3rd chapter of Ephesians, verse
14, Paul writes this, For this cause I bow my knees unto the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named, 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, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, 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. that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. To know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge. Oh, what sort of a love is this,
a love which passive knowledge, a love which has a breadth and
a length and a depth and a height, which cannot naturally be comprehended. A love so vast, so deep, that
reaches so far and so wide, that it passive knowledge, the love
of Christ. This is a love unlike any other
love, unlike the love of man. Man's
love, even in its truest and most selfless form, is a pale
and imperfect reflection of the love of God. in Jesus Christ. Man in this world, by and large,
is full of hatred. He hates God. He hates his fellow
man. He hates any that get in his
way. He hates by nature those things
which are good, those things which are of God. And he loves
those things which are evil. those things which are earthly,
those things which is carnal nature desires. You only need
to look around you. You only need to consider your
own life and your own pathway to see hatred on every side. You only need to see the daily
news of events in this world to see how little true love there
is which emanates from men. There are wars and rumors of
wars. There are reports of violence
against this one and against that one. There are angry and
hateful words and comments reported every day against these and against
those. There is strife and there is
envy. There is jealousy. There is despising. There is ridicule. The vast amount
that emanates from the heart and the mouths of men is hateful. And yet in this world of hate,
in this world of sin, in this world of anger and violence and
warfare, there is also that which man calls love. There is that
which man seeks after and desires, which he calls love. Men sing
of love, men write of love. Their greatest goal in many arenas
is to know love. And yet what they call love is
such a poor reflection of that true love which is found in God
and God alone. When man speaks of love, it's
usually tied in with desire and lust, but it is almost always
tied in with a desire to be loved. Mankind loves when he is loved. Men love those that love them. And those that hate them, they
hate back. When people speak of falling
in love, they fall in love with someone that falls in love with
them. There is a selfish desire to be loved. Man's love is not selfless. So tied in, with selfishness
and a desire to be loved back are very often what men and women
call love. Really, it's anything but. What
love we see man show is such a twisted, fallen thing. It's such a poor reflection of
that true love which is found in God alone that it is often
hardly worthy of the name. It has self at the center. And
man's love is set on so many things that it shouldn't be.
Men love money. Men love wealth. Men love fame. Men love popularity. And power. And acclaim. Praise. Power. Authority. Control. Men love all of those things
that boost their own self-esteem. In 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse
10, Paul writes, for the love of money is the root of all evil. which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. Oh, how many men and women live
in this world, seeking and desiring and striving for all those things
which bring them sorrow. They seek to be rich. They seek
after money. They seek after wealth and all
that it can buy them. And all it brings is sorrow.
And they seek after all those things attached, the praise of
men. Oh, to be seen by others to have
things that others don't have. Oh, to drive around in such and
such a car, or to live in such and such a place, or to dress
in such and such clothes. Oh, to be seen for what you have,
as though that defines what you are. Oh, to be loved. How men seek after all that the
world can give them and yet even when they gain it all, they have
nothing. As Christ says elsewhere, what
does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? What of your love then? Your
love for things, your love for popularity, your love for praise,
Your self-glory, your pride. Oh, what a great person you became. Oh, how many spake well of you. Oh, how much you owned. And yet,
when you grow old, it all slips through your fingers. When you
grow old and your body crumbles and your mind goes, what is it
all then? Where is it all? What can you
do with any of these things? It all fades away. And when death
pulls you through from the other side, it's all left behind. And all that you loved in this
world has done you no good. Even those people you love, because
they loved you and do nothing for your soul. Even those who
spake so well of you will do nothing for your soul if you
know not the love of God and Jesus Christ. Where is your love
set? What do you love? What do you
desire? What do you seek after? Do you
seek after the here and the now, the fleeting, the passing, those
things which seem so important to you at this moment, but which
in a year, two years, five years, 10 years will have gone and passed
and be nothing, which as you grow older will have fleeted
away, passed by you and be worthless. So many things which seem so
appealing, but so often bring such sorrow. or however much
comfort they might bring in a temporary sense in this world, whether
they are material things or whether they are the love of friends
or family, however much comfort they may bring, they pass in
a moment. And if you know not the love
which is found in Christ, then you will stand before a holy
God on that day of judgment. when you're brought, as with
all men and all women, to stand before Him, when your life here
below has come to its conclusion, and you stand before your Maker,
you will stand before Him naked, with nothing, except your sins,
your corruption, your selfishness, your pride, your arrogance, your
hate. Did you love him or did you hate him? Did you
love his word or did you hate it? Did you love his gospel or
did you despise it? Did you love Christ or did you
turn your back upon him when you stand before him? And he demands righteousness.
