John chapter 15 is the verse I want to talk to you about here this evening. The ninth verse of the 15th chapter. Now, if you will, turn with me
to Mark chapter 15. beginning there at verse 15. And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus
when he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away
into the hall called Praetorium. And they called together the
whole band. And they clothed him with purple,
and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it upon his head, and began to salute him, Hail,
King of the Jews! And they smote him on the head
with a reed, and did spit upon him, bowing their knees, worshipped
Him. And when they had mocked Him,
they took off the purple from Him, and put His own clothes
on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him. And they compelled one Simon,
a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father
of Alexander and Rufus, cross. Well, thus far in our reading
here we have found that they mocked Him to the uttermost. They mocked the Son of God and
they went the full length of their antagonism and their scorn
in their mocking. And it says here in verses 20
to 23, that they brought him to the place called Golgotha,
which is being interpreted the place of a skull. And they gave
him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. That is, they did for him what
they did for others that were crucified. They gave him a mixture
of wine and myrrh. It was something given to these
fellows that were crucified to deaden their pain. Not to, just
to kind of put them in a stupor, not to relieve all the suffering
and pain of the crucifixion of the nails and the thorns and
the joints being out of whack and all of that, but it was used
to deaden the pain. But it says he received it not. He wouldn't drink the wine mingled
with gall. And the reason for his refusing
this deadening drink was that he came to suffer. He came to
suffer and he would bear the full brunt of the suffering. He came to suffer not for himself,
but for others. He came to suffer for his people,
and he must drink the cup of their anguish and the cup of
their suffering. He must drink it dry. And so
he refused. When they offered him this drink,
he received it not. And then it goes on down and
says, in verse 28, and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, He
was numbered with the transgressors. Now, there were sinners to the
right of Him, sinners to the left of Him, and sinners all
around Him. And it says that He was numbered
with the transgressors, with the wicked, with the wrongdoers. with evil men. He was numbered
with the transgressors. Now, it is the hope of the transgressor
that he was counted as one of them. Because he died for transgressors,
he gave himself for transgressors, sinners, sinners. And for all
the benefits that he wrought in his giving of himself in their
stead and place and room, being numbered with them, all his benefits
is accountable unto them, for him being numbered with the transgressors. And then it says, And they that
passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, saying, Thou that
destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save Thyself
and come down from the cross. Now it was not only those that
sat down, there was many of them there sitting on that hillside. They was observing all that was
taking place. It was kind of a carnival atmosphere
here at that particular time. And there was men and women that,
like they would do today at a ball game, had their lawn chairs and
their fans and their drink and all of that. It was a carnival-like
atmosphere. So it was not only those who
sat down to gloat with their cruel eyes upon the miseries
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even those that casually passed
by took up the chant and they began to wag their heads and
they said, well, you that said you'd destroy the temple and
build it again in three days, save yourself and come down. Well, he did not say, concerning
the literal temple, that he would destroy the literal temple. He
said he would destroy the temple concerning his body, and he would
lay his body down, and at the end of three days would raise
it again. But they either deliberately,
ignorantly, or some other reason, misinterpreted what he said.
He didn't say what they said. He said, destroy this body. And I'll raise it up again in
three days." That's what he was saying. They said, save yourself. Save yourself. You that's going
to build a temple up in three days, save yourself and come
down from the cross. If you can tear this temple down
and build it up in three days, save yourself. Come down from
the cross. The love of God in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ for his people bound him, bound him and
made him fast. Love made him stay on that tree. If he had come down from that
tree and saved himself, there would be no hope for transgressors.
There would be no hope for sinners if he had came down. He must
die. He must suffer. He must endure
the penalty that was due the people that he represented. He
must provide for them a perfect sacrifice. So he couldn't come
down. So they wagged their heads. They
said, Why come down? Save yourself. Now over in John
chapter 15, And verse number 9, it says, "...as the Father hath
loved me," that's our Lord Jesus Christ talking here. He says,
"...as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love." The
method and the manner that the love of the Father has for me is the same that I have for you. Now, it's hard for me to understand,
apart from the grace of God and the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, why God loved me. as equally hard for me to understand
why I'd love you. Now, that God would pity me,
I could understand that. I could understand that God would
pity me as another man pities a man. I can understand that.
