Beloved by God
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
We are considering what may be called Paul's paragraph of praise and thanksgiving to God for these beloved Christians in Thessaloniki, these Thessalonians. Beginning with verse 2, going down all the way to the end of the chapter, verse 10, and you look at this portion of the Word of God that we've been really studying together. In verse 2 He says, "We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers." And as Paul gives thanks, He does so, verse 3, “remembering” certain things. And verse 4, “knowing” certain things. And the things which He remembered we have studied together.
You remember those three crown jewels, their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. And the things which He knows, well, we will begin considering this evening. The things which He knows, number one, He knows that they are beloved by God. And number two, He knows their election, God's choice of them. We will then consider in the weeks to come, Lord willing, how He knew that they were beloved by God and how He knew that they were the elect of God. But tonight our focus will be the little phrase in verse 4, verse 4a, knowing brothers beloved by God. He says your election.
Well, let's begin with the first part of this phrase, knowing brothers beloved by God. Now just as other certain words become particular words to describe the children of God, so this little phrase here in verse 4a, beloved by God, is a description of the people of God and belongs to no one else. No one else. The word holy, ἅγιος , and or the word saints became a term applied to the people of God and was never used of anyone else.
As you read the New Testament, New Testament letters, you find phrases like this, for instance, in Romans chapter 1, verse 7, "To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints," ἅγιος, set-apart ones. You see the word saints and the word beloved of God are two particular descriptions of the people of God there in Rome and wherever they are found. In Colossians 3, verse 12, the Apostle says, "So as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." There are the three terms used only of the people of God, elect, holy, beloved, and they're not used of anyone else. He uses these words in a similar way in 2nd Thessalonians 2:13 where He speaks of the people of God as brothers beloved by the Lord.
Now what conclusion do we draw from this? Well, the very obvious conclusion, very obvious, that if a particular people are given a particular title and no one else is given that title, well that title applies only to them and must signify something that's true of them but true of no one else. So if the people of God are called saints, the word saint becomes a particular title for those who are born of the Spirit of God. Now the same way with the phrase beloved of God or by God, it is used only of those who stand in a state of grace. They are the ones who are beloved by God.
Therefore we conclude that in a special way only the people of God are beloved by God in this very special way and blessed be His name, all the people of God with all their weakness and all their failures and all their struggles are beloved by God. Now this conclusion immediately poses a problem to many of us particularly in this day and age in our generation. Why? For we have for many years thought of God's love simply as a general attitude of goodwill and benevolence to all men without any distinction and without any varying degrees. That God loved all men in the same way and that to question that was in essence to question the truth of the Bible.
My objective this evening is simply to expound those words biblically and it is this, my objective this evening by the grace of God to seek to demonstrate from the Word of God that God's redemptive love is a special kind of love to a special group of people which attains special ends and objectives. And we need to do this because it is right here in the Word of God. These are not just words. They're inspired. That when Paul could write to the Thessalonians and say knowing brothers beloved by God that He was calling those Christians there in Thessaloniki beloved by God in a sense that they were the object of a particular peculiar distinguishing redemptive love of God in a way that others were not.
That's my objective, with God's help. How am I going to seek to obtain that objective? Well, twofold way. Number one, first of all, I want to establish by the grace of God the fact and have you look at a number of scriptures with me to see that there is indeed a distinguishing love taught in the Bible in a general way. And by distinguishing, distinguishing love, I mean a love that makes differences. And then secondly, to establish that this distinguishing love that God has to His own people is the love that is inseparably joined to His elective purposes or electing purposes.
First of all then, can we establish the fact that there is in the scripture clear indication of a different kind of love that God has in different relationships? Well, let us look at this together. The distinguishing love taught in scripture. Distinguishing love taught in scripture. First of all, illustrated from human experience. Suppose I were to say to you in the course of half an hour a conversation, I love the color green. Now, we might move to the subject of food and I might say, well, I love bone marrow. Then I might move in our conversation and talk about where I grew up in Lebanon and say, well, I love the mountains there in Lebanon. And then in the course of conversation, an opportunity comes up and I say, well, I love my wife. And then in the course of the conversation, we might be discussing our Lord and I might say, I love my Savior.
Now, in the course of half an hour, I said I love the color green. I love bone marrow. I love mountains. I love my wife. I love my Savior. All the way from color green to my Savior. Now, it's obvious to you, I trust, and you understand when I communicate to you that the love I have to the color green is qualitatively different from the love that I have for my Savior, from the love that I have for my wife. You would never put the same meaning on the word love when I say I love my Savior. I love the color green. Now, I do have an attachment and affinity to the color green, but you would not put the same meaning on the word when I say I love my Savior. I would never die for the color green. I would never bear reproach for the color green. I would never give of my substance and my time and my energies and, if necessary, of my blood for the color green. By the grace of God, by the grace of God, I'd like to believe that I would do that for my Savior.
So you see, even in human conversations, there are degrees of love. There are different kinds of love, and we see this clearly taught in Scripture. First of all, consider that in the Lord Jesus there were different kinds of love expressed to different people. It is said, you remember, in that account in Mark 10, our Lord looked upon the rich young ruler and looking at him, Mark 10 verse 21, "Jesus loved him." Right? That means that our Lord felt something toward this man, this young man, when He looked at him that He did not feel prior to looking at him, and He felt something to him that He didn't feel to other men who were walking around, or else language loses its meaning. Right? If our Lord had the same affection to every young man in that area, then it absolutely makes no sense that Mark should say, "and looking at him Jesus loved him." If it's all the same across the board. You see, that was a particular kind of love directed to a particular person.
Then we read in John 11 verse 5, and the text that we read, that we studied together not too long ago, that "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Now, if the love that He had to them is the same love that He had to all men, then John is telling us something that makes no sense whatsoever. Why tell us that He loves Martha, her sister, and Mary, and Lazarus unless Jesus loved in a special way Martha, Mary, and Lazarus? And turning to John 13, you have a similar passage in verse 1, that familiar scripture: "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing His hour had come that He would depart out of the world to the Father”, now notice, “having loved His own who were in the world”, “having loved His own who were in the world," separating His own from the world in general, a love which is directed to His own in particular, "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them," He loved them, excluding others with this kind of love. Whatever love He had to others, this kind of love was directed to a specific group of people, and it says “He loved them to the end.”
