I invite your attention to the
book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 3. Jeremiah, chapter 31,
verse 3. My message this morning is titled,
I Love You. And while you locate your text,
let me tell you a story. Sandra Marvin accompanied me
to a preaching engagement during the days of our courtship in
1975. Now that is getting close to
50 years ago. And neither of us today, lo these
many years later, remembers the specific occasion nor anything
we discussed as we traveled. However, as we traveled to my
preaching engagement, I evidently mentioned my text for the occasion. For when I took my place behind
the pulpit and opened my Bible to my desired text, I found a
sliver of paper torn from a sheet on which was written, I love
you. Here, you may see it, a little
sliver of paper on which was written, I love you. Well, I
announced my text and as the congregation located it in their
Bibles, I scanned the audience looking for the person who had
written the love note, I love you. Ah, there she was. sweetly smiling
from ear to ear, a visible token that she had indeed written the
note and that I was the object of her love. I eliminated that
little love note and returned it to my Bible where it has served
as a bookmark for decades and as a daily token of her love
for me. Not only does my Bible contain
a love note, it is itself a love note. And whereas Sandy's love
note is found in only one place in my Bible, God's love note
is found on every page. Everywhere I turn in one way
or another, I find God sweetly smiling at me and assuring me,
I love you. I agree with Philip P. Bliss
when he hymns, I am so glad that our father in heaven tells of
his love and the book he has given. Wonderful things in the
Bible I see. This is the dearest that Jesus
loves me. Oh, how sweet that God says,
I love you. And not only does God express
his love to me in his word, he also declares the characteristic
of his love for me. Now, there is no way we could
exhaust this subject in this short message. My message has
25 points. And I'm going to cover them very
briefly. I'm not gonna keep you very long,
at least I hope I do not do so. But we're gonna consider at least
these few characteristics of God's love to his people. Not
only does God say, I love you to his people, he tells them
how he loves you. For example, he says, I love
you with eternal love, Jeremiah 31, verse three. Jehovah has
appeared of old to me saying, I have loved you with an everlasting
or eternal love. God said of rebellious Ephraim,
I will love them no more, Hosea 9, 15. What a dreadful statement
is that. God saying to someone, I will
love you no more. But here, God speaks to all whom
he appeared of old, that is, before the foundation of the
world. These are the objects of his
love from eternity when they stood before him in love by virtue
of having been chosen to salvation in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1
verse 4. And Jehovah declares that from
old eternity his love to them in Christ is ceaseless. It is
everlasting all the way into eternity past. It is everlasting
all the way throughout eternity future. God's love for his chosen
people is as eternal as he himself is when he says, I have loved
you with an eternal love. Second, Jehovah says, I have
loved you with an effectual love. Same text, Jeremiah 31 verse
three again. He says, therefore with loving
kindness, I have drawn you. Satan would draw us to himself
with evil intent, desiring to tempt us away from God and into
sin. Earthly enemies would draw us
to themselves with malice aforethought, desiring to bring us into ambush
and conflict. But God draws his people to himself
in love. He lassoes them with his loving
kindness in order to manifest to them that he has effectually
saved them. justified them, sanctified them,
reconciled them, and glorified them. Third, God says to his people,
I love you with preserving love. Isaiah 43 verse four. Since you were precious in my
sight, you have been honored and I have loved you. Therefore,
I will give men for you and people for your life. In order for God's
love to be manifested to his people, he must let other people
go. The Lord was willing to let Pharaoh
and his army be destroyed in the Red Sea in order that Israel
be delivered. Exodus chapter 14, in like manner,
Jehovah will give up his enemies to the destruction they deserve
in order that the objects of his love be saved and preserved. Jehovah loves what they preserving
love. Fourth, Jehovah says, I love
you with beautifying and exalting love. Ezekiel 16 verses eight
through 14. I'm not going to give much of
a commentary on this. I plead that if I just read it
and you read along with me, you will see that Jehovah's love
to his people is beautifying and exalting. He says, when I
passed by you again and looked upon you indeed, your time was
the time of love. So I spread my wing over you
and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you. and entered into a covenant with
you and you became mine, says Adonai Jehovah. Then I washed
you in water, the water of regeneration. Yes, I thoroughly washed off
your blood and I anointed you with oil, the oil of gladness. I clothed you in embroidered
cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin. I clothed you with
fine linen, pardon me, and covered you with
silk. I adorned you with ornaments,
put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And
I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful
crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold
and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and
embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour,
honey, and oil, a royal menu. You were exceedingly beautiful
and succeeded to royalty because you married the king. Your fame
went out throughout the nations because of your beauty. because
it was perfect through my splendor, which I had bestowed on you,
says Adonai Jehovah. I say to you that if you are
an object of Jehovah's love, he through his love will beautify
and exalt you. Number fifth, God loves his people
with Christ giving love, John 3 16. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now here we
read that God so loved a certain world. There are many worlds
on this earth. But this world loved by God is
comprised of all whom he chose out of the world of mankind.
