I am so glad that our Father
is heaven Tells of his love in the book he has given Wonderful
things in the Bible I see This is the dearest that Jesus loves
me Jesus said that Jesus loves me Jesus loves me, Jesus loves
me I am so glad that Jesus loves me Jesus loves even me Though
I forget Him and wander away, Still He doth love me wherever
I stray. Back to His dear loving arms
I would flee, When I remember that Jesus loves me. I am so
glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me, Jesus loves even me. Oh, if there only one song I
can sing, When in His beauty I see the great King, This shall
my song be in turn of teasing. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
loves me! I am so glad that Jesus loves
me! Jesus loves me! Jesus loves me! I am so glad that Jesus loves
me! Jesus loves even me! We can sure tell that wasn't
Judy playing, can't we? Caught me off guard a little bit. We
were practicing. Kathy's found some songs, more
recorded songs. So we're going to increase our
song list quite a bit, actually. And I should have tried that
before I did it to realize it was that bad. Cut that song out of there. We're
not going to put that in our recording. Well, the reason for singing
that was I wanted you to hear the words, Jesus loves even me. And that's what I wanted you
to hear. John Reeves, the guy who definitely does not deserve
the love of God. But despite John Reeves, despite
who I am, despite what I am, God still loves me, even me. Please turn in your Bibles to
the letter the apostle wrote to the Ephesians. Yesterday we had the distinct
pleasure, the honor, to perform and be participants of the first
ceremonial marriage here at Rescue since Pastor Gene has left. And
this marriage between our brother and sister, Garrett and Katie,
was quite an honor. And love was without a doubt
spoken of heavily the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for his
people, the love between man and woman. Katie was just absolutely
beautiful. And Garrett, you should have
heard him. When the doors opened up and he saw Katie, it was like
I was standing this far away from him. And I could feel him
just go, oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, it was really very
pretty. In the introduction, after the
formal part of it, I made this statement. I said, love is what
seals a marriage. And it truly does. Love will
overlook the faults of your loved ones. When you love someone, you tend to give them a little
more space in their mistakes. I've had people cut me off on
the freeway, and I've literally blown my top in ways that I don't
even want to share with you. But I have done some pretty stupid
things, and those things of kind of anger for what somebody might
have done to me. And yet a loved one may turn
and do the same thing to me, and I'll, OK, I know. It's all
right. Love overlooks the faults of
our loved ones. In 1 Corinthians 13, 4 we read,
charity suffereth long. The word charity is the word
love. And is kind. Charity envieth not. I am so thankful that my friend,
my best friend, a man that I have loved since high school. I love
him as a brother. I love him closer than my own
brothers. I'm so thankful that he is a successful businessman,
doing very well for himself. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaunteth not itself. I don't rub in the great things
that I have or the great things that the Lord has blessed me
with to those who don't have it, to those around me, to those
that I love. Charity is not puffed up. Look
at me. See what I have. In 1 Peter 4, verse 8, we read,
And above all things have fervent charity, fervent love, sincere
love among yourselves. For charity, love shall cover
a multitude of sins. True love is giving of oneself
unto another, as I read in yesterday's message. And this is what I wish
to bring before you this morning. My title for today's message
is Eternal Love. And I wish to bring before you
this message of one whose love is set as an example for us to
express, an example to emulate in our
own relationships. Before a star ever twinkled in
the sky, A covenant was made between the great three and one,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. An agreement. A blood pact. A committal. God the Father committed a people
to His Son. A people who had nothing to offer
worthy of this great gift of mercy, this great gift of grace. A people who could do nothing
to earn this favoritism. this grace the Father would bestow
upon them. Yet this people, like all of
mankind, were dead in sin and trespasses. There was no life
in them. Their sins separated them from
the true and living God, holy in every aspect of His character,
so holy that He could not even look upon sin. He could not be
in the presence of it. So how could this holy God spend
eternity with this people that He loved, who were so full of
sin? that it covered them from the
tops of their heads to the bottom of their feet. In the Old Testament,
we read about leprosy. We read about how it wasn't just
part of your body. It was your whole body. Sores
from the top of your head all the way to the bottom of your
feet that oozed, oozed and stunk. We have no idea what that is
like in today's world. The Lord has led us to eradicate
that disease from the world today, for most parts. It might be some
places over in the third world countries where it still shows
its head, but for the most part we don't see it, do we? But this
is a disease that covers the whole body. And that's what sin
is. Sin is what we are. It's what
the flesh is that we have around our bones. It's our heart that
we come into this world with. How could this holy God spend
