The title of my message this
morning is Astonishing Love. Our text is John chapter 11,
verse 36. The Lord Jesus has followed Martha
and Mary out to the tomb where their brother Lazarus has been
buried for four days. The women of Bethany who had
come to mourn with Mary and Martha are there. The Jews are gathered
around. And as the Lord Jesus stood before
Lazarus too, we're told in verse 35 that Jesus wept. No explanation given, Jesus wept. So tender, so caring, so sympathetic,
is the heart of Him who is one with us, that when His people
wept, He wept. Well, might we cast all our care
on Him who so cares for us. Jesus wept. And when the Jews
saw the Lord Jesus weeping, obviously they understood that his weeping
had something to do with Lazarus' death. The Lord Jesus wept, not
because Lazarus was in glory, certainly not. Not even because
his body was sleeping in the earth, certainly not. He wept
because of the pain felt by Mary and Martha in the sudden absence
of their brother's love and company. And that pain he felt. When the Jews saw that the Lord
Jesus wept, they were astonished. And they said, behold how he
loved him. Behold how He loved him. This is an unusual thing. Here's
a Jewish man standing in public at the grave of another man.
Not a brother, not a father, not a son, not a daughter, not
a wife, another man. A Jewish man standing here in
public weeping. And they're astonished at it.
I realize we live in an age where men are taught to be effeminate
and I'm not suggesting that man weeping is an indication of effeminacy. But when I was growing up, you
just didn't see men cry. It didn't happen. It just didn't. I never saw my father cry until
he was an old man. Never saw it happen. It just
didn't happen. And I suspect things were considerably
different in this day. They saw this man who had proved
himself again and again truly a man. And they saw him stand
here publicly weeping. And they're astonished. Behold
how he loved him, they said. But if they had known what many of us know. Their astonishment
would have been indescribably greater. Behold how he loved
you. Behold how he loved me. Behold how he loves us. You and me. O Spirit of God,
give me grace this hour to speak as I ought, and cause these who
hear my voice to understand and to know the love of God that
passes knowledge in Jesus Christ our Lord, to know what is the
length and breadth and depth and height of that match this
love that the Son of God has for us. Think, children of God,
what a huge volume shall be read over by us in eternity as we
read the volume of our Savior's love to us, of His distinguishing,
express, personal, particular love for us. Today, I've got
to limit my thoughts a good bit. So I'll not talk to you about
the tokens of his love in providence of which we know little and very
often know nothing. Of the love of him who performs
all things for us. But looking over just those things
we know, I find it astonishing that the son of God should ever
cast his eye in my direction. That he should ever look upon
me, but that he should love me. One so vile, one so utterly worthless,
one so utterly unlovable, that he should love me, and yet he
has proved it again, and again, and again, and proves it still.
Behold how he loves us in eternity, seeing as we cannot now see and
knowing as we cannot now know over the days and weeks and months
and years of our lives. And we will look over the ages
of human history and we will be able to discern distinctly
as we cannot imagine discerning now. that his love for us has
ordered all things and ruled all things and disposed of all
things and we shall see and all God's creation shall see and
everyone shall acknowledge behold how he loved them we see sweet
tokens and evidences of this love throughout our sojourn here
not only in his tears of sympathy But in His precious blood, that
blood He shed so freely for us, and all the manifold works of
His mercy, to constantly be compelled. As
we consider day by day His good providence, day by day His goodness,
day by day His mercy, we ought to be compelled to look at His
love with astonishment, cry from our hearts, behold how He loved
us, oh how He loves us, you and me The sinners chosen by His
grace, the objects of His love, loved by Him with an everlasting
love, loved by Him immutably, loved by Him unceasingly, loved
by Him passionately. Soon, in that land beyond the
river, when we're seated with the saints of God in light, we
will want no other theme of thought or conversation. There, everything will be the
constant reminder to us of the Savior's infinite love. For the
next few minutes, I want to talk to you about just that. I have
no object in mind except to cause you who know him to adore and
love him and to entice you who've never known our Redeemer to believe
him. and believing him to love, worship,
and adore him. Love is known not so much by
words as by deeds. We express love many times in
words, and that's good. It's proper. We tend too often
not to express such love. Try to especially when we're
trying to win the heart of another Talk to your wife and she will
tell you she'd sure like to hear you talk to her like you did
when you first fell in love with her Because we like to hear the
words But the words are meaningless if the words are not expressed
by deeds and you can talk about the love of Christ till the heavens
fall to the earth and And the words are meaningless, except
you see his love and the wondrous deeds of his love for us. So
let's begin where we ought to in the beginning. Give a little
thought to the great deeds of our Savior, the blessed deeds
of love he performed for us from everlasting. When did Christ's
love begin to work for us? It was long before we had any
imagination of it. Indeed, it was long before we
were born, long before the world was created. He loved us with
an everlasting love way, way back yonder in eternity. Our
Savior gave the first proof of his love when he undertook our
call. and stood forth in the covenant
of grace as our sheriff, assuming all responsibility to this world
and upon the human race in it as a palace. A palace that had
been plundered and had fallen. A palace that was not a ruins. A palace in which dwelt every