Being, and the reason I understand it is, being God, that is, so
far inferior to me. and I'm full of misery and blackness
and darkness and depravity, I can understand why he'd pity me. But I can't understand why he'd
love me. And there's a great difference between pity and love.
I can understand why he could be generous to me. I can comprehend
that because of the liberality of the nature of God. I could
understand why he'd be generous to me because of my great needs
and my necessities. I could understand him being
generous and liberal to help me a little bit, but that he
should love me, but that God should love me, even me. I can't
understand that. I can't say anything lovely in
myself. I cannot find a single spot in
my entire being that I could put my finger upon that I would
actually believe that that was a lovely spot. And for that spot,
even if it was only as big as a pinprick, God could love me. I can't even find that. And there's
many. that I know, who see much unloveliness
in me. And that's true. You can see
much of it in me. But He, God Himself, who knows
me ten thousand, ten million times better than I know myself,
He is not unmindful of my weakness and my infirmity and my unloveliness. Yet He says, As the Father loveth
me, so I love you. That's what God says. I'm glad
it's not up to me. He does not put me at arm's length
and then feed me from His bountiful goodness and mercy and kindness.
That's not the way he does it. He opens wide his heart and takes
me into his heart. He takes me into his ivory palace
and there clothes me with his imperial purple. He gives me
his royal robe. moves me with his righteousness."
Where in the Bible do you read that it says of any angel that
he loves them? Nowhere in the Bible does it
say that he loves the angels. Yet he says he loves fallen,
ruined sinners. Isn't that something? They are
certainly, I'm sure, the subjects of divine love in some sense,
but never read where the Lord said that he loved them as the Father
loved me. Nowhere does he say that. Now,
I can understand I can love the angels, I can understand that.
There are angels that have sinned and there are angels that have
not sinned. But to say that he loves poor, helpless, hopeless
sinners, there is not a spot of loveliness in. There is not
anything conducive in them to draw or attract His attention. We have not sought Him. His coming to us was unasked
for and unsought as far as we're concerned. We didn't seek Him.
He came freely. Well, this love, this love of
God here, it says, as the Father hath loved me, as he has loved
me, however that is." And I don't understand that. I understand
a little bit of it, but not much. But however it is, as the Father
hath loved me, just like the Father loves me. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ talking now. He's telling these disciples,
He said, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in Me. I'm going away in My Father's
house and many mansions. So I want you to know, I want
you to know something about My concern, My affections for you,
that I'm not just leaving you and leaving you without hope
or without comfort or consolation. That's not it. He says, as the
Father, Has God the Father half loved me? Even, or so, have I
loved you? Tell these disciples. Well, this
is the great and glorious and special privilege of the sons
of Adam who have fallen, a privilege which angels could never have. Isn't it wonderful? I believe,
wonderful don't excribe what God's done for his people, that
God has selected you and God has selected me out of the fallen
sons of Adam when there was nothing about us to cause God to look
upon us with favor. That's love right there. He determined it was by His choice. It was by His choice He set His
affections, His love upon you when you were unlovable. Listen, there are ten thousand
things about you and me that might have won for us God's almighty
hatred, but instead He says He loves His people. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, As the Father hath loved me, so, so, as and so,
as He loved me, so, so. Everything hinges on the as and
the so. As my Father loved me, so. I have loved you, continue ye
in my love." I love you is what he's saying. I love you and I
love you as surely as my Father loves you. I love you just as sure
as my Father loves me, just that sure. I love you. Well, you do not think that the
Father has cast me off, is what He's saying. You don't believe,
you disciples. I'm about to leave you now. You
don't think because I'm leaving you that the Father, God the
Father, has cast me off or ceased to love me. You don't think that,
do you? Then He says, Do not think that
I have cast you off and cease to love you. For as the Father
loves me, so have I loved you." I'm Cass Jones. The surety of
my love is hinged upon the surety of his love for me. That's what
he's saying. You can't get anything else out
of that except that. He's saying, you're the purchase
of my blood. I haven't seized it on you. Now,
