THE UNLIMITED LOVE OF GOD
By Pastor Jim May
Scriptures used: Romans 5:8, James 1:17-18, 1 Samuel 9:2, and the primary source, 1 Samuel 12:19-25
If there is one thing that defines how God feels toward humanity, it’s His unlimited love. I’m so glad to know the love of God. I’m so glad to know that His love for me is not based upon what I do or how I do it. God’s love is based solely upon his power to love and nothing else.
We cannot lose the Love of God. After all, God loved us long before we even knew who He was. It was God that came looking for us, his lost sheep. Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It was God who first decided that He wanted to have a personal relationship with man whom He had created. It is God who chases after us, seeks us and tries to reach out to us. Our attitude toward God has nothing to do whatsoever with whether God loves us or not.
The Book of James tells us in Chapter1, verses 17-18 that, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." That simply means that the Love of God is God’s good and perfect gift to all men everywhere, whether they are saved and living for Him, or not.
It is God’s perfect, unchanging and unending love that reached out to you and I when we were yet sinners and had not given God a thought. We were running as wild sheep when God came hunting for us and called us by name and said, “It’s time to come home now!”
Aren’t you glad for God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s grace? I’m so glad that God’s love for me doesn’t change. He doesn’t love me any less when I have failed him miserably and yielded to temptation and ran from His presence to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. His grace is always the same, reaching out to bring me back to Him and to do all that he can to convince me to restore my relationship with Him.
The Book of Psalms says over and over again, “His mercy endureth forever. His mercy endureth forever. His mercy endureth forever!” I’m so glad that my God is an unchanging God. He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, and because He is an unchanging God, I can always count on His great love, His mercy and His grace, even when I am rebellious against Him, and trampling his love into the dust, and running with all my might from His perfect will for my life, and chasing after the things of the world, and caught up in the cares of life, His love is still there.
True enough, I can lose God’s favor by running from Him. He can lift His hand of blessing from my life. I can lose that closeness in my relationship with Him. I can suddenly realize, like the Prodigal Son, that I have strayed far from home and now I am trapped in the hog pen of sin and shame. But no matter how far I have gone, I am so glad that I can turn back toward home and know that God still loves me and His greatest desire is to see His wayward sheep come home.
Let me give you a little story from Israel’s history that will show you just a little of how much God loves you.
All of you who have been in church for any time will remember the story of how God delivered Israel out of the land of Egypt and destroyed the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. Israel had failed God terribly and had fallen into idolatry. As a result they were slaves in Egypt for 400 long years. Generations passed without deliverance, but there came a day when God’s love caused Him to stop the judgment for sin against His people.
With a mighty hand God brought them out. Seven terrible plagues had utterly destroyed the economy of Egypt and God brought the most powerful king on the face of the earth at that time to his knees.
God wanted to be Israel’s God! He wanted them to follow Him, so he put a pillar of fire, representative of the “Fire of the Holy Ghost” that leads us in the darkest hours of our lives. When it seems that the world has closed around us and we can’t see the light of day, that “pillar of fire” still leads us today. Through the leading and power of the Holy Ghost, and by His power, we are led from victory to victory, through dark valley after dark valley, until we can open our eyes and see the Glory of God shining in us.
Then He placed a pillar of clouds by day to lead his people on their journey though the wilderness to their Promised Land. That Pillar of Clouds represents His word as revealed by the Holy Spirit to each of us. God’s Word is easily seen and understood as it teaches us, leads us, washes us and brings us ever closer to God in our journey through life. The Holy Ghost is always there, leading us, by day and by night. The Word of God is always there as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and God’s great love ever watches over us as we walk in the light that He gives to us.
We don’t all walk the same part of the path, or at the same pace. Some of us may “walk” in a little different way than others. Why is that so? The reason is that God decides what He wants to reveal to you through His Word and He knows what you will receive. So He reveals to each of us according to His sovereign will. Then, when He has revealed His word to each of us, we are obligated to walk in the light that he had shown and the path that He has set before us.
For some that path has gone on for a lifetime now. For others, your path is shorter and you may not have traveled as far. There is a lot of path yet to light. There is much more yet to learn about God’s Word. The more you know of God’s Word, and the longer you walk with the Lord, the straighter your path must become because God’s way is a straight and narrow way and sooner or later, every one of us must walk that straight and narrow way or we will miss the “gate” into Heaven.
Israel had begun their journey toward the Promised Land, with only God’s chosen prophet, the pillar of fire and pillar of clouds as their guide. They were being led by God and not by the will of a man. Moses never took a step without seeking the face of God. Sure, Moses made mistakes, but Moses never presumed to take the leadership away from God and make himself into a king over Israel.
