3.14 is where I want to start. The apostle is talking to the
Ephesians and he starts praying for them. He says in verse 14, he says, For this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's praying
for them. Bound the knees to God for them. And what do you do? And he said,
and I'm praying, I got my knees bound for the whole family of
the Lord Jesus Christ and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Now God's
people are all named, all in the Lord Jesus Christ. We bear
his, he is our righteousness. We bear his name. God regards
us as he does his own son. looks at us that way and all
the family of earth everybody that's ever been saved by the
grace of God from Abel until the last one they're in God's
family God's children God's sons and then look what he says and
this is what he prays for that he would grant you that he would
grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man He prays for strength. Strength in the inner man. Strength
in that man that God blesses. That man, that new man, that
new creature in Christ. And we need strength for strength.
We need strength for strength. Not only strength to stand, but
also strength to stand still. And to be still. You know He
says, be still and know that I am God. And it takes strength
to wait on God. It takes strength in that inner
man to be patient and wait for God and wait on Him to do what
He will do. And work His will in our hearts
and in our lives. It takes strength from God to
do that. And we need strength to see our
Lord. He's talking about this inner
man. We need strength to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can't see Him in the flesh. We need strength to see the Son.
We need strength to have His presence. And in that inner man,
that new creation, that new man, that's who He's talking about. Oh, I pray that according to
the riches of His glory, that you'd be strengthened with His,
with might, by His Spirit in the inner man. And here's another
thing He prays for now. that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. And he says, I pray that you
might be inhabited by the Lord Jesus Christ. That Christ may
dwell in you. Ain't that what our Lord Jesus
Christ said? dwells in the love of God the love of God dwells
in him and he that loves the Father the Son of God will come
and dwell in him take up his abode in him and live in him
and that's what Paul's saying here that Christ may dwell live
in you abide in you be inhabited by the Lord Jesus Christ and
this is in your hearts by faith you know Christ in you is the
hope of glory We receive Christ by faith. We live by faith. And we believe Christ by faith.
We believe who He is and what He accomplished by faith. We
believe we have the righteousness of God by faith because we certainly
most of the time don't act righteous. So we understand that we are
in Christ, our Lord, and our Lord is in us by faith. And He
dwells in us. And that's why Paul said in Romans
8 and 9, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none
of His. And then he goes on to say that
you may dwell in your hearts by faith. That you being rooted
and grounded in love. I take root. Be rooted. Be rooted. Everybody knows what it is to
be rooted. I mean, you know, you root certain things and you
root flowers and you root these things and that things. And he
says, I want you to be rooted in Christ. Your roots to go down
in Christ. And then not only that, but be
grounded in that root. Be grounded in it. That's why
Job said, the root of the matter's in me. And be rooted and grounded
in the love. And then he said, in love. In
what love is He talking about? First of all, God's love for
us. God's love for His blessed Son. God loves His Son. He's
the delight of His heart. He's the light of His person.
He's the delight of everything that God loves and dwells in
in this world. It's the love that He has for
His Son. Be rooted and grounded in that. That God has all of
His eggs in one basket in the Lord Jesus Christ. Be rooted
and grounded in the love that He has for us. You know, and I'll get into it
later, but I'll tell you what. Will the reason we have any love
for God at all is because He first loved us. His love for
us and our love for Him. It was like Simon Peter, he asked
him three times, do you love me? He finally said, he told
him twice, yes Lord. Then he said, turned around and
said, Lord, you're the one that knows. You're the one that knows
if I love you or not. Oh, love for his word, love for
his church, be rooted and grounded in love. Love for his word, love
for his church, love for his people. Our Lord says, by this
shall you know that you're my disciples because you'll have
love one toward another. And Romans says this, love worketh
no ill to its neighbor. Love worketh no ill to its neighbor.
There's no danger of folks mistreating one another where they rooted
in love. There's just no danger of it.
And I'll tell you this, and see if you don't think this is right. It takes love to see love. It
takes grace to see grace. You can't see love in other people
if you don't have love in yourself. And you can't see grace in other
people if you don't have grace in yourself. And that's right. I know that's right. Paul, you
know, in the book of Acts, they said, and they saw, they perceived
the grace of God in them. And you can perceive where the
grace of God's at. Sometimes, you know, it gets
very dim. It's like in Bunyan's Progress,
when Daavos got back there and kept trying to throw water on
the fire. Sometimes water gets thrown on the fire, and then
the Holy Spirit comes along, puts oil on it, and He'll flame
that thing back up, and it'll come back right back. You know
where it comes back at? In the hearing of the Gospel.
