Welcome to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Donaldson, Arkansas. This is Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching in our regular Sunday morning service. If you have your Bibles, I'm going to go to the Gospel of John. I want one verse from the Gospel of John. Lord bless us to fully explore John 15, 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This morning I want to talk to you about the greatest love, the greatest love. John wrote more about love than any other of the inspired writers of the Bible. He referred to himself in many of his epistles, if you'll notice, as the apostle that Jesus loved. I like that. He never said the disciple that had the most money, or the disciple that had the biggest house, or the disciple that did the most things for Jesus. The thing that was most important to him was that he was a person that Jesus loved. And my friends, this morning, I think that should be the most important thing to all of us, to know that Jesus Christ loves us. That should be the most important thing. If we had nothing else, If we didn't have a house or a car, if we lived in the worst country in the world, if we were sick and unable to even make it to church, if we just knew that Jesus Christ loved us, that would be the best thought that any of us could have all of our lives. When Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he talked about God's love. And his prayer was this for the Ephesian church, and it's my prayer for you this morning in Ephesians 3.14, he said, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints What is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height? And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's a great statement about God's love. How much God loves his people. to know, to feel it, to experience it, to rejoice in it, to be thankful, and just to meditate upon this great love that God has for us. That's something that we should do, my friends, as God's people. We should thank God, the fact that He loves us, and meditate upon it. Think about the fact that the God of heaven loves us. You know, it's a great thing when you recognize that person loves you, that you love more than anybody else, and you want to marry that person. That's a great thing to think about. We meditate upon that before we get married, but I can tell you it's good for us as God's people to meditate upon the love that God has for us. Now, Paul says in this passage that This love passes knowledge. That means that we cannot fully wrap our minds around this love that God has for us. If you think you know everything about God's love, let me tell you something, it passes your knowledge. If you think you've experienced everything there is to know about God's love, let me tell you, you have not experienced everything there is to know about God's love. There's yet more for us to experience about this great love that God has for us. It passes our knowledge. Now, we can comprehend it. Paul says, I want you to comprehend this love, but he says it passes knowledge. So I can comprehend some things that passes my knowledge. I comprehend that there is gravity. You know, it's holding us down. I feel it pressing me towards the earth. I comprehend it, but I cannot fully understand what gravity is, and that's just something natural. But this great love that God has is something that we cannot fully understand. Now, if I can comprehend God's love, then there are ways that I can comprehend God's love. There's ways that you can comprehend the love of God. And I started thinking about the ways that we, as God's people, can comprehend the love of God. You know, I love the Lord and I can feel Him in my heart. I think that's something that enables us to comprehend God's love for us. You know, we love Him because He first loved us, right? So the fact that I love God is a comprehension of God's love for me. Now, I'm kind of like Virgil Lowrance when he used to preach. He'd say, you know, I can't go back in time to where I can remember when I first began to love God. Can you go back to that moment in your experience and you can say, this is the very moment that I started loving God? Well, I can't go back that far. to remember when I started loving God. But, you know, I know that I do. We sing that song, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds. When you hear the name of Jesus, doesn't it do something for you? That's because He dwells in your heart, and when you hear His name, you love Him, and it does something for us. But I can't go back to a time that I can remember that I first began to love God. You know, He's answered my prayers. That's one of the ways that we comprehend God's love. I don't know about you, but I know about a lot of prayers that God has answered for me. Now, when you're young, you sometimes don't think about a lot of your prayers that's been answered. But the older you get, you look back in your life and you can say, I know the reason I got to this place where I am right now is the fact that God has answered some of my prayers. I know that when we're at a business or we're trying to raise a family and you're trying to get along in life when you're first starting out in your marriage, you're doing a lot of praying. You're really begging the Lord to help you along, help you make the right decisions. But when you look back, you don't really realize sometimes that He's answering your prayers. But