It is not that there are any passions in the divine nature, but that God's wisdom and will is pleased to act with that stateliness and sobriety which is becoming to his exalted majesty.

In support of our definition above, let us point out that it was to this excellency in the divine character that Moses appealed when Israel sinned so grievously at Kadesh. Barnea, and there provoked Jehovah so sorely, unto his servant the Lord said, I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them. Then it was that the Mediator Moses, as a type of the Christ to come, pleaded, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, Numbers 14, 17.

Thus, His long-suffering is His power of self-restraint. Again in Romans 9.22 we read, What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, Endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Were God to immediately break these reprobate vessels into pieces, His power of self-control would not so eminently appear. By bearing with their wickedness and forbearing punishment so long, the power of His patience is gloriously demonstrated.

True, the wicked interpret his long-suffering quite differently, because a sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil, Ecclesiastes 8.11. But the anointed eye adores what they abuse.

The God of Patience, Romans 15, 5, is one of the divine titles. Deity is thus denominated, first because God is both the author and object of the grace of patience in the saint. Secondly, because this is what he is in himself. Patience is one of his perfections. Thirdly, as a pattern for us, put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, love-suffering, Colossians 3, 12, and again, Be therefore followers, emulators of God, as dear children. Ephesians 5, 1.

When tempted to be disgusted at the dullness of another, or to be revenged on one who has wronged you, call to remembrance God's infinite patience and longsuffering with yourself.

The patience of God is manifested in his dealings with sinners. How strikingly was it displayed toward the antediluvians when mankind was universally degenerate and all flesh had corrupted its way. God did not destroy them till he had forewarned them. He waited, 1 Peter 3.20, probably no less than 120 years, Genesis 6.3, during which time Noah was a preacher of righteousness, 2 Peter 2.5.

So, later, when the Gentiles not only worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, but also committed the vilest abominations contrary even to the dictates of nature, Romans 1, 19-26, and thereby filled up the measure of their iniquity. Yet instead of drawing his sword for the extermination of such rebels, God suffered all nations to walk in their own ways and gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons. Acts 14, 16 and 17.

Marvelously with God's patience exercised and manifested toward Israel, first he suffered their manners for 40 years in the wilderness. Acts 13, 18. Later, when they had entered Canaan, but followed the evil customs of the nations around them, and turned to idolatry, though God chastened them sorely, He did not utterly destroy them, but, in their distress, raised up deliverers for them. When their iniquity was raised to such a height that none but a God of infinite patience could have borne them, He spared them many years before He allowed them to be carried down into Babylon.

Finally, when their rebellion against Him reached its climax, By crucifying his son, he waited forty years ere he sent the Romans against them, and that only after they had judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life.

Acts 13, 46. How wondrous is God's patience with the world today. On every side people are sinning with a high hand. The divine law is trampled underfoot and God himself openly despised. It is truly amazing that he does not instantly strike dead those who so brazenly defy him. Why does he not suddenly cut off the haughty infidel and blatant blasphemer, as he did Ananias and Sapphira? Why does he not cause the earth to open its mouth and devour the persecutors of his people, so that, like Dathan and Abiram, they shall go down alive into the pit? And what of apostate Christendom, where every possible form of sin is now tolerated and practiced under cover of the holy name of Christ? Why does not the righteous wrath of heaven make an end of such abominations?

Only one answer is possible, because God bears with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.

And what of the writer and reader? Let us review our own lives. It is not long since we followed a multitude to do evil, had no concern for God's glory, and lived only to gratify self. How patiently he bore with our vile conduct! And now that grace has snatched us as brands from the burning, giving us a place in God's family, and has begotten us unto an eternal inheritance in glory, how miserably we requite Him, how shallow our gratitude, how tardy our obedience, how frequent our backslidings. One reason why God suffers the flesh to remain in the believer is that he may exhibit his long-suffering to usward 2 Peter 3.9. Since this divine attribute is manifested only in this world, God takes advantage to display it toward his own. May our meditation upon this divine excellency soften our hearts, make our consciences tender, and may we learn, in the school of holy experience, the patience of the saints, namely, submission to the divine will and continuance. In well-doing, let us earnestly seek grace to emulate this divine excellency.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5, 48. In the immediate context of this verse, Christ exhorts us to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us. God bears wrong with the wicked, notwithstanding the multitude of their sins. And shall we desire to be revenged because of a single injury?

Chapter 13, The Grace of God

Grace is the perfection of the divine character which is exercised only toward the elect. Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New is the grace of God ever mentioned in connection with mankind generally, still less with the lower orders of his creatures. In this it is distinguished from mercy. for the mercy of God is over all his works, Psalm 145, 9. Grace is the sole source from which flows the goodwill, love, and salvation of God unto his chosen people.

This attribute of the divine character was defined by Abraham Booth in his helpful book, The Reign of Grace. Thus, It is the eternal and absolute free favor of God manifested in the safe meant of spiritual and eternal blessings to the guilty and the unworthy. Divine grace is the sovereign and saving favor of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them, and for which no compensation is demanded from them, nay, more. It is the favor of God shown to those who not only have no positive desserts of their own, but who are thoroughly ill-deserving and hell-deserving. It is completely unmerited and unsought, and is altogether unattracted by anything in or from or by the objects upon which it is bestowed.