And in seeking the Lord in your private prayers. That's how it
does. And then look what else he says
here in verse 18. That you may be able to comprehend
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height. Now what he means by being able
to comprehend with all saints, to understand fully, to comprehend,
may be able to comprehend with all saints, to understand more
fully, to grasp. And what is he talking about?
The love of Christ. That you may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth What is the length? What is the
depth? What is the height? And to know
the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you
might be filled with all the fullness of God. Oh, that you
might know the love of Christ. And I say without any hesitation
God's people know the love of Christ. They don't know the love
of Christ the way they want to. They don't know the love of Christ
like they're going to, but they do know the love of Christ. They
know it, they've experienced it, they rejoice in it, and they
rest in it. And that's why it says it passes
knowledge. What does it mean it passes knowledge?
Well, His love passes knowledge to us, and I'll tell you in several
ways. Because it's infinite and we're finite. And being infinite
involves an infinite subject because of our Lord's condescension
and suffering that His love brought Him to. We can't comprehend the
love that God had in Christ and the love that Christ had for
us that he came here and suffered for our sins in his own body
on the tree. The thing is, it's hard. I can't
grasp the truth the way I'd like to that Christ became a man. That he condescended to take
flesh upon himself. That he condescended to identify
with people like us. Now you think about that. I mean,
we're men. We know what a man's like. But
our Lord Jesus Christ was a man and He just had flesh like we
did and He had a human nature. But beloved, His nature was so
far different than our nature of sinless nature, pure nature,
holy nature. And yet He came to identify with
us who are unholy, who are sinful. Oh, that's what He says, that
passes knowledge. It passes knowledge and the blessings
it secures for His people. And these things are beyond our
comprehension in so many ways. Still yet, we've experienced
His love for us. The Scripture says the Holy Ghost
has shed abroad His love. and our hearts. Now I want to
give you several things to know the love of Christ. I want to
talk about the rich and pure love of Christ. Let's list some
things about it. To know the love of Christ in
verse 19, which passes knowledge that you might be filled with
the fullness of God. Now unto Him that's able to do
exceedingly abundant. He's able to make us comprehend.
He's able to make us know. He's able to make us experience.
Above anything we can ask or think according to the power
that works unto Him be glory in the church forever. Let me
tell you the first thing about how rich and pure the love of
Christ is. It's eternal. It's eternal. This is the thing about it. And
everybody's read this over in Jeremiah 31 through. He said,
I have, I've heard the Lord has spoken of an old in time. And
he said, I've loved thee with an everlasting love. I've loved
you with an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness. And that word means He extended
loving kindness towards us and He drew us. You see, God's love
for His elect and for His people, it has no beginning and it has
no ending. And the only person that could
love like that is God Himself. Before He ever put a man in the
Garden of Eden, before He ever made Adam, He had a love for
His people. That's what the stuff loves you
with an everlasting love. It has no beginning, no end.
And only God can love eternally. Only Christ can love eternally.
The love of Christ towards us before we were. And I tell you,
not only before we were, but He loved us knowing who we were
and what we were. When I was just a teenager, as
wild as a Red River steer, He loved me then. When I was using His name in
vain, He loved me then. When I was mean as a snake, He
loved me then. And He loved you then. He didn't
look for anything in us to cause Him to love us. He said, I will
love them. He said He loved us anywhere. The
Scripture says that God is love. that God is love. He's not a
God of love like something that we have to attain to. He himself
is love. And he that's born of God is
born of love. And oh, and I'll tell you, here's
the best thing about it. He will never stop, there's nothing
we can do to make him stop loving us. No matter what you say, where
you go, or what you do, He'll never stop loving you. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me, there's nothing they'll ever do that'll make me cast him out.
If he's gonna cast anybody out, he ought to cast David out when
he was in the arms of Bathsheba. But you know what David said
on his dying bed? He says, The Lord hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, ensured. And this
is all my salvation. If he was going to cast anybody
out, he would have cast out Simon Peter when Simon Peter denied
him three times. And then went back fishing and
took everybody with him. And if he was going to cast anybody
out, he would have cast me out years and years and years and
years ago. But he ain't going to do that. We can't compare our Lord's love
to us at all. Our love is dependent upon so
many things, but His is upon nothing itself. You know what
He said before the children had ever been born, having done neither
good nor evil, He said, Jacob, I loved Him. And that's what He says to us.
