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“The Manifold Wisdom of God”

God’s Wise Provisions of Love

1 John 4:16-19 and Song of Solomon 1:2-4

Our great God, our heavenly Father, has wisely and graciously provided for the satisfaction of our souls in the love of Christ.

· When you love someone you desire to see the one you love. God has met that need, for we shall see Christ (1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2).

· If you love someone you want to talk with the one you love. God has met that need, for we are allowed to talk to God in Christ heart to heart.

· You want to live with the one you love. God has met that need, too. We dwell in Christ. Christ dwells in us. And we shall be with him forever.

· Love wants to share things. Christ has given me all that he is; and I am trying to give Christ all that I am.

· Love desires the nearest possible relationship with its object; and God has made us to be one with Christ: one body with Christ (Ephesians 5:30) and one spirit with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17).

· Love inclines to conformity. If a woman loves a man, she seeks to conform to his personality, his tastes, his ways, and his desires; and the believer’s love for Christ makes him seek conformity to Christ: to his will and to his nature (Philippians 3:10). And we shall have our desire (Romans 8:29)!

· And it is the natural desire of love to do something for the one beloved, purely for the pleasure and honor of the one we love. God has even provided for this. We have been made instruments by which God is glorified. We glorify Christ by faith in him. We glorify Christ by worshipping him, serving him, and serving his people. And we shall glorify Christ eternally.

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s