Let's go back to Ephesians chapter
5, and I have one verse that I want to read to you, and then
try to make a few remarks upon this verse, and it is Ephesians
5, 2, and our subject is the love of Christ. That's a tremendous
subject, and one which no earthly tongue could ever do justice
to, but I'll take a stab at it, see if I can at least encourage
the people of God and direct poor sinners to our loving Savior
who delights to show mercy Ephesians 5 verse 2, Paul says, and walk
in love. Walk in love. That is, conduct
yourself according to the very principle of love. Regulate your life according
to the beautiful truth of love. Love God. I'll tell you, if you
regulate your life, if you live always focused upon loving our
God, you're not going to go far wrong. Nobody's going to have
to lay down rules and laws and regulations for you. If within
your heart you seek always to do those things that are honoring
to your God and out of a sense of loving Him, What is love? We talk about love quite a bit. We say, I love you, and I love
all of you in the Lord. Folks who are watching, some
I'm sure are watching this morning, I've known for many, many years,
and we love them and those that I've never met. I love you as
best I can. I love you for Christ's sake. What is love? What is the love
of God? There's a noted evangelist has
a advertisement or a little religious thing he puts on. I see it on
television every once in a while. And he just says this. He said,
you know, God loves you. What does that mean? You know,
there's no definition of whatever God's love is. What does it mean
for God to love somebody? And I think the way He's using
it and the way most preachers use it is this way. God wants to do good for you
if you'll let Him. God has good wishes toward you
for your things that would benefit you. And He wants you to let
Him let his love enter in and so forth and so on. But the love
of God as presented by modern religion is so vague. There's
no real descriptive issue there. There's no description, I should
say. statement of great clarity. What does it mean for God to
love somebody? And what does it mean for you
to love somebody? Years ago, a good friend of mine,
he's been with the Lord for several years, gave me a set of books. And he prefaced it by saying,
I want to give you a definition of what love is. And he gave
me his definition. I said, that set of books you've
given me, I want you to write that definition on the very first
page. And he did. And here's the definition. He says, love is a living principle
that finds its fulfillment by bestowing the best it can on
the objects of its affection and cannot be happy. Love cannot
be happy or satisfied except to the extent that it can satisfy
this desire. That's a really good definition
of love. Can I give it to you again? He
said, love is a living principle that finds its fulfillment by
bestowing the best it can on the objects of its affection
and cannot be happy or satisfied except to the extent that it
can satisfy this desire. You see, that love that God has
for us, it's way yonder more than a wish or a desire. The Lord, when it comes to those
that He truly loves, His love is only satisfied when it pours out upon the objects
of His love saving grace in Christ Jesus. That's the only way His
love is satisfied. Now see, your love, you may love
someone, and that love not be requited, returned. They don't
give to you their love. But that's not the way it is
with God's love. those to whom He shows His marvelous,
marvelous loving kindness. He will make certain that those
people are affected by that love. And they will in return love
God as He is in the scriptures. And here in Ephesians chapter
5, Paul is not talking to everybody. He's talking to the people of
God. He has already said, look at
verse 32 of the previous chapter. He says, Be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in Walk in love. Let me tell you
something, those of you who have been brought to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, everything God has ever done for you, everything
He is doing for you, everything that He shall yet do for you
is always based upon the principle of His love for you. He's never
been mad at you, He's never hated you, He's never disappointed
with you because He's loved you forever. You see, when our Lord Jesus
came into this world to live and die for sinners, to put our
sin away, He didn't come to get God in the notion of loving us. He came because God sent Him
in love. God loved us. with an everlasting
love. You see, as ancient as God is,
that's how ancient His love is for us. And that love of God
will not be satisfied until He bestows upon you the best that
He can give you. And the best that He can give
you is His darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that great
salvation found in Him. That's the best He can do for
you. And His love is not going to be satisfied until He brings
that to pass. It's not a wish. It's not a hope. God's love in the Scriptures
isn't vague. It isn't something, well, you
can't really define it. Yeah, you can define it. God desires the very best for
those whom He loves with all of His heart. You know, when
we say we love somebody, I say, I love my wife, I say, I love
you with all my heart. That's the way we can express
it. And while we can't enter into the mind and heart of God,
I know this, to put it in our vernacular, God loves us with
all His heart. He couldn't love us anymore,
and His love never fluctuates. Sometimes with a man and a woman,
a husband and a wife, one can do something, continually do
something to the other till finally they just kill that love. That's an awful thing. I'm going
to tell you something for the people of God. There's nothing
you can do to affect God's love to you. Isn't that good news? He loved you when you were just
a thought in His mind. He loved you when your name was
written down in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation
of the world. His heart has always been full
of love to you. Let that affect you. Notwithstanding,
though we would fall in sin and though we would be alienated
from God, He still loved us and His love is just like this. Because
just as God cannot change, His love cannot change. And there's
nothing you can do that will ever affect how God feels about
you, those of you who are his people. Now, be followers of
God, therefore, as dear children. Let us love like He loves. Let
us, number one, love God. Let's walk in love. Let me regulate
my life by this principle of loving our Lord as He's revealed
in the Scriptures. Let me love God the Father who
chose me unto salvation. He's the one who sanctified me.
