Alright brethren, let's turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 7. I'll turn the heat down a little
bit. I hope it gets really hot when it first comes on, but it
should be cutting off here. I wanted to tell you last night
we had our first meeting with the church in the Philippines
and they're 13 hours ahead so services started 8.30 our time
and they had the camera set up where I could see the congregation
as well as them see me and It seemed like it was well received
and they already contacted me and said they want to schedule
the next time. And I think we're going to, to
begin with, I think we're going to do it every fourth Sunday.
So be in prayer about that and I'm very thankful the Lord brought
that to us. Our subject this morning is God's
love for His people. God's love for His people. Let's
look here in Deuteronomy 7 and look at verse 7. The Lord did
not set His love upon you, nor choose you because you were more
in number than any people. For you were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you. When the Holy Spirit
has made us know something of our sin nature, how vile, how
corrupt, how wicked our very sin nature is, what sinners we
are, it's almost too good to be true that God loves us. That's so every Every chosen
child of God feels that way. And last Sunday, somebody asked
me, why would the Lord love me? Somebody asked me that question.
And the Lord used that and laid that on my heart all week. And
so I've studied on that this week. And I pray that the Lord
will bless this. But when we know something about
our sin nature, that's when we truly are amazed that the Lord
would love us. You hear the amazement in the
songwriter's voice, in his hymn, when he wrote, Amazing love,
how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Horatius
Bonar wrote this, he wrote, oh love of God, how strong and true,
eternal and yet ever new, uncomprehended and unbought, beyond all knowledge
and all thought. And it truly is, it truly is. One of my favorite verses in
a hymn that expresses the love of God, this is one of my absolute
favorites. Listen to this, could we with
ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill? And every one a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry. nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky." That's a writer that understands
something about the amazement that God would love sinners like
us. The Scriptures say God's love
is sovereign, it's everlasting, it's unchanging, it's for His
particular people, It's in His Son and it's not due to anything
in us. And because it is in His Son,
it's unchanging, immutable, immutable. First of all, God's love for
His people is not due to anything in us. It's simply because God
would love his people. That's what he says here in this
text. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you,
because you were more in number than any people. For you were
the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. Now, grace and mercy are all,
it's unmerited. Everything God does for his people
is unmerited. But one reason it's difficult
for us to comprehend God loving us, one reason it's difficult
to comprehend it is because there's nothing in us it relates to.
Let me tell you what I mean by that. God's mercy is related
to our misery. God's mercy is related to what
we deserve. It's God withholding from us
what we deserve and giving us mercy to relieve our misery.
Grace is due to our total unworthiness. God's compassion toward us is
in respect to our dire need. He has compassion. He beholds our complete and total
need. God's pity is in relation to
our helplessness, our total inability. God's patience and His long-suffering
toward His people is in relation to our stubbornness, to our rebellion. But when it comes to God's love,
that's strictly of Himself. That has no respect to anything
in us. That's what's so amazing about
it. God is love. Hebrews 4.10, herein is love,
not that we love God. We did not love God, but God
loved us. God chose His people. Our text is talking about the
Israel of God, the elect from among Jew and Gentile. He said
He chose His people and loved His people because He would.
That's amazing. That's simply amazing. There's
no cause in us. We did not love God. Here's the second thing. God's
love for His people is in His Son and nowhere else. Now, anybody
who doesn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no room
to even think the Lord loves them. God's love is in His Son. His love's in His Son. When you
brought the faith in Christ, that's when God reveals to you
that He has loved you from everlasting. But God's love's in His Son. He loves His elect due to His
Son. God loved His people, and so
God chose to save us in and by the Lord Jesus. One of the first
things God did in manifesting, or at least His act of love toward
His people was, He set Christ up as the head of His church,
as the surety of His people from before the world was made. That's
the first thing God did in love toward His people. Before we
had an existence, before any of His people had fallen into
sin, God chose His Son to be the Savior of His people. One
hymn writer wrote this, Thus in his eyes she ever stood, talking
about Christ's bride, his church, his elect. Thus in his eyes she
ever stood from wrinkle and from blemish free, loved with the
dateless love of God, and blessed by the great sacred three. I like that description of God's
love. Dateless love. You can't put
a date on it. No beginning and no ending. In
Christ, God the Father has always seen His elect as one with Him. One with Him. one with Him. It's only in the righteousness
of Christ that God loves His people. It's in the perfection
of His Son that God loves His people. Let's go to 1 John chapter
4. Mark 1 John 4, because we're
going to look at some other scriptures, but we'll come back here. But
1 John 4, God manifests His love to us This is how we see His
love, He manifested by giving His Son. He says here in 1 John
4, 9, In this was manifested the love of God toward us. Well
look, I want you to see verse 8. See the last phrase, God is
love. God is love. Verse 9, it says, And 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. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, the propitiation
for our sin. I can't imagine sending my son
into a cursed vile place to die for people who hate me. And me and my son are sinners.