Grace can neither be bought and nor won by the creature. If it could be, it would cease to be grace. When a thing is said to be of grace, we mean that the recipient has no claim upon it, that it was in no wise due him. It comes to him as pure charity, and at first unasked and undesired.

The fullest exposition of the amazing grace of God is to be found in the epistles of the Apostle Paul. In his writings, grace stands in direct opposition to works and worthiness, all works and worthiness of whatever kind or degree. This is abundantly clear from Romans 11, 6. And if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. Grace and works will no more unite than an acid and an alkali. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. The absolute favor of God can no more consist with human merit than oil and water will fuse into one. See also Romans 4, 4 and 5.

There are three principal characteristics of divine grace. First, it is eternal. Grace was planned before it was exercised, purposed before it was imparted, who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. 2 Timothy 1.9. Secondly, it is free, for none did ever purchase it, being justified freely by his grace. Romans 3.24. Thirdly, it is sovereign because God exercises it toward and bestows it upon whom He pleases. Even so might grace reign. Romans 5, 21. If grace reigns, then it is on the throne, and the occupant of the throne is sovereign. Hence, the throne of grace. Hebrews 4, 16. Just because grace is unmerited favor, it must be exercised in a sovereign manner. Therefore does the Lord declare, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Exodus 33 19 were God to show grace to all of Adam's descendants, man would at once conclude that he was righteously compelled to take them to heaven as a meat compensation for allowing the human race to fall into sin.

But the great God is under no obligation to any of his creatures, least of all to those who are rebels against him. Eternal life is a gift, therefore it can neither be earned by good works nor claimed as a right. Seeing that salvation is a gift, who has any right to tell God on whom he ought to bestow it? It is not that the giver ever refuses this gift to any who seek it wholeheartedly and according to the rules which he has prescribed. No, he refuses none who come to him empty-handed and in the way of his appointing. But if out of a world of impenitent and unbelieving rebels God is determined to exercise his sovereign right by choosing a limited number to be saved, who is wronged? Is God obliged to force his gift on those who value it not? Is God compelled to save those who are determined to go their own way?

But nothing more riles the natural man and brings to the surface his innate and inveterate enmity against God than to press upon him the eternality, the freeness, and the absolute sovereignty of divine grace. that God should have formed his purpose from everlasting without in any wise consulting the creature is too abasing for the unbroken heart that grace cannot be earned or won by any effort of man is too self-emptying for self-righteousness and that grace singles out whom it pleases to be its favored objects arouses hot protests from haughty revels, the clay rises up against the potter and asks, Why hast thou made me thus? A lawless insurrectionist dares to call into question the justice of divine sovereignty.

The distinguishing grace of God is seen in saving those people whom he has sovereignly singled out to be his high favorites. By distinguishing, we mean that grace discriminates, makes differences, chooses some and passes by others. It was distinguishing grace which selected Abraham from the midst of his idolatrous neighbors and made him the friend of God. It was distinguishing grace which saved publicans and sinners, but said of the religious Pharisees, let them alone. Matthew 15, 14.

Nowhere does the glory of God's free and sovereign grace shine more conspicuously than in the unworthiness and unlikeliness of its objects. Beautifully was this illustrated by James Hervey in 1751. where sin has abounded, says the proclamation from the court of heaven, grace doth much more abound.

Manasseh was a monster of barbarity, for he caused his own children to pass through the fire and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Manasseh was and adept in iniquity, for he not only multiplied, and to an extravagant degree, his own sacrilegious impieties, but he poisoned the principles and perverted the manners of his subjects, making them do worse than the most detestable of the heathen idolaters. See 2 Chronicles 33. Yet, through this abundant grace, he is humbled, he is reformed, and becomes a child of forgiving love and heir of immortal glory.

Behold that bitter and bloody persecutor Saul, when breathing out threatenings and bent upon slaughter, he worried the lands and put to death the disciples of Jesus. The havoc he had committed, the inoffensive families he had already ruined, were not sufficient to assuage his vengeful spirit. They were only a taste which, instead of grotting the bloodhound, made him more closely pursue the track and more eagerly pant for destruction. He is still a thirst for violence and murder, so eager and insatiable is his thirst that he even breathes out threatenings and slaughter. Acts 9.1. His words are spears and arrows, and his tongue a sharp sword. Tis as natural for him to menace the Christians as to breathe the air. Nay, they bled every hour in the purposes of his rancorous heart. It is only owing to want of power that every syllable he utters, every breath he draws, does not deal out deaths. and cause some of the innocent disciples to fall?

Who, upon the principles of human judgment, would not have pronounced him a vessel of wrath, destined to unavoidable damnation? Nay, who would not have been ready to conclude that, if there were heavier chains and a deeper dungeon in the world of woe, they must surely be reserved for such an implacable enemy of true godliness? yet, admire and adore the inexhaustible treasures of grace. This soul is admitted into the goodly fellowship of the prophets, is numbered with the noble army of martyrs, and makes a distinguished figure among the glorious company of the apostles. The Corinthians were flagitious, even to a proverb. Some of them wallowed in such abominable vices and habituated themselves to such outrageous acts of injustice as were a reproach to human nature. Yet even these sons of violence and slaves of sensuality were washed, sanctified, justified.

