E2 - The Forgotten Jealousy Of God - What God's Jealousy Proves

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If you have your Bibles, if you would turn to Exodus and the

34th chapter and we will continue our study.

I told you last week when we dove off into the the forgotten

jealousy of God that I intended on preaching one message that I

realized I would not be able to do in one message because the

subject is just so big and unfortunately so neglected in

the church these days. And that is again the subject of

God's jealousy. And last week in our message, we

discussed what provokes God's jealousy.

Not going to do that again to you.

Because I realized when we understand that we provoke God's

jealousy and many places in our lives, it brings great

conviction upon our lives. And very heavy that conviction

becomes as we think about all of the things that distract us from

Christ, how those things can quickly become idols in our

lives. And so today I'm not going to

revisit that, though we, we, we may occasionally mention those

things. Today I want us to look at what

God's jealousy proves. We we saw how God's jealousy is

prove that the fact that God is a jealous God and before I get

to the details in that I'm just going to tell you that

everything that God's jealousy proves has to do with his love

for his people. In fact, when we think about

God's jealousy. We must be is jealous because he

loves us. And if you're a good husband in

this room and you saw some man flirting with your wife or your

wife of flirting with another man as we dismissed this morning

and it doesn't bother you as her husband.

Well, I would question your love not to question the love of God

because God is always jealous in his love for us.

Why? Because he is a jealous God.

And we're going to see today that God's jealousy proves his

love, and we're going to see the depths of that, I hope, in our

time together. I overheard someone saying last

week, and I think they were kind of maybe trying to defend me a

little bit because the way that it usually goes here at Key Life

Fellowship is we'll begin at verse 1, chapter 1 of some book

and we'll walk all the way through that.

And I heard someone speaking, I don't remember exactly what they

said, but but they said something that normally here we,

we're strict in expository teaching.

Let me just help you with some of the confusion around

expository preaching. Expository preaching doesn't

mean simply just verse by verse, though verse by verse is very

important. Sometimes in our exposition, we

can actually really focusing on one verse and in fact 1 theme

from that one verse as we're going to continue to do.

And so we go back to the same verse that we were at last week,

right? No, no new reading for you,

though. I pray that you would read all

the things around it. And I want us to focus again on

God's jealousy. Going to see God's jealousy

proves His love. He says this in Exodus 34 verse

Exodus 34:14

14. Do not worship any other God for

the Lord. Whose name is jealous is a

jealous God. So you learned last week that he

is tell you he is immutable and he's still just as jealous this

week. Let's pray together, Father, in

the name of Jesus, we come to you, thanking you that Your Word

teaches us the things that we need to know as believers, that

it is Your word that sanctifies us and sets us apart from the

rest of the unbelieving world. Look at your jealousy again this

morning. But I pray that you continue to

teach us the depths of that, exactly what it means and

exactly what it proves to us as your children.

That I pray also that that that jealousy be seen today by the

unbeliever and that you show them how jealous you are for

them and sued them as since eternity passed.

To bring them to this place this morning, that they could hear

about your love and your mercy found in Christ, that you would

compel them to believe and to repent this morning due to that

jealous love that you have chased them.

God, we pray as we learn in Your word these things, and we would

appreciate them all the more that we would praise You all the

more that you would be glorified through this.

And we pray, and we ask all these things in the mighty name

of Jesus, Amen. You will be a first for me.

It will probably be a. Last, for me, many times in the

sermons that I preach, I might open with a quote from some

Puritan or from some church father or from some theologian

in the past. This morning I'm going to do

something a little different, and I'm actually with something

from Oprah. I know, gasp, but get it all out

faint. There's a reason and there's a

purpose behind that. Oprah in the interview on the

topic of God in her side of the conversation went something like

this, which is very disturbing. She says, and I quote, she said,

I happen to be sitting in church in my late 20s and I was going

to this church where you had to get there at 8:00 in the morning

or you couldn't get a seat and a very.

And everybody was just, you know, into the sermon, she says.

And this great minister was preaching about how great God

was and how omniscient and how omnipresent.

And God is everything. And then he said, And the Lord

thy God is a jealous God. And I was, she said, caught up

in the rapture of the moment until he said, jealous.

She goes on to saying something struck me.

And I was like, I, I think about 27 or 28.

I don't know why she went back and revisited what age she was.

It really is insignificant. She's still just as lost.

She says. I was thinking God is all

present and God is, and God's also jealous.

God is jealous of me. And something about that didn't

feel right in my spirit, because I believe that God is love and

that God is in all things. And so that's when the search

for something more than doctrine within me, search for something

more than doctrine, she says. Because the doctrine that says

that God is jealous confused her, didn't it?