Turn to Revelation chapter 3, and by the way, this is by no means an exhaustive list, this is a suggestive list. There were many passages, I have to select a few. Revelation 3 verse 9, the Lord is speaking as He gives these letters to John to send to the seven churches, this one addressed to the church there in Philadelphia, verse 9: "Behold, I am giving up those of the synagogue of Satan, those who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come," that's one group of people, "and bow down before your feet and make them know that I have loved you." He says, I'm gonna do something to convince men that I have a particular love for you as My particular people. Down in verse 19, you have a similar thing, our Lord speaking these words to the church at Laodicea, and He says in verse 19, "Those whom I love," setting off a group, those whom He loves, He says, "I reprove and discipline." Does He reprove and discipline all as His children, as we shall see a little bit later? No. Therefore, He has a peculiar love to those who are His own. And then we're told of the disciple whom Jesus loved, the beloved disciple John.
Now, what do all of these references in the life of our Lord tell us? Well, they tell us that our Lord had different kinds of love to different people. They tell us that, that much then, and that's the only conclusion that I want us to draw at this point. Now, is it true of the Father? Does the scripture attribute to the Father a different kind of love to different individuals or groups of people? Yes, the scripture says that the Father has a special love to His Son. We know that, the scripture declares it. John 3:35, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand." The Father loves the Son. The Father has a special love for His Son which has moved Him to give to Him as the mediator all things, all things are entrusted to Him. In John 10:17, you find a similar reference where our Lord says, "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again." And here is a special love because of the self-sacrifice, the laying down of His own life. My Father, He says, has a peculiar love to Me in light of My willingness to lay down My life and to take it up again.
And then the scripture teaches not only that the Father has a peculiar love to His Son, but He has a special love to His people. John 17, that high priestly prayer of Jesus, our Lord is praying, and this is His petition, verse 23: "I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know," the world is one group, right, those for whom He prays are another group, "and He says that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You have loved Me." So His prayer is that the world may recognize that the Father has a special love to His people, that's His petition.
And then, of course, John 14, you have a number of references, one of them is in verse 21: "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him," will reveal, will manifest Myself to him. I don't want to multiply verses, but I want to give you enough to let you know that this is not some kind of a truth that is hidden off in a corner, that there's, there's, there is a real sense, in a real sense, there is a distinguishing kind of love revealed in Christ's own life to others, revealed in the Father's love to the Son, revealed in the Father's special love to His people.
2 Corinthians 9:7, you're familiar with this verse: "Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart," with reference to giving, "not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." God loves me as a giver when I give cheerfully. He loves me in Christ, but there is that love here expressed when I give cheerfully. But if I give grudgingly, under compulsion, He doesn't love me as a giver because I'm not being cheerful, not giving from the heart. But when you give with the attitude, bless God that I have life and breath and salvation and all that is given me, Lord, what a joy to give You from what You have given me because it's already Yours to begin with, and God says, I love that kind of a giver. You see, God has a distinguishing love directed to certain people in different circumstances.
And then that familiar text in Hebrews 12 verse 6, where the scripture tells us, "For those whom the Lord loves," what does He do? “He disciplines.” He disciplines, it's an expression of His love. "He disciplines and He flogs every son whom He receives." There's a special love for His children which leads Him to discipline them. And then He says in verse 8, "But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children, not sons," indicating that not all are disciplined by the Lord. It's only those that He loves with a peculiar love that are disciplined by Him. Well, there's a difference made, some that He loves that He disciplines, others that He doesn't love with that special distinguishing love, He doesn't discipline them, and they're not sons, in fact, they are illegitimate children.
Do you get the feeling, beloved, the drift of all of these passages? They teach and establish the fact that there is indeed taught in Scripture a distinguishing love of God. There is a separating or a marking off by differences in the love which God has to different kinds of people in different kinds of situations. The idea that because God is love, He has an identical affection to all men irrespective of their condition is an unscriptural concept.
Well, now, having, I trust, established the fact that there is a there is in general a distinguishing love, I want to, in the second place this evening, to demonstrate that there is a distinguishing love of God to His own elect people. For notice in our text, these are the two things that Paul joins together. Next Lord's Day we will look at the last part, "knowing, brothers beloved by God”, what “your election," distinguishing love, and here's the point that I want to make based on the scripture: distinguishing love inseparably joined to God's electing purposes. You see, Paul joined them together, these two thoughts, these two truths, that the special object of the love of God and the special object of the electing purpose of God, these are to join together in our text, and they are joined in the biblical concept throughout the entire breadth of Scripture, and what God joins together let no one separate.
Will you turn with me to what I really feel are the two key passages, or believe the two key passages, in the Old Testament which teach in the history of God's people, ancient people, this tremendous truth, that the distinguishing love of God, that God has to His chosen people, these two things are joined together, election and distinguishing love, and they're inseparably joined. And, of course, you have to turn to Deuteronomy 7, right? Deuteronomy 7, the context is clear. God is exhorting His people to obedience, promising that if they obey, blessing will come, if they disobey, the curse will come, and now He's trying to give them motive for obedience, and He tells them in verse 6, we read, "For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." So here are all the nations, and God says, I set My choice on you, Israel, I set My choice on you.
Now notice verse 7: "Yahweh did not set His affection, He did not set His love on you nor choose you," do you see the two thoughts joined together, set His affection, love upon you and choose you, distinguishing love and particular election inseparably joined right there in the text, verse 7, "Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because Yahweh loved you." As God is trying to humble Israel to move her with motives to obey Him, Moses says, now look, God has chosen you to be a special people above all the peoples, and He didn't do it because you were greater, He didn't do it because you were more in number, but He loved you and He chose you for one reason and one reason only. What is it, Moses, tell us? He loved you. He loved you. What do you mean? The only cause is that God chose to set His love upon them. Is that it? Is that the only cause? Precisely, precisely, that's the only reason He gives. Verse 8: "But because Yahweh loved you," that's the only reason that He gives. And because He loved Israel, He chose her for a particular purpose. He chose Israel because He loved Israel. He chose Israel in spite of Israel. So you see, the concepts of distinguishing love and sovereign election are joined together.