Then we find in the Book of 1 Samuel that Israel decides they would rather have a king than to follow God’s leading. What a slap in the face of God! It was though they went to God and said, “your leadership isn’t good enough, we would rather have a man to lead us; someone that we can see and talk to like anyone else. You’re just too hard to speak to and too hard to follow.”
Folks, let me tell you that when you develop that kind of attitude you’re in big trouble. That’s the kind of attitude that causes men and women to follow a man who takes the place of Jesus in their lives and then wind up losing out with God completely. Oh God still loves them, but they don’t love God, and then God’s judgment must take over and He must apply His love by using the Rod of Correction instead of the gentle guiding hand of mercy.
Whether that man is Jimmy Swaggart, or Jim Bakker, or Jim Jones, or Billy Graham, or Robert Shuller, or Rick Warren, or Jim May, or Jack Bolin, or J. W. Howell, or whoever he is, you better not put your trust in a man, or let any man determine what is the will of God for your life. Your trust must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. You must follow the Holy Ghost and obey the Word of God. Don’t ever get your eyes off of the “Pillar of Fire” and “Pillar of Clouds”. As much as love each of you, I cannot say that my love is unchanging like God’s love. As much as I care for all of you and desire to serve you, to pray for you and lead you, I don’t have God’s mercy. I’m not unchangeable. I’d like to claim that I am but I’m not. I’m a fallible, and sometimes rebellious, man just like the rest of you, so don’t put your soul in my hands, put your soul in the hands of the Master! Keep your eyes on Jesus, not on me. If you keep your eyes on Jesus, if I fail, it won’t destroy your victory.
If you want to read the story of Israel’s rebellion against the leadership of God, just read the 9th through the 15th chapters of I Samuel and you will get a snapshot picture of what happened and the results. It’s a lot more involved than just those chapters but you can get a bird’s eye view at least.
Israel chose Saul as their king. He was, according to I Samuel 9:2, "...a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people." Saul had all the appearances of being the right man for the job as King of Israel. He was good-looking, handsome, well built, and tall and had a humble attitude. On the outside he just looked like a king. The problem was, no matter how “goodly” Saul looked, he was still a sinful man. He was not God.
Can you see the problem here? There’s a church in Ponchatoula, Louisiana right now that chose a “Saul” to be their king. That church started out being led by God, anointed by God, chosen by God and with a God-chosen man as its leader. But that first leader died, like Moses did with Israel, and soon the whole nature of the church began to change. Those people who knew and heard the mind of God and who kept their eyes on Jesus began to leave until only a few were left. But those that were left put their eyes on a man. I’m sure he started out as a “goodly man”, who looked good, dressed good, acted good and maybe even preached good. But he was a man; not God, and soon that sinful nature began to take hold. The church was led down the wrong path. The Pillar of Fire was gone. The Pillar of Clouds was gone, and God had written “ICHABOD” (the Spirit has Departed) across the doors, but the people didn’t even notice.
Look where they are today! How far have they fallen! From following the God of Love, mercy and grace, to worshipping the Devil with animal sacrifices and sexual abuse of children and who know what else will be coming out before its over? That’s where following a man will take you! Keep your eyes on Jesus!
Does God still love those people in the Ponchatoula church? Yes He does! God still desires to see every one of them saved. I believe they need to face the law and be judged for their sins and crimes, but that doesn’t mean that God can’t save them or doesn’t desire to. God still loves them. God is still reaching out to them. God’s grace and mercy is still extended to them. But for now God’s Rod of Correction is doing its work, to get them to turn around if they will. For now, they have lost the blessings of God. For now they have lost their fellowship with God. For now they have lost their favor with God. And unless they repent and turn back, they will never enter Heaven’s gate because they aren’t on the straight and narrow way anymore.
Is the sin in that church any worse in the eyes of God than the sin in our lives? No! All sin is the same in the eyes of God.
God forbid that we should worship the devil, sacrifice animals on a pentagram in the youth room, or sexually abuse our children. Those are heinous crimes and terrible sin. But they are no worse sin in the sight of God than refusing to obey His Word in any other way!
It’s no worse than lying. It’s no worse than cheating! It’s no worse than cursing! It’s no worse than dishonoring our body with alcohol, drugs, immorality, tobacco or some other destructive force. It’s no worse than putting the things of this world above our serving the Lord in the House of God. Sin is sin in the sight of God. Our hatred of sin isn’t the same as God’s. He hates all sin and all sin is the same to Him! We hate some sin, dislike other sins, tolerate some sins and actually enjoy other sins! We are changeable with our feelings and emotions. We can love one minute and hate the next. But God is an unchanging God!
The people of Israel didn’t know how far they had fallen from God’s blessing and favor until the prophet Samuel reminded them.
