Loved with an Everlasting Love

January 14, 2007

Bro. Miles Crouse

Sunday School

Romans 8:25

So far, we have discussed two of the eight aspects of the love of Christ:

1. The love of God is Uninfluenced.  By that, I mean there is no quality or attribute within us that would cause God to love us, call the love of God into exercise, or require Him to love us. So the love from God that flows to you and me flows freely and spontaneously from within His own will and nature.

2. His love is Eternal.  We said that this one is a self evident truth meaning if God Himself is love and God is eternal then His Love must be eternal. This means that God has always loved you before time even began. In other words, there is not a beginning and there is no end to something that is everlasting. And that should bring tremendous peace to your heart knowing God’s love toward you never had a beginning nor will ever have an end. 

Today, we are going to look at four more of the qualities found in God’s Love.

3. The love of God is Sovereign.  This also is a pretty self-evident point. In other words since God Himself is sovereign, He is under no obligation to anyone, and so it must also be true that He owes no man anything.

Romans 11:33-36

33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

So Since He is under no obligation to anyone, He is a law unto Himself.

Isaiah 51:4-5

4  Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.

5  My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

And therefore, He acts always according to His own Holy righteous, good pleasure.

Isaiah 46:9-11

9  Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

11  Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

And since God is sovereign and God is also love, by necessity His love therefore, must also be sovereign as well.  In other words, because God is God, He does as He pleases. Because God is love, He loves whom He pleases. In fact, He has said so in so many words.

Romans 9:13-18

13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

15  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.

16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

17  For the scripture 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.

18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

There was no more reason to be found in Jacob why he should be the object of a divine and special love than there was in Esau. They both had the same parents. They were born virtually the same time as twins. In fact, Esau was actually, by Jewish tradition and law, to be the favored son since he came out of the womb first and therefore was the firstborn. So, God chose to give His love to Jacob. To give Jacob His special love. Why? Well scripture is clear on that point. He did it because it pleased Him to do so. It pleased our Holy, loving, righteous, impossible to sin, God to do so.  Unless your carnal flesh or carnal reasoning gets temped to rise up and challenge that biblical fact, as all of our carnal natures tend to do so, at least at first, the Apostle Paul adds these words to the very next paragraph for just such objections.

Romans 9:19-29

19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22  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:

23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25  As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

27  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

28  For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

29  And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

To be sure God’s love, like God Himself, is sovereign. Not arbitrarily so, not unfairly so, and not to any diminishing of His nature of love, but fully and unquestionably so. And you know really all of these attributes of God’s love.  The fact that is uninfluenced, the fact that it’s eternal, and the fact that it is sovereign, are merely examining the same precious jewel from slightly different perspectives. Because to affirm that the cause of God’s love lies within Himself is only another way of saying God loves who ever He pleases.

And if you’re still concerned about that, lets assume the opposite for a moment. Suppose God’s love where regulated by anything else besides His own will. Now Would He… Could He… still be God? No. No He couldn’t! Because in such a case, He would be ruled by a law that is even higher than Himself, in that case, the law of love. So far from being free from loving whomever He desires if God couldn’t sovereignty chose to love whomever He chooses he would be constrained to love whomever the law of love so dictates. And by definition the very thing that makes God, God, is the fact that He is ruled by nothing or no one. His Word is law, and He does all that He Pleases. Anyway, such a position is a flat-out contradiction to scriptures itself. We are told in the scripture why and for what reason God chose to love His children. It says what? It says in love he has predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with what? Something great He foresaw in us? No. According to some higher law that’s even higher than Himself?  No. Well than what? It says in scripture in accordance to the….

Ephesians 1:4-5

4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

4. The love of God is Foreknowing.

Now before we even start this section let me warn you in advance that when scripture teaches that the love of God exercises foreknowledge, it is not talking about the kind of foreknowledge that is more often than not being taught from many if not most pulpits today. No to be sure, it is a very, very different kind of foreknowledge as well see shortly. Secondly though I hate to potentially bore you with 10 minutes of printed text but I simply cannot resist putting up this entire quote from A.W. Pink on this crucial subject of foreknowledge. Because it is quite simply the absolute best, clearest, easiest explanation I’ve ever heard or read on this all important and much distorted attribute of God. So with that in mind may God give you eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit has to say.

