The Love of God

8-21-05

Picayune



Ephesians 3:17 - 19
      17   That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
      18   May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
      19   And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Hebrews 12:2
     2   Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.


Bro. Shelton said today at the 2:00 message "God loved Jacob and hated Esau, because it pleased him to do so".

The Bible does not teach that God loves everybody.

There are too many scriptures where it is plainly told that a person dies without hope of heaven.

God loves his people. He doesn't love the whole world.

But even though God doesn't love everyone, God does take care of everyone.
This may be where some people get the mistaken idea that God does love everybody.

Matt 5:44
      44   But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

      45   That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

We are told to love our enemies, as God does. God doesn't treat any of his creation in any way wrong.      
These are the temporal blessings, that a just and righteous God sends on all of us.
Health, financial, etc.

Some people count these things for salvation.

There in John chap. 17 the Lord makes a definate distinction between his people and the people of the world.

God does care for all of the people of the world, but for His own people... he has that everlasting love.

Jeremiah 31:3
     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.

     
Gods love cannot be known without something to contrast it with.
In the bible, We have several things to contrast his love with.

If God loved every one with a great everlasting love, like he has for his child, there would be no judgement. If he loved everyone, then all would be saved, and there would be no judgement.

Look at The flood of Noah.

This was the judgement of God sent on the people of the world.
Do you think that these people went to be with God in heaven??
Look how God described them in 

Genesis 6:5
      5   And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Do you think that they went to heaven?

       for the earth is filled with violence through them; 

The Lord sent Noah to preach to them, and tell them to repent.
But they rejected the word of the Lord.

and God sent judgement on them.

Do you think they were saved?
How many people do you think were on the Earth at that time?

Do you think that God loved them with an everlasting love?

Is this the kind of love that God has for the world??

I don't think so.

Look at Sodom and Gomorrah.
These two great cities, full of homosexuals.
God destroyed those cities. Do you think that they were saved people.

Hebrews 12: 6-
    6   For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
    7   If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
    8   But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

The Lord chastens those whom he loves, he doesn't destroy them.
Those that the Lord destroys, are destroyed forever in Hell.


The plagues of Egypt.

The death of his only Son.
Do you think that God would have sent his only son to die for a people that he didn't love very much??
Would Christ have taken on him my sin if he didn't love me with an everlasting love?
He despised the shame of sin. He was holy.

Gods great love cannot be known without his great judgements.

Gods love for sinners cannot be known without his great hatred for sin.

God doesn't have an everlasting love for everyone, only his people.

Does God have an everlasting love for you??
Come to him and see!