Alright, return to your Bibles
to John chapter 21. Now love is the greatest thing. The Apostle Paul put it this
way. He said, Now abideth faith, hope,
and love. But the greatest of these is
love. We don't want to discount faith.
We don't want to act as though hope is a small thing. But Paul, in order to show the
greatness of love, compares it to two great things. Faith. How great a thing is faith? Well,
faith unites the soul to Christ. Faith lays hold of eternal salvation. Faith pleases God. Faith's a
great thing, isn't it? Hope. How great a thing is hope?
Why, hope gives us endurance. Hope sets our affections on things
above and not on things below. Faith keeps us looking ever to
the Lord Jesus Christ and longing for Him. Hope is a great thing. But greater than even faith and
hope is this thing called love. It is that characteristic of
God which we are called on, most of all, to imitate. In John chapter 4, verses 7 and
8, it says, Let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone
who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not
love does not know God, for God is love. Now of all those characteristics
of God which we would want to copy and be called on to copy,
here's the chief among them, love. I find it interesting that
it's so much easier for us to think that we're copying God's
attributes when we become harsh and demanding. And we like to
take up the sword. Well, you know, there's times
that God has done that. There are characteristics of
God which we might call stern and harsh, but how come we're
so ready to take those up, those characteristics, and yet we might
find it difficult to take up this wonderful characteristic
of God called love and to demonstrate it in all of our relationships.
It's the love of God that has brought about every good thing
that has ever happened in this world. Now, I want you to think
of that. It's the love of God that created the world in the
first place and created man. And I was thinking the other
day about how it says that God planted a garden eastward in
Eden. And I think about, you know,
he created the world with a word. He brought the universe into
existence by command, and yet when He would make a place for
man to live, it's as though God, I mean the way it's worded, it
says He planted it. He did not call forth the ground
to bring forth the Garden of Eden, but He personally made
that spot, planted that spot, arranged all the plants and animals
that needed to be there specifically for the pleasure of man, and
put man in it. Everything good has come from
the love of God. And even when man sinned and
found out he was naked, God's love moved God to sacrifice an
animal and take that animal's skin and cover man with it. And man perverted his way on
the face of the earth and became very violent. And no doubt, without
question, God's wrath was engaged because of it. And yet, God's
love intervenes. and chooses out a man named Noah
and Noah's household. And they found favor in the eyes
of the Lord. And God designed an ark for them,
an ark that would endure the wrath to come. And God shut Noah
and his family and all the two-by-two animals stuck in there and shut
the door, shut them in. And the wrath came and the winds
blew and the waters came up, but the love of God protected
that little Remnant of humanity in the animal world until such
time as wrath has gone by, then he opens the door and lets them
out. Love looked on the face of the
earth and saw that virtually no one was worshipping God and
chose out Abraham. Chose out Abraham who worshipped
false gods. Idle worshipper. And he revealed
himself in love to Abraham. And he ordained good things for
Abraham and his descendants. And especially this, in love
he ordained that through those descendants would come one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every good thing on this earth
has come about by the love of God. Every time somebody sits
down and eats a meal, it's the love of God that's at the table. Every time we sit in a warm house
on a cold day, it's the love of God that made us warm. And
every time we sit in an air-conditioned house on a hot day, it's the
love of God. Every time we find the love of
family and friend and our hearts are warmed by companionship,
it's the love of God that put it there. Every good thing comes
about by the love of God. This principle of love, this
glorious attribute of God, it delivers us from legalistic bondage. You think about that. We were
born slaves, weren't we? What is it that made us sons?
Was it something we did? Not ultimately. It was the love
of God that looked down on us and our slavishness. in our bondage
and delivered us from that bondage by Jesus Christ and made us sons. And when we practice that love,
that love that's shown to us, when we reflect it in our relationships
with others, it delivers us from the awful bondage of being masters. You say, what do you mean by
that? Well, I've discovered this, that it's just as burdensome
trying to be the master of others as it is trying to be a slave. God delivers us from all our
sins. God sets us free from all our
failures. And what we so often do is turn
right around and conduct all our relationships with people
according to the principles from which God has set us free. And the law says, this do and
live. If you'll do this, you can get along with me and have
eternal life. But then in the gospel, God comes to us and sets
us free from that this do and live. And yet we still conduct
our relationships with people saying, I'll have you only if
you do what I want. But when we learn to love, When
we learn to express to others that wonderful thing that God
has expressed to us, we find that life is a lot easier that
way. The Bible says that the way of the transgressor is hard.
