Thank you both Open your Bibles
with me to John 17 John's Gospel the 17th chapter
and we'll begin at verse 23. I I always encourage folks to take
notes. If you are taking notes, the title of my message is God's
Everlasting Love for His Elect. And this is the thing I want
to make clear. God's everlasting love for His
elect is the fountain of all grace, all salvation, and the
reason for everything he does. God's everlasting love for his
elect is the fountain of all grace, all salvation, and is
the reason for everything he does. You want to understand
what's going on in the world around us? Why this? Why that? Why this earthquake? This tsunami? This war? This
pestilence? This economic chaos? This time
of peace? This time of delight? God's everlasting
love for his elect is the reason for everything. Get that, God
help you to get that, and it will sail your boat through troubled
waters with peace. God's everlasting love is the
reason for everything he does. And if it comes to pass, God
did it. Understand it. There's no accidents
in God's world No rival between God and Satan Satan's God's devil. He does with him what he will
God's everlasting love for his elect is the reason for everything
he does John 17 23 our Savior declares I in them and thou in
me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may
know that thou hast sent me now read the next line that the
world may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved
me when our God is done with everything
he has ordained and time is no more. When judgment is over and
Satan, the beast, the false prophet, and all the reprobate are forever
damned in hell, the world will know that God Almighty has loved
you as he loved his own son. What a statement. What a statement. Here the Son of God declares
to you, my brothers and sisters in this world, and to me, thou
hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Oh, rejoice my soul. What a pillow upon which to rest
our heads. What a comfort for our poor aching
hearts. What a glorious theme for meditation
and praise. What a cause for adoration, worship,
and faith. We may be despised, and we are. Misunderstood, and we are. Abused and maltreated by men,
and we are. Hated by people around us, and
we are. But we are loved of God. The
Father of Glory, what a title for our God. Loves us with an
everlasting love. Now read verse 24. And hear the
Son of God declare that God 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." You will pick up a bulletin article
or get a telephone call not many days from now and find out that
Don Fortner has died and when that comes to pass it will be
because my Savior has been praying, Father I will. that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. I got a letter from a friend
out in Tempe, Arizona a few weeks ago. His name is Jim Jimcic. He used to be a pro golfer, and
he was in an automobile accident, lost his right arm, so obviously
he had to get off the pro tour, and started making peen golf
clubs out in Arizona. I get emails from him, have for
years, almost everyone has signed this way, in his grip. He said
to me the other day, he said, Don, I had the greatest laugh
I've had in years this morning. I got to thinking about a friend
of mine who died 10 years ago. He was 45 years old. He and I
were in a group of will-worshipping Armenians, and one of the fellows
got real angry at my friend for something he'd said, and he looked
at him and said, if you knew you were dying tonight, what
would you do? And he said, my friend set up as best he could,
being as weak in condition. He said, I go home and go to
bed early. I will, that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory. Now watch this. For thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. Now put the last statement
of verse 23 and the last statement of verse 24 together and you
have my text. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me for thou lovest me. before the foundation of
the world. With those words, our Savior
declares God's everlasting love for his elect. John Gill made
this observation on this text. God's everlasting, unchangeable,
and invariable love to his elect through every state and condition
into which they come. Now I have no idea what state
you've come here from, what condition you've come here in, but God's
everlasting love for his elect in whatever state they are in,
Mr. Gill says, is written as with
a sunbeam in the sacred writings. Everywhere in this book, God
declares to us his everlasting love for his people. Now let
me make just five statements concerning God's everlasting
love. I realize I'm in water way too
deep for me, but I never did like to wade around in wading
pools. I like to dive in deep water,
even when it's way over my head. When I get done preaching there'll
be plenty more to say I'm not going to exhaust the subject,
but I've got five Precious nuggets. I hope God will put in your heart
First I want you to know the eternality of it God loves his people from eternity
God's love for us Did not begin yesterday God's love for us is
not something that begins when we come to know him or when we
trust him. Our knowledge of him and our
faith in him is the result of his love for us and the revelation
of that love to us and in us. We love him, the book says. because He first loved us. He loved us before we loved Him. He loves us infinitely greater
than we love Him. And His love is the cause of
any love that's in us for Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. Turn to that very familiar text
of scripture in Jeremiah. I'm going to have you look at
some scripture tonight. Jeremiah chapter 31. I say very familiar,
if you go down the road, it wouldn't be familiar to those folks, but
I hope it's familiar to you. Jeremiah 31 verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Because I loved you from everlasting,
because I loved you with an everlasting love, in time I came to you in
mercy and grace and drew you to myself. God's love for us. Oh, what a blessing to understand. He loves us eternally. Eternity. Brother Dwight, we
just can't get a handle on that. We just can't get a handle on
that. We can only think in time. We can only think in terms of
time. We can only think with successive thoughts because we're
puny creatures of God. That which God is, is eternal. And that which God does, is eternal. God only acts in eternity. He only acts in eternity. He displays his acts to us in
time as we know it. But God only acts in eternity. Do you know what the book says
about all God's works? Hebrews chapter 4, the works
were finished before the foundation of the world. That's what the
book says. I don't understand that. You
know what? I don't either, but I can rejoice in it. The works
were finished before the foundation of the world. William Gadsby
wrote a great hymn in this regard. Father, the Father loved us ere
we fail and will forever love. Nor shall the powers of earth
or 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. Nor is the surety short of love.
