Good morning. Let's open up this
morning's service to number 185 in your hardback. Number 185,
it's the blue one. Glorious things of thee are spoken. Number 185, please stand. Glorious things of Thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God, He whose word cannot be broken formed
thee for his own abode. On the rock of ages founded What
can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou mayest smile at all thy foes. See the streams of living
waters, Springing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and
daughters, And all fear of want remove. Who can faint while such
a river Ever flows their thirst to swage? Grace which, like the
Lord, the Giver, Never fails from age to age. Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear, For a glory and a covering, Showing
that the Lord is near. Gloria stings a Be seated, please. Two things happened at the same
time. Nobody read the Scripture and
I'm near deaf. I didn't hear what I was supposed
to do. Good morning. You know, occasionally, the Holy
Spirit softens our heart, opens our eyes when we're reading the
Scripture, And a verse will come up that touches us so much, it
will almost bring us to tears. One of them is in Matthew chapter
9. It's about a lady that had an
issue of blood. At that time, they were under
the mosaic economy, and the law said that if you had an issue
of blood, you're unclean. Anyone that touched you was unclean. Anyone you touched was unclean. So this lady had no social life. She'd been going to the doctor.
The doctors took everything she had. She was no better. In fact,
she was worse. Her health was really bad. No
social life. Bad health. No future. This lady
had nothing. She had nothing, but she had
one hope. And only one. There was a man
named Jesus of Nazareth. And verse 21 says this, she said
within herself, if I could but touch His garment, I would be
whole. That's how these things work.
Whenever there's no hope left and the Holy Spirit gives us
hope. Then we realize that we can be
made whole. Another verse that has really
touched me is in John chapter 13. That's what I'll be speaking
to you this evening or this morning. John chapter 13 and verse 1. Now before the Feast of the Passover,
this is two days before the Passover, two days before the Lord Jesus
Christ was arrested, tried, and crucified. 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. Our 56th anniversary was last
week, so love is on my mind. 56 years me and Deanna have been
married. She's put up with me for 23,747
days, including today, in case you're counting. That seems like
a long time, and to the natural man it is. But it is a dust on
the ballast. It's a drop in the ocean compared
to the love that Jesus Christ had for His own. You see, in
this life, love has a beginning. And love also has an ending.
Fifty-seven and a half years ago, I began to love my wife. And it honestly and truly seemed
like yesterday. I look at her and she looks no
different than she did coming down the aisle. But there will be an end to her
love for me or my love for her in this life. You see, love to
us because we're finite creatures, because we're in the flesh, because
we come into this world born a sinner. We live our whole lives
as a sinner. And we die as a sinner. And if
by God's grace the Holy Spirit borns us again, there's not much
difference. We're still a sinner. We have
no concept of perfect love. We just don't know. I can sit
here in this church all I want to and sing, oh, how I love Jesus. And people do that all the time.
And you convince yourself that you really do love Jesus. But when you're confronted with
Him, you realize that you don't even know what love is. Job was a perfect and an upright
man. That's what God said about him.
Hast Thou beheld My servant Job, a perfect and an upright man?
Job justified himself through over 40 chapters that he hadn't
done anything wrong. Scripture said that Job neither
sinned with his mouth nor murmured against God. And yet, whenever
the Lord appeared to him in a whirlwind, what happened? Job saw who God
is and who He was. And he said, I have heard of
Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes behold
Thee, and I hate myself. So we don't really know what
love is. Isaiah, who God used to give
us some of the most beautiful passages in the Scriptures about
the coming of Christ. Isaiah said, when King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Now here's a man that
had received a lot, a lot of visions from God, and been given
a lot of instruction, and I'm sure that Isaiah thought, well,
I must be doing something right because God's dealing with me.
But when he saw the Lord, what did Isaiah say? He said, woe
is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. We do not have the desire or
the ability to love anyone or anything in this life with our
whole mind, our whole heart, and our whole soul, and our neighbor
as ourself. We cannot do it. Romans 5-12
tells us, "...Wherefore, as by one man..." That's Adam. "...Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so that death passed upon all men, because all have sinned."