She thought that God was going to be humanistic in his jealousy

and somehow be be envious of her or her well, and so she thought

in that moment that God's jealousy has to be the direct

opposite of his love, right? Because she was all about his

love. And isn't everybody all about

his love? Unfortunately, they're all about

his love because they don't have a biblical understanding of his

love because his love. Unfortunately, like many, she

believed that God's jealousy somehow nullified God's love,

when in fact. As we're going to see today, in

our time together, we're going to see that God's jealousy

proves his love. God's jealousy.

And solidifies his love for his people.

And I want us to understand that.

I don't want us to be confused like Oprah.

I don't want us to be confused over the fact that God's

jealousy is a great evidence of God's love for His people.

And so we look at this this morning, you're taking notes.

I want you to write this down. God's jealousy proves some

things to us concerning His love.

We're going to look at the depths of that and what that

means. First, God's jealousy proves His

covenantal love for His people. Week I mentioned His covenantal

love and I said we will talk more about that in the weeks to

come. Well, here we are, and I want us

to talk for a moment about His covenant love for His people so

that we understand that God's love is based on the covenant

that He has made with His people.

It is not based on any, and God's jealousy for us is

evidence of that covenantal love.

When we look at covenantal love and in regard to God, we must

see this. It is covenantal love is a

faithful love. Speak for all of you, but I can

speak for myself. I am thankful that God loves me

with a covenantal faithful love because I'm not always faithful

to the things that I need to be faithful to.

But I can rest assure of this, God is always faithful unto

himself. He's always faithful to fulfill

every Thomas. In fact, Titus Paul says to

Titus, God cannot lie there in the book of Titus.

And so I know that when God says something, God means something,

and he doesn't. Mean it just temporarily, He

means it forever. And so when we think about His

covenant love for His people must be reminded that it is a

faithful love based on His faithfulness to His promises.

Fact Deuteronomy Chapter 7 verse 9 says know therefore that the

Deuteronomy 7:9

Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God keeping

his cup of to 1000 generations of those who love him and keep

his commands. He is a God who loves

faithfully, and his faithful love proves His covenant alone.

And the jealousy of God, that. US displays for us evidence that

He has loved us with this faithful covenantal love.

Williams first, though, a rather obscure Puritan who wrote a book

that I've read recently and entitled The Wells of Salvation

open this book's promises of God, and in fact, in a way that

I have never contemplated the depths of God's promises in my

life. Espersto said this.

He said that the same love that moved God to make a promise

moves him still to perform it. For his love knows no very nor

the least shadow of turning. We can bank on that church that

because God is immutable, he doesn't change.

He doesn't turn, He doesn't shift like the shadows that we

are. Secured by his covenantal and

faithful love for his people. It's based on his faithfulness

to his promises. It's not based on anything you

do. It's not based on anything you

don't do. It's based on him and him alone.

The word that he has spoken, He is faithful and he is true to

that word. We look at his faithful love,

knowing that it's based on his faithfulness to keep his

promises. But.

I want to also make you aware of this, or to remind you if you're

not aware that it's. Separate from our performance,

God doesn't love me based on me, He loves me based upon Him.

And his faithfulness unto himself God doesn't love.

My performance, it's a message that we need to hear in the

American church that is so inundated with this idea that if

you do XY and Z, God will then do whatever it is that you want

him to do for you. That's simply not the case.

God is a God of covenant, of love, and he has made that

covenant and he's made that promise to love you with

inevitable an enduring love. It's completely separate from

our performance because if it was based on my performance, I

promised you this, I've let God down enough that I do not

deserve to receive any more love from him.

But thanks be unto God. This covenant of love is not

based on Paul's performance. It's not based on the

performance of any of you here today.

It is based upon his promises alone.

Titus chapter 3 verse 4, it says this.

Titus 3:4

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He

saved us. Not because of righteous things

we had done, but because of His. When His kindness and His love

appeared to us. He didn't save us because of any

of the things that we had done. Why?

Because all we had done up until that point is sin.

And so if He were going to base His covenant of love upon us, we

would definitely not be. Candidates to receive it he

still promised even separate from our performance completely.

Psalm one O 3 verse 10. The psalmist says he does not

treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our

iniquities. I wish Christians were listening

to that this morning. And why not for his high door

above the earth. So great is his love for those

who fear him. Why do you fear him?

Because by His grace He has ushered you into a covenant and

a promise that He has made unto you on His faithfulness to keep

His promises on His covenantal love, faithful love that

Spurgeon talked about when he preached the message entitled

The Drawings of Love. And he said this in that sermon.

