Sermon Outlines

By Frederick F. Schwindt, Evangelist

EVERLASTING LOVE

1. This tender and gracious assurance appears here in a somewhat unexpected connection:
   1. The book of Jeremiah, taken as a whole, is a sad book.
   2. It consists, in the main, of warnings, expostulations, and prophecies of doom for a wicked nation.
   3. The chosen people had apostatized to a point when God was ready to deliver them into the hands of their enemies, which did take place.
2. Yet, our text offers to them God's tender and abiding love; God's judgments were mixed with his loving kindness:

1. The love of God lies behind the darkest experience of life:
   1. This is seen in the light of the cross of Jesus Christ on Calvary -
      1. It is here where the unspeakable love of God shines in its brightest color.
      2. It is here where John 3:16 is unfolded and explained.
      3. It is here where Rom. 8:31-33; 2 Cor. 5:18-21 find the fulfillment.
   2. Dear ones, when we are able to see God's everlasting love behind the shadows, sorrows of life, we see God's attachment to us, in life and in death. EXAMPLES -
      1. Job saw a loving God behind his darkest experience, but his wife did not - Job 2:9, 10; 13:15, 16
      2. David saw the silver lining in the darkest cloud in his life - Ps. 23:1-6
2. This love is everlasting and changeless:
   1. How different is the love of others -
      1. With their mouth they show much love - Ezek. 33:31
      2. Their love is as the morning cloud - Hos. 6:4
   2. But God's love is the same - John 13:1; God is love - 1 John 4:8; and he is changeless - Jas. 1:17
3. It may be difficult to see God's abiding love when sorrows break our hearts, when the sun seems to have gone down for us for the last time, when our hopes are dashed to pieces, but it is there just the same: What we need is grace to read it, to see it, to cleave unto it.

1. Here we have a description of the nature of God's love, how it operates, works:
   1. God's love is a burning fire, a compassionate eagerness to possess the souls of those whom He loves.
   2. That is why God's love is changeless; that is why God's love is endless!
2. "Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee."
   1. Said Jesus, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" - John 12:32
   2. If we can but see that God does not want to hurt, wound, any one of His children at any time, but He may have to allow difficulties to come into our lives to reveal His love to us!
   3. Job became the symbol of true piety when he was tested and tried in the oven of affliction; He revealed God's abiding love.
   4. Could we see the end from the beginning, we would never complain; we would never murmur when things go hard with us.
3. "The Lord appeared of old unto me":
   1. As I look back over the brief span of my life, I can see how God loved me all the way; from the days of my childhood, in the days of my youth, and in the days when the shadows are lengthening!
   2. If we are able to see God's love in our lives, our experiences, we can say that our life has been a walk with God.
   3. God loved me, not because I am so loveable, but rather in spite of all my imperfections. He loves me because He is love, that is His nature.
   4. Best of all, He demonstrated His love in that Jesus died for me - Gal. 2:20
   5. He manifests His love to me in that He pleads my case before God's throne day by day.
   6. Also He is preparing a mansion for me.