I think one of the most poignant
lines in any song is, many hands were raised against him, none
would interpose to save, but the greatest stroke that pierced
him was the stroke that justice gave. Ephesians chapter three, once
again, I've entitled this message, Knowing the Love of Christ. Now, this is what I want for
me. This is what I want for you. To know. The love. Of Christ. Now, I know this. We've not begun
to know the love of Christ. Without seeing that the love
of Christ. Passeth knowledge. That's what
he says in our text. It passes knowledge. It's not something that we're
ever going to fully get a grip on. No, not even in eternity. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ
is infinitely more than these puny minds can grasp. And eternity
itself will not be enough time for us to enter in to the love
of Christ. Now, Paul spoke in verse 17 of
being rooted and grounded. It's something only God can do.
Only God can root me in Christ. Only God can ground me in Christ. This is the work of the Lord
alone. The love of God, the love of
Christ, you can't really separate the two, is a meaningless concept if we
don't understand something about the hatred of God. It is very important. The Bible says God is love. I'm
thankful for that, aren't you? It doesn't say God loves or hears
love and God fits the bill. God is love. And the Bible never
says that God is hate or that God is hatred, but the Bible
does say that God hates. And there's really no understanding
of his love without some understanding of God's hatred. Now, God did
say, both in Malachi 1 and Romans 9, verse 13, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. God said that, and he said that
of an individual. Esau have I hated. Psalm 5, verse 5 says, thou hatest
all. workers of iniquity. That's a pretty big group, isn't
it? Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Psalm 11 5 says, the
wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. I realize that most of what goes
under the name of Christianity presents a God that loves all
men the same unconditionally and wants all men to be saved
and has made the salvation of all men possible if they will
only do their part. Let me tell you three things
about that. Number one, it's not what the Bible teaches. You're not going to find that
in the scriptures. Number two, it makes the love of God meaningless
and worthless. People in hell that God actually
loves, what the love of God do for them? Absolutely nothing. Number three, that would make
God evil. What do I mean by that? If my
child is in great danger and I have the power to save them
and deliver them from that danger, what if I warn them, you're going
to be killed if you don't stop doing that. And I have the power
to do something about it, but I say, I'm not going to violate
your free will. What would I get for that love? A prison sentence and nothing
more. That representation of the love
of God is not love at all. There will be nobody in hell
that God loved. Amen. Somebody may disagree with this
if they want, but if you do, what you're doing is saying,
I disagree with and do not like who God is. That is all someone says by that. Now, the holy God is perfect. And how he is, is perfect. And his hatred is a perfect hatred. It comes from his holiness, his
chief attribute. And if somebody doesn't love
God as he is, They don't love him at all. Not really. They may love a God they've made
up, a God they feel comfortable with, but this is not the God
of the Bible. And someone who does not love
this God has also never seen their own sinfulness. If you
understand anything about your own sinfulness, you understand
why God would hate you. I understand. I understand how
God would hate me. Now, what I have the most difficulty
grasping is how he actually loves me. I stand amazed. I love that song. I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could
love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. When with the ransomed
in glory his face I at last shall see, it will be my joy through
the ages to sing of his love to me. Knowing the love of Christ
which passes knowledge. Now, the love Paul is speaking
of is not the worthless love that religion presents. You see, the love of God is holy. It's pure. His love does not make sin in
any way acceptable. His love is holy. His love is
pure. His love is clean. His wrath
is holy. His hatred is holy. His hatred
is clean. Doesn't God love men unconditionally? No, no. Anybody that talks about God's
unconditional love doesn't know anything about God's love at
all. Well, I want God to love me unconditionally. He can't do that and still be
God. That would be contrary to who he is. God's holy. God does
not love anyone unconditionally. Now, when I'm saying that, understand,
That doesn't mean that in and of myself, the way I'm born into
this world, there's something in me that draws out the love
of God, because there's not. But here's what God says to every
one of his people. Behold, thou art all fair, my
love. There is no spot in thee. Now, doesn't God love sinners?