Turn with me, while we're in that book, to chapter 10, and you will see the same thing in chapter 10, Deuteronomy, verses 14 through 16. Again, we have an exhortation to obedience in verse 12, and now He's trying to give them motive to prompt them to obedience, and listen to the motive, beginning in verse 14: "Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer." Oh, He says, Israel, Oh Israel, be humble, lay low, and be brought to a place of obedience from the heart as you behold the distinguishing love of God which was joined to the particular election of God. "Yahweh set His affection to love you, He chose your seed after you." And so you see, the whole concept of God's distinguishing love and particular election joined together in the whole history of Israel.
So that when Paul is writing about God's dealing with Israel in the New Testament, in that well-known passage in Romans 11 verse 28, we read, "From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of” what? “God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of their fathers.” Why? “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." They will not be rescinded.
You see the two joined together? Now, what is God doing today? Well, because of disobedience, Romans 11:25 and 26, "a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentile has come. And so all Israel will be saved." God's focus of concern right now is His Church, the called-out ones, the called-out body of His own. And how are they described in Scripture? Well, turn to Colossians 3 and we shall see these two thoughts joined together.
Like Moses with Israel in the Old Testament, Paul is exhorting believers to Christian duty and He seeks to arm them with motives by reminding them that they were the objects of distinguishing love and particular election of God. Verse 12, Colossians 3 and verse 12: "So as” what? “The elect of God.” As the elect of God, “holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." He says now if you remember what you are, this will arm you with motives to be what you ought to be or better, to be what you are. Remember what you are, Paul says, and when you remember what you are, you'll be armed with the most powerful motives to be what you are.
Well, what am I? What am I? You're the beloved of God. You're the beloved of God. You're the elect of God. Oh, you mean God set His love upon me? Why? Let me tell you why. Because He set His love upon you. And being pressed down in humiliation that God in His sovereign grace and mercy should love me, me, when He may have made up His bride, the church out of many others. What does this do? When I'm pressed down in humiliation realizing all of this, me, why me? What does this do? It arms the child of God with great motives for humility leading to obedience to the will of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, "but we should always give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." Again, the particular love of God, the particular election of God joined together inseparably. And of course the classic passage showing these two joined together, Ephesians 1:4 through 6, "just as He chose us”, chose us “in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the” goodness of our works? According to the what? “According to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved."
And so we see in these passages that I try to bring to bear upon 1 Thessalonians 1:4 that when Paul wrote to those Thessalonians and said, "knowing brothers beloved by God your election," he was not speaking of that general love of God that God has for all His creatures. The Lord spoke of that general love of God back in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 where He said in verse 45, "He,” God, “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." That's the common grace of God, the general love of God.
Acts 14:17, Paul says, "He,” God, “did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons filling your hearts with food and gladness." That's the general love of God. So no, no, He's not speaking of that, of that love that He mentions elsewhere. He's not speaking of the peculiar love that Paul is talking about concerning the elect. That peculiar love spoken of in John 10 where our Lord says in verse 14, "I'm the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me. I lay down My life for the sheep and I have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must bring them also and they will hear My voice and they will become one flock with one Shepherd." It's the peculiar love of the bridegroom to the bride.
And Ephesians 5, that text often read at weddings, 25 to 27, "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for” who? For everybody? For the church, “for her”, the church, “so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her”, the church, “by the washing of the water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her Glory, having no spot or wrinkle." You see, that love with which the Thessalonian believers were loved was a distinguishing love. It was a dying, sacrificial love. It was a conquering love. It was the love spoken of in Jeremiah 31 verse 3, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness." That's a love that is eternal, beloved, a love that is immutable, a love that is efficacious. "Therefore I have drawn you."
It's a love that not only provides redemption, but quickens, quickens a dead sinner. Paul says in Ephesians 2:4 and 5, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive. He quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved." Has God quickened all men? Has He quickened all sinners? No, He quickened some.
This is a love that quickens the sinner. This is a love that releases the sinners. Revelation 1:5, "To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood and has made us to be kingdom priest to His God and Father, to Him be the glory, the might forever and ever. Amen." This God who loves, who loves inexplicably, who loves without explanation, who loves unexpectedly, who loves invincibly, this God who loves immutably, without change, this God of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is at the center of the target of the source of our salvation.
Salvation is only explained by God and His love for us. The scripture contains the theme of God's love for unlovely sinners. How did God express undeserved, unsolicited love for sinners? What did He do? Well, let me sum it up in one phrase for us. Here it is, and you've heard this before: God gave what was most precious to Him, and He gave that which was best for you and for me. God gave what was most precious to Him, and He gave what was most precious to Him, and He gave what was best for you and for me, child of God.
Let me conclude this evening by seeking to establish the practical use of this. Of what practical use was it to write to these people there in Thessaloniki, little babes in Christ? We think about it, little babes in Christ. You say, shouldn't they be concerned with other more practical things than beloved of God, your election? Aren't those mysteries for the theologians, sovereign election? Predestination? Well, apparently Paul didn't think so.
I mean, they were clear on sovereign election, but they were confused on what? Eschatology. Paul had to straighten them out on the rapture, but he didn't have to straighten them out on election. They were crystal clear. I find that interesting. They knew that God saved them, and He saved them on purpose, and He saved them because He loved them with a special love. We're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, that God has chosen you from the beginning.
This was a glorious truth.
Now why? Of what practical use is the doctrine of God's particular, distinguishing love for His own? How is that relevant? Well, let me establish very briefly its practical use for the Saints of God. Paul, writing to these Christians in Thessaloniki, and he says in verse 4, "knowing, brothers beloved by God”, beloved by God, brothers beloved by God, “your election." What effect should that have? I mean, some young believer sitting there in Thessaloniki, listening to Paul's letter read by one of the elders perhaps, and he hears, beloved by God. God has a peculiar love to me in Christ. He has a love that I set His affection on me and has chosen me.
What should this do?
I want to suggest it should, number one, it should have its effect of producing deep humiliation in the heart of the Saint of God. It should have its effect of producing deep, deep humiliation in the heart of the Saint of God. That's why God spoke that way to His ancient people. He said, look, there's nothing in you that moved Me to choose you. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In the moment Israel forgot that, she became decadent, as a nation. When she began to think, well, God chose us because of something we were. And no longer walked in humility, recognizing God chose them simply because He loved them of His own sovereign will, sovereign choice.