And he gave to Christ before the foundation of the physical
world, John 17, 9. How much does God love this world,
this world of his people? God loved his world so much that
he gave to them, not merely offered to them, he gave to them that
which is most precious to him, his only begotten son. Oh, the greatest love gift ever
given was Jesus Christ. And he was given to the world
that God loved And then God lovingly ascertains that they all receive
Christ through God-given faith in him. Number six, God says,
I love you with an unsurpassed love, John 15, 13. Jesus says,
greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's
life for his friends. Many may love a friend enough
to pay his bond or bail if he breaks God's law. And perhaps
one may love a friend enough to die as his substitute when
he has committed a capital offense against God's or man's law, and
man's law at one time permitted that. But no one can love another
like Christ does. He loved his people enough to
suffer in their place instead, God's wrath against them. He
did so while they were enemies against him. Romans 5 verse 10. And Jesus loved them enough to
make his enemies become his friends and to obey his gospel. John
15, verse 14. I say to you, there is no greater
love than God has for his people. It is an unsurpassed love. Greater love has no one than
this. Number seven. God says, I love
you with Christ worthy love. John 17 verse 23. Jesus prayed to his father that
the world may know that you have loved them as you have loved
me. You loved me before the foundation
of the world. Christ in all his divine perfections
is worthy of God's greatest love. And it has been his from old
eternity when Christ was daily God's delight, Proverbs 8, verse
30. Oh, you know the pleasure that
you see when your children are playing before you or when your
grandchildren are playing before you? They are so delightful to
you. Jesus says that from old eternity,
I was daily my father's delight. And God's elect people being
in Christ from eternity past are thereby made worthy to be
loved by God as he loves Christ. For if you are in Jesus Christ, you will be loved just like the
father loves Jesus Christ. Number eight, God loves his people
with demonstrated love, Romans 5.8. God demonstrates his own love
toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. God demonstrated his love to
his people even while they were yet in their sins. And he did
so in two ways. First, God the Father sent Christ
to die in order to save them, John 3, 17. No one ever loved
you that much. If you were one of God's elect,
no one ever loved you this much that God would send Christ to
die in order to save you. And second, God in the person
of Jesus Christ assumed their humanity and as the God-man voluntarily
died in their place instead. Here is the greatest demonstration
of God's love that you will find. God demonstrates his love. He sent Christ and Christ volunteered
to come. Number nine, God loves his people
with inseparable love. Romans 8, verses 35, 38, and
39. Paul the apostle asks, who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or
distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 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 created
thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. When one says a believer's salvation
may be lost, he is accusing the Holy Spirit who inspired these
words of being a liar and also admitting that he himself is
not in Christ and God's love. For once God sets his love on
you, you are inseparable from God's love. Nothing can separate
God's people from his love that is in Jesus Christ. Once in Christ
and in his love, always in Christ and in his love. Number 10, God
loves his people with conquering love. Romans 8, 36 and 37, as
it is written in Psalm 44, verse 22, for your sake, we are killed
all day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Yet in all these things, we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. Now, having
just declared that no adversity can separate a believer from
God's love, Paul here declares that the same love causes the
believers to overcome all their adversaries and their adversities. Those whom God loves will conquer
even Satan, their adversary, because God's love to his people
is conquering love. Number 11, God loves his people
with self-giving love. Galatians 2 verse 20, the son
of God loved me and gave himself for me. Not only did God love
his people enough to give Christ his son to die for the salvation
of his people, but Christ loved them enough to give himself to
die in their place instead. Christ loved His people so much
that He gave Himself for their salvation. My friend, this is
self-giving love. Number 12, this is electing love. Ephesians 1, verses 3 and 4. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. Now God hates sin. God therefore is absolutely just
in hating sinners, for all men are sinful sinners. He would
have been eternally just if he damned every sinner, but God
the Father in old eternity predestined certain sinners to be his adopted
children. He predestined them to eternally
stand, note this, before him in love. This is electing love. He loved his sinners, his chosen
sinners enough to ordain them to salvation in his Son, in order
that they may be sinless, both holy and blameless, and therefore
both sanctified and justified, and that from eternity. This
is electing love. This love separates certain sinners
who belong to God from the rest of the sinners of this world.