Same thing. Only else He calls us by name.
Tell you something else that makes it so rich and pure. Not
only is it eternal, but it's free. It's free. Hosea 14.4 says, I will love
them freely. And let me tell you something.
If we get anything from God, it has to be free. Don't it? Don't it have to be free? It
has to be free. What can we ever do to give God
anything? So if we get grace, it's free
grace. If we get love, it's free love.
If we get mercy, it's free. Everything we get from God is
free. No strings attached. Nothing
required from us. Nothing. He says, you got to
come up with this. You got to come up with that.
You got to come up with something. It's free. I will love them freely. And so many people stumble over
this. They feel they must earn God's
love. But the Scripture says, but God
is rich in love. He has so much in His Son that
He gives it freely. Look over in Romans 8. Look in
Romans 8.32. Romans 8.32. If we get anything
from God, He said He freely gives us grace. He'll love us freely. And look
what he said in Romans 8.32. He that spared Noddy's own son,
but delivered him up for us all. Delivered him up. Who do you
deliver him up to? To flesh? To men's hatred? Grief and sorrow? men's hands to beat him, delivered
him up to death. But look what it says, if he
did all of that for his blessed son, for us all, how shall he
not with him freely give us all thanks? If it gives you anything, it's
free. You know, you go try to sign
some kind of a deal at a bank or something, you know, and get
this, that, and the other. They always put riders on it,
you know. They always say you got this, this, that, that. You
say, now, Now, what strains are attached to this? What's this
going to cost me in the end? Well, I tell you what, if you
get anything from God, it ain't going to cost you nothing. God
done already paid everything that was required. He spared
not His own Son and turns around and with Him, with that Son He
didn't spare, and freely gives us all things we need. Huh? What do you mean? Need love? He'll give it to you
freely. Need grace? He's going to give
it to you freely. Need strength? He's going to give it to you
freely. Need forgiveness? He's going to give it to you
freely. You need patience and low suffering?
He's going to give it to you freely. Oh, it's the only way God could
love us is do it freely. We certainly have no merit. We
certainly don't deserve it. We don't have enough money to
buy it. And I'll tell you something, nothing about us can grow out
God's love to us. God will not accept anything
we do, anything we do, accept anything we do as payment
for anything He gives us. He can't do it and be gone, can
He? God has all freedom. And let
me tell you something else about this rich and pure love of Christ.
It's faultless. His blessed love is faultless. You search the love of Christ.
Search it. That's why Paul said that. Oh,
listen. I want you to understand the
breadth of it. Oh, listen to what else he says
here. I want you to know the length of it. I want you to know how deep it
is. And then I want you to reach
way up there and see how high it is. Oh, listen. He said, search it,
the breadth, the width, the height, the length, the depth. And you
found anything wrong with it yet? You can't doubt it. Now sister,
now beloved, You and I can love to a fault, and it will hinder
our love to Christ. But our Lord Jesus Christ, can
we love Him? Can He love us too much? Can
He love us too much? It says in John 13 what? He said,
having loved His own, which were in the world, how long did He
love them? To the end. And I'm going to tell you something.
Now listen. There's no, and when it says
to the end, that means to the end of what this life is. And
then we're going to really know something about the love of Christ
when we enter into eternity. And I'll tell you something,
His love is so flawless and so pure that even when He chastens
us, His love is flawless. Now let me look at Hebrews 12
with me. Let's look at this. You know,
He chastens us. And it's grievous sometimes,
the way He chastens us. It could be very grievous. I
mean, it can be very grievous for God to lay the rod to you. You know the shepherd's responsible
for the sheep and the sheep sometimes he has to get a bit back in the
fold and I'll tell you what and for him to chasten us. You know
he said in Revelation 3.19 whom he loves he rebukes and he chastens. Now let me tell you something
about rebuking. Almost all rebuke that a person gets, it comes
through the scriptures. And the preacher may not know
anything about what's going on in anybody's life. And that's
why I love to sit and hear other preachers preach. It's because
I sit there to listen to what God has to say to me. And when
I work on a message, I see what God has to say to me. But I do
know this, that when He chastens you, I mean, sometimes it's very,
very grievous. I mean, your bed, what did he
say? He said, the bed's too short
and the cover's too narrow. You just turn from one side to
the other. You turn this way, you get uncovered. Turn that
way, you get uncovered. And you try to stretch out the
bed, and I mean, there's just no, it's just the bed's too short
and the cover's too narrow. Now, you ain't none of you ever
been that happy. That's the hand of God. And look what he said
here now. Hebrews 12 verse 6, For whom
the Lord loveth. Oh listen now. He don't chase
just anybody. I don't whip anybody else. I
never did whip anybody else's kids. I never did. Only chasing mine. And I was
the man who laid his hands on my kids to whip them. Unless
there's a teacher at school. Now I'll take that back, unless
there's a teacher at school. But he says, for whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteth. and scourges ever sudden he receives
us. Now what in the world does he
mean by chastening? Chastening is a term that's used
for correction, for instruction, for direction to make a person
learn by what's going on with them. There ain't no sense You
know, we say some of the dumbest things as parents, and our parents
did too. If you don't shut up, I'm going
to give you something to cry about. That's just you know it
to me. If you don't shut up, I'm going
to set you down. And they're sitting down anyway.