1 Corinthians 6, 9-11. in the precious blood of a dying Redeemer, sanctified by the powerful operations of the Blessed Spirit, justified through the infinitely tender mercy of a gracious God, those who were once the burden of the earth are now the joy of heaven, the delight of angels.

Now the grace of God is manifested in and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The law was given by Moses, but grace and a truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1, 17. This does not mean that God never exercised grace toward any before His Son became incarnate. Genesis 6, 8, Exodus 33, 19, etc. clearly show otherwise. but grace and truth were fully revealed and perfectly exemplified when the Redeemer came to this earth and died for His people upon the cross. It is through Christ the Mediator alone that the grace of God flows to His elect, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, Much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. So might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5, 15, 17, and 21.

The grace of God is proclaimed in the Gospel, Acts 20.24, which is to the self-righteous Jew a stumbling block, and to the conceited and philosophizing Greek, foolishness. And why so? Because there is nothing whatever in it that is adapted to the gratifying of the pride of man. It announces that unless we are saved by grace, we cannot be saved at all. It declares that apart from Christ, the unspeakable gift of God's grace, the state of every man is desperate, irremediable, hopeless.

The gospel addresses men as guilty, condemned, perishing criminals. It declares that the chastest moralist is in the same terrible plight as is the most voluptuous profligate, and the zealous professor, with all his religious performances, is no better off than the most profane infidel. The gospel contemplates every descendant of Adam as a fallen, polluted, hell-deserving, and helpless sinner. The grace which the gospel publishes is his only hope. All stand before God convicted as transgressors of his holy law, as guilty and condemned criminals, who are not merely awaiting sentence, but the execution of the sentence already passed upon them. John 3.18, Romans 3.19

To complain against the partiality of grace is suicidal. If the sinner insists upon bare justice, then the lake of fire must be his eternal apportion. His only hope lies in bowing to the sentence which divine justice has passed upon him, owning the absolute righteousness of it, casting himself on the mercy of God, and stretching forth empty hands to avail himself of the grace of God now made known to him in the gospel.

The third person in the Godhead is the communicator of grace. Therefore is he denominated the Spirit of Grace. Zechariah 12.10. God the Father is the fountain of all grace, for he purposed in himself the everlasting covenant of redemption. God the Son is the only channel of grace. The Gospel is the publisher of grace. The Spirit is the bestower. He is the one who applies the Gospel in saving power to the soul. quickening the elect while spiritually dead, conquering their rebellious wills, melting their hard hearts, opening their blind eyes, cleansing them from the leprosy of sin.

Thus we may say with the late G. S. Bishop Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the acts of justice, so corrupt that they cannot change their own natures, so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him, so blind that they cannot see Him, so deaf that they cannot hear Him, and so dead that He Himself must open their graves and lift them into Resurrection.

Chapter 14, The Mercy of God. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Psalm 136, 1. For this perfection of the divine character, God is greatly to be praised. Three times over, in as many verses, does the psalmist here call upon the saints to give thanks unto the Lord for this adorable attribute. And surely this is the least that can be asked for from those who have been recipients of such a bounty.

When we contemplate the characteristics of this Divine Excellency, we cannot do otherwise than bless God for it. His mercy is great. 1 Kings 3.6, Plenteous, Psalm 86.5, Tender, Luke 1.78, Abundant, 1 Peter 1.3. It is from everlasting to everlasting, upon them that fear him. Psalm 103.17. Well, may we say with the psalmist, I will sing aloud of thy mercy. Psalm 59.16.

I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Exodus 33, 19, wherein differs the mercy of God from His grace. The mercy of God has its spring in the divine goodness. The first issue of God's goodness is His benignity or bounty by which He gives liberally to His creatures as creatures. Thus has He given being and life to all things.

The second issue of God's goodness is His mercy, which denotes the ready inclination of God to relieve the misery of fallen creatures. Thus, mercy presupposes sin. Though it may not be easy at the first consideration to perceive a real difference between the grace and the mercy of God, it helps us thereto if we carefully ponder His dealings with the unfallen angels.

He has never exercised mercy toward them, for they have never stood in any need thereof. not having sinned, nor come beneath the effects of the curse. Yet they certainly are the objects of God's free and sovereign grace, first because of his election of them from out of the whole angelic race, 1 Timothy 5.21 Secondly, and in consequence of their election, because of his preservation of them from apostasy, when Satan rebelled and dragged down with him one-third of the celestial hosts, Revelation 12, 4.

Thirdly, in making Christ their head, Colossians 2, 10, 1 Peter 3, 22, whereby they are eternally secured in the holy condition in which they were created. Fourthly, because of the exalted position which has been assigned at them, to live in God's immediate presence. Daniel 7.10. To serve Him constantly in His heavenly temple, to receive honorable commissions from Him. Hebrews 1.14. This is abundant grace toward them, but mercy it is not. In endeavoring to study the mercy of God as it is set forth in scripture, a three-folded distinction needs to be made if the word of God is to be rightly divided thereon.

First, there is a general mercy of God which is extended not only to all men, believers and unbelievers alike, but also to the entire creation. His tender mercies are over all His works. Psalm 145.9. He giveth to all life and breath and all things. Acts 17.25. God has pity upon the brute creation in their need, and supplies them with suitable provision.

