I have a subject tonight that's
indescribably too big for me to handle. I want, if God will
enable me, to talk to you plainly, and I hope clearly and truthfully
about the love of Christ. Specifically, I want to talk
to you about knowing the love of Christ. What a subject. The love of Christ. Let's read
beginning at Ephesians chapter three and verse 14. In this passage of scripture,
the apostle Paul tells us how he prayed for God's people and
what he sought for them at the throne of grace. Now remember
who God's people are as they're described in this epistle by
divine inspiration. They are the people chosen of
God to be his, God's elect. God's people are people predestined
by him unto life everlasting in the glorious inheritance of
his free grace with Christ the Lord. God's people are a people
redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, a people
forgiven of all sin. The people of God are blessed,
accepted of God in Christ, regenerated, born again by his grace. Now
look at what Paul tells us he sought for these people. Ephesians
3 verse 14. 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. Oh, how I want you to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be,
while you live in this world, filled with all the fullness
of God. As I prepared this message today,
I keep praying and I am praying now. that God the Holy Ghost
would cause me to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. That while I live in this world,
the rest of my appointed time, I may be filled with all the
fullness of God. Oh, hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek, to those who fall, how kind thou art,
how good to those who seek. But what to those who find? Ah, this nor tongue nor pen can
tell, the love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones
know. One distinguishing mark of God's
people in this world is that those who are born of God, those
who are taught of God, know the love of Christ. There are no
exceptions. All who have passed from death
to life, whatever else they may be ignorant of, they know the
love of Christ. And without exception, those
who are not born of God, those who are not yet saved by God's
grace, whatever else they may know, They know nothing of the
love of our Savior. Now don't misunderstand me. An
ungodly man, an unbelieving man, may know something about the
love of Christ. He may emphasize and realize
the fact of it in his speech. He may see the theory of it.
He may even talk like a believer, expressing joy because of it.
But to know the love of Christ, to taste its sweets, to realize
personally, experimentally, practically the love of Christ, a person
must be born again. That love must be shed abroad
in his heart by the Holy Ghost, and that's the privilege of a
child of God and a child of God alone. Into this experience,
no stranger of grace can come. So at the very outset of my message,
I have a question of self-examination to put before you and before
myself. And I'll continue to press the
question throughout my message. Do I know the love of Christ? Brother Larry read back in the
office in 1 Corinthians 16. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha, the Lord's coming.
Let him be damned if he doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ. But
those who love the Lord Jesus, are people who know the love
of Christ. Do I know the power of our Lord's
love? Is it shed abroad in my heart
by the Spirit of God? Do I know that the Son of God
loved me and gave himself for me? Every child of God does. and yet God's children certainly
do not know the love of Christ in the same measure. There are
in the kingdom of God babes and young men and young women and
some fathers, some who know the love of Christ in one measure
and some who know the love of Christ in a greater measure.
As we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, We
grow in the knowledge of the love of Christ. Now, let me be
sure you understand what I mean by that. The more I'm made to
know my unloveliness, the more I know his love. The more I know
my weakness, the more I know the strength of my Savior's love.
