Divine Love and its Gifts

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2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us…

It is an ill wind which blows no one any good. We owe this prayer to the needless alarms of the Thessalonians.

I. THE BLESSED FACT of the Divine love. This is a fact not to be learned from a dictionary or uttered in speech, but to be felt.

1. God hath loved us.

(1) The text does not say that God pitied us, although that would be true. You may pity a person whom you dislike.

(2) Nor does it say that God has had mercy on us. A man is merciful to his east, to his enemies, but it does not follow that he loves them.

(3) Nor is the word benevolence. A mother is not benevolent to her child, a bridegroom to his bride.

(4) Theologians talk of God's love of complacency, but that is too cold.

(5) We must keep to the simple term, love. You know, mother, how you love the dear child in your arms. It seems part of yourself. Now, as God has united us to Himself by cords of love He thinks of us as He thinks of Himself.

2. He hath loved us, so insignificant, frail, foolish, sinful, and therefore so uncomely, ungrateful, provoking, deserving to be abhorred. We can understand His love to apostles, martyrs, etc., but that He should love us is wonderful.

3. This love is the great fountain of our Spiritual blessings. What is called the source of the Thames is a tiny rivulet; its real source is the whole watershed. But suppose the Thames a full-grown river from one fountain head, what a sight it would be. Now, the mercy of God to us in Christ leaps in all its fulness from the infinite depths of God's love.

4. The apostle joins the name of the Lord Jesus with that of God the Father, denoting not only equality of being, but holy concert in all that concerns our well. being. Christ is the gift of the Father's love, but Jesus loves His own.

5. Christ is here put first because He is first to us in our experience. We began our dealings with heaven not by going first to the Father, but to the Son.

6. Christ is "ours." Paul might have written, "the Lord," etc., but when he was testifying of this great love he must use a word of possession. Faith takes hold of Jesus and says, "He is all my salvation, and all my desire."

7. This love enables us, too, to say. "Our Father" (1 John 3:1).

8. We are not told when that love began, only, "hath loved us." He loved us when we first came to Him repenting, when we were at the swine trough, ere we had a being, ere the world was formed, from everlasting.

II. THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS LOVE.

1. Everlasting consolation. He found us wretched, when the arrows of conviction were sticking in our hearts; then He came to us with His consolations. Since then consolation has always followed on the heels of tribulation. What are our consolations?

(1)  That God has forgiven us.

(2)  That His promises are Yea and Amen in Christ.

(3)  That all things work together for our good.

(4)  That because Christ lives we shall live also, and live with Him.

2. Good hope. It is good because based on a good foundation. The fanatic's hopes will pass away with the vapours which produced them, but the believer's hope is founded in grace. Why is it, then, that some believers' hopes flicker? Because they get away from a hope in grace and look towards themselves.

III. THE PRAYER FLOWING OUT OF THIS.

1. That God would comfort your hearts. This is of the utmost importance. Cheerfulness ought to be the atmosphere you breathe, and if you believe that God loves you, you cannot but be happy.

2. That he would stablish us in every good word and work. This establishment is derived from the consciousness of God's love. Don't be disheartened at the discouraging signs of the times. God loves you; work and bear witness for Him. Dark nights are but the prelude to bright days.

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