For our call to worship this
morning, turn with me, if you would please, to Psalm 145. Psalm 145, and we'll start with
verse 14. Starting with verse 14. The Lord
upholdeth all that fall. and raises up all those that
be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee,
and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine
hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord
is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will
fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their
cry and save them. The Lord preserveth all them
that love him, but the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. O Lord, our God, we praise thee
for who thou art. We praise thee, O Lord, because
you alone deserve to be praised. Father, we thank thee for all
that thou hast given us. We thank thee for the Lord Jesus
Christ. who thou has sent to this earth
to die for our sins, the sins of those that thou has chosen
before the foundation of the world. Father, we confess that
we are nothing but sinners, constantly sinning, but yet, oh Lord, you
in your mercy and your grace have seen fit to forgive us and
save us. Father, as we gather together
this morning to worship thee, we pray that our worship might
be acceptable unto thee. Father, that you might join with
us and be with our pastor as he
opens the word to us and points us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, we pray for the work for the message that you have
given him. Father, we pray that we hear not from a man, but we
hear from thee this morning. These things we ask in the precious
name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you, Don. Let's stand together
and we'll sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin. ? Our sovereign God maintains ?
His universal throne ? In heaven and earth and hell he reigns
? And makes his wonders known ? His counsels and decrees ?
Firmer than mountains stand ? He will perform whate'er he please
? And none can stay his hand ? All things his will controls
? And all his wise decree has fixed the destiny in matchless
sovereignty. ? Jacob my grace he saved ? And
gives no reason why ? But he saw his heart he left it brave
? And who shall dare reply ? What if the potter takes heart of
a lump of clay, and for himself a vessel makes, and casts the
rest away. ? Who shall resist his will ?
? Or say what doest thou ? ? Jehovah is the sovereign still ? ? And
all to him must bow ? ? My soul bow and adore him ? ? The Lord
in all his ways ? His sovereignty none can explore ? But I will
trust his grace ? Of him and through him ? And to Him are
all things ? To Him be glory evermore ? Amen, amen, amen Amen. So be it. God's people rejoice in having their hearts
knit in truth to Christ and being able to say, it's the Lord. Whatever he does is right. With
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth and
no man can stay his hand. Will you open your Bibles with
me? We're going to begin by introducing this message from some words
that our Lord spoke in his prayer to the Father in John 17, John
chapter 17. We refer to this as our Lord's
high priestly prayer. He is interceding before he goes
to the cross on behalf of his church. And he says in the beginning
part of this prayer, he said, Father, I pray not for the world.
It's not a catch-all prayer in hopes that, you know, that men
will let God have his way. No, he said, I pray not for the
world. I pray for them which thou hast given me out of the
world, for thine they are, and thou hast given them unto me.
So this prayer is very specific. It's for his people. And we're
going to look at a few of the words that our Lord prayed for
his church, for his elect, for his redeemed. Before we look
at these words in particular, I wanna make a few statements
about love. Men speak of unconditional love. I doubt seriously that there
is any such thing even among men, but I know for a truth there
is no such thing with God. God cannot love unconditionally. I've titled this message Conditional
Love. It is a gross error. to which
the very heart of the gospel is sacrificed if we believe that
God loves unconditionally. His very nature will not allow
it. If it was so, if God was able
to love unconditionally, then the cross is unnecessary, the
gospel is a lie, God is not holy. God can only love one way. His love is perfect love. And the scripture tells us that
perfect love casteth out fear. We looked at that last Sunday
morning. Sometimes when our love has been
spurned or jilted, we're cautious about loving again in fear that
we may be hurt. But if you have an inexhaustible
source of love from which to draw, then you need not fear
loving. Put it out there. If it gets
abused, if it gets jilted, it gets taken, it's okay. Because perfect love, which is
God's love, casteth out fear. I have a perfect love, not my
love, we just in the first hour looked at Lazarus in John chapter
11. And wasn't it encouraging to
see that when the message came to the Lord, they didn't say
the one who loves you is sick. Won't you come reward his love
by healing him? No, the ground of our plea for
you to help us is not our love for you. That's imperfect. but
the one whom thou lovest is sick." Lord, won't you come. Perfect
love casteth out fear. And the only one who has perfect
love is God. His love is perfect. And because
it's perfect, it is conditioned. It is conditioned. Men will sacrifice the sovereignty
and the holiness of God on the altar of human love because they
think that God is altogether such a one like themselves. Men
fashion God in their imagination to be like themselves. And so
they make the conclusion that He loves everybody and that his
love is unconditional when his holiness and his righteousness
will not allow that. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13 says,
thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil. and thou canst not
look on iniquity. Now you and I left ourselves
are evil. Every thought, imagination of
the heart is only evil and not continually. Our hearts are wicked and deceitful.
We can't know them. We can't trust them. Our motives
are never pure. Everything we do and say is mixed
with self-promotion, isn't it? I so desperately desire and I
pray more than anything else that when I get up here to speak
for God, I would be able to do it without any thought of myself. And I've come to the conclusion
that it's not possible. I can't do it. There's enough
self-promotion and sin in what I'm doing right now to curse
me. I can't get out of my own way. Do you have that problem? Do
you have that problem? We're sinners. And God's eyes
are too pure to look upon sin, so how is it that he can look
upon us? How is it that he can love us?
It can't be unconditional. Psalm 45 verse seven says, thou
lovest righteousness and thou hatest iniquity. Now iniquity
means unequal, which describes everything about me and you.
all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's the
clearest definition of sin I know of in the Bible. Which means that what in your
life falls short of God's glory? Everything! Which means that
we are iniquitous. We don't measure up. Everything
about us is iniquity. And God hates iniquity. And he
loves righteousness. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. You see where we're going with
this, don't you? In order for God to love us, he has to make
us just like his son. He has to make us. This is our
hope in the day of judgment. John says, as he is, so are we. That's our hope. How am I going
to stand in the presence of a holy God in hopes that he loves me
unconditionally? No. No, he can't do it. His holy nature requires that
we be holy. And so we are in need of him
to make us so. We know that our God is immutable.
He cannot change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. I am the Lord and I change not. Our God never changes. So he
can't lower his standard. He can't make exceptions. He
doesn't grade on a curve. He has an absolute perfect standard
of righteousness that must be maintained. We know also that God has loved
us with an everlasting love. So if that be true, then what
we're going to look at this morning has an eternal truth to it. That
covenant of grace, sure and fast that we just sang about, that
David spoke of, it's an eternal covenant. Christ is the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. In order for God to
love us with an everlasting love, we must have always been in Christ. He cannot see us outside of Christ. This is great hope and comfort
for a sinner who can't escape their iniquity, that there's
hope that God would love me. John 17, you have your Bibles
open. Look with me at verse 22. Our
Lord is praying now to his Father for his people And he says, and
the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God, but hear the Lord saying, I've given to
them my glory. that they may be one, even as we are one. You see,
our union with Christ is the hope of our salvation. And the
Lord Jesus Christ says, I've done this. I gave it to them. I put them in Christ. And look at the next verse. This
is so glorious and so mysterious. Our God is unsearchable. We can't, as they say, wrap our
heads around this. We can't understand it. We can't comprehend it. But faith
doesn't require us to do that. Faith requires us to believe
it, to bow to it, and to say, amen. It's my only hope. It's my only hope. If this isn't
true, I won't be saved. Because if God has to find something
in me to love, everything I have about me has iniquity in it. And he's already said that he
hates iniquity. And he only loves righteousness. And his eyes are
too pure to look upon sin. What is my hope? Verse 23. in them and thou in me that they
may be made perfect in one. You see, he's the potter and
we're the clay. The clay doesn't have the power to make itself
one way or the other. That's in the hand of the potter to make some vessels of honor
and some of dishonor. I have made them this way. I
fashioned them. You say, well, how do I know He made
me this way? It's the only way I can be saved. All my hope is
in this truth, in this person. I've got no place else to go. I put all my hope in Him. He
shut me up to Christ. I've got no righteousness outside
of Christ. That they may be made perfect
in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me.
Will the whole world know that? Not until the day of judgment.
The day of judgment, every knee will bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. But the word
world here is being used in the same way it's being used in John
3.16. When the Lord said to Nicodemus,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
He's talking to a Jewish leader who thinks that salvation is
only for national Israel and the Lord Jesus is making it clear
that there's men in the world that I intend to save. And so that the world may know.
If you are a believer, there was a time when you were in the
world, you were of the world. We're in the world now, but we're
no more of the world, are we? He saved us out of the world.
That the world may know that thou hast sent me. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Messiah,
the anointed one, the one sent of the father to accomplish the
salvation of his people. This is the only way that God
can can love us. His love is not unconditional.
It is conditioned on Christ. And look at the last phrase.
This is where I really wanted to get to. And hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. Perfect love casteth out fear.
God only has one kind of love. You know, we use love. You know,
we love our pets and we love our spouses and love our children
and grandchildren. Love strawberries. We use that
word very broadly, don't we? God only has one kind of love.
