Turn to Isaiah 40. Isaiah chapter
40. Derek read this a couple of weeks
ago in the devotional men's meeting, as we call it, we have after
Sunday school here. And it was a blessing to me. But after I went home and got
thinking about it, I couldn't get these two verses, these two
particular verses off my mind. Let's read the first two verses
and listen, listen very carefully. This is the command of God Almighty
to his pastors and his teachers and his preachers. He says to
them here, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem,
that's God's people, and cry unto her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, For she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And if she's received
double for all her sins, that's more than adequate to save every
one of us. I once heard Scott Richardson
say this, some of you are not familiar with him, but a very
respected pastor over the last years, 50 years or so. He said, there's never been a
time in time or eternity when God has ever viewed one of his
chosen people as unrighteous or in any way other than righteous. He's always seen you, if you're
in Christ, never been a time in time or eternity when he did
not view you as righteous in Christ. I don't think I'll ever forget
him making that statement. Have you ever considered and
viewed Me, has God ever viewed me or considered me, my person, as being unrighteous? Can it really be true that he's
never seen his people as being unrighteous? And I'm talking
about at any point in eternity or time. If you know Christ and you're
found in Him, that statement is absolutely so. And to sit and meditate on that
is pretty striking. I know there might be some who
would jump in my face in response to such a statement. But nonetheless,
the Apostle Paul confirmed it when he said this over in the
book of Romans. He said, the children, Jacob
and Esau, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or any evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. Jacob have
I loved, But Esau have I hated before they were ever born."
God said that. The words of these two verses
here in Isaiah, and you can look down and consider what's said
again, were written by Isaiah 750 years before Christ came to finish
His work, okay? God became a man 750 years later. He became the man, the Lord Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, that common individual, that no one had respect
for except for those whom He had chosen before the foundation
of this world. And I want us to notice that
if you read verse 2 carefully, weighing every word written there, I want you to notice that Jerusalem,
which is all of the elect, all of God's chosen ones, their warfare
is complete. It was accomplished and her iniquity
is pardoned and she has received double for all her sins. But
he said that before our Lord ever provided Himself as an offering
for sin. Now there's no disputing the
fact that God the Father made a covenant, it's called an everlasting
covenant with His Son. It was ordered in all things
and it was sure for those that He chose in Christ. The Father sent him and gifted grace to those that
he had chosen in Christ. He put their persons and their
welfare into Christ's hands, his care, his charge was given
to him. In light of all those things,
I want you to ask yourself this, can it ever be imagined or thought
that there should be a people, a choice of people and
persons made before the world began. A covenant of grace made
and stored that not only promised life, but number three, it granted
life itself. It was given in a covenant, a
sworn pledge that He would do these things. And there was a
security made, both of the persons and the grace that would be bestowed
upon them, and yet no love for them exists in all those things. Could that be possible? If there
was no love on God's part, He would have never even thought
about doing that. When we fell in Adam, he would
have annihilated this earth because there was no purpose for it to
serve after that. Some would have us believe so,
but you can't find any more proofs other than those that God's eternal
love. I mean, who would ask for more
than to know that God's love is eternal? It's unchangeable. God's love is unchangeable. And
it's unalterable, to repeat myself. And it's invariable. As his own nature and being,
God is love. Three words. And he that dwells in love dwells
in God, and God dwells in him. That's a quote from 1 John. That statement is as true today
as it is in all eternity. The is's of that verse, hath
in that verse, means it's done. It's done. And that was stated
750 years before Christ ever came. He is in all eternity. God our Father is the Father
of lights. with whom there is no variableness,
no shadow of turning. The salvation of God's chosen
people does not stand upon some precarious foundation that might
crumble under his feet. It stands upon the rock, Christ
Jesus. We're fickle beings. We'll change
our mind, but his won't. His purpose will never change.
He inhabits all of eternity. He's the Lord who changes not. And he says, therefore, the sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Are we a son of Jacob? They're not consumed, never have
been and never will be. And again, he says in another
place, the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but
my kindness, my kindness shall not depart from you, neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed. He has sworn that
he is going to save and he is dead set determined that not
all men will perish, that he is gonna save some. He's obligated himself to it.
Is that an overstatement? Some men say that God doesn't
have to save you or me or anyone else. I'm not going to quibble
with them over it, but I'll say this. I don't think that's true. He made a covenant and he purposed
to save a people and he's got to do it or he's not God. He's
not God. Please understand me. I didn't
know God from a gourd. And I lived my days in total
rebellion. How could he have loved me all
that time? He could love me in Christ. He
could find me in Christ. But don't you see, that's the
whole point. He loved you in Christ and preserved you in time
to the time of His love when He revealed Christ in you, when
He reveals Christ in us. But that was nonetheless done
in eternity as any more so than it was in time. What He's purposed,
He's going to fulfill. Our Lord has been surety of that
covenant, God's everlasting covenant from all eternity. And in that
office as surety, God our Father is
the first one, if you will. God our Father is the first who
ever trusted in Christ. Christ is surety of that covenant
which promises a chosen people eternal life, made it sure. He made it sure. And it was as
sure in eternity when God purposed it as it was when He finished
it on the cross at Golgotha. But He said, it's finished. I'll try to shed some light on
that in a minute. He made it sure, and the Father
viewed all things He has purposed and made sure as being done from
His first thought of it, if it can be described that way. But you say they're not done.