the further along you get, you look back and you remember some of those very prayers that God answered for you. I remember reading this book about a man that lived in England. Marilyn and I remind each other of this all the time when God answers a prayer. We always say, when God answers a prayer, Remember it because a lot of times God answers our prayers and we forget to thank him for him We just go right on along and this thing has happened. We quit worrying about it We forget to thank him for it But this man said that he was going to this place for an interview and he needed this job desperately His family was starving back in that day And he said, you know what? I'm gonna do I'm gonna pick up this stick and I'm gonna put it in this bush and on the way back home If God answers my prayer and I get this job, I'm gonna see that stick and it's gonna remind me to thank Him. And he went and he got the job, he's coming home, he totally forgot about the Lord had even answered his prayer and he sees that stick. He says, Lord, I need to thank You for that prayer. But you know, that's one of the ways that we comprehend God is we recognize that He has answered our prayer. That makes Him real, doesn't it? Some people say that I don't believe in God. He's really not real. I know He's real because You know, it wasn't a magician out there answering my prayers. It was a real God that heard a real prayer from a real sinner, and He answered it in a real way. There's no way that could have happened if there was not a God in heaven. Well, He walks with us through many trials and storms, doesn't He? That's the way we comprehend God. I know some of you here have gone through some real trials in your life, but I know this morning you can say, I have comprehended God. because He got me through that trial, and He blessed me to get to this place when I thought that the ship was going to sink. He's like the disciples in the sea. I thought the ship was going to sink, but Jesus Christ was on board, and He got me through the trial. You know, another way that I comprehend God is when I read the Bible. Have you ever been reading your Bible, and it just suddenly just came up, something off the page, and it just like, it just hits you. I remember when I first read my Bible, and I was reading it, it just, something just came off the page, and I thought, Lord, you must have written that thousands of years ago just for me to understand it today. You know, that's the way it is when you read the Bible sometimes. You think, God has saved all this just for me. But you know, that's how we comprehend God is when we read the Scriptures and we feel His presence. The Holy Spirit is there. It connects us with the Word of God and what's written on our heart already, and we comprehend that there is a God. Paul said you can comprehend God. You can't fully understand His love, but you can comprehend. You can comprehend He's there. You know, He's made a lot of promises to us that we read in the Bible too. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to being with the Lord one day. We were talking this morning about Sister Henrietta's sister that is now with the Lord in glory. And they were talking about that she is now with more of her family up there, and Sister Norfay, than down here. And you know, the older we get, the more of our family's up there. And we comprehend that God has a home for us, and that's where our brothers and sisters are, and that's where much of our family is, and we're looking forward to be with them one day. So He's made us a lot of promises. You know, another way that we comprehend God is by His great love for us is that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us. Isn't that a great way to comprehend God? To kind of just get a little touch of the love that God has for us is to kind of comprehend it by the love of Jesus Christ that died for us. Now, we can comprehend it, my friends, but don't think this morning that you can fully understand that love. I've wanted to fully understand that Christ died for me and everything, how He loved me, how the Father loved me. We read how that He gave His only begotten Son for us and that we want to comprehend that. But I don't think there's any way that we can fathom the depths of that great love that God has for us, sending His Son to die for us. So these are some of the ways that we can comprehend God's love. It passes our knowledge. I can know some of it, but I can't understand it all. Now according to Ephesians 1, or the Ephesians that I just read for you, this love that Paul just wrote about, it has four dimensions, doesn't it? We hear about three dimensions all the time, the third dimension and everything. Well, God's love has four dimensions. God's love has a height, a depth, a breadth, a length. That's a great way to think about God's love, and we can begin to explore the great love that God has for us by just looking at these terms that the apostle Paul gave us. The breadth of his love, Paul says, now this love of God is very wide. It's like a door. If you can think about a really wide door, or something that's wide enough that can squeeze the largest sinner in, if he can get me in this door, it's a pretty big door, I'm gonna tell you. But that's how wide God's door is, you know. The apostle Paul was a big sinner. He put Christians to death, didn't he? We would wonder how that God would allow this man to enter the pearly gates, but you know, this door is wide. It is a great wide door. Jesus said, I am the door of the sheep. So if he's the door of the sheep, I can promise you the whole family's gonna get in. Ain't nobody gonna be left behind like we hear in some of the movies today. Nobody's gonna be left out. Somebody's not gonna be trying to get to heaven and never make it. If you love the Lord this morning, I can promise you that door's wide enough for you. That's one of the evidences of your spiritual life over the new birth. We love him because he first loved us, but the Apostle John also wrote that loving God is an evidence of the new birth. So this door is a really, really wide door. It's as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand of the sea. That's pretty wide. And you know, somebody might say, well, preacher, you're talking about how wide this door is. You know, it just sounds like everybody's going to go through this door. Everybody's gonna go through the door. If it's that wide, well, you know, it's wide. But yet, it's wide enough for God's family, but that's as wide as it is. That's as wide as it needs to be. Those that the Lord loved before the foundation of the world, that's how wide this door is. And the depth of his love. You know, that means, this word depth, it means that it's unsearchable. It's kind of like the ocean itself. If you were to look into the ocean, you know, you can't get to the bottom of the ocean. There's a lot of things down there people don't even know about. It's unsearchable. How about if you go to the universe, and you get the biggest telescope there is, and you try to look as far into the universe as you can. Are you gonna search out the universe? They're still looking up there trying to find life on some other planet, which they're never gonna do. We read in Genesis 1 and 2, everything that God created. He didn't even create any space aliens, so I'm not expecting them to be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. But anyway, it's unsearchable if you look out through the universe. Romans 11.33, Paul said, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. God's love is that way. It's past finding out. It is mysterious and it's deep. And it's something that is, we cannot fully fathom the love of God. the love of God, and that He would love us. If the text says that there is no greater love than this, if there is no greater love than this, wouldn't that demand that there's a lesser love? Yes. You know, you love people greater than others, don't you? Do you love your wife better than you do all the other women in the world? You should. Do you love your child more than anybody else's child? Of course you do. So if there is a greater love, and you know I'm talking right now about this great depth, this thing that we cannot find out. And this is some of the things that people have a problem with God's love. When you begin to search it out and you begin to really look at God's love and how distinguishing that it is, we're gonna really appreciate the fact that God loves us. because there's a greatness and there is a lesserness, if you wanna say. You know, we go to Romans 9.13, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Would you say that one of those was greater than the other? Yeah, that's true. Greater love is no man than this. God loved Jacob, but it says he hated Esau. Now why is that? I don't know, I can't explain that to you. Isn't it a remarkable thing when we begin to explore God's love? Why would he love me anyway? You look at the thieves on the cross. To one of the thieves, Jesus said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. But you know, he didn't say that to the other thief, did he? You know why? Because he wasn't gonna be with the Lord in paradise. That's not hard to figure out if you really think about it. You see, the only way that you and I can really appreciate this love that God has for us is to recognize he didn't have to have it. He doesn't have to love anybody. Certainly we haven't done anything to commend this love for us. You see, when we begin to explore this love and how great that it is, we see it's really a special thing that God loves us, that God would love us. You know, you can think about the many scriptures that talk about the wicked. You know, they don't fear God. In John 5, 42, Jesus looked at some people and said, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. You know, God makes a difference. And he sees the difference. You know, sometimes I like to go down Wicked Avenue in the Bible. Have you ever gone down Wicked Avenue in the Bible? Well, it's not fun. But you know, if you're a child of God, you should go down Wicked Avenue. You need to understand that this love of God that he has for his people is a very special thing. Very, very special. It's a great love. We can never fully appreciate his greatness until we really go down Wicked Avenue and realize there are some wicked people. And there are some people that God does not love. And I know that sounds as a shock to some people in Christianity. They think God's just gotta love everybody. Well, do you love everybody? I'm gonna call upon God to do something that I don't do myself. God does not love everybody, my friends. I just read you, Jacob, have I loved, and Esau, have I hated. Now, we're talking about the great love of God this morning. Don't forget my text, okay? We're talking about a great