It's perfect love. It's holy love. It's righteous
love. And He loves Christ Jesus the
Lord perfectly and all them that are in Him are loved by God in
the same way. How can we understand that? We look at ourselves and we think,
God loves me? The same way He loved Christ? How can it be? By being found
in Him, not having your own righteousness which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ,
so that this is our boldness in the day of judgment, as He
is, so are we. Brethren, is the condition. It is the condition. Don't entertain the thought for
a moment that God loves unconditionally. His very character and nature
will not allow it. This is the condition of his
love. But when that condition's met,
when that condition's met, His love for us is the same that thou hast loved them as
thou hast loved me." Is that not glorious? This is the great truth of the gospel. apart from which no man will
be saved. I love the Old Testament scriptures because the narratives, the stories
that are given to us in the Old Testament are given to us to
illustrate the doctrines that are revealed in the New Testament. And there's a story in 1st Samuel,
chapter 18. We've been going through 1st
Samuel. I'd like for you to turn with
me, if you will, in your Bibles to chapter 18 of 1st Samuel.
There's a story in 1st Samuel that clearly and gloriously illustrates
what we've just been talking about. There's three characters in this
story. The first one is the king. His name is Saul. His name translated
means one to be desired. And in this story, he is a picture
of God the father. He is one to be desired. Oh, how we desire to know God.
But without him, we're without hope. Without the knowledge of
God, there's no salvation. And the only way we can know
him is if he reveals himself to us. And the means by which
he is pleased to reveal himself is the preaching of the gospel.
And that's always our hope when we come together, isn't it? That
as God's word is opened, that he'll open that which no man
can shut, he'll open our hearts and open our eyes and he'll open
the windows of heaven and open his word. So Saul, a picture in this story illustrates
what we just said about God's love being conditioned on being
made in the likeness of Christ is illustrated here. The second
character in the story is the King's son, the King's son. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. His name is Jonathan and his
name translated means Jehovah has given. Jehovah has given. And what a glorious truth there
is in knowing that God did so love the world that
he gave his only begotten son. Had God not given us Christ,
we would not be saved. He spared not his own son. The
gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. A man can receive nothing except
it be given to him from heaven. Here's our hope that God would
give us Christ. Give us Christ or we die. Put
us in Christ. The wages of sin is death. It's what we deserve. That's our payment for sin, death,
separation from God. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's our hope. There's
our hope. God's love is conditioned. The
third character in our story is David. David's name translated
means beloved. How oftentimes Paul loved using
the word. In all of his epistles, he referred
to the believers as the beloved, the beloved. Romans chapter one, verse seven,
he addresses the letter and says, to all them who are in Rome. Now we know that Rome, It's also
called Babylon and it's a picture of the whole godless world of
man-made religion. And so to all those that are
in Rome, you and I live in Rome. Beloved of God and called saints. You remember what the word saints
means. It means holy. It means sanctified. It means
perfectly righteous in the sight of God. So to all those that
are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints. Those are the three characters,
David, Jonathan, and Saul. Let's read these verses together.
And I hope that this will just open up to you with very little
comment beyond what we've already said. And it came to pass when
he had made an end of speaking unto Saul. David is having a
conversation with the king. He's slain Goliath. He's routed
the Philistines. He's come back with the head
of Goliath and the armor of Goliath. And Saul doesn't know. Saul says,
who is this stripling? Whose son is he? Joab tells him
about Jesse and David brings him in. Saul brings David in. David is now conversing with
Saul. This nobody talking to the king. Oh, what a picture of prayer. Here we are conversing, burying
our souls, sharing our need, our hearts, our worship with
the King. And it came to pass when he had
made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan
was knit with the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his
own soul. Here's what we're talking about.
That the world might know that thou hast loved them even as
thou hast loved me. Here's the condition. that our Jonathan, our Jonathan,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself would make himself known to us
and would love us. Father, I have loved them unto
the end, the Lord Jesus said. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. And Saul took him that day, verse
two, and would let him go no more home to his father's house.
Oh, you're mine now. Can't go back to your family,
can you? I mean, we love our family. We don't cut ourselves
off from our family when the Lord saves us. But sometimes it's very difficult
to be around an unbelieving family, isn't it? love them, we pray
for them, try to be kind to them, we wait and watch for opportunities
to tell them about our Christ, but if they don't know the Lord, I tell folks, this is my family. My blood family, I love them
and I pray for them and I've not cut them off, but I don't
have anything in common with them. It's difficult to be around
them, isn't it? And here, Saul said, you're not
going back to your family. You're my servant now. Then Jonathan, I'm so thankful
Jonathan's name is first here. David didn't say, let's make
a covenant. Jonathan's heart is knit to David's so that Jonathan
loves David as himself and Jonathan initiates the need for a covenant. And we see this covenant, this
agreement that Jonathan makes with David carried out to even
after Jonathan's death. After David had established his
kingdom firmly, Saul's dead, Jonathan's dead. David gets his
servants together and he says to his servants, in light of
this very covenant that Jonathan made with David, way back here
at the beginning, years later, David says, is there anyone else
left from the household of Saul that I might show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Jonathan made a covenant with
me. Is there anyone I can, show kindness to for Jonathan's sake
and you know the story of Mephibosheth, won't tell that story again.