He said He who has loved you and pardoned you will never cease to

love you. His love was not set upon you

because of anything in you, not be removed because of anything

in you. Oh, you see the depths of that

covenantal love? It wasn't based on you to begin

with. That's for all of you who think

that you did XY and Z right and so God then saved you, No, when

you were doing everything wrong, asking in your sin where you

were swimming in your filth. God, due to His faithful love,

brought you into His covenant of promise in Christ.

There's nothing you can ever do to be removed from that love

because it's a forever love. Oh, we see it's a faithful love,

but it's also a forever love, a love that is everlasting.

Oh, how many times does Scripture talk about God's love

being everlasting? Now please know this He's not

talking about God's common and benevolent love that goes out to

everyone when we talk about God. Love.

This is His covenant of love to His people of promise.

We will always remain in His love because it is a forever

love, an everlasting love. Psalm One, O 317, as you read a

moment ago, it said, But from everlasting to everlasting, the

Lord's love is with those who fear Him, with their children's

children, with those who keep His covenant and remember to

obey His precepts. Please know what he's saying.

Those who really understand His covenant of love will keep His

promises and obey His precepts. That is a mark of a true

convert. That is a mark of someone who

was truly in this covenant. They will enjoy that everlasting

love. Isaiah, 5410.

It says this about his everlasting love.

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my

unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of

peace be removed, Says the Lord, who has compassion on and he

loves you, and he has compassion upon you based on his faithful

love, based on his forever love, that everlasting covenantal

love. Not only is that covenantal love

everlasting, but it's also enduring.

Oh, and I could and tell time after time after in time that

God has proven in my life that his love endures beyond my

stupidity and beyond my sin. His love is an enduring love.

That's why Paul in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

They're toward the end of that chapter, gives promised, he

says. For I am convinced in verse 38

that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, either

height nor depth or anything else in all creation will be

able to separate us. Who is he talking about?

He's talking about God's covenantal people, the believer.

He said, I'm convinced that there's nothing that can

separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. The covenantal love of God has

us and will never, ever, ever let us go.

It's everlasting and it is enduring.

Not all creation, height, nor death, nor life, nor death, nor

demons, nor angels. He's saying this nothing.

Nothing is going to. Separate you from God's

covenantal love for His people. When we talk about God being

jealous, he reminded that he is jealous because of his

covenantal love for His people. God's jealousy proves that that

covenantal love is true. So God's jealousy proves that

covenant of love, and it is that love that secures His people.

Let me just set this out there for you so that you can meditate

on it and just ponder it for a moment.

No matter what you could ever bring against you.

Whatever charge you could bring against you.

It is not big enough to disqualify you from the covenant

of love that we in Christ Jesus because He is a jealous God.

He proves that jealousy by that covenant of love, faithful love

and forever love. Secondly, God's jealousy proves

His uncompromising love for His people.

Not compromised in the area of His love.

He won't allow us to entertain or to continue in meaningless

things that we love from this world and only take His place

and replace Him in our lives. God is uncompromising in this.

In fact, He rescues us from these things.

Now, I told you that I'm not going to go back and I'm not

going to revisit all of the idols that we.

Are susceptible to because they grow increasingly every day, but

I will take the time to remind. That God displays for us His

uncompromising love in this way by refusing to share His people

with idols. He will not tolerate it if you,

as a believer, attempt to give yourself to an idol.

Please know this God will discipline you and he will bring

you back. Idol is nothing to you again and

that he is everything if you were truly in Christ.

Why? Because God desires and He

deserves all of our affections. He desires and He deserves to be

loved 1st and to be loved supremely in our lives.

Therefore he refuses to share His covenant people with their

idols. Matthew 22 verse 37 Jesus gives

Matthew 22:37

the command to his people. He says Love the Lord your God

with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your

mind. All that you have to offer other

than your sinful flesh. And He says everything that you

have to offer, He says offer it to God in love.

Why? Because that is a response that

we will naturally have when His true love has been lavished upon

us, when we began to understand His covenantal love for us based

on His faithfulness, the fact that it is forever.

Our response to that kind of love ought to be to shun every

idol and to love Him supremely in our lives above all.

Things first and foremost, God desires, and all of our

affections belong. Why do you think that when he

gave the 10 commandments there in Exodus chapter 20 verse

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

three, he said you shall have no other little G gods before me

because all of those false little G idols, they're not

worthy of love. They're not God's people, giving

themselves their time and their energy toward these meaningless

demonic. Fallacy.

God refuses to share us with idols.

He's not going to do it. He's uncompromising in his love

for us, covenantal love, so that we can come out from this world,

so that we can come out from serving those idols, so that we

can come out from our sin that we once loved so much.