imaginable evil creature that you could think of. A palace
of darkness. And he looks upon that ruined
race of man and he pledges himself to restore that which he took
not away, to build again that which was ruined, to bring back
that which was lost for the glory of his own great name and the
glory of the triune God. Before the angels began to sing,
before the sun or the moon or the stars, But their beams of
light broke through primeval darkness the son of god stood
forth as our surety And he pledged himself to our redemption He
said to the father in covenant mercy and covenant grace Give
me the people of your love And I will redeem them I will save
them. I will bring them back into glorious
relationship with you. I will reconcile them to you
and you to them in perfect harmony. I will make them perfect. I'll
not only build again that which was ruined, I'll not only build
again that which was destroyed, but I will do for them that which
they could never have known of my infinite love, except they
fall and be raised again by me. I will make them to know the
love of God as they could not know it except in union with
me. Behold how he loved us. and those secret eternal counsels
of grace the triune God trusted to his hands all things gave
him the charge of all his people and gave him the charge of all
things as our surety turn if you will to Psalm 15 Psalm 15
I read this psalm earlier In the week and I've read it every
day since it's just been on my mind. This is a psalm That cannot
be speaking of but one person It's a psalm that describes Jesus
Christ, but not merely as an individual man It describes him
as the covenant man as our surety psalm 15 Lord Who shall abide
in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Abide there, dwell there. Who?
Much like Psalm 24, lift up your gates, lift up your head, O ye
gates, and the king of glory shall come in. Who shall dwell
in thy holy hill? Here's who can go there. Here's
who can abide there. Here's who can dwell there. He
that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness. and speaketh the
truth in his heart. That's our Redeemer. He walks
uprightly. He works righteousness. And there's
nothing but truth in his lips and in his heart. He is truth.
Read on. He that backbiteth not with his
tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach
against his neighbor. That's our Redeemer. There's
not a man or a woman here who's not done what's described right
there. Not one of us. And we do it regularly, but not
our Redeemer. He loves his neighbor perfectly.
He takes up no reproach against him. He does no harm with his
tongue. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned. He loves righteousness and hates
iniquity, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. Now watch
this. He that sweareth to his own hurt
and changeth not. He swore to his own hurt that
he would redeem and save his people. And bless God, he never
took it back. He putteth not out his money
to usury. He's not out for any gain. Nor
taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall
never be moved. The Lord Jesus is that one into
whose hands the good shepherd, or into whose hands the father
trusted his sheep as the good shepherd. And when he who tells
the tale of the sheep, he who numbers the sheep in the last
great day as they pass under his rod, he will hear the good
shepherd say, not one is lost. He restored that which God the
Father gave to his hands. The Father trusted him in whom
he also trusted. After that, you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In the fullness of
time, our Lord Jesus Christ. Left heaven's glory. And stooped
to become a man. The incarnation. What a mystery. How can God become one of us? I haven't any idea. We have such a little idea what
heaven is, and what the eternal glories of the triune God are,
that we can't begin to imagine what it was for the Son of God
to step down here into time, and step down here into human
flesh, and step down here amongst humanity, here to live and here
to die. The Word was made flesh. and
dwelt among us. The God of glory, Jesus Christ
the Son, came into this world as we are, taking our nature
into union with Himself, so that He becomes bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh, and makes us to be bone of His bone and
flesh of His flesh. so that Godhead and manhood are
joined together in perfect, indissoluble union forever. God and man made
one in the incarnate God-man. In 2 Corinthians chapter 8, the
Apostle Paul speaks of this wonder and says, you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich, Yet
for your sakes, he became poor that you through his poverty
might be made rich. God was manifest in the flesh. I've been studying this matter
of the incarnation almost all my life since I was 16 years
old. And the best explanation I've ever read of it is the first
I read of it. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The omnipotent creator took the
nature of a creature into union with his own divine nature. He
took not on him the nature of angels, but it took on him the
seed of Abraham. He took the seed of Abraham and
those he made his church and chose and espoused his church
to himself back in eternity as his own great bride and he the
bridegroom. And now he comes to take the
nature of his bride. Behold how He loved us. Then, being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled Himself. He emptied Himself, made Himself
of no reputation, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross, bearing all our sin and all our guilt, the
great heated fury of God's holy wrath against sin. He who knew
no sin, the Lord Jesus made sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. People talk about the love of
God and have such light ideas of
God's love, such frivolous, insignificant conceptions of God's love that
they speak of seeing God's love everywhere. Well, God's love is not seen
everywhere. God's love cannot be revealed
everywhere. God's love is not and cannot
be known everywhere. The love of God, hear me, hear
me, hear me. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus. And it's known nowhere else.