Ziba goes and fetches Mephibosheth and old crippled Mephibosheth
is shown kindness by the king. Mephibosheth was a descendant
of Saul and was the only threat to David's throne and a king
would have had all those threats eliminated but instead he shows
him kindness, brings him in, sits him at his table. David
did that because of this covenant that Jonathan made. And the Lord
Jesus Christ shows his mercy toward those who would raise
their fist to heaven and threaten the very throne of God if they
could. And he shows them kindness for Christ's sake. And Jonathan, verse 4, stripped himself. Jonathan is
the king's son. Jonathan was was well-dressed,
had the best, well, don't you love the story of the prodigal?
When the prodigal comes home in Luke chapter 15 and the father
says, go get the best robe, go get the best robe, put it on
him. My son, which was lost, is now
found. David, Jonathan now, strips himself
of his robe, Jonathan had the best clothes that anyone could
have. And he puts it on David. He said,
David, this is now your robe. God made him. You see, the Lord
Jesus Christ was stripped of his robe, wasn't he? That's the whole picture of the,
when the Roman soldiers were dividing up the possessions of
the Lord Jesus at the cross, that was their payment for their
service. They got to take whatever belonged to the one being crucified. And they got down to his robe
and they were gonna tear the robe in half and one of the soldiers
said, oh no, notice it's all of one piece. Don't rend it,
don't tear it. Let's cast lots for it. And what
a picture of salvation that is, the casting of the lot into the
lap, the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. So it was God
that determined who was gonna get that robe. But it was one
robe, it could not be divided. And so it is in the righteous,
so we know what that robe is. John saw the saints in heaven
in the book of Revelation, and they were dressed in white linen,
And the white linen robe, the scripture says, is the righteousness
of the saints. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
God made him who knew no sin to be sin. Here's the condition. Here's the condition for God
to be able to love us. He made Christ, who is righteous
in and of himself, perfectly righteous, holy, sinless, And
he placed the sins of God's people on Christ and made him to be
sin and made him to suffer all the shame and all the sorrow
and all the separation that goes with sin. So that the Lord Jesus
cried from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Oh, he was cut off. And what's the rest of that verse
say in 2 Corinthians 5.21? God made him who knew no sin,
to be made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. There's the condition. God cannot
love unconditionally. So how do I know I've been made
the righteous God in him? You got any righteousness of
your own? You got anything at all about you that you think
you can present to God for your acceptance and your ground of
standing before God? Anything? You want to offer to
God the best prayer you ever prayed? You want to offer to
God the best thing you've ever done, the best thought you've
ever had and hope that that would give you some acceptance with
God? and let God judge you on that one, the merit of that one
thing? Not your whole life, just one
thing. You got one little thing you could give to God that you
would want him to judge you on? Oh no, preacher. I got nothing. I've got no righteousness. Well, there's a good indication,
brother, sister. Christ is my righteousness. David
said, I will speak of thy righteousness even of thine only. All my righteousnesses are as
filthy rags before God. Here's my hope of acceptance
before God that I will be accepted in the beloved and that his righteousness
will be my righteousness. David, Jonathan stripped himself
of his robe and gave it to David. That not a picture? Go back with me to our text.
Jonathan stripped himself. He stripped himself. David didn't
take it off of him. He took it off of himself and
he gave it to David. You've been able to do anything
to obligate God to give you his righteousness? You've been able
to pray a sincere enough prayer or exercise enough of your free
will to make God strip himself of his righteousness and give
it to you? Lord, thou canst make me whole if I will. Lord, you're
gonna have to strip yourself of your righteousness and give
it to me. I can't obligate you in any way. This is the condition that God
requires in order for him to be able to love us. And yet when
this condition is met, we have the hope of knowing. Father,
thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me, for I have
given to them my glory. Given to them my glory. Jonathan stripped himself of
his robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments. Now the first time we find the
word garments in the Bible is where Aaron is described in his
priestly garments and the breastplate and the linen garments. And it's
a picture of our need to have a priest. Now a priest is the
one who offers gifts on behalf of the people. You need a priest,
I need a priest. And there's only one priest that
went into the holies of holies and put his blood on the mercy
seat. There's only one intercessor.
And he didn't just make an offering to God, he offered himself to
God. And God saw the travail of his
soul and God said, I'm satisfied. And now he has made us to be
a kingdom of kings and priests so that we have access to God. We can come to the throne of
grace with boldness because we have a high priest who has gone
before us and has rent the veil. And Jonathan gave David his garments. even to his sword, you see that? Oh, it's a beautiful sword. Best
sword, all of Israel. The king and his son. The most
able sword, unlike any other sword. We know what the sword is. In
Ephesians chapter six, the sword of the spirit is the word of
God. How glorious is it when God gives
you his word? When he takes his word and he
makes it effectual to your heart, he causes you to rejoice in it,
to believe it, to bow to it. Whatever his word is, your response
is truth, Lord. You don't respond to, when Jonathan
gave David his sword, that sword belonged to David. When the Lord
Jesus Christ gives us the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God, we believe every word of it. Every word of it. And we rejoice in it. It's a
lamp unto our feet, it's a light unto our path. And his word is
glorious because it reveals Christ. He opened up the scriptures to
them that they might understand beginning with Moses and the
Psalms and the prophets. He showed them what these stories
meant. This is what this story is about.
Jonathan giving to David all of his possessions God has to make us fit for heaven. We're not fit, left ourselves.
The son of the king must give us his robe. He must give us
his garments. He must give us his sword. And he must shoot the arrow of
his conviction straight to our hearts. You know, she loved the story. I don't remember the details
of the story, but when they shot the arrow and it just happened
to hit the guy right in the heart, you know, that's the way God
doesn't just shoot arrows out and hoping that it's gone. No,
he aims his arrows right at the hearts of his people. Look, Jonathan
gave him his robe, his garments, his sword, and his bow, his bow. And in Revelation chapter six,
when the Lord Jesus Christ is seen coming, riding upon a white
horse, here's what the scripture says. I saw and I beheld a white
horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given
unto him and he went forth to conquer and conquering. He uses that bow and the arrows
of his conviction to go straight to the hearts of his people and
conquer them. He conquers us, doesn't he? He
causes us to bow to him and to gladly say, I'm your bondservant. What a glorious thing it is to
be conquered. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. And I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 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. There's the condition, the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus. God's love's not unconditional. Christ has to give us his righteousness.
He has to be our priest. He has to give us his word. He
has to shoot the arrow of his conviction into our hearts and
conquer us. And the last thing that Jonathan
gave David, look at it, the girdle. The girdle. The girdle of truth,
Ephesians chapter 6. One of the clearest evidences,
listen carefully now, we'll close. One of the clearest evidences
that men have set themselves up on the throne of God is that
they become the arbiters of truth to themselves. They decide for themselves what's
true and what's not true. And what's true for you may not
be true for them. You hear people talk about it
all the time. Well, you know, that's my truth. Is there anything more clear
about man setting him? The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, not I'll show you the way. I am the way. I am the
truth. For this cause came I into the
world, and for this reason was I born to bear witness unto the
truth. And they that are of the truth
hear my voice and they follow me." Jonathan gave to David his girdle. It was a belt that held everything
together. Without that belt, the robe and
everything else would not have any order to it or Substance
to it, it had to have the belt of truth. What a glorious thing
it is when God puts into our hearts truth, Lord, whatever you say
is true. Lord, I have no truth outside
of Christ. Truth is you and I left ourselves
are dead in our trespasses and sins and could never come into
the presence of God. Truth is that God's love is not
unconditional. It's not unconditional. Truth
is that Christ died for those whom the Father chose in the
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world and he
successfully accomplished their redemption and stands in their
stead and gives to them his robe and his garments and his bow
and his girdle. Gives them everything that they
need so that the Lord Jesus prayer. You and I prayed a lot of prayers
that God had to say no to. We pray amiss. We have to conclude
every prayer that we pray with, Lord, if it be thy will. Not
so with the Lord Jesus. Father, I pray that the world might know that
as thou hast loved me, so you have loved me." That's the condition,
isn't it? That's the condition that God
must meet and that he did meet when he stripped himself and
gave to us what we need to be made fit. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for the simplicity
of the table that we're about to celebrate. The bread without leaven being our righteousness
in Christ. The blood without waste. Washing away our sins and making
us accepted. in the beloved. Lord, bless it
by your spirit through faith to our hearts we ask in Christ's
name. Amen. I think. I lost my piece of paper joy
on what? What is it? 232. Thank you. 232. Let's stand together. Number 232.