This morning is love's greatest
hour. Love's greatest hour. The scripture says in verse 1,
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour
was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto
the end. There are two things I want us
to see in this verse this morning is first the hour. The hour. Jesus knew his hour was come. His hour was come. And the second,
I want us to see His attitude, His passion, His love, His desire
at this great hour. this hour of His humiliation,
the hour of His suffering, the hour which He was to be given
into the hands of wicked men, crucified, and yet suffer under
the mighty wrath of God for all our sins. It was His greatest
agony. And yet, He did it. He did it
because He loved us. First of all, the hour. The hour. Jesus knowing His hour was come. Now, this is not the first time
this was mentioned. If you go back to John chapter
2, you can see the Lord Jesus Christ mentioning this at His
first miracle. In John chapter 2, And verse 4, our Lord says about
this, when Mary comes and she comes to them and they don't
have any wine and this, and she says to the servants, do what
he says, and he said, Woman, what have I to do with thee?
Listen, mine hour is not yet come. The Lord Jesus Christ knew
that this hour was coming. This hour of His suffering. And
if you go over to John chapter 7. John chapter 7 and verse 30. The Jews, Jesus had told them
that He was God. And he witnessed to who he was
and they sought to take him. The Jews sought to kill him,
but no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet
come. This hour, Jesus knew of this
hour that it was to come. In John 12 and verse 23, We can
read this, our Lord said, the hour is come, and the Son of
Man should be glorified. He says in another place that,
what shall I say then? Save me from this hour? He said,
no, for this hour I am come. This hour. Now, I want us to
behold this. I want you to see this, that
this hour of Christ's suffering, notice this, this is the hinge
upon which all time and eternity hang. If you want to know the
center point of all time and eternity, this is it. The focal
point of everything that God has done from eternity and that
God will do in eternity to come, this is the point. This is the
hour. This hour upon which eternity
and time is hinged, the hour of His death, the death of the
Son of God, listen, it was purpose of God before the world began. This hour, this hour did not
take Christ by surprise because it was this hour that the Father
and Son covenanted together by which He should save His people,
save His elect people. This hour was no surprise to
Jesus. He said, mine hour has not yet
come. He knew it was coming. And listen
what the apostle says in Acts 15 verse 18. Known unto God are
all his works from the beginning. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. All that God has ever done and
is doing and will ever do in time and eternity is known and
decreed by God before the world began, before there was ever
time. All things were determined of God. You can go out and you
can watch when we had the rains come in and we heard the birds
singing and I watched them as they were happy because the worms
were coming up. Not one worm wiggled out of the
earth that God had not decreed. Does He not feed them by His
sovereign decree and mercy? Does He not sustain you according
to His own hand? He decrees everything. Known
unto God are all His works. There are no surprises to God. All that happens in time and
eternity, God before creation of anything, according to His
own sovereign will, according to the praise of the glory of
His own grace, decreed all things to happen. He said, I'm God and
there's none else. Declaring the end, when? When
did God declare the end? From the beginning. From the
beginning. That was a litmus test he gave
to all the false gods. He says, okay, you say you're
God. Now tell me what's going to happen. And show me where
you said it would happen. Now it's easy for us to say,
well, I told you that would happen. Okay, we'll prove it. Show me
where you said it would happen. God said, I declared it from
the beginning. This hour was determined by God
from the beginning. From the beginning, no surprises
to God. Consider this, that the fall of Adam was not by an act
of random chance, nor did the sin of Adam and the fall of humanity
take God by surprise. Our God is omnipotent. Our God
is omniscient. Our God is immutable. Our God
is all-wise. He knows everything. And He's
omnipresent. Where was God when Adam sinned?