Secondly, there is a special mercy of God which is exercised toward the children of men, helping and succoring them, notwithstanding their sins. To them also He communicates all the necessities of life. For He maketh His Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust, Matthew 5, 45.

Thirdly, there is a sovereign mercy which is reserved for the heirs of salvation, which is communicated to them in a covenant way through the Mediator.

Following out a little further the difference between the second and third distinctions pointed out above, it is important to note that the mercies which God bestows on the wicked are solely of a temporal nature. That is to say, they are confined strictly to this present life. There will be no mercy extended to them beyond the grave. It is a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. Isaiah 27 11.

But at this point, a difficulty may suggest itself to some of our readers. Namely, does not scripture affirm that His mercy endureth forever? Psalm 136.1?

Two things need to be pointed out in that connection. God can never cease to be merciful, for this is a quality of the divine essence. Psalm 116.5, but the exercise of His mercy is regulated by His sovereign will. This must be so, for there is nothing outside Himself which obliges Him to act. If there were, that something would be supreme, and God would cease to be God. It is pure sovereign grace which alone determines the exercise of divine mercy. God expressly affirms this fact in Romans 9 15. For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

It is not the wretchedness of the creature which causes him to show mercy, for God is not influenced by things outside of himself as we are. If God were influenced by the abject misery of leprous sinners, He would clamp and save all of them. But He does not. Why? Simply because it is not His pleasure and purpose so to do.

Still less. is it the merits of the creatures which causes him to bestow mercies upon them? For it is a contradiction in terms to speak of meriting mercy, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Titus 3.5. The one standing in direct antithesis to the other.

Nor is it the merit of Christ which moves God to bestow mercies on his elect that would be substituting the effect for the cause. It is through or because of the tender mercy of our God that Christ was sent here to his people. Luke 1.78 The merits of Christ make it possible for God to righteously bestow spiritual mercies on his elect, justice having been fully satisfied by the surety.

No, mercy arises solely from God's imperial pleasure. Again, though it be true, blessedly and gloriously true, that God's mercy endureth forever, yet we must observe carefully the objects to whom his mercy is shown. Even the casting of the reprobate into the lake of fire is an act of mercy. The punishment of the wicked is to be contemplated from a threefold viewpoint. From God's side, it is an act of justice, vindicating His honor. The mercy of God is never shown to the prejudice of His holiness and righteousness. From their side, it is an act of equity, when they are made to suffer the due reward of their iniquities. But from the standpoint of the redeemed, the punishment of the wicked is an act of unspeakable mercy.

How dreadful would it be if the present order of things, when the children of God are obliged to live in the midst of the children of the devil, should continue forever. Heaven would at once cease to be heaven if the ears of the saints still heard the blasphemous and filthy language of the reprobate. What a mercy that in the new Jerusalem there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination. Revelation 21.27.

Lest the reader might think in the last paragraph we've been drawing upon our imagination, let us appeal to Holy Scripture in support of what has been said. In Psalm 143.12 we find David praying, and of thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul, for I am thy servant. Again in Psalm 136.15 we read that God overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea for his mercy endureth forever. It was an act of vengeance upon Pharaoh and his host but it was an act of mercy unto the Israelites. Again in Revelation 19.1-3 we read I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God, for True and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia, and her smoke rose up forever and ever.

from what has just been before us. Let us note how vain is the presumptuous hope of the wicked, who, notwithstanding their continued defiance of God, nevertheless count upon his being merciful to them. How many there are who say, I do not believe that God will ever cast me into hell. He is too merciful. Such a hope is a viper which, if cherished in their bosoms, will sting them to death. God is a God of justice as well as mercy, and He has expressly declared that He will by no means clear the guilty. Exodus 34, 7. Yea, He has said, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Psalm 9, 17.

As well might men reason thus, I do not believe that if filth be allowed to accumulate, and sewage become stagnant, and people deprive themselves of fresh air, that a merciful God will let them fall a prey to a deadly fever. The fact is that those who neglect the laws of health are carried away by disease, notwithstanding God's mercy. Equally true is it that those who neglect the laws of spiritual health shall forever suffer the second death.

Unspeakably solemn is it to see so many abusing this divine perfection. They continue to despise God's authority, trample upon His laws, continue in sin, and yet presume upon His mercy. But God will not be unjust to Himself. God shows mercy to the truly penitent and not to the impenitent. Luke 13, 3. To continue in sin, and yet reckon upon divine mercy, remitting punishment, is diabolical. It is saying, let us do evil, that good may come. And of all such it is written, that their damnation is just. Romans 3, 8. presumption shall most certainly be disappointed. Read carefully Deuteronomy 29, 18 through 20. Christ is the spiritual mercy seat, and all who despise and reject his lordship shall perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Psalm 2, 12.

But let our final thought be of God's spiritual mercies unto his own people. Thy mercy is great unto the heavens. Psalm 57 10. The riches thereof transcend our loftiest thought. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Psalm 103 11. None can measure it. The elect are designated vessels of mercy. Romans 9, 23. It is mercy that quickened them when they were dead in sins. Ephesians 2, 4 and 5. It is mercy that saves them. Titus 3, 5. It is His abundant mercy which begat them unto an eternal inheritance. 1 Peter 1, 3. Time would fail us to tell of His preserving, sustaining, pardoning, supplying mercy. Unto His own, God is the Father of mercies. 2 Corinthians 1, 3. When all thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view, I'm lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Chapter 15 The Loving-Kindness of God

We propose to engage the reader with another of his excellencies, of which every Christian receives innumerable proofs. We turn to a consideration of God's loving-kindness, because our aim is to maintain a due proportion in treating of the divine perfections, for all of us are after to entertain one-sided views of them. A balance must be preserved here, as everywhere, as it appears in those two statements of the divine attributes. God is light, 1 John 1.5. God is love, 1 John 4.8. The sterner, more awe-inspiring aspects of the divine character are offset by the gentler, more winsome ones.