Number 13, this is unmerited love. Ephesians 2, verses four
through seven. God, who is rich in mercy because
of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were
dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace
you have been saved. And God raised us up together
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ that
in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Men love those who merit their
love. Many a man has married a woman
because he found her to be lovable, loving, lovely and attractive
enough to deserve his love. But God loves those who did not
merit his love, having found them to be altogether unloving
and unlovely and thoroughly unattractive, living in the death of sin. No
one ever merited God's love. God's love to his people is unmerited. And 14, God's love to his people
is sacrificial love. Ephesians 5 verse 2, Christ also
has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sweet
sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Back in Old Testament
times, during the space of 1500 years, Thousands of lambs were
offered for the sins of God's people under the requirements
of the old covenant. But such lambs were incapable
of paying the price for the people's redemption and atonement. All
those lambs never sufficed as a sacrifice to remove the sins
of those for whom they were sacrificed. Christ loved God's people so
much that he gave himself as the once for all and eternally
satisfying sacrifice to God. And God was pleased with the
loving sacrifice and saved everyone for whom Jesus Christ died. So great is his sacrificial love. Number 15, this is perfecting
love, Ephesians 5, verses 25 through 27. Christ also loved
the church and gave himself for her. that he might sanctify and
cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he
might present her to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and
without blemish. I remember my wedding day almost 50 years ago. Sandra Marvin looked perfect
to me when she walked down the aisle to marry me. I looked back and saw her walking
down the aisle toward the place where we would be joined in holy
matrimony. And I said to myself, whoa, I
did not know this woman was so beautiful. She has exceeded what
I had thought. but I had nothing to do in making
her look perfect. On the other hand, Christ's bride
is indeed perfect, and she had nothing to do with making herself
so. Christ made her perfect by his
love and because of his love to her. And he did so by cleansing
her from every spot and blemish with his own blood, which he
lovingly shed for her. If Jesus Christ has set his love
on you, you will be perfected through that love. Number 16,
this is consoling love. 2 Thessalonians 2, 16 and 17. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ
and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting
consolation and good hope of grace, comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good work and word. My wife loves me enough
to console and encourage me in every trying situation. But Christ's
love does even better. He draws me to his bosom and
assures me that he himself is, by God's grace, my never-ending
consolation, my never-failing good hope. My beloved can console me She
can give me hope, but Jesus Christ and his love to me is my consolation,
and he is my hope. Number 17, this is correcting
love. Hebrews 12, verse 6, whom the
Lord loves, he chastens, we read. Parents evidence their lack of
love for their children when they failed to chasten them and
correct them when they have erred. I have been in a grocery store
or in a department store. I've seen some little child throwing
a tantrum there in the store, disrupting the peace and harmony
that is in the place, and the mother does nothing about it.
just lets the little child go on throwing the tantrum, pulling
things off the shelf, throwing things out of the cart and into
the aisle. And I'm looking to myself and
say, you poor little child, your mother does not love you. If
your mother loves you, she would not let you conduct yourself
like this. She would correct you. And as
parents evidence their love to their children by chastening
them, so does God. So let me tell you this. If God
does not chasten you when you sin, beware, that probably is
a pretty good sign that he does not love you. For God corrects
and chastens all whom he loves. His love is correcting love.
Number 18, God's love is adopting love, 1 John 3 verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the
Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children
of God. It is natural that parents love
their biological children. It takes a greater love to love
someone else's children that way. It takes even a greater love to adopt the child of someone
else and to make it your own and to love that child as your
own and to make that child to be your heir. And God has done
so. God has adopted sinners out of
the devil's family and brought them into his own and with his
adopting love. And he has made them to be his
heirs, joint heirs with Jesus Christ who will inherit all things.
Number 19, this is proven love, 1 John 3, 16. By this we know
love because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. Yeah, this
is proven love. Jesus proved he loved us. A man
may say to his sweetheart, I love you enough to swim the deepest
sea, climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest and hottest
desert in my bare feet. I love you enough to even die
for you. And then he hopes she does not
ask him to prove it. because everything he just said
was hyperbole at best and a lie at worst, and he may have been
lying through his teeth when he said so. But Jesus Christ,
having assured his people that he loves them enough to die for
them, proved it on the cross of Calvary when he gave his life
in their place instead. Now I ask you, Whoever else ever
loved you enough, is this not a proof of his love? Look at
the cross, my friend. Oh, if you want a proof of God's
love to you, there it is. Number 20, this is manifested
love, 1 John 4, 9. In this, the love of God was
manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. If a man says
he loves a woman, he will manifest his love by deeds, such as sending
to her tokens of his love. He may send flowers. He may send
a box of chocolates. He may send whatever he can do.