eternity with this people who are so, so filthy? They lay in their own blood in
the field. Blood must be shed to pay that
price. Hebrews 9.22 we read, and almost
all things are by the law purged with blood. Anything that is
done that is against the law of God, anything, unbelief, murder,
all the list that you can put as being sin before God must
be purged with blood. Without shedding of blood, there
is no remission of sin. Full payment must be made. In
Romans 6.23, we read, for the wages of sin is death. You see,
the problem is, though, is our blood is unworthy just as our
works are. Not only are our works unworthy
of the grace of God, our blood is unworthy with it. It's tainted. This people, so steeped in their
own self-righteousness, so full of their own self-worth, they
cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. It is foolishness in the blind
eyes of the natural man. This people that were given by
the Father must have a Savior. They must have One who can walk
perfectly in every way. One who knew no sin of His own,
yet would be able to take the sins of this people upon Himself,
and put them away with His own sacrifice, conquering the penalty
of sin, the penalty of death. This chosen people, chosen from
before the foundation of all creation, would have a Messiah. They will have a Savior. He shall
be called Jesus, for He shall save His people. No maybes. As I said in Bible study, no
ifs. It's not a possibility for waiting for you to do something
to accept it. It says he shall save his people. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, He says. And Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. We who once walked according
to the flesh, we now walk by faith. Faith in the Son of the
living God. Faith that He chose to love us
before the world was. Before anything was ever created,
He wrote our names in a book. The book of life. And then He
set out to save us from our just reward. Look at verses 3-7 of
Ephesians, chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where? In something you have
done? That's not what it says. No, in Christ. That's where all
blessings come from. That's where all blessings are. according as He hath chosen us.
Remember the book I just mentioned? According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy without blame before Him, that we might stand before
our God in the end as holy as His Son, standing in His righteousness
because we have none of our own. Isn't that amazing? Do you know
we're righteous in God's eyes right now? Not tomorrow. We're not going to get any better
than we are right this minute because we're in Christ Jesus.
And Christ Jesus' righteousness is perfect in all things, is
it not? Our sinful selves, our leprosy was laid upon Him. Eternal love is our subject.
Christ agreed with God the Father, I will become a flesh. I will
become their bone. I will become a man. And I will lay down my life for these
ones I love. In love. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of the children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
Jesus, not accepted in anything that we can do of our own, but
in Jesus Christ. There's only one way to heaven,
folks. We're either in Him or we're going to hell. We're going
to receive our just reward. We're going to receive what we
earned. The wrath of God for eternity. Thank God that He has loved some
with an eternal love. You realize that when you say
eternal love, Everything, and I've mentioned
this before, but I love to say it again and again, everything
that has happened up until this very moment right now, 9-11, the Discoverers of America, Egypt,
everything that has happened throughout time has been so that
you and I can stand here today, this very moment, and hear the
Word of God, and take it upon our hearts, because He has given
us the hearts to take it. Everything is for our good. Everything that's happened before
us, even the things in our own lives that we count as waves, all things are for our good.
and according to His good pleasure and of His will, to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. In the Beloved in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. According to the riches of His
grace, we have forgiveness of our sins." Notice the phrase,
in love. That means because of, or due
to. Because of His love for us. Due
to His love for us, we shall not be consumed. The world doesn't want to look
at it that way. They want to look at it like there's something
that they can do. Yeah, God loves everybody. He's just waiting
for you to accept His love. That's what they say. He's waiting
for you to make a decision to come down and follow Him, for
you to get smart and stop doing all those things. You know, how
many times, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people
say, my life had come to a point where I just couldn't take it
anymore and I decided, okay, I've got to start following Jesus. Now, I'm not as bad as I used
to be. I'm a better person now. All of a sudden they become holier
than thou. That's what a holier than thou
person is, isn't it? Someone who's better than the rest. I'm
not that person I used to be anymore. I'm not that person I used to
be anymore either, but the flesh is still the same. I still have
that, and I tell you, That time I just mentioned a minute ago
about blowing up, about the guy who cut me off on the freeway,
that was six years after the Lord had called me out of darkness.
Don't ever think that your flesh gets any better. My spirit is
better. The Lord Jesus Christ is my spirit. But the flesh will always let
you down. In love. Because our Lord Jesus
Christ has loved us from before the foundation of the world.