Did you love righteousness? Did you have a hunger for righteousness? A thirst for righteousness? Did you love Him? Did you desire
Him? Where was your love set in this
world? John says in 1 John 2.15, Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any
man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you love God, you will know
that this world is condemned already, and everything that
is in it is passing. Yes, we pass through. Yes, we
eat and we drink. Yes, we live here below. Yes,
we have friends and family. But if you love God, you will
know that all this is passing. How different from the love of
man is the love of God. The love of God. As I said, man's
love most often is selfish. At its very best, it is a poor
reflection of the love of God. There are some individuals who
have shown some selfless acts. Occasionally we find those who
will suffer for the sake of others. Occasionally we come across those
who will put their own welfare to one side in order to spare
others. There are those accounts of those
in warfare, in battle, who have laid down their lives for their
friends. Man at his best will sometimes
lay down his life for the good of others, for friends. Yet God contrasts even man's
best love with his love in Romans chapter 5. where he says, for
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Paul points out to you that every
now and then, sometimes, for a good man, some would dare to
die. Sometimes there are those who
will lay down their lives for their friends. Sometimes there
are those soldiers who, in battle, will lay down their lives so
that their friends aren't injured. Sometimes there are those we
read of who have done heroic acts in order to prevent others
from being hurt. There was a tragic account of
a shooting in America this week where the reports are that certain
teachers threw themselves in front of students to prevent
them being hurt. We hear of these accounts in
times like this, that occasionally there are those who will suffer
for the good of others. But God commended His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Yes, man's love at his best may
mean that some will suffer for their friends. But God offered
up Christ, His Son, in the place of sinners. Christ came and died
and suffered for those who hated Him. O sinner, don't you know that
when Christ died, He died for sinners that hated Him? O believer,
if He died for you, He died for you when you hated Him. He didn't
wait for a show of love from you. He didn't wait until you
loved Him. And then He showed His love for
you by doing this. Christ died when we hated Him. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, what a contrast God's love
is with man's love. God shows his love in offering
his son for those that hated and rejected him. The very opposite
of how man would act. The very opposite of how you
act. You speak of love, you speak
of those you love, but you love those that love you. And in general
you hate those that hate you. Which is why Christ says to his
disciples, in contrast to all the thinking and all the attitude
of natural man, Christ says, love your enemies. But I say
unto you, love your enemies. Man says, an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth. If someone hits me, I'll hit
them. If someone hurts me, I'll hurt them. If someone defrauds
me, I'll defraud them. It's fair, it's fair. God says,
love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Do good
unto them that despitefully use you. Love those that hate you. Show forth something of the love
of God, which he commends unto us. in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. The love of God. What a contrast
God's love is to man's love. God's love is shown in Christ. God commended his love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God shows his love to his people
in Christ. In Romans 8 we read, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am 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
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, how certain the love of God
is to those for whom Christ suffered. God commends his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,
he says, unto his people. And having died for us, and having
set his love upon us, nothing will separate us from that love. But that love of God is shown
unto his people through his Son. Jesus Christ. Sing Christ. We read elsewhere in the scriptures
that the character of God, that God himself is love. God is love. True love is found in God and
in God alone. Which is why when we consider
the love of man by nature, it is such a warped, such a failed
reflection of the love of God. Man was created in the image
of God, the image of He who is love. Yet fallen man has fallen
so far from that image, that all man's doing, all man's ways
are stained by sin. Man has become a selfish thing.