That's who's got it tough. It's the man who holds a grudge
that has a hard life, not the one that forgives. It's the man
who hoards his money that's got a miserable life. Why do you
think they call people that hoard money misers? That's the first
part of the word miserable. They are miserable. It's the
man who hoards that's miserable, not the man that gives. It's not the man that helps that
has a hard way. It's the man who won't help that
dies in bitterness. It's not the man who gives that
shrivels up It's the man who keeps. Oh, that we could learn
a little bit of that principle called love. As I strive to learn it and practice
at least a little bit of it, I find that the burdens fall
from me. They do. My life is so much easier
when I forgive. My life is so much easier when
I understand and put up with the frailties of others. And
I'll tell you one reason it gets easier. As I learn to forgive
and put up with the frailties of others, I find that it's easier
for me to forgive and put up with my own weaknesses. When
I'm not so hard on others, I'm not so hard on me. All love. You know, the world gives its
Salutes to love. I remember a song that was popular
in my teenage years. What the world needs now is love,
sweet love. And they understand that, and
yet they just can't do it. They know that's what's needed,
is love, but they can't do it. And you know, we are in an even
worse position, sort of, because we not only know that's what's
needed, we have received it and so often are reluctant to show
it. And one reason I think we're
so reluctant to show it is because love looks crazy. It really does. When you love, you're going to
act in such a way as the world thinks is weak. So why don't
you stand up for yourself? The world thinks that's what
you ought to do. Somebody punches you in the nose, you ought to punch
them back. Somebody calls you a name, you ought to call them
a worse one. And when you don't, they think
you're weak. If somebody rips you off and
you don't look for justice, you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't
let a person get away with something. Well, let me ask you then, should
God let us get away with things? Do you want Him to hold you accountable
for everything you've done? Do you want God to exact every
penny that you owe Him? Aren't you glad that He does
not deal with you according to your iniquity, according to your
transgressions? And if we're so glad that God
does not deal with us according to our transgressions, let us
in turn not deal with everyone else according to their transgressions.
Love. Love removes burdens wherever
it goes. Love lifts us above the crass
level of living by mere duty and responsibility and gives
us heart, will, and strength to go above and beyond the call
of duty. That's why the church is not
ruled by rules. That's why we don't have a policy
here or preach a policy that you must give as a minimum 10%
or that you must come to church X amount of times. You know,
the apostles, the disciples, they were trying to get the rules.
You know, they said, well, should we forgive seven times, you know?
And they weren't too worried really about what the number
was. They just wanted to make sure there was an end to it, you know. Oh,
I can forgive seven times. So he punched me. OK, I forgive
you. Punch me. You know, you keep doing that seven times,
but you're sitting there waiting for that eighth one. Oh, come on,
hit me once more. Love takes us way beyond forgiving
seven times. Love not only makes us forgive
the seven times, but ready, willing, and able to forgive the seventy
times seven. Ready and willing always to receive
back the one who has gone astray. Ready always to smooth over the
offenses. Love enables us not only to do
for others what we are responsible to do, but to do more. I've known a lot of people. I've
lived in a lot of different areas and been in contact with all
kinds of people. And I've watched and seen how people deal in their
families, how parents deal with their children, and how spouses
deal with one another. And I've noted this. homes where
everyone's given responsibilities and everyone simply lives by
those responsibilities. It's just a tough house to live
in. It's just hard. While I carried out the garbage
yesterday, I'm not doing it today. I washed the dishes the last
several days. Now it's your turn. But in those homes that are ruled
by love, where everybody just does everything they can for
everybody else. Oh, what a wonderful place to
be. Why, you feel at ease there. And nobody feels like they're
working. Love is a miraculous thing. And of all the evidences of a
saving interest in Christ, this is the chief, the most powerful,
that a man loves Christ. And this goes to the very heart
of the matter because this question goes to the very heart of a man.
Our Lord said to Peter, do you love me? And that is a piercing
question, isn't it? It gets past all the the orthodox
religion that we can practice. It goes way beyond all the frames
of mind and the forms of our outward religion that we try
to put on to impress everybody else. It goes beyond our creed. It goes beyond all of our works.
It pierces to the very heart of us and asks us a question
to which we know the answer. You know that answer right now.