That's our gift from Adam. No ability, no desire to love
like we should. Like I said, love in this life
has a beginning and it has an ending. I want to talk to you
this morning about two things. Number one is the love amongst
us. The love amongst ourselves. And
the other is the love of Christ. The love between ourselves has
a start somewhere and it ends with death. The love of the Lord
Jesus Christ never stops. It has no beginning. No beginning. George Strait or whoever it was
can get up on the stage and he can play his guitar and he can
sing, I'm gonna love you forever, forever and ever, amen. That's
not gonna happen. Whitney Houston had a beautiful
voice. She can sing, I will always love
you. That's not gonna happen either. About the best you can do is
to tell your wife, look her deep in the eye, put your arm around
her and tell her, sweetheart, I will love you as long as I
live. That's about the best you can
do. Because death is the end of love. There will come a day,
and I don't like thinking about it, there will come a day when
I'll get up and Deanna won't be there. She'll be with the Lord. And I'll be devastated. All these years, I'll still love her, but she'll
be with the Lord. The Lord will wipe the tears
from her eyes and she won't care about me. There's no regrets
in heaven. None. But I'll still be here. I'll still love her. It's a small
thing, but I won't have anybody to straighten out the straps
on my coveralls. To do all the things she does
for me. Turn, if you will, to Ecclesiastes
9. You have the Psalms, Proverbs,
and Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 9, beginning in
verse 1. For all this I considered in
my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and
the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth
either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things
come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous
and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean,
to him that sacrifices and to him that sacrifices not. As is
the good, so is the sinner. And he that sweareth is he that
feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things
that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto
all. Yea, also the heart of the sons
of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they
live, and after that they go to the dead. For him that is
joined to all the living, there is hope. That's why we say as
long as there's life, there's hope. We all know people that
are unsaved and are getting on up in age, and we think, well,
as long as they're alive, God could reach them. As long as
there's life, there's hope. For a living dog is better than
a dead lion. For the living know that they
shall die, but the dead know not anything, neither have they
any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Verse 6,
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished,
neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done
unto the Son. Our love for others dies with
us. It's gone. We're not coming back
in this life. We'll come back with the resurrection,
but not before. Love amongst each other includes
your mother, your father, your wife, your husband, your children,
and us here in this church. Remember whenever someone came
to the Lord and He said, Lord, your mother and your brethren
are outside and they want to talk to you. And the Lord Jesus
Christ looked around at those that were following Him and He
said, Behold, my mother, my brother, my sister, we are a family. We all belong, the children of
God, all belong to Christ. We are the own that are in the
world that He's loved forever. We should be so close to each
other. I should be ready to forgive
you anything before I would ever forgive myself for even the slightest
thing. I should love you and I don't
love anybody else. I should overlook your fault.
Put my arm around you and say, it'll be alright. The Lord Jesus
Christ loves us. We are a family. That's the love
amongst ourselves. That's the love that will perish
when we die. I'll go on loving Deanna if she
goes first, but like I said, she won't even remember me. She'll
be in a place where the only thing that matters is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Her love for me will have perished.
The love that we have is so fleeting. It's here today and gone tomorrow. Because we are conceived in sin
and shaped in iniquity, Psalm 58. Because we go astray from
the womb, speaking lies, as soon as we be born, Psalm 58. Because we are a finite being,
because we've been ruined by Adam, we really and truly cannot
understand love. Especially, especially not a
love like the Lord Jesus Christ has for His children. Never had
a beginning like mine did for my wife. Never have an ending
like it will when one of us passes on. No beginning and no ending. That's the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the second thing that
we want to talk about this morning. having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them unto the end." Did you know that's
the Gospel? We live in a world that's so twisted and warped
that right is wrong and wrong is right and nobody knows which
way to go. Where is the truth? What is truth? We live in a world that is so
bad. that we can just barely get along. But there are people in this
world that belong to Christ, having loved His own which are
in the world. There are people here, children
of God, not even born yet. that Christ will maintain the
course of history, the way the world works, not one child of
God will perish before the Holy Spirit borns Him again. This
is the Gospel. Having loved His own which were
in the world. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7. It says, the Lord God formed
man from the dust of the ground. Adam. Red earth. There on the
ground is the form of a man, just a big pile of dust. But
in that pile of dust is everything that will ever happen. Every
person that will ever be born with the exception of the Lord
Jesus Christ is there. Every child of God in every age
is bound up in that pile of dirt. The fall, the flood, the Tower
of Babel, the First World War, the Second World War, everything,
everything that's ever going to come to pass is right there
in the form of a man. And the Lord Jesus Christ loved
us enough, He loved me enough to breathe into His nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul. Because Adam lived,
we live. Because Adam lived, millions
and millions of children of God over the ages will be born and
come to know Christ and go on to be in glory. Everything that
has ever happened in this world, everything, happens because of
the children of God. Romans 8.28, And we know that
all things work together for good for those that love God,
those who are the called according to His purpose. The Lord Jesus
Christ loved Abel. enough to take him on up into
heaven when his brother Cain hated him and killed him. The
Lord Jesus Christ loved Enoch enough to translate him from
the land of the living straight into heaven. Scripture says Enoch
walked with God and was not because God took him. He did the same
thing with Elijah. He loved Elijah enough to send
a fiery chariot down here, scoop him up, and take him straight
into heaven. He loved Noah enough to put eight
people in an ark. And by extension, He loved us
enough to put eight people in an ark, pitched within and without,
emblematic of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only refuge in an
empty world. He put them in there and saved
them so that mankind would not perish from the earth. If Noah had not lived, we wouldn't
even be here. There were the Lord Jesus Christ
and two angels going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Scripture
says that the cry of the city had come up into heaven, they're
going to go check it out. That's for our benefit because
God doesn't have to check anything out. That's so we might understand
what's going on. And they came to a man's tent
named Abraham. And Abraham fixed him a meal,
and his wife Sarah is standing right inside the tent. And the
Lord Jesus Christ told Abraham, He said, according to the time
of life, that's nine months, according to the time of life. Sarah shall bear a son." And
Sarah's right inside the tent, and Sarah laughed. Yeah, good
luck with that. Abraham's 99 years old, and I'm
right at 90 or right over it. He hasn't given me a kiss in
the last 60 years. Good luck with a child when I'm
shriveled up and dried up and Abraham don't want me. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
wherefore did Sarah laugh? And she lied. I didn't laugh. Who, me? No, I didn't laugh.
I believe every word you said. Sarah laughed in the face of
God at a promise. And Sarah lied when God confronted
her about it. And yet, in Hebrews chapter 11,
Scripture says, Sarah herself, through faith, received strength
to conceive. Does that sound like the Sarah
I just told you about? You have to understand this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ loved Sarah enough to die on the cross
for her sin of blasphemy. To die on the cross for Sarah's
other sin. He loved her enough to do this,
and she stood holy and without blame before God in love because
Jesus Christ loved her. If Jesus Christ loves us, we
will be called. We do not have sin because we
belong to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ loved David
enough to die on the cross for his sin of adultery and murder. Not only that, He gave David
enough faith to say this, Although my house be not so with God,
we only know for sure one of His children was a child of God. That's Solomon. Although my house
be not so with God, He hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure. The Lord Jesus Christ loved David
enough to cleanse him from his sin. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ
had no beginning. It's foolish to think that the
Lord started loving us the day we were saved. We were always
saved. We have belonged to Christ forever. God never changes. There never
was a time whenever I started to belong to Christ. I've always
belonged to Christ. Ephesians 1 and verse 4 says
that God had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. That He predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself according
to the riches of His grace. that He gave us to Christ, that
He made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sin. God loved us and gave
us to Christ. And Christ loves us. We went
into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are a part of Him. Everything that Christ did to
make the Lord happy, we did it. We were crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, we live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me. I was resurrected with Christ. Ephesians 2 and verse 4, But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, has resurrected us with
Christ. For by grace are you saved. and
raised us up together to sit with Christ in heavenly places.
He's always loved us. There was never a beginning for
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not ever. It's just something
that's always been. And the thing about the love
of Christ is this, It's a particular love. It's only for His children. Oh, He takes care of the world.
Because He is the Creator. All things were made by Him. John 1. And without Him was not
anything made that is made. He sends rain in the wilderness
where no man lives according to the book of Job. He causes
rain to fall on the just and the unjust. He allows people
to do things that you wonder how they can get away with it.
He keeps the world going, but only for us. I can guarantee
you that the Book of Life has a last name. And when that last
name is called by the Holy Spirit, and born again, and there's no
more names in the Book of Life, how long do you think this world's
going to go on? if there's no children of God
left. Not even ten seconds. The world is here for us because
Christ loves us. And everything works to our good. Now, most of the Bible commentators
will tell you that this passage of Scriptures is only for the
disciples. Having loved His own which was
in the world, He loved them unto the end. Now, whatever the end
is, that's for another message. We're not going to speak about
that this morning. But I don't think that. I think
that all of us are included in this. We're in the world. We
definitely are. We're surrounded by people that
hate us, along with those that love us. So why wouldn't it apply
to us? There was a rich young ruler
that came running up to the Lord. He was apparently a health nut.
