Let's turn together to John chapter
17. John chapter 17. Read with me
verses 23 and 24. Our Lord Jesus is speaking in
his high priestly prayer, praying that the glory which God gave
him may be in us, that we may be one together with one another
and in him. And then he says in verse 23,
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
that the world may know. One of these days, the whole
world's gonna know. That the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them. as thou hast loved me. 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." Now see the connection. Our Lord says in verse 23, thou
hast loved them as thou hast loved me. And then in this last sentence
of verse 24, he says, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. My subject this evening is God's
everlasting love for his elect. The doctrine of God's everlasting
love is unchangeable, invariable love for his elect. His love
for His elect in every state and in every condition into which
they come in this world, God's everlasting love is written across
the pages of Scripture as with a sunbeam. This is not something
that is just picked from an isolated verse or two so that we can delve
into deep mysterious things, though deep indeed they are.
But this message of God's everlasting love is simply something that
permeates the Holy Scripture, and something that we need to
grasp and understand to the best of our ability. Now again, I'm
in water that's way over my head, but I never did like to wait
around in a waiting pool. I like to dive in. And we're
going to take a dive this evening, a dive into the depths of God's
everlasting love. I can't possibly begin to expound
the message. I can't possibly teach you all
the scriptures teach what I don't understand all the scriptures
teach. And I can't even tell you what I know about this thing.
But I want to show you this evening five precious facts concerning
God's everlasting love for you and me. Five golden nuggets from
the deep, deep mind of God's own heart toward his people.
The first thing we will consider is the eternality of it. God's
love for us did not begin yesterday. It is not something that is born
in time. His love for us does not begin
with our love for Him. We love Him, John said, because
He first loved us. That is to say, God's love for
us precedes our love for Him. Certainly God's love for us exceeds
our love for him, and God's love for us is the cause of our love
for him. But there is no sense whatever
in which it could be considered that our love for God is the
cause of God's love for us. You see, the world has got it
just exactly backwards with everything. I wish we could get hold of this,
I understand you. If you understand that the world's
got everything with regard to God backwards, you'll understand
the world's got everything backwards. You mamas and daddies raising
your children don't pay any attention to the philosophy of the world.
They got it all backwards. Don't pay any attention to the
teachings of the world. They got it all backwards. And
with regard to the things of God, the whole world presumes
that somehow God's love and God's kindness and God's grace is motivated,
directed, and somehow brought home to you by your love for
him. But nothing could be further
from the truth. If we love God, it is because God first loved
us, and he loved us from eternity. God's love for us springs up
from his own infinite heart before anything was. And it is the ground
of all things that are. God's love for us is the basis
of divine predestination, of our election and redemption by
Christ, and of our calling by the Holy Spirit. Now let me show
you that from the Scriptures. Turn back to Jeremiah chapter
31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Here the Lord God speaks to his
prophet, and speaking to his prophet, what he says concerning
this one of his elect is true concerning all of his elect.
Jeremiah says, the Lord hath appeared bold unto me, saying,
are you there? Verse three, Jeremiah 31, three. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Therefore, because I loved you
from everlasting, now in time I have extended my lovingkindness
to you and I have drawn you. But the cause is my everlasting
love. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1, the first chapter of the book of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul writes in such
concise order and gives such concise and clear arguments in
all the things that he states and teaches. And here in Ephesians
1, he speaks to us concerning the source, the basis, and the
cause of all the blessings of grace and all the operations
of God's grace for us and in us. He says in verse 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as," now that's such an important, important two words,
according as, that is, this is how God blesses. You see that? He doesn't bless any other way.
God blesses men and women. He has blessed from eternity. He is blessing now and He shall
bless to eternity to come according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. His choice was in love. His choice
was because of His love. Connect the two words in love
with the next verse as well. In love, having predestinated
us. Now we talk about the predestination
of things, but that's really a mistake. That's really a mistake.
Predestination is a people. It's a people. Now there's no
question God has ordained everything that comes to pass. But the object
of predestination is us. He has in love predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. And according to that sovereign
will, in his own purpose of grace, he arranges all things that come
to pass and sovereignly governs them because of his love for
us. having predestinated us to obtain
the glory of the sons of God. Look at it, verse 11. In whom
we also have obtained an inheritance being predestinated, there it
is again, us. Thus he hath obtained the inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. What will? Bringing
us to the enjoyment and possession of the glory of the sons of God.
All right, look at verse 6. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. So God's love for
us from everlasting is the cause of predestination, it is the
cause of redemption, it is the cause of our election, and it
is the cause of our calling by God the Holy Spirit. We won't
look at it again, we'll listen to it. Turn back to Ezekiel chapter
16. Ezekiel 16, we have that picture given of the deserted
infant, that aborted child cast off into the open field to the
loathing of his person, despised, dead, not dying but dead, polluted
in his own blood. And that picture is us. We are
by the violence of our own depraved nature, by the violence of sin
and the judgment of God, cast out, dead and polluted. And the
Lord God says in verse 8, Well, let's look at verse six. When
I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused
thee to multiply, and to bud as the field, then thou hast
increased in wax and grape, and thou art come to excellent ornaments,
thy dress to fashion, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast
naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love. The time appointed by God from
eternity when I would pass by thee and spread my scorn over
thee and say unto thee, live. And so God's love is the cause
of our calling as well in Jesus Christ the Lord. I read, of course,
this hymn the other day. I forgot who wrote it. The Father
loved us ere we fell, and will forever love. Nor shall the powers
of earth or hell his love for us remove. T'was love that moved
him to ordain, a surety just and good, and on his heart inscribed
the name of all for whom he stood. Nor is the surety short of love. He loves beyond degree. No rest
than love divine can move the Lord to die for me. Oh, what
love the Spirit shows when Jesus He reveals, when men oppressed
with sin and woes and all their sorrows heals. The three in one,
the one in three, in love forever rest. The chosen shall in glory
be, and in His love ever blessed. God's love, then, is the source,
the foundation, the basis of all the blessings of grace we
enjoy now and shall enjoy in eternity to come. God's acts
and works of grace performed for us before the world began
arise from his everlasting love for us. In His election, He chose
us in love. In predestination, He predestinated
us because He loved us. In His work of redemption, He
sent His Son to redeem us because He loved us. He called us because
He loved us. And now in providence, our Heavenly
Father rules the affairs of the universe because of His everlasting
love for us. Oh, I wish I had believed that
like I know it is. My son-in-law, Doug, after he
and Faith got married, she told us he's already started college
funds for his kids. They ain't got any yet, but they're
not expecting any. Don't get excited. But he's already
started college funds because as a wise father, who has better
abilities than I had when I married her mother. But he has better
abilities, and he is wisely making preparations for his child, whom
he loves, to the best of his ability. That's pretty good doings.
That's pretty good doings. Fellow ought to do that. But
men object when God does the same thing. We understand what
divine predestination is. God Almighty from eternity loved
us. And he said, I will have them
to be the sons of God, perfect, glorious, and holy before me. That's his purpose. And he predestinated
everything to accomplish that purpose. And now he does what
no father can do! He rules the universe, even down
to the thoughts of men and the thoughts of the many demons of
hell. He rules the universe to accomplish
His purposed end, that we should be His sons forever in the perfection
of holiness, glorious before Him. That's God's providence. All right, now look at the immutability
of God's everlasting love. I've been scratching around at
this for the last couple of weeks. Please get it. God help you to
get it. God's love, like all his attributes, and like all
his gifts bestowed upon men, are without change, without variableness,
immutable. His love is without dependence.
That simply means he will never cease his own to cherish. Those
who are loved of God have been loved of God from everlasting
and shall be loved of God to everlasting. His love is eternal
both ways. He has forever loved us, He shall
forever love us, and nothing will affect that. Nothing will
affect that. He will not depart from the objects
of His love, nor cease to do them good, because God cannot
change. He swore in the covenant, Jeremiah
32 verse 40, I will not depart from them to do them good. But
what if they sin? I will not depart from them to
do them good. But what if they despise your
riches and your goodness and your grace? I will not depart
from them to do them good. But what if they fall a thousand
times a day? I will not depart from them to
do them good. That's his promise. The salvation
of God's elect, you see, does not stand upon the precarious
foundation of time, but rather upon the immutable foundation
of God's everlasting love. We change. Oh, how often we change. But there are no changes in His
love. Our love is sometimes hot and sometimes cold, but His love
is always 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. Sometimes
He covers the heavens with brass and appears never to hear us.