love that God has for his people. And for us to appreciate it, we need to understand that if God loves you, it's a very special thing. but there are some wicked people in the world, and the Bible is very plain about it. Some people pass over all the wickedness in the Bible, and that's a good thing for God's people, because he said, we got the love of God in our hearts, and we really don't wanna think about the wicked people in the world, but there are wicked people in the Bible. You go to 2 Peter 2. If you wanna go down Wicked Avenue, God is very plain. And Peter has made it very plain. He wants you as God's people to know that there's wicked people in the world. And the reason he wants you to know is he doesn't want you to be duped by them, okay? He wants you to understand that there are some people in this world that do not love God, and they do not love you, and they do not love the Bible, they do not love the church, and they never will. And you can read the Bible to them all day long, and they will not receive it. And because that's what the Bible says, for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. Until a man is born again by the sovereign work of God and Christ dwells in his heart, he will reject the gospel every time. The fact that you love God this morning is because God has changed you. He's taken a bankrupt guilty sinner worth nothing. He's taken a chunk of clay out here, a rock, and He's changed you. And He's given you a spiritual heart. He's given you a love for God. And that didn't come from your own works or your own choice. It's because God sovereignly changed you. That's the difference between God's people and the wicked. If it weren't for God working in my heart, I'd probably be one of the wickedest people in the world today. But God changed the bankrupt, guilty sinner against my own will, and he made me one of his children because of his great love that he had for me. The greatest love, the greatest love. Greater love is no man than this. And that's the love that God has for his people. And second, Peter. Peter writes, but these as natural brute beast, made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. Does that sound like a child of God? That's not a child of God, my friends, and he's not saying you need to go over and change him. You can't change him. They shall perish in their own corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure. To riot in the daytime, spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, a heart they have exercised with covetous practices. Cursed children. Not children of God, my friends. These are the children of the devil. You know, for us to really appreciate the love of God, we've got to see this wickedness. That's why I'm bringing it up this morning. You know, we're not preaching hellfire and brimstone this morning if you love the Lord, you know. You're one of His children. But I'm telling you about some people that don't. Jude wrote about them. These are spots in your feast of charity. They feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose whose without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the midst of darkness forever. Now that is a testimony of God to some people, my friends. Those are some of the wicked. David said in the Psalms, salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not thy statutes. And David said in the 139th Psalm, do not I hate them? That hathe thee, O God, I hate them with a perfect hatred. Now that's the psalmist. My friends, it's nothing wrong for you to hate wickedness, okay? To see the wicked things that go on in this world today, you should hate it. You should be paying attention to the wicked things that are going on in the world today so that you're not changing. You say, well, this is just a part of our culture. This is just something that goes on. We are supposed to hate the wicked. I must believe, my friends this morning, I must believe that those who murder babies in the womb, those who do these sex changes to children, those who promote homosexuality, those who are promoting all the ungodliness on television who traffic women and children, my friends, I must believe that those are not the children of God. Those are wicked, wicked people in this world in which we live today. And for us to fully appreciate the love of God, we need to understand that God does make a difference. God makes a difference. His love is very wide, it's very deep. You know, I was preaching in the Philippines a few years ago, and when I was over there, there were a lot of young children that died, babies. I was reading about this terrible virus that, you know, it's over here too, by the way, it's called rotavirus. I don't know how much you know about rotavirus. Rotavirus is kind of like a stomach virus, but it comes from bad water. A lot of people in the Philippines don't have good water. We were driving down the road and there were children out there playing in the water that had rained. And that water gets over into their wells and everywhere else and all the bad water they drink. And they start having diarrhea and vomiting and they just basically dry up. They just dry up and die as children. I got to reading about it. 20 to 60 children every year die in the United States of that, because we've got medication. Do you know how many children die in the Philippines from that? And other countries? 450,000 children a year. 450,000. Now I'm gonna talk to you about the width of God's love. You think all those children are going to hell because there's little babies, because they didn't get to church? Because they didn't get to hear a preacher? Have a Bible? No. That's how wide God's love is. If Christ died for them, if they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, I can promise you they're going to see God in glory one day. That's how wide God's love is. Now, there are some strict Calvinists that would say, well, those people aren't going to heaven, those children, because the preacher didn't get to them in time. We don't believe that. We believe in election. We don't believe that part of election. There's an election in the Bible, and then there's a Calvinistic election. Well, there's other people, and they say, well, we believe they're all gonna get there by God's grace. Well, that is true. We're all gonna get there by God's grace, but that's the way we're all gonna get there. You know, they have us, we need to do something to get there, but they got the babies dying, they're getting there by grace. Let me tell you, my friends, if any sinner ever makes it to heaven, they're gonna get there by grace, just like the baby that died. If that proposition is true, it'd be better not to even preach the Bible or go to church. We'll just all get there by grace, right? Yeah. But you see, that's how wide God's love is. And the length of God's love, it'll be forever. You know, some people believe that God will love you today, and if you mess up, he's not gonna love you anymore, and you're going to hell. Is that true? No, if God ever loved you, he'll always love you. We may mess up as his kids sometimes, but that's how long God's love is. In Jeremiah 31 and three, he says, the Lord hath appeared unto me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. God's love is everlasting. It's like a mother's love for her child. That child may mess up, But that mother's gonna love that child no matter what that child, because it's always her child, and we're always God's child. We belong to Him. And the height of God's love, you know, it's insurmountable, it's lofty. It's as high as the heavens. There's nothing higher than the love of God. You see the four dimensions of God's love, just meditate upon that from time to time, and just think about God's love. Love is a wonderful thing to experience in our lives. And every love, all love, emanates from the God of love. God is the creator of love. And until we are born of His Spirit and He changes us, we cannot experience love. Love for our people, love for our husbands and wives, nor even love for God. Nor even love for God. You know, I believe that love gives children, even adults, a sense of security. It makes us secure to know that we're loved as children and that God loves us. And there's all kinds of loves. People love this and love that. There's a height and depth of love. If there is a greater love, there's a lesser love, but there's other things that we do love. Some people love guns and some people love purses and some people love this, that, and the other. But that's not the greatest love, is it? We love our country. I love the country I live in. I remember one person, I think his name was Nathan Hale. He said, I regret that I only have one life to live for my country. He loved the country. My dad loved the country. My dad and others, they gave their lives for this country. My dad was in the Air Force, but there's a lot of people that's fought in the Army. They fought in the Air Force, all the armed services. They've given their love for this country because they love this country. But there is a greater love than that, isn't there? I know my grandparents loved me. They'd come to this church. I remember my Mimi, my grandmother would kiss me and slobber all over me. My grandma, I would dread her kiss. It'd take me a week to wipe all that spit off. You know, my grandpa, he loved me. I knew my grandpa loved me. He'd take me hunting. I remember the first hunting trip I went on with him, I had my cap gun. And so I was sitting there with my cap gun. All of a sudden, his shotgun went off, about fell off the log, and this squirrel fell out of this tree. I'll never forget the first, I've still got a picture in my study of me and my grandpa standing there with the squirrel. They loved me as grandparents, but there's a greater love than this, greater love than that of grandparent. You know, I love my children very, very much, and I know my parents loved me. My dad loved me, I knew my dad loved me. I'd get up in the middle of the night. I had growing pains and my knee would be hurting in the middle of the night and he'd get in. I knew he had to go to work the next day. He'd take me in by the fireside and he'd give me an aspirin. He'd rub my leg and put some something on it to make it feel better. I felt the love that my dad had for me. I still think about that love. It was great. But there's a greater love than this. What about the love a mother has for her child? I know fathers love their children, but you know, I think mothers love them more. Sometimes we're kind of ready to let them get them out of here, you know. But Marilyn, I remember I told this story before when Brian was a little boy. He'd throw up every night. He had something wrong with his stomach. And Marilyn would be rocking him and he'd throw up and all that vomit in her hair, her beautiful hair and on