The more I know my sin, The more I know the love of him who bear
my sin in his own body on the tree. The more I know my own
unfaithfulness, the more I know the faithfulness of his never
dying love. The more I know my one of love
for him. The more I know the fullness
of his love for me. Solomon wrote, many waters cannot
quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would
give all the substance of his house for love, he would be utterly
content. Oh, may God, the Holy Ghost,
take us tonight into the inner chamber with our dear Savior
and cause us to drink the spiced wine of His house. May he be
pleased tonight to bring us into his heavenly banqueting house
and set over us his banner of love. Come children of God to
Mount Pisgah and look over the lofty heights of the height and
length and breadth and depth of the love of Christ that passes
knowledge. The love of Christ might be compared
to Jacob's ladder. reaching from heaven to earth. And by it, God comes down to
us. And by it, we ascend up to God
in heaven. There are some or standing just
on the lower rung of the ladder. Some who've just been converted
who know the love of Christ. Others who've moved up a step
or two and know the love of Christ a little more, more deeply by
greater experience, a more broad sense of his love, a more broad
apprehension of his love. Others perhaps, maybe some here
standing on the very top rung of the ladder, about to be embraced
fully by the Savior as you step into glory in the knowledge of
His love. But even then, that love will
be beyond human comprehension. Even when we know, even as we
are known in heaven's glory, we who are but finite creatures
shall ever continue to know God. in the blessed experience of
his love for us in Christ Jesus. I want to know the love of Christ,
and I want to grow in the knowledge of that love. I want you to know
that love that passes knowledge. This is the desire of my soul
and the prayer of my heart for you, that you may know the love
of Christ that passeth knowledge. I've been told, Danielle, this
is your last time with us for a while. I pray God will make
you to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. No richer gift could be given
us. In whatever direction you look,
you will find nothing in God's salvation that is not built upon
and does not flow to us from this love of Christ that passes
knowledge. Knowing this, you know everything
needful for your soul to know. Knowing this, you know everything
needful for your soul to know. In preaching this message, I
want to bring you who are God's people to the very bottom of
the ladder, and I want to encourage you to put your foot on the first
rung of the ladder, and then go step by step with you, describing
to the best of my ability what God has taught me concerning
the love of Christ. Paul's admonition, or Paul's
prayer, is for us to know the love of Christ. Our Lord's admonition. when first we're converted is,
my son, give me thine heart. I call for you who are yet without
Christ to believe him and give him your heart. The most difficult
thing before conversion is to win the heart to Christ and then
When we are his children, by the gift of grace and faith in
him, he admonishes us to keep thy heart with all diligence. For the most difficult thing
we experience in this world is to keep our hearts for Christ. To keep our hearts for Christ. I'm going to give you some of
the ways by which we are made to know the love of Christ. I'll
just give them to you as I come along. First, let us know the
love of Christ doctrinally, doctrinally. I chose that first because I'm
often denounced by folks as a preacher of doctrine. I take the denouncement
as a high honor given to me by folks who despise the message
I preach. Any man who preaches the word
of God preaches doctrine. Now that word has come to be
used in a way that folks think of it in a hard manner. Who on
earth would object to the word teaching? Teaching. You want to learn something,
you gotta be taught. Teaching is doctrine. We seek
to know what God teaches in his word. And it's my responsibility
and privilege as God's messenger to you to teach you the doctrine
of God in his word. If we would know the word of
God, we must study the word of God. If we would know what God
teaches in his word about the love of Christ, we must study
the word of God as it teaches the love of Christ. We don't
seek to gain knowledge about the things of God from outside
this book. We don't seek to gain knowledge
of the things of God outside the experience of his grace.
You don't seek to gain knowledge of the things of God from any
source except God himself. Every other source will teach
you wrong. We ought to study the scriptures
with care, with attendance, with diligence, with regularity, always
depending upon God the Holy Ghost to be our teacher who wrote the
book for us. We're admonished to search the
scriptures. for they speak of Christ. The servant of God is
required to give himself to the study of the word and to doctrine
constantly. The pastor's work is not done
chasing ambulances. The pastor's work is not done
going here and there, being a social fellow and visiting folks and
sipping tea with old ladies and listening to gossip and sharing
it. A pastor's work is done on his face, on his knees before
God in his study. That's what pastor's work has
done. And if a man doesn't give himself to study, he can't preach. If a man doesn't give himself
to the study of this book, he has no business assuming the
role of a pastor anywhere. It's the pastor's responsibility
to seek from God the word of God for his people as they meet
together, so that he labors in the word and in the doctrine.
