and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. Hear the Son of God again, my
brother, my sister. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. We may be despised, misunderstood,
abused, and hated of men. But we are loved of God. Loved of God even as the Father
loves the Son, our God-man mediator. Now read verse 24. And hear the
Son of God declare that the Father has loved us as He loves His
Son from eternity. Father, I will that they also
whom Thou hast given Me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world. Now put together the last line
of verse 23 and the last line of verse 24 and hear this soul-cheering
sentence from the lips of our Savior. Thou hast loved them
as thou hast loved me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. This is God's everlasting love
for his elect. John Gill made this observation.
God's everlasting, unchangeable, and invariable love to his elect
through every state and condition into which they come is written
as with a sunbeam in the sacred writings. God's everlasting love
for his elect though through every state and condition into
which they come is written as with the sunbeam in the sacred
writings. I realize I'm in water way over
my head. And I can't begin to fathom the
depths of the subject before us this evening and our Savior's
statements in this verse of Scripture. When I get done preaching, there'll
be a lot of room for more preaching. But I want to call your attention
to five things with regard to God's love. Five things distinctly,
as they are revealed in the Scriptures, about God's everlasting love
for His elect. And we'll begin with the obvious.
and that is the eternality of it. God's love for his people
did not begin yesterday. It is not something born in time.
His love for us does not begin with our love for him. Rather,
our love for him is the result of his love for us. We love him
because he first loved us. We love him because he first
loved us. One of the very first gifts I
received as pastor here many, many years ago, David and Teresa
Coleman gave to me, a little plaque with that passage in 1
John 4, 19 inscribed upon it. We love him because he first
loved us. If I love him, If you love Him,
our love for Him is born of His love for us, not the other way
around. His love precedes our love for
Him. His love exceeds our love for
Him. And His love is the cause of
our love for Him. Those who love Him were the objects
of His love from everlasting. God's love for us springs from
eternity. Now, we can't begin to grasp
anything with regard to eternity, not in this time world. We live
and move and think in the constraints of time and change. We can't
even begin to enter into this idea of eternity. We think about
eternity, and I often refer to eternity past and eternity to
come, but there's no such thing. Eternity is eternity. That which
God did from eternity, God does, and God continues to do forever. It is eternal. God's love for
His elect is an eternal love, an everlasting love. The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. Because he loved us he came to
us revealed himself to us Drew us to himself and gave us life
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in Ezekiel 16 The scriptures
picture for us the believers experience of God's grace He
comes to that deserted infant cast out from its mother's womb
that aborted baby Cast out from the womb dead polluted in his
own blood. He said, I pass by thee, and
I spread my skirt over thee, and I said unto thee, live. And
he said, behold, thy time was the time of love. We all who
are born of God were born of God at the appointed time when
God would make known his love to us. But that experience was
not the beginning of God's love. That was just the time when God
would make known His love to us. The Father loved us ere we
fail and will forever love. Nor shall the powers of earth
and hell His love from Zion move. T'was love that moved Him to
ordain a surety just and good, and on His heart inscribed the
names of all for whom He stood. God's acts and works of grace
performed in time were performed for us before the world began,
And they are performed on the basis of this love of God for
us. Let me call your attention to
just a few. They're familiar to you in this
place. God's election. Election. What a great word. Election.
What does that mean? It means exactly what you think
it means. It means God chose to save somebody. God chose a
people whom He would save. God chose them as the objects
of His grace because they were from everlasting the objects
of His love. Election. What a shame that in
our day you can attend church year after year all your life
and have preachers and Sunday school teachers and religious
folks read from the Word of God and you'd be totally unfamiliar
with the subject of election. I told you before years ago A
friend of mine, her son was in Fort Worth, Texas. He was out
working in his yard one Saturday, and some folks came by, saw him
working in the yard. I think he was raking leaves,
and they were trying to butt and hold him, get him to come
to church. And he said, you don't want me down there. And they
said, oh, yes, we welcome anybody down there. He said, well, what
do you folks down there believe about election? And the fellows
were stunned. This is a big, big church. Stunned. The fellow looked at him, he
said, well, I'm not sure, but I think about everybody down
there is Republican. And that's just about where folks
have no idea what this book teaches. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee because he's loved
of God. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power because thy people are loved of God. Love he predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will the covenant live in their homes
with husband or wife and children Who hate God and hate them for
their worship of God? That was David's date That was
David's day Except For Bathsheba, Abigail, and Solomon, it appears
that David's whole household was enraged against him all the
time, enraged against God. And here lays this old man dying,
and he says, although my house be not so with God. As I look
at it, I say, I would order things differently. I would arrange
things differently. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all I want. I want things just the way God's
arranged them. This is all my salvation and
all my desire. Look here in Romans 8, 28. Here
the Apostle Paul speaks to us about God's covenant grace and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now, I hardly can think of anyone
I've ever known who is the least bit religious, who could not
quote at least a portion of Romans 828. And almost everyone, when
something bad happens, will refer to what the apostle is saying.