her clothes. And she'd get a towel and just wipe that off and throw it down and stick that bottle right back in his mouth. I said, I'm going to bed, sweetheart. This love that mothers have that can do things for kids that dads will never do. They say a mother's love is the greatest love. But there's a greater love than this, my friends. There is a greater love than what a mother has. The great love that we have when we fall in love and we get married. That's a great love. But there's a greater love. We love the church too, don't we? That's a great love. I remember people who love this church. Arnold Sanders loved this church. Brother Charles loved this church. My mother loved this church. My grandmother loved this church. Now, I know the church is not the church's people. You don't have to tell me later on, well, the church is the people. I know that. But there's something about a church. You go there, you feel the presence of God. That's more than just the people. You know, when we're in church, if the Lord is with us, We can feel his presence. And we feel his presence when the word of God is read and when we talk about the Bible. We feel God's, we connect with God here. It's like we're lifted up above this place. And we are now in a place high above this earth and we're tabernacling with God when we're in church. I love the church. But there's a greater love than that, my friends. As much as we may love the church, there is a greater love than that. Greater love has no man than this. than a man would lay down his life for his friends. You know, love is expressed in many ways. You can give a ring, a present, a box of candy. But the greatest love that you'll ever see, the greatest picture of love that you'll ever see, is Christ upon the cross. If you look at Him there and you see yourself, you're starting to see a little bit about this love. Now if you just say He's up there and He died for everybody, you're not going to really experience it the way you can. But if you look at that cross and you see yourself, that Christ knew you, that you were a part of His elect, that you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his own will. Friends, that's God's will, that's not your will. You're not gonna be saved by your own will, my friends, but you'll be saved by God's will, by God's personal will. He laid down his life for his friends. Are you God's friend today? If he laid down his life for you, you are. You know what the best definition of a friend is? It's the person that walks in when everybody else is walking out. That's the best definition of a friend. You know, there was a time that everybody else was walking out on us. There was a time in our experience when we were sinners in Adam, weren't we? As Paul said, we were without hope in this world. without hope. That's sad when you don't have any hope. Having no hope and without God in the world, Paul says, we are found guilty in the courtroom of God's divine justice. Here we are, and you know, we're worthy of nothing but hell. And here comes our friend. He loves us and He's willing to die for us. That's a great love. Ezekiel 16, here's a kind of a picture of us before Christ. None I pitied thee. You didn't have any friends that could help you. Do you think any of your friends could have redeemed you? You think they could have paid enough money to pay for your sins? No, none of them could. None I pitied them to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast out in the open field. to the loving of thy person in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. You see, that's a picture of us, polluted in the sin of Adam. We're cast out from the womb. Now, I don't know how much strength a baby cast out and their own blood in a field, what hope do they have of living, my friends? That's the hope that you had without Christ. I can tell you that the evangelist and the preacher cannot help you. Your own choices cannot help you. Your own good works cannot help you. You are friendless. You have no hope. But there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Who is that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's making his way to the cross for you. Somebody says, well, you know, that person really doesn't deserve it. That person, you think about it. You think about our sins. Our own thoughts condemn us, don't they? You go back and think about your own thoughts, some of the thoughts that you've had in your own mind. I'm gonna tell you something, you don't deserve the Lord or for him to die for you. But yet he's a friend. He's a friend. Greater love has no man than this. He's gonna go and die for his friends. And you know he planned to do that before the world was ever spoken into existence and the covenant of grace and he agreed. If you're here this morning, you love the Lord. I can promise you he's your friend. He died for you up on the cross. And we should live our lives to honor him. I appreciate your attention this morning. I like that distinction between the idea that we can have some conception of God's love, and the Bible teaches us about God's love, but we can never really fathom the depths of God's love. We can know something of it. The Bible refers to us as children, and Jesus referred to God, his Father, and he's God's Son, and even within the construct of the Trinity itself, you see this sort of family construct there, within the Godhead itself. And I think that God has