It's known nowhere else. Now, you know, the love of God
in Christ, you see displayed in all his wondrous works. But
until you see and know the love of God in Christ, what you imagine
to be the knowledge of God's love is but a hoax. That by which men are fooled
and deluded into eternal damnation. The love of God is in Christ.
And would you see the love of God? Go to dark Gethsemane. Hear the master as he sweats
blood falling to the ground, crying, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. He cries and prays, and he's
heard in that he feared. Can you imagine God quaking? God shaking with fear. God with knees so weak that he
couldn't stand. Oh, Brother Don, what are you
talking about? Never God! But the God man, yes. As he anticipates
being made His holy soul quakes within him. His heart breaks
within him. And he cries, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, thy
will be done. And he presses on. He said, now
is my soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. But what shall
I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. And a voice is heard from heaven,
saying, I have glorified it and will glorify it yet again. He
speaks to his disciples. They hear a voice from heaven
as God speaks and says, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. Father Imon de Gabbatha stands
in Pilate's judgment hall. where he is mocked and derided
and beaten and forsaken forsaken by the very people whom he loves and follow him home to Calvary there at Golgotha where the Lord
of Glory in human flesh God who came here to go there,
who came down here to Bethlehem's manger to go yonder to Calvary's
cursed tree. Behold Him there as He bears
our sins in His own body on the tree. He knew no sin. He bears all the guilt of sin. All the sins of his people made
to be his. All our shame made to be his. All our guilt made to be his. And he bearing our sins, the
Lord God Almighty cries awake, O sword, against one that is
my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered. And he scatters the sheep as
the shepherd is slain. He scatters them, but sure he
will gather them again because the shepherd is slain. The Lord
Jesus made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Brother Alan Kibbe, Drop me a
note this week email been studying Deuteronomy 21 22 and 23 that
passage Paul quotes in Galatians 3 13 And the scripture speaks
of that one who hangs on the tree What He's worthy of death He not worthy of death he could
not be hanged on the tree and Now hear me, children of God. Jesus Christ, God's darling Son,
who did no sin and knew no sin, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners, is made sin for His own. And when
He was made sin for us, He was made worthy of death. And therefore, justice drew forth
its sword and smote the shepherd. only one worthy of death could
be smitten by the rod of divine justice. He was made worthy of
death to make sinners like you and me worthy of heaven. Imagine that! Imagine that! And
who shall enter into glory? None, except they who are worthy,
made worthy not by what we've done, made worthy by what he's
done. The Lord Jesus shows us his love
in his great work of redemption. God commendeth his love toward
us into while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and gave
his own son, his only darling son, to be the propitiation for
our sins. Not only that, but we who are
loved of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ have been made heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. So real is the union of the bride
and the bridegroom. So real is the union of the same
sinner with the Savior. So real is the union of God's
elect with God's Son. So real is our union with our
representative, last Adam. So real is our union with our
blessed surety that all that he possesses, we possess in him. as our present heritage in whom,
is this the language of scripture? We have obtained an inheritance. The Lord Jesus has gone back
to heaven to take possession of and prepare the many mansions
of heaven, whatever they are. I know the word is abiding places
and folks who like these newfangled, messed up versions, let's not
call them mansions, let's call them abiding places. Let me tell
you something, an abiding place with Christ in glory is a mansion
like you ain't never dreamed of. Mansions. But he prepares them not for
himself. He's going to prepare a place
for you. And when he's fit in your place,
he's going to come again and take you to himself forever. To possess with him all that
he is and all that he has as the mediator man, our blessed
Savior. Behold how he loved us. Think often upon our Lord's dealings
with us. in the days of our unregeneracy. How persevering is the love of
Christ! He calls, and we obstinately
turn our back to Him. He calls in His providence, He
calls by His Word, He calls in conscience, and we set our faces
obstinately toward Him, and we'll not have Him! Don't want him,
hate him, live constantly despising him, rebelling against him. Not
only does he put up with our insults, but as we are, like
Gomer described in Hosea chapters 1, 2, and 3, pursuing our lovers
passionately. Pursuing our lust passionately. That's what our lovers are, David,
the lust of our own carnal nature. The lust of our hearts. Our greed,
our ambition, our pride, our covetousness. Pursuing our lovers
passionately. Pursuing what we want passionately. All the while, he was pursuing us more passionately. protecting and providing for
and keeping us, preserving us in himself under the day of our
calling, when in the time of love he would come and take his Gomer home. At last, our blessed Savior conquers
us. By his grace, by his spirit,
by the sweet, overwhelming revelation of himself, he conquers us. And in the day of his power,
makes us willing to be his. What a picture that is of Hosea
and Gomer. Hosea found her and he protected
her and he provided for her. He said, I'll hedge up your way.