Israel became proud and haughty and arrogant, and God brought judgment upon Israel again and again. And God said, look, I'm not going to let you choose Me. God brought judgment upon Israel again and again. And decadent Judaism comes to all of its apex in the incident of the man who stands in the temple, lifts up his face to heaven and says, I thank You that I'm not like other men. Why? Well, God, it's obvious why You chose me, isn't it? Why, it's so clear to me and I hope it's clear to You, God. And if it isn't, let me just clue You in, God. You did a wise thing when You chose me to be part of Your family, the family of Abraham. I'm not like other men.Isn't that what he was saying? He was just reminding God that He did a wise thing when He chose him.
Whereas the true sons of Abraham are like that publican who beat upon the breast and see nothing but wretchedness and sin and dare not to look up to heaven, but wonder of wonders, they see that there is grace available. And he cries, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I know of nothing so humbling to the pride of the human heart than to realize that God has set His love upon me. Not because He foresaw what I would be. Not because He saw something in me that distinguished me from others, but He set His love and affection on me according to the good pleasure of His will.
Paul wanted these saints to walk in the grace of humility, that virtue that's called by many theologians the crown of all virtues, the basis of all virtues: humility.
Remember, every time you wake up in the morning, train your heart and your mind to ask these two questions: What do I deserve, and what have I received? And then it would be, to the saints of God, the basis of comfort and assurance, secondly. The basis of comfort and assurance. For you remember, those Christians were getting kicked around there in Thessaloniki. Little babes in Christ, and they were getting persecuted. They were getting bullied and abused.
And that's why Paul sent Timothy to find out how they were doing. He was concerned about them under pressure, the pressure of persecution and suffering. And that's what prompted him to write a letter when he received the report that in spite of the pressure and the persecution that were going on, they were going on with God. And he wrote this letter. What comfort does that bring? Well, I am beloved of God. I'm chosen by God. If I've been on His heart from eternity as the object of His love and as the subject of His electing purpose, I can look anybody in the face and say, “Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns. Christ Jesus is He who died. Yes, rather, He was who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ. Will affliction or turmoil or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?" (Romans 8:33-35)
And you read the latter part of Romans eight, and it's charged through with this very concept. The recognition that Christ loved me with a distinguishing, peculiar love for reasons known only to Him will produce in the child of God the basis of His comfort. The straight, deep roots of His blessed assurance that the God who started to move toward me in eternity will not cut me off in time.
Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold.
You've been singing that, child of God, all your life. Right, that it was grace, it was grace that sought you and bought you and brought you into the fold and blessed be God. It's grace that keeps us there because my name from the palms of His hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed on His heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given. More happy, but not more secure, are the glorified spirits in heaven. The work which His goodness began, the arm of His strength will complete. His promises, yea, and amen, and never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things that are now, nor all things below or above, can make Him His purpose forgo or sever my soul from His love.
Beloved, that's comfort. That's solid comfort. But God has a distinguishing love to me in Jesus Christ, and in closing, to any of you who are not savingly joined to Christ, I trust that this doctrine will send an air of conviction to your heart. Listen carefully. God's love has been expressed in a general sense to the world, providing a Savior. But what is His present attitude to men who remain in unbelief? Listen to the scripture. Let the scripture answer. John 3:36, the words of Jesus: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." The wrath of God abides on him.
God in love made provision for sinners, and He bid sinners to flee to His Son. But if sinners do not flee, don't think that the canopy of His love is above your head. The scripture says, "The wrath of God abides on him that does not believe."
Psalm 5:5. "You, Yahweh, God, hate all workers of iniquity." Psalm 7:11. "God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day." And the reference is with the wicked. He's angry with the wicked. Romans 1:18. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness." And you remember the words of Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3, that “all of us were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” That's what John the Baptist meant when he said, "Flee from the wrath to come that hangs over your head." Flee to Christ for mercy.
Oh, dear young person, adult outside of Christ. God in His goodness, God in His benevolence, sends rain and food and provides you with many good things. Romans 2, 4 says, "the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience." And remember there in scripture, there in Romans 2 and elsewhere. But He says, remember, the whole aim of the goodness of God is to lead you to repentance. Though His wrath hangs over your head, in His mercy, in His kindness, He withholds His wrath and in the meantime showers His benefits upon you. To what end? Why? To make you wake up to your folly. That seeing a God who could judge you in this moment, in this instant, has withheld His judgment in mercy. This should cause you to fall on your face crying out, "Oh, God have mercy. God have mercy." The kindness, the forbearance, the patience of God should lead, Paul says, to repentance.
And so to you outside of Christ, this doctrine should cause conviction to your heart. To think of the love of God as separated from Christ is unscriptural nonsense. Unscriptural nonsense. God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, His love is joined to the Savior. “God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him.” The only comfort in John 3:16 is for a believer. One who believes. To draw comfort from a love that you think is just a general ooze of sentiment, syrupy sentiment, while you remain in impenitence and in unbelief is to butcher the word of God and bring your soul into jeopardy.
But it not only should strike conviction for any of you here who are tonight conscious that you're not in Christ. Oh, what a glorious doctrine that Jesus laid down His life for His sheep. And who are sheep? Those who see themselves in desperate need of the great shepherd. Who see themselves destitute of any righteousness. Who realize that only the righteousness purchased by the bloodshedding of the great shepherd will do. Do you see yourself in that place? No righteousness of your own, no hope in yourself. Then I have good news for you. Then the great shepherd stands ready and He says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) I'll save you with an everlasting salvation.
That's a wonderful gospel to preach, isn't it? That's a wonderful gospel to proclaim. The gospel of the great shepherd who dies for His sheep, who gathers His sheep, who keeps His sheep, who feeds His sheep. Will you be gathered tonight? He says, repent. He says, believe. He says, come. Oh, may God grant that you find discovery, the discovery of the love of God as you are in Christ Jesus. And the only way sinners get in Christ Jesus is to repent and to believe. May God grant that this doctrine shall have its desired effect upon the sinner who's out of Christ and upon us who are in Christ Jesus. Who are children of God, beloved of God.
I didn't even get a chance to really begin to scratch the surface, expound the thought beloved of God. But let me say this in closing. Just meditate tonight. Meditate in closing. Just think about this. Meditate, ponder, muse on this. Meditate on the infinite chasm, infinite chasm between man and God. And then if you can, stretch infinity even more. Because it's not a chasm between God and man, but between a holy, holy, holy God and sinful man. And what bridges that infinite chasm? Beloved of God. Beloved of God. Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.