Yes, he does. God commended his love toward
us. Who's the us? The elect. Those who are eternally
united to Christ. Those who can never be separated
from Christ. God commended his love toward
us. and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And don't forget this. His death
makes every believer completely lovely to God. I think it's sad
that we think God tolerates me for Christ's sake. That's what
I think a lot of times. That's what you think a lot of
times. But it's not like that at all. Behold thou are all fair,
completely beautiful. There is no spot in thee. Now that is true with regard
to everybody he loves. To know the love of Christ, to
know, I want to be like John. I want to see myself as that
disciple which Jesus loved. Don't you love that? Not the
disciple that loved Jesus. When you start talking about
your love to Christ, what do you think? You think it's nothing
near where it should be. Well, you're right about that.
And you don't know the half of it and I don't know the half
of it. But I love the way John sees himself. I want to know
myself to be that disciple that Jesus loved. I want to be able
to say with Paul, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me
in the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith
of the Son of God. I love the way he said that.
He didn't say, I live by faith in the Son of God. He said, I
live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. Now, to know the love of Christ,
the love of Christ never had a beginning. You know, one lady said this,
and I've always liked this statement. She goes, I know Christ would
have had to love me before I was born, because if he waited till
I was after I was born, he couldn't have loved me. And I understand
that. I understand that. But he says to every one of his
people, behold, Jeremiah 31 three, behold, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. A love that never had a beginning,
a love that'll never have an end. Loved eternally, loved in eternity
by the eternal God. God's love, the love of Christ
is infinite. What that means, that means it
can't be measured. It can't be measured. Christ said, as the Father hath
loved me. Now who can measure that? As
the Father hath loved me. That's impossible for me to say
what all that means. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. God didn't send Christ to make
a way to love. He sent him because he did. And when I'm talking about the
infiniteness of the love of Christ, of the love of God, think of
this. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us
all things? God's love is immutable. It never
changes. You know, God can't love you
any more than he does right now. He can't. He can't love you any
less than he does now. As far as that goes, God loves
him less. God doesn't love less. God's
love is immutable. It never changes. It never increases. It never decreases. It's always
infinite. And it's never anything but that. I am the Lord. I change not. Aren't you thankful he didn't
change? Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God's love is sovereign. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourges every son he receives. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. God says that twice. Old Testament,
Malachi 1, New Testament, Romans 9, 13. Listen to this scripture
from Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 7. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more number than any
people, for you were the fewest of all people. The most insignificant,
the weakest, the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you. That's the reason. Because the
Lord loved you. Why did the Lord love me? Because he did. Why does the
Lord love you? Because He did. There wasn't
anything in you that drew out His love, but because the Lord
loved you. God loves whom He will, and the
reason for His love is found only in Himself. He didn't love us because of
something we were or did, but because He loved us. Now here's
the You know, we, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the
Nazarene. I just quoted that. And why I stand amazed is why
I'm looking for reasons in myself. Why? He loved me, but the reason's
not found in me. He loved me because He loved
me. And God's love is always saving
love. Would you turn to Ephesians chapter
two? You're there in Ephesians chapter three anyway. Verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ, by grace you are saved. God's love is always saving love
and it encompasses everything that salvation is. It's electing
love. It's redeeming love. It's regenerating
love that gives you life. It's justifying love. If He loves
you, He's going to make you just before Himself where there is
no sin. It's keeping love. It's preserving
love. It's glorifying love. Everything
that is involved in salvation is secured by the love of God.