The servant of God is commanded to do so, and every believer
ought to seek to be thoroughly established in the faith once
delivered to the saints. This generation of lost religionists
needs to be told that there are some things this book clearly
teaches. There are some things taught
in the Word of God. And that which is taught in the
Word of God is that which we believe and that upon which we
rest our souls. The Word of God is our doctrine
book. It is our creed. It is our confession
of faith. This book alone is our rule of
faith and practice. And I mean by that, folks often
ask, do you believe in? Best way to answer them is to
say, well, it's what scripture says. What does the book say? If the book says it, yes, I believe
it. I may or may not understand it, I believe what's written
in this word. And if something is contrary
to the word, it doesn't matter who approves of it, who believes
it, I do not believe it and I will not accept it. Everything except
what's written in this book, if it is contrary to this book,
is false and is of the devil. The Word of God teaches us some
very precious truths about the love of Christ. Listen to this,
look in Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5, verse 2. Walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Christ loved us. He gave himself for us as an
offering, as a sacrifice to God. A sacrifice to God that God loves
to smell. Isn't that wonderful? A sacrifice that has a sweet
aroma in the nostrils of the Almighty. A sacrifice that has
a sweet aroma in the nostrils of sinners who need that sacrifice. Look down in chapter 5 verse
26. Husbands love your wives, verse
25 rather, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it. And then in verse 26, he tells
us why the Lord Jesus gave himself in indescribable love for his
church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. When I perform a wedding, I require
that the woman marrying a man commit herself to be obedient
to her husband, as the church is to be obedient to Christ,
to reverence her husband and to obey him until death alone
parts them. And I require a man to take a
vow promising to love and nurture and cherish his wife as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. What does that mean?
That means when a man takes a woman, when she accepts his proposal
to marriage, when she gives herself to him, that man takes her to
be his wife, not just because he has a fond affection for her,
not just because she's attractive and he looks at her and thinks
he just can't get along without her, but because he wants to
commit his life to making her life better. That's what it is to nourish,
nurture, and cherish, and care for a wife. He wants to take
care of her, to meet all her needs, to supply all her wants,
to protect her in all circumstances. And we have the example right
here. Look what it said, verse 27. Or verse 28 rather, so all
men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh and of his bones. For this calls, shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. That doesn't mean that a man
should leave his father and mother and follow his wife around. That's
not what we're talking about. I was just talking to a young
man this week. I said to him, you don't start off your home
a man following a woman. If you do, you're headed for
a life of trouble. You're headed for, well, you
don't know what's expected in our day. Yeah, I do. That's the
reason I said it. I know exactly what's expected. You don't do
that. A man forsakes everything for
his wife to care for her. And she finds her fulfillment
in him, not the other way around. But what he says, this is a great
mystery. But I speak concerning Christ
and the church. The Lord Jesus loved us. and gave himself for us that
he might do for us everything we need, that he might supply
for us everything we need, that he might cause us being one with
him to find fulfillment in him and find fullness in him to the
everlasting satisfaction of our souls. It is sweet and blessed
thing to know that Christ's love is without beginning. Before ever God created the heavens
and the earth. Before ever there was the voice
of an angel singing his praises in heaven. Before ever anything
that is, was. The Lord Jesus, God's darling
son, loved us with an everlasting love. Before the day star knew
its place or planets went their rounds, the saints and bonds
of sovereign grace were one with Jesus found. Our hearts leap
with joy when we're made to see that the word of God teaches
that there are no changes in our Savior's love. John 13, one,
having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to
the end. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? He's talking
particularly about those disciples with whom he was gathered at
that time, about to observe the Last Supper, whose feet he was
about to wash. And he said, having loved his
own, these disciples, these disciples, he called them, and they followed
him, and he sent them across the sea, and they got in a storm,
and they were terrified, and they said, said, Master, don't
you care that we perish? And there's another occasion,
sends them across the sea, and they're caught in a storm. The
Lord Jesus came walking to them on the sea, and they thought
they saw a ghost. Those same disciples that forsook Him in
the end. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end. If the Son of God loved me and
gave Himself for me, there's no change in his love. How precious did the truth that
the love of Christ is without beginning and without change
make our hearts leap for praise and joy when first we knew it.