But even when He chastens us, it is but the evidence of His
love for us. His love hasn't changed. Let
me show you that. Turn to Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54. We're just like little children.
We think, you know, I remember when I'd get disciplined as a
child, I'd get whipped. I'd get whipped pretty good sometimes.
And I thought, well, mama and daddy hate me. Most kids are
that way. But we shouldn't be too upset
with the kids. We're that way too. God chastens us. to correct
sin in us. God chastens us for our good,
for our benefit. He takes out the rod of His fatherly
love, and He bears our wrath, and He makes us to feel the wrath,
because He loves us. We cry, God, have you turned
against us? Oh, God, why have you forsaken us? Listen to what
it says. Isaiah 54, verse 9. This is as
the waters of Noah unto me, that is my covenant, For as I have
sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth,
so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee." Isn't that amazing? I'll never be angry with you.
Never. Never. Never. Sometimes I will
appear to be. I'll never rebuke you in my justice,
though sometimes it will appear so. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Turn to Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews the 12th chapter. Verse 5. You have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, nor think when thou art rebuked of
him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every soul whom he receiveth. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. and scourge it, that means he
bears your back and he applies the rod and he makes it hurt
every son whom he receiveth. Why? Read on. He says in verse
11, No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward, when God gets done, it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
thereby. God's chastisements then are evidences of his love. Even when we sin against him,
as we often do, God's love doesn't change. God did not love me because he
saw something good in me. When he set his heart upon me,
there was nothing in me. It was from eternity. But he
was fully aware of all that I would be, and yet he loved me. And now that I am what God from
eternity was fully aware I would be when he loved me, he's not
going to take it away. There's no changes in his love. God's love is immutable, immutable. You remember when David sinned
against Bathsheba. The scripture tells us that the
thing that David did displeased the Lord. He took Uriah's wife,
had Uriah murdered, and took Bathsheba to be his own wife,
and the thing that David did displeased the Lord. And God
visited David's sin in a public manner so that all men understood
that God was displeased with David's sin. But David was just
as much the object of God's love. And just as much accepted of
God, when David thought he was altogether forsaken of God, and
he cried, take not your Holy Spirit from me, restore unto
me the joy of your salvation, David was himself still the object
of God's love. And therefore, the scripture
says, and the Lord said, Nathan, sent Nathan to expose his sin,
to correct his sin, and to assure him that God had forgiven his
sin, and he would not die because of his sin. This is the thing
I want us to get hold of. God's love toward his elect is
from everlasting and it never changes to any degree or for
any reason. Having loved his own, which were
in the world. He loves them to the end. Now, when we start to think about
God's love, its eternal character, its immutability, don't forget
to consider its gifts. Love gives. The gifts of God's
free and everlasting love are too many for us to calculate.
But there are three specific gifts of God's love revealed
in the scripture. In comparison to which all the
other gifts, all the other bounties of God's grace and love fade
and fade considerably. When you consider these three
things, here's the first thing. Because God loved us, Rex he
gave himself to us. This is what it says, Ezekiel
37, 27, I will be their God and they shall be my people. I cannot think of a greater word in all human
language than this little word, this personal possessive pronoun,
my, when it is followed by God. My God. My God. Did you get hold of that? God Almighty is my God. Mine more than anything I possess. He's mine. My God. Mine, really? Mine, personally? Mine, perpetually? Mine, eternally? He's my God. My God. Because he gave himself to me.