God is not going to share us with these idols.

Be that immorality, be that greed.

Idolatry. He will not share us with idols.

The psalmist understood this in Psalm 24.

When he wrote this, he said in verse three, Who may ascend the

hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy?

Place he who has clean hands and a pure heart, and who does not

lift up idol or swear by what is false.

Oh, see what the psalmist wrote there under the inspiration of

the Holy Spirit. That God is refusing to share

His people with idols because God is relishing and being our

only source of satisfaction. Be a list on our list of things.

He wants to be loved above all things and he will not share us

with anything else because he refuses to do so and he relishes

and being our only source of sad.

How can we stop there for a moment and just simply come to

the conclusion that God is worthy to relish, that we would

only be satisfied in Him That is His desire.

And isn't He worth that? The One who would give His only

begotten Son to show us the magnitude and the extent of His

love. For.

Isn't He worthy of us relishing in Him, finding satisfaction and

nothing that this world has to offer, finding satisfaction and

no pleasure of the flesh, but finding satisfaction in Him and

in Him alone? Oh, we sing about it a lot in

the church, but we don't live about it very much, do we?

Raise up a group of people that would simply just be satisfied

with his sufficiency to be satisfied in him.

He's uncompromising in his love for his people, desiring the

same thing. There's a psalmist in Psalm 73

says this. He says in verse 25, Whom have I

in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire

besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

What is the psalmist doing here? Being the only source of his

satisfaction, he's relishing it and God being the love of his

life. He's content and he's satisfied

in his relationship with his creator.

I wish that the American church would once again become content

and the fact that the Creator desires a relationship with us.

That he sent his son die on a cross brutal death so that that

relationship would exist. Knowing that he relishes and

being our only source of satisfaction.

Well, please know this church. His uncompromising love for His

people will not allow him to watch you continue to find

sufficiency in things that are outside of Him.

That means, by the things of this world, satisfaction, by the

urges of your flesh. Surely those of you who know

Christ know that He's worthy being seen as sufficient for

every need that we have. That's what Paul came going.

And His grace is sufficient for all my needs, and I find

satisfaction in Him and Him alone.

Psalm 60. 3 says this, Oh God, you are my God.

Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs

for you, and a dry and weary land where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary and behold your power and your

glory. Because your love is better than

life. My lips will glorify you.

Long as I live and in your name I will lift up my hands, my soul

will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, with singing

lips, my mouth will praise you. The Psalm is there completely

satisfied in the love of God, completely satisfied with that

relationship. In fact, it just began to pour

off of his lips praise for how truly is.

God desires us. From us, He relishes the fact

that we would be satisfied with Him as our only source of

satisfaction. So God's jealousy proves the

fact that His love is uncompromising.

He's not going with godless things, godless idols.

He desires that we find true satisfaction in His perfect

love. Oh Church, when you began to see

just how perfect His love is for you, you won't be satisfied with

anything less than the perfect love of God.

You'll no longer be satisfied by the empty substitutes that this

world provides. You'll no longer be satisfied

with the yearnings of your flesh when you see the true deaths of

His love. The fact that He is jealous for

you because of this love for Him, all the more you'll find

satisfaction in Him. All the more He will be your

everything. Isn't that the problem with so

many who claim to know Christ? Christ is just another thing,

not their everything. Unfortunately, we've settled for

that Heaven. Can I submit to you this?

God has not settled for that. He is not lavished as covenantal

love upon you so that He can just be something else on your

list of somethings. He sent His Son to die on a

cross to be your everything. Surely He's jealous for us.

God's jealousy proves His uncompromising love for His

people. God's jealousy proves His

covenantal love for His people. Thirdly, God's jealousy proves

His committed love for His people.

Isn't it in? His jealousy that we see clear

evidence of God's commitment to love His people and to make that

love known to us. He went to the extreme to the

greatest extent so that we would know the love that I am Speaking

of. This very did love.

Please know this God's committed love is not His reaction to our

love and our commitment toward Him, right ladies?

It's not his reaction to our commitment and our love for.

Him love is based solely on His grace toward us, shown to us in

Christ Jesus, and He is jealously committed to love us

no matter. What?

Let me just prove that to you. Please pay attention to this.

He's rescuing those he has chosen.

In fact, in your Bibles, you know and you were familiar, I

hope with Romans chapter 8 verse 29 says this.

Romans 8:29

For those God foreknew that is to for love.

That means He loved you and eternity passed before you ever

existed. He says God foreknew He also

predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He

might be the first born among many brothers.

God's choosing on our lives is based on His preordained love

and nothing else. He didn't wait till you got a

few things right and then decide that He was going to love you.

Please understand this church. Before you were ever a sparkle

in your parents eyes, his affections had already been set

upon you. Oh, and please know this, He

down through the halls of time to see you make some good

decision and then love you based on that good decision.

No, He committed himself to love you in spite of you before you

ever existed. That's the kind of love that I'm

talking about today. That is why God's jealousy is so

amazing when we contemplated biblically so much more than

just our human envy and our human insecurity.

God's jealousy proves to us He's committed love for His people

even before they had been rescued.

He committed himself, rescuing those He had chosen, choosing us

based upon His love and His love alone.

According to Ephesians chapter one verse 4.

It says for He chose us in him before the creation of the world

to be holy and blameless in his sight.

If you read the last part in Love and Love.

It is his committed love. That shows us that committed God

to rescuing those He had chosen. And because the Father has

chosen us, he'll rescue us, and he'll rescue us through Jesus

his Son. How many people get caught up in

all this? Well, if God chooses certain

people, how will they know? They'll know when God

regenerates them to new life and he gives them faith to believe

in the trust in Jesus Christ and as Lord and Savior.

And as they surrender to Christ. You can just check that.

And one of God's chosen elect people, He made that known to

you in time and space what occurred in eternity past.

So when we look at that, I want you to see the magnitude of this

in light of God's jealous and committed love for His people.

We see very thoroughly in John's gospel in the 6th chapter.

He says this in verse 37. All that the Father gives me

will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive

away. So Jesus comes to this

conclusion. Everyone that the Father desires

to give to me will come, and I will drive 0 away.

Who come to come to me? They're one of the ones that the

Father has given to me. He goes on and he explains it

like this. For I have come down from heaven

not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none

of all that He has given me. Why will He lose none of all?

Because of He love for his people, he's jealous for us.

He says I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise

them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that

everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have

eternal life. And I will raise him up at the

last Jesus there explaining to us God's committed love for his

people. That committed a love that

rescues the chosen, those who were marked out in eternity

past. Who now?

You because of Jesus Christ, because the committed love of

the Father. Because God is a jealous God and

He chooses us and he will rescue all that he chooses because he's

committed to doing that. He's also committed to redeeming

those he called. He's going to fulfill and to

finish everything that he has begun in our lives from eternity

past all the way until glorification.

Romans in chapter 8, if we continue reading after 29 and we

get into 30, he says in those he predestined.

Why did he predestined and elect us?

Because He was committed to love us, and those he predestined he

also called. And those he called he also

justified. And those he justified he also

glorified. It's as good as done in the mind

of God, because in his committed love he has committed himself to

redeem. He has called the work that was.

Begun in eternity past through His sovereign grace and the

eternal infinite mind of a triune God, that work that was

determined comes to fruition because He's committed to

redeem, all those that He calls to Him will be raised.

On the last day. Oh, the author of Hebrews

reminding us of this, that the Lord himself is the author and

the perfector or finisher of our faith.

What? Does that mean it means that a

jealous God and His committed love things undone?

If He started the work in you by off offering that work by His

sovereign hand and eternity past, He will carry it all the

way to glorification where you are perfect in His presence for

all eternity. What kind of love is?

This What kind of love is this? This is not sappy human.

This. This is love beyond even our own

human comprehension. But it is the love that the Word

of God describes for us over and over and over again.

Is his committed love committed to rescuing those he has chosen

committed to redeeming those he has called say to the

Philippians so confidently in Philippians chapter one verse 6,

the verse that I have clinged to many times in my life where Paul

says being confident of this that he who began a good work in

you will carry it unto completion until the day of

Christ Jesus. Now let me help all of you if

you think. That God began this good work in

you at some church service where you prayed a prayer and you

walked an aisle and you asked Jesus into your heart.

You were missing the entire story when it says that He began

a good work in you and that He who began that good work in you

will carry it on to completion. God speaking in eternal terms,

that means in eternity past He began a work in you before you

ever existed. He set His love upon you and He

was committed to rescuing you, and He was committed to

redeeming you in Christ Jesus, and He did everything that He

had to do work. He is the author and He is the

perfector. So be confident of that, that He

who has begun this good work will carry it on to completion.

He's not through. With you, Aren't you thankful

for that? That those who he foreknew he

predestined to conform to Christ, and those he predestined

he called, and those he called he justified, and those he

justified he did also glorify. That is all in the past tense,

in the original language, and it means it is done.

And it is done because God has spoken it.

Why? Because He is committed to love

His people, and so He jealously pursues us our lives.

In fact, truth be told, He pursued us before we ever

existed. Every element of your life was

so that He could draw you unto Himself.

