Sermon Notes By Pastor Arthur H. Coleman Sr. For Sunday May 11, 2014
Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
St. John 14:15 “If ye love me , keep my commandments.”
1 John 4:7-11 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (vs8) He the loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (vs9) In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (vs10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation (means by which reconciliation of God and mankind is attained) for our sins. (vs11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
Premise
The Pulpit Commentary Vol.11, Pages 16-17, a comment on Jeremiah 31:3 – I. THE EVERLASTING LOVE OF GOD “There is a wonder about the fact of the everlasting love of God, since there are so many things that might well be thought likely to limit and stay the love of God to such beings as we are. 1. Our Unworthiness---God is holy, and must delight only in holiness; he is great; and can create innumerable beings of far greater powers than ours. Why, then, should he love such imperfect creatures as men?---why love those who are corrupt and sinful?---Psalms 8:3-4 “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; (vs4) What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” 2.Our Indifference --- Human love looks for a return of love; but men have treated God’s love with neglect. Through the long ages during which God has been visiting his children with ceaseless lovingkindness they have been coldly turning aside to their own ways, deaf to the entreaties of an infinite condescension or ( pleasantness to inferiors). 3.Our Unfaithfulness--- For love to remain unbroken it is expected that it should be honored by fidelity. Unfaithfulness is naturally regarded as a reason for withdrawing the privileges of affection. But God’s children have been untrue to him. They have forsaken his ways, abused his blessings, flung insult on his mercy. How, then, can he continue to love him? It is , indeed, a marvel that, through these long ages of the world’s wild wanderings, God should still follow his unworthy children with ceaseless love, never refusing to bless them, always entreating them to return to him. and it must be a marvel to us that, through all the years of our unworthy lives, he has shown the same long-suffering, forebearing mercy to each of us. It is wonderful that God should ever love such unworthy creatures as we are, but it is “passing strange” that he should not cease to love us after all our provocations of his wrath, that he should love us with “an everlasting love,” and should “have continued his loving-kindness unto” us.
God Will Do All That Is Possible For Our Highest Good
III. PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE THAT FLOWS FROM GOD’S LOVE AND OUR NECESSARY REPONSE TO IT.---1. God Will Do All That Is Possible For Our Highest Good.---We may believe with William Law “that no creature can suffer from any evil from which infinite goodness can deliver it.” God has gone so far as to give his only begotten Son; Jesus Christ to die for us. We may be sure that he will do all else that is ever possible for the salvation and blessing of his children.(Romans 8:28) “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.” 2.We Should Return To Him Trust And Love. --- “We have in this everlasting love of God inducements to urge us (1) to repent and no longer abuse his goodness; (2) to trust and have faith in him; (3) to love him with all of our heart, mind and strength in return for his love;(4) to find our rest, joy and peace in him; (5) to devote ourselves to his service (with love “all tasks are sweet”) and (6) to love our brethren with God-like or “agape” love for the sake of God’s love.”
EXPOSITION
1. Because He Loves So Much I Want To Make Sure That My Love To God And For God Is Both Real And Acceptable To Him; In That; I Will Always Be Mindful Of The Fact That (1) Activities I Am Doing Does Not Necessarily Mean That My Love Is For Real; (2) My Love For God Can Cool.
Revelation 2:2-5 (Concerning The Church at Ephesus: The Active Church, Sound In Doctrine But Deficient In Love) “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: (vs3) And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. (vs4) Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (vs5) Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
Revelation 3:15-19 (Concerning The Church At Laodicea: The Lukewarm Self-Satisfied Church) “ I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (vs16) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (vs17) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable and poor; and blind, and naked: (vs18) I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (vs19) As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous and repent.”
2. Because He Loves Me So Much I Want To Make Sure That My Love To God Is Acceptable In That I Must Make Sure That My Worship Is For Real. ---Isaiah 29:13 “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:” (St.Matt.15:8-9)
St. John 4:23-24 “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (vs24) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.”
3. Because He Loves Me So Much I Want To Make Sure That My Love To Him Is Always Motivated By The Fact That: (a) The Love Of God Is Unsought In Its Action---Romans 5:8-11 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (vs9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (vs10) For if, when we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (vs11) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” (b) The Love Of God Is Unbounded In Its Work--- Ephesians 2:4-7 “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: (vs5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (vs6) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.(vs7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” (c) The Love Of God Is Unbroken In Its Ministry---Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (vs39) 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.” (d) The Love Of God Establishes My Sonship As a Believer ---1 John 3:1-2 “ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (vs2) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”