He loves beyond degree. No less than love divine could
move the Lord to die for me Turn back to that passage brother
Eldridge read earlier in Ephesians chapter 1 Bill had no idea what
I was gonna be preaching on tonight. I don't think I told him Ephesians
chapter 1 All of God's acts of grace performed
for us before the world began arise from and are demonstrations
of His everlasting love for us. Election was an act of God's
eternal love for His people. Predestination, an act of God's
eternal love for us. Look at verse 3, Ephesians 1.
Bless me the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath
Look at that who hath When I was pastoring in West Virginia, I
had a friend who was religious didn't know God, but he was religious
he was a car dealer and he was head of the Republican committee
in that area and And every time I saw him after he got involved
in religion, he'd say, the Lord bless you. And I'd say to him,
Bill, he has. And it never changed his mind.
He hath blessed us. Look at it now. He hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. Which ones? All of them. All of them. What does that include? Well, you name it. Forgiveness,
redemption, life, pardon, mercy, justification, sanctification,
the blessings of providence that we experience in time, the blessings
of all the things we enjoy in time, all spiritual blessings. He hath at one time in the past
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Now if you've got one of those
Bibles that's been messed with, I suggest you get rid of it,
but it probably tells you those heavenly places are, you know,
when you just pray good and you read the Bible a lot and you
feel real spiritual and you're walking up here on cloud nine,
that's where the Lord's blessed you. No, that's where your air's
in the head and you get dizzy. That's when you think like a
fool. These blessings, Don, God gave us in Christ in heaven before
the world began. Look at it. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. Fourteen times in
this first chapter of Ephesians, Paul says it's in Christ. In
Christ. God's blessings are in Christ.
Look at it now. How did he do that? According
as. I believe I'd underscore that
if I were you. This is how God blesses sinners. He doesn't bless
them any other way. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Oh, the Lord chose us so
that we could live a holy life. Now, that'd be a good trick if
you could do it. I'm not being facetious. You
do something holy Try thinking something holy. Just try that
out. You? Me? No. He's blessed us with
these blessings according as He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should stand before God forever
holy and without blame before Him. Holy and without blame before
God Almighty. You mean God sees us blameless
and holy? I'm gonna tell you a little secret,
folks. Well, that's the way God sees
things. The way God sees things is the way they really are. And
in Christ Jesus, we're holy and without blame before him in love. I always come to that last two
words of verse four and I try to decide, should I go with verse
four or with verse six? The answer is yes. in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Loving
us with an everlasting love, God made a covenant on our behalf
in eternity. A covenant. The Lord graciously condescends
to speak to us in human terms because that's the only way we
can understand anything. If he spoke to us in the language that
dolphins use, I'm told dolphins speak to each other, I couldn't
understand a thing. I couldn't understand a thing.