Video

The Foreknowledge of God

by A. W. Pink

What controversies have been engendered by this subject in the past! But what truth of Holy Scripture is there which has not been made the occasion of theological and ecclesiastical battles? The deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His atoning death. His second advent; the believer's justification, sanctification, security; the church, its organization, officers, discipline; baptism, the Lord's supper and a score of other precious truths might be mentioned. Yet, the controversies which have been waged over them did not close the mouths of God's faithful servants; why, then, should we avoid the vexing question of God's Foreknowledge, because, forsooth, there are some who will charge us with fomenting strife? Let others contend if they will, our duty is to bear witness according to the light vouchsafed us.

There are two things concerning the Foreknowledge of God about which many are in ignorance: the meaning of the term and its Scriptural scope. Because this ignorance is so widespread, it is an easy matter for preachers and teachers to palm off perversions of this subject, even upon the people of God. There is only one safeguard against error, and that is to be established in the faith; and for that, there has to be prayerful and diligent study, and a receiving with meekness the engrafted Word of God. Only then are we fortified against the attacks of those who assail us. There are those today who are misusing this very truth in order to discredit and deny the absolute sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Just as higher critics are repudiating the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures; evolutionists, the work of God in creation; so some pseudo Bible teachers are perverting His foreknowledge in order to set aside His unconditional election unto eternal life.

When the solemn and blessed subject of Divine foreordination is expounded, when God's eternal choice of certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son is set forth, the Enemy sends along some man to argue that election is based upon the foreknowledge of God, and this "foreknowledge" is interpreted to mean that God foresaw certain ones would be more pliable than others, that they would respond more readily to the strivings of the Spirit, and that because God knew they would believe, He accordingly, predestinated them unto salvation. But such a statement is radically wrong. It repudiates the truth of total depravity, for it argues that there is something good in some men. It takes away the independency of God, for it makes His decrees rest upon what He discovers in the creature. It completely turns things upside down, for in saying God foresaw certain sinners would believe in Christ, and that because of this, He predestinated them unto salvation, is the very reverse of the truth. Scripture affirms that God, in His high sovereignty, singled out certain ones to be recipients of His distinguishing favours (Acts 13:48), and therefore He determined to bestow upon them the gift of faith. False theology makes God's foreknowledge of our believing the cause of His election to salvation; whereas, God's election is the cause, and our believing in Christ is the effect.

Ere proceeding further with our discussion of this much misunderstood theme, let us pause and define our terms. What is meant by "foreknowledge"? "To know beforehand," is the ready reply of many. But we must not jump at conclusions, nor must we turn to Webster's Dictionary as the final court of appeal, for it is not a matter of the etymology of the term employed. What is needed is to find out how the word is used in Scripture. The Holy Spirit's usage of an expression always defines its meaning and scope. It is failure to apply this simple rule which is responsible for so much confusion and error. So many people assume they already know the signification of a certain word used in Scripture, and then they are too dilatory to test their assumptions by means of a concordance. Let us amplify this point.

Take the word "flesh." Its meaning appears to be so obvious that many would regard it as a waste of time to look up its various connections in Scripture. It is hastily assumed that the word is synonymous with the physical body, and so no inquiry is made. But, in fact. "flesh" in Scripture frequently includes far more than what is corporeal; all that is embraced by the term can only be ascertained by a diligent comparison of every occurrence of it and by a study of each separate context. Take the word "world." The average reader of the Bible imagines this word is the equivalent for the human race, and consequently, many passages where the term is found are wrongly interpreted. Take the word "immortality." Surely it requires no study! Obviously it has reference to the indestructibility of the soul. Ah, my reader, it is foolish and wrong to assume anything where the Word of God is concerned. If the reader will take the trouble to carefully examine each passage where "mortal" and "immortal" are found, it will be seen these words are never applied to the soul, but always to the body.

Now what has been said on "flesh," the "world," "immortality," applies with equal force to the terms "know" and "foreknow." Instead of imagining that these words signify no more than a simple cognition, the different passages in which they occur require to be carefully weighed. The word "foreknowledge" is not found in the Old Testament. But "know" occurs there frequently. When that term is used in connection with God, it often signifies to regard with favour, denoting not mere cognition but an affection for the object in view. "I know thee by name" (Ex. 33:17). "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you" (Deut. 9:24). "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee" (Jer. 1:5). "They have made princes and I knew not" (Hos. 8:4). "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). In these passages "knew" signifies either loved or appointed.

