Come with me in your Bibles to
2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I want to bring our attention to
verse 10. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the
things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto
God. And I trust also, I trust also
are made manifest in your consciences. I heard those verses in religion
many, many times. We're all gonna appear before
the judgment seat. He's gonna bring, as if it's
gonna be a movie on display where, and actually we used to hand
out tracks in false religion, and it actually had that particular
scene as if it was a movie that's gonna be played. Everybody's
gonna see what you've done then. Everybody's gonna know. That's
not what he's talking about here. We do know that we have to have
a substitute, but I want to be clear on something to begin with. I guess this is just to preface
what I'm about to tell us. I'm going to be preaching on
love, but I wanted to start by talking about fear. All false religion
in Christianity, and I'll do quotations, Christianity, that's
a vast umbrella that falls under that. So we have to There's only
one true gospel and one true Christianity, true followers
of Christ. We know that to be true, but all false Christianity
says the same thing. It's all fear-driven. Everything
about it's fear-driven. You're gonna have to give an
account for yourself. You're gonna have to, whether it be
good or whether it be evil, you better watch what you do. You
better watch what you say. You better watch where you go.
Well, that's true. We should watch what we do and say, but not for
our righteousness, not for justification before God. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our justification before God. Men use the law to motivate
people. Fear is a motivation in false
religion. In all false religion, fear is
the motivation. Men declare what must be done
to escape God's anger, and all these law-mongering Pharisees
justify themselves by looking at others and say, I'm good enough
because I'm not like this one or I'm not like this person.
That's not what the child of God does. We look to Christ. We look to Christ as all our
righteousness, as all of our justification, as all of our
sanctification, and for all of our redemption. And we don't
preach fear, do we? We don't preach, you better do
this and you better do that. We preach it is finished. That's
the difference. That's the difference between
our gospel and theirs. These men condemn others for their
actions and look at their own intention, but God looks at the
heart, doesn't he? God looks at the heart. We must
have a new heart. Our heart's wicked from birth.
We have to have a new heart. He looks all the way down and
he sees that these Pharisees are whited sepulchers. That's
what they called them. They've bleached the outside.
They've made the outside of that tomb look really pretty. It's
white, but on the inside it's full of dead men's bones. That's
what Christ told the Pharisees. Fear is the motivation in false
religion. The scary part about that is
the genuine sincerity. of a wicked heart. The genuine
false religion, we were not playing games. For those of us who were
in false religion, we were very adamant, very serious. Mark,
you were very serious about going to services and trying to do. We never were satisfied. Why? Because Christ is the only
thing that satisfies the longing heart. Christ is the only thing
that gives rest to his people. Christ is rest. And it's not
the fear of God that constrains us that we're gonna read about
in a minute. It's the love of Christ that constrains his people. We didn't realize that we were
our own God. We were dead, thinking that we've
done enough to please God, made us our own God. We believed that
living a certain way, God would reward us. And it was all based
on fear. Every bit of it was based on
fear. God's gospel preachers do not motivate or manipulate
or control with fear. We preach Christ. That's what
I hope to preach this morning to us is Christ. His finished
work alone. His love towards his people alone. There's our hope. There's our
rest. is him, what better motivation is there than declaring his finished
work? Nothing motivates a believer,
nothing motivates sheep, his sheep. Accept the goodness of
God. That's what leads men to repentance.
It's not the fear of the Lord that causes us to be desirous
to serve him. No, it's out of love that we
serve him. The fear of the Lord leads us and and we have been
given repentance and have a godly fear. Yes, but it's what drives
us straight to Christ in that. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us first and he's given us his son wherein we live and
move and have our being. There was a wedding that I knew
was taking place just a couple days ago when I was entering
into the thought of love and fear and in false religion of
different things while I was studying and what more motivating to a spouse
than to have the love of their spouse if I was to I half expected
my wife to be sitting here. I forgot she had class to do
or whatever, but I, so I can't, I gotta be careful. The examples
I use, it could get me in trouble when she listens to it later
now. But if I looked at my wife or we looked at our spouse and
says, woman, you better do as I say. You better do as I say. Now, what kind of motivation
is that? I don't know how most wives are, but my wife would
be like, make me. Well, then we're going to have
to have a progression of testosterone versus estrogen. It's not going
to be good. It's all about self, isn't it? Listen to me. Do as
I say. No, how about sweetheart, love of my life, the most precious
woman to me? Would you please get me a glass
of water? Something simple. Where's the
motivation? Yes. Yes, my love. I would be
delighted. And then in return, she says,
My beloved, will you get me a glass of water? Yes, gladly. See, that's
where our service comes in unto the Lord. It's love that motivates,
isn't it? The Lord doesn't say, do this and do this and do this.
No, we just preach Christ and we want to serve Him because
of the love that He's given to us. False religion has it made
out as if the woman's a slave. You ever heard this? Wives, submit yourself to your
husbands and the Lord for this is right. That's in the Bible.
That's scriptural. That's right. Wives, submit yourself.
What does that mean by that? Well, it means the same thing
as the next verse. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. It's a union before God
that represents the body of Christ, his bride, and him. Him being
the head and her being the body completely joined together in
union. in perfect oneness, unity of
mind and heart, in love, in love before the Father. That's what
marriage represents. No, the wife's not a slave, and
the men are not kings that say, look at me and demand things
of their wife and be selfish. No, husbands, love your wives
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's the
command that goes forth. How do I do that? Be selfless. Put them first. Wives, honor
your husbands. How do you do that? Be selfless.
Love them. Put them before yourself. That's
what we do. Why? Because that's what the Lord's
commanded. He's taught us. And how did he do that? By example.
He's our example in that, isn't he? It's not about look at me. It's not about look at me anymore.
Anybody that's going to get married, it's not yet. Marriage is a sacrifice. And it's not a one-time sacrifice
where you get to put her first or put him first one time. It's
daily, isn't it? We put each other, and it's a
battle. It's a struggle because we're all about self by the flesh.
When it comes to our love, the Lord renews that with Christ
daily, and we're turned again unto him. And we are turned away
from self continually. That's what he does by his gospel. He turns us back to him. In this gospel, it has the woman
as precious to her husband, and the husband precious to his wife. What did the scripture say? He's
fair, fairer than 10,000. What does that mean? Well, 10,000
is one of the largest numbers that the scripture says. You
can just say he's fairer than all to me. That would be just
fine. That's exactly what he's saying. She's saying he's fairer
than all. And he said the same about her.
It's love that he has given to us that compels us, that motivates
us, that constrains us. Now let's read here in our text,
2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. and that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them. We don't live unto ourