And I was going to bring a message
this evening on the blessing and cursing God, but after preaching
about God's wrath last week, I thought, well, that wouldn't
be a very wise thing to do. So tonight I'm going to talk
about the attribute of God's blessed love. And look what it
says there in verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Then in verse 39, look what it
says now down there. He says, Nor hith nor deth nor
any other creature, now watch this, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Christ's
love and God's love. Secure in Christ's hand, secure
in God's hand. And it says here that he says
that nothing shall separate us from the love of God. Which is
to say, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love
of God that's in Christ Jesus. Now God's love, longsuffering
to usward, It says over 2 Peter 3, God is long-suffering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And that's exactly what it means that God, when He talks about
us, shall anything separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ. He's long-suffering to us-ward. And by us, it means
His people. We've heard here about Him, the
God's elect. God justifies, so who's going
to condemn us? And so the us here, it means
His people. The Scriptures knows nothing
of the love of God outside of Christ. God's love is in a person,
manifested in a person. It's not some abstract something
out here. It's something that's real. It's
something that's alive. It's something that's vital.
It's something that's manifested. It's something that's powerful.
It's something that brings an effect. upon men's hearts and
lives, and it's never outside of Christ. Never outside of Christ. God doesn't ask why we preach
Christ and tell men to come to Christ, because that's where
everything God has for us all is in His blessed Son. And they
know the Scriptures know nothing about the love of God outside
of Christ. Now, the Scriptures said in Psalm 145, 9 that God
is good to all. Good to all. And when it means
that he's good to all, it means that he even provides food for
the raven. Don't he? Provides food for the cattle
on a thousand hills. He's kind to the unthankful and
the evil. And you keep Romans 8, look over
here with me in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 45. And in his providence,
look how he treats everyone. This is how he treats everyone.
He provides for the raven. It takes care of His creation. And it says here in Matthew 5,
verse 45, this is how God treats everyone. He said here, that
you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For
He maketh His Son to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust. So that's what He does for everybody. The men that cuss Him, they'll
get just as much rain as we do. The men that hate Him and the
people that love Him, they get exactly the same thing everybody
else does as far as the sun rising on them. When the sun come up
today, men who hate Him and despise Him, the sun come up on them
and they enjoy the sun as much as those who know Him and rejoice
in Him and rest in Him. So He treats everyone alike like
that. But His love, now listen to me, His love, is reserved
for His elect, and only His elect. And it must be so, because His
attribute of love is identical with Himself. And what I mean
by that, the Scripture says God is love. He's not a God of love,
He is love. There is no love outside of God. God's even the natural love that
you and I have. God produced that sentence. But
God is love. And to say that His love is identical
with Himself is the same as saying God's love is like Himself. It's
from everlasting to everlasting. Is God eternal? Then His love's
eternal. Is God infinite? Then His love
is infinite. Is God all-powerful? Then His
love's all-powerful. And it's immutable. Is God immutable?
Then His love's immutable. It can't change. And oh, what
a blemish! What a blemish on the character
of God! to even think anyone he loves
might perish or suffer his vengeance. To think for a minute that one
who God loves might perish in their sin, and God breaks his
vengeance upon them when he loved them from all eternity, what
a blemish on the character of God. And God's love, I tell you,
beloved, is in Christ Jesus. Ain't that what it says here
in Christ Jesus? There is nothing. And there was
nothing, there is nothing in the objects of His love that
attracted His love to us. Not a thing in the world. Not
a thing attracted. Not anything in me, not anything
in you attracted God's love toward us. And nothing in us. Those
that are objects of His love, nothing in us can repel that
love and cause that love to not be manifested towards us. You
know, there's nothing in us, of us, or by us that attracted
it, so what in the world can we do to keep him from, cause
him to not give it to us? Having loved his own, is what
he said. Having loved his own, which were
in the world, how long do you love them? To the end. Oh my, if you look at Simon Peter,
You know, boy, when he grabbed that sword and cut off that servant's
ear, oh, man, God really loves him. He done something real zaz.
The next thing you know, before the night was over, getting about
daylight, and the rooster crowed the third time, and Simon Peter
denied him the third time. Then you say, well, God couldn't.
He messed up, so God's love just ebbed a little bit on him. That's
the way people view it. But that's not the way it is.
God loved him as much before he was ever called to be Simon
Peter the Apostle, as he did when he denied him. His love
never varied. And God's chief design, God's
chief design is to commend the love of God in Christ. You see,
he's the soul channel from which it flows. You know, the Son,
here's what people think, the Son came to get God, to enable
God to love us. But beloved, the Son didn't come
to get His Father to love us. God sent His Son into this world
because He did love. John 3.16 seems to be the only
verse of scripture that most preachers know when it talks
about the love of God. But John 3.16 is not the gospel. John 3.16 is not the gospel. John 3.16 is the cause of the
gospel. God so loved that He gave His
only begotten Son. And it was because God loved
that that's why He gave His Son. He didn't give His Son so His
Son would come and enable God to love us. His Son came because
God did love us before the world ever began. And beloved, all
the promises of God are in Him. It does what the Scripture said
over second Corinthians, all the promises of God. God has
a promise for anybody, promise of justification, promise of
love, promise of mercy, promise of grace, promise of forgiveness,
promise of acceptance, promise of righteousness, promise of
union. If there's any promise that God
makes towards any man, it's in his blessed Son. And if you have
the Son, than you have ever promised that God has in Him. Is that
not right? And, oh beloved, we were chosen
in Him. We were accepted in Him. Our
life is here with God in Him. We are beloved in Him. And it
talked about the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And
as our head, As our husband, we are one with Him, and that's
why nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from
the love of God that's in Christ. Huh? The love of God's in Christ.
And, beloved, what a blessing to our hearts for us to think
about the love of God, God's blessed love. When you start
contemplating God's love, and ah, I think about it, you know,
The love of God. You know, when you think about
who it is that He shows love to, then you see the astoundingness
of it, the glory of it, the wonder of it, the preciousness of it. All you've got to do is just
look at yourself, and you go, oh my, God loves me? God loves me? What in the world
is there in me? That would cost God to love me. Oh my, it lifts us up and gets
us outside of ourselves. God's love in Christ shows us
it's not attracted by anything in us. It shows us that there's
nothing in us that attracts the love of God. I want you to see
something over here in Romans 9. You're in Romans 8. Just turn
over one chapter there, one page. Look what it says there. Romans 9.13, as it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. Jacob have I loved? You start
thinking about what kind of person Jacob was. You know, his very name means
supplanter. His very name means he's a deceiver. God called him
a worm, thou worm Jacob. I mean, he was deceitful, he
was a supplanter, he was a manipulator, he would strike a bargain and
he always come out on top in the bargain. He beat his father-in-law
out of all of his cattle. He took everything. He went down
there and his father-in-law beat him out of his first wife. He
said, I know what I'll do. I'll just go jacking. He ended
up taking almost all of his father-in-law's cattle. Here's a fellow, beloved,
if you knew him, you'd say, that's one of the most despicable creatures.
But it says, Jacob, have a love. I didn't love Jacob because he's
a supplant or a deceiver, and I did not. And I refuse to love
him because he's a supplant. Before he was ever born, he said,
Jacob, have a love. Before he ever done any good,
before he ever done any evil, Jacob, have a love. Thou wert Jacob. Thou wert Jacob. God's love in Christ, our beloved,
doesn't depend on our fruitfulness. It's the same at all times. And
this is what people think. And you know when you're in religion,
and you've got just a natural concept of God, you automatically
think that when you're doing good, God loves you more. And
when you do bad, God loves you less. When you're bringing forth
a lot of fruit, then God's smiling on you real big. And then when
you're lollygagging around, not bringing forth a lot of fruit,
He's pouting on you real bad. Oh, my, that makes His love like
us. That makes it just like us. That
makes it like us. When I get upset with you, I'll
go out on the porch and get away from you. You get upset with
me, you go someplace else. And we just bypass one another
for a while until we get over it. But God's not like that. No, no, no, no. Whether we bring
forth fruit or not, that has nothing to do with it. It had
nothing to do with Him love us to start with. It don't have
nothing to do with Him continuing to love us. If He loves you on the basis
of one day in your life, one day, Just if he just picked out one
day, he said, I'm going to pick out one day. And I'm going to
love them up to that day and after that day. And if they,
if I, in your love, and he says, well, no, he said, I'm going
to let them have one day, and if they don't love me with all
their heart, and obey me perfectly, and pray the way they ought to,
and read their Bible the way they ought to, and call somebody that's
in need, and help somebody that's in need, if they don't do that,
I'm just going to quit loving them all together. All of us just go back to the
house. That's the way it is. That ain't the way it is. That's His only name. No, no.
He loves us. He loves us. And this is what's
so amazing. Not only the way we were, but
the way we are and the way we will be. And that's what He means. He's
going to conform us. The love of God is so strong
and so powerful and so effective that He's going to take, that
love is going to take us and conform us to the image of His
Son someday soon. And oh beloved, God's love for
us in Christ, and let me show you, keep Romans 8, look in John
17, 23. John 17, 23. Because God's love for us is
in Christ, He loves us just like He loves His own sons. You know, we have such a union
with Christ. We're so one with the Lord Jesus Christ, so identified
with Him, and Him with us. Look what it says here in John
17, 23. Our Lord's praying here, and
He said, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one. Where were we made this perfection
at? In one, in Christ. And that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, watch this now, and
hast loved them as you've loved me. Ever how much, ever how God
loves His Son, that's the way He loves us. Ever. I want the world to know, as
you've loved me, I've loved them. And I want them to be perfect
in what? Me and you are perfect. As one, I want them to be perfect
in one. Where's that perfection at? In
one person, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if it's perfect,
then His love is perfect. And God's love to His people
is not of yesterday. It didn't begin with their love
to Him. No, no, no, no. God's love to
His people wasn't born yesterday. It didn't begin when we started
loving Him. Hearing His love. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us. We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. And
let me tell you something, beloved. Our new birth, our new birth,
being regenerated, is not the motive of His love. We are regenerated. We have the new birth because
He loves us. Look over in Ezekiel with me, just a minute. Ezekiel
16. Ezekiel 16. What's this? People think, you know, they
get regenerated and then they got this new heart, new life,
so God starts loving them. It's like we don't have anything
with the new birth, and we're regenerated. He sends the Holy
Spirit to us and sheds abroad his heart and his love of God
in our heart by the Holy Ghost, and that's why we're regenerated.
Ezekiel 16, verse 8. and looked upon him. I passed
by him. Watch it. That's one thing, just
going passing by. But I passed by and looked upon
him. You know how many times he's done that in the Scriptures?
He passed by the well, and he looked upon a woman. Passing under a sycamore tree,
and he looked on a man. Passing out of Jericho, and he
looked on a beggar. Passing through a crowd, And
he turned around and he looked at a woman who touched the hem
of his garment. When he's passing by, he looks. He looks. Now, I passed by thee
and looked upon thee. Behold, thy time was the time
of love. What time? The time that I love
you. The time that I'm going to manifest
my love. The time I'm going to express my love. The time that
I'm going to bring forth my love. The time that I'm going to let
you experience my love. And I spread my skirt over you
and cover your nakedness. There you are. You're a baby.
You're in miserable condition. You're unswaddled. And I swear
unto you. Oh my. I swear unto you. and
entered into a covenant with you, saith the Lord, and you
became mine." Oh, there he was naked. God said,
I see you. And it's the time for me to express
my love, to show you my love, for you to experience my love,
for my love to be shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost,
for my Spirit to come into you where you'll cry, I am a Father.
And watch what else said, then I washed you with water. The
washing of the water by the word, the washing of regeneration.
Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
you with oil. And watch this, and I covered you with broadered
work. He put a new garment on him. Broadered work, that blessed
righteousness of Christ that he put on us. And oh, beloved. So you see, we are regenerated. We have the new birth because
he loves us. And I've said this so many times. There is, if God
carries His covenant, there are people that are not yet born
whom Christ died for, just like Jacob, before he was ever born. God loved him. God crossed his
path. God called him to himself and
entered into a covenant with him. Gave him a new name. Gave him a new walk. And there
are people not yet being born that God loves them, just like
He loved Jacob. And he'll cross her path just
like he'd done that woman, that infant there in Ezekiel 16. Ain't
that right? I may not know anything about
it. I may be gone when that happens. But it's going to happen, ain't
it? It's going to happen. You know why? Because that's
the way God is. That's the way He chooses to
do things. Not only are the objects of God's
love in Christ, Often at their worst when He reveals His love
to them. Not only are they at their worst when He reveals His
love to them, but actually doing their worst. Could you have been
any worse when God revealed His love to you? Could you have been any worse? Yeah. And actually doing their
worst. There's Saul of Tarsus. He was
on his way. He'd already been persecuting
the Church of God. Making havoc of the Church. Taking
Christians, putting them in jail. Men, women, children. People
were being killed. People were being put in prison.
Because he hated the very name of Christ. And what did the Scripture
say? Put him down in the dust. The
light above and the brightness of the sun shone around about
him. And he's the very man who wrote about who shall separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ. Went from being a blasphemer
and a persecutor to preaching the very gospel he once destroyed. The very Christ that he hated,
now beloved, he says the love of God in Christ. Nothing can
separate us from that. And here's somebody who knew
if anything could have separated, it would have separated him.
But he said, all the blessed love of God, all the spiritual
blessings in Christ. What about the woman at the well?
Look what condition she is in. She'd been married five times.
Five times. That's a lot of times. That's a lot of times. And then after five times, I
don't know if her husband died, I don't know if they got a divorce,
I don't know what happened. But I do know this, that the
fellow she was living with at that time wasn't her husband.