Because love is an act that is committed because of the love
that one has for the other. Because of His love, we are not
destroyed, rather we are predestined to be adopted to the children
of the Most High. In Lamentations, 3.22, it says, it is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail
not. His love will not fail. You know,
my love has failed my wife. Yeah. There's times when I fail her
greatly. Thank God that she loves me enough
to look past that failure. 10, 20 times a day. You get what I'm saying? Love
from the flesh will fail. The love of God will never fail
you. That's why it's eternal. It not
only started way back before anything was made, it's going
to go for eternity out. He's never going to let us go.
There are no empty seats in heaven. Every single one for whom He
loved, He died on the cross for us. He shed His own blood. That's how strong His love was
for His people. We can see just a little inkling
of that love, and we try to emulate it in our own lives towards those
that we love in the flesh. But it's not as perfect as His
is for us. His love for us is perfect in
every way. I count on that. I trust in that. It's the only
trust I have. When we think about love of the
flesh for each other, and we see and we feel the failures
of that love at times, and there will be, if you have a relationship
with a wife or a husband, Most of us here are old enough
to know that those relationships can be tainted when love has
failed us. When we see the love of God and
what He has for us, oh, how much easier it is to say, He loved
me, shouldn't I love this one who has failed also? Look at
the love that He has for me when I fail Him a thousand times a
day. Eternal love will never let me
go. We were predestinated, predetermined
to receive His mercies chosen for His glory. Salvation shall
be accomplished all of Him. God the Father chose us before
the world began. God the Son redeemed us after
walking here for 33 years as a man. And God the Spirit, in
this very day, very day, today, calls His people out of darkness. Through the preaching of His
Word, through the preaching of the Good News, the Spirit comes
and gives a new heart, just as He did with each and every one
of us, a new heart that believes The Lord. A new heart that says,
yes, that's right, He is God. A new heart that says, that's
right, He can't make any mistakes. A new heart that says, I believe,
Lord, help thou my unbelief. In Jeremiah 31.3, the Lord hath
appeared unto me, of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
I have drawn thee. It wasn't me looking for God
that day. It was God drawing me into Him. Look over at Romans chapter 9
if you would. Romans chapter 9, beginning at
verse 11. For the children being not yet
born, this is speaking of Jacob and of Esau, neither having done
any good or evil before they were ever born, our Lord had
established who He would love and who He would hate. that the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the mother,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Aren't you glad the Lord has
chosen to have compassion on someone? Does it not bring joy
to our hearts to know that we will not receive what we are
just reward? That He has compassion on some? He has not left all to what they
deserve? So then it is not of him that
willeth." It is not our will. It is not our free, so-called
free will. We are bound by our nature when
we come into this world, and our nature is sin. If God had
left it up to my will, I would still be out there drinking,
doing all the stuff that I did, and not having a care for the
Creator of this world. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. It is because of the love and
the mercy of God that we are not consumed. And that love is
demonstrated, published, and fulfilled in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You don't need to turn there,
but in Romans 5 verse 8, But God commendeth His love toward
us. God has turned His love towards
us. In that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. His love for us is why we are
not consumed. His sacrifice is why we are not
consumed. His intervention, His mediatorially
position right now on the throne of glory is why we are not consumed. In Ephesians 2 verses 4 it reads,
But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved us, an eternal love that will last forever, His great
love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath
raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Why? that in the ages to come
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Jesus Christ. In Romans 8.35 we read, Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or the sword? If there was anything that could
separate us from the love of God, could we still call Him
God? No. You believe Jesus Christ to be
God, then He is in ruling over everything. And His love cannot
fail. That's why it's an eternal love. Forever. How can one know this great love
spoken of? How can we know that this love
is for them? That this love is for us? Turn
over to the third chapter of John if you would. If the Lord God has loved you
from the beginning of time, before anything was, if the Lord God
loves you with an eternal love and given Himself for you, I
tell you today, He will have you. Plain and simple. He will have
all for those for whom He died. Nothing can pluck them from His
Father's hand. He and His Father are one. He
bought you with His own precious blood. Atonement for your sins
have been made. Look at the verse 1 of this chapter
3. Verse 1 of chapter 3. There was
a man of the Pharisees named Nebuchadnezzar, a ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God." Is that how the world sees being
born again? Making a decision for Christ?
Exercising your free will and walking down to the front of
the aisle, getting baptized, doing whatever? Is that how the
world sees as being born again? I've never met anybody that was
born that way of you. Everyone that I know of has always
been born of God. Our Lord puts the seed and the
egg together. Oh, our scientists think they've
got it all figured out. Trust me, folks, they really
don't. Only the Lord knows how to do
those things and do them perfectly. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, he said,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. This very body that
we were born with is going to remain the flesh until the Lord
takes it. Marvel not. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but cannotst tell where it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. So that election might stand.
The Spirit must come and give new life. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master of Israel? Do you not know how to command
things and make them happen? Are you not a master in Israel? And knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and
testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If
I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you of the heavenly things? And no man
hath ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted
up the servant in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. that whosoever believeth in him."
And this is where I want you to catch this, folks. The question
was, how can I know if this love that John just spoke of, how can I know if this eternal
love that is spoken of throughout Scripture, how can I know if
that's mine? I've got all these troubles in
my life. I don't feel saved at times. I see my own sin. How can I know
that this love that God speaks of is for me? That whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. Did you catch that? How do I know this love that
God speaks of is for me? I believe. I believe the Word of God. I believe the Word of God when
it speaks about election. I believe the Word of God when
it speaks about the depravity of man. I believe God when He speaks
of the irresistible calling of His grace. I believe God when He says, I
shall never leave you nor forsake you. Perseverance of the saints. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. And don't tell me you don't have
it, because I know you do. I do. And I'm just a normal man. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. I'll not have that God. I'll
not have that God rule over me. No, no, no. I have my own free
will. Don't you dare take my free will away from me is what
my aunt said to me one day as she poked me in the chest. I
didn't. And neither did God. And as far as I know, she went
to the grave believing in her free will, in her decision. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
And this is the condemnation. This is the judgment. That light
has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light.
There you go. That's the flesh. You can't take my free will away
from me because that's what I love. I love the fact that I'm the
one who's God. I will make the decisions. I
will decide when I want to follow something and when I don't. I
have authority over myself, not you. They love the darkness rather
than the light because their deeds are evil. For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light. Why? Because the light exposes
it. God says, you think all you want about what you think, you
know, about your will. My will rules. Plain and simple. I rule over
everything, is what the Lord says. And His light reveals that
darkness in us, that darkness of our desire to rule over ourselves,
to make our own destiny the way we want it to. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light. When the Lord Jesus Christ, God
Almighty, the Father, gives you the revelation of who Jesus Christ
is, you will come to that light. When He shows you what it is
for you to be flesh, where else is there to go? Once you realize where your flesh
is taking you, you don't want to go there no more. He brings
that light and shines it in your heart. How do I know if this
love that God speaks of, this eternal love is for me? I believe
God. I see with eyes that He has given
me now. Not with eyes that just decided
to start looking, but with eyes that He has given me. I believe with faith that He
has given me. Do you notice who's getting the
credit for all this? If you look at anything else
out there, all the other religions, you'll see where men can say,
I. Sovereign grace, it's all of
Him. All the glory goes to Him. You
ever listen to somebody on the radio and one of the guys at
work was telling me about how he just could not believe there's
this guy who shows up every morning at 6 a.m. on TV just before the
news starts or five something before the news starts and he
starts telling, I need a new Rolex watch. Send me your money. I know. I've seen him once. I
don't turn into him anymore. But he came in two days in a
row. Man, he's on again this morning. This morning, he needs
a new Cadillac. How can anybody believe that
stuff? It's all about I. I gave money
to him. I did this. I supported that. Sovereign Grace is all the Lord
Jesus Christ, plain and simple. How do you know if His love is
for you? Do you give Him all the glory? Lord, I know. I know. I'm going
to use this example again, young'un. Whack! Right down the middle
of the fairway. Woo! That went 300 yards. I'm almost
as good as Tiger Woods. Does John stop and say, Lord,
I know that was of you. Not as much as I should. God helped me to give Him all
the glory. That's how I know I'm His. That's
how you can know that this love that the Lord speaks of is yours. Give Him the glory in all things.
Folks, in closing, we know that the love of God constrains us. The love of God keeps us from
doing things that we used to do. He who has loved us from
everlasting shall he not also keep us. We know this love is
ours, and by our faith in Him, we believe Him. We believe that
the faith is a gift of God, We believe that Christ is the author
and the finisher of our faith. We believe His word. And because
of this wonderful gift, this wonderful gift of faith, we love Him because He first
loved us. Amen? Stand with me if you will.