He chose us as his bride because he loved us. His delights were
with us before the world was because he loved us. His delights
are with us now, not because of something we do, not because
of any nobility in us, not because of any beauty that's ours, but
because he loved us. He became our surety, our representative,
assumed total responsibility for us, betrothed himself to
us and us to him from everlasting because he loved us. He took
our nature upon himself and into union with himself. He became
one of us because he loved us. He laid down his life in our
place because he loved us. He intercedes for us in heaven,
setting us as the seal upon his heart, as a seal upon his right
heart because he loved us. Soon he's coming again in glory
to receive us to himself because he loved us. The scriptures give
very clear teaching with regard to our Savior's love. It is an eternal love. It is love for
a specific people. He loved us, his church, and
gave himself for us. He loved me and gave himself
for me. It is love that has no variation,
no change. It cannot be turned from hot to cold or cold
to hot by something we do. Isn't that amazing? Mark, we
can't even think about that. I mean, we just can't get our
minds around that. It's not a love that has any
variation at all. He loves us infinitely with all
the fullness of his being and he loves us forever. Let's take
another step. All who have experienced the
love of Christ know it gratefully. Upon this subject, I have neither
the desire nor the ability to say anything new or profound. I just want to refresh your memories
and stir up your affections. Let me just talk to you real
plain for a minute about this. Do you not hold in grateful memory
the hour when Christ first came to your heart? I don't suggest by any means
that you should look back to a time or place or experience
and say, there, that's when I first knew the Lord, that's how I know
God saved me. Our assurance is not in our experience. We know his grace because we
trust him. right now. Yesterday, 10 years
ago, this morning is totally irrelevant. I trust him. But blessed be God, he does in
sweet grace give us experiences that we ought to cherish. Some
of us can remember the place, the hour when Christ first met
us. Oh, that day of days, that first
day of spiritual life. Other days have lost their freshness
to us, but not that day. That was the day of our marriage
to our faithful husband. That was the day when first our
souls were allowed to feast in our father's banqueting house
at his table. That was the day when heaven
came to earth and filled our souls. Just at the time we had
come to the end of ourselves, just when we had reached our
wit's end, God the Holy Ghost came to us in saving power and
shed abroad in our hearts the love of Christ to our souls.
We had walked the prodigal's way. Burdened with a load of
guilt and sin, we felt soon we must be crushed into hell. Well does my soul recall the
bitterness of those days. My eyes could not close in sleep
for fear. But just then, the Savior stepped
in. and the Holy Ghost shed abroad
His love in this man's heart, declaring to me, I'm born of
God, justified, sanctified, accepted in Christ Jesus. Oh, child of
God, don't you remember that happy, happy day? The blessed
Savior spoke to your soul as you gazed with brokenhearted
wonder upon Him. He said to you, I die that you
may live. He said, come weary one and rest.
Come naked one and be clothed. Come sinful one and be cleansed.
And coming, you found rest. And you were clothed with the
garments of salvation, cleansed with his blood. Do you not well
remember the joy that flooded your soul when he spoke peace
to your heart? I went back and looked at some
of the references today. Our Lord Jesus said to a woman
taken in adultery, neither do I condemn thee. Neither do I condemn thee. Our
Lord Jesus said to one who needed mercy and cried out to him, he
said, thy faith has saved thee. He said to one who was in desperate
need, thy sins are forgiven. You had heard of him before.
You'd read about him before perhaps, but now you've seen him and you've
learned of him. We know his love and we're grateful
for it because with the revelation of his love, our blessed savior
reveals himself to us. He reveals himself to us in a
way that he doesn't to the world. He speaks to us in a way that
it never speaks to others. He comes and teaches us his secrets. He shows us his heart. He's with
us day by day. So that day after day, He comes
to us. Night after night, He tucks us
into our beds. He speaks to us by the way. He
makes our bed in sickness. He goes with us in sorrow. He
comforts in affliction. He makes our hearts burn within
us as we walk with Him by the way. Yes, we know something of
His love, for gratitude has been our teacher. We're so grateful
to Christ our Savior. that we've grown to love him
since the day we met him. Now, let me spend a minute or
two here. Satan often comes and tries to
rob us of our joy in the Lord, insinuating that since we do
not have the same feelings and emotions we had when first we
knew the Lord, Our knowledge of his love is not real. Well,
you know that he's a liar from the beginning. Is Christ such
a one that the more you know him, the less you love him? Is Christ such a one that the
more you know him, the less you love him? Oh, perish the thought.