He'll say, well, we know everything will turn out good. That's not
what Paul says here. That's not what he says here.
We know that all things work together. You might put it this
way, all things are worked together. They are manipulated together
for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Brother Allen just read to us
from Proverbs 21, the king's heart, is in the hand of the
Lord. As rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to his purpose. His purpose is that covenant
upon which David rested. His purpose is the everlasting
salvation of his elect. Look in 2 Timothy chapter 1.
2 Timothy 1. Here again is a man writing his
last letter. Paul knew that he's writing to
his son in the faith, Timothy, and writing his last inspired
epistle for the glory of God and the benefit of his church
for all ages. And this is the thing he addresses
in his very last epistle. 2 Timothy 1.9, God hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling. Not according to our
works. Your works don't have anything
to do with your salvation. Your works don't inspire God
to save you. Your works don't cause God to
save you. Your works don't keep God saving
grace for you. Not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, watch it now, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You mean,
pastor, that all God's grace, all God's salvation, all God's
mercy, all God's goodness was given to all God's elect in Christ
before the world began? You got it. That's just what
it says. This was done from eternity.
God, the God of peace, brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. God's great salvation is seen
in his everlasting love in giving all things into the hands of
Christ as our surety and mediator. So that all things were given
to Christ for us. All things given to Christ to
rule for us. All things given to Christ to
dispose of for us. All things given to Christ to
dispense as he will according to his love and mercy for us. All things put in his hands just
as Pharaoh put everything in the hands of Joseph for his people. So God before the world was put
everything in the hands of his son for his people as our mediator. All right. Here's the second
thing about God's everlasting love. Touched on this this morning. I want to spend a little time
here now the immutability of it There is no possibility of
change in God With him there's no variableness Neither shadow
of turning James tells us I am the Lord I change not I do not
change and I cannot be changed not in mind nor not in purpose,
not in intent, not in character, I change not. Because I am the
Lord and I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God's love doesn't change. It can't be taken from us, it
can't be destroyed by us, and it can't be destroyed by all
of hell. Who shall separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Not tribulation,
not distress, not anger, not wrath, not sin, not Satan, not
hell. Nothing in heaven, nothing in
earth, nothing under the earth can separate us from Jehovah's
love. There is a very famous Armenian
preacher, He was the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance
Church by the name of A.W. Tozer. His books are very popular
in a lot of places. And I have most of them back
here in my library. I've read most of them. He made
these statements with regard to God's love. I want you to
listen carefully. This is what you hear everywhere. Everywhere. God must love. and will love man until hell
has erased the last trace of the remaining image of God in
him. Men are lost now, but they are
still loved of God. I believe that God now loves
all men, but the day will come when lost man will no longer
be loved by God Almighty. I believe the time will come
when God will no longer love lost human beings. What blasphemy! What blasphemy! Such fickle,
useless love may be worthy of a fickle, useless man, but not
of the great, glorious Lord God, our Savior. Our God does not
love today and hate tomorrow. And He doesn't hate today and
love tomorrow. His love is unchangeable. God's
love, like all his gifts bestowed upon men, is without repentance. His love is from everlasting
to everlasting. Turn back to Jeremiah chapter
32. Jeremiah chapter 32. In chapter 31, Jeremiah gives
us God's words concerning his everlasting covenant. In chapter
32, he continues with this same covenant. He says in verse 38,
they shall be my people. and I will be their God. They
shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give
them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for
the good of them and of their children after them. Verse 40,
I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts that they shall not depart from me. The salvation of God's
elect doesn't stand upon the precarious foundation of time,
but upon the immutable foundation of God's everlasting love. Sadly,
we change and change often, but there are no changes in God's
love. Our love is sometimes hot and sometimes cold. His love
is invariably the same. God graciously and wisely changes
the dispensations of his providence toward his people. Sometimes
he hides his face from us. Sometimes he chastens us because
of our sin. But his love never changes. His
chastisements are but evidences of his love for us. His chastisements
are but evidences of His love for us. A loving Father chastens
His child to mold the child into that which He wants the child
to be. So our Heavenly Father chastens His own, even when we
sin against Him. Even when we sin against Him,
as we constantly do, God's love doesn't change. I'll give you two remarkable
examples. David, God's servant David. Oh how David dishonored God by
his sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. And God showed his
displeasure with David's sin by killing his son. And then
Bathsheba gave birth to another child. David called his name
Solomon and the Lord sent his prophet to David and said call
his name Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord He said David nothing
has changed Nothing has changed Peter Peter
He said Lord though all these disciples forsake you out now.