Brothers, beloved of God, may we revel in His love and may that love produce in our hearts such a love for Him that we shall obey Him and serve Him and extol Him and bear witness to Him that others may know of that love and find refuge under the canopy of the love of God that is in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Let's pray.
You remember those three crown jewels, their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. And the things which He knows, well, we will begin considering this evening. The things which He knows, number one, He knows that they are beloved by God. And number two, He knows their election, God's choice of them. We will then consider in the weeks to come, Lord willing, how He knew that they were beloved by God and how He knew that they were the elect of God. But tonight our focus will be the little phrase in verse 4, verse 4a, knowing brothers beloved by God. He says your election.
Well, let's begin with the first part of this phrase, knowing brothers beloved by God. Now just as other certain words become particular words to describe the children of God, so this little phrase here in verse 4a, beloved by God, is a description of the people of God and belongs to no one else. No one else. The word holy, ἅγιος , and or the word saints became a term applied to the people of God and was never used of anyone else.
As you read the New Testament, New Testament letters, you find phrases like this, for instance, in Romans chapter 1, verse 7, "To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints," ἅγιος, set-apart ones. You see the word saints and the word beloved of God are two particular descriptions of the people of God there in Rome and wherever they are found. In Colossians 3, verse 12, the Apostle says, "So as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." There are the three terms used only of the people of God, elect, holy, beloved, and they're not used of anyone else. He uses these words in a similar way in 2nd Thessalonians 2:13 where He speaks of the people of God as brothers beloved by the Lord.
Now what conclusion do we draw from this? Well, the very obvious conclusion, very obvious, that if a particular people are given a particular title and no one else is given that title, well that title applies only to them and must signify something that's true of them but true of no one else. So if the people of God are called saints, the word saint becomes a particular title for those who are born of the Spirit of God. Now the same way with the phrase beloved of God or by God, it is used only of those who stand in a state of grace. They are the ones who are beloved by God.
Therefore we conclude that in a special way only the people of God are beloved by God in this very special way and blessed be His name, all the people of God with all their weakness and all their failures and all their struggles are beloved by God. Now this conclusion immediately poses a problem to many of us particularly in this day and age in our generation. Why? For we have for many years thought of God's love simply as a general attitude of goodwill and benevolence to all men without any distinction and without any varying degrees. That God loved all men in the same way and that to question that was in essence to question the truth of the Bible.
My objective this evening is simply to expound those words biblically and it is this, my objective this evening by the grace of God to seek to demonstrate from the Word of God that God's redemptive love is a special kind of love to a special group of people which attains special ends and objectives. And we need to do this because it is right here in the Word of God. These are not just words. They're inspired. That when Paul could write to the Thessalonians and say knowing brothers beloved by God that He was calling those Christians there in Thessaloniki beloved by God in a sense that they were the object of a particular peculiar distinguishing redemptive love of God in a way that others were not.
That's my objective, with God's help. How am I going to seek to obtain that objective? Well, twofold way. Number one, first of all, I want to establish by the grace of God the fact and have you look at a number of scriptures with me to see that there is indeed a distinguishing love taught in the Bible in a general way. And by distinguishing, distinguishing love, I mean a love that makes differences. And then secondly, to establish that this distinguishing love that God has to His own people is the love that is inseparably joined to His elective purposes or electing purposes.
First of all then, can we establish the fact that there is in the scripture clear indication of a different kind of love that God has in different relationships? Well, let us look at this together. The distinguishing love taught in scripture. Distinguishing love taught in scripture. First of all, illustrated from human experience. Suppose I were to say to you in the course of half an hour a conversation, I love the color green. Now, we might move to the subject of food and I might say, well, I love bone marrow. Then I might move in our conversation and talk about where I grew up in Lebanon and say, well, I love the mountains there in Lebanon. And then in the course of conversation, an opportunity comes up and I say, well, I love my wife. And then in the course of the conversation, we might be discussing our Lord and I might say, I love my Savior.
Now, in the course of half an hour, I said I love the color green. I love bone marrow. I love mountains. I love my wife. I love my Savior. All the way from color green to my Savior. Now, it's obvious to you, I trust, and you understand when I communicate to you that the love I have to the color green is qualitatively different from the love that I have for my Savior, from the love that I have for my wife. You would never put the same meaning on the word love when I say I love my Savior. I love the color green. Now, I do have an attachment and affinity to the color green, but you would not put the same meaning on the word when I say I love my Savior. I would never die for the color green. I would never bear reproach for the color green. I would never give of my substance and my time and my energies and, if necessary, of my blood for the color green. By the grace of God, by the grace of God, I'd like to believe that I would do that for my Savior.
So you see, even in human conversations, there are degrees of love. There are different kinds of love, and we see this clearly taught in Scripture. First of all, consider that in the Lord Jesus there were different kinds of love expressed to different people. It is said, you remember, in that account in Mark 10, our Lord looked upon the rich young ruler and looking at him, Mark 10 verse 21, "Jesus loved him." Right? That means that our Lord felt something toward this man, this young man, when He looked at him that He did not feel prior to looking at him, and He felt something to him that He didn't feel to other men who were walking around, or else language loses its meaning. Right? If our Lord had the same affection to every young man in that area, then it absolutely makes no sense that Mark should say, "and looking at him Jesus loved him." If it's all the same across the board. You see, that was a particular kind of love directed to a particular person.
Then we read in John 11 verse 5, and the text that we read, that we studied together not too long ago, that "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Now, if the love that He had to them is the same love that He had to all men, then John is telling us something that makes no sense whatsoever. Why tell us that He loves Martha, her sister, and Mary, and Lazarus unless Jesus loved in a special way Martha, Mary, and Lazarus? And turning to John 13, you have a similar passage in verse 1, that familiar scripture: "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing His hour had come that He would depart out of the world to the Father”, now notice, “having loved His own who were in the world”, “having loved His own who were in the world," separating His own from the world in general, a love which is directed to His own in particular, "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them," He loved them, excluding others with this kind of love. Whatever love He had to others, this kind of love was directed to a specific group of people, and it says “He loved them to the end.”