What kind of love Father has lavished upon us?

This is committed love for His people, a rescue, a redemption.

Our glorification is all guaranteed.

Why Oprah? Because God is a who loves even

a godless Pagan who does not and cannot understand him.

But he loves his children, has an even deeper love, doesn't He?

Oh, it is beyond just a simple, common, benevolent love.

It is a love that is committed to us, eternity past, and it

will continue for all eternity future.

A wise man once said, there's nothing that you can do to make

God love you anymore. There's nothing you can do to

make him love you any less. He is committed, loving you, and

he has jealously pursued you. Because of that commitment to

love you, so jealousy proves that committed love.

Oh, don't be afraid of the doctrine of the jealousy of God.

Know that it is his jealousy that proves that he is committed

to love his. Well, that's good news if you're

any way like me, right? When we're constantly being

stubborn, we're constantly being drawn away and straying away.

Aren't you thankful that he's committed to us even when we're

not so committed to him? That's because he's jealous.

He's committed to love us even in spite of us.

So God's jealousy proves his covenant of love for His people,

His uncompromising love for His people, and His committed love

for His people. I told you His jealousy is about

His, not opposite of that. In fact, His jealousy proves it.

We have one more aspect that I want to cover before we depart

today and that is this. God's jealousy proves His

compelling love for His people. Let us not forget this.

Let us not neglect this in our understanding or in our

realization this morning. We are saved because of the

compelling love of God. You're saved because of that

compelling love. It is God who pursued us.

It is drew us. It is God who wooed us unto

himself. And how does?

He do this because he does do this.

In fact, John chapter. 6 Verse 44 tells us this.

It says no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me

draws him up at the last day. How does the Father draw us?

How does He compel us but by His compelling love, That compelling

love revealed to us in the gospel, That compelling love

revealed to us in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that

God told love us, and in His love for us, He compels us to

love him in return. God compelled me by his love and

I know this to be true. Been looking for him and I

didn't love him. I love myself and I love my sin

and I love the pleasure of my flesh.

I was an enemy of God. Aren't you thankful this morning

that the compelling love of God, even his enemies to His feet to

receive His unending, undying, covenantal love for them.

He draws us unto Himself by this love compelling us.

He seeks us due to His love. Isn't that how He does it?

God compels us by His love. How Seeking us due to His love

He seeks us. Is that not what Jesus says?

I came to seek and to save that which is lost.

For all you people who thought you went on some quest looking

for God and you finally found Him, you didn't.

You can't find Him in your flesh because a natural man cannot

understand the things of the Spirit.

They are spiritually discerned. God must find you.

So if your testimony all these years has been when I found

Jesus, stop lying. You didn't find Jesus.

You know how I know you didn't find Jesus?

You weren't looking for Jesus. You're looking for the next

thing that would satisfy your flesh.

But know this even while you were looking for sin.

He was looking for you. What a lover of our souls for

me. When I wasn't looking for him

seeking me. In fact, if we have the gospel

right, and we do, God Incarnate came to this earth, walked

through the filth of the sinful, offered himself.

As a sacrifice when he didn't deserve to die, because he was

perfect in all of his ways so that he could compel us by that

love. His love is compelling, seeking

us due to the is that love that allows Him to seek and to pursue

dead sinners. Why would anyone ever go looking

for a dead carcass? That's what we all were

spiritually. Isn't it?

Oh, in fact, what we would do is we would go as we possibly could

from something that was dead and something that did not have any

evidence of life. In fact, it smelled.

It stunk. But God being officed of us,

pursued us while we were dead, wallowing in the stench of our

own filth. He left the throne room on high.

He came here seeking us due to His Ephesians.

Chapter one verse 5 says this. In love.

He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus

Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.

The praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given

us from the 1 He loves. And Him we have redemption

through his sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace

that He lavished on us. And He made known to us the

mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He

purposed in Christ. What is he saying there?

He's letting you know that God loved you so much this earth to

seek you out due to His love for you.

And his expectation of that love is that you would be compelled

to love him in return. Isn't that the natural reaction?

Isn't that the reaction that that John experienced when he

said that I love him because he first loved me?

Hear about that compelling love that when we were dead in our

sins. Christ Jesus died for us.

That's what he says in the 2nd chapter of Ephesians, isn't it?

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and in your

sins, which you used to live when you follow the But because

of His great love for us. Why?

Because of his great love for us, God, who's rich in mercy,

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in

transgression. It is by grace you have been

saved. It is His compelling love that

has saved you. Compelling love.

That is the reason why you reciprocate love in return to

Him. He sought us due to His love

again, not because we were worthy, because we had anything

to offer. Let's all be moment.