If you look at me like that again, I'm going to slap that look off
of your face. Here's the thing about it, we'll
do things like that, but when the Lord chastens us, this is
what's so precious about His love and so faultless. He chastens
us privately. When I whipped my youngins, and
when I did have chastened my kids, I did it in the house privately. I did it. You know, I wouldn't
take them out in public and beat them half to death out there.
And why I did it at home, so they'd act like they had good
sense when they was in public. But here's the thing about it.
When our Lord chastens us, He does it privately. He ain't gonna
bring us out in public and say, listen, look what this, look
what Donny Bell done. I'm just gonna wear him out in
front of everybody. I'm gonna make everybody know
just what a sorry out he is. I'm gonna wear him out. No, that's not the way he does
it. He does it, this thing is just between him and us. Just
him and us. And then look what he says, he
goes on to say, If you endure chastening, God dealeth with
you as sons. For what son is he whom the Father
does not chasten? And then he went on to say in
verse 8, But if you be without chastisement, who of all are
partakers, every child of God is partaker of this. Then you're
all bastards. You're a bastard, not a son. Well, and I tell you what, he
does this and it's between him and his child. And here's another
thing about his love that makes it so faultless. He never ever
does it in anger. He never chases us in anger.
The whole. He loves us so, and here's how
His love is towards us, that He intends to conform us to the
image of His Son, and whatever it takes to conform us to that,
that's what He's going to do. He's going to wean us from this
world. He's going to wean us from His charms. And the scripture
said, open rebukes better than secret love. And that's the way
He is with us. Bless His name. Let me tell you
something else about this rich and pure love. Let me tell you
something else about it. His love, this rich and pure
love of Christ, is discriminating. We hear a lot about discrimination. Discrimination over people's
race, or color, or creed, or nationality, or something like
that. God's love is not that way. No, no. His love extends
to every color, every race, every people, every tongue, every tribe
under the heavens. And I tell you what, if he would
discriminate against anybody, he would discriminate against
us. But you know who he discriminates
against? And I tell you something, you
know, people say, God, we need to bring God back into America.
Let me tell you something. God never did love America. America
is not the Holy Land. Israel is not the Holy Land.
The only place the Holy Land that there is, is the one in
glory. And that's the only place we're going to go where there's
holiness at and dwell in there forever. And I'm telling you
something, and God's love is discriminating, not as men think
of discriminating, considering who it is that loves. He loves
sinners, whether you're black or white, educated or uneducated,
if you have a PhD or you dig post holes for a living. It don't
make any difference to him. He loves sinners. He comes to
seek and to save people that are lost. He didn't come to call
righteous to repentance, but sinners to repentance. Oh, you
know who He chooses? Nobodies. Here we are in Cumberland County,
Tennessee. What have I ever accomplished
in my whole life? I've never amounted to nothing.
Never would have amounted to nothing had it not been for the
grace of God. And nobody, was nobody from nowhere
and God would have never been nobody going anywhere. Except
God in grace intervened. He, oh he loves sinners, he loves
the sick, and he loves nobodies, he loves the poor. He, you know
who he, he said he resists the proud, gives grace. He says,
those that are rich and increased with good, with rich and creative
goods and have need of nothing, he said he hates them, rebukes
them, they're just lukewarm in his mouth. Oh, he said, God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. You know what he told Hosea?