Turn to Revelation chapter 3, and by the way, this is by no means an exhaustive list, this is a suggestive list. There were many passages, I have to select a few. Revelation 3 verse 9, the Lord is speaking as He gives these letters to John to send to the seven churches, this one addressed to the church there in Philadelphia, verse 9: "Behold, I am giving up those of the synagogue of Satan, those who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come," that's one group of people, "and bow down before your feet and make them know that I have loved you." He says, I'm gonna do something to convince men that I have a particular love for you as My particular people. Down in verse 19, you have a similar thing, our Lord speaking these words to the church at Laodicea, and He says in verse 19, "Those whom I love," setting off a group, those whom He loves, He says, "I reprove and discipline." Does He reprove and discipline all as His children, as we shall see a little bit later? No. Therefore, He has a peculiar love to those who are His own. And then we're told of the disciple whom Jesus loved, the beloved disciple John.
Now, what do all of these references in the life of our Lord tell us? Well, they tell us that our Lord had different kinds of love to different people. They tell us that, that much then, and that's the only conclusion that I want us to draw at this point. Now, is it true of the Father? Does the scripture attribute to the Father a different kind of love to different individuals or groups of people? Yes, the scripture says that the Father has a special love to His Son. We know that, the scripture declares it. John 3:35, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand." The Father loves the Son. The Father has a special love for His Son which has moved Him to give to Him as the mediator all things, all things are entrusted to Him. In John 10:17, you find a similar reference where our Lord says, "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again." And here is a special love because of the self-sacrifice, the laying down of His own life. My Father, He says, has a peculiar love to Me in light of My willingness to lay down My life and to take it up again.
And then the scripture teaches not only that the Father has a peculiar love to His Son, but He has a special love to His people. John 17, that high priestly prayer of Jesus, our Lord is praying, and this is His petition, verse 23: "I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know," the world is one group, right, those for whom He prays are another group, "and He says that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You have loved Me." So His prayer is that the world may recognize that the Father has a special love to His people, that's His petition.
And then, of course, John 14, you have a number of references, one of them is in verse 21: "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him," will reveal, will manifest Myself to him. I don't want to multiply verses, but I want to give you enough to let you know that this is not some kind of a truth that is hidden off in a corner, that there's, there's, there is a real sense, in a real sense, there is a distinguishing kind of love revealed in Christ's own life to others, revealed in the Father's love to the Son, revealed in the Father's special love to His people.
2 Corinthians 9:7, you're familiar with this verse: "Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart," with reference to giving, "not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." God loves me as a giver when I give cheerfully. He loves me in Christ, but there is that love here expressed when I give cheerfully. But if I give grudgingly, under compulsion, He doesn't love me as a giver because I'm not being cheerful, not giving from the heart. But when you give with the attitude, bless God that I have life and breath and salvation and all that is given me, Lord, what a joy to give You from what You have given me because it's already Yours to begin with, and God says, I love that kind of a giver. You see, God has a distinguishing love directed to certain people in different circumstances.
And then that familiar text in Hebrews 12 verse 6, where the scripture tells us, "For those whom the Lord loves," what does He do? “He disciplines.” He disciplines, it's an expression of His love. "He disciplines and He flogs every son whom He receives." There's a special love for His children which leads Him to discipline them. And then He says in verse 8, "But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children, not sons," indicating that not all are disciplined by the Lord. It's only those that He loves with a peculiar love that are disciplined by Him. Well, there's a difference made, some that He loves that He disciplines, others that He doesn't love with that special distinguishing love, He doesn't discipline them, and they're not sons, in fact, they are illegitimate children.
Do you get the feeling, beloved, the drift of all of these passages? They teach and establish the fact that there is indeed taught in Scripture a distinguishing love of God. There is a separating or a marking off by differences in the love which God has to different kinds of people in different kinds of situations. The idea that because God is love, He has an identical affection to all men irrespective of their condition is an unscriptural concept.
Well, now, having, I trust, established the fact that there is a there is in general a distinguishing love, I want to, in the second place this evening, to demonstrate that there is a distinguishing love of God to His own elect people. For notice in our text, these are the two things that Paul joins together. Next Lord's Day we will look at the last part, "knowing, brothers beloved by God”, what “your election," distinguishing love, and here's the point that I want to make based on the scripture: distinguishing love inseparably joined to God's electing purposes. You see, Paul joined them together, these two thoughts, these two truths, that the special object of the love of God and the special object of the electing purpose of God, these are to join together in our text, and they are joined in the biblical concept throughout the entire breadth of Scripture, and what God joins together let no one separate.
Will you turn with me to what I really feel are the two key passages, or believe the two key passages, in the Old Testament which teach in the history of God's people, ancient people, this tremendous truth, that the distinguishing love of God, that God has to His chosen people, these two things are joined together, election and distinguishing love, and they're inseparably joined. And, of course, you have to turn to Deuteronomy 7, right? Deuteronomy 7, the context is clear. God is exhorting His people to obedience, promising that if they obey, blessing will come, if they disobey, the curse will come, and now He's trying to give them motive for obedience, and He tells them in verse 6, we read, "For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." So here are all the nations, and God says, I set My choice on you, Israel, I set My choice on you.
Now notice verse 7: "Yahweh did not set His affection, He did not set His love on you nor choose you," do you see the two thoughts joined together, set His affection, love upon you and choose you, distinguishing love and particular election inseparably joined right there in the text, verse 7, "Yahweh did not set His affection on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because Yahweh loved you." As God is trying to humble Israel to move her with motives to obey Him, Moses says, now look, God has chosen you to be a special people above all the peoples, and He didn't do it because you were greater, He didn't do it because you were more in number, but He loved you and He chose you for one reason and one reason only. What is it, Moses, tell us? He loved you. He loved you. What do you mean? The only cause is that God chose to set His love upon them. Is that it? Is that the only cause? Precisely, precisely, that's the only reason He gives. Verse 8: "But because Yahweh loved you," that's the only reason that He gives. And because He loved Israel, He chose her for a particular purpose. He chose Israel because He loved Israel. He chose Israel in spite of Israel. So you see, the concepts of distinguishing love and sovereign election are joined together.
Turn with me, while we're in that book, to chapter 10, and you will see the same thing in chapter 10, Deuteronomy, verses 14 through 16. Again, we have an exhortation to obedience in verse 12, and now He's trying to give them motive to prompt them to obedience, and listen to the motive, beginning in verse 14: "Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer." Oh, He says, Israel, Oh Israel, be humble, lay low, and be brought to a place of obedience from the heart as you behold the distinguishing love of God which was joined to the particular election of God. "Yahweh set His affection to love you, He chose your seed after you." And so you see, the whole concept of God's distinguishing love and particular election joined together in the whole history of Israel.