I will be their God and they shall be my people. And God commendeth
His love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. So that God's love is commended
in the gift of His Son for us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Because He laid down His life
for us. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. And God gave us his spirit
to regenerate and call us, to seal us in his grace, and to
seal his grace in us in the time of love. And the gift of his
spirit is the gift of his everlasting love. John Gill said, indeed,
all that God does in time, our will do in eternity, is only
telling his people how much he loved from everlasting. Everything that God does in time,
everything that God does in time, everything He has done from eternity
is the voice of God saying, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Everything. T'was not to make Jehovah's love
toward the sinner's lane, that Jesus from His throne above a
suffering man became. T'was not the death which He
endured, nor all the pains He bore, that God's eternal love
procured, for God was love before. He loved the world, His elect,
with love surpassing thought. Nor will His mercy ever neglect
the souls so dearly bought. Now fourthly, I want to spend
a little bit of time talking to you about the distinctiveness
of God's love. It is utter nonsense, it is utter
nonsense to talk about God loving all men universally. I sometimes
hear preachers try to soft pedal God's sovereignty by assuring
people that there is a sense in which God loves all men with
a love of benevolence, though not with a love of complacency
and delight. And they turn back to the Psalms
where the Lord is good to all his creatures and his tender
mercies are over all his works and say, there, the Lord loves
everybody. They say that God loves all men
as his creatures, just as he loves trees and toads. Now you can call that a good
preaching if you want to. God loves all his creatures,
and God loves you as his creatures, like he loves trees and toads. Now if you can get some consolation
By comparing God's love for you with his love for a foe, I guess
I'll let you have it. But it just ain't so. It just
ain't so. The scriptures do not teach any
such thing. God loves his elect distinctively. God does not love all men. Now I'm asked sometimes, well
why do you stress that? Why emphasize that negative thing? It's not negative at all. I would
not emphasize it, however, except for one thing. And that is that
those who teach the universality of God's law, those who teach
that God loves all men, are guilty of three horrible crimes against
God. They make the love of God to
be changeable. As I said to you this morning,
and I quoted you the passage from Mr. Cozart, those who teach
that God loves all men, must of necessity say the time comes
when God ceases to love you. Either that or they teach what
everybody says, one of the two. Because if God loves you, he's
not going to cast you into hell. If God loves you, he's not going
to pour out his wrath upon you. That's not a possibility. So
they say God loves all men until they stand before him in judgment
and then all of a sudden God ceases to love them. That makes
God as changeable as the ice cubes in that water. He's fickle. And a fickle God is no God. A
changeable God is no God. They make the love of God to
be meaningless. After all, if God loves the multitudes who
are damned, as the multitudes who are saved, then God's love
didn't have anything to do with anybody's salvation. If God loves
all men, but His love is helpless toward those men who will not
somehow cooperate with Him, then His love is meaningless. And
they destroy the greatest motive there is for godliness. and devotion. You see, I'm here telling you, Ron Wood, God Almighty loves
you. That ought to inspire your soul
to love Him, because He loves you distinctly, personally. If I stood here and told you,
God loves you, and he loves Judas, and he loves sons of Korah, and
he loves the devil, and he loves demons of hell. Well, being as
I'm trying to honor him, God ought to, he ought to be in debt
to me. Do you follow the reasoning? I'll tell you what, you fellas,
try telling your wife that you love her, and you love all women
just like her. See if that gets you any steak
and gravy. Honey, I love you like I love all women. That doesn't
do much to inspire a response. That doesn't do much to inspire
devotion or commitment to that. You get your steak and gravy
real often. And I'm telling you that God's love for his people
is a distinct love. Let's see if the scripture says
so. The Word of God tells us in the plainest terms possible
that what I'm saying is so. God's love for His elect is a
special, distinguishing, sovereign, distinctive love that sets His
elect apart from all other people. Come back to Isaiah 53. There
are many, many passages I could turn to, but Isaiah 43. I'm sorry. I want you to look at this passage.
Isaiah 43. I don't think there's another
passage in all the Bible, Old Testament or New, that more specifically
demonstrates with clarity the distinctive, special love of
God for his elect. Isaiah 43, verse 1. Now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear For I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name. Thou art mine. 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 what does he give to save
you? He gave himself, yes sir, he gave himself to redeem you.
But in time and in providence he gave some other things. I
gave Egypt for thy ransom. What? I killed the firstborn in all
the house of Israel to get you out of that place of bondage.
In all the house of Egypt rather, to get you out of that place
of bondage. I gained Ethiopia and Seba for you. I sacrificed
nations for you, nations. Ron and Randy and I were talking
about this this afternoon out on the porch. God Almighty in
his wise and adorable providence brings judgment upon a nation. One clear illustration in history
is Ethiopia. Once the light of the gospel
shone in Ethiopia. Once Ethiopia was the central
place where God revealed truth and men learned and walked with
God. But today, Ethiopia is in darkness
and bondage and idolatry. Because God gave Ethiopia to
bring the gospel to Babylon. That's right. Is that what this
book says? You've written it, right? There
it is. How come? Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore,
therefore, will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Oh, what distinguishing love! God set his heart on you. And
God said I will sacrifice nations for you. For I love you. I'm your God. You're my people. God loves his people delightfully
too. I mean by that that God delights. He takes pleasure in and finds
complacency with his elect because of his love for them. God so
loves us that he smiles on us all the time. Sometimes Marty appears to frown,
but when he appears to frown, he smiles. Sometimes he appears
to be angry, but when he appears to be angry, he's still pleased.