It is to our irreparable loss if we dwell exclusively on God's sovereignty and majesty, or His holiness and justice. We need to meditate frequently, though not exclusively, on His goodness and mercy. Nothing short of a full-orbed view of the divine perfections, as revealed in Holy Writ, should satisfy us. Scripture speaks of the multitude of His lovingkindnesses, and who is capable of numbering them? Isaiah 63, 7. Said the psalmist, How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Psalm 36, 7. No pen of man, no tongue of angel can adequately express it.

Familiar as this blessed attribute of God's may be to people, it is something entirely peculiar to divine revelation. None of the ancients ever dreamed of investing his gods with such endearing perfection as this. None of the objects worshipped by present-day heathen possess gentleness and tenderness. Very much the reverse is true, as the hideous features of their idols exhibit. Philosophers regard it as a serious reflection upon the honor of the absolute to ascribe such qualities to it.

But the scriptures have much to say about God's loving kindness or his paternal favor to his people, his tender affection toward them. The first time this divine perfection is mentioned in the word is in that wondrous manifestation of deity to Moses when Jehovah proclaimed his name, that is, himself as made known. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, Exodus 34, 6, Though much more frequently, the Hebrew word Shazed is rendered kindness and loving kindness. In our English Bibles, the initial reference as connected with God is Psalm 17, 7, where David prayed, Show thy marvelous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee. Marvelous it is that one so infinitely above us so inconceivably glorious, so ineffably holy, should not only notice such worms of the earth, but also set his heart upon them, give his son for them, send his spirit to indwell them, and so bear with all their imperfections and waywardness, as never to remove his lovingkindness from them.

Consider some of the evidences and exercises of this divine attribute unto the saints in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5. as the previous verse shows, that love was engaged in their behalf before this world came into existence.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him, 1 John 4, 9, which was his amazing provision for us fallen creatures.

I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee, Jeremiah 31.3. By the quickening operations of my Spirit, by the invincible power of my grace, by creating in you a deep sense of need, by attracting you by my winsomeness, I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. Hosea 2.19.

Having made us willing in the day of his power to give ourselves to him, the Lord enters into an everlasting marriage contract with us. This lovingkindness of the Lord is never removed from His children. To our reason it may appear to be so, yet it never is. Since the believer be in Christ, nothing can separate him from the love of God. Romans 8, 39.

God has solemnly engaged Himself by covenant. and our sins cannot make it void. God has sworn that if His children keep not His commandments, He will visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Yet, He adds, nevertheless, My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail, My covenant will I not break. Psalm 89 31-34 Observe the change of number from their to them to him.

The loving-kindness of God toward His people is centered in Christ. Because His exercise of loving-kindness is a covenant engagement, it is repeatedly linked to His truth. Psalm 40, 11. Psalm 138, 2. Showing that it proceeds to us by promise. Therefore we should never despair. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Isaiah 54 10

No, that covenant has been ratified by the blood of its mediator, by which blood the enmity occasioned by sin has been removed and perfect reconciliation effected. God knows the thoughts which he entertains for those embraced in his covenant and who have been reconciled to him, namely, thoughts of peace and not of evil, Jeremiah 29 11.

Therefore we are assured, the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me. Psalm 42, 8. What a word that is! Not merely that the Lord will give or bestow, but command His lovingkindness. It is given by decree, bestowed by royal engagement, as he also commands deliverances, the blessing, even life forevermore. Psalm 44, 4. Psalm 133, 3. Which announces that nothing can possibly hinder these bestowments. What are our response to thee?

First, be therefore followers, imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, Colossians 3 12 Thus it was with David, Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes, And I have walked in thy truth. Psalm 26 3 he delighted to ponder it. It refreshed his soul to do so, and it molded his conduct. The more we are occupied with God's goodness, the more careful we will be about our obedience. The constraints of God's love and grace are more powerful to the regenerate than the terrors of his law. How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Psalm 36, 7.

Second, a sense of this divine perfection strengthens our faith and promotes confidence in God.

Third, it should stimulate the spirit of worship. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Psalm 63, 3. Compare Psalm 138, 2. It should be our cordial when depressed. Let thy merciful kindness, same Hebrew word, be for my comfort. Psalm 119, 76. It was so with Christ in His anguish. Psalm 69, 17.

Fifth, it should be our plea in prayer. Quicken me, O Lord, according to Thy lovingkindness. Psalm 119, 159. David applied to that divine attribute for new strength and increased vigor.

Sixth, We should appeal to it when we have fallen by the wayside. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. Psalm 51, 1. Deal with me according to the gentlest of thy attributes. Make my case an exemplification of thy tenderness.

Seventh, it should be a petition in our evening devotions. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning. Psalm 143.8. Arouse me with my soul in tune therewith. Let my waking thoughts be of thy goodness.

