But it is very short is very profound in what it is saying.

So there's not a man in this room who first love God,

and God then loved you back in response. No, it doesn't work that way. We love

God because God first loved us. Now I want to flush this out just a little bit and that this initiating love

for God has taken place I want to say in three stages or in three steps and I just want to

drill down for a moment here. Number one, God loved us at the cross. He loved us by sending his son from heaven on a rescue

mission to deliver us from the wages of our sin which is death. There is no

greater demonstration of the love of God for us than that he commissioned his son to

come into this world and get into our skin and live under the law and go to the cross and bear our sins.

And if you'll look just above in verse 10, 1st John 4 verse 10.

And this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be

the propitiation for our sins and that this is really what John 316 says,

for God so love the world, that he gave his only begotten son,

that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have

everlasting life. And Romans 5 verse 8 God demonstrated his love toward us and

that while we were sinners Christ died for us. So God took the initiative at

the cross. God took the initiative by sending his son into this world to love us when we were

rebels, when we were hostile towards God, when we were enemies of God.

God took the initiative and sent his son to die for us.

So that's number one.

Number two is the new birth because God also sent the

Holy Spirit into this world to birth us into the kingdom.

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