We love him is the truthful confession, though the hesitant confession,
of every heaven-born soul. hesitant because we realize more
and more day by day how utterly insignificant our love is, how
little our love for Him is compared to what it ought to be. But love
Him we do because He first loved us. My heart rejoices to tell
you that I found that my Savior, my Lord, and my Master improves
with acquaintance. I said to Shelby driving home
Sunday evening, got late, and she was wore out. And I said,
let me tell you something, lady. You're more beautiful right this
minute than you've ever been. And I love you like I've never
loved you. Christ Jesus is more beautiful
this moment than he's ever been. And I love him this moment like
I've never loved him. The more I know of him, the more
I want to know. And I think I speak for you who
are God's people when I say that the more you experience of his
loving kindness, the more intensely you love him. When we were first
converted, our hearts were full of fire and glitter and sparkle. We could hardly contain ourselves.
But then our love was a very shallow thing. Now, perhaps there's
not so much sparkle and glitter, not so much flame, but there's
intense heat. You see, still waters run deep. When you first light a fire,
the fat wood makes a flame and burns up real quick. And then
the kindling burns, and after it burns out, it leaves coals
with intense heat. So it is with the experience
of the knowledge of our Savior's love. I heard Shelby tell this
to someone the other night, and I just listened with delight,
so I can tell it now. I remember well the first time
I kissed that pretty blonde. We dated every night for two
weeks. And I took great care. I hadn't been converted long
and frankly didn't know how to behave myself. I took great care
not to say or do anything out of order. We dated every night
for two weeks and went to church every night. Every single night,
went to church somewhere. And then one Sunday evening,
she's sitting beside me in church, she's sitting way over yonder
in left field, and I reached over and took her by the hand,
and I could kind of feel her hand melt like wax, you know,
and hot iron. And I knew before the night was
over, I was going to get a kiss. And we drove down to Tanglewood,
across the river, Yankin River, and down to Pyre Dam, and sat
out there by the Yankin River, and I set her up on the hood
of my 65 Plymouth Barracuda. Nobody ever dared sit on that
thing before. I set her up there, and we chatted just a little
bit, and I reached over and kissed her. She wanted me to kiss her.
And I saw bottle rockets. I mean, fireworks went off. And
I knew I thought I loved her. And we first got married, I loved
her, I did, but looking back at it, my, so, wasn't much to
it. Looking back at it, wasn't much
to it. Now, we've been through some
things. by which God in his providence
has welded our hearts and lives together. And I normally kiss her several
times a day. Kissed her this morning before
we came over here. Kissed her last night before we went to
bed. And no skyrockets. No lights went off in my head.
But love, oh yes, more intense, more real than ever. And I realize,
I'm beginning to realize, how little I love the woman compared
with what I ought to have for her. Understand what I'm saying? We love our Redeemer gratefully,
having experienced His grace. Let us take another step upwards.
Save sinners, God's people. Know Christ's love practically. Practically. Turn again to Ephesians
chapter 5. We'll back up to chapter 4. Chapter
4. Just turn over one page. If you want to make a man a soldier,
you won't make him at West Point. You put him on the battlefield
with a seasoned veteran and he finds out what it is to be a
soldier. A man wants to be a farmer. He can read all the books he
can find on agriculture and they're fine and good in their place.
