The Love Of God To Us # 2

 The Love Of God To Us # 2

Clearly that lays me under a thousand time greater obligation to love, serve, and glorify Him - than had He loved me for the first time when my heart was won. All of the acts of God to His people in time, are the expressions of the love He bore them from eternity. It is because God loves us in Christ, and has done so from everlasting, that the gifts of His love are irrevocable. They are the bestowed of "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

The love of God indeed makes a change in us when it is "shed abroad in our hearts," but it makes no change in Him. He sometimes varies the dispensations of His providence toward us, but that is not because His affection has altered. Even when He chastens us, it is in love (Hebrews 12:6), since He has our good in view.

Let us look more closely at some of the operations of God's love.

First, God's love manifested in election. "We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit (His quickening) and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

There is an infallible connection between God's love, and His selection of those who were to be saved. That election is the consequence of His love, is clear again from Deuteronomy: "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people" (7:7). So again: "In love, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Ephesians 1:4-5).

Second, God's love manifested in redeeming. As we have seen from 1 John 4:10, out of His sovereign love God made provision for Christ to rendeer satisfaction for their sins, though prior to their conversion He was angry with them in respect to His violated Law. And "how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). This is another clear proof that His Son was not "delivered up" to the Cross for all mankind. For He gives them neither the Holy Spirit, a new nature, nor repentance and faith.

Third, God's love manifested in effectual calling. From the enthroned Saviour the Father sends forth the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). Having loved His elect with an everlasting love, with loving-kindness He draws them (Jeremiah 31:3), quickens into newness of life, calls them out of darkness into His marvelous light, and makes them His children. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). If filiation does not issue from God's love as a sure effect, to what purpose are those words?

Fourth, God's love manifested in healing of backslidings. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4), without reluctance or hesitation. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it" (Song 8:7).

Such is God's love to His people - invincible, unquenchable. Not only is there no possibility of its expiring, but also the black waters of backsliding cannot extinguish it, nor the floods of unbelief put it out.

Nothing is more irresistible in the natural world than death. In the realm of grace, nothing is so invincible as the love of God. Goodwin remarked: "What difficulties does the love of God overcome! For God to overcome His own heart! Do you think it was nothing for Him to put His Son to death? - When He came to call us, had He no difficulties which love overcame? We were dead in trespasses and sins - yet from the great love with which He loved us, He quickened us in the grave of our corruption, even then did God come and conquer us.

After our calling, how sadly do we provoke God! Such temptations that if it were possible the elect should be deceived. It is so with all Christians. No righteous man, but he is scarcely saved, and yet saved he is, because the love of God is invincible - it overcomes all difficulties."

An application is hardly necessary for such a theme. Let God's love daily engage your mind by devout mediations on it, so that the affections of your heart may be drawn out to Him. When cast down in spirit, or in sore straits, plead His love in prayer, assured that it cannot deny anything good for you. Make God's wondrous love to you the incentive of your obedience to Him - gratitude requires nothing less.

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Love Of God To Us # 1

 The Love Of God To Us # 1

By "us" we mean His people. Although we read of the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39), Holy Writ knows nothing of a love of God outside of Christ. "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9), so that He provides the ravens with food. "He is kind unto the unthankful and to the  evil" (Luke 6:35), and His providence ministers unto the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).

But His love is reserved for His elect. That is unequivocally established by its characteristics, for the attributes of His love are identical with Himself. Necessarily so, for "God is love." In making that postulate it is but another way to say God's love is like Himself, from everlasting to everlasting - immutable.

Nothing is more absurd to imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish or shall ever experience His everlasting vengeance. Since the love of God is "in Christ Jesus," it was attracted by nothing in its objects, nor can it be repelled by anything in, of, or by them. "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). The "world" in John 3:16 is a general term used in contrast with the Jews, and the verse must be interpreted so as not to contradict Psalm 5:5, 6:7; John 3"36; or Romans 9:13).

The chief design of God is to commend the love of God in Christ, for Heis the sole channel through which it flows. The Son has not induced the Father to love His people, but rather was it His love for them which moved Him to give His Son for them.

Ralph Erskine said: "God has taken a marvelous way to manifest His love. When He would show His power, He makes a world. When He would display His wisdom, He puts it in a frame and form that reveals its vastness. When He would manifest the grandeur and glory of His name, He makes a Heaven, and puts angels and archangels, principalities and powers therein. And when He would manifest His love, what will He not do? God has taken a great and marvelous way of manifesting it in Christ; His person, His blood, His death, His righteousness."

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ" (2 Colossians 3:3) - so we are beloved in Him, "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus" - in Him as our Head and Husband, which is why nothing can separate us therefrom, for that union is indissoluble.

Nothing so warms the heart of the saint as a spiritual contemplation of God's love for him. As he is occupied with it, he is lifted outside of and above his wretched self. A believing apprehension fills the renewed soul with holy satisfaction, and makes him as happy as it is possible for one to be this side of Heaven. To know and believe the love which God has toward me, is both a pledge and a foretaste of Heaven itself.