He said, Hosea, go take you a whoredom, go take you a whore for a while. That's what he said. And ain't
that what Christ did? He come and took a bunch of people,
that spiritual adulterers that didn't know God from a goat,
didn't know God from nothing, and yet He came and loved us
and called us to Himself? Go marry a harlot, knowing she's
going to go after other lovers, knowing she's going to go sell
herself. Nor is she going to take herself
to nothing and nobody. And sure enough, she'd go off
with her other lovers. And you know what Hosea'd do?
He'd come and set food before her door. He'd come and feed
her while she was off with other men. And then you know what happened? She ended up old. Nobody wanted
her anymore. She was wasted away. And they
put her up on auction like. Who wants this old worthless
whore? Who wants this old worthless
woman that's never been faithful? Hosea said, I do. I do. And ain't that the way God does
us? Who wants this old sorry sinner? Who wants this old sorry
wretched human being? Who wants this old sinful person?
God says, I do. Christ said, I do. I do. I'll take him. I'll take him. What do you pay for him? My life? My blood? My soul? That's what I'll give. That's
what I'll give. Whatever it takes. That's what
I'll give. Oh my. And then there's a murderer
named Paul. God saved him. And oh, here's
what happens. His love goes and singles them
out. And you know what He does? He
makes them to know they're sinners so that He'll come to them. That's
love that makes Him know that we're sinners and brings Him
to us, huh? Well, let me tell you something
else about His rich and pure love. His love is rich and pure
because it's faithful. Oh, how faithful is His love. What's that song we sang? Great
is thy faithfulness? You know, His love is so faithful,
so faithful, it's unchanging. He said, I am the Lord and I
change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
do not consume. See, what we are, this is the
way we are. And we just have to own up to
it. God knows it and we know it. We're faithful to them who
are faithful to us. We love those who love us. And
so many marriages break up because men and women can't continue
to love those who have been unfaithful. But our Master's not that way.
Our love for our Lord Jesus Christ is not that way. After Peter
had denied Him three times, when our Lord rose from the dead,
He told Mary, He says, you go tell my brother and Peter that
I'm going to meet him over in Galilee. You make sure to tell
Peter that I'm going to be over there. You know, I know the amount
of fellows that are going to show up, but you tell Peter.
Peter may be just a little... See, he loved him. He loved Simon
Peter. And it's like that rich young
ruler. Our Lord told him, he'll sell all that you have and go
give it to the poor. And the scripture says, Jesus
having loved him. And I believe when it says that
Jesus loved him, that that man was saved sometime in his life. If it says Jesus loved him, you
mark it down that something took place in that man's life. Christ
did not express His love toward anybody except His own. Now that's right. His Father
and His people. His Father and His people. And
look in Romans 8.35. Look at this. I don't know how
long it is. Romans 8.35. Look what He said here now. Oh, talking
about our Master's love is so faithful. So faithful. Let me ask you all a question.
Don't answer it. Don't answer it, you know. Have you ever had a day go over
your head from the time you got up in the morning until you went
to bed at night, that you didn't pray, that you never, you know,
opened a Bible, just went about your whole day long, got up that
morning, went to bed that night, and about the time you lay down
and said, oh my, I ain't done, I ain't even thought about God
today. Have you ever had that happen? Oh, ain't you grateful God's
faithful, love is faithful to you? I mean, that's how rotten
our flesh is, that we'll get up and get busy, get busy in
the morning, start our day, go all day long, cooking, cleaning,
going, traveling, visiting, doing whatever we do. And to get to
the end of the day and go to sleep and get up the next day
and think, oh man, Ain't you thankful he is? Not
that way. You know, we're always in his
mind, always in his heart. Look what it says here in Romans
8.35. Who shall separate us, listen
to this, from the love of Christ? Oh, His love is so faithful.
Will tribulation do it? Nah. We've been told how many
trials we've been through. Distress, being so distressed.
How are we going to deal with this situation? How is this going
to come out? What is going to happen? We get so distressed.
We hear about somebody sick and we rush to the hospital. Distress.
Persecution. Oh, not have anything to eat,
not have any clothes to wear, any pair we in, anybody draws
a sword on us. Says in verse 37, nay, no, no,
no. We are more than conquerors,
listen to this, through, through, through Him that loved us. And Paul said, I'm persuaded.