Chapter 16 The Love of God

There are three things told us in scripture concerning the nature of God. First, God is spirit. John 4, 24. In the Greek, there is no indefinite article, and to say God is a spirit is most objectionable, for it places him in a class with others. God is spirit, in the highest sense. Because he is spirit, he is incorporeal, having no visible substance. Had God a tangible body, he would not be omnipresent. He would be limited to one place. Because he is spirit, he fills heaven and earth.

Secondly, God is light. 1 John 1.5, which is the opposite of darkness. In scripture, darkness stands for sin, evil, death, and light for holiness, goodness, life. God is light, means that he is the sum of all excellency.

Thirdly, God is love, 1 John 4, 8. It is not simply that God loves, but that he is love itself. Love is not merely one of his attributes, but his very nature. There are many today who talk about the love of God, who are total strangers to the God of love. The divine love is commonly regarded as a species of amiable weakness, a sort of good-natured indulgence. It is reduced to a mere sickly sentiment patterned after human emotion.

Now the truth is that on this, as on everything else, our thoughts need to be formed and regulated by what is revealed thereon in Holy Scripture. That there is urgent need for this is apparent not only from the ignorance which so generally prevails, but also the low state of spirituality which is now so sadly evident everywhere among professing Christians. How little real love there is for God. One chief reason for this is because our hearts are so little occupied with His wondrous love for His people. The better we are acquainted with His love, His character, fullness, blessedness, the more will our hearts be drawn out in love to Him.

1. The love of God is uninfluenced. By this we mean there was nothing whatever in the objects of his love to call it into exercise. Nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it. The love which one creature has for another is because of something in the object. But the love of God is free, spontaneous, uncaused. The only reason why God loves any is found in His own sovereign will. 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. Deuteronomy 7, 7 and 8. God has loved his people from everlasting, and therefore nothing about the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from himself according to his own purpose, 2 Timothy 1.9. We love Him because He first loved us, 1 John 4, 19. God did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us before. We had a particle of love for Him. Had God loved us in return for ours, then it would not be spontaneous on His part, but because He loved us. When we were loveless, it is clear that His love was uninfluenced.

It is highly important if God is to be honored and the heart of his child established that we should be quite clear upon this precious truth. God's love for me and for each of his own was entirely unmoved by anything in us. What was there in me to attract the heart of God? Absolutely nothing. But to the contrary, there was everything to repel Him, everything calculated to make Him loathe me, sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption with no good thing in me. What was there in me that could merit esteem, Or give the Creator delight? T'was even so, Father, I ever must sing, Because it seemed good in Thy sight.

2. It is eternal. This is of necessity. God himself is eternal, and God is love. Therefore, as God himself had no beginning, his love had none. Granted that such a concept far transcends the grasp of our feeble minds, nevertheless, where we cannot comprehend, we can bow in adoring worship. How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31.3? I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved his people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that he had set his heart upon them from all eternity. Clear proof is this, that His love is spontaneous, for He loved them endless ages before they had any being. The same precious truth is set forth in Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. in love, having predestinated us.

What praise should this evoke from each of his children! How tranquilizing for the heart! Since God's love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending. Since it is true that, from everlasting to everlasting, he is God, and since God is love, then it is equally true that, from everlasting to everlasting, He loves his people.

3. It is sovereign. This also is self-evident. God himself is sovereign under obligations to none, a law unto himself, acting always according to his own imperial pleasure. Since God is sovereign and since He is love, it necessarily follows that His love is sovereign. Because God is God, He does as He pleases. Because God is love, He loves whom He pleases. Such is His own express affirmation, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Romans 9.13. There was no more reason in Jacob why he should be the object of divine love than there was in Esau. They both had the same parents and were born at the same time, being twins. Yet God loved the one and hated the other. Why? Because it pleased him to do so.

The sovereignty of God's love necessarily follows from the fact that it is uninfluenced by anything in the creature. Thus to affirm that the cause of his love lies in God himself is only another way of saying he loves whom he pleases. For a moment, assume the opposite. Suppose God's love were regulated by anything else than his will. In such a case, he would love by rule. And loving by rule, he would be under a law of love. And then, so far from being free, God would himself be ruled by law. In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to what? Some excellency which he foresaw in them? No! What then? According to the good pleasure of his will. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5.

4. It is infinite. Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present, and future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So his love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom. There is a height to it which none can scale. There is a length and breadth to it which defies measurement by any creature standard. Beautifully is this intimated in Ephesians 2, 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us. The word great there is parallel with the word so in John 3, 16. God so loved. It tells us that the love of God is so transcendent, it cannot be estimated. No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God's love or any mind comprehend it. It passeth knowledge. Ephesians 3.19 The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about divine love are infinitely below its true nature. The heaven is not so far above the earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most raised conceptions which we are able to form of it. It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition, and such as are the objects of it. It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it. John Brine, 1743.

5. It is immutable. As with God himself, there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1.17. So, his love knows neither change nor diminution. The worm Jacob supplies a forceful example of this. Jacob, have I loved, declared Jehovah, and despite all his unbelief and waywardness, he never ceased to love him. John 13.1 furnishes another beautiful illustration. That very night one of the apostles would say, Show us the Father. Another would deny him with cursings. All of them would be scandalized by and forsake him. Nevertheless, Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. The divine love is subject to no vicissitudes. Divine love is strong as death. Many walkers cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Song 8, 6, and 7. Nothing can separate from it. Romans 8, 35 through 39. His love no end nor measure knows, no change can turn its course. Eternally the same it flows from one eternal source.