He set me apart. to be His child. Let me love
God the Father in all of His attributes. Let me love Him as
my Father. Let me love Him so much that
I can say as Paul did, I call Him Abba Father. That means Daddy,
dearly loved Father. And then let me love God the
Son, that One who is equal with the
Father. Let me love Him for who He is,
not for just what He gives to me. I'm certainly appreciative
of all He gives to me. Let me love Him for who He is. He's the Son of God. And indeed, let me love Him for
what He's done for me. Why, he came and laid down his
life to save me. He said, greater love hath no
man than this. Man laid down his life for his
friends. He calls me his friend? I've been his enemy. I was alienated
from him. But he calls me his friend. Let me love the Son of God. as
he is the sovereign ruler over all. That's his reward for finishing
the work of salvation. Let me love him as the sovereign
king. Let me love him no matter what
he brings into my life. Let come what may, whatever trial,
whatever affliction, whatever joy, whatever sadness, whatever
he does, let me love him always and let my love ever grow for
him. Paul says, walk in love. Walk
in love and let me love the Holy Spirit. He's the one who sent
me to hear a preacher of the gospel tell me the truth. He's
the one who enlightened my darkened mind. When I was full of religion that was false,
thought I was doing God's service, it's the Spirit of God who crossed
my path, and it's as though he said, you've come this far, but
you're not going any further. He stopped me in my tracks. And I heard the true gospel for
the first time in my life. And the eyes of my soul, the
eyes of my understanding were opened. And I truly saw who God
is in His sovereign greatness and authority. And I saw who
Christ is. That He's the one who saves sinners
by the shedding of His precious blood. And the Spirit of God
opened my eyes. He opened my heart. And all of
a sudden, I found myself believing this gospel. Let me love the
Holy Spirit. And let me love the people of
God. It's one thing to say, I love
you. Anybody can say that. Or John says, don't love in word
only. Love in deed. So I pray that Lord will unify
us and we'll love one another. Well, love is active. Love wants to bestow good upon
the person that you love. Walk in love, he says. Walk in love. Do you know anything about the
love of our Lord Jesus Christ? You know, it's one thing to know
about the love of God, know about the love of Christ. It's another
thing to know the love of God and know the love of Christ.
That's an altogether different matter. You see, the world says,
and I just, I talked about it in the evangelist says, God loves
you. It's one thing to talk about
that in generalities. Everybody knows that God loves
people, but very few people know the love of God in their soul. You see, the love of God that
enters into the heart gives an inward peace, an inward joy,
an inward delight, an inward satisfaction. When the Spirit
of God sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, that's when
we know the love of God. Not merely know about it. You
see, I'm afraid some of you only know about the love of God. That's
all you know. But I pray that God will cause
you to know the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. That's an
altogether different thing. That's an experience of love
daily in your heart and in your life. Everybody, all of God's children,
in fact, know the love of Christ, but we don't all know that love
to the same degree. I know this. Give you a few things
here. The more the Holy Spirit shows
me how far off from God I was, the more I'll appreciate his
love. I was way far off base. And the more the Holy Spirit
shows me my weakness and my inability, the more I'll appreciate the
love of Christ. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't
do anything spiritually, neither could you. And the Spirit of
God came and did a work of grace in the heart. He showed me how weak, how pitiful,
how without strength I was. And then I really began to appreciate
the fact Christ loved me. And I didn't have anything to
give back to Him. You see, something about the
love of God in Christ, it's an unconditional kind of love. It isn't based upon anything
we do. You can't merit His love. You
can't earn His love. You can't work for His love. He just pours it out upon you
with no condition, asking nothing of you. What do you think about
that? He just loves you freely. That's what the Lord said in
the book of Hosea. I will love them freely. It won't
cost them anything. That's how God loves you. Think
about that. That's how God loves all of His
people. Nothing in you whatsoever to
deserve that love. In fact, everything in you and
everything in me to repel that love. And He loved us when we had no
interest in His love. Kept on loving us anyhow. And from the moment you were
conceived in your mother's womb, unto the time when the Spirit
of God woke you up from your sleep of spiritual death, and
showed you Christ as all. God loved you all along, every
moment of your life, guiding, directing, protecting, keeping
you, preserving you, keeping you living. And all because you are an object
of His everlasting love. I wish I would grasp my heart and yours as well. And I'll tell
you what, the more the Holy Spirit convicts me of my sinfulness,
even now, the more He convicts me of my sinfulness, the more
thankful I am for the love of God in Christ. You see, the Savior loved me
to this degree. He gave His life to save me. I believe I'd give my life to
save my wife's life, my daughter's life, anybody in my family, my
son-in-law's life, our son in Japan, our grandchildren, our
great-granddaughter. And I hope I'd lay down my life
for you. I wouldn't lay down my life for
an enemy. I'm just being honest. Is that all right? I'm just telling
you like it is. I wouldn't lay down my life for
an enemy. Somebody says, would you take his place and die his
death? I said, are you kidding me? That
scoundrel? He's nobody to me. And I think you probably all
think the same way. And I was a scoundrel. I was
wayward. I was going to amount to nothing.
And in the very heart of the Son of God, he said, I love that. I love that son of Adam. And I'm going to lay down my
life to save him. You're going to die for me? For
my sin? The way I've treated you? Knowing my thoughts and my attitude
and my words and my deeds and my motives, so much wrong in
me, you mean somebody who doesn't love you, you're going to lay
down your life to save me? And he says, yes, because I love
you with an everlasting love. Oh, what kind of love is this? And I'll tell you, the more the
Holy Spirit shows me my unfaithfulness, The more thankful I am for the
faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. Let's be honest. We don't know
too much about being faithful, really. And that's a sad commentary on
us. I'm not bragging on us. That's just a fact. But I'll tell you what, his faithfulness
toward us has never wavered. Not at all. And the more the Holy Spirit
shows me the weakness of my love, the more I rejoice in the love
of Christ, who won't let me perish. I'd have perished if I could,
and you would have too. We just marching toward the gaping,
the jaws of hell that were gaping open, ready to swallow us up.
We didn't have a care in the world as far as spiritual things
were concerned. And then God disturbed us. He
woke us up from our madness. He gave us spiritual sanity. I call Nebuchadnezzar. walking
around proud as a peacock. Look at this city I've built.
I'm somebody. Really? God brought him down,
made him to eat grass like a beast to the field. He grew wings,
grew feathers like eagles, had claws, and out there grazing
with the beasts of the field. How much pride you got now there,
sir? You're out there with the beasts. And then God gave him sanity
again. See, we're insane. We're spiritually
insane till God the Spirit does something for us. We're just
so ignorant. Ever heard anybody say, that
boy don't have good sense at all? Has us. We didn't have any good spiritual
sense. And then, then, in our days of
ignorance and spiritual stupidity, the Spirit of God made us sane. He gave us some understanding. And now that we understand a
few things spiritually, we rejoice in the love of Christ. that has
never failed. Never failed. You want to know
something about this love of Christ? Turn back to, look at
chapter 3. Look at chapter 3. Look at verse 16. Here's what
Paul, he's praying for these Ephesian brethren. He says, that
He would grant you," I just don't have time to read the whole context,
but he's praying, he says, "...that He would grant you, according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by
His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith," I sure pray that for all of you, and me. "...that ye, being rooted and
grounded It's what I'm talking about. Love. May be able to comprehend
with all saints. Watch this. What is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge. You can't grasp all of His love. You can't handle all of His love
intellectually. You have no idea of the height
and the breadth and the length of His love. I'll tell you, the love of Christ
is a breadth beyond all breadth. It's a length beyond all lengths.
It's a depth beyond all depths, and it's a height exceeding all
heights. Breath. Who can measure the broadness
of His love? We sing that song, Wonderful
Grace of Jesus. Like grace, the love of Christ
is broader than the scope of our transgressions. That's what
we sing. It's broader than the scope of
our transgressions, His love is. How broad is my sin? Oh, it's really broad. But His
love is broader than that. It covers all my sins. And length. You wanna know how long the love
of God is? It reaches from eternity past
all the way to eternity future. Now, brother, that's long. That's
the length of his love. You remember when the Savior
died and he recorded this in Psalm 22, he cries out, why art
thou so far from helping me? Nobody could help him. And nobody could help us except
that love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And that long arm
of God's love reached down and laid hold of us in our defiance,
in our sinfulness, in our misery, You see, the love of Christ,
like a long arm, the length of it can reach down to the lowest
depths of humanity and lift up the lowest center. You say, I
was right down there at the bottom. I was the scum of the earth.
I was down way at the bottom. Well, I'll tell you what, you're
not beyond the reach of the love of God because it's got a length
that'll reach all the way to the Miserable death, depths of
the miry clay. Picks you up, puts you on the
rock, Christ Jesus. Depth is the next one, depth. What
is it you sing? Deeper than the stain is gone.
It goes deeper than the stain. The love of Christ is so deep
it has washed away all of the sins of His people. If that thought would grasp our
hearts, we'd go out of here rejoicing and as it were, clicking our
heels. God holds nothing against His people. Never has, never
will. Oh, the depth of His love. Sometimes, as the children of
God, we sink deep in dismay, disappointment, and despair. David said in Psalm 69, verse
2, I sink into the deep mire, and yet the arm of the Lord's
love reaches down into the deep mire and says, I still love you. You hadn't outlived my love for
you, the Lord says. And he assures us all is well
with God because of who I am, what I've done. That's the love
of Christ. I say to the people of God, yes,
we'll weep over our sins, but after we weep a bit, let's turn
our eyes toward glory. and see our Lord Jesus, who has
nothing but thoughts of love toward us. He's never had any
thoughts of mischief, or to hurt you, or to wound you, or to kill
you, or destroy you. His love is always the same,
just like Himself. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And the height. Here's how you can measure the
love of Christ to us. It lifts us up. And some might
say, it lifts us all the way up to heaven. That's not good
enough. It lifts me all the way up to
God. You see, I'm not fit for heaven. I'm not fit for the presence
of God. I'm just not. I'm being honest
with you. As best I understand the doctrine of total depravity
because of my wickedness, my sinfulness, I'm not fit, I'm
not worthy for the presence of God. And yet the love of Christ
lifts me up so high, so high, I mean to dizzying heights, that the love of God sets me
down right in front of God the Father. And I can look at him
and say, Father? And he says, you're one of my
children. And I tell you, part of heaven's
going to be blessing him forever for his everlasting love to us. What kind of love is this? I'll
give you one more thing. Chapter 5, where Ron read to
us. Verse 25, husbands love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, gave himself for
it. Nobody took his life. Here's
the extent of his love. He gave himself. He gave himself
over to divine justice. He said, Father, all the sins
of all of my people of all the ages, make them meet on me. Put
them on me. That's going to mean you'll have
to suffer, bleed, and die. I love them so. And I'll tell you, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
washed away all the sins of His people. everlasting love. No wonder we glory in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Get your psalm books and turn
to 489