been gracious to us in our own families and in our lives that we see some of the relationships we have. with our own children or maybe with our own parents. Now, I know that everyone doesn't have a brilliant relationship with their children or parent. We live in a sin-curse world and that doesn't always work out well, but I think, generally speaking, you find that mothers and fathers have a tremendous love for their children, and their children tend to love their parents as well, and we see a little image of that. When you have children, you start thinking, I wouldn't let anything harm these children. I mean, you would just, if you'd never had that thought before, you're like, I would step in front of a bullet for one of my children. I would do anything to keep harm from coming to them if I could. And you get a little glimpse there, you start to understand something about the love that you have for your own children, but that's not the greatest love. That's one of those lesser loves, and yet we see it and we say, I can't think of anything stronger than that. My love for my own children, it's a very powerful lesson. So consider this, what do you love the most? What's the thing that you love that if something were to harm that person, it would just crush you? It would feel it in your heart. It would be a terrible distress to you. But we don't have the power to prevent all bad things from happening and to provide salvation, as it were, to our children in every possible circumstance. There's all sorts of things that can come about. But I wonder if we had that power, would we utilize it? And we need to keep in mind that there is a greater love. And I have to say that if God is all-powerful, which we believe he is, and he does have this greater love, then that love has to be undefeatable. If God is all-powerful and he has this never-ending love for his people, it has to be an undefeatable love. In Matthew chapter 2 we see this terrible circumstance coming to pass, verse 16, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceedingly wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, and from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Ramah there was a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they are not." Mothers who had their children slaughtered by a hostile government. Totally wicked situation. Those mothers would have done anything to prevent that, and they were powerless to do so. They could not save their children from that circumstance, right? Though their love was so great for those children, they didn't have the power to actually prevent that thing from coming to pass. But that thing was done in fulfillment of a prophecy from Jeremiah, and Jeremiah said this, thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again. from the land of the enemy, and there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Now that's a prophecy of God in the Bible. It is spoken to mothers in this prophetic word. You go ahead to the book of Matthew and you see women who have had their children slaughtered by a hostile government. And this is spoken to them as comfort. It says, there's hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Those children were God's children. They never had the benefit of some sort of gospel ministry. They didn't get to hear the Lord Jesus Christ preach. They were killed when they were less than two years old. And there's a prophecy here that says, that comforts the mothers. Now think about this. Your children have been murdered and someone comes to you with a prophecy of God and tells you this. Could it possibly be your children are in hell? Would any mother find any comfort in that? Yes, I know your child has been murdered, but take comfort, they're in hell now. That doesn't make any sense. You see, there's a promise of God here that while these were little infants and they were killed by a hostile government and they didn't get to grow up and make some decision for Christ or come to know things or become a disciple or any of those things, as God's children, They're the beneficiaries of that greater love, and it is a perfect love, and it is an undefeatable love. And so these mothers could be comforted with the notion that, yes, this terrible thing happened. We as men could not prevent it from happening in this world, and it did come to pass. But you're a beneficiary of that greater love, and you'll be reunited with your children someday. That's the greater love we're talking about. It's the covenantal love of God that delivers all of His sheep. He gives unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Irrespective of their circumstances, whether or not they joined the right church or had the right things taught to them, did they receive all the proper things. Look, the truth be told if all of us were going to get into heaven based on some theology test we'd probably be in a bad way. But God's love is not dependent on your knowledge of how He gets the job done. But you can take hope in the fact that He does get the job done. Thank you for listening to SuccessfulSavior.org, the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. Come and join us as we worship God in the simplicity of Christ every Sunday morning at 416 North Hall Street in Donaldson, Arkansas. At Harmony, we don't have many things that are so common in the religion of our day, but we do have a successful Savior. We invite you to come and see.