Does anyone here have anything to offer a God who is in need of

nothing? So it can't be that God saw.

That Kirk Hall had something to offer him.

I was dead. Dead people have nothing.

We put them in the ground and we throw.

Dirt over the top of them. They have nothing to offer

anyone in this life any longer. However, God in his great mercy

chose to love me anyway. Deuteronomy 7.

He speaks of his and he says this, The Lord did not set his

affection on you and choose you, verse 7 because you were more

numerous than other people, for you were the fewest of all

peoples. What is God saying?

You had nothing to offer me, but it was because the Lord loved

you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that He

brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the

land of our Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

What is he reminding us of there?

He's reminding us of the fact that God seeks us to do to his

love and nothing else, and the fact that he seeks us ought to

draw us unto him, shouldn't it to know that I and had nothing

to offer and he sought me that he may lavish his love upon me.

Now I want to go to a biblical illustration that I intend to go

to, but I'm going to now Lazarus, the brother of Martha

and Mary. Oh, just thank for a.

Physically brought back the life from the dead.

Now if we would have read about that or if we had would have

witnessed it as those did in his day.

Lazarus come forth and Lazarus coming out of the tomb now

alive. He's been dead for four days.

Scripture says he was already stinking in graves close and

Jesus said unwrap him, set him free.

Why he's alive. Jesus making it very clear to

all who are there. I am the resurrection and the

life. We would think that there was

something wrong with Lazarus if he wasn't grateful for the fact

that Jesus raised him from the dead, wouldn't we?

And those of you who are in Christ, please know this.

He's done oh so much more for you.

He raised Lazarus temporarily. He eventually died just like we

all do. It is appointed on to die.

A man wants to die after this the judgement.

But to us who are in Christ, guess what he did when He sought

us by His compelling love? He raised us a new life forever.

He raised us and promised us eternal life because of our

risen Savior based completely on His love.

If that doesn't compel you to bow down and to worship Him and

to thank Him and to praise Him, you have no criticism toward

Lazarus if he wouldn't have been thankful because Lazarus was

thankful for the temporal and you won't be thankful for the

always. Love compels because it is

compelling in its nature, and God's jealousy proves His

compelling. Love compels us by His love

seeking us due to this love. It's showing us the depths of

His love. I'm thankful that God has truly

shown His love, at least what we can contain in our humanity.

Now we can't fully know the depths of His love because some

of it is just still a mystery, isn't it?

I find that it's a mystery and rightfully labeled and described

as a mystery because most days I wake up yourself, God, why would

you ever love me? God, how could you ever love me?

God, I have nothing to offer you and you've been so good and so

kind and so gracious to me. I don't fully understand it, but

I do understand that this part of it that He's allowed us to

understand and reveal to us in His words so that we can begin

to grasp the depths of His love. Is that not what Paul prayed for

the church that they would be able to grasp how why vast is

the love of God? I pray constantly.

Well, let me see more of this. Let me understand this just a

little bit more because the more that I dive off into His love,

the more that I am consumed by it.

He's made known the depths of His love.

Through the gospel if you're incredible.

Don't you that it is through the gospel that He has made known

the depths of His love? In fact, first John chapter 4

1 John 4:9

verse 9 says this. This is how God showed His love

among us. He sent His one and only Son

into the world that we might live through Him.

Verse 10 says love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us

and send his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

You want to begin to understand the depths of God's love.

It begins right there. The fact that God would love you

enough even though you didn't deserve it, to send his to this

world as an atoning sacrifice for your sins.

Jesus Christ the sinless 1 He who knew no sin, who became sin

so that you might become the righteousness of God.

Oh, you want? To begin to understand that the

depth of His love starts there with start in Romans chapter 5

Romans 5:8

verse 8 where plainly says this, but God demonstrates his own

love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died

for us. Oh, what compelling love.

Why am I Christ? Because He loved me when I was

at my worst. When I'm talking to people about

Jesus on the street or in the stores or wherever I may find

myself, I begin to share the gospel with them.

And I get to this part, Romans 58 to do something for me right

now. Don't say it out loud because

I'm not going to tell you what my.

Darkest Hour is But I want you to think of the worst thing that

you've ever done, something you've never told anyone else,

something that you were dreadfully ashamed of.

And generally they'll close their eyes.

I'll see you got it in your mind.

Oh yeah. Began to tear up because they

know how detestable they have been, as I know the same.

And I remind them of this, that that is where Christ Jesus died

for you. Not when you've got it all

together, where you had everything right, where your

life was. Looking He died for you, and he

demonstrates his love for you in this that while you were a

Sinner, while you were the worst of the world, he died for you.

