THE SINNER GOD LOVES

We are often making statements that need to be qualified. Does the bible make this statement, "God loves sinners"? I could not find it. What it does say is that God loved a people whom He chose and gave to Christ in the covenant before the foundation of the world. It does says that He "in love...predestinated them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." It does say that He loved them and "sent his Son to be the propitiation" for their sins. It does say that the "love of God is in Christ Jesus." In other words, God's love is not spoken of toward any sinner who is not in the covenant. It is never spoken of to any sinner outside of Jesus Christ. God loves those sinners whom He chose in eternal election according to His own sovereign will and pleasure. God loves those sinners that Christ stands for as their Surety and Mediator. God loves those sinners whose sins Christ bore in His own body on the tree and fully satisfied the demands of His holy justice. God loves those sinners to whom He imputes the righteousness of Christ. He loves those sinners to whom He gives the gift of faith and who by that faith do trust Christ as all their righteousness and standing before God. The truth is, God's love toward these sinners is eternal, unchanging and undeserved. His love to His people is always spoken of in the past tense, He "loved" us. He presently loves those sinners who are in Christ because He has always loved them in Christ. That's the only way a holy and just God could love a sinner! "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8) These are the sinners God loves and this is how He has manifested His love to them particularly. He sent His Son to die in their place and establish for them a perfect righteousness. You see, a blanket statement such as "God loves sinners" standing alone does not reveal the true love of God at all. God's love is distinguished by what He does for those He loves through the life and death of Christ. Without the declaration of those things which God has done in Christ for those He loves, the love of God becomes nothing more than sentiment and emotion. Let all believers "Hail Sovereign Love" alone!

GS

Men look at this world and speak of how bad it is. They ask, "If there is a God, then why would He allow these things to happen. This is just another way that men deny their own sinfulness. The terrible state of this world exists even with God exerting a measure of His power restraining men. This is a world restrained, not a world let go! How wicked we must be as sinners and what would we be left to ourselves!

GS

We know that the matter that brought our total fall in Adam had to do with God's right to be God. Therefore, any gospel that does not deal first with the sovereignty of God is no gospel at all. What difference does it make if God is holy or just or righteous or gracious or merciful, if He's not sovereign and almighty in power over all? No difference at all. BUT, if He is sovereign over all persons and all things, it makes all the difference in the world! If He is the "one with whom we have to do," then the first thing we must be confronted with is His right and ability to do it. His threats and His promises are only good if He can back them up. He can. Bow down and confess His sovereignty in the Tree He has now set forth, the LORD Jesus Christ.

"All hail the power of Jesus name, let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all!"

GS

Most likely, Lot was in Sodom partly to please his wife. The things there that she loved and delighted in vexed his righteous soul. In the end, he neither pleased her nor God! The unbelieving loved ones and friends of God's people often try to hold them "hostage." May God give us grace to do as Bunyan's Christian. Tearing himself from clutching, crying family and friends, he fled the City of Destruction with his hands over his ears, crying, "Life, life, eternal life." In the end, God gave him "Life" and some of them. Let us obey God for their sake!

GS

The Lord Jesus is never fully valued until sin is clearly seen. A man must know the depth and malignity of his disease in order to love, honor and appreciate the dear Savior.

Scott Richardson

Sing Praises to the Lord

1. Sing praises to the Lord of all,

Prostrate before Him fall;

For God the Son a Man became,

To bear our sin and shame,

To bear our sin and shame.

2. Who was it that appeared below,

To pay the price we owe?

Behold our God in human clay,

The Truth, the Life, the Way,

The Truth, the Life, the Way.

3. Jehovah’s Servant lived on earth,

A life of priceless worth;

And stooped so low to even die,

The law to satisfy,

The law to satisfy.

4. Upon the cross the Savior died,

For us was crucified;

Our load of guilt on Him was laid,

Our debt He fully paid,

Our debt He fully paid.

5. Since God the Father set His Son,

Upon His sovereign throne;

Let ev’ry voice with one accord,

Praise Jesus Christ the Lord,

Praise Jesus Christ the Lord.