They're not done. You know something? I understand
what you're saying. I really do. It may be a struggle, but we
need to think of the way that God views things
rather than the way we view those. When God views things, he has
purpose. He sees them as done. When you
read these scriptures, remember that. Remember that. God loved
Jacob before he had ever done any good or evil. That makes
salvation by grace, not by anything you did. I don't care whether
you think you're saved because you believe or because you see
faith in yourself or whatever, but that had nothing to do with
you earning your salvation. It's not of works. Faith is a
gift of God. It's bestowed. It's undeserving. It's by grace. All of the things God promised
in His everlasting covenant are spoken of either in the present
tense or the past tense, and maybe both in the same verse.
When I'm with that said, listen carefully, it still remains that
God, that what God has purposed and declared done in eternity
does not remove the necessity of it being performed in time. What he's purposed, he's gonna
fulfill. I talked to Brother Darwin Pruitt a while back, a
few days ago, week two, and he made this comment to me, and
I thought it was simple but brilliant. He said,
God's providence, God's predestination, God's providence and purpose
is like reading a book. He said, God is going through
a book that he has written page by page and he's unfolding his
purpose in time, page by page. And he only knows what the next
page contains. But I can tell you this, that
statement's true. And the next page of that book
will be, for sure, tomorrow's history. You don't know what
it is, and I don't know what it is, but he does, down to the
color of the socks that you're wearing today. And while there's no, There's
no manifest, there's no sensible manifestation or revelation or
awareness of God's love to his chosen people before they're
converted or while they're in their state of nature. But there comes a time to God's elect, which is described
in scripture as the time of love when their salvation is revealed
to them. The apostle Paul wrote to the
Galatians and he said this, before faith came, we were kept under
the law and shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. He's going to reveal it. And
you're shut up to it until He does reveal it. That revelation
is described in Ezekiel. And I think you'll remember these
verses. We won't turn there for sake
of time. But let me paraphrase what the Lord says there. He
said, when I pass by you, when God pass by you, you, that's
what the verse says, when I pass by you, After you were cast into
the field to die in your nativity, you
were cast out into the world. You were born into the world
and you were born dead in Adam's original or in Adam's fallen
state, the state of your birth, your nativity. You were cast
into the field to die in your nativity, your origin, the state
of your birth. And I looked upon you and behold,
your time was the time of love. When I passed by you, when you were in your blood and
And God spread his skirt over you and covered your nakedness,
which is your unrighteous existence, and all your sin. And I swore
to you and entered into a covenant with you, saith the Lord God,
and you became mine." You see that? If what God purposed
in eternity is revealed and takes place in time, when did He look
at you? When did He look upon you and
spread His skirt over you? When did He pass by you? When
did He find us polluted in our own blood, in the state of our
birth, living in this world? When did He say to you, live? When is this eternal love for
his adopted sons and daughters revealed? I think the answer
can be found in one verse, and I want you to turn there. Look
at Ephesians chapter one and verse 13. Ephesians one, chapter one, verse
13. And look at this verse. I want
you to start reading. Not that I've left anything out,
which needs to be said here, but begin with the word. If you've
got the King James Version, begin with the word ye. You also, it
says, trusted Christ after that you heard the word of the truth. the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also, after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. That is the time of the believer's
love. When the Lord comes to you in the gospel from
the lips of a preacher, When you hear, that's what it says,
when you heard of the, when you heard of your salvation, when
you heard of the good news of your salvation, a salvation that
had already been done, you just now finding out about it. God
saved you if you're in Christ before the world ever began. And with all that comes faith
to believe. And with the gift of faith, he
seals us with his Holy Spirit, never to be abandoned again. When was this time of love? It
was when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When did He pass by you? It was
when you heard the gospel and you were sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise. It was after you heard the gospel
of your salvation. This is when God reveals to you
the fact that salvation, that your salvation is and has been
done from all eternity. This is God's eternal love revealed
in time to His people. But His love began when He wrote
our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. Look over in the book
of Revelation 21 and 22. It talks about, no, not now,
but go home and read it. Those books were written and
nobody was found worthy. to begin with, to open those
books. And He wrote every name in them. Wrote every name of
His chosen ones in those books. When He wrote our names in that
Lamb's book of life before the world was made, God's love for
His people, His elect, does not begin in time. When this time
of love occurs, God's love for His people does not begin with
our love for Him. It began in the annals of history,
of eternity, if it can be described in such language. And herein
is love, not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sin. We love him because
he first loved us. These are God's sayings. They're in this book. That's
direct quotes from, we're all familiar with them.