I'll go with you to death. I And the Lord said, Peter, you've
got some things to learn. He said, before the sun rises
tomorrow morning, you're gonna deny me three times. Before the
cock crows twice, you're gonna deny me three times. Peter said,
not me, not me. And the Lord's next word to him
was, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. You remember when the women appeared
at the tomb, when Mary stood there and the angel appeared
to them and said, Go now tell my disciples. I'll meet him in
Galilee. Just like I said, I would And then so wait wait now before
you take off be sure you tell Peter be sure you tell Peter
I'm gonna meet him right where I told him I would Nothing has
changed Nothing has changed turn to Psalm 89. Let me show you
Psalm 89 God's love toward his elect Never
changes to any degree any reason. Here in Psalm 89, David writes
prophetically, and wherever you read the name David, read the
name Christ and you've got the meaning of the psalm. Verse 19,
Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have
laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found Christ my servant,
with my holy oil have I anointed him. With whom my hand shall
be established, mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy
shall not exact upon him, nor the sun of wickedness afflict
him. And I will beat down his foes
before his face and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness
and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn
be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also
I will make him, my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore. What a statement. What a statement. The mercy God
keeps for me. The mercy God keeps for you is
the mercy He keeps for His Son, our Mediator. My mercy will I
keep for Him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast
with Him. His seed. His seed. Now, He's
talking about Mark Daniel and Mark Henson and Don Fortner.
His seed. He's talking about all His elect.
His seed also will I make to endure forever. His throne is
the days of heaven. If His children forsake my law
and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, then hang on, God's going to get you.
God's going to get you. Oh, no. Then will I visit their
transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from
Him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once
have I sworn in my holiness that I will not lie to Christ. His
seed shall endure forever. His throne as the sun before
me, it shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful
witness in heaven." Now, you pause a long time and think about
that. That's the meaning of that word,
see. You pause and think about this for a while. My covenant
stands fast with him. My mercy I'll keep for him. My mercy shall not depart from
him. Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. Here's the third thing. The gifts of it. God's everlasting
love for us is seen in his gifts. Let me summarize all the gifts
in three. Three gifts that take in and
comprehend all the other gifts and make the other gifts, great
as they are, appear to be incomparable. First, the Lord God has given
us himself because of his great everlasting love for us. We read
it a moment ago in Jeremiah. He says this over and over again. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. The Lord is my portion and Jacob
is the Lord's portion. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. God, the triune Jehovah, hear
me my brother, hear me my sister. given himself in the totality
of his being to us. God has given us his son. He gave his son to die for us.
He gave his son to be the Lord our righteousness. He gave his
son to be our prophet, priest, and king. He gave his son to
be our sacrifice. Indescribably more, God gave
us his son. God gave us his son. so that
we can lift our hearts to heaven and say, the Lord is my shepherd. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. And the Lord God has given us
his spirit to regenerate us, to call us, to seal us in his
grace in the time of love. This is God's everlasting love
displayed in his gift. Indeed, all that God does in
time Our will due to all eternity is only telling his people how
much he loved them from everlasting. All that God does in time and
will due to eternity is but God telling us how much he loves
us from everlasting. Everything he does he does because
of his love for us. Can you get hold of that? Everything
he does he does because of his love for us Here's a fourth thing The distinctiveness
of it and again, let me spend a little time here because it's
important People everywhere talk about
God's universal love for men and talk about God loving all
men. I sometimes hear preachers who
profess to believe God's sovereignty, profess to believe the gospel
of God's grace, trying to soft pedal God's sovereignty and find
a way to make it acceptable to men who hate God who is sovereign.