He speaks to us in human terms. And we think in those terms,
but don't get the idea when scripture speaks about God making a covenant
that he parlayed with his son and they've come up with this
and then they come up with that and then they come up with the
other thing as we would make a covenant. No, no, no. God's covenant with
his son is revealed to us as a covenant. His covenant is nothing
less than his sovereign will to save his people. And David
said, The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, a
covenant that is ordered in all things insure. And this is all
my salvation and all my desire. Those were David's words. with
which he comforted himself on his dying bed. The Lord made
a covenant with me in the person of my mediator. He hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Trusting our souls
to the hands of Christ as our surety. Look at verse 12 of Ephesians
1. This is a work of God's great
covenant love. Back up to verse 7. In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery
of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath
purposed in himself. that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things unto the
counsel of his own will. Now watch this, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. After preaching the gospel for
50 years, Robert Hawker lay on his deathbed and a friend was
reading this portion of Ephesians to him and he got to verse 12
and Mr. Hawker said, wait, and who first
trusted in Christ? And his friend just paused and
didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. And
Hawker responded, Jehovah first trusted in Christ. The triune
God first trusted in Christ that we should be to His praise who
now trust in Christ. The Father trusted to the hands
of our covenant surety, His darling Son, our only mediator, our substitute,
our Savior, trusted to Him, the Good Shepherd, all His sheep,
all the souls of His elect, all the glory of His name. He put
everything in the hands of His Son. that we might in time trust
in His Son. Not only should we glory and
rejoice in the eternality of our Savior's love for us, but
the immutability of it as well. There's no possibility of change
in God. No change. No change in anything
about God. If it's God or God's, there's
no change. No change. I am the Lord, he
said. Malachi chapter 3, verse 6. I
change not. And that's the only reason you're
still around here. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob. Tricky, shifting, deceitful,
cunning, fickle sons of Jacob that well describes you and me
Well describes us but chosen of God Redeemed by blood saved
by free grace because I change not Therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed With him there is no variableness neither shadow
of turning That means that his love for us is immutable I just can't hardly imagine that,
can you? There's no such thing as immutable love on this earth.
People talk about unconditional love. Anybody who claims to have
it's lying to you. Ain't so. Ain't so. No, no. His love is unconditional, free,
immutable. It's never hot and it's never
cold. His love never is intensified
and is never diminished. His love is never burning toward
us one minute and cold toward us another. And certainly his
love never turns to wrath as most people foolishly imagine. I want to read a quote to you
from a very famous preacher. Lots of folks are reprinting
his books and scattering them everywhere. A.W. Tozer. He was
the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance Church. I
don't know of any in this immediate area. They're in the deeper south.
There are good many still around. Terribly Arminian group of folks.
This is what Tozer said about God's love. Tozer, Pulpit, Volume
8, page 23 and 24, 25. He said, 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 still
are loved of God. I believe that God now loves
all lost men. But the day will come when lost
men will no longer be loved by God Almighty. I believe the time
will come when God will no longer love lost human beings. Such fickle, useless love may
be worthy of a fickle, useless man, but not of the great and
glorious God. God doesn't love today and hate
tomorrow. God doesn't love today and pour
out his wrath in eternity. His love is unchangeable. If you want to, turn back to
Numbers chapter 14 for a minute. Numbers 14. Nothing could be more dishonoring
to God than failure. Nothing could be more dishonoring
to God then failure. Failure. Yet the vast majority
of people in this religious world speak of Him whom they call God
and ascribe to Him failure all the time. Oh, won't it be a shame? God's done everything He can
to save you if you go to hell anyway. Oh, won't it be a shame
if God loves you with all his heart, and you go to hell anyway? Oh, wouldn't it be a shame that
Christ died for so many who perish at last? Won't you come, take
pity on God, and let him save you? Wouldn't it be a shame?
A shame to God. A shame to God. Moses understood
that. So here at number 16, Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram had just raised their ugly heads in rebellion
to God Almighty, and God destroyed them along with, I think it was
250,000 of their followers at one time. Opened up the earth,
swallowed them up into hell, and God said to Moses, said,
I ain't done yet. Step aside. I'll kill them all and raise
up a new nation from you. But Moses understood that failure
would be dishonoring to God. Look how he speaks to him. Verse
15. Now, if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then
the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak. These nations who heard that
you brought us out of Egypt. These nations who've heard that
you destroyed Pharaoh and his armies in the Red Sea. These
nations who've heard all that you've done for us all these
years. They will speak saying, because the Lord was not able
to save them. Because the Lord was not able
to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them,
therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness. Oh no. God's love never changes. The gifts he bestows, like God
himself, are without repentance. God Almighty will never cease
his own to cherish. Look at Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah
chapter 32 Those who are loved of God have been loved of God
from everlasting and shall be loved of God to everlasting His
love if I can use such contradictory terms is eternal both ways He
loves us for everlasting and loves us to everlasting Jeremiah
32 verse 38 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.
I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 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. One of the young preachers in
our congregation, preaching in Madisonville, Kentucky tonight,
he called me last night. And he said, Brother Don, I've
got a question. I said, well, what is it, Frank?
He said, our Lord said that if you deny me before me, then I'll
deny you before my father. I said, that's what he said.