But he won't know anything about farming until he gets out in
the field with a fellow who's done it for a while and learns
something about farming. And if you want to know anything
practically about the love of Christ, you walk with him in
this world by faith, walking in his steps and learn his love. Look at Ephesians chapter four,
verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're
sealed into the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers. The
word is imitators of God. Imitate God. Act like God. Act like God. Oh, act like God. How do you do that? As dear children,
and walk in love. As Christ also hath loved us,
and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet smelling savor. Our Lord Jesus tenderly cared
for the needs of men. He was kind, compassionate, and
good. God teach me to walk like that
in this world. Our Lord entered into the sorrows
of others, sympathizing with them with felt sorrow. The Lord
Jesus was at Lazarus too. And because Mary and Martha wept,
the scripture tells us Jesus wept. I find that remarkable. And the Jews said, behold, how
he loved him. The Lord Jesus wept, not because
of his love for Lazarus. He knew what he was going to
do for Lazarus. He wept with Mary and Martha, whose hearts
were broken as they wept. Our Savior served his friends
in utter humility, doing for them what needed to be done at
the time. They had been walking the dusty,
hot streets and he took a towel and a basin of water and he girded
himself and he knelt down and washed their feet. Have you ever had somebody to
wash your feet? Not with cold water, not with hot water, just
with comfortable, warm water. How refreshing. Not only to clean
them from their dirt, but to refresh them just because that
was good for them. The Savior was patient, long-suffering. Those disciples. Hard to tell what I'd done with
them. You too. But he was patient and long-suffering. He was forgiving. because the
love of Christ is gracious and kind. Self-sacrifice him. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. Hereby know we the love of God
because he laid down his life for us. And the love of Christ
is anxious to restore the fallen. Be sure to tell Peter that I'll
meet him in Galilee just like I said I would. how anxious he
is to help the fallen. God teach me so to love my brethren. We learn the love of Christ practically
by obeying his commands. We live by faith in him and serve
one another. Listen to this. This is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. If we would know
the love of Christ, we must seek his will in all things and obey
it. And Merle Harding would tell
you what his will always is. Always. His will is always for
you to be kind to Lyndsey Campbell. That's always his will. His will
is always for you to speak well of Lyndsey Campbell. His will
is always for you to overlook any faults you see in Lyndsey
Campbell. His will is always for you to do everything you
can to be of assistance to Lindsay Campbell. That's called loving
Him. That's called believing Him. That's called knowing the love
of Christ practically. His love, shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, teaches us Something about that love
that passes knowledge when we begin to feel for the souls of
men as he felt. Weeping over Jerusalem, about
to perish under the wrath of God. Moved with compassion for
that rich young ruler who walked away to destruction. that one who had compassion upon
the multitudes when he saw them hungry. Another way of knowing
the love of Christ is by meditation. Would you know the love of Christ
that passes knowledge? Spend some time embracing him with the arms of
your heart, just holding him. Just holding him, meditating
on him, on his sin-atoning sacrifice, on his five wounds in his holy
body, on his bloody sweat at Gethsemane, on his cross, on
his death. If you would know the love of
Christ, meditate on him. You men, if you are smart, will
spend some time just holding your wives. And you ladies, if
you're smart, will spend some time just holding your husbands. God's children ought to take
time just to embrace the Savior. God give me grace to take Mary's
better part and sit at the Savior's feet and hear his words. to take
John's place, laying my head on his bosom and listening for
the beat of his heart. Go on further and cry, let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better
than wine. Let your lip of prayer meet his
lip of blessing. Let your lip of thanksgiving
meet his lip of benediction. There are heights and depths
of Christ's love to be found only by meditation that I can't
put into words. But Solomon did. He brought me
into his banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick
of love. His left hand is under my head. His right hand doth embrace me. We will never walk for a subject
to meditation if we would know the love of Christ. Meditate
on his work, his sacrifice, his suffering, his person. Meditate
upon his goodness and grace, his triumphs on your behalf.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live in 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. Oh, that I may
know Him. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. That I may know Him and the fellowship
of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. One last thing. May God give us grace to know
our Savior's love absorbingly. That is, that we may be absorbed
with his love so thoroughly that we are filled with all the fullness
of God. Our Savior said, who so drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. but the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Oh, that we might be lost in
the immense ocean of the Savior's love. In a couple of weeks, you'll
have this in the bulletin. I believe the Lord gave me something
today. How blessed are they who know
the love which moved the Son of God to take their calls above
and ransom them with blood. Its length and breadth and depth
and height surpass all human thought. Its sovereign acts,
its conquering might, are by His Spirit wrought. O God, my
God, I long to know my dear Redeemer's love, His covenant bonds, His
work below, His deeds of grace above. It is eternal, matchless,
free, immeasurable, and strong. I know it, for it conquered me. And now it is my soul. Children of God, keep yourselves
in the love of God. Oh, that God may grant you to
know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. Oh, that God
would cause us to be absorbed with the Savior's love. totally absorbed in his love. A man utterly absorbed in his
wife's love, a woman utterly absorbed in her husband's love
is not likely to do them any wrong. Oh God, absorb me in my
Savior's love. Absorb these, your children,
in the love of Christ that passes knowledge. Amen.