And they do so by assuring people that there is a sense in which
God loves everybody. There's a sense in which God
loves even people who go to hell. If there is a sense in which
God loves folks who are in hell, there's a sense in which God's
love is not worth spit. That's just blasphemy. That's
just blasphemy. Well folks say well God loves
all men as his creatures just like he loves trees and toads
I Suppose if you can get a little comfort from comparing God's
love for you To being like his love for trees and a frog. I
shouldn't try to take that away from you. So I'll leave that
to you But I'm here to tell you it's not according to this book
God loves his people Distinctively turn to Romans chapter 9. I'll
show you Romans chapter 9 God does not love all men. There
is not a hint in sacred scripture that he does. I wouldn't emphasize
that fact were it not a fact that it's so very important.
Those who teach God's universal love are guilty of three horrible
crimes. They make the love of God changeable. They make the love of God meaningless. And third, they destroy the greatest
motive we have devotion to our God and godliness in this world.
Try telling your wife that you love all women just like you
love her. Don't you try that. See if that
gets you any biscuits, homemade biscuits and gravy in the morning.
Honey, I love you but I want you to know I love everybody
just like I love you. What absurdity. The Word of God tells us and
tells us plainly and no insignificant terms, that God's love for his
elect is special, sovereign, distinctive, distinguishing love. In Isaiah 43, he said, he said,
I love you. Jacob, Israel, I love you. I
gave Egypt for you. I gave Saba for you. I gave men
for you. I gave people for your life.
I killed these nations to save you. I destroyed all these other
people because I would not have you destroyed. Because I love
you. Look in Romans chapter 9 verse
11. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand. That is, this is the reason
Jacob and Esau were in their mother's womb as twins. This
is the reason God said what he did concerning them. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. I was preaching down in North
Carolina last August, and a young lady attending Piedmont Bible
College, where I attended school, oh, she was fit to be tied. You
folks know I don't take too well to being corrected in my theology
by women. And she addressed things loudly enough that everybody
heard what she was saying. And I addressed her loudly enough
they heard what I say. She said, but that's a metaphor. I said, what's the metaphor for? It's to teach you something.
And this is what it teaches you. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Well, what does that mean? I'll
guarantee you if you read that in Aesop's Fables, or if you
read that in the Herald-Leader tomorrow morning, or tomorrow
afternoon, or you read it tomorrow morning, or the Danville Advocate
tomorrow afternoon, you wouldn't have any trouble understanding
it. He said, Jacob have I loved. That means he loves Jacob. Esau
have I hated. That means he hated Jacob. Well,
let's read it here in the book of God. Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. What does that mean? Well, that
means God loves you distinctively. Distinctively. We know. What
shall we say then? Well, that's not right. Is there
unrighteousness with God? Who are you to set in judgment
over 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. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the Scriptures 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. God said to Pharaoh,
There's only one reason that I created the nation of Egypt.