But Peter denied him. And he didn't deny Peter. How
can you explain that? I said try this because Peter is in Christ and
loved of God in Christ and accepted in the beloved from everlasting
though Peter fully deserved his wrath in everything he ever did
Peter stands firm in the love of God The reprobates perish
because of their sin. Perish because of their ungodliness.
Perish because they deny Him. But they're not in Christ. If
we deny Him, what does the book say? He cannot deny Himself. The foundation of God standeth
sure. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. So let everyone in the name of the name of Christ depart
from iniquity. You explain to me the difference between Judas
and Peter. Explain me the difference. Tell me the difference between
what Judas did and what Peter did. Tell me the difference. The only
difference is, is Peter denied him for less money. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. But Peter belonged to God. And
the only difference between you and me and anybody in hell today
is God's free grace. He is everlasting love because
he loved us from everlasting. He said, I will put my fear in
them so that they shall not depart from me. Brother Singleton, I
reckon you're the oldest fellow here. And you've been in the
grace of God for a while, in your experience of it, haven't
you? And if God Almighty would let
you, you'd walk away from Him right now. Why not? Because God's love never
changes. Never. The salvation of God's
elect does not stand on the precarious foundation of time, but upon
the immutable foundation of everlasting love. We change often. He changes never. Our love is
sometimes hot, sometimes cold. His love is invariably the same.
God graciously and wisely changes the dispensations of his providence
toward his people. Sometimes hiding his face from
us, sometimes chasing us because of our sin. But his love never
changes. His chastisements, rather, are
the display of his love. Even when we sin against him,
as we often do. His love never changes. Let me
ask you a question. I don't want you to answer it.
Answer it in your own mind. When was David more accepted
of God? When he was carrying the ark
of God up out of the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem to establish
the place of divine worship after the due order as God commanded.
When he was in the arms of Bathsheba and had Uriah murdered He was just as accepted in Bathsheba's
arms as he was dancing before the ark Now did the thing that David
did displease the Lord he said so and he showed it to David
and to Israel and to you yes sir but not David you see David's
being accepted of God has nothing to do with David it's all in
the substitute it's all in Christ Jesus our Redeemer this is the
thing I want you to get hold of God's love toward his elect
is from everlasting and never changes to any degree when you
get to the last day of our Lord on this earth John chapter 13 he's with his
disciples and he's having the last Passover meal with them
establishing the blessed ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and he
begins his last message to his disciples. It goes from John
chapter 13 all the way through to the end of John chapter 17,
that prayer for our text to sing. All the way through. That's his
last message before his crucifixion. And when John began to write
about that, to record this message in this prayer, this is how he
begins it. having loved his own which were
in the world." Peter, James, and John, his own. His own who got in a fight one
day over who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. His
own who wanted to call down fire from heaven. His own who one
day were out in a storm and they were scared out of their brains
and they saw the Lord Jesus walking across the water and they thought
they saw a ghost. Having loved his own, folks just
like Dwight Moody and Don Fortner, he loved them to the end. He loved them to the end. His
love is without change. It is eternal and it is immutable. Now thirdly, let me briefly talk
to you about the gifts of his love. Love gives. Love gives. Always gives. It never takes. selfishness takes Many women
fuss and fight all the time. Well, I deserve love gives Love
gives Here are three things God's given
us himself I Will be their God Do you know
the number one? word used in connection with
God in all the scriptures? The number one word? Say holy. Nope. Doesn't come close. Righteous. Doesn't come close. Just. Doesn't come close. The number
one word used most often in scripture in immediate connection with
the name God is that little personal possessive pronoun, my. He's my God. My God. All that he is, is mine. My property. My possession. How can that be? He says so. I will be their God
and they shall be my people. So that God has given himself
in the totality of his being to his people in his son. Second gift. God's given us his
son. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. God, who spared not his son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? What has he given us? God's given
us his spirit. His Holy Spirit, the Comforter
who forms Christ in every redeemed, chosen sinner. The Comforter
who comes and takes the things of Christ and reveals them to
us and in us. The Comforter who gives us life
and faith in His darling Son. The Comforter who causes us to
know His grace, the seal of the Spirit. In the Old Testament,
men were circumcised who were the children of Abraham. Now
circumcision's got nothing to do with baptism. Lots of folks
get mixed up. They think baptism and circumcision
are the same. So they take little babies and slosh a little water
on their heads and call it baptism and tell them they're brought
into the kingdom of God now. No, you just got a little wet head,
that's all. What's circumcision connected with then? Circumcision
was a mark in the flesh that was permanent and could never
be changed. by which the sons of Abraham
were identified and by which they were assured of all the
covenant promises God made to Abraham. God the Holy Spirit
is the seal of the covenant. He seals all the blessings of
covenant grace to every chosen redeemed center giving us faith
in Christ by which we receive those blessings. Let me see if
I can illustrate. God gave me that hand. Y'all
agree with that, wouldn't you? He put enough brains in my head
that I could take that hand and reach out and grab that water
right there. God is the one who put the water on the earth for
me. And there's that cup of water. You know, I just presume that's
mine. Nobody told me it was. I didn't even see who happened
to get it tonight. Chris or Tony or somebody got it, said it there.