Even though God allowed Saul to become king, told Samuel to anoint Saul as king, and then changed Saul’s heart so that he could lead the nation, God was not pleased with Israel’s rejection of God’s own leadership and chosen a man instead. It was still sin in the eyes of God. But the Love of God was still just a strong toward Israel and so God was going to let them have what they want but still do all he could to teach them to serve Him anyway. With sadness, God allowed Israel to have what they wanted. He didn’t refuse their heart’s desire, even though, in this case, He knew their heart’s desire wasn’t the best thing for them. Yet God’s Love wouldn’t forsake them!
Samuel revealed God’s displeasure against the people of Israel. When they heard the words of Samuel, Israel was finally shaken into the reality of the great sin that they had committed against God! They were shocked by how far from God they had gone and they came to Samuel seeking God’s forgiveness.
1 Samuel 12:19-25, "And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king."
What a great God! What a loving Father! What a merciful God is our God! No matter how many times we fail Him, He still wants to be our God! No matter how often we stumble and fall, He still desires to pick us up and let us start over again!
When I think of all the wickedness that is in me, and in all of us, I am so thankful for the Love of God that is so unlimited!
When I have placed my trust in the riches of this world that cannot deliver and turned away from God – He still loves me!
When I have forsaken Him days without number to chase after the pleasures of sin that can only condemn me to eternal death – He still loves me!
When I have omitted from my life those things that I know I should do, and I do those things that I know I shouldn’t – He still loves me!
When I have failed to love him – He still loves me!
When I have abused this body, that is supposed to be the temple of the Holy Ghost – He still loves me!
How can I not Love Him in return? How can I not turn back to Him? How can mankind spurn the Love of God and continue to run the other way?
There’s no question that God love each of us today! There’s no question that His mercy and grace are reaching out to each of us right now. There’s no question that God has called us, chosen us and lifted us from the life of sin that we once lived. There’s no question that God wants to bless you right now!
The question is simply this: Even though God loves you, that doesn’t mean that you resting in His blessings, receiving His favor in your life or that you have a close relationship with Him, so how do you stand in these points with God?
Do you sense the presence of God in your life every day, or have you allowed that relationship to slip away quietly and slowly until you can no see the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Clouds?
Do you have the Blessings of God upon your home, your family, your finances, your job and everything in your life, or is your life nothing but troubles, struggles, doubts and fear?
Do you have the favor of God in your life? Can you sense Him looking down on you right now, knowing how you have acted this week, knowing what you have said this week, and knowing all that you have done this week, and still he smiles at you in approval?
God’s Love is unchanging! He loves you! But do you have his blessing and favor?
Samuel’s words to Israel are appropriate for us today. “For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.”
God won’t forsake you when you fail. God doesn’t move at all! It’s us that run from him! It’s God’s great pleasure to call you his son or daughter. It’s His Love that keeps His eyes on you no matter where you go. And for his own name’s sake He wants to bring you home.
Samuel also said this, “…Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.”
No matter where you go or what you do, I will not cease to think of you and to pray for you. Our church is small and so it’s easy to know who is here and who isn’t. When you are here, my heart is made glad for your presence. When you aren’t here, my heart is sad, for your absence. I wish we could all be here, all the time. Oh how great that would be.
But when you aren’t here, I still love you. When you aren’t here, I still think about you. When you are here, I still pray for you, and probably more than for those who are here. I still remember every person that walked in that door and called this their church, even though they have gone on to other things, and I still pray for them, I am still concerned for them, and I still miss their presence and wish they could come again. I’ve never watched one person walk out that door without a feeling of loss, no matter why they left. My heart hurts when they leave.
Nevertheless, for all of you that are here, I am so very thankful. I am so glad you came, and so grateful for your support of this ministry and your kindness to me as well. I will work, pray and strive, as your Pastor and preacher, to do all I can to help you and teach you what the Word of God says in every area of your life. I will try to continually remind of what great things God has done for you so that we can remain ever thankful.
If I can truly be that way, how much more can God? How much more can He be concerned for you, watch over you and love you? How much more can He work to bring you into a right relationship with Him? How much more will he try to pour out his blessings and His favor upon you?
Samuel closed this passage of scripture with an after shot of warning to both Israel and Saul. God loved them. God would forgive them. God would pour out His blessing upon them, even though they had been rebellious, but God also had a warning for them. “… But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king."
God will only let us stay in rebellion for a while. The time will come when he will say; “enough is enough”. His love will remain the same, but his blessings will cease and his favor will be lifted and then the Rod of Correction must come to drive us back on our knees before him again in repentance.
Do you have God’s favor and Blessing?
I know you have His love – but are you allowing God to lead you? Let’s check ourselves today and see whether we have the favor and blessing of God or not.