You know whether or not you love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I
don't know because I can't see your heart, but I can ask this
question that will pierce your heart and open it up to you if
you'll just look at it. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I believe Him. Well, you'll
notice that's not what the Lord asked Peter. Well, I'm faithful
to it. That's not what the Lord asked
Peter. Well, I believe in the doctrines of grace. That's not
what the Lord asked Peter. Do you love him? It will pierce
the heart of the orthodox religionist, revealing that his religion is
just a shell and a sham, despite its beautiful outward appearance,
and it will comfort the weak believer. You know, believers
are not prone to boast about anything concerning themselves. But when this question is put
to them as a challenge, they can be hurt. It will. It'll hurt them that their love
for Christ is called into question. It's exactly what happened with
Peter. Verse 17, the third time Jesus said to Peter, Simon, son
of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus
asked him. Oh, nothing hurts the heart of
a lover more than to have his love put at question. Now, if the Lord had said to
Peter, do you believe me? He'd have to say, Lord, I'd like
to think I do, but boy, I sure didn't act like I believed him.
Well, Peter, will you be faithful to me from now on? Well, Lord,
I'd like to say I would, but I'm done making promises. I see
what my promises mean. Peter, do you love me? Don't
challenge me there. Lord, you know I love you. I've
not always acted like it. My love has not always expressed
itself as it should. But Lord, you know everything. And maybe nobody else can tell
I love you, but you know I do. You know I do. And so the challenge comes to
you and me, do we love the Lord Jesus Christ? And, you know,
I can think of many ways in which my love for him. Well, I just
I'm sure it casts the doubt or doubt is cast on it to everybody
else's eyes. And I know many times I question
whether or not I believe him. And I can testify certainly I'm
not faithful in any absolute sense of the
word. But I can say this, I do love
Him. And if you believe Him, you love
Him too. As Peter says, unto you who believe,
He is precious. Now just like all our other loves,
people we love, we don't treat the people we love as we ought
to. We don't always treat them with love. That doesn't mean
we don't love them. Our love for others can be betrayed by
the things we do. We can get distracted. And that's
the same with our love for Christ. But all God's people do love
Christ. John Newton wrote, "'Tis a point
I long to know, and oft it gives me anxious thought. Do I love
the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not?" And he
goes on through that poem, saying, if I loved the Lord, would I
be this way? And if I loved the Lord, would I be that way? And
if I really loved the Lord, would I be that way? Yet he gets to
the end of the poem, and this is where all believers get. He
says, I humbly answer. Yes, I do love
the Lord. And it's for the very reason
that I love Him that I'm so troubled by all the non-loving things
I do. You know, if you didn't love Him,
it wouldn't bother you that you often treat Him without love.
You wouldn't care. We do love the Lord if we know
Him. And like Peter, we would answer
our Lord, Lord, I can understand your questioning my faith and
my courage and my faithfulness, but it hurts me deeply that you
would question my love. And yet the Lord did it for this
reason. He questioned it to prove it.
And it does prove to us our love for Him when it is put to us
that we do not love Him. Love will always rise up and
defend itself against such a challenge. For me to say I do not love the
Lord Jesus Christ, I could not do it because it would be such
an insult to Him for me to say it. Love would prevent me from
saying it because we can't insult the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't say anything bad about
my parents because I love them. And I don't even think that I
could form the words under duress that I don't love them. I just
couldn't, you know, if they'd say, all right, you know, you
tell me you don't love your parents. You just state it out loud or,
you know, we're going to rob you blind or something like that.
I don't know that I could do it. And we love the Lord. And we must confess it. Whom
do God's people love? They love the Lord Jesus. Peter
said, You know I love you. And they love Him as He is. Now a lot of people, we're going
to sing here at the end of this service, Oh, How I Love Jesus.
But the Jesus they love is not the Jesus you find in the Scripture.
They've invented a Jesus they love, and they have made their
Jesus to be like them. That's essentially what they
do. They make a Jesus version of themselves, and they fall
in love with that because they're in love with themselves. But
Peter did not say, I love the idea of you. He said, I love
you. Peter loved Christ just as he
was. There's nothing about the Lord
Jesus Christ that a believer does not love. Is there with
you? Is there something about Christ
you don't love? Is there something about him you don't find delightful?
Are any of his words distasteful to you? Are any of his ways distasteful
to you? God's people love him as God
over all, forever praised. I love the Lord Jesus Christ
as God. I don't want anybody else to be God. I'm in love over
the fact that He is my God. Thomas said, My Lord and my God,
and he wouldn't have it any other way. They love Him as man, the man
Christ Jesus. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. They like Him.