let's ask a few questions here and try to answer them, and we'll
quit. How does the Father love the Son? How does he love the
Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we must start from the
beginning. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ
without beginning. That is, from everlasting to
everlasting, he loves the Son. He loves Him without beginning. There's no point in time or eternity
that you can go back to and fasten the beginning of the love of
God to His Son upon. He's loved Him from everlasting. If there's no end to the everlasting
eternity, there's no starting of that eternity. And He's always
loved the Son. He loves him without beginning,
from everlasting to everlasting. The love of God is set and fixed
upon his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the worlds were
made, before time began, Jesus Christ was dear and blessed to
the heart of God the Father. When all creation, listen to
me, When all creation slept in the mind of God Almighty, He
loved His Son without ceasing, always. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
As God has loved me, so have I loved So God has loved His
Son from the everlasting to the everlasting. The Lord Jesus Christ
loves His own from everlasting to everlasting. Boy, that's good news, isn't
it? Isn't that good news to a heavy heart? I said, there's no love. My family don't love me. My neighbors don't love me, and
the people I go to school with or work with, they don't love
me. But I'll tell you, if God loves you, boy, you're in fine
shape if God loves you. God loves you. Huh? As he loved his son, so I love you. You can go back
to the beginning of human affection. You can go back to the time,
I suspect, when you experienced human affection, when you loved
someone or someone loved you. You can go back to the beginning
of your love for God. There's a point in time that
you can go back to and say, it was in this area, it was in this
point of time that my love for God began. But God's love to
us is like an ocean that has no bottom. You can't go back
to the beginning of the love of God because it took place
in eternity past from everlasting to everlasting. God loves his Son without end. Can you think Can you think that
there may come a time when the Father, God the Father,
will cease to love His Son? You just couldn't conceive that
there'd be a time. You could conceive in your own
mind and heart how God could quit loving you. Nothing lovable
about you. Nothing conducive. in you to
attract His love, not a single solitary thing. He had a Beloved before you was
ever accepted in the Beloved. He always delighted in His Son. His Son was enough for Him to
vent all His affections upon. He didn't need us. He didn't
need us. And you think that There may
come a time when the Father will cease to love His Son. No, sir,
it's not possible. It's not possible for God to
cease to love His Son. There never was or there never
will be a division in the Holy Trinity. They are completely
united, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
And there'll never come a time when God the Father will cease
to love the Son. Never, never. It's an impossibility. It's a blasphemous idea and thought
even to linger upon it. He says, as the Father hath
loved me, so have I loved you. Someone said, well, what you're
saying is if I was once in Christ, then I'm still in Christ. Is
that what you're saying? Well, that's what I'm saying,
but I'm also saying this. Are you sure you are in Christ
Jesus right now? Are you sure you're in Christ?
And I'll tell you how you can be sure. Are you resting in Him
and in Him alone right now? Are you walking in His way? Are
you reflecting His image? Is He your desire? Do you hunger
and thirst after Him? If not, it doesn't make any difference
what a man says about having once been in Christ. Well, if
I was once in Him, I'm still in Him. Not if you're not resting
in Him right now. You was never in Christ. Never
was. And I don't believe you are right
now. In the book of Hebrews it says this, It says, if any man
draw back, my soul findeth no pleasure in him. And that's evident
proof there that a man who says, I was once, but I'm not resting
now, I'm not reflecting his thoughts now, and my life will reflect
in his image, he means nothing to me other than just maybe insurance
policy to keep me out of hell. That's about all he means to
me. I can take him or leave him. Oh, no. The Bible says if a man
draws back, if his soul draws back, the child says, I have
no pleasure in him. No pleasure in him. Listen. The Bible talks about old age. It talks about when the grinders
fail. When a man's teeth fail and his
grinders are fused. And talks about when the windows
are dark, his eyes get bad and he can't see good. Talks about
when his legs fail him, his arms fail him. Talks about when he's
getting old. But believers need not fear in
regard to old age. You don't need to fear because
you're getting old. The prospect of it is not bright. I mean, nobody wants to get old.