He's right there. He was present. He knew what
was going on. God was not taken by surprise
of this, but even the fall of man was purposed of God for His
own glory. And we know this, that God is
not the author of sin. Scriptures are plainly clear
about this. James said, let no man say when
he is tempted of God that when he is tempted, I'm tempted of
God. Listen, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away
of his own lust. Adam was created upright, sinless,
and perfect. He was purposed of God to be
a representative man for the whole race. Adam was not a Neanderthal. He was the best of us. And we
look down sometimes. I know I do. I see Adam and I
go, man, how could you? It's one thing. It's one thing. How could you? No, he was the
best of us. He was the best of us. And yet
when he was drawn away, he was drawn away of his own lusts. God did not tempt Adam, nor is
God the author of sin. Jesus declares that Satan is
the liar and the father of lies. Satan rebelled because sin was
found in his heart. Adam rebelled because he loved
Eve over God. He chose the woman over obedience
to God. And yet these rebellions were
no surprise to God because He ordained them. He ordained them. Now you ask, how can these things
be ordained? How can God decree the fall of
man, the fall of Lucifer, and all things that happen, and yet
not be the author of sin? Well, my puny mind and yours
cannot wrap around that. If you're struggling with that,
then you are struggling with your maker. Paul comes to a point
in Romans and he said, who are you to reply against God? Who
are you? You're just a creature. I can't
reconcile these things, but I know this, in the Word of God it says,
Shall there be evil in a city? And the Lord hath not done it. These things, murders, famine,
wars, pestilence, disease, Who do you think does that? Who do you think rules over those
things? God does. God does. In Isaiah, God said, I formed
the light and created darkness. I make peace and I create evil. I the Lord do all these things. Now this does not mean God created
sin, but rather decrees it and allows it and rules over it. Not for evil, but for good. He does it for good. He allows
it for good. He allows it to either spread
or he contains it for good. Joseph said, you meant it for
evil, but I meant it for good. Consider the victories then of
Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, those evil men over the people of God,
who allowed them to have such dominion over people. It was
God who gave him that dominion and the matter of fact he showed
Nebuchadnezzar that put him out in the middle of the field like
a beast until his eyes were open he said oh you do everything
you are the master of all things in time and eternity evil men who exercised dominion
over the people, God purposed it and decreed it, not for evil
toward His people, but for good. He did it to chasten His people. He did it to call His people
to salvation. Now, consider the hour in our
text. This, too, was purposed of God. And I've told you this is the
centerpiece This hour of great sorrow and pain which Christ,
the only begotten and beloved, must endure was purposed of God. You see these wicked men as they
hated him, they plotted to kill him, they plotted to put him
to shame, but they could not do it until when? Until the hour
was come until that hour that God had appointed They could
not touch him. They could not stop him. He told
Herod. He said here I'm going to preach
today and tomorrow and the third day the third day after his resurrection
He said I'm gonna preach as long as I've got and when that hour
comes I'll go to be with the father I'll rise again And during
this hour, before this hour, consider all the things that
Jesus did. He went about doing good. Jesus, everywhere He went, He
did only good. He healed the sick. He gave sight
to the blind. He raised the dead. He did good. All His days, He said, preaching
the Word of God, Come unto Me. You that are weary and heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. This man did no sin, he did good. And yet in this hour, he was
given into the hands of wicked men. And what did they do to
the man who did good? They crucified the Lord of glory. They killed him. In this hour, can you not see
in their wickedness a reflection of yourself? If you were there in that hour,
what do you suppose you would have said? We would have said, crucify him. If we were given over, this is
what happens when men are given over to their free will. If man
is given over to his will, this is what he'll do. He'll crucify
the Lord of glory. He'll cast him down. And yet notice in this hour of
wickedness, this hour when the Son of God was to be falsely
judged and condemned to death, this hour was come even because
God had ordained it. Go to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you and you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken him by
wicked hands, crucified and slain. Go to chapter 4 and verse 25. who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, Why doth the heathen rage, and the people
imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. were of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast appointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
and the Gentiles and the people were gathered together, listen,
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. This was no surprise. Jesus knew
his hour was come, his hour which he would be handed over into
the hands of sinful men. The hour of His death, as all
of God's divine providences were determined beforehand, yet this
hour is the centerpiece of all providence. Consider that. Now,
this hour is the center, and everything before this hour pointed
to this hour. You go back and all of the Old
Testament Scriptures do what? point toward Christ. His coming and this hour. This hour. This hour was purposed and everything
points to it. And after this point, everything
points back to it. Everything looks backward to
this for all our salvation. Now the Lord revealed this after
Adam had sinned. He revealed what his purpose
was before Adam's sin, even the dying of the son. Go back there
and I will show you that it points to this hour. Go to Genesis 3. Verse 15, he said, I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel." He says in the previous that the seed of the woman is
this one. The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent. God is saying there's one coming.
There's one coming that I have chosen, my elect servant, and
he will come not from Adam's race, but from the virgin's womb,
and his purpose, his hour when he comes is to crush the head
of the serpent, to remove the stain of sin. How? By the crushing
of his heel. By the bruising of his heel.
By the death of Jesus Christ as a substitute. By the Son of God being made
sin and bearing the reproach and shame that we deserved. The Scripture says the reproaches
of them that reproach thee fell on me. That's what this
hour is about. This hour was about your reproaches
falling on Him. Your sins being made His. He was made sin for us. Therefore, He hath not dealt
with us according to after our sins,
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, even because
He suffered. He suffered. And then God showed them a picture
in Genesis. He took skins and made them coats
to cover their nakedness. What is that? Is that not by
the death of Jesus Christ, He has made for us a righteousness
that we could not make for ourselves? Our righteousness were as the
fig leaves. That's a picture of our righteousness.
What did the fig leaves, when you pull it from the tree, it
begins to die. And what is your righteousness?
The same thing. You pluck it, you cover yourself,
and sure enough, you need more, and more, and more, because you'll
never have enough. because all your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. But by His death, He clothes
us in His righteousness. I like that poem. With His spotless
garments on, I'm as holy as God's Son. That's what this hour was
about. This hour was about taking your
sin and removing them from you and imputing them to Christ and
He suffered for them under the justice of God. Is there any sinner here who
needs such a substitute? Anyone? Is there anyone who needs
one? Who needs a substitute? Not a
partial substitute, a complete substitute. Is there anyone here who needs
righteousness? I'm not talking half yours and
half his, all his. Do you need all his righteousness? Then behold this hour, Jesus said to, blessed are the poor in spirit, bankrupt. Not only are you without righteousness,
you owe a debt. You're not just even, you owe
a debt that you can't pay. Blessed are you who owe a debt
you cannot pay. Bankrupt sinners who have nothing
to pay, God says, come and behold, I have paid the ransom. I've paid the price by the death. Blessed are they that mourn.
Do you mourn over your sin? Oh, what did God? Men would be broken
because of sin. If you mourn over your sin, then
come to Christ now. Come and view his hour. Come
and view his sufferings. You who think of sin but lightly,
or suppose the evil great, look to Christ, see him suffer. See what God thinks of sin! That when He found sin in His
only darling Son, His hand raised the knife of His justice, and
it fell on His Son. You remember that thief who was
dying on the tree. In that hour, He looked to that
man who was crucified next to him and said, Lord, remember
me when you come to your kingdom. And you know what he said? Today,
today, you will be with me in paradise. This was no, this was
no iffy thing. You will be with me. I'm sure
that thief for the next three hours had a lot of doubts, don't
you? I'm sure he, he was, there was Christ, his Lord, and he
was already dead. But there was nothing to stop
God from bringing that man to himself. Today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. Are you hungering and thirsting
after righteousness? Then come to Christ and be filled.
This is what the hour was for. It was to fulfill all righteousness. It was to atone for sin. For the Scripture says, he hath
by himself purged. our sins. You don't have to be
a scholar to understand that. He hath, when in his hour, purged,
washed, removed, cleansed, redeemed, justified, sanctified all of
his people in that one hour. That one hour when he suffered,
when he was made sin. He was the great high priest
who offered his own blood to God upon the cross bearing our
sins. And the Father said to the sword
of justice, Awake and smite the shepherd, the man that is my
fellow. And when justice said, I can't ask for any more. He's
accomplished it all. He satisfied me. He said, not
with a weak voice. With a loud voice, he said, it
is finished. What did he do in that hour?
He accomplished redemption. We serve a risen Savior because
we serve a successful Savior. That's what the resurrection's
all about. That's what happened after the hour. He was raised
from the grave. That's to testify to every man
that sin is gone. All sin of all my people have
forever been put away. God says, I've cast them behind
my back into the sea. God's perfect at everything.
You know what God's perfect at? Forgetting. Because he cannot remember my
sins. He cannot find them, Jeremiah
says in Jeremiah 50 in verse 20, by searching He cannot find
my sins. Why? Because they were all put
in Christ in that hour and in that hour they were forever removed,
forever put away. I like this. Isaiah 40 in verse 2 says that
we have received double for all our transgressions. Comfort you,
my people. You go comfort my people because
they have received double payment for all their sins. Oh, we're not going to heaven
by the skin of our teeth, friends. We're going to heaven to be made
partakers of His glory. Isn't that something? because
of this hour. Isn't that why we preach this
hour all the time? Isn't that why we preach this
all the time? Because this is the centerpiece.
This is what we hold tenaciously to for all our righteousness.
It's this hour. If I have any hope, if I have
any hope of heaven, it is because of this hour of His suffering. And I want to tell you why He
did it. You know it was purposed of God. You know when he did
it, he was successful. He was triumphant, victorious.
But now then look at why he did it. He said, Jesus, knowing that
his hour was come, that he should depart from the world into the
Father, having loved his own. He loved them to the end. He loved them to the end. Behold who Jesus loved. His own. Did not love every man. He loved his own. We know that Christ, fulfilling
the law, loved his neighbor as himself. In that sense, he loved
every man. In obedience to the law, he must
have loved every man as himself. But I'll tell you this, there
is a particular peculiar love for his own that was not given
to every man. Now, I'll tell you this, We have
a lot of children come over to our house and play. And they
can come in my house and they can get anything they want to
eat. They can play with my kids' toys. Matter of fact, you know,
I give them preference over my kids. They're guests at this
time. But you know what? I don't love
them like I love my children. I just don't. I love them. I want to take care of them.
But I'll tell you this, I have a special love for my own. Jesus
said in that high priestly prayer, He said, I pray not for the world,
but for those which thou hast given Me. That's who His own
are. And having loved His own in this
hour of His agony, He endured this hour for His own. Having loved them who are in
the world. I'm so thankful for that, that
He understands that I'm in the world. that He understands. He knows my frame that I am but
dust. He understands my trouble, my
trials, my heartaches, my pain. He understands these things.
But yet, His love for me, His love for me is the motive for
His hour of suffering. Having loved His own, He loved
them unto the end. He loved His own sheep Jesus
says of his sheep, he said, all that the father hath given me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all he hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but raised him up at the last day. See, Jesus had a special love
for his own. Are you His own? You'll never understand love except you be His own. Are you His own? Who are His
own? They who believe. Jesus Christ. Jesus said to those Pharisees,
He said, You believe not because you are not of my sheep. My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them. And you know what they do? They
follow me. And I give to them eternal life. And no man shall pluck them out
of my hand, for the Father which gave them me is greater than
all. He loved His own. He endured
the hour of His suffering for the joy set before Him. He, despising
the shame, endured the cross for His own so that He should
give us eternal life. Do you believe on the Son of
God? You are his own. And he's loved you to the end. I'm so thankful that what Christ
has done can't be undone. Just can't be undone. All that
God purposed to do was summed up in that hour, and in that
hour, He did accomplish all my salvation. And I believe on Him
alone. I am His, and He loves me. I don't always
feel it, do you? Feelings come, feelings go, feelings
are deceptive. That's so. But praise God, his
love for me is not based on my feelings or my love for him.
It's because of his son. He loves me. And you know what? He'll love me until the end of
this life. And he'll love me through eternity
because of that hour. The greatest hour of love. I pray that God blesses to your
hearts.