In like manner, the word "know" is frequently used in the New Testament, in the same sense as in the Old Testament. "Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you" (Matt. 7:23). "I am the good shepherd and know My sheep and am known of Mine" (John 10:14). "If any man love God, the same is known of Him" (I Cor. 8:3). "The Lord knoweth them that are His" (II Tim. 2:19).

Now the word "foreknowledge" as it is used in the N.T. is less ambiguous than in its simple form "to know." If every passage in which it occurs is carefully studied, it will be discovered that it is a moot point whether it ever has reference to the mere perception of events which are yet to take place. The fact is that "foreknowledge" is never used in Scripture in connection with events or actions; instead, it always has reference to persons. It is persons God is said to "foreknow," not the actions of those persons. In proof of this we shall now quote each passage where this expression is found.

The first occurrence is in Acts 2:23. There we read, "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." If careful attention is paid to the wording of this verse it will be seen that the apostle was not there speaking of God's foreknowledge of the act of the crucifixion, but of the Person crucified: "Him (Christ) being delivered by," etc.

The second occurrence is in Rom. 8:29,30. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called," etc. Weigh well the pronoun that is used here. It is not what He did foreknow, but whom He did. It is not the surrendering of their wills nor the believing of their hearts, but the persons themselves, which is here in view.

"God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew" (Rom. 11:2). Once more the plain reference is to persons, and to persons only.

The last mention is in I Peter 1:2: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Who are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father"? The previous verse tells us: the reference is to the "strangers scattered," i.e., the Diaspora, the Dispersion, the believing Jews. Thus, here too the reference is to persons, and not to their foreseen acts.

Now in view of these passages (and there are no more) what scriptural ground is there for anyone saying God "foreknew" the acts of certain ones, viz., their "repenting and believing," and that because of those acts He elected them unto salvation? The answer is, None whatever. Scripture never speaks of repentance and faith as being foreseen or foreknown by God. Truly, He did know from all eternity that certain ones would repent and believe, yet this is not what Scripture refers to as the object of God's "foreknowledge." The word uniformly refers to God's foreknowing persons; then let us "hold fast the form of sound words" (II Tim. 1:13).

Another thing to which we desire to call particular attention is that the first two passages quoted above show plainly and teach implicitly that God's "foreknowledge" is not causative, that instead, something else lies behind, precedes it. and that something is His own sovereign decree. Christ was "delivered by the (1) determinate counsel and (2) foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). His "counsel" or decree was the ground of His foreknowledge. So again in Rom. 8:29. That verse opens with the word "for," which tells us to look back to what immediately precedes. What, then, does the previous verse say? This, "all things work together for good to them . . . who are the called according to His purpose." Thus God's "foreknowledge" is based upon His purpose" or decree (see Psa. 2:7).

God foreknows what will be because He has decreed what shall be. It is therefore a reversing of the order of Scripture, a putting of the cart before the horse, to affirm that God elects because He foreknows people. The truth is, He "foreknows" because He has elected. This removes the ground or cause of election from the creature, and places it in God's own sovereign will. God purposed in Himself to elect a certain people, not because of anything good in them or from them, either actual or foreseen, but solely out of His own mere pleasure. As to why He chose the ones He did, we do not know, and can only say, "Even so, Father, for it seemed good in Thy sight." The plain truth of Rom. 8:29 is that God, before the foundation of the world, singled out certain sinners and appointed them unto salvation (II Thess. 2:13). This is clear from the concluding words of the verse: "Predestinated to be conformed to the image of His son," etc. God did not predestinate those whom he foreknew were "conformed," but, on the contrary, those whom he "foreknew" (i.e.. loved and elected) He predestinated "to be conformed." Their conformity to Christ is not the cause, but the effect of God's foreknowledge and predestination.

God did not elect any sinner because He foresaw that he would believe, for the simple but sufficient reason that no sinner ever does believe until God gives him faith; just as no man sees until God gives him sight. Sight is God's gift, seeing is the consequence of my using His gift. So faith is God's gift (Eph. 2:8,9), believing is the consequence of my using His gift. If it were true that God had elected certain ones to be saved because in due time they would believe, then that would make believing a meritorious act, and in that event the saved sinner would have ground for "boasting," which Scripture emphatically denies: Eph. 2:9.