He runs up to the Lord. He said, Good Master, what good
thing must I do to obtain eternal life? Scripture says that Jesus,
beholding Him, loved Him. And yet he went away sorrowful
because he didn't want to give up everything he had. But I'm
going to tell you one thing right now. When Jesus, the Lord of
heaven and earth, loves you, You will have a day of grace. You're guaranteed a day of grace
because He loved you before the foundation of the world, and
there is an appointed time when the Holy Spirit will raise you
from being dead in sin and open your eyes and you can see the
Kingdom of God. It wasn't that day apparently,
it could be tomorrow, it could be a year, ten years, twenty
years, but before a child of God dies, He will be born again. He will confess with His mouth
the Lord Jesus, and He will believe in His heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, and He will be saved. It's written in the
Book of Life. Jesus, beholding Him, loved Him,
and you can bet your last dollar that He came to Christ before
He died. And He wasn't one of the twelve.
He's just some rich young ruler. Mary and Martha, the two sisters,
they sent a message to the Lord, and all the message said was
this, Lord, Behold, him whom thou lovest is sick." And the
Lord Jesus Christ tarried there another day or two until Lazarus
died. He loved Mary, and he loved Martha,
and he loved Lazarus enough to stand outside that tomb and say,
Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead came forth
bound hand and foot with grave clothes. The Lord said, Loose
him! That's every one of us here. We are dead. And the Lord Jesus
Christ loves us enough to say, Robert Horton, come forth. And I came forth bound hand and
foot, wrapped up in His sinful flesh, and He said, Loose Him.
And that loosing could come any day. And Lazarus wasn't one of
the twelve. He's just Lazarus. So when it
says, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them
unto the end. It's everybody. Every child of
God. The Roman soldiers nailed two thieves to two crosses
and raised them up, one on either side of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was numbered with the transgressors. That's what that means. He's
up there with two thieves. and they railed on Him. If you
are the Son of God, if you really are the Son of God, save yourself
and save us. A bunch of mealy little people
down there saying, if you are the Son of God, save yourself. Others you saved, you can't save
yourself. They did not know that twelve
legions of angels could have made this whole universe a waste
howling wilderness. The Lord Jesus Christ was voluntarily
on that cross. One of these men, we don't know
their name. Scripture didn't tell us. But
the Lord knew his name because his name was in the book of life
before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world on this
thief's behalf. And because Jesus loved him,
the Holy Spirit born this man again, hanging on a Roman cross,
no hope, no future, no way out of this, nobody ever came down
from a cross alive. He has nothing. But God, who
is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when this man was dead in sins, has raised him up from the deadness
and caused him to live. The Lord Jesus Christ. You say,
well, how do you know that? I'm going to tell you how I know
it. Because the thief cried out, Lord! Scripture says no man can
call Jesus Christ Lord except the Holy Ghost do it. Lord, remember
me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. You've got a man that's
only hours away from dying and he wants to go to the Lord to
the next kingdom. Only faith can do that and faith
is a gift of God and it's only given to those that the Lord
Jesus Christ loves. This redemption that we're talking
about is not a class action redemption. You see these ads on television.
Well, if you think you've ever suffered a wrongdoing, get in
with us. We're going to get you some money.