Some token of his love she should expect from at least time to
time. If she never received such manifestations
of love from her man, she has reason to doubt the sincerity
of his love, for love is manifested in what it gives. God has manifested
his love to his people by sending to them Christ as a visible token
of his love, And in order that they may live and never die,
God's love is manifested in Jesus Christ. Number 21, this is propitiating
love, 1 John 4, 10. In this is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation or guilt-removing sacrifice for our sins. Brothers and sisters, our sins
have separated us from God and are so hideous to him that he
will not even look upon them. And they cause his face to be
hidden from us and his ear to be shut against us and made us
deserving of his wrath. But God loves his chosen people
so much, despite the fact that they did not love him. that he
sent Christ his son to be the propitiation or guilt removing
sacrifice, the wrath removing sacrifice for their sins by covering
them with his blood, by suffering the divine judgment they deserve,
thereby appeasing God's wrath against them. God's love is propitiating
love. It removes his wrath from his
people. Number 22, this is reciprocating
love, 1 John 4, 19. We love God because he first
loved us. All of us will know at one time
or another the sorrow of unrequited love, but God will never know
this sorrow. His love to his people causes
them to love him in return. He comes to them and says, do
you love me? We reply, certainly not. Then
he says, but I love you and all the things I have done for you
as cited above are manifestations and proofs of my love for you.
He furthermore opens our blinded eyes to behold the tokens of
his love. He replaces our stony hearts
with living hearts so that we must reply to him Lord and Savior,
I now can no longer hate you. I must and I will love you. And I love you because you first
loved me. God's love is reciprocating love. Number 23, God's love is cleansing
love. Revelation 1 verse 5, Jesus Christ
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We are by nature completely filthy. Nothing we can do will cleanse
our sins enough to make us worthy of God's love. But Christ loved
his people even when they were sinful and filthy and loved them
enough to wash their sins away and to cleanse them from their
filth. I say to you that if God loves
you, his love will cleanse you. Number 24, this is vindicating
love. Revelation 3, verse 9. Jesus says, indeed, I will make
those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are
not, but lie. Indeed, I will make them come
and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved
you. Now, we hear read of the synagogue
of Satan. This is Satan's counterfeit of
the church of Christ. Members of Satan's church claim
to be true Christians, but their claims are lies. Christ will
vindicate his church, whom Satan's people hate. Christ will vindicate
his church by proving to Satan's church that he hates the evil
and loves the righteous. Thankfully, some who are in Satan's
church will be brought into Christ's church and worship Christ before
them. But bear this in mind, my friend,
that all the suffering that you endure for Jesus Christ will
be vindicated. God will vindicate his love for
you. Now we come to the 25th and last
point. God loves his people with curse
confounding love. Deuteronomy 23 verse five. Jehovah your God turned the curse
into a blessing for you because Jehovah your God loves you. Balaam, the foremost false prophet
in all the holy scriptures. Balaam. hired by King Balak to curse
Israel. Balaam tried, but when Balaam tried to curse
Israel, God turned it into a blessing instead. Why? Because he loved
them. Because Jehovah your God loves
you. And likewise, God loves his people
so much that every curse against them will turn into a blessing.
For example, God's people in their native state are under
the curse of sin through their fall in the first Adam. But the
curse is turned into a blessing of salvation through their salvation
in Jesus Christ. This is curse confounding love. If God loves you, every curse
against you will be confounded. Yea, everywhere I look in God's
word, there he is, smiling sweetly at me and assuring me, I love
you. And since this lover is the eternal
and immutable Jehovah, he who loves me now, has loved me from
eternity past and will love me throughout eternity to come.
God's love for his people is as eternal and immutable as he
is. But I ask you, my friend, you
that are now listening to me, I ask you, does God love you? Does God love you? He does. You are one of the persons described
by Jesus Christ in John 16, verse 27. The father himself loves
you because you have loved me and have believed that I came
forth from God. Everyone the father has from
eternity loved will in turn love him and his son and believe in
him. And everyone who loves God will
continue to be loved by God, for God will hate no one who
loves him. And no one who ever truly loves
God will ever cease to love him. He has loved me with an everlasting
love. I love him with an everlasting
love, always will. However, and I would be remiss
in my duty as a gospel preacher if I did not bring this to your
attention. If you refuse and disbelieve
Jesus Christ, refuse to believe his gospel, I warn you that God
says to you, I hate you. Now you can find that also in
God's word. in the 5th Psalm, in the 7th
Psalm, in the 11th Psalm, in Proverbs 6, verses 16 through
19. I'm not going to go into those
passages now. Some say God loves everyone alike. No, he does not. Read those passages
and you'll see that there are certain people whom God hates
and does not love. Oh, I hope you are not one of
those. Now, you can know that God loves you through your love
to Jesus Christ, through your belief in the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And I exhort you, do so now.
And Jehovah will say to you, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I have drawn you. Oh God, our Father blessed, we
pray this word. May we find in your scriptures
all these love notes you have written to us. To your glory
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.