Surely God's Word is plain enough in teaching that believing is not a meritorious act. It affirms that Christians are a people "who have believed through grace" (Acts 18:27). If, then, they have believed "through grace," there is absolutely nothing meritorious about "believing," and if nothing meritorious, it could not be the ground or cause which moved God to choose them. No; God's choice proceeds not from anything in us, or anything from us, but solely from His own sovereign pleasure. Once more, in Rom. 11:5, we read of "a remnant according to the election of grace." There it is, plain enough; election itself is of grace, and grace is unmerited favour, something for which we had no claim upon God whatsoever.

It thus appears that it is highly important for us to have clear and spiritual views of the "foreknowledge" of God. Erroneous conceptions about it lead inevitably to thoughts most dishonouring to Him. The popular idea of Divine foreknowledge is altogether inadequate. God not only knew the end from the beginning, but He planned, fixed, predestinated everything from the beginning. And, as cause stands to effect, so God's purpose is the ground of His prescience. If then the reader be a real Christian, he is so because God chose him in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), and chose not because He foresaw you would believe, but chose simply because it pleased Him to choose; chose you notwithstanding your natural unbelief. This being so, all the glory and praise belongs alone to Him. You have no ground for taking any credit to yourself. You have "believed through grace (Acts 18:27), and that, because your very election was "of grace" (Rom. 11:5). 

5. The Love of God is Infinite.

Everything about God is infinite, infinite: without measure, boundless, without bottom or end, incalculable. For example, the knowledge of God has no bounds. He knows everything all of the time about not only the present but about the past, and future and as we saw in our first two lesson in this series His power is also without limit. There is nothing too difficult for Him to accomplish. And so in the same way it can be said that the love of God is also infinite. It too is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom. There is a length to it which none can exhaust. There is a breath to it that defies human measurement. And as inexpressible as that truth about the love of God is, it none the less is beautifully allegorized over and over again in Scripture with passages such as these:

Isaiah 54:10

10  For the mountains shall depart, and the hills 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.

Hosea 2:19-20

19  And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

20  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD..

Exodus 34:27

4  And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

5  And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

6  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

In that verse, the word translated “abundant” or (God is abounding in goodness and truth), is a very expressive, beautiful multifaceted word in the Hebrew…a word that is rich in meaning and insight because it speaks of greatness, might, and exceedingly overflowing. These are just some of the many adjectives and synonyms that are used to define that same word as it exists in the original Hebrew language.  RAB—Many, great, manifold, more numerous than, strong, mighty, chief, exceedingly much, abounding, overflowing.

The thought of which caused puritan author and preacher  John Brine (1743) to write:

No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God’s love. No mind can fully comprehend …this love that surpasses knowledge. (Ephesians 3:19b). The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about Divine love are infinitelybelow its true nature! The heaven is not so far above the earth, as the love of God is beyond the most raised conceptions, which we (in our mere humanness) are able to form of it! It is an ocean, which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition. It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it…(and never runs dry). Oh, the love of God…is infinite!

6. The Love of God is Immutable.

God Himself we are told in scripture that he is a God … “ …with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17b

And such is also therefore the nature of pacifically His love.   It neither changes or lessens.  Let me repeat that God’s love does not change nor does it ever lessen.  It doesn’t vary in any way. It doesn’t increase it doesn’t decrease.  I not sure if your catching the immensity of the significance of that.  But that is a huge statement because each one of us even as God’s born again redeemed children could have this said about us:

Ephesians 2:1-3

2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:

2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Like the rest, you (the redeemed saved child of God) where at one time by nature and object wrath but:

Ephesians 2:4-5

4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

So again we see God’s love is uninfluenced and it’s eternal, sovereign, foreknowing, infinite and now well add unchangeable which is again merely a different facet of the same beautiful jewel from a slightly different perspective.

God’s love for His elect was is and never will be less than it is right now.

Infinite: you can’t lose it you can’t lessen it  you can’t end it or as scripture puts it…it is a love that is…

Song of Songs 8:6-7

6  is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

7  Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it…

Nothing literally nothing can separate us from it.

Romans 8:29-39

29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So my brothers and sisters in Christ the next time you feel like you so messed up that surely God no longer loves you or somehow loves you less remember the love of God for his children is unchangeable. 

Conclusion: Do you remember when at the cross your trembling soul found His Love and Mercy?  Have you picked up your cross to the point at least where your telling the story of Jesus Amazing Love?   Are you still near the cross?

Six of the eight aspects of God’s love learned today:

1. Uninfluenced
2. Eternal
3. Sovereign
4. Foreknowing
5. Infinite
6. Immutable (unchangeable)