And I can't even fathom that. Well, holy God our Father sent
His holy Son into this cursed earth to lay down his life for
an elect number of sinners that hated him, wanted nothing to
do with him. That's how he manifested his
love. He provided Christ the propitiation,
the mercy seat. That's who Christ is. You know,
the reason this love is so manifest to His people is that it's particular. It's not to everybody. Not His
saving love is not to everybody. That's what makes it so precious
to God's people. He permitted sin to enter, and
He permitted us to fall, and our father Adam, that He might
send forth His Son and manifest the glory of His love in saving
us from our sins. That's wisdom. That was God's
wisdom to do it this way. And in doing so, He manifests
how particular and powerful and saving and precious His love
is toward His people. You know, you see how amazing it is that God loves
you when you see that He chose you when there was nothing in
you whatsoever, everything in you to demerit his love for you,
and then you also see not only that he didn't choose everybody,
he didn't love everybody and elect everybody to save, and
you see this, there's a lot of people that he passed by that's
way better than I am. Way better than I am. just as
far as, you know, just don't appear to be the sinner
that I appear to myself, that makes you see how great the love
of God is. It's very, it's particular. He
said, Jacob have I loved, but he so have I hated. And the reason,
the purpose of God according to election is, He said salvation
might be of God that calleth. It's not of Him that willeth,
not of Him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. And
He loved His people simply because He would. He loved us in His
Son. We love Him because He first
loved us. Turn over to John 17. I'll show
you something very amazing about the love of God. John 17. Now, we know in John 17 the Lord
is talking about He said in verse 2, Father, He said, You sent
Me. He said, speaking of Himself,
He says, Thou has given Him power over all flesh that He should
give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him. He's talking
about God's elect. Now look down here at verse 23
and look at the last phrase. that the world, that's his elect,
all through this world, that the world may know that thou
hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now that's amazing. That's how
God loves his people as he loves the Lord Jesus Christ, his son. That's amazing, brethren. He
declares He loves His people as He loves the Lord Jesus, our
mediator. We're accepted in the Beloved.
We're accepted because of Christ. Because of the Lord Jesus. Our
feeble faith, our little love, our feeble worship, our blemished
works, they're all accepted because God loves His elect as He loves
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's why He loves us back at
John 10. John 10. And I'm going to make
a statement that may surprise you. But I want you to see this first.
Let's read this first. John 10, 14. He says, I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again." Now, God the Father loves His
chosen, redeemed, regenerated people because of Christ's perfect
obedience. Because Christ laid down His
life, He loves His Son. And because Christ laid down
His life and made us perfect in Him, He loves His people.
Now here's the statement I'm gonna make that might surprise
you. We know God's love is free. God's love's unmerited. We just
read it. God said, I loved you because
I would. But brethren, every elect child
deserves for God to love us. Not because of anything we did
or anything in us. But because Christ merited it. Because Christ earned it. Because
Christ laid down His life and perfected His people forever
so that that's how God loves. You know, salvation is not by
works. Not by any works we do. But salvation
is by works. It is by the works of Christ.
Condemnation is because men reject Christ, reject God, sin, perish,
go to hell, cursing God. It's by the wages of sin, it's
a wage earned, it's death. The gift of God's eternal life. But it's by the works of Christ. It's by the works of Christ.
So it's in Christ that God the Father loves His people. And
because this is so, God's love is eternal. Now go to Jeremiah
31, and again I want you to mark Jeremiah 31. We'll come back.
Well, let me see here. Jeremiah 31 verse 3. You're very familiar with this.