They love Him as a human being. John said, that which we have
seen with our eyes and our hands have handled of the Word of Life.
That's what we tell you. We preach no ghost. We don't
speak to you of a spirit. We don't declare some nebulous
idea. It is a real, live human being
that we worship and that we love. We love his word, don't you? I can't find any of this Bible
that I don't like. There's some of it I don't understand,
but there's not any of it I don't like. There's not any of it I
don't love. His ways may be past finding
out, but I love all his ways. Don't you? I love his life. I read of the life of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I've got to say, I love that. I love the way he was in everything
he did. I'm not offended by one action
that he took. I love his sacrifice. That song
that we sang, How Great Thou Art, that third verse, what a
blessing. And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, sent Him to die to take away my sins. that on the cross my burden gladly
bearing." What a thing to think of! Oh, does that not inflame
your love for Christ? To think that He loved His people to that
degree, that much? Having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them to the end? I love His resurrection. I love His ascension to the right
hand of God. I'm glad that there is one seated
at the right hand of God who loves me, and I love His glory
there. They love His freedom. God's
people love the freedom which Christ gives, and they love His
lordship over them. They are glad to be children
in His home and citizens of His kingdom. They love his liberty
and they love his law. They love that they've been set
free from bondage and they love that they have been made bondservants
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They love his words of comfort
and they cherish his words of rebuke. One way that people prove that
they do not love the Lord as He is is when they start picking
and choosing from what He says. And they listen to only those
things which they like. But let a word of rebuke come,
and they want none of it. Let His Word pierce their heart,
and they'll run from it. But God's people, oh, they would
much rather He speak harshly to them than not speak at all. They never want to get the silent
treatment from the Lord Jesus Christ. They love His Word. Christians are like that woman
in the Song of Solomon. To them, Christ is altogether
lovely. I don't know how often you've
read the book of Song of Solomon. You ought to get the book out
and read it, and particularly in a version where it keeps track
for you of who's talking, whether it's supposed to be Solomon or
the woman that he loves. But you look in there and you
find those places where that woman is speaking about Solomon. They came to her and challenged
her one time, and they said to her, what is your beloved more
than all the other beloveds in the world that you should Speak
so, and seek Him so fervently." And she starts to talk about
Him. Oh, she goes through the details of Him. How His hair
is beautiful and bushy, and His complexion is perfect, and His
teeth are pearly white. This is not one of them is missing.
He's got them all. Talk about His arms that hold
her so strong, and His legs like marble. And she goes through
all the details of Him and then she stands back and she says,
not just the details, you put them all together. He's lovely. He's lovely. I find no fault
in Him. Nothing wrong. There's nothing
I'd change. Is there anything you'd change
about the Lord Jesus Christ? Not if you know Him. He'd say
He's altogether lovely in every point and all put together. Why do these people love Him?
Well, in John 4, verse 19, it says we love Him because He first
loved us. Our love is always a reflection.
Any love we ever have is a reflection. And especially that love we bear
towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, when talking about marriage
and the marriage relationship, he says to men, Love your wives as Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for her. And our love for Him is but the
echo, the reflection of His love to us. Our love is stirred up
most of all when we think about His love for us. And that's why
it's good to dwell on that love and feast upon that love. We
love Him because He first loved us. And in there in Psalm 116,
look over there, If you will, let's just catch
a few points there in Psalm 116. Here's why we love the Lord Jesus.
I love the Lord, for He heard my voice, He heard my cry for
mercy. Because He turned His ear to
me, I will call on Him as long as I live. Now, we did not first
call on Him because we loved Him. We first called on Him because
we were in desperate need. It says here, you know, that He heard
my voice. I love Him because He heard my voice. So it certainly
wasn't my love for Him that first prompted me to call on Him. Oh, in desperate need. He says here, the cords of death
entangled me. This is verse 3. The anguish
of the grave came upon me. I was overcome by trouble and
sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord. Oh, Lord, save
me. And in verse six, we read, the
Lord protects the simple hearted when I was in great need. Our
translation doesn't give the full force of that. It says when
I was brought low. Oh, before we'll call on the
Lord, he's got to bring us low, doesn't he? That's why we spend
so much time being low. When I was brought low, then
He saved me. I called on Him and He saved
me. Now, I continue to call on Him because I love Him. But our
first call came from our need. And He showed His love to us.