Since God love His people in Christ, it is not for any amiableness in or attraction about them: "Jacob have I loved." Yes, the naturally unattractive, yes, despicable, Jacob, "worm Jacob." Since God loves His people in Christ, it is not regulated by their fruitfulness, but is the same at all times. Because He loves them in Christ, the Father loves them as Christ. The time will come when His prayer will be answered, "that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me" (John 17:23). Only faith can grasp those marvelous things, for neither reasoning nor feelings can do so. God loves us in Christ. What infinite delight the Father has as He beholds His people in His dear Son! All our blessings flow from that precious fountain.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). It is clear from those words that God loved His people while they were in a state of nature, destitute of all grace, without a particle of love towards Him or faith in Him; yes, while they were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)

The Scriptures And Sin # 4

 The Scriptures And Sin # 4

This is what each of us is required to do: "Accept instruction from His mouth and lay up His Words in your heart." (Job 22:22). It is particularly the commandments, the warnings, the exhortations - which we need to make our own and to treasure. We need to make our own and to treasure. We need to memorize them, meditate upon them, pray over them, and put them into practice. The only effective way of keeping a plot of ground from being overgrown by weeds, is to sow good seed therein; "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21). So the more Christ's Word dwells in us "richly" (Colossians 3:16), the less room will there be for the exercise of sin in our hearts and lives.

It is not sufficient merely to assent to the veracity of the Scriptures - they require to be received into the affections. It is unspeakably solemn to note that the Holy Spirit specifies as the ground of apostasy, "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thess. 2:10). "If truth lies only in the tongue or in the mind, only to make it a matter of talk and speculation - it will soon be gone. The seed which lies on the surface, the birds in the air will pick up. Therefore hide it deeply; let it get rom the ear into the mind, from the mind into the heart;  let it soak in further and further. It is only when Scripture has a prevailing sovereignty in the heart, that we receive truth in the love of it - when it is dearer than our dearest lust, then it will stick to us." (Thomas Manton).

Nothing else will preserve from the infections of this world, deliver from the temptations of satan, and be so effective a preservative against sin - as the Word of God received into the affections, "The law of his God is in his heart - none of his steps shall slide." (Psalm 37:31). As long as the truth is active within us, stirring the conscience, and is really loved by us - we shall be kept from falling.

When Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he said, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). The Word was in his heart, and therefore had prevailing power over his lusts. Joseph loved the ineffable holiness, and the mighty powr of God, who is able both to save and to destroy.

None of us knows when he may be tempted, therefore it is necessary to be prepared against it. Yes, we are to anticipate the future and be fortified against it, by storing up the Word in our hearts for coming emergencies. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11).

Here is another important rule by which we should frequently test ourselves. Are my thought being formed, my heart controlled, and my ways and works regulated by God's Word? This is what the Lord requires: "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!" (James 1:22). This is how gratitude to and affection for Christ are to be expressed: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15).

For this, Divine assistance is needed. David prayed, "Make me to walk in the path of Your commandments" (Psalm 119:35). "We need not only ilight to know our way, but a heart to walk in it. Direction is necessary because of the blindness of our minds; and grace is necessary because of the weakness of our hearts. It will not answer our duty to have a mere notion of truths, unless we embrace and pursue them" (Manton). Note the path of Your commandments." Not a self-chosen course, but a definitely marked-out one. 

Has your study of the Bible made you more humble, or more proud? Has it raised you in the esteem of your fellow men, or has it led you to take a lower place before God? Has it produced in you a deeper abhorrence and loathing of self, or has it made you more complacent?

"Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all." (1 Timothy 4:15).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)

The Supremacy Of God # 2

 The Supremacy Of God # 2

"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!" (Revelation 19:6). note, "reigns" now, not "will do so in the millennium." O Lord God of our fathers, are not You God in Heaven? and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one (not even the devil himself) can stand against You!" (2 Chronicles 20:6). Before Him presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers.

But He stands alone, and who can oppose Him? He does whatever He pleases" (Job 23:13). Ah, my reader, the God of Scripture is no make-believe monarch, no mere imaginary sovereign, but King of kings, and Lord of lords! "I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2): or, as another has translated it, "no purpose of Yours can be frustrated." All that He has designed He does. All that He has decreed He performs. "Our God is in Heaven; He does whatever He pleases." (Psalm 115:3). And why? Because "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30).

God's supremacy over the works of His hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter and irrational creatures, all perform their Maker's bidding. At His pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Exodus 14); the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit. (Numbers 16). When He so ordered, the sun stood still (Joshua verse 10); and on another occasion the sun went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isaiah 38:8). God made ravens carry food to Elijah, iron to float on top of the waters, lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus "the Lord does whatever He pleases in Heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths." (Psalm 135:6).

But, it may be objected, do we not read again and again in Scripture how that men defied God, resisted His will, broke His commandments, disregarded His warnings, and turned a deaf ear to all His exhortations? Certainly we do. And does this nullify all that we have said above? If it does, then the Bible plainly contradicts itself. But that cannot be. What the objector refers to, is simply the wickedness of man against the external Word of God; whereas what we have mentioned above is what God has purposed in Himself. The rule of conduct He has given us to walk by, is perfectly fulfilled by none of us. His own eternal "counsels" are accomplished to their minutest details.

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed with equal plainness and positiveness in the New Testament. There we are told that God "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11) - the Greek for "works" means "to work effectually." For this reason we read, "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever: Amen" (Romans 11:36). Men may boast that they are free agents, with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please, but Scripture says to those who boast, "Now listen, you who say, "today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will - we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15).

Here then is a sure resting-place for the heart. Our lives are neither the product of blind fate, nor the result of capricious chance. Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity, and is now ordered by the living and reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission. "A man's heart devises his way - but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort this should give the real Christian! "My times are in Your hand" (Psalm 31:15). Then let me "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)