She'd been married five times and then she was living with
a man. And the Lord Jesus has saved
that woman that day. You say, boy, she's in awful
bad shape. You reckon your heart is any better? What about Mary Magdalene? The
scripture says she had seven devils in her. Bad enough to
have one. She had seven of them in her.
And you know where you'd find her at? Sitting at the feet of
Christ. Worshipping Him. Bowing to Him. Following Him everywhere He went.
And she was one of the very first to go to the tomb the morning
of His resurrection. And she is one of the ones that
stood beside Him at the cross. She stood within hearing distance
of Him at the cross. Three Marys, and John, was all
that stood there. Five of them stood there that
day. And Mary Magdalene was one of them. Could you have been
any worse than having five devils? That's who Christ is. He loved
her. He loved her and manifested himself. You say, my goodness,
how can anybody love a woman like that? God, how can anybody
love somebody like you? What are you worth? What have you ever done for the
glory of God? How much have you ever loved your neighbor? How much have you How much of you, how much of
any of us, ever gave God any reason whatsoever to love us? But the love of God is in Christ. And, O beloved, God's love for
us didn't begin in time, but it bears the stamp of eternity.
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with cords
of lovingkindness have I drawn thee. And I'll tell you, look
here in Romans chapter 5. Let me show you this. Romans
chapter 5. Verse 8. He loved us while we were enemies.
This is what's so mysterious. Another thing about the love
of God. Look in Romans 5.8. Oh my, He loved us while we were
even enemies. But God commendeth His love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, all yet sinners, while
we were yet in our sins, while we was yet in our rebelling,
while we was yet wallowing in our self-righteousness, self-confidence,
false religion, cursing, blaspheming, lying, stealing, cheating, being
the rottenest people that we are by nature, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's that unspoken.
Look down in verse 10. For if, when we were enemies,
an enemy of God, yes sir, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled Bless His name, we
shall be saved by His life. Oh, beloved, how indebted we
are to the love of God to us in His Son. And God's love makes
a change in us, makes a change in us, but it makes none in Him. It makes a change in us, but
it makes none in Him. In fact, when He chastens us,
you know He chastens? As a father chasteneth his son,
he only chastens those whom he loves." Well, how does God manifest
His love to us? I want to show you a couple of
things real quick. Over here in 1 Thessalonians 2.13, I want
you to see this. How does God manifest? He said
He commends it. How does He manifest His love
towards us? First of all, He does it by election. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? But look here in 2 Thessalonians
2.13. Look what it says here now. Watch this.
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren.
But watch this. Beloved of the Lord. Because God, here's why God loved
you. What did He do? He chose you.
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. according as he hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world." Beloved of God,
and all beloved in redeeming us. Not only by election He manifested
His love, but by redeeming us. Christ actually laying down His
life, shedding His blood, having loved His own. Beloved, laying
down His life for His sheep. Here God, the Scripture says,
so loved us and that he commended his love and he manifested his
love that God sent his own son to be the propitiation, the atoning
victim for our sin. And it was God's sovereign love,
sovereign love, that made him provide his son to render satisfaction
for our sins. No, no wonder he says that God,
who spared not His own Son, now shall He not also with Him freely
give us all things. Not only did He elect us, show
His love in Christ by electing us, redeeming us, but by affectionately
calling us. The Father sends the Holy Spirit, and in loving kindness He calls
us to Himself. calls us from death to life,
from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness. Behold,
1 John 3 says this, behold, behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, what? The sons
of God. Sons! And, O Beloved, in the end it
is free. God's love in Christ is free. It's free. Oh, my. Hosea 14.4 says this,
I will love them freely. How shall he not with Him also
freely give us all? Well, what can you pay God for
what He gives? You can't. It's free. It's free. How are you going to pay Him?
How are you going to pay him? It's free. In Song of Solomon,
I'll read it to you. You don't have to look at it.
I'll just read it to you, and then I'll be through. Song of
Solomon. It says this, Song of Solomon 8-7. You can
look it up later. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the
substance of his house for love, it would utterly be content.
That where the love of God is, and what that means is that love,
nothing can absolutely destroy love. Waters can't quench it,
floods can't drown it, and give everything you've got for it.
And you can't buy it. Can't buy it. And it's free. And that's why it says there
in Romans 8, again, Verse 39, "...who shall be able, I am persuaded,
that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities
shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is
in Christ Jesus." I wish I could say about it what
it ought to be said. I wish I could talk about it
the way it's worthy should be said, talked about. But as a
lot of old-timers used to say, it's better felt than told. Better
felt than told.