There's only one reason that I set you on the throne in Egypt. There's only one reason that
I made Egypt the most powerful nation in the world. And here's
the reason. so that I could dump your lousy
carcass in the Red Sea to save my people, and everybody will
know I did it. Who doesn't know about it? Who
doesn't know about it? God says, this is why I raised
you up. Read on. Verse 18, Therefore
hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He willly
hardened. Thou wilt say then unto me, well,
why does God find fault with us? Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? And
folks think I'm tough. Who are you to stack God on a
hand? Who are you to talk back to God? Who are you to challenge
what God says? Who are you to decide whether
what God does is right or not? Who are you to reply against
God? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump
to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What
if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto
glory? Even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews, but also of
the Gentiles. Not only does God love his people
distinctively, God loves his people delightfully. I mean by
that that God delights, takes pleasure in, and is complacent
with his elect, not because of what we do, oh no, oh no, but
because of his love for us. God so loves us that he smiles
upon us perpetually, from everlasting to everlasting, even when he
appears to be frowning. He smiles on us perpetually. It's high time that all attempts
to divide the love of God into categories, stages, and degrees
be laid aside. Those things do nothing to help
men and only obscure the glory and grandeur of our God. If God
loves me, he delights in me. If he does not delight in me,
he does not love me. Again, I suggest that you try
telling your wife something like this. Honey, I really do love
you. I wish you well. I want nothing but the very best
for you. And I'm willing to do anything
I can for you, but you really don't please me. In fact, you're
offensive to me. I don't enjoy your company. I
really don't want to look at you. If you still got a wife
tomorrow morning, please call me. That's absurd. That's absurd. But that's how
folks would have us to think of God's love. Oh, no. God loves
us as he loves his darling son. That means he's well pleased
with us as he's well pleased with his son. The father and
the son are one and this is what the Son of God tells us in Proverbs
8 31. My delights were with us from eternity. His delights were
with us before ever the world was made. The word delights in
Proverbs 8 expresses the most intimate sweet, ravishing pleasure. The Savior says, my delights
were with you from everlasting. They were with you from everlasting. The most intimate, sweet, ravishing
pleasure of my heart was with you. Our God delights in us so
fully that this is what he says. Thou hast ravished my heart my
sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of
thine eyes. I caught you looking at me and
you ravished my heart. God Almighty speaks to us in
all the fullness of His triune Godhead and He says, have ravished
my heart. You have ravished my heart. And fifthly, we speak of God's
everlasting love. We've got to talk about the efficacy
of it. God's love is more than a wish
or a desire in his heart to save sinners. God's love for us is
an effectual love. That simply means this. those
who are the objects of God's love shall be saved precisely
because they are the objects of God's love. Those who are
the objects of God's love shall be saved precisely because they
are the objects of God's love. God's love is sovereign. He said,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. He says, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. He says, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
God's love is sacrificial. You don't know anything about
the love of God until you come to know the love of God in the
sacrifice of his darling son, the Lord Jesus, by faith in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. And this sovereign,
sacrificial, everlasting love of God is saving. I mean by that,
all who are the objects of God's love are saved by God who loves
them. God says, I will be their God. and they shall be my people. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Well, what if they don't choose
Him? They will. What if they don't
believe in Him? They will. What if they live
somewhere where there's no gospel preacher? There'll be one. What
if they don't decide to accept Jesus? They will. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. I'll see to it. I'll see to it. And so he does. If you believe
him this hour, it is because God before the world was said
concerning you in covenant mercy, I will be your God and you shall
be my people. And he arranged the affairs of
the universe before the world began to accomplish it. He arranged
the affairs of the universe before the world began to accomplishment. And he raises up nations and
puts down nations. He raises up families and destroys
families for this one purpose. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. This love of God is for sinners. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. God so loved the world. Doesn't
that mean God loves everybody? No. If it did, then the whole
world be saved. God's people, God's elect scattered
through all the earth are like all other people by nature, sinners
with no claim on God's mercy, God's love, and God's grace.
There was a Syrophoenician woman who once came to the Savior and
said, Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. And the Lord said to her, it's
not right for me to take the children's bread and give it
to dogs. She was a Gentile. He was talking to the Jews. But
this Gentile dog, was the object of his love and the object of
his covenant. And she said, that's right, Lord. It's not right for you to take
bread away from the children and give it to the dogs. But
even the dogs get crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Would you rake off some crumbs for me? I take my place as a
dog, but I'm your dog, and you're my master. And if you will, you
can have mercy on me. And the Lord Jesus said, I've
never seen faith like that. I've never seen faith like that.
You take your place as a dog before him. His dog. And you will have the bread of
life from his table by his grace. For the love of God is for sinners. This everlasting love. And this
is the love worthy of our soul's constant
meditation. this amazing, stupendous revelation
of God's love for us. God loved me when I hated Him. He loved me before the world
began. He loves me even as He loves
my Savior. His love for me will never cease. If that won't control my life
for him, if that won't control your life for him, if that won't
motivate you, inspire you, and constrain you, nothing else can. The love of Christ constrains
it. Because we judge this and judge it right there. Christ
died for us, that we henceforth should not live for ourselves,
but for him who loved us and gave himself for us. Blessed
Son of God, blessed Savior, will you or will you please,
for your name's sake, for our souls' sake, Take our hearts in the sweet, soft, strong vice
of your love and constrain us by your love to give ourselves
to you as only you can. Amen.