Loved With an Everlasting Love
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
6/5/2016 PM
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Text:
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Jeremiah 31:3
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Psalters: |
348, 160, 52, 383 |
Confession of Faith |
- Present despair.
- Context: the nation of Judah is falling apart spiritually, economically, and as a nation. Babylon is attacking.
- God here declares certain judgment/vengeance on the wicked, though in the last days (30:24b).
- The righteous are not to despair, but are to embrace and rely on God’s promises.
- “I will be your God and ye shall be my people” (30:22 and 31:1) is the language of the covenant.
- Thus there is no reason be fear that God would forsake His people.
- But God’s people, sinners they still are, still complain about the present, in spite God’s promises and past deliverances.
- God answers their doubts about His relationship.
- God’s past deliverances were not a momentary impulse, for His relationship with them is continual, perpetual, and eternal.
- It was not only of old or of a good while ago, but it is from all eternity.
- It is from eternity, which means that it is from the eternal choice of the persons loved in Christ.
- It is from eternity and into eternity is because this love is like God Himself, sovereign, unchangeable and eternal.
- The object of God’s love is “thee,” i.e., the “Israel” of God (1).
- A confirmation follows: “therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
- This implies that His eternal love is the cause of their redemption.
- It was His perpetual love which drew them out of Egypt, fed them for forty years in the desert, and brought them in Canaan.
- Let us not doubt that God is today also giving salvation to all His people, for He remains ever the same, never changing.
- Let us go into the future too, saying that God will prolong/extend His toward us.