I presume it's mine. Watch this. Now I know it's mine. I know it's mine. Because I took
it. You try to get it. It's gone. It's here. It's mine. I took
it. Faith doesn't cause God to do
anything. Faith is the hand by which God
causes us to receive everything. Take a little water. How do you know Christ is yours?
You believe in election, predestination, limited atonement. How do you
know he's yours? I believe it. And what is faith? It is the
substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not
seen. Now, oh may God give you faith
in his song. Faith in His Son. Believe Him.
Believe Him. If you can, Christ is yours. What does the book say? He that
believeth on the Son of God shall have, no, hath. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Indeed, all that God does
in time, our will due to all eternity, is only telling out
to his people how much he loved them from everlasting. John Kent
wrote a great hymn. It's not in any of our modern
hymn books except for the Gadsby that's been reprinted in some
of the old school hymn books. I don't know of any modern hymnals
since then. It was not to make Jehovah's love towards the center
flame. that Jesus from his throne above
a suffering man became. T'was not the death that he endured
nor all the pains he bore that God's eternal love procured.
For God was loved before. He loved the world of his elect
with love surpassing thoughts. Nor will his mercy e'er neglect
the souls so dearly bought. Let me hurry. Move on to the
fourth thing. Turn to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Isaiah
43. God's love is eternal. God's
love is immutable. God's love gives. Gives himself,
his son, his spirit, salvation, all things to his people. And
God's love is distinguishing. distinguish it. Now I'm going
to emphasize this a little bit because it needs emphasizing.
People everywhere tell us that God loves everybody and even
folks who claim to believe what they call sovereign grace or
Calvinism or reformed doctrine they'll say well God loves his
own but he sort of loves everybody else. He loves his own to some
degree and loves everybody else to another degree. After all
he feeds the sparrows He feeds the beast of the field.
Psalm 145 sings about it. Surely that must mean he loves
everybody. Well, if you can get some comfort
out of the idea that God loves you like he loves a frog, go
ahead and take it. No. He feeds the beast of the field
so I can eat him. I'm not joking. He feeds the
beast of the field so we'll have food to eat. He sends his rain
on the just and the unjust alike. Surely he must love them all.
Well, try the reverse of that. He sends drought on the just
and unjust alike too. Does that mean he hates his own?
What nonsense! Oh no! God sends rain on the
just and the unjust alike because there happened to be a fellow
living next door to the just who's unjust. He sends the rain
for his own. It's exactly right. My neighbors
get sunshine the same time I do. You know why? Because they live
next door to me. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. God's love is distinguishing.
He always distinguishes the objects of His love. He sent a pillar
of cloud over the children of Israel and that pillar became
a pillar of utter darkness to Pharaoh
and the Egyptians, so they spent the night walking around in circles.
And it was a pillar of light directing Israel right through
the Red Sea. It's called distinguishing love.
God's love is always distinct. He says, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Boy, I don't understand that.
What part don't you understand? What's difficult to understand
about that? That's not the problem. That's not the problem. You do
it all the time. The only problem is you don't
like God doing it. And that's because you prefer
to be God yourself. He said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. God doesn't love all men. To
teach such is to make the love of God fickle and changeable. To say that God loves everybody,
folks who are saved as well as folks who are lost, is to say
that God's love is meaningless. Doesn't accomplish anything.
Tell a man God loves him. What difference does that make?