Man's very fall into sin was fundamentally a love of self
and to glorify self at the expense of God. So rather than loving
God, he loves himself. Rather than seeking the glory
and the honor of God, he seeks the glory and honor of self.
Rather than seeking to serve God, he serves himself. Rather
than serving God, you serve yourself. Rather than loving God, you love
yourself. Rather than glorifying God, you
glorify yourself. All that you do is for you, not
God. God is love for what there is
left in you. It's about hatred for this God,
because you will seek your ends over his ends. And should the
glory of God cross your path. Should the things of God cross
your path and prevent you seeking out your own will and your own
way and your own desire and your own ends, then you will reject
that glory. You will reject those things.
You will reject that God that gets in your way in order to
have your way. God is love. We're full of hate. for this
God. There's no true love outside
of God. Fall of man's love is a selfish
love. There's no true love outside
of God. But to know God, to be one with
God is to know he who is love. To be united unto God through
Jesus Christ is to know that love. To be one with Christ,
to be one with the love of God in Christ. It's that love that
brings us under Him. It's that love that can make
us one with Him. It's that love that makes Him
known unto us. There's no understanding, no
knowledge of God, except we know His love. There's no being drawn
unto God, except that love draws us. There's no comprehension
or understanding of God, except we come to know something of
that love. And when we come to know it,
nothing will separate us from it. Paul writes elsewhere, and
the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. God looked upon this fallen world. He looked upon this world of
sinners like you and I. He looked upon this sea of men
and women full of hate and despising of Him. And He said of a people,
they are my people. He said of a great company throughout
time, throughout this world, that is my people. And I will
set my love upon them. And I will ransom them. And I
will redeem them. I will ransom them from the grave. I will set them free. I will
pay the price of the judgment of my anger, of my wrath, of
my righteousness against their sins. I will rain it down upon
their sins. I will blot out their sins. But
I will blot them out in another. I will take their sins away,
but I won't judge them. I'll judge another in their place. I will find a sacrifice for their
sins, who can take away their sins, who can swallow up the
judgment, who can bring in righteousness for them. I will do this because
I love them with an everlasting love. This is the God of love
who looks upon a world of hate and looks upon a people taken
out of it in love, in mercy and grace. As he looked upon you,
as he looked upon you with love, as he looked upon you with mercy,
as he looked upon you with grace, as he said, I will not reward
your iniquity. I will not reward your transgressions
by judging you, but I will find a sacrifice in your place. I
will judge your sins in another. I will slay mine own son in your
place because I love you in him. And I will bring you unto me
in newness of life through the blood of Jesus Christ. I will bring you unto eternal
life, newness of life, everlasting life, eternal life. I will take
you who were once dead, you who are dead in trespasses and sins,
you who are spiritually dead, you who are physically dying.
I will take you who are dead and make you to live. I will
give you eternal life. because I will slay your sins. I will bring the second death
down upon that saviour who I will place in your place. I will put
him in your place. I will put him where you are.
I will put him upon the judgment seat. I will put him upon a cross
and crucify him. I will pour down my wrath and
my anger against him in your place, that you who are dead
might live. and that you will live with a
life unlike any life, with everlasting life, with an abundance of life,
with eternal life, a life without beginning and without end. Keep
yourselves in the love of God, Jude writes, looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The love of God brings life and
nothing else does. Seek all that you will in this
world. Seek all that you want in this world. Seek those whom
you will in this world. Seek love wherever you may find
it, but you'll never find eternal life in this world or in the
love of men or women. It all fades, it all perishes.
