The Promise Of Eternal Love

The Promise of an Eternal Love

1 John 4:8

Intro

Abraham became a spiritual giant because he claimed the precious promises of God and moved forward in faith believing that god was trustworthy and would keep his promise. Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that all that he had promised he was able to perform. In this statement by the apostle Paul, we find an explanation of Abraham’s greatness and a possible explanation for the spiritual weaknesses of many of God’s children today. We lack a faith that will grasp the promises of God at their face value and march forward depending on God to do what he has promised. The apostle Peter speaks of the exceedingly great and precious promises of God by which we are to become partakers of the divine nature. A study of the Bible will reveal clearly that God is a promise making and promise keeping God. As we study the testimony of the saints, we observe that without exception they all testify that God is faithful to every promise he has ever made.

If we would be true to our faith and to our God, we must accept his promises and believe that he is able to perform that which he has promised. Without such a faith, spiritual success is impossible.

The Bible is a record of God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises.

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I. The Promise of Love

a. Volumes have been written about the precious promises of God, but tonight I want to focus your attention on the divine promise of an eternal, undying love that we find in the Word of God.

i. God spoke through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3)

ii. God spoke through Isaiah to the children of Israel.

1. He said, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, thee” (Isaiah 49:15)

2. And thus the people of Israel were strengthened and sustained in days of adversity and hardship by an awareness of God’s great loving care.

iii. The apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35)

1. He replied, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, or life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come, 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.”

2. Paul rejoiced in a constant consciousness of this eternal love of God.

3. We urgently need this message of God’s undying, eternal love today when there is so much hatred abroad when there are so many things that would discourage us from living by the principle of love.

4. If we were constantly aware of God’s great love for us, surely it would strengthen our faith in him and cause us to rely on his promises and challenge us to do what he wants us to do.

II. The Presence of Love

a. “Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

b. God’s promised love has been revealed most dramatically in the death of Christ on the cross of us.

c. No limits are placed on the divine love.

i. The love of God is as broad as the wide world.

1. It is wide without being shallow.

2. It reaches out to include all people of all colors, countries, and cultures.

ii. The love of God reaches to the farthest point in its quest to redeem and forgive.

1. It reaches back into the past and extends forward into the future.

2. God always has loved us and always will continue to love us.

iii. The love of God reaches down to find and bless us in our deepest need.

1. Sin cannot cover a person to the extent that the love of God is unable to reach down and lift him or her up.

iv. The love of God has brought the Son of God down from on high to meet our deepest need.

1. We are all sinners without the power to save ourselves or to lift ourselves to a position where we would please God.

2. What we were unable to do, God’s love has done for us.

III. The Purpose of Love

a. The promise of God’s unending love for us is no sedative to lull our souls to sleep in spiritual indifference. (2 Cor. 5:14)