So that when Paul is writing about God's dealing with Israel in the New Testament, in that well-known passage in Romans 11 verse 28, we read, "From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of” what? “God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of their fathers.” Why? “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." They will not be rescinded.
You see the two joined together? Now, what is God doing today? Well, because of disobedience, Romans 11:25 and 26, "a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentile has come. And so all Israel will be saved." God's focus of concern right now is His Church, the called-out ones, the called-out body of His own. And how are they described in Scripture? Well, turn to Colossians 3 and we shall see these two thoughts joined together.
Like Moses with Israel in the Old Testament, Paul is exhorting believers to Christian duty and He seeks to arm them with motives by reminding them that they were the objects of distinguishing love and particular election of God. Verse 12, Colossians 3 and verse 12: "So as” what? “The elect of God.” As the elect of God, “holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." He says now if you remember what you are, this will arm you with motives to be what you ought to be or better, to be what you are. Remember what you are, Paul says, and when you remember what you are, you'll be armed with the most powerful motives to be what you are.
Well, what am I? What am I? You're the beloved of God. You're the beloved of God. You're the elect of God. Oh, you mean God set His love upon me? Why? Let me tell you why. Because He set His love upon you. And being pressed down in humiliation that God in His sovereign grace and mercy should love me, me, when He may have made up His bride, the church out of many others. What does this do? When I'm pressed down in humiliation realizing all of this, me, why me? What does this do? It arms the child of God with great motives for humility leading to obedience to the will of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, "but we should always give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." Again, the particular love of God, the particular election of God joined together inseparably. And of course the classic passage showing these two joined together, Ephesians 1:4 through 6, "just as He chose us”, chose us “in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the” goodness of our works? According to the what? “According to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved."
And so we see in these passages that I try to bring to bear upon 1 Thessalonians 1:4 that when Paul wrote to those Thessalonians and said, "knowing brothers beloved by God your election," he was not speaking of that general love of God that God has for all His creatures. The Lord spoke of that general love of God back in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 where He said in verse 45, "He,” God, “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." That's the common grace of God, the general love of God.
Acts 14:17, Paul says, "He,” God, “did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons filling your hearts with food and gladness." That's the general love of God. So no, no, He's not speaking of that, of that love that He mentions elsewhere. He's not speaking of the peculiar love that Paul is talking about concerning the elect. That peculiar love spoken of in John 10 where our Lord says in verse 14, "I'm the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me. I lay down My life for the sheep and I have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must bring them also and they will hear My voice and they will become one flock with one Shepherd." It's the peculiar love of the bridegroom to the bride.
And Ephesians 5, that text often read at weddings, 25 to 27, "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for” who? For everybody? For the church, “for her”, the church, “so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her”, the church, “by the washing of the water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her Glory, having no spot or wrinkle." You see, that love with which the Thessalonian believers were loved was a distinguishing love. It was a dying, sacrificial love. It was a conquering love. It was the love spoken of in Jeremiah 31 verse 3, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness." That's a love that is eternal, beloved, a love that is immutable, a love that is efficacious. "Therefore I have drawn you."
It's a love that not only provides redemption, but quickens, quickens a dead sinner. Paul says in Ephesians 2:4 and 5, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive. He quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved." Has God quickened all men? Has He quickened all sinners? No, He quickened some.
This is a love that quickens the sinner. This is a love that releases the sinners. Revelation 1:5, "To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood and has made us to be kingdom priest to His God and Father, to Him be the glory, the might forever and ever. Amen." This God who loves, who loves inexplicably, who loves without explanation, who loves unexpectedly, who loves invincibly, this God who loves immutably, without change, this God of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is at the center of the target of the source of our salvation.
Salvation is only explained by God and His love for us. The scripture contains the theme of God's love for unlovely sinners. How did God express undeserved, unsolicited love for sinners? What did He do? Well, let me sum it up in one phrase for us. Here it is, and you've heard this before: God gave what was most precious to Him, and He gave that which was best for you and for me. God gave what was most precious to Him, and He gave what was most precious to Him, and He gave what was best for you and for me, child of God.
Let me conclude this evening by seeking to establish the practical use of this. Of what practical use was it to write to these people there in Thessaloniki, little babes in Christ? We think about it, little babes in Christ. You say, shouldn't they be concerned with other more practical things than beloved of God, your election? Aren't those mysteries for the theologians, sovereign election? Predestination? Well, apparently Paul didn't think so.
I mean, they were clear on sovereign election, but they were confused on what? Eschatology. Paul had to straighten them out on the rapture, but he didn't have to straighten them out on election. They were crystal clear. I find that interesting. They knew that God saved them, and He saved them on purpose, and He saved them because He loved them with a special love. We're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, that God has chosen you from the beginning.
This was a glorious truth.
Now why? Of what practical use is the doctrine of God's particular, distinguishing love for His own? How is that relevant? Well, let me establish very briefly its practical use for the Saints of God. Paul, writing to these Christians in Thessaloniki, and he says in verse 4, "knowing, brothers beloved by God”, beloved by God, brothers beloved by God, “your election." What effect should that have? I mean, some young believer sitting there in Thessaloniki, listening to Paul's letter read by one of the elders perhaps, and he hears, beloved by God. God has a peculiar love to me in Christ. He has a love that I set His affection on me and has chosen me.
What should this do?
I want to suggest it should, number one, it should have its effect of producing deep humiliation in the heart of the Saint of God. It should have its effect of producing deep, deep humiliation in the heart of the Saint of God. That's why God spoke that way to His ancient people. He said, look, there's nothing in you that moved Me to choose you. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In the moment Israel forgot that, she became decadent, as a nation. When she began to think, well, God chose us because of something we were. And no longer walked in humility, recognizing God chose them simply because He loved them of His own sovereign will, sovereign choice.
Israel became proud and haughty and arrogant, and God brought judgment upon Israel again and again. And God said, look, I'm not going to let you choose Me. God brought judgment upon Israel again and again. And decadent Judaism comes to all of its apex in the incident of the man who stands in the temple, lifts up his face to heaven and says, I thank You that I'm not like other men. Why? Well, God, it's obvious why You chose me, isn't it? Why, it's so clear to me and I hope it's clear to You, God. And if it isn't, let me just clue You in, God. You did a wise thing when You chose me to be part of Your family, the family of Abraham. I'm not like other men.Isn't that what he was saying? He was just reminding God that He did a wise thing when He chose him.