Mankind may tell you that all you need is love. Love will solve
every problem, but it hasn't solved their problems. The world
is full of more sin than ever. Their love hasn't solved any
problems. Their love multiplies hatred
and sin. It never saves. The love you
need is the love of God. What you need is the love of
God. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. Without this love, before you,
stretches eternal judgment, eternal wrath, eternal death. That is what awaits. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. John writes. God's love is seen in Christ. It's seen in how God sent his
son into this world. that sinners might live through
Him. He shows His love to this world. He's manifested it. He's made
it known in His Son. He says to the world, there's
love. You want love, you speak of love,
you desire love. Here is love. Here it is love. Here is my Son. whom I have given
for sinners as a sacrifice for their sins, whom I have slain
that dead sinners might live, who gave himself for those whom
he loves, who suffered for those who hate him. Here is love. He sent his only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through him. The love of
God. The love of God is seen in Christ
alone. What do you know of the love
of Christ? What do you know of the love
of Christ? Paul writes in our chapter in
Ephesians, his prayer that you would know the love of Christ
with passive knowledge. that ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God. If you know his love, then you
know Christ. And if you know Christ, then
you're one with Christ and the life of Christ is in you. And
if the life of Christ is in you, then the fullness of God is in
you because God is in his son and his son dwells in all those
whom he's brought to life through his gospel, through his death
for them. You know the love of Christ.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ, which passive knowledge. What
a knowledge this is, what it is to know the love of Christ,
to feel the love of Christ, not just to hear of it, not just
to read of it, not just to know that Christ came into the world,
God's son died, but to know that he loved you, to know that he
came into the world for you as though you were the only one
he came for. Perhaps you're the only one He
came for in this world. He came and He suffered and He
was rejected by all men because He would come for you. Do you know whether He came for
you? What a knowledge it is to know that He came for you, to
know that He took your sins, to know that He bore your sins,
to know that He suffered for your sins. to know that he felt
the weight of the guilt of your sins. Oh, have you felt the weight
of the guilt of your sins? Have you ever felt guilty about
your sins? Have you ever felt convicted
over your sins? Do you ever confess and own up
to your sins? Or is there always an excuse?
There's always someone else to blame. There's always someone
to condemn. You did nothing wrong. I've done
nothing wrong. It's his fault. It's their fault.
But it's never your fault. We're all sinners, but so few
know they are. So few accept they are. So few
confess they are. For when Christ felt and bore
the sins of his people, he felt the condemnation. He felt the
weight of the guilt. He felt the conviction. He knew
what it was to bear those sins and to own them as his sins.
Even though he wasn't the one that committed them, he took
them as though he had. He took them as the one who would
bear them and who would own them. Have you ever felt something
of your own sins, and your own need to be cleansed of that sin,
and your own need to be washed of that sin, your own need to
be delivered from it? If you have, then you will rejoice
in the coming of Christ into this world. You will rejoice
that he came to take away those sins. You will rejoice that he
suffered and bore those sins. And you will rejoice. And God
makes known unto you Something of the knowledge of the love
of Christ. Something of the depth of that
love. Something of the breadth of that
love. The length, the height of a love with passive knowledge. However much you know of it,
it's still more. However deep you felt it to be,
it goes deeper. However high you felt it to stretch,
it goes higher. However wide you felt it to be,
it goes wider. However much you've learnt of
it, there's more to know. It's a love which passes knowledge. It's a love from which once you've
come to know it, once you're found in Christ, once Christ
dwells in your heart by faith, once God's taken you through
his gospel and caused you to live and put faith in a once
blind and dead heart to see and to hear and to comprehend Christ,
to hear his voice in the gospel, to see him crucified in your
place. Once he's put faith in your heart
and shed abroad the love of God in Christ in your heart, once
that love enters in, then it is a love from which you can
never be separated. Never be separated. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Paul asks. No one. No one. So tribulation, or distress,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, none of them. None of them. None shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. It's a love from which you can
never be separated. Once God sets his love upon you
in Christ, once Christ sets his love upon you, you'll never be
separated from it. In this world, people fall in
love, people get married, people spend a lifetime with someone,
but death separates them. Or in the case of those sorry
cases, divorce and separation separates them. Or all sorts
of unfaithfulness separate them. Love blows hot and cold. People go here and people go
there. But even in the best of cases,
where people are married for many years, death in the end
separates them. But with the love of Christ,
once you've come to know it, Nothing separates. or tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword, nothing will separate you from His love once you know
it. If He loves you, He loves you to the end. He loves you
eternally. He loves you beyond death, beyond
the grave, beyond this world. He loves you into the next world
and through the next world. He loves you through time into
eternity. It never stops. His love never
ceases. There is no love like the love
of Christ. You want to be loved, then you
need the love of Christ. You want to know what it is to
be loved, then you need the love of Christ. If you say, I've never
known what it is to be loved, I've been so hard done by, I've
been so despitefully used and treated in my lifetime. Everyone
I've come across who pretends to love me, soon I'm let down
by them. I don't know what love is. Then
you need the love of Christ. All love, all true love is found
in God alone. God is love. And God's love is
found in Christ. There's no true love. Apart from
this love, this is the love you need. This is the salvation you
need. This is the savior you need. Paul writes of this love, that
it constrains him. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. The love of Christ constraineth
us. He had to go and preach this
gospel. He had to go and declare of the
love of God and the love of Christ and the death of Christ that
demonstrated this love. He had to go and preach this
to the Gentiles, to the four corners of the earth, to find
those for whom Christ died. because that love constrained
him. He loves Christ and he loves
those for whom Christ died. He must make this love known.