His love is always saving love. I repeat, there will be nobody
in hell that he loved. His love is saving love. And back to Ephesians chapter
three, Paul says, I want you to be able
to comprehend. Now that same word is translated
apprehend. It doesn't mean we can ever comprehend
intellectually God's love. He says, I want you to be able
to lay hold upon this for yourself and believe that you are that
disciple that Jesus loved. I want everybody that he loves
to know he loves you. and he couldn't love you more
right now, and there's nothing you can do to make him love you
less. Now, I want you to be able to lay
hold, apprehend with all saints. What's a saint? A saint is a
holy one. Every believer is a holy one. Now, you might not feel holy,
But beloved, you are holy. You're holy in God's sight. He
sees no spot in you. He sees no sin in you. That's
what a saint is. Set apart to be holy in eternal
election. Declared to be holy by what Christ
did on the cross. Made holy when God the Holy Spirit
gave you a holy nature, a new nature, a new heart. That's what
a saint is. He wants all the saints to be
able to apprehend to know what is the breadth and length and
depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ, which passes
knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now, Paul gives us a heavenly geometry lesson here. He wants
us to know the breadth of his love. He wants us to know the
length of his love. He wants us to know the depth
of His love, and He wants us to know the height of His love. Now, wouldn't it be something
if I can, by the Lord's help, enter into this thing of knowing
the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height of his
love. Now, the first thing he mentions
is the breadth of his love. The wideness of his love is what
that means, the wideness. And the best way I can try to
illustrate this is I was thinking about Peter. Peter. You know, all Peter's life, he
had trouble loving Gentiles. He just had a hard time with
it. And I think in Acts chapter 10, when he went and preached
to Cornelius and that bunch of Gentiles, and the Lord saved
him, and he comes back to tell his Jewish brethren about it,
and they at first accused him, you went into the house of a
Gentile. And when he was talking about
how the Lord saved these people, he said, who is I that I can
withstand God? Kind of like, I wouldn't have
done this, and I would have prevented it if I could have, but I can't
stop God if that's what he's going to do. And you know, all
his life he was plagued with having a hard time loving Gentiles.
Read there in Galatians 2. Remember when he got up from
the Gentile table because he was scared of what the Jews thought? He went and sat with the Jews,
and Paul said it was a denial of the gospel. But all his life,
he was plagued with this thing of having a hard time loving
Gentiles. Lord's not like that at all.
You know, everybody born into this world is born with pride
of race, pride of place, pride of face, and most offensively,
pride of grace that causes them to Not love. The breadth of their love is
narrowed. Narrowed because of this thing
of pride. Pride of race. Thinking I'm better than somebody
because of the race. Pride of face. Thinking there's
something special about me because of my face. I look different
from somebody else. Pride of place. Thinking I'm
above somebody because of the position I have. Pride of grace. What an oxymoron, pride of grace. God hates that. He's got a people out of every
kindred, tribe, tongue and nation. There's a wideness to God's love
and there's a wideness to God's mercy. And I think the width
of his love is seen in this word, whosoever Whosoever will. What a word.
Whosoever will. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. There's nobody that can say,
I sought mercy and he turned me down. No demographic, no kind
of people. I don't care what your condition
is. I don't care what your sinfulness is. I don't care what anything
about you. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I'm a whosoever. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord. Lord, I'm calling on your name.
I'm calling on your attributes. Save me by your holiness. Save
me by your grace. Save me by your love. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's how wide, that's the breadth
of his love. He doesn't turn anybody away
that comes to him for mercy and grace. Oh, the width, the breadth
of his love. And the next thing he mentions
is the length of his love. The length of his love. Now, it's an infinite love that
is an infinite line in either direction with no breaks or pauses. It's not a graph that goes up
and down. It's a love that never had a beginning. Behold, I've
loved you with an everlasting love. And it's a love that will
never have an end. It will never stop. And once
again, the thing I thought about was David. The Lord loved David. There isn't any question about
it, that is. The Lord loved David. You know, David's name means
the beloved. The beloved, he was beloved of God. Now, David
did some terrible things. And in the matter of Uriah and
Bathsheba, the scripture says the thing David did displeased
the Lord. He was displeased by that. And
if Uriah do what David did, he'll be displeased with that too.
But, and I'm glad I can give this but, Did the Lord love David
any less when he was committing those horrible sins? No. No. Did the Lord love David any more
when he was composing the Psalms or when he was leading Israel
in battle? No. No. You know why? Because the Lord's
love is an eternal line, an infinite line going either direction that
has no breaks and no pauses. Somebody says, explain that to
me. Well, come on. You know I can't do that. But
it's still so. It's true with regard to everybody
He loves. It's infinite. It's eternal. Lord never began to love you.
