how it is. Because one of the greatest characteristics of God is that He is love. Now let’s pick it up here in 1 John 4:16. It says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath [for] to us…” And that’s what we want to focus in on, not only just us, because there’s a special love that God has for the church, that is true. And there is a special love which God wants us to enter into with Him which goes beyond just the love that God has for the world in general. So, “…we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that [is dwelling] dwelleth in love [is dwelling] dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect,…” (1 John 4:16-17). And that’s the whole, how shall we say, the purpose of Christian life is that in the final analysis at the end we have perfect love. And that’s a big goal, and that’s something we need to really keep as the goal that we need to head for.

“…That we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love [is casting] casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. [And] He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because He first loved us” (vs. 17-19). And that’s what’s so important. So we’re going to focus in on how is it that God loved us first. And how did He express this love to us first. Now we’re not going to get into what Christ has done for us, or God’s love through Christ to us today. We will try and cover some of that next week, but let’s see how God has expressed His love to the whole world.

Let’s go back to the book of Genesis and let’s understand that part of the very creation of God expresses His love in many, many different ways. Now I talked to a man who did a video. He’s going to send it to me - it’s about six minutes long. He wrote the words and music and everything to it. And it’s talking about the great God. And he goes through and he says that, “God is revealed in the thunder, God is revealed in the lightning, God is revealed in His creation.” And he also says, “God has to have humor.” So he shows a lot of the funny animals that God has created. And it must be quite a really nice work, so I’m happy he’s going to send it me. But God did something special for human beings. And this expresses His love to us. And we know this - chapter 1:26. But this is so basic, yet it is so profound, yet right at the very beginning of the creation God declared His purpose, didn’t He? “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image,…” Very image of God. We’re not made like any of the animals. And when you are the image you are made in the image of which the reality is God. And, “…after Our likeness:…” So God in His love in creating us gave us all the attributes a little lower than Himself, because it says that God made man a little lower than Himself, Psalm 8:5, “…little lower than the [God] angels,…” So He’s given us minds, He’s given us choice. And as we will see choice is also an act of love, an expression of love to every human being.

Now in making us He also gave us dominion, gave us the whole earth, and verse 27, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” The very fact of the way that we are made and created, is that we are created to give and to receive love. Not only from God, but from each other. And out of this love, and this is probably not in a human terms, because of being cut off from God, there is a human love. And that human love then has been built in as part of the very creation of God that God has given to all human beings. It’s expressed in love for husband and wife, love for a man for a woman, and the very creation and the act of love in creating male and female have a lot of different aspects of love which are differentiated from all of the other animals. None of the rest of the creation of God, in their procreation and expression of love for one another face each other face to face. But God made human beings that way. And this is a very important thing that God wants us to understand about Himself.

Now hold your place here in Genesis 1, and let’s go back the Gospel of John chapter 1, because this is also an attribute of God that He gave to human beings, which relates then part of the relationship between Christ and God the Father. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now where it says, “…the Word was with God,…” the Greek means, “toward” or, “face to face”. So in creating human beings to give love, to receive love, or to be lovers as it were, They actually gave the kind of relationship that God the Father and Jesus Christ have of being face to face. So even… and God gave this to all human beings. So that’s a tremendous expression of His love. And God’s love in the creation is evident everywhere. God has given us wonderful things to eat, tremendous things to enjoy. He’s given us the ability to see, the ability to hear, the ability to express ourselves, the ability to think, the ability to choose. And all of those are part of the expression of the love of God that he has given to every human being.