Redemption is not like that. The love of Christ is a particular
love and it's a particular redemption. It's only for those He loves. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ loved us enough to be beaten and spit on and
unjustly tried. He was despised and afflicted. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. He did all of these things voluntarily. He did all of these things for
every sin I will ever commit. He died for my past sins, the
sins I'm committing today, and He died for my future sins. Either
all of them or none of them. He either died for my sins or
I'll die for my own sin. He died for my sins, every one
of them. It's not a class action redemption
because He didn't just say, well, I want to die for adultery. Here's
this big pool of forgiveness for adultery. I'm just going
to die for murder, a big pool of forgiveness for murder. He
died for David's adultery. He died for my adultery. He died for the adultery of every
child of God individually that ever lived. There's no such thing
as dying for sin indiscriminately. Redemption is a one-on-one thing. It's between you and the Lord
Jesus Christ. He either died for the forgiveness
of your sins or He didn't, but it is one-on-one. It's a particular redemption. So He was despised and rejected. He was arrested unlawfully. He
was tried unlawfully. The Roman government nailed Him
to a cross when they knew He was innocent and crucified Him
anyway. But that's nothing compared to
the rest of it. Scripture says that He hath made
Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin, all, all of the wrath of God fell on Him. Only the Lord of glory could
have stood up under that. All of the hatred that God has
for sin fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. It was so bad that He
was abandoned by the Father. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? He was forsaken by God for me
and for you if you're a child of God. He did this for us. And now because He lives, we
live. There's no end to the good things
that the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. We do not have the capacity
to realize what really happened. We're in the flesh, and the flesh
is going to bind us until God takes us out of it. Then we'll
know, we'll see Him for who He is. We'll be with Him forever,
and we'll know the magnitude of what He did for us, and we'll
see our own ungratefulness, and our own stupidity. We are as
a beast before Him, and we don't even have enough sense to know
that. But because Jesus loves His own
which are in the world, He gives us a sense of peace. He gives
us a sense of brotherhood. He gives us a sense of spiritual
goodness when we come here and hear the Word. I look out and
I see everybody I love in one room. You're not going to get
that anywhere else. He has given us so much. I'm going to tell you the good
news. There's nothing you have to do
to get it. There's nothing you have to do to keep it. He's going
to do all the work. He's going to born you again.
He's going to take away your stony heart and give you a heart
of flesh. He's going to give you an eye to see the Kingdom
of God. He's going to give you the faith,
the strength like Sarah to conceive. He's going to give you everything. And the sad part is we don't
have enough faith to get a hold of it. We're sinners. We're just who we are. just who we are. But we have
this reassurance that the Lord Jesus Christ loves His own which
are in the world. He's never been a day when He
didn't love me. There's never been a day when
He will not love me. When I die, I quit loving everybody. He's not going to die because
He lives, He loves us. He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. In light of these things, Scripture
says this, knowing these things, that all
things work together for good. Romans 8, verse 28. All things
work together good for those that love God, those who are
Thee called according to His purpose. Because whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn amongst many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified. Whom He justified, Him He also
glorified." You have the Word of God that these things have
occurred. I have the promise of God that
I've been predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. It's right. here in the testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In light of all of that, what
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, shall He not also with Him freely
give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
brethren, that is risen again, and is even at the right hand
of God, and maketh intercession for us. Knowing all of these
things, everything I've told you about the love of Christ,
the never-ending love of Christ that goes on forever and ever,
what He's done for us by dying on the cross, and He has a reward. Did you know that? Philippians 2 and verse 8 says,
"...and being found in fashion as a man." Talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. and being found in fashion as
a man, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. All of this is His, and we belong
to Him. In light of everything I have
told you about the love of Christ, and what He's done for us, and
what God has promised us, everything's been taken care of. We should
be able to stand here this morning and say with the Apostle Paul
that we are persuaded, verse 38, we are persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 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 given us in Christ Jesus our Lord." If
we had the capacity to know what this means, we would never worry
about anything for the rest of our lives. The thing is this, search the Scriptures. Make sure
that you're at the foot of the right Jesus. Because like I told
you, this is not a class action redemption. Not everybody's going
to heaven. If you're a child of God, He
will open your eyes to the Scriptures. As much as a human being can,
He will give you the knowledge to know about the Lord. Children
of God are guaranteed this. Children of God are going to
get it regardless of the circumstances. Children of God will be called. I've told you this before. If
you're a child of God and you're a day of grace, God will send
someone for you. And you'll know it. Having loved
His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. That's
one of the verses that when you read it and realize what it means
and realize how much I can understand it and how dumb I am about the
things of God, that it will almost move you to tears. Father, we thank You for being
gathered here this morning, Father. We ask that You would open our
eyes and our hearts even a little bit to the things You've done
for us, Father, that You'd cause us to be grateful, Lord, that
You'd cause us to want to love You with all of our mind, Father,
and all of our heart and all of our soul, even knowing that
we're not capable of doing it, Father, that You'd turn us to
the One that can. You'd turn our hearts, our minds,
and our thoughts toward Jesus. Father, thank You for being here
again this morning. Be with Greg and the other preachers
as they bring the messages in election day, Father. Give them
liberty and give them the Spirit of Christ, Father. We ask these
things in Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you.