Do you know it? Do you know it? If you do, you'll
know it through the Gospel. You'll only come to know it through
the truth of the Gospel. The true Gospel of the true Saviour. and the true love of God. Many
speak of the love of God and love of Christ, but what they
speak of is not this love. They say that God loves everyone
when the Bible says he loves his own. They say he loves everyone
when the scriptures say he loves the sheep and not the goats. He loves his elect, he loves
his chosen, he loves all those for whom he died. He loves his
own with a particular love. What sort of a love is it if
God loves everyone and then condemns many unto judgment in hell? If God loves everyone, then he
died for everyone and he will save everyone and everyone will
be saved. And there are none lost and none
who perish. For we know that there are many
who are lost, and many who perish, and many who die in their sins,
and many who go to the grave hating God. And God did not love
them, for if he did, he'd have saved them. The love of God in
Jesus Christ is sure and certain and particular. If he loves you,
you know that he loves you in a way that he doesn't love everyone. That's what makes his love so
rich and valuable. It's a gift. It's a gift not
given to everyone unilaterally. It's a gift given to his people
particularly. And it's a gift which is made
known in the gospel. in the truth of the gospel, in
the true gospel, in the sound words of the gospel, which is
why Paul says, hold fast the form of sound words, which thou
hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. If you love Christ, if you have
faith in Christ, then that gospel that you have heard, you will
hold fast. You will cling on to it. You
will defend the form of sound words. You will defend the truth
because the truth of salvation is found in them. Alter the gospel,
alter the message, alter the truth of God and you have no
love. Tell everyone that everybody
is loved by Jesus, that Jesus loves everyone and you've altered
his gospel. You've devalued his love. These
people that run around saying Jesus loves you to everyone,
without discretion, without cause, have taken that love of God and
made it of nothing worth. There Jesus loves no one. Their love is nothing. Their
Jesus, who loves everyone, will condemn half of them to hell.
More than half. It's a worthless love. Such a message is an attack on
the gospel. But the form of sound words,
which we've heard from the apostles, and from God by His Spirit through
those whom He has sent with the same message, the form of sound
words which we hold in faith and love in Christ Jesus. It's
a message concerning the love of Christ, the love of God in
Christ alone, and the love of God in Christ which caused Christ
to come into this world for His elect chosen people, His people
whom He saves from their sins. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He will save
all his people from their sins. Everyone whom he loves, everyone
whom he died for, everyone whom he redeemed. Did he die for you? Did he love you? Did he redeem
you? Has he come in his gospel to
you and made this known to you? If he has, then this love which
he makes known in the gospel, which you hear of by faith, which
you come to experience, is a love which will change you. Because it's such a powerful
love. What did he do for those whom he loved? He laid down his
life. He suffered and died for those
who hated him. Paul says, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ live within
me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. That's where his love took him.