He showed His mercy to us. And He lifted us out of the miry
clay and set our feet upon a rock and put a new song in our heart,
a song of praise to our God. We love him because he hurt us,
and we continue to call on him because he hurt us that one time.
Well, how do God's people love the Lord Jesus Christ? Look back
here at John chapter 21. The last words of verse 19, our
Lord said, follow me. Now, no amount of emotions or
anything, we can get whipped up about the Lord Jesus, and
people do that. And their emotions can be excited
about Him for a little while, but here's where love is proven,
and here's how love is shown, love to Christ. We follow Him. In Revelation 14, verse 4, in
describing the 144,000 which have been redeemed by blood. Here's one of their
descriptions. They follow the Lamb wherever
He goes. Now, as I was thinking on this
and trying to find a way to illustrate just what this means when it
talks about us following Christ, I could come up with no better
illustration than this. It's something my wife told me
years ago. I think it was probably as we were preparing to move
here, so it would have been about 20 years ago, But you know, she
grew up in New Jersey and she met me at college. And we fell
in love and decided to get married. Well, that involved her moving
to West Virginia, pretty far from her home. And the next move
we took was to western Kentucky, even farther from her home. And
I was getting ready to move her farther yet. And I said this
to her, I said, you know, I just keep moving you farther and farther
from your home. And she said this, my home, is
wherever you are. And friends, that's the love
that God's people have for Christ. Their home is wherever He is. They follow Him wherever He goes. And they are at home there. They will follow Him anywhere. This song, let me get a hymn
book. I want to read it to you. I don't know if we've ever sung
it here. Someday we should. Maybe tonight. But 422. Anywhere with Jesus, I can safely
go. Anywhere He leads me in this
world below, anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade. Anywhere with Jesus, I am not
afraid. Anywhere with Jesus, I am not
alone. Other friends may fail me, he
is still my own. Though his hand may lead me over
dreary ways, anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise. Anywhere
with Jesus over land and sea, telling souls in darkness of
salvation free, ready as he summons me to go or stay. Anywhere with
Jesus, he points the way. Anywhere with Jesus, I can go
to sleep. When the darkening shadows round
about me creep, Knowing I shall awaken, never more to roam, Anywhere
with Jesus will be home, sweet home." Now friends, that's what
it is to follow Christ. It isn't just this matter of,
it involves this, but it's not just a matter of taking up the
cross and following Him and thinking, oh, what I sacrificed for Jesus.
Following Jesus is delighting to be with Him, and we would
rather follow Him in trouble than to go into a peaceful way
without Him. We would rather follow Him in
the sorrow than into the pleasures for a season without Him. As one old hymn writer put it,
and I can't remember just who it was, But he says that prisons would
palaces prove if Christ were with me there. That's what it
is to follow Christ. And you know, everybody that
follows him will give that testimony. And that's why the world stands
back and looks at them and wonders, how can these people be happy? They're with Christ. He says
here to Peter, Verse 18, I tell you the truth. When you were
younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But
when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else
would dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.
Now, it's not as though these ways that the Lord leads us that
we would choose to go that way on our own. He said they're going
to lead you where you don't want to go. And John tells us that
that was our Lord implying how it would, how it would be that
Peter would glorify God in his death. He'd be crucified. So
that's not a place that Peter would choose to go. But then
the Lord said, follow me. That's where the Lord had already
been. He said, Peter, you follow me.
And you know what? Peter did. He followed him literally
to a cross. and counted it all joy to suffer
for Him. And then lastly, we show our
love, our love for Him by keeping His commands. Our Lord said,
if you love Me, you'll obey My commands. Do you find the commands
of Christ grievous? The Bible says in 1 John 5 that
His commands are not grievous, and they aren't grievous to those
that love Him. That word means burdensome. And
again, I was thinking of that That hymn there, where it talks
about Christ of my burden gladly bearing. Shall I consider that
Christ has borne the burden of my sin and then turn around and
act like it's a great burden to bear His yoke? Oh, His commands
are a delight to His people. And their burden comes not at
keeping them, but at breaking them. My heart is not heavy. when I do what my Lord commands.
My heart is not heavy when I follow Him. My heart is heavy when I
don't. Heavy with guilt, heavy with
grief, heavy with the sorrow that always attends going the
wrong way. Let me ask you now, as our Lord
asked Peter, do you love the Lord Jesus? You don't have to tell me. Tell
yourself. Do you really love Him? Or is
this all just so much religion to you?