Everybody wants to be young and flip around and be able to see
good and have all their hair and good health and just do anything
they did when they was 25 or 30 years old. But I mean, that's
an ideal, but it's not a reality because once we are born, we
go through the process of age We're getting old. We're getting
old. And one of these days the grinders will fail and the lamps
won't see through the window. We'll teeter and totter and we'll
be dependent upon someone else to help us to and fro to get
out of bed and get in bed, go to the bathroom. They even get
to the place, they'll get tired of fooling with us. And if what
little money you got, they'll take it and give it to the rest
home and say, Listen, your eyes may wax dim,
but God's eye never waxes dim. His arm is not shortened that
he cannot see. His ear is not heavy that he
cannot hear. No, sir. You may be bowed down,
stooped over with the infirmity of old age, but the everlasting
God is never bowed down, and stoopeth not, and he never faints. and he never grows weary, and
his love for his people will never cease. Never, never, never,
never cease his love for you. You say, I'm unlovable. I know it. Amen. I know it. Ain't
a thing about you. You stink. You're just like me. You're a putrefying sore. You're
a running issue. You're corrupt. Ain't nothing
about you. It's only as you link to the
main stem, link to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in Him that He loves
you. He doesn't love you because you're
valuable to Him. Oh, no. His love for you will
never cease. He won't leave us. There's the
hour of death. Surely His love might change
then. He might cease to love us When
I get so old that I can't respond. Huh? Oh no, He won't leave us
in the hour of death. Oh no. When the chill, when the
chill of the cold air begins to blow over our cold, pasty,
sweaty, pale bodies. When the waves of death begins
to pound in our ears, He'll not leave us. Oh, no, you can rest
confident here tonight that He loves the Son of God without
any change, and you certainly do not believe that the Father
loves the Son more at one time than He did at another time. Oh, no. Even when the Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, as He hung on that tree, He said,
My God, My God, why hast Thou You say, well, surely, surely
God didn't love him then like He loved him before the crucifixion. When He said, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? The Son of God, the Lord Jesus,
was as still, He was still as dear to the Father's heart as
He ever had been. He hid His face from Him, but
He never turned His heart. Oh, wait a minute. Not one time. Ah, listen. Whether you're on
top of the mountain, on the hill, on the mountaintop, or in the
valley, He loves you still, and He loves you the same. He loves
you without end. He loves you without change.
He's not like me. If you get mad at me, well, maybe
I'll get mad at you. Go out there, well, I don't love
him anymore. That ain't like that. That's not the way God
is. He's not like young couples that
stand up here sometimes before me and promise, oh, just take
vows and hold their hands up and love, oh, yes, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I'll just stay with you through thick
and thin, for poorer, in sickness, in hell, for better, for worse,
no making difference. You're mine, and I'm yours, and
I love you to the bitter end. And it doesn't always happen
that way. That love changes. God's love is not like that.
His love, there's no end to it. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ
now like He loved Him in eternity. So Jesus Christ says, just as
surely as God loves me, Just that sure, I love you, I won't
leave you. I won't leave you, I won't forsake
you. In the hour of death, I'll be with you. The Lord's my shepherd,
I shall not want. When the storm clouds come, and
the lightnings flash, and the thunders roll, and the heavenly
chill of death comes, He said, I'll be there. I'll be there.
I won't leave you. I won't leave you by yourself.
I'll be there. I'll hold your hand. Just as
I led the children of Israel from the land of Egypt to the
promised land, I took them by the hand and led them. I'll take
you by the hand through the stairway of death and I'll lead you on
the other side. My God, isn't that something? That's love. That's love. That's
what love is. On the hill or in the valley,
He loves you still. And He loves you the same. You
say, sometimes I can't see Him. Well, that's right. Sometimes
I can't either. But He's still there. And He
still loves me. It's a little bit like sometimes
I've been to various places to get up early in the morning and
walk. And one place I was at, it was
so foggy, you couldn't see your head in front of you. The day
before, I'd walked, I looked over and I'd seen the top of
the mountain. I could see the mountain, all the majesty of
that mountain. I looked up at it, massive mountain,
right up the top. Next morning I went out, I couldn't
see the mountain. But the mountain was still there.
It was still there. It was clouded by fog, but the
mountain was still there. And whether I'm on the mountain
whether I'm on the hill or whether I'm in the valley, whether it's
good times or bad times, God's there. Is that right? He's there
whether I can see Him or not. And He still loves me whether
I can see Him or not. And His love never changes whether
I change or whether I don't change. It doesn't. And He loves me without
end. You say, well, that's too good
to be true. Well, it's true. That's the good news. That's
what God's done for poor sinners. Poor sinners. Here we've got,
what, 50 sinners here tonight. Saved sinners, some of them lost
sinners. We've got about 50 people here tonight. And here I am talking
about the love of God. Talking about how God loves this,
the fallen sons of Adam, how He loves, and nobody cares. Nobody
cares! Isn't that right? The majority
of people say, well, who gives a damn? Huh? Who gives a damn about all of
it? I don't care. But I care. I care. I feel it. I feel it. I know it. I know God loves me. I know it. He loves me for Christ's
sake. He is numbered with the transgressors.
I'm a transgressor. The just died for the unjust.
I'm unjust. Christ died for sinners. While we were yet enemies, Christ
died for sinners. Enemy of God, a sinner by nature,
a sinner by choice, a sinner by birth. Christ died for sinners. I stand on that ground of my
sinnerhood. The mountain's not gone. It's
still there whether I can see it or not. His love, the love
of God, never grows. It knows nothing of the shadow
of change. No, sir. His love never grows
or it never withers. No, sir. And he loves his Son
without measure. That is, it's a degree that cannot be
measured. You can't say of the Father's
love in regard to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that God the
Father loves His Son up to a certain point and then stops. You can't say that. No, sir.
And you can't say of the Lord Jesus Christ's love to His people
that He loves them so much but does not love them He loves them
without end. No end to it, Bob. No end. No. And the proof of it is from
what I read to you over in Mark 15, when the whole heart of the
Lord Jesus Christ was emptied for his people. Go to that cross. and see how He gave of Himself,
not part of Himself. He gave all of Himself for us. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Listen, He was stripped naked
to His shame, took all of His clothes off. He took them off. There I was, stripped naked to
his shame. And these people sitting around
on the hillside, gloating, looking at his shame and his misery.
My, how he loved his own. My. He spared not his hands,
he spared not his feet, he spared not his head, he spared not his
back, not even his heart, but poured out from his own heart
blood and water. He went as far as infinity could
go in love. Don't you ever be afraid that
you'll exhaust the love and the patience of God. Oh, no, there's
no end to it. It's like the bottomless ocean.
It's a deep that cannot be measured. It cannot be found. And then
he says to those felons, he said, now continue in my love. As the Father has loved me, so
I love you in the same measure, the same manner. Now you continue in that love.
That means not only love the brethren, but love everybody
else. The same way that the Father
loves me and I love you, continue in that love. You know what he's
saying? Continue in that same love. Reflect this love. Reflect it. Let it, let it, you
be kind of a mirror of that love. Well, it's more than I can handle. It's more than I can. But I believe
what he said. I just believe. And by the grace of God, I'll
die believing that. I don't care if the world says
I'm crazy. I don't care if my neighbors say, well, I would
go there and breathe now. Ain't no difference to me. I
hate that they feel that way. But I ain't gonna quit. neighbors say I'm crazy. It's not crazy to believe the
word of God, is it? I know. It's a sign of a sound
mind when you believe the word of God. So all right. Let's say it. Okay, let's say it. I'll return to you again.