Now let’s come over here to chapter 2 and we’ll touch just a little bit chapter 2 and chapter 3. God also gave something which takes a lot of love to do so. You think about this for a minute. It takes more love to give choice, as God has given choice, then it does to create robots. Because in giving choice, you also risk that the choice might be exercised the wrong way. Now that takes a lot of love, doesn’t it? Not only to risk it but also know that yea, probably, it’s going to happen. And yet God gave that. God gave choice to even what we would say the most wicked person on earth, whoever that may be. Because you cannot “fiatize” love. Now I maybe have coined a word there. In other words, you can’t, you cannot demand it by order. It is something that you must give, and it is something that you must receive. But you have to choose it, because love is a choice. Love is a decision. Same way with God’s relationship with us. God made a decision to create and make us this way. God, in His plan, is reproducing Himself in love, just like families reproduce themselves. That’s why one of the most simple explanations of the plan of God is this: we know that God is reproducing Himself because He created mankind male and female so they could reproduce themselves, recreate themselves. Now God is so great, and God is so unique, and God has given love to every human being, so that when they come together and have children even their children are unique, even though they are created in the image of the father and the mother. So that’s tremendous. God has so much love for human beings and His creation that He made each one distinct, each one separate, each one unique, whether they know God or not. Now that takes an awful lot of love, and commitment, and understanding.

Now we know they made the wrong choice, so let’s go to chapter 3 and let’s look at another aspect of the punishment that came - the aspect of love within punishment. Now sometimes that’s very hard for people to distinguish. But notice right after they sinned, right after they chose to go against God’s way. And God said, “Have you eaten of the tree that I’ve commanded you not to eat of?” (Gen. 3:11, paraphrased). And they began all their excuses and finger-pointing. Right after He got done sentencing the serpent He said in verse 15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Now right in that is the prophecy of the coming Messiah to undo the wrong choice that they made. Which then takes a tremendous amount of love to even provide that for us, right?

And I think this is something that we have missed an awful lot with our children, with the teaching in the church, and with correcting. We have given correction without hope, which is not right. God has given correction with hope, didn’t He? He gave the hope of coming out of this difficult situation, and understanding what it is now, that’s really something. When you go back and you looking at all that God has done, and all that God has provided, and all that God has made. Even when they sinned so greatly that it grieved Him, it repented Him that He made man when He was on the earth; that He was on the earth. Now when we come to the time of Noah, He said, “Ok, now we got a new start, I’ll make My covenant with you. You go on out and you multiply and replenish the earth.” And God was saying, “Ok let’s this time get it right.” But He still gave free choice. God will never take the free choice away from anyone. And in that there’s a great risk. Look what happened before the flood. God had to destroy all human beings. But in His love He’s going to resurrect them and give them some hope, ok.

Now let’s continue with this, let’s come on over to Genesis 22. Genesis 22 is one of the covenants that God made with Abraham. And as we get closer to the Passover time I’m going to explain the three covenants that God made with Abraham. But in Genesis 22, here is one not only to express His love, but to test love, and to test Abraham’s love. And this is really quite profound when you go through and understand how that Abraham got his son from his own body, supernatural conception of Sarah to bring forth Isaac. And as we’ve gone through we don’t know whether he was between 12 or 30 but somewhere between there, he was asked to take his only begotten son - to take him out and to make an offering of him wherever God said to go. Now a lot of people misunderstand why Abraham did that. There are two things, the reasons why. Number one, we find in Hebrews 11, that it said there that he was willing to sacrifice his son because he knew God would raise him from the dead. Now some people in trying to accuse God say, “Oh why would God command Abraham to sin?” Would God command anyone to sin? No. There’s a tremendous and a valuable lesson, which is a forerunner of what God was going to do with His only begotten Son, and in relationship to us. Now you know the whole account. He put his son up on the wood that was laid out there and he was ready to sacrifice him.

Let’s pick it up here verse 9. “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there,…” I don’t imagine he was going about that too quickly, you know, putting the stones together and so forth. And if you try and imagine what’s going on in his mind and saying, “Well, you know, I know God said this and I know God won’t command me to do anything that’s a sin. But boy, after waiting 25 years for my son to be born and finally he’s born now. You know this must really be something. Well I know that He will resurrect him if I sacrifice him.” So, “…and laid him on the altar upon the wood.” So he took him and tied him, laid him on the wood. “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.” You know it makes you wonder, what also was in his mind when that happened, “Whew, boy I’m glad to hear that.” Could very well have been. “And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me…” (Gen. 22:9-12).

Now this shows what? A complete dedication to God in love, a greater love for God than for his own son whom he loved greatly. This also is a lesson of God the Father for us. We find in the book of John that the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, but the Father was willing to sacrifice His own Son to lay down His life for us. Now out of this, then, we have something quite profound. Verse 13, “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns:…” (Gen. 22:13). And Abraham went and took him, for a sacrifice instead of his son. Now this tells us something else. This is a profound lesson for us too. God has provided a substitute sacrifice through Jesus Christ to pay for our sins, to make us acceptable to God the Father. And so right here at the very beginning of the Bible we have all of these things which express and show us the love of God.

Now I think that that ram was supernaturally created, because obviously he couldn’t see it when he went up there to offer Isaac, so this had to be supernaturally created. Just exactly like it was with Jesus Christ. It was a supernatural act for Jesus to give up His whole being as God to become a human being, become the sacrifice for all the sins of mankind. Now notice what else this also said here and what it bound God to do. Verse 15, “And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing,…” And he had to do it by choice, he had a lot of mistakes. You go and you see what Abraham did. It took all this time, from the time he was 75 until - we’ll just say 20 years, so that’s 25 and 20, that’s 45 years, longer than any of us have been in the Church of God, before God said, “Now I know, completely.” That’s why there are so many strange things going on in the church, and so many strange things with people, and so many strange choices that are going on. Because God doesn’t know what they will do. So therefore these things are coming upon them to see what they will to. And it’s all based on, “Do you love Me? Are you going to keep My commandments? Are you going to choose to just go your own way?” So like with Abraham here, He said, “…now I know [after 45 years]… now I know that you fear Me seeing you have not withheld thy son, thine only son:…” So then God said because of that, “…By Myself have I sworn,…” (Gen. 22:12,16). Now God doesn’t have to swear at all does He? But if God swears you know it’s going to happen, without a doubt.

“…Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice” (vs. 16-18). And really that’s a test for every Christian - to obey the voice of God - when you really come to understand it, ok. Now then, because he chose to love God more than anything else, more than his only begotten son, more than his wife, more than all that he had, and he was willing to go out and sacrifice his son, but God supernaturally provided the substitute sacrifice, now He entered into an unconditional promise to Abraham. There was no turning it back. What happened after this did not necessarily depend on the righteousness of the descendants of Abraham. But God always refers back to His love.

Let’s go do the book of Deuteronomy 4, and let’s see that the whole relationship with Israel was based on the fact that God loved the fathers - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’re going see quite a bit here in the book of Deuteronomy, how that God expresses His love to us, His love to His creation, even in calling the children of Israel. Yet remember when we did the study on the Sabbath how that God said He almost destroyed them in Egypt because of their sin, but held back His hand, because God is love.

Now let’s pick it up in Deuteronomy 4:29. He’s talking about “[But if you’re scattered among the heathen], But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God,…” So in all of this, brethren, in all that went on with Israel, in all that’s going on in the world, in everything that’s taking place within the church, this is what God wants: “…If from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him,…” That’s what God wants everyone to do on an individual and a personal basis. “…If thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” And that’s all that God ever wanted from anyone isn’t it? Yes.

What did we cover about what is the first and great commandment? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your being” (Matt. 22:37, paraphrased), right? Yes. So it’s the same thing here. Always remember, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8, paraphrased).

“…When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days,…” So we’re talking about what happening now and what’s going to happen in the future. Let’s stop and think for a minute. Before the trumpet plagues of God, what is God going to do? He’s going to seal 144,000 of the children of Israel, correct? Yes. And they will be calling out to Him won’t they? Yes. “…Even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto His voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them” (Deut. 4:30-31). And one of those covenants has to do with Jesus Christ.

So in everything that God does He wants to show His mercy, He wants to show His goodness and love, but we have to choose it. He’s not going to force it upon us. We must choose. “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” (vs. 32-33). Now we haven’t. We’ve never. That was a one time occurrence. And it was supposed to be so spectacular and so convincing that it would help the people make the choice that they would follow and love God and do the things that He said.

Verse 34, “…Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD He is God; there is none else beside Him. Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee: and upon earth He shewed thee His great fire; and thou heardest His words out of the midst of the fire” (vs. 34-36).

Verse 37, a key verse. “And because He loved thy fathers,…” Now Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were already dead when this occurred. But He said, “…because He loved your fathers,…” So God’s love is eternal, God’s love is everlasting, God’s love is perfect, and God wants to show His love, and based upon His promise that we read about. “…Therefore He chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in His sight with His mighty power out of Egypt;…” Then He says he’s going to drive out all the nations, and drive them out so that you can inherit the land.

Verse 39, “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. [If] Thou shalt keep therefore His statutes, and His commandments, which I command thee this day,…” So here is the first level of your expression of love back to God - keeping His commandments. That’s what God required of them. “…That it may go well with thee,…” Now you might mark that because there are a lot of people who claim that God called the children of Israel out because He wanted to curse them, He wanted to punish them. That the whole Old Covenant was a matter of cursing, and punishments, and hatred on God’s part. Not so. “…That it may go well with thee, and with thy children…” because God loves all the children. “…And that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever” (vs. 39-40). So that’s really quite a thing, if you really put that in perspective of God’s love, that He did this because He loved the fathers, He did this because He loved them. And every time that GOD deals with the children of Israel He stretches out His hands to see whether they are going to love Him and keep His commandments.

So now let’s come over here to chapter 5, and let’s pick it up in verse 1. “And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel,…” Now this was a very important event happening in the book of Deuteronomy, because they were ready to cross the Jordan River and go into the Promised Land. Those lands on the east side of the Jordan, they already had conquered. This was Moses’ farewell sermon. He knew that when he was done with this that he was going to die. So this is a formal whole gathering of all the tribes of Israel to hear what Moses said. “…Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.” By the way, I’m reading a publication that goes through and analyzes what is called the book of the covenant in the Old Testament, and that it is very indicative… Here, just hold your place right here and let’s go to Exodus 18 for just a minute because this is important when we understand concerning the laws, and statutes, and commandments of God. The whole proposition of what I’m reading is this, is that the book of the covenant, which God gave to Israel was also the book of the covenant that God used elsewhere, and these things were added to it.

Now let’s read Exodus 18:15. Remember, this is before Moses went up on the mountain, Mt. Sinai. “And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God: when they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another,…” “And I make a notation of it so that when I get to Mount Sinai and find out what God wants to give me, then I can tell them what to do.” No. Exodus 18:16 doesn’t say that. “…And I do make them know the statutes of God, and His laws.” Now how could he make them know that unless they were written down some place previously? Do you think that the first writing of the law was what Moses did? Or was not a lot of that what God had already done? Have we not gone back to Genesis 26:5 how many times, “…that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My [judgments] laws.” Were they not written down? Don’t you think that Abraham had those written down? Sure he did. He had a big household, didn’t he? You talk about a household - it’s more like a little colony, right? He had three or four hundred people with him all the time. He taught them. Those things were written down.

And so I think it’s quite important when we began to understand that God’s laws are eternal. His statutes and judgments between human beings are always the same, are they not? Why would they be any different because human beings are the same, aren’t they? I mean, we may have modern appliances, we may drive instead of riding on horseback. Boy, I tell you, if you had to ride up here every Sabbath on horseback it would be another story altogether, ok. It would be more than city slickers becoming a cowboy, ok. But the needs of human beings are the same, aren’t they? Yes. Aren’t the disputes that people have the same? Yes. Who owns what, and how much, and how do you settle it? “You smashed into my car so you have to take care of it.” Well back then it was “you ran into my oxcart and your ox gored my donkey and it’s got a wound here. Now how are we going to settle this?” Ok, well you know we’ll go down to Allstate insurance guy he’ll take care of it, you know (laughter), ok. No. These things are eternal, even the statutes and judgments of God in addition to the Ten Commandments.

“The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.” Now a covenant is how you will keep the commandments. A covenant is not what commandments alone, but how - it’s which ones and how. “The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, [And] (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying,…” When God said… Here’s what He said. Now let’s really understands this. “…I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before Me” (Deut. 5:2-7).

Now what I want you to do in analyzing the Ten Commandments as we go through: why did God give the Ten Commandments? Were the Ten Commandments a punishment? John says the commandments of God are not burdensome. Let’s look at the first one, “Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.” Why did God say that? Because He wants to deprive you of other gods, and statues, and idols, and things? No. Because He knows that He alone can give His love to you. No other god is a God. It’s just a figment of the imagination and cannot give you the love that God can give you. So that’s why. Since God is the real God, since God is the true God, why have any other gods before Him? Kind of ridiculous isn’t it?