Sometimes he appears to be against us, but when he appears to be
against us, he is still for us. It's high time that all attempts
to divide the love of God into categories, stages and degrees, be laid aside. Such divisions do nothing to
help men, and they only obscure the glory and grandeur of our
God. If God loves me, he delights
in me. If he doesn't delight in me,
he doesn't love me. Again, I say try telling your
wife, honey, I really do love you. I wish you well, and I want
nothing but the best for you. And I'm willing to do anything
I can for you. But I've got to tell you, you
don't please me. Really, you're offensive to me. And I don't enjoy your company.
And I'd just as soon not look at you. You'd better go home
and tell her, don't do it. Don't do it. But you're going
to tell your wife that tonight? Call me tomorrow if you've still
got one. That kind of love is no love at all. If God loves
me, God delights in me, and he does so perpetually. You see,
our God loves us as he loves his Son. That means he's well
pleased with us, for he says, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. The Father and the Son are one,
and the Son of God tells us that my delights were with the sons
of men from everlasting. That word is found in Proverbs
8.31. I looked it up. He could not have used a stronger
word. When the Lord Jesus says, my
delights were with the sons of men from everlasting, that word
delights is a strong, strong expression of the most intimate,
sweet, ravishing pleasure. I hope you can get a hold of
this. God so delights in us that this is what he says. I'm reading
his word to you. You can read it for yourself,
Solomon chapter 4 verse 9. God Almighty looks at Lindsay
Campbell and says, Thou hast ravished my heart. My sister, my spouse, thou hast
ravished my heart with one of thine eyes. How? How? How? Sorry, Lindsay, but not
because of anything you've done. Oh no. Oh no. How? Because I have made you beautiful. I have put excellent ornaments
upon you. I have made your breasts to grow. I have put my beauty upon you.
And now with my beauty, you ravish my heart. What glory! Now what matchless grace beams
forth from God my Father's face. He looks on Christ and smiles
on me. In Christ my God is pleased with
me. He looks on Christ and smiles
on me. In Christ my God is pleased with
me. Washed in his sanatoning blood,
robed in the righteousness of God, with Jesus Christ forever
one, God smiles upon this wretched world. What more can I say? God's love
for his own is a special love of complacency and delight. And certainly when we think about
God's everlasting love, I can't conclude without speaking of
the efficacy of it. Let me just say this one thing.
God's love is more than a wish or a desire in his heart to save
sinners. God's love for us is effectual. That simply means that those
who are the objects of God's love shall be saved precisely
because they are the objects of his love. Otherwise, the love
of God is an utterly useless thing. Utterly useless. Let's finish then as we began
today and tonight. Our Savior says, thou in me that they may be made
perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent
me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 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, and that's how
he loves me. And my brother, my sister, that's
how he loves you from everlasting. Oh, what amazing, what a stupendous
revelation of God's love for us. Men tell me that such teaching
as this promotes licentiousness. antinomianism, that it discourages
godliness and good works. I respond by saying that is utterly
absurd. That is utterly absurd. When
I think of the things we've been meditating upon today, that God
loved me when I hated him. That God loved me before the
world began. So loved me that he ordained
everything that is, has been, or shall hereafter be, to make
me one with his Son in everlasting glory. When I think that God
loves me, as he loves his son, that his
love for me will never cease, that it will never change, that
it will never vary, that it can never be taken away and can never
be destroyed. Oh, when those thoughts fill
my mind, they compel me to love him. They lay me under greater obligations
than any other thing possibly good to love him, to devote myself
to him, to give myself while I live in this world to serve
his will, his glory, his interest, his cause. The love of Christ compels. if you ever get hold of it, or
if ever, if ever the love of God is inscribed in your heart
by the finger of God, that'll be motive enough, that'll be
rule enough, that'll be inspiration enough to keep you seeking Him,
to keep you serving Him, to keep you desiring to be like Him. You'll cry out with the Apostle
Paul, Lord, that I may know Him. Lord, that I may know Him. Amen. Ranger, you come lead us
in the hymn, and the dictums will serve at the Lord's table. Father, you assist me.