He loved me and gave himself for me. He gave himself in every
way that he could. He offered himself up. He died
in my place. That's what it took to save me. He died for me. And this is why
his love is so wondrous. because he loved me with such
a love when I hated him that he was willing to die for me. Walk in love, he says elsewhere,
as Christ also have loved us and have given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. His love is shown in that He
gave Himself as an offering and a sacrifice. What greater love
is there than this? That a man should lay down his
life for his friends. What greater love is there? That
Christ should lay down His life for those that hated Him. And from Jesus Christ who is
the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us,
John writes in Revelation, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. What a thing to wash us in. We speak of it in the gospel. We're familiar with the terms,
but what a thing to be washed in the blood of another. To be washed through the death
of another in our place. We're cleansed through the blood
of Jesus Christ. He died that his people might
live. Do you know this love? If you know this love, then this
love will emanate from you. The remarkable thing about the
love of Christ made known unto His people is that they whom
He loves, love Him back. They who once knew nothing of
the true love of God, now love. They love Him, they love His
Gospel, they love His Word, they love His Truth, they love His
Father, they love everything to do with Him, and they love
His Church and His people. This is His commandment, that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another, as He gave us the commandment. Do you love
Christ? Do you love his people? Do you
love his word? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. If you love
Christ, you love those whom he's brought to life by his gospel.
You'll love those like you, sinners like you. rebels like you, wretched
creatures like you, full of imperfections by nature, but those like you
who've come to know his gospel, those who've heard of him, those
who've been washed by his grace, you'll love them. You'll love
them not for what you see in them by nature, for you'll see
little in them by nature to love, but you'll love them because
you see Christ in them and the love of Christ in them. and the
love of Christ that comes from them back to Christ. You'll love
them for Christ's sake. The Lord direct your hearts into
the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ, Paul
says in Thessalonians. May the Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God. You can't lead yourself there.
You won't lead yourself there. By nature, you don't want to
know. By nature, you're shut to these
things. Your ears are shut, your mind
is shut. You want to be anywhere else.
You want to do your things, the things you love. You seek after
what you want, for your glory. But if God, by his gospel, takes
you and leads you unto the cross, and shows you his son, and shows
you his cross, and shows you his blood shed for sinners, and
says, I did this for you, and makes known that he died for
you in particular, then he will direct your heart into the love
of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ, You'll wait
to hear His voice. You'll wait for His return. You'll
wait to be with Him forevermore. You'll wait because you love
Him who first loved you. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father, Paul writes. Paul writes this to the saints. those who know the love of Christ.
He sees in them the work of God in their hearts. He sees their
work of faith. He sees their labour of love.
He sees their patient hoping in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
sees the fruit of their salvation. Those whom Christ loves, love
Christ. Those whom Christ loves rest
in faith in Christ. Those whom Christ loves cease
to trust in themselves, cease to trust in their own works and
righteousness, cease to trust in their own wisdom and understanding. They cease to glory in self. They cease to seek after what
others seek after in this world. No longer do they care for that
which brings them glory in this world. No longer do they care
for the pride, for the praise and the adulation of others.
No longer do they care for the things of this world. They love
Christ. and their work of faith and their
labor of love and their patient hoping is for Christ. They want
him, they want to know him, they want to see him, they want to
be with him. They love him, they love his
gospel, they love his church, they love his people. Paul writes
elsewhere, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit
together in love. And unto all riches of the full
assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery
of God and of the Father and of Christ. Oh, is your heart
knit together in love with your brethren. Are you one in Christ? Do you love his gospel? Do you
love one another as you are in Christ? Ode to be knit together. Finally, Paul writes elsewhere,
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which he have to all the saints. You know Christ's love, that
love that passeth knowledge. And you will love him. And you
will love those for whom he died. Those like you. taken off a dung
heap, beggars off a dung heap, taken from the precipice of hell,
taken from judgment, plucked as brands from the burning. You'll
love those poor wretched sinners who've come to know the grace
of God which brings salvation, the mercy and the love of God,
the love of God in Christ Jesus. And you with them, in whose heart Christ dwells
by faith, will be rooted and grounded in love. And you with them will be able
to comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and know the love of Christ, which passive knowledge that
ye might be filled. with all the fullness of God. The love of Christ, whose passive
knowledge, you know it, as he made it known unto you, as he
said unto you, as he said unto Paul, that he loved you and gave
himself for you.