Now the second commandment, verse 8, “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments” (vs. 8-10). Now you might want to put in your margin there John 14:15, because that’s exactly what Jesus said. “If you love Me keep My commandments”, right? There’s New Testament doctrine right out of the Old Testament. The truth is you can’t have New Testament doctrine without the words of the Old Testament, can you? No, you cannot. We’ll just put that in our margin.

Now God wants people to love Him back, and the first expression of it is keeping the commandments. Now we already covered the one concerning the Sabbath, so we won’t read that except it says “keep it”. And when I was back in Grand Junction I gave the sermon which I will redo again because I didn’t record it. Well yes, it was recorded on video, but I’m going to redo it again. Because when you go through Matthew 5 and understand what Jesus was really saying, we are not to just keep the commandments. That’s a basic requirement. To keep them in the Spirit means that we fulfil them in our keeping of them. Now do you understand what that means? Ok, it means this: you keep them to the fullest extent possible in the Spirit, not in the letter, based on the love of God. So therefore when the Sabbath day comes you don’t just keep the Sabbath. You do, but you fulfill the Sabbath by making the Sabbath the best day of the week because it is the day in which God has put His presence. It is the day that God in His love has set aside for us that we can love God, we can fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ spiritually. And when we come together with Sabbath services with that in mind, is that not a better Sabbath? Yes, it is. And do we not love God more because of it? Yes, we do. Do we not love each other more because of it? Yes, we do. And I’ll tell you what brethren, wherever I go those people that God is calling to be with the Christian Biblical Church of God, there is that same attitude of love and dedication, there is not the striving of politics, there is not any of these things going on. And it’s really a wonderful and profound thing for me to realize that when I go out and meet these people of God that what they want is the love of God, and what they need is the love of God. And so that’s really been quite an experience for me.   

Let’s go on and see what else that God said here. Now let’s come on down to verse 28, after they said, “You speak to God and then you tell us.” “And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.” Now God bound Himself to Abraham with a promise, correct? So even though the children of Israel said, “Now look, we don’t want to hear the voice of God. You tell us Moses.” God still was faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was He not? Yes, He was. Even in spite of this fact. Verse 29, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deut. 5:28-29). Now let’s do this. Let’s just take that little word “fear,” four-letter word, right along side it write “love,” because that’s the whole purpose of 1 John 4, right? That we would love God and keep His commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children forever. That’s what God wants. Yes, it is. God can enter into a relationship with someone that just fears Him. That is true, without a doubt. But how much better is it to have a relationship where there is mutual love on both sides? That’s what God really wants. That’s the whole purpose of the New Testament.

So let’s come down here to verse 32. “Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” Oh, that some people would learn that, correct? Not only are they turning to the right hand and left hand, they’re going berserk; they’re going around in circles and destroying everything that God has said. “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you,…” (vs. 32-33). Here even carnal people, fit for destruction if you want to put it that way, that God was angry with, that God said He held back His hands many times from correcting and disciplining them because they didn’t obey Him and love Him and keep His commandments, yet He says, “…I want it to go well with you.” And isn’t that what we want with our children?

But one of the greatest disappointments we have, and a lesson that God teaches us, not all of your children are going to do as you recommend. Because God has also given them free choice. And in giving every one of your children free choices God has given you free choice, that even though you want it to go well with your children, and with all your heart you’ll do anything for your children, won’t you? And when your children do things which are not right you try every way to try and work it out to see if you can make it right, is that not correct? Well then you’re doing what God is doing, right? You know, and just like how many times God said that He sent the prophets so that they would hear, and the people of Israel didn’t hear. And He said, “Now I’ve got to cast you out.” God didn’t want to cast them out. He even said in Jeremiah (and I’ll never forget it so I’ll probably repeat this a lot) in Jeremiah 5 He even told Jeremiah, He said, “Look, just go find one man and I’ll forgive the whole thing.” Now that’s something to think on. That’s because of the love of God.

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