It is holy. God's love is not regulated by caprice, passion, or sentiment, but by principle, just as His grace reigns not at the expense of it, but through righteousness. Romans 5.21. So His love never conflicts with His holiness.

God is light. 1 John 1.5 is mentioned before God is love. 1 John 4.8. God's love is no mere amiable weakness or effeminate softness. Scripture declares that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Hebrews 12, 6. God will not wink at sin even in his own people. His love is pure, unmixed with any maudlin sentimentality.

7. It is gracious. The love and favor of God are inseparable. This is clearly brought out in Romans 8, 32 through 39. What that love is from which there can be no separation is easily perceived from the design and scope of the immediate context. It is that good will and grace of God which determined Him to give His Son for sinners. That love was the impulsive power of Christ's incarnation. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, John 3.16. Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because he did love his people. Calvary is the supreme demonstration of divine love.

Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, Christian reader, go back to Calvary. Here, then, is abundant cause for trust and patience under divine affliction. Christ was beloved of the Father, yet He was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution. He hungered and thirsted. Thus, it was not incompatible with God's love for Christ when He permitted men to spit upon and smite Him. then let no Christian call into question God's love when he is brought under painful afflictions and trials. God did not enrich Christ on earth with temporal prosperity, for he had not where to lay his head, but he did give him the Spirit without measure, John 3, 34. Learn then that spiritual blessings are the principal gifts of divine love.

How blessed to know that when the world hates us, God loves us. Chapter 17. The love of God to us. By us we mean His people. Although we read of the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 8.39, Holy Writ knows nothing of the love of God outside of Christ. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Psalm 145.9 So that He provides the ravens with food. He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Luke 6.35 And His providence ministers unto the just and the unjust. Matthew 5.45 But His love is reserved for His elect.

that is unequivocally established by its characteristics, for the attributes of his love are identical with himself, necessarily so, for God is love. In making that postulate, it is but another way to say God's love is like himself, from everlasting to everlasting, immutable. Nothing is more absurd than to imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish or shall ever experience his everlasting vengeance. Since the love of God is in Christ Jesus, it was attracted by nothing in its objects, nor can it be repelled by anything in, of, or by them, having loved his own which were in the world. He loved them unto the end. John 13, 1.

The word in John 3, 16 is a general term used in contrast with the Jews, and the verse must be interpreted so as not to contradict Psalms 5, 5, 6, 7. John 3, 36. Romans 9, 13. The chief design of God is to commend the love of God in Christ, for He is the sole channel through which it flows. The Son has not induced the Father to love His people, but rather was it His love for them which moved Him to give His Son for them. Ralph Erskine said, God hath taken a marvelous way to manifest His love. When He would show His power, He makes a world. When He would display His wisdom, He puts it in a frame and a form that discovers its vastness. When He would manifest the grandeur and glory of His name, He makes a heaven and puts angels and archangels, principalities and powers therein. And when He would manifest His love, what will He not do? God has taken a great and marvelous way of manifesting it in Christ, His person, His blood, His death, His righteousness.

All the promises of Him, Christ, are yea, and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1.20 As we were chosen in Christ. Ephesians 1.4 As we were accepted in Him. Ephesians 1.6 As our life is hid in Him, Colossians 3, 3, so are we beloved in Him.

The love of God which is in Christ Jesus, in Him as our Head and Husband, which is why nothing can separate us therefrom, for that union is indissoluble. Nothing so warms the heart of a saint as a spiritual contemplation of God's love. As he is occupied with it, he is lifted outside of and above his wretched self. A believing apprehension fills the renewed soul with holy satisfaction and makes him as happy as it is possible for one to be this side of heaven. To know and believe the love which God has toward me is both an earnest and a foretaste of heaven itself.

Since God loves his people in Christ, it is not for any amiableness in or attraction about them. Jacob have I loved, yes, the naturally unattractive, yes, despicable Jacob, the worm Jacob. Since God loves his people in Christ, it is not regulated by their fruitfulness, but is the same at all times. Because he loves them in Christ, the Father loves them as Christ. The time will come when his prayer will be answered, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. John 17, 23.

Only faith can grasp those marvelous things, for neither reasoning nor feelings can do so. God loves us in Christ. What infinite delight the Father has as He beholds His people in His dear Son. All our blessings flow from that precious fountain. God's love to His people is not of yesterday. It did not begin with their love to Him. No, we love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4, 19. We do not first give to Him that He may return to us again. Our regeneration is not the motive of His love. Rather, His love is the reason why He renews us after His image.

This is often made to appear in the first manifestation of it, when so far from its objects, being engaged in seeking Him, they are at their worst. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love, And I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest manifestatively mine. Ezekiel 16, 8.

Not only are its objects often at their worst when God's love is first revealed to them, but actually doing their worst, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus. Not only is God's love antecedent to ours, but also it was born in his heart toward us long before we were delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear son. It began not in time, but bears the date of eternity. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31.3 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4.10.