You ought to go through the scriptures and see all the times he said,
I'm persuaded. For I am persuaded that death Death of anybody you
love, whether it's a child, a husband, a wife, a grandchild, nothing. Death cannot separate you from
the love of Christ. Life. Brand new baby, brand new
grandson, life. nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things... and he goes again
to this height, depth, nor any other creature shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ. That's
how faithful, this love that God loves us in Christ. Oh my,
and it will be faithful to us eternally. Now look in John 12,
and let me give you another one. In John chapter 12, verse 24,
I want you to see this. Not only is His love faithful,
discriminating, free, faultless, but it's fruitful. Look what He said in John 12,
24. Well, our Lord said in verse 23, And our Lord answered them,
saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, or truly, truly,
I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. If it just lays there and it
don't die, it abideth alone. But if it dies, and out of that
ground springs that little green sprout, out of that one you'll
get a whole bunch and that's our Lord is talking about his
own death he said except I die there won't be any fruit but
I die and that's what he's talking about his love was us to death
and that death accomplished something that death accomplished salvation
for all that he loved for all that the Father gave Oh, some love those who don't
return their love. But He loved us knowing. Now
listen to what I got to say right here. This is so true. He loved us knowing that He would
have to create love in us for Himself. That we did not have
the ability to love Him unless He put love in us. He had to create love in us for
Himself. And not only did He have to create
it and put it in us, but then He has to sustain it. He has
to keep it. Keep us loving Him. But He does that. That's how
fruitful His love is. And sometimes we see situations
where all our love, our love would just reach out and take
care of that situation if we could, but we can't. You would
take a sickness of somebody that you loved in a heartbeat, but
you can't. You see people in pitiful, pitiful
conditions, And you say, oh, I would change that situation.
For you see these little children, I'd change their situation if
I could, but I can't. But Christ, He can. When He sees people that are
pitiful, people that are poor and blind and lame, and people
that are without food and they're without somebody to guide them,
He has compassion. He can do something about it. And I tell you, He loved us and
refused to let His love be in vain. He had sheep that He had
to find. Why did He have to find them?
Because He laid His life down for them. He must find them and
bring them to the fold. And then you know what Mary was
using, Mary and Martha used to get Christ to come over to Lazarus
and get him for raising from the dead. You know what they
said? He who thou lovest is sick. And then when he got there, he
stood and wept. And you know what they said about
him? Said, Oh, how he loved him. How he loved him. Oh, dear dying
lamb, thy precious power. Precious blood shall never lose
its power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin
no more. My last thing. How rich and pure
is this. His love is rich and pure because
it was sacrificial. What did he give? He gave himself. Not only did he give himself,
but he emptied himself. of all glory, of a reputation. Gave his back to the smiters.
Gave his sheep to them that plucked it off. He gave his life. He gave his love. He gave his
blood. He gave his soul. He gave his
strength. He gave all that he is. All that he is. Ephesians 5.2,
look at it. We see Jesus made Lord and angel
for the suffering of death. Oh, love is measured by sacrifice
if it is. So then our Lord's love cannot
be measured. And look what he says in Ephesians
5, 2. And walk in love. Now listen
to this. as Christ also hath loved us
and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savor. Let me show you this in closing.
Ephesians 2, 7. I'm done, but I can comment on
this. Look what it says in verse 7. That in the ages to come Christ
will raise us up. We're going to be together with
Christ in heavenly places. That in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. You know heaven is God's trophy
case. You know we sang that old song
years and years ago that at the old rugged cross when I lay my
trophies down. Well, we ain't got any trophies
to lay down. We don't have it. But all heaven is God's trophy
case. And there's where he displays
the trophies of his blessed grace, the trophies of his blessed love.
And when we get, and what a day, she played that song, what a
day that will be when our Jesus we shall see. And all listen, and we'll see
Him, and there'll be evidence of His love for us be present
throughout all eternity. Where is it at? In His hands? In His feet? In His side? That marks in His love's body.
And all will know for fully then How He loved us. How can it be? How can it be? That thou, my
God, shouldst die for me. Oh my! Have you ever experienced
that love? I haven't. And I'm going to experience
it some more if God lets me live. And one of these days I'm going
to really experience it. Our Father, oh blessed Father,
Great God of glory, thank you for the love of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you for the great love
wherewith you loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and
sins. How blessed is your name. How
blessed is your glory. How blessed is your love. How
blessed is your grace. Well, how blessed you are. We
praise you and thank you and magnify your blessed holy name.
For Christ's sake. Amen. Let's get that course book
out.