Oh, is that not compelling? Is that not compelling love?

Is that not love that draws us unto Him?

Oh, who can love us like that? No one but God, no one showing

us the depths. Of his love is a cross.

It was sacrifice expressing that love for the sole reason so that

centers will be compelled and drawn to believe.

Oh, we, we speak of John all the time.

Let's think of it in light of what we're saying here today and

see the depths of it. John 316 simply says, For God so

loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever

believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal.

What is that designed to do that is designed to compel a person

to believe? It is that way by design to hear

that God loved you and that he sent his Son to die on the cross

to rescue you, and that whoever will not perish but have

everlasting or eternal life. If that doesn't compel you, let

me help you, ma'am. Sir, if that doesn't compel you,

you are so lost in your sin that your conscience has been so

seared that you are in a reprobate condition, and unless

God intervene, there is no hope. But for those who God desires to

lavish His love upon today, when they hear of the cross and they

hear of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it is in that message

that the Spirit quickens them, the message that God births

faith in them to believe and to trust in Jesus Christ.

Why is he doing this? Because his love is a compelling

love. Don't just.

Read past John 316 because it's your good luck verse.

What belongs not in the life of a Christian.

We don't put our faith in luck, we put our faith in the

sacrifice. I send in Him alone, thankful

for the compelling love of God that was demonstrated through

Christ on the cross. It is that love that compels us

to believe when we hear that God so loved us that He did the

unthinkable. How many of you in this room

right now have a son? You raise your hand, raise it,

raise it high, give your son up for a worthless group of people

who hate you and hate everything that you stand for.

Oh no, it becomes real then, doesn't it?

We began to see just what happened at the cross.

God and His compelling love loved you with an unthinkable

love. If that doesn't draw you to the

feet of Jesus Christ and faith and repentance, nothing you, you

are a hopeless case. Oh, but my prayers this that

today God would compel you by that love that He would make

known to you today. Love, the love of God in Christ.

It came to this earth, it died on a cross, it was brutally

tortured, then rose again on the third day.

Promising you life, promising you life eternal.

How could you run from that? How could you run from that?

No, that's the kind of love that we run too.

No one comes to him unless the Father who sent him.

How does he draw you? He tells you the truth.

God so loved you that He sent his only Son to this earth to

die in your place if you will. Just believe.

Believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

Trust in the Capelli God has for His people.

Also, we've taken the time to look at the jealousy of God for

reason why? Because there's great proof in

God's jealousy of God's love. God's jealousy proves His

covenant of love, His uncompromising love, His

committed, and His compelling love.

May we be compelled by that love today, Christian.

May you be compelled for maybe the first time in a long time,

to humble yourself and get on your face.

Thank God for his love like you haven't in a while, or maybe

never, to thank him that he is a jealous God, Not to be afraid of

that jealousy, but to be thankful for it.

Thank you that you are a jealous God who has pursued me by your

love even before my life began. And thank you that that love

will continue to pursue me and I will enjoy that presence for all

eternity because I one day will dwell with you and you with me.

Thank you, Lord, for your love, your covenant of love, your

uncompromising love, your committed love, and your

compelling love. Because without that I would be

lost. And were God not jealous, I

wouldn't be loved. I'm thankful for that today.

To the unbeliever here today, I pray for you this morning that

you would be compelled, that you would be compelled not by the

words of the, but that you would be compelled by the Word of God,

Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that has been shown to you today

and has been revealed to you today, that you would see your

need for His love. You would see your need for His

and His mercy, and you would see His willingness to give it to

all who will repent and trust in Him.

I pray today that you would do just that, that you would repent

of your sin, that you would trust in Jesus Christ by faith

as your Lord and Savior, knowing full well that His love upon

you. As John said, what manner of

love is this? What manner of love is this and

we should be called the children of God.

He was overwhelmed by it. I pray that you're overwhelmed

by his love Today, the faith in Jesus Christ and repentance of

your sin. Let's pray together.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you, thanking you for

your word. Lord, I am thankful that in all

my insufficiencies and my inabilities, word is sufficient

and able. Lord, as your word is gone forth

today, I pray that your will be accomplished.

And if it be your will today to rescue those who are lost in our

midst, Lord, I pray that Your mercy would fall upon them.

Lord I. Pray that your.

Saints, your is even convicted today in their lives because of

this word. I pray that we would rejoice

that we do have a jealous God and that His jealousy simply

proves just how much He loves us.

Rest in that love. I would be thankful for that

love that we tell of that love to others.

We pray and we ask things in Christ's name.

Amen. You've been listening to Key

Life Fellowship's Pulpit Ministry podcast for more

teaching from God's Word.