Here in his love, not that we love God, but he loved us. His
love for me and his love for you was carried in his heart
long before we were ever delivered from the power of darkness and
translated into his kingdom, the kingdom of his dear son.
Christ's love for us is the ground and the foundation of the calling
that is described here in that 13th verse in Ephesians. And
that love is revealed to us when we're called out of darkness
by the preaching of that gospel. Has God revealed it to you? I've told you about it. He has
to reveal it. He says to them, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, listen to this now,
with loving kindness, I have drawn you. When you heard of
the love of God, in Christ, who gave himself to
make a people holy and without blame. That love, that expression,
the love expressed in that is what draws one to Christ. You know what that word draw
means? Have I drawn thee? With love,
I have drug you. like drawing water out of a well
or dragging a bag of grass. We've been troubled. That choice presupposes there
was love and God's love of his children is never wavered and
never changed. But if God didn't love His elect
while they were in a state of nature, they would have forever
remained in the state of their nativity, their birth, Adam. They're unable to help themselves
and it's only by God's purpose, love for them, which engages
His power to say to them, live, and He gives them life. Paul
described it in Ephesians. He says, you hath he quickened. You know what quickened means? It means made alive, given life. In other words, he said live,
and you did. Paul described it again, 1 Thessalonians,
he said, our gospel, the gospel we hear David preach here, every
service came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance. And it took that same power that
raised us from the dead to quicken us to a new life. That's the
same power that God exercised on Christ when he raised him
from the grave. That's the power that it takes.
And he does it through the preaching of the gospel. He empowers that
word. I think there's three instances
that God loved his people in eternity before conversion, that
time of love, and I can't think of a one that occurs after that
that's any greater. Number one, God gave himself.
He said, I will be their God and they shall be my people.
And the second thing, he gave the gift of his son. That is
an expression of love. He's the lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. And last of all, he gave the
gift of his spirit. Can you think of any greater
examples of God's love demonstrated to his people after they're converted? No, no. All that God does in time or
will do in eternity Our expressions directed to his people, confirming
that he has loved them from everlasting in his son. The consideration that God loved
us before we loved him and that his thoughts have always been
directed toward our salvation, even when we were his enemies,
when we had no thoughts of him. and had no concern for ourselves.
That motivates his children to offer up praise and thanksgiving
to him and to serve and glorify him. For me to think that he
began his love after I began to love him or because I have
looked or loved him doesn't do that. In fact, that would make
him as fickle as we are. What if we decided not to love
him? Would he quit loving us? No. That won't work. God's love is
unchangeable. I do know that we're men and
women that are still possessed of a carnal nature, living in
the corruption of our flesh. And we're not able to fully wrap
our minds around all this wonderful truth, but God the Father having
purpose in his love for us in Christ has guaranteed this inheritance
for us by giving us the earnest of his spirit concerning the
promise. The revelation of his love for
us in time is merely the down payment on the promise of better
things to come. It's the earnest of our expectations,
the down payment of every believer. And it will only be fully realized
when we shed this mortal body of flesh. The purchase price
of our inheritance was the blood and death of our substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. A few more remarks. Look up further
on your page there to verse four with me, Ephesians 1-4. It says this, read along with
me. He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. That statement, demonstrates and confirms that
the first and the original view that God had of the church, his
elect, you, if you're in Christ, when chosen, holy and blamed
without Christ, that's the first view he had of you. Not only that, it's the first
and last view God has always of the church, the elect in Christ. In Christ, there can be no change.
Though in the fall of Adam, the elect were polluted in themselves
and in their flesh and their fallen nature, the time state,
the time of love, can't do away with the Lord's
purpose in eternity. Absolutely no sin in Adam can
destroy the holiness that we possess in Christ. And it is
in Christ that we're chosen. We're chosen in him to be holy
and without blame before God in love and by Christ's accomplishment
and by his one offering. Are you hearing me? By his death
and resurrection and his work, he is perfected forever. Them
that are sanctified, those that have been set apart, sanctified. This has forever been the first
design of God, but the last to be executed. The church, you, the elect, the
chosen ones, when she is finally brought home to Christ, in death
or in the end of time, will still be found in Christ, holy and
without blame before God in love. And our Lord will present her
a glorious church, a glorious bride. Not having spot, listen
to this, this is a quote from God said this, not having spot
or wrinkle some of us getting old, or any such thing, but holy and
without blemish for all eternity. Can you fathom that? Can you
enter into that? God said, yes, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn you He just keeps on dragging. What does that mean? It means
God's love's eternal. Maybe, just maybe. He's revealed that to you this
morning.