There wasn't a time when he started loving you. He's always loved
you. And because he's always loved
you, he always will love you. That is the length of his love. And then next, Paul said, I want
you to know the depth of his love. And that can be known in
two ways. But here's the first and most
important way. When we talk about the depth
of His love, how far did He come down when He was made a man? The Word, the infinite, eternal
Word was made flesh. What a stoop. When the Creator, became an infant. What a stoop. When he became
subject to all that being a man is, what a stoop. But you know
that that wasn't the greatest stoop. The depth of his love
was seen when he willingly was made sin. And I, you know, the
more I even talk about him being made sin, the more I see, I have
no idea what that means. He was made sin and that's all. No one can understand how horrible
that is. What a stoop when the infinite
God was made to be sin. Do you want to know what sin is? You look at that man hanging
on that cross, forsaken by his father. That's what sin is. He was made sin. That is the
depths of his love. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet for your sakes,
he became poor. Poor, he didn't have his father's
smile. He didn't have his father's favor.
He was forsaken. He became poor, that you through
his poverty might be rich. The depth of his love is seen
in who he loves. And my first example is me, a
sinful, weak, helpless sinner. And I could go on and on talking
about my own sinfulness, and I won't do it justice if I do,
and I'll end up doing it to try to make a way for me to look
better than you. So just put it this way. Every believer feels
like he reached the bottom when he reached them. Every single
one of them. That is the depth of his love. And then we read of the height
of his love. We may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height
of his love. Now, how high is Christ? How high is Christ? Well, there's nobody higher.
And he's seated at the right hand of the Father, the place
of complete acceptance, the complete everything, however high Christ
is. If you see the Lord, you seem
high and lifted up, don't you? High. and lift it up. Now, how
high is Christ? Well, however high the Father
is, that's how high He is. And you know who is right there
with Him in His heights? Every believer is seated together
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. That's how high I am. That's
how high every believer, however high Christ is, as He is. So
are we in this world. Well, is He high? You better
believe it. He's infinitely high, and so
is every believer. How high is that? Well, once
again, remember, I'm so glad Paul said to know the love of
Christ, which passes knowledge. There's no way any human being
can ever speak adequately about this, but oh, to know, to know. Now, I love to say we know. that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the cause according
to His purpose. And you know, I know that. I know that. I don't question
it. I don't always see it, but I
know I don't have to see it. I know it. I know God's word says it. I know it. We know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. I know that. I know I have no claims on God
by of my personal holiness or acts of obedience. I know that.
I know all God's law does is condemn me. I know that. I know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Herein
is love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin
removing sacrifice for us. To be loved by Christ. It's way beyond anything we can
describe, and Paul says it's that too. It passes knowledge. Verse 19, to know the love of
Christ, which passes knowledge. That you. Now, I have a tendency to believe
we look at something like this and we just move on. I don't
know what that means. That goes so far beyond my experience. That you. might be filled with
all the fullness of God. Now I'm going to try to preach
on that next week. I'm going to try. But doesn't
it have something to do with this? In him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are full. That's what
the word complete means. It's the same word. You are full
in him. The love of Christ passes knowledge. Now, we're getting ready to Take
the Lord's table. I wanna know his love. Well, how do I express my love
to him? By saying I love you? Well, that's
a good thing to say. It's a good thing to say. But
I express my love to him by believing his gospel and loving his people. In as
much as you've done it to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me. That's how I express love to
Christ. Not by saying I love you to him or telling everybody
else how much I love him. You know, I don't even like to
refer to people as people who love the Lord. Oh, they really
love the Lord. Not like that. Let's don't talk about anybody's
love as if that's really commendable. Everybody ought to love him,
but our security is not in our love to him, but his love to
us. And we express his love to us
by believing his gospel. Simple faith like a child, believing
his gospel and loving his people. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
deep, deep love of thy son that passes knowledge. And Lord, we
ask in Christ's name that we might be privileged to know his
love. And that we might all know ourselves
to be that disciple, that individual disciple that Jesus loved. Oh Lord, let us by your grace
be your loved ones and to know the breadth, the length and the
depth and the height of his love that passes knowledge. In his
name we pray. Amen.