It is clear from those words that God loved His people while they were in a state of nature, destitute of all grace, without a particle of love towards Him or faith in Him, yes, while they were His enemies. Romans 5.8 and 10. Clearly, that lays me under a thousand times greater obligation to love, serve, and glorify Him than had He loved me for the first time when my heart was one.

All the acts of God to His people in time are the expressions of the love He bore them from eternity. It is because God loves us in Christ, and has done so from everlasting, that the gifts of His love are irrevocable. They are the bestowal of the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The love of God indeed makes a change in us when it is shed abroad in our hearts, but it makes none in Him. He sometimes varies the dispensations of His providence toward us, but that is not because His affection has altered. Even when He chastens us, it is in love, Hebrews 12.6, since He has our good in view.

Let us look more closely at some of the operations of God's love, first in election. We are bounded to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, His quickening, and belief of the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 There is an infallible connection between God's love and His selection of those who were to be saved. That election is the consequence of His love is clear again from Deuteronomy. The Lord did not, one, set His love upon you, nor, two, choose you, because you were more in number than any people. Seven, seven. So, again, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, Ephesians 1, 4 and 5.

Second, in redeeming. As we have seen from 1 John 4.10, out of his sovereign love, God made provision for Christ to render satisfaction for their sins. Though prior to their conversion, he was angry with them in respect to his violated law. And how shall he not with them also freely give us all things? Romans 8.32. Another clear proof that His Son was not delivered up to the cross for all mankind. For He gives them neither the Holy Spirit, a new nature, nor repentance or faith.

Third, effectual calling. From the enthroned Savior, the Father sends forth the Holy Spirit. Acts 2.33. Having loved His elect with an everlasting love, with lovingkindness He draws them. Jeremiah 31.3. Quickens into newness of life, calls them out of darkness into His marvelous light, makes them His children. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 1 John 3.1. If filiation does not issue from God's love as a sure effect, to what purpose are those words?

healing of backslidings.

I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. Hosea 14.4. Without reluctance or hesitation. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Song 8.7. Such is God's love to his people, invincible, unquenchable. Not only is there no possibility of its expiring, but also the black waters of backsliding cannot extinguish it, nor the floods of unbelief put it out. Nothing is more irresistible than death in the natural world, nothing so invincible as the laws of God in the realm of grace.

Good one remarked, What difficulties does the love of God overcome for God to overcome His own heart? Do you think it was nothing for Him to put His Son to death when He came to call us? Had He no difficulties which love overcame? We were dead in trespasses and sins, yet from the great love for which He loved us, He quickened us in the grave of our corruption. Lo, He stinketh! Even then did God come and conquer us.

After our calling, how sadly do we provoke a God. Such temptations that, if it were possible, the elect should be deceived. It is so with all Christians. No righteous man, but he is scarcely saved 1 Peter 4 18 and yet saved he is because the love of God is invincible it overcomes all difficulties

An application is hardly necessary for such a theme. Let God's love daily engage your mind by devout meditations on it, so that the affections of your heart may be drawn out to Him. When cast down in spirit or in sore straits, plead His love in prayer. Assured that it cannot deny anything good for you. Make God's wondrous love to you. The incentive of your obedience to Him, gratitude, requires nothing less.

Chapter 18 The Wrath of God

It is sad indeed to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or who at least wish there were no such thing, while some who would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight. They like not to think about it and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the divine wrath that makes it too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God's wrath is not consistent with his goodness and so seek to vanish it from their thoughts. Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God's wrath as though they were called to look upon some blot in the divine character or some blot upon the divine government.

But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God hath made no attempt to conceal the facts concerning his wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto him. His own challenge is See now that I even I am he, and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever. If I let my glittering sword and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies and will reward them that hate me. Deuteronomy 32, 39 through 41.

A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin, and because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner. Psalm 7, 11. Now the wrath of God is as much a divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God. Yet there would be if wrath were absent from Him. Indifference to sin is a moral blemish, and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could he, who is the sum of all excellency, look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and advice, wisdom and a folly? How could he, who is infinitely holy, disregard sin and refuse to manifest his severity? Romans 11, 22. Toward it.

How could he who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, not loathe and hate that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite as heaven is. Not only is there no imperfection in God, but there is no perfection in Him that is less perfect than another. The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God, stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil doers.

God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority. a wrong done to his invaluable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God's government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regard. Not that God's anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No. Though God will vindicate His dominion as the governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.

That divine wrath is one of the perfections of God is not only evident from the considerations presented above, but is also clearly established by the express declarations of his own word. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Romans 1 18. Robert Haldane comments on this verse as follows. It was revealed when the sentence of death was first pronounced, the earth cursed and man driven out of the earthly paradise, and afterwards by such examples of punishment as those of the deluge and the destruction of the cities of the plain by fire from heaven. but especially by the reign of death throughout the world. It was proclaimed in the curse of the law on every transgression, and was intimated in the institution of sacrifice, and in all the services of the Mosaic dispensation.

In the eighth chapter of this epistle, the apostle calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation has become subject to vanity and groaneth and travaileth together in pain. The same creation which declares that there is a God and publishes his glory, also proves that he is the enemy of sin and the avenger of the crimes of men. But above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the divine character, and when that wrath was displayed in his sufferings and death, in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin. Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formerly. Under the new dispensation there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace.