So in your Bibles, please turn
with me to Ephesians chapter two, and we're going to read
again from verse one. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, For 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 sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Our Lord Jesus Christ once told
us in John chapter 15 and verse 13, greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. He then promptly went on to exhibit
and to demonstrate his great love by dying for his friends. not that we were friendly to
him. On the contrary, we're told by
Paul, God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Paul goes on to say in
Galatians chapter 1 verse 4 that Christ gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. And a little later in that same
book in chapter two, verse 22, the Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life for his friends, for his people, for those that had
been committed into his hands in the covenant of God's grace
and peace. Now, I don't suppose that we
shall spend much effort in the world to come, looking back at
our time here upon earth. We shall be too taken up with
our wonderful saviour and the beauties of his glory all around. But if we do, even for a moment,
I think we should wonder at the perfect love of God towards us
in this world. I think we will marvel at how
every circumstance, every experience, every encounter that we had in
this life, in this world, was purposed and planned and specifically
designed for our eternal good, for our eternal salvation, for
our heavenly glory, and for our complete blessing. We will see
how God's love secured everything that we ever needed. And we shall
acknowledge, sincerely, that our lives could not have been
improved upon under any other permutation of events. And we shall declare and confess
that our God has done all things well. So perhaps that is why
John encourages us to behold and consider now, in time. all the splendor and majesty
of God's love towards us. He tells us to behold. He tells
us to contemplate and to witness, to attest, to bear witness to
the love of God in our lives and in our experience. He says
in 1 John 3, verse 1, behold what manner of love The Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God, that we should be
adopted into the family of God. And he says to us, consider this,
think about it, talk about it. Dwell upon this matter and may
it touch your hearts. The love of God to his chosen
people is very great love. It is indeed supreme love. And
today I would like to do a very simple thing. I want to draw
your attention to some of the characteristics of God's love. based upon Scripture, what Scripture
has to teach us and tell us about the love of God. And by doing
so, I hope to show you and to leave with you a sense of the
greatness of God's love towards his church and his people. Love
chose us in covenant purpose, redeemed us by the precious blood
of Jesus Christ, and will glorify us everlastingly in heaven. This is God's love to us. So to begin with, if we would
know something of the greatness of God's love, let us think about
that love in the following terms. And I've just got seven Seven
in scripture is the number of perfection. And I have got seven
little headings here that I want to draw your attention to in
connection with the glorious and the great love of God towards
us. And the first one is this, that
we should consider who it is who has loved us. It's God Almighty. God Almighty. has loved us. The God of the Bible is an infinite,
unchangeable and sovereign being, whose power and knowledge and
holiness transcends our comprehension. We will never plumb the depths
of the glories and the attributes of our God, And it is this God,
God Almighty, that has loved us. God that revealed himself
to Moses in the burning bush as, I am that I am. And who closes out the Old Testament
scriptures by a word to Malachi, I am the Lord, I change not. and who's spoken to us by the
writer to the Hebrews as that one in the person of Jesus Christ
who is the same yesterday and today and forever. The infinite,
unchangeable and sovereign being, the Lord our God. And it is this God who loves
us. And God's love is like God. Indeed, John tells us that God
is love. God's love does not vary and
it does not alter. It is as fixed and sure and dependable
and faithful as God himself. God's love, like himself, is
infinite love, unchangeable love and sovereign love. and it encompasses
all the supreme majesty of God's glories. God's love like God himself is
a wonderful enigma to his people. Because it is, in a sense, because
it is sovereign and because it is infinite, it is by definition
unknowable by finite creatures like you and like me. And yet
God has revealed that which is unknowable. And he will be known
as will his love be known by that people to whom he reveals
himself. He has revealed himself in the
person of Jesus Christ. And that is why knowledge of
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and knowledge of what Jesus Christ
accomplished in his death is of crucial importance in learning
about God and his love towards us. So Paul can say in Ephesians
chapter three in verse 19, with respect to this infinite God
and his infinite love, and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge. That's the enigma. That's the
puzzle, the strangeness of this, that we might know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge. because we know God and we know
God in Christ and that we might be filled with all the fullness
of God. This is the amazing God that
is loving us today. The second thing I want to draw
your attention to is this, that while the dimensions of God's
love are infinite, yet they have length and breadth and depth
and height. Now if the immensity and the
infiniteness, and knowing that immensity and infiniteness is
a wonderful enigma for believers. So here is another enigma, that
Paul says to us in chapter three of Ephesians, verse 17 to 19,
that he being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height
and to know the love of Christ. So here is infinite love from
an infinite God and yet it has length and breadth and depth
and height. and we are able to know its breadth
and length and depth and height. What is the Apostle telling us
here? What is God the Holy Spirit revealing to us here by showing
us the dimensions of an infinite love? Well, he is showing us
that God's love is not a general love or a universal love, but
that it is designed and specific for a particular purpose. It is showing us that God has
chosen who he loves. and that he places his love upon
that particular people and he loves them infinitely. There is no length to which the
love of God will not go. There is no depth to which the
love of God will not reach. There is no height too high.