Whereas the true sons of Abraham are like that publican who beat upon the breast and see nothing but wretchedness and sin and dare not to look up to heaven, but wonder of wonders, they see that there is grace available. And he cries, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I know of nothing so humbling to the pride of the human heart than to realize that God has set His love upon me. Not because He foresaw what I would be. Not because He saw something in me that distinguished me from others, but He set His love and affection on me according to the good pleasure of His will.
Paul wanted these saints to walk in the grace of humility, that virtue that's called by many theologians the crown of all virtues, the basis of all virtues: humility.
Remember, every time you wake up in the morning, train your heart and your mind to ask these two questions: What do I deserve, and what have I received? And then it would be, to the saints of God, the basis of comfort and assurance, secondly. The basis of comfort and assurance. For you remember, those Christians were getting kicked around there in Thessaloniki. Little babes in Christ, and they were getting persecuted. They were getting bullied and abused.
And that's why Paul sent Timothy to find out how they were doing. He was concerned about them under pressure, the pressure of persecution and suffering. And that's what prompted him to write a letter when he received the report that in spite of the pressure and the persecution that were going on, they were going on with God. And he wrote this letter. What comfort does that bring? Well, I am beloved of God. I'm chosen by God. If I've been on His heart from eternity as the object of His love and as the subject of His electing purpose, I can look anybody in the face and say, “Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns. Christ Jesus is He who died. Yes, rather, He was who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ. Will affliction or turmoil or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?" (Romans 8:33-35)
And you read the latter part of Romans eight, and it's charged through with this very concept. The recognition that Christ loved me with a distinguishing, peculiar love for reasons known only to Him will produce in the child of God the basis of His comfort. The straight, deep roots of His blessed assurance that the God who started to move toward me in eternity will not cut me off in time.
Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold.
You've been singing that, child of God, all your life. Right, that it was grace, it was grace that sought you and bought you and brought you into the fold and blessed be God. It's grace that keeps us there because my name from the palms of His hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed on His heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given. More happy, but not more secure, are the glorified spirits in heaven. The work which His goodness began, the arm of His strength will complete. His promises, yea, and amen, and never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things that are now, nor all things below or above, can make Him His purpose forgo or sever my soul from His love.
Beloved, that's comfort. That's solid comfort. But God has a distinguishing love to me in Jesus Christ, and in closing, to any of you who are not savingly joined to Christ, I trust that this doctrine will send an air of conviction to your heart. Listen carefully. God's love has been expressed in a general sense to the world, providing a Savior. But what is His present attitude to men who remain in unbelief? Listen to the scripture. Let the scripture answer. John 3:36, the words of Jesus: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." The wrath of God abides on him.
God in love made provision for sinners, and He bid sinners to flee to His Son. But if sinners do not flee, don't think that the canopy of His love is above your head. The scripture says, "The wrath of God abides on him that does not believe."
Psalm 5:5. "You, Yahweh, God, hate all workers of iniquity." Psalm 7:11. "God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day." And the reference is with the wicked. He's angry with the wicked. Romans 1:18. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness." And you remember the words of Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3, that “all of us were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” That's what John the Baptist meant when he said, "Flee from the wrath to come that hangs over your head." Flee to Christ for mercy.
Oh, dear young person, adult outside of Christ. God in His goodness, God in His benevolence, sends rain and food and provides you with many good things. Romans 2, 4 says, "the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience." And remember there in scripture, there in Romans 2 and elsewhere. But He says, remember, the whole aim of the goodness of God is to lead you to repentance. Though His wrath hangs over your head, in His mercy, in His kindness, He withholds His wrath and in the meantime showers His benefits upon you. To what end? Why? To make you wake up to your folly. That seeing a God who could judge you in this moment, in this instant, has withheld His judgment in mercy. This should cause you to fall on your face crying out, "Oh, God have mercy. God have mercy." The kindness, the forbearance, the patience of God should lead, Paul says, to repentance.
And so to you outside of Christ, this doctrine should cause conviction to your heart. To think of the love of God as separated from Christ is unscriptural nonsense. Unscriptural nonsense. God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, His love is joined to the Savior. “God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him.” The only comfort in John 3:16 is for a believer. One who believes. To draw comfort from a love that you think is just a general ooze of sentiment, syrupy sentiment, while you remain in impenitence and in unbelief is to butcher the word of God and bring your soul into jeopardy.
But it not only should strike conviction for any of you here who are tonight conscious that you're not in Christ. Oh, what a glorious doctrine that Jesus laid down His life for His sheep. And who are sheep? Those who see themselves in desperate need of the great shepherd. Who see themselves destitute of any righteousness. Who realize that only the righteousness purchased by the bloodshedding of the great shepherd will do. Do you see yourself in that place? No righteousness of your own, no hope in yourself. Then I have good news for you. Then the great shepherd stands ready and He says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) I'll save you with an everlasting salvation.
That's a wonderful gospel to preach, isn't it? That's a wonderful gospel to proclaim. The gospel of the great shepherd who dies for His sheep, who gathers His sheep, who keeps His sheep, who feeds His sheep. Will you be gathered tonight? He says, repent. He says, believe. He says, come. Oh, may God grant that you find discovery, the discovery of the love of God as you are in Christ Jesus. And the only way sinners get in Christ Jesus is to repent and to believe. May God grant that this doctrine shall have its desired effect upon the sinner who's out of Christ and upon us who are in Christ Jesus. Who are children of God, beloved of God.
I didn't even get a chance to really begin to scratch the surface, expound the thought beloved of God. But let me say this in closing. Just meditate tonight. Meditate in closing. Just think about this. Meditate, ponder, muse on this. Meditate on the infinite chasm, infinite chasm between man and God. And then if you can, stretch infinity even more. Because it's not a chasm between God and man, but between a holy, holy, holy God and sinful man. And what bridges that infinite chasm? Beloved of God. Beloved of God. Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.
Brothers, beloved of God, may we revel in His love and may that love produce in our hearts such a love for Him that we shall obey Him and serve Him and extol Him and bear witness to Him that others may know of that love and find refuge under the canopy of the love of God that is in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Let's pray.
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