What's the benefit of that? If you love Judas too, Judas
is in hell. To say that God loves all men The saved and the damned
is to destroy the greatest motive there is for godliness, devotion,
and faith. I'll tell you what, you fellas,
when you go home tonight, right before you go to bed, you lean
over and kiss your wife and say, honey, I love you. In fact, I
love all women. and see if that gets you grits
and eggs in the morning. Oh no. Special love inspires
special devotion. Distinguishing love inspires
distinct faith. Separating love inspires separated
consecration to God. The Word of God tells us in the
plainest terms possible that God's love for his elect is a
special, sovereign, distinctive, and distinguishing love. Look
here in Isaiah 43. Now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not. Don't be afraid of anybody or
anything, anytime. Well, give me a reason. I have
redeemed you. He redeemed me. I reckon everything's
alright. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Oh, I belong to God. I belong to God. I've just got
one daughter. Just one. She's the apple of her daddy's
eye. I love that girl. I love that girl. Just suppose She had the slight
thought That she's in need of some date or she's involved in
some danger or in need of something and Daddy won't take care of
it I'd be ashamed wouldn't you?
I'd be ashamed for her to look at me and call me daddy and not
be able to trust me. I'd be ashamed God, my Father, has said, you're
mine. Now don't be afraid. Everything's
all right. I've redeemed you. Nothing gonna
harm you. I've called you! No weapon formed
against you shall prosper. You're mine. Read on. When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the
rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through
the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. Now about everybody I know would
hear that and say, whoa, amen. Well, let's read the rest of
the sentence. I gave Egypt for thy ransom and Ethiopia and Sheba
for thee. Now find me some Arminian can
untie that knot. Because I loved you, I sacrificed
Ethiopia and Egypt and Sheba for you. And that's not all. That's not all. since thou was
precious in my sight thou has been honorable because I made
you precious I made you honorable and I have loved thee therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life now just exactly who was just
that all you said I ought to be afraid of Exactly, what was
out to fear? Oh no, fear not for I am with
thee. God loves his people distinctively
and he loves them delightfully. I mean by that that he delights,
he takes pleasure in, he's complacent with, happy with his elect because
of his love for them. God so loves us that he smiles
on us perpetually even when he appears to be frowning. Oh brother Don, that's just,
that's just too hard to get. He so loves us, he loves us as
he loves his son. As he loves his son. as he loves it. One with his
son. One with his son. He so loves
us that his delights were with us from the foundation of the
world. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear it! Brother Bill, I'm in
his son. That means he's well pleased
with me. Not because of something I've
done. Not because of my feel, not because of my think, not
because of my believe. Because I'm in his son. He delights
with us all the time. His delights are always with
his own. So much so that this is what he says concerning his
own. He's so pleased with the beauty he has put upon us. He
says, thou hast ravished my heart. Thou hast ravished my heart. And says you've ravished my heart. You've ravished my heart. Now
one more thing. God's love is effectual. Effectual. Now just in case you
don't know what that word means. It means it gets the job done. His love always accomplishes
its purpose. God loves sovereignly, having
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.
God loves sacrificially. He gave his son as a sin-atoning
substitute for the objects of his love. God loves savingly. Those who are loved of God are
saved by God, no exceptions. And the fact is, you have no
reason to foggily, vainly, faintly imagine that God loves you until
you believe on his side. Nowhere in this book, nowhere,
the whole world says, smile, God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. That'd be a good bumper sticker
for Noah to put on the backside of the ark, wouldn't it? No,
God never declares his love to men indiscriminately. His love
is in Christ. Believe on the Son of God and
you have the evidence and the substance of God's love in you. I wonder if I can do that. I'll
tell you somebody else's God loves. God loves sinners. God loves sinners. All sinners. Brother God, everybody's sinners,
ask them. Go down the road here and find me one coming out your
store tonight. Go find me one. A sinner. I'm talking about somebody
who knows he's as black as hell on the inside. Somebody whose
heart's a sewer. Filthy. Vile. deserving the wrath
of God. Is that you? Is that you? A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. There are not many sinners in
this world. Find me a sinner. I'll tell him God loves you with
everlasting love. Christ died for you. The Holy
Spirit has been given to you. What did the book say? Our Lord
went through the streets healing, casting out devils, and at the
last verse of Luke chapter 9 and he healed as many as had need
of healing. He still does. He still does. He still does. Anybody who needs him has him. I don't mean you can't have him.
If you need him, he's yours. He's yours. Our Father, Oh what
a blessing to call God eternal our Father. Thank you for your
free everlasting love in Christ Jesus and thank you for revealing
it to us in your Son. Will you be pleased to do that
for those here who do not know our God. We commit them to you
for Christ's sake. Grant your blessings upon this
assembly Lord. Make their Labor is here effectual
to the good of many to the everlasting good of many souls to the glory
of your son Amen Thank you so much. I'll see you in a month
the Lord willing