There is no breadth outwith the embrace of our God. But it is
only for the elect. It's an infinite love, but it
has dimensions because it is targeted love. It is love that
is laid upon certain individuals in the purpose of God's good
pleasure. So that the sense from Romans
chapter eight, where we speak about no height and no depth
can or will separate God's chosen people from God's love, is to
teach us that while the love of God is infinite, it is also
particular and it is not general or universal. God's love has
dimensions. and there is nothing which can
separate us because within those dimensions it is infinite and
that those dimensions exceed and overwhelm and subsume everything
that is contrary to God's love for his people. So God's love
comes from an infinite God and is itself infinite. And yet God's love has dimensions. Within those dimensions, God's
love is thirdly, altogether free. It is free love and it arises
from God and it flows unconditionally from God to all to whom it is
sent according to his sovereign purpose. Now this is important. I don't want you to let anyone
tell you that God's love is conditional or dependent on anything that
you do, that it's dependent on your obedience, that it's dependent
upon your faith, that it's dependent upon your commitment or your
faithfulness to do what he wants you to do. It isn't dependent
on anything. God's love is according to his
good pleasure. It is his good pleasure to love
his people. and it does not rest on those
who obey. because of their obedience, because
nobody ever could be obedient except for the love of God towards
them in the first instance. It does not flow to individuals
who trust in God because of their faithfulness, because nobody
would trust in God if it were not for his love towards them
in the first place. It doesn't kindle up or dampen
down for what it finds in man. And it does not arise from any
motive or qualification in the sinner. It is free love and it
is sovereign love. So that our faith and our obedience
and our good works are the fruit and the indications of that love
from God towards us, not the cause of love to us. He first
loved us, and God's love is sovereign love. So Matthew chapter 10 verse
8 says, freely ye have received, freely give. And that shows that
it is the free love of God that motivates our desires to honour
him and to serve him and to trust him and to believe in him. And fourthly, the greatness of
God's love, because that's what Paul calls it. He says that God's
love is great. And he says that the greatness
of that love is emphasised because we can see the unworthy state
of those who are loved. How do we know how great God's
love is? You look at the unworthiness,
you look at the trespasses and sin, you look at the pitiful
state that those who receive God's love are in by nature and
that will speak to you of the glory and the greatness of the
love of God. They're fallen creatures. They're
sinful men and women. The Word of God tells us that
we are worms. Who loves a worm? Not an infinite
God. And yet he does. We do not deserve
divine love, and yet divine love flows to us. What we do deserve
is judgment and wrath, because we are rebels who would happily
slay God, happily kill God, happily steal his throne, and indeed
do cry with the voice of those surrounding the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Away with him! Away with him! We will not have this man to
reign or to rule over us. So that the great love wherewith
he loved us is spoken of and revealed in the context of the
great deaths to which our rebellion had taken us in our natural state. We are chosen and sanctified
and faithful in Christ because of his great love towards us. And the Lord God, knowing our
true colours, loved us still. Resolved to send the Lord Jesus
Christ to redeem us from our sins, to deliver his beloved
people from the rightful judgement that they deserved. and he made
the Lord Jesus Christ our substitute and he made him our saviour. And that's a great comfort to
all who feel guilty and dirty and unworthy and sinful before
God. There is not a sin can separate
us from God's love because that's how great God's love is. And
if God allows us to see our need of a saviour, if he allows us
to see the need for that great love, we have reason to hope
in that love that overcomes every obstacle and every hindrance
to supply the need that we have. That's why we made reference
to that little verse in Romans chapter 5 verse 8, that God commendeth
his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. My friend, if you confess yourself
a sinner, then Christ died for you. That is the testimony of
the Word of God. It is we who are burdened, we
who come to Christ desiring that salvation that will not be turned
away. And the fifth thing that we're
told about this love is that it is personal and it is particular. It is distinct and it is discriminating. And I don't think that people
really appreciate the importance of particular as against universal
love. that universal love that is taught
by free will preachers. But it is of the greatest importance
that if we have to have any concept of the love of God, that we understand
it to be particular love. And let me tell you why. If, as these false teachers tell
us, God loves everyone, then the love of God in and of itself
has nothing to do with whether a person is saved or whether
a person is lost. Do you realise that? If the love
of God is universal, if the love of God is general, if everybody
has the love of God in equal measure, then that love doesn't
make any difference as to whether a man goes to heaven or whether
that man goes to hell. Whether a woman is saved or whether
a woman is lost. Whether a boy or girl is brought
to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour or whether they
are not. The love of God has nothing to
do with that. That's what these false teachers
say. If the love of God is the same
for all, then whether you go to hell and I go to heaven, it
isn't anything to do with God's love at all. And how is it then
that great love that wants to save can't save? If Paul says that there's neither
height nor depth, that nothing can separate us from the love
of God, what is it that means that God wants to redeem but
doesn't? So we must ask these free will
peddlers, how is it nothing can separate us from the love of
God and yet man's will does? No, God's love is personal and
particular, and God has in love chosen certain individuals, and
he has placed those individuals in covenant relationship with
Jesus Christ. So that being in Christ, they
are treated by God as Christ deserves, And Christ was treated
as we deserved. This is the great work of substitution. This is the great work of Christ
taking the place of his people, those that were given to him,
he represents. Those that were committed into
his care and keeping, he stands for. And he endures what they
deserved. and they receive what he deserved. The Lord Jesus Christ personally
and particularly carried our sins and bore our iniquities
and we have his righteousness imputed to us. Love found a way
to honour holiness and save sinners, to be just and yet justify the
wicked. And the sixth point is this.
In that context of the particularity of God's love, It is useful for
us to realise that God's love is always represented as a past
act. The Bible never tells us that
God loves his people. but he has loved them. And that's not just old-fashioned
language, but it is a divine statement of the ancient and
everlasting nature of God's love for his church and his people.
and the Old Testament and the New Testament is consistent upon
this matter. The love of God always precedes
and predates the response from his people. Whether that is faith,
whether that is trust, whether that is love, whether that is
service, it is always God's love that begins and initiates this
great work of transformation in the hearts and life of a sinner. So that Malachi chapter 1 verse
2 says, I have loved you, saith the Lord. And John chapter 15
verse 9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. John 15 verse 12, This is my
commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. 1 John chapter 4 verse 19, we love
him because he first loved us and he loved us with a great
love. The final point is this, point
7, that God's love precedes the sinner's quickening. Now we've
seen that God's love is first, that God's love takes the initiative,
and here we see specifically that the Apostle Paul guides
us into understanding that the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration
and the Holy Spirit's work of quickening or making alive is
preceded by the love of God towards us. It shows that God does not
begin to love us when we are saved, but that our salvation
and our conversion and our new life is because he loves us. Because he loves us particularly
in Christ and always has done. Because he loves us in covenant
grace and he loves us to the end of his own good pleasure. Indeed God's great love towards
us is the source and spring of all blessings that flow to us
as sinners and therefore we should cherish and we should value the
love of God towards us. Sinners are made alive because
of God's sovereign, particular, eternal love. And therefore Paul
calls it great because in every way it reaches and achieves and
accomplishes and attains the gracious purposes of God towards
us in salvation in Christ. And it's the ground of our hope.
says Paul, to all who were strangers from the covenant of promise,
having no hope and without God in this world. He goes on to
say that in verse 12 of this chapter here, chapter two of
Ephesians. So Paul has spoken about God's
rich mercy, and now he is telling us about God's great love. And these are broad and expansive
terms. but we do not and we must not
take them as describing universal blessings. Rather, they are particular
distinguishing graces that pertain to the people of God's elective
purpose. They are enabling graces that
apply to those who are in covenant union with Christ. Nevertheless,
We are to preach these truths, we are to teach these truths,
we are to declare the scriptural, the biblical revelation and testimony
of all God's nature and attributes and accomplishments. We are to
declare these things because they undergird that great redemptive
work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. The Saviour did
not come because God loved the whole world, but because He loved
His elect and Christ came to save those that God loved. He did not desire, God did not
desire to show mercy to the whole world, but to His elect. The
Lord Jesus Christ came not to save the whole world, but his
people from their sins. And this he has done, and this
he is doing successfully through the preaching of the gospel. This is the message of the gospel. There's no gospel in telling
dead sinners what they must do to be saved. There's no gospel
in pretending men and women can do something to be saved. But
there is only gospel. in declaring what God has done
in Christ to cleanse from sin and to justify those that he
has loved by making them righteous with the very righteousness of
God in Christ. May the Holy Spirit quicken our
souls and grant us grace to believe all this gospel truth. Amen.