Jeremiah was weeping, he's the weeping prophet, and he had great
reason to weep because God sent him to preach to a people and
told him from the beginning, they're not going to hear you,
they're not going to receive you. But he was a successful preacher
of the gospel. You know why? Because the success
of the gospel doesn't depend on how many God saves. It's a
faithful, successful ministry when Christ is preached and the
glory of God's declared in the Lord Jesus. That's the reason
we're sent to preach. What God does with it is God's
business. So Jeremiah's weeping, and this
is what God said to Jeremiah. He said, verse 3, Yea, I've loved
thee, Jeremiah 31, 3, I've loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. An everlasting
love. You can't get your head around
this. God's life has no beginning and
no ending, and therefore his love has no beginning and no
ending. Everlasting, eternal. Another hymn writer, John Kent,
wrote, "'Twas with an everlasting love that God, his own elect,
embraced, before he made the worlds above or earth on her
huge columns placed." God's love is immutable. It's uninfluenced
by anything in us or anything in the devil or anything in this
world. It's immutable. Can't be changed. Can't be changed. We see it in
the fact that the Spirit of God shed abroad His love in our hearts
and made us know Christ, revealed Christ to us, even though we
hated Him, even though we'd fallen into sin, even though we didn't
want anything to do with God. He still came and taught us this
gospel. That shows you His love knows
no change. Can't be changed, can't be influenced
by anybody, not you, me, or anybody else. He says, I loved you with
an everlasting love, and therefore, because it was immutable and
everlasting and unchanging and uninfluenced, couldn't be altered. He said, therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn you. There was nothing in me, nothing
in you, nothing in any of his elect to make God draw us to
Christ. Nothing. We were wrathful children
even as others. rebellious children even as others. We were insistent, if God had
left us to ourselves, we were insistent to go to hell and destroy
our own selves, rejecting God and hating God the whole way
and would have done so forever in hell. And yet, because God
loved His people, He drew us to the Lord Jesus. He drew us. The only reason is because the
Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness of His people. That's the only
reason. Because God loved us and chose
us in Christ and sent His Son to be the propitiation and Christ
laid down His life and He made His people the righteousness
of God and therefore justice demands. The same justice that
demanded we die in the Lord Jesus demands that we be given life
because of the Lord Jesus. Listen to this, when our Lord
said, speaking of why the Lord revealed himself to his people,
this is what Christ said. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Child of God, you know, the question
was asked to me, why would God love me? Listen, if the Lord
Jesus Christ was pleased with this reason for God revealing
the gospel in the hearts of His people, if He was pleased, so
it seemed good in thy sight, Father. If that pleased Him,
let it please you. That's the only reason you need.
It pleased the Father to make you His people. That's what the
Scripture said. It seemed good in His sight.
Well, back there in Jeremiah 31, since God is love, And since
His love's in Christ, since all the merit for loving us is Christ's
righteousness, His obedience alone, since His love's immutable
and eternal and uninfluenced, Nothing can make God change His
love toward His people in Christ. So therefore, after He told that
weeping prophet that I've loved you with an everlasting love
and loving kindness, therefore in loving kindness have I drawn.
After He told him that, He told him this. Look down at Jeremiah
31 and look at verse 35. He told him this right here.
He said, Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light
by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for
a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof
roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart
from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also
shall cease from being a nation before me forever. Do you see
how unchanging His love is? He said, if you can change the
ordinance of the sun and the moon and the stars and the seasons
and all of that, then my love will cease towards you. Look
over at Romans 8. I think that passage there in
Jeremiah may be where the Spirit gave Paul the words for this
right here. Romans 8.35. Romans 8, 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long.
We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things,
we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see how immutable His love
is, and it's in Christ. Our confidence is not in our
feelings. You know, we do feel, and by God's grace, we do love
the Lord, but our confidence is not in our feelings and our
love toward Him. Because our feelings come and
go. Our feelings ebb and flow. Our
confidence is His love toward us. Romans 5, in verse 5, He
says this, He said, hope maketh not a shame
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given to us. What does He reveal when He sheds
this love in your heart? What does the Spirit of God reveal
when He sheds the love? How is it that He does that?
Here's what He reveals to you over and over and over from the
first time He called you throughout our life. This is what He keeps
revealing. Verse six, for when we were yet without strength,
see that for, that means because. Here's why the love of God is
shed abroad in our heart. Because when we were without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet perpetually for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Because
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. That's how the love of God is
shed abroad in the heart. It's by this Gospel, It's by
Him turning you to behold what Christ did and that He did it
for us while we were ungodly. He laid down His life for us
and therefore if He did that for us when we were enemies,
now that He's reconciled us and brought you to quit fighting
against Him and brought you to believe Him and reconciled you
to Him, you shall be saved by His life. Now, fourthly, Ephesians
3, God's love for His people cannot
be exhausted. It can't be exhausted. You can't
use it up. There's no end to it. Look here
in Ephesians 3 and look at verse 18. This was Paul's prayer for
God's people that we 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 you might be filled
with all the fullness of God. Brethren, it doesn't matter what
your need is. It doesn't matter how weak you
are. It doesn't matter how bad you fall. It doesn't matter what
it is you need. The love of God will provide
every need of His people. It is inexhaustible. He'll meet
our fainting hope and He'll increase it. He'll meet our weak faith
and He'll strengthen it. Whatever it is you need, the
Lord will provide because His love is inexhaustible. He talked
about as long as the sun lasts. You think about it. God put the
sun in the sky and it's that same sun that's been shining
since However many thousands of years it was when God created
the sun, it's been the same sun shining ever since. It never
has stopped shining. God's love is just that inexhaustible. It never stops shining down on
God's people. His love no end or measure knows. No change can turn its course. Eternally the same it flows from
one eternal source. God's love is invincible. It's
invincible. That means it overcomes all obstacles
and all hindrances, whether it's in us or in the devil or in the
world. It overcomes every obstacle. God's love is able to turn a
Saul of Tarsus into the Apostle Paul. It's able to turn a blaspheming
thief hanging on a cross from being a blasphemer to being a
mercy beggar. It's able to turn the Christ-denying
Apostle Peter into one that just says, Lord, you know I love you. You know all things. God's love humbles our pride.
His love is able to subdue our will. His love is able to melt
our hard hearts. His love is able to sweeten our
bitter waters. His love is able to conquer death. It's able to triumph over hell
for His people. That's what the love of God has
and shall do for His people. It's electing love in that eternal
covenant. It is incarnate love at Bethlehem. It is dying love at the cross,
brethren. It is interceding love at the
throne of God right now, God's right hand. It's preserving love
with every step you take through this wilderness. John was amazed at the love of
God, just like God's people are. He said in 1 John 3, behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. That's why the world does not
know us, he said, because the world didn't know him. Now, one last thing about God's
love. Back there in 1 John 4. One last
thing in 1 John 4. God's love will cast out fear
when we face our dying day, when we face judgment. God's love
will cast out fear. Look here in 1 John 4, 17. Herein
is our love made perfect. that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There's no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. The carnal heart fears
hell. That's what the carnal heart
fears. You still have a sin nature. You may have some of that in
you, at least to some degree. But in the new man, he's given
us a fear and reverence for God. And because he's shown you the
love of Christ, it casts out that tormenting, carnal fear. He keeps turning you to the cross,
and he keeps making his child see. Our judgment took place
at Calvary. Our judgment took place at Calvary.
When Christ bore the fierce fury of God's wrath, judgment was
settled for God's people. That's what the Spirit of God
makes you to know. Christ said he'll convince you of sin because
you believe not on me. He'll convince you of righteousness
because I'll go to my father. He'll convince you of judgment
because the prince of this world's cast out. And He does it that He would
grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies
might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before Him all the days of our life. And this is what gives
you boldness to stand before the throne of judgment. Because
as Christ is right now at God's right hand, so are His people
in this world. Right now. Everything Christ
is right now at God's right hand, His people are in this world.
Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father. We're sons by
adoption. Now are we the sons of God, John
said. Christ is righteous, holy, and
accepted by God the Father, and so are all His people. being justified by faith. We have peace with God, brethren,
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God. He died under
sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. And He tells
you, you reckon the same to be so of you. You died under sin
one time in Christ, now you live to God forevermore. Now little
children abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have
confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. You remember in Colossians 3,
look over with me at Psalm 116. I'm going to close with this.
You remember in Colossians 3, when Paul said, if you're risen
with Christ, set your affections on things above, because your
life's right there in Christ at God's right hand. And when
He appears, you're going to appear with Him in glory. How do we
set our affection on things above? What does that sound like when
you're calling on God, when you're in that place? Here it is right
here, and I want you to see what the Lord did for the psalmist.
This is what it is right here. Psalm 116.1. He says, I love
the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplication.
because he hath inclined his ear to me, therefore will I call
upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death come past
me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow." He was fearing death, he was fearing hell, and he needed
that perfect love of Christ to cast that fear out of him. And
he called upon God, he said, Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord
preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped
me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. You see that perfect
love casting that fear out of his heart? He said, Return to
your rest, my soul. The Lord's dealt bountifully
with thee. Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes
from tears, and my feet from falling. I'll walk before the
Lord in the land of the living. That's what it is. When you set
your affectionate things above, and that perfect love comes down,
and Christ casts that tormenting fear out of your heart, He makes
you know He's dealt bountifully with you. You're righteous in
Him. accepted in Him. And when He shall appear, you'll
appear with Him in glory. That's the love of God for His
people. I would give you two cents for
this thing that men are preaching that they call love, where they
say God loves everybody, but He can't save anybody without
the sinner doing something. That's not love. The love of
God saves His people. Saves His people. Let's pray
to Him, brethren. Father, we thank You. Oh, our
great God, our Savior. You are love. You are love. Holy love. Righteous love. And Lord, we see it in Your dear
Son. We see it in that You sent Christ
Jesus, Your Son, to be our mercy seat. We thank You, Lord, that
You loved us in Him, that You redeemed us by Him, that You
called us to Him, and that You preserve us in Him. And one day,
one day, You'll receive us in the glory, perfect and without
blemish, in Him. Lord, keep us knowing this perfect
love of our Redeemer, And don't ever, Lord, we ask you, we beg
of you, don't ever let us cease to be amazed at your love. It's a good thing that we can't
comprehend it. It's a good thing that we can't
get our head around it. It keeps us amazed. Lord, don't let us ever, ever
lose this first love we have for our Lord Jesus. Keep us loving
Him. by making us know your love for
us. In Christ Jesus we ask it. Amen.