How can we know God better?

We are in the journey of Knowing God as much as we ought to so that we may worship Him, praise Him, exalt Him, adore Him, revere Him, love Him, depend upon Him, serve Him, proclaim Him much more that what we have been doing!

We have been learning about several aspects on the study of Knowing God. We briefly learned about God, His character, attributes, and His decrees (or ACTS of God).

Today, we will learn about the love of God that He has for us.

Questions: Why should God love us? What is the need that He should pour His heart for us? What is the need that He should run after us to bring us back into His fellowship? Why should he, as a parent long to be with us?

When we studied about the ACTs of God, we learned that God is Supreme Being, God is Sovereign, and that there is none that could stop Him from doing what He desires to do.

Look at Daniel 4:35

All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (CSB)

Psalm 115:3 declares that God would do whatever pleaseth Him.

Psalm 115:3 KJV 1900

But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Isaiah 55:11 says that His Word would accomplish that which pleases Him!

Isaiah 55:11 KJV 1900

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: It shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Jeremiah 32:17 say that nothing is too hard for God to do!

Jeremiah 32:17 KJV 1900

Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

This God that we love, serve and exalt is so very powerful than what we can imagine.

One of the attributes that we may learn later on is the Omnipotence of God. This declares that God is VERY powerful!

The Omnipotence of God is his “unconditional” power to whatever He wills to do!

Look at Mark 10:27

Mark 10:27 KJV 1900

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

Genesis 18:14 KJV 1900

Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

God’s Acts (or decrees) are not only powerful, but there is power in HIS Name.

Look at Jeremiah 10:6

Jeremiah 10:6 KJV 1900

Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

He is the Mighty One; He is the Almighty. He is God who speaks things into existence; He is God who destroys things at His will and command.

This powerful God not only proved that He is powerful over and over again throughout the Scripture, but that He is also full of love; He is the embodiment of love.

So, we come to today’s topic: Knowing God by knowing His love for us.

Proposition: God wants us to know Him by knowing His love for us.

We learn about the love of God through the Holy Scripture. The Scripture says twice that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, and 16).

1 John 4:8 KJV 1900

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:16 KJV 1900

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

This is the character of God; this is the being of God; this is the attribute of God. From this love flows God’s grace, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, and goodness. God is all these and much more – in the sense, everything that is good.

How can we know God better?

By knowing His love for us!

What is God’s Love?

“McClain defines love as ‘that in God which moves Him to give Himself and His gifts spontaneously, voluntarily, righteously, and eternally, for the good of personal beings, regardless of their merit or response.’”

Another says, by name “Gordon Lewis suggests correctly that ‘love is a settled purpose of the will involving the whole person in seeking the well-being of others.’”

Lewis and Demarest rightly note that love is not to be classed as an emotional characteristic because ‘it involves commitment of the whole person, initiated in the will. Love is the settled purpose of will involving the whole person in seeking the well-being of others’”

God’s Love is Based on His Character

1 John 4:8 – God Himself is love; His nature is love.

1 John 4:8 KJV 1900

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Jeremiah 31:3 – God’s love is eternal.

Jeremiah 31:3 KJV 1900

The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Exodus 34:6-7 – God’s love is lavish (no reservations for those who He love)

Exodus 34:6–7 KJV 1900

And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

God’s love is based on His commitment.

Genesis 12:1–3 KJV 1900

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 KJV 1900

The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

We should note that God not only loves, but also hates the wicked.

Leviticus 20:23 KJV 1900

And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Deuteronomy 25:16 KJV 1900

For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

This tells us that God is committed either to love those who belongs to him and to punish those who do not belong to him.

We must keep in mind that we too were once hated by God; we caused heartache to God; we destroyed that “image” of God in which we were created.

Do we deserve anything? No. However, God made that commitment; He made that choice; He remained faithful.

God’s love is based on His choice.

God shows his love to all creatures, even unto his enemies.

Matthew 5:45 KJV 1900

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

God shows His love to those who are called unto salvation before the foundations were laid.

How did he show that love to us? By sending His only begotten Son!

John 3:16–17 KJV 1900

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

1 John 4:10 KJV 1900

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Even though we do not deserve anything good from the Lord, but wrath. God poured that wrath upon His Son so that His death, burial and resurrection would bring us eternal life.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!

Romans 5:8 KJV 1900

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:35–39 KJV 1900

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s love is so amazing that though we deserve death and eternal punishment, He sent His only begotten Son for our sake, He gave Himself so that we may be happy in eternity.

Isaiah 62:5 KJV 1900

For as a young man marrieth a virgin, So shall thy sons marry thee: And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, So shall thy God rejoice over thee.

Zephaniah 3:17 KJV 1900

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

The Lord delights in our dedication for Him.

What should we do?

Know Christ’s love and know God. Through the sacrificial death of Christ, God made known to us how much He loves us.

Know that God is not obligated to love us; he chose to love us.

God did not love us because of our race, culture, nor traditions. But because of His Son.

God did not love us because of our works or kindness to others, but because of His nature.

Related Media

Related Sermons