You go ahead and chase your lovers. Chase them till you're out of
breath and out of love. Chase them till you're empty
and desolate and derelict and abominable. But I will hedge
up your way so that you cannot find them. I will allure you
into the wilderness and speak to your heart. And I'll conquer
you, conquer you with my love. And he goes to the marketplace
and there's Gomer. She's on the auction block. Her
lovers have left her empty and wretched and naked and bent and
broken. And Hosea, Gomer, is that you,
honey? And he bought her for an omer
of barley and a half omer of barley for 15 pieces of silver
and made her his. And he took her home. Oh, I'd
like to have been a fly on the wall that night. Hosea takes
Gomer and tucks her arm under his and walks proudly down the
street with that harlot, desperate, derelict, abominable wretch. whom he has espoused as his own,
to whom he's married himself. And I can just almost hear her
say, he brought me into his banqueting house, and his banner over me
was love. Oh, he loves us. You got that? Behold how he loved
us. But that's not all. since he
called us by his grace. What floods of evil. What horrible, horrible unfaithfulness. What abominable wretchedness. What uncontrollable hardness. What vile indifference. What utter corruption and sin
He still perseveres against in us because of His love for us. And His love has never cooled. His love, I know no other way to express
it. is just as passionate today as when he had the dew of his
youth on his brow in the covenant of grace in old eternity. Just as passionate, just as full,
just as bursting, just as overflowing from his heart toward us. And
when we would shut the doors of our hearts against him, Oh, my God. How often when I
hear his voice, I shut the door and bolt it and burn it. I said, leave me alone for now,
everything going well. But bless God, he will not be
spurned by the one he loves. He puts his hand in by the hole
of the door. and drops in some grace and mercy
and stirs up this heart to arise and open to Him and causes us
to seek Him and to return to Him with willing hearts, gladly. Oh, stir not up, my love. Don't disturb Him. Don't drive
Him away. Let him rest here with me, and
me with him all the rest of my days. Oh, Brother Dodd, what I wouldn't
give to know that love, to experience that love. Well, you see another
picture of it in Luke chapter 15. You can read it at your leisure. There's a prodigal son. He's
taken all the wealth of his father and his father's name. And he's wasted everything in
riotous living. He's in utter desolation. He's just empty, broken, poor,
dirty. And he can't find anything to
eat. And nobody will give him any
help. And he says to himself when he came to himself, How
many hired servants are there in my father's house? And they
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will
arise and go to my father. And I'll tell him, father, I'm
not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired
servants. And so he starts home. And while
he's coming home, tail tucked between his legs like a whipped
curve, his head bowed down, not knowing what's going to happen
when he gets home. His father saw him when he was yet a great
way off. He saw him because he'd always
seen him. He'd always been looking after
him and looking for him, waiting to be gracious to him. And when
his father saw him, he got up and ran. Imagine that, Bob. The only time in this book God
Almighty's every picture is getting in a hurry. He's running to meet his son,
his prodigal son, and he fell on his neck and kissed him. Quite literally, the word is
he kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him
and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him. He fell on his
neck and smothered his boy with kisses. And he made a party. He said, this my son was lost,
now he's found. He was dead, now he's alive.
Let's throw a party. Bring the fatty calf and kill
it. Put the best robe on him. Put
the ring of a son, the family signet on his hand. This is my
son. Those kisses, somebody said,
indicate much love deeply felt and forgiveness full and free. Our sinner come to Christ today
and in Christ as God Almighty falls on your neck and embraces
you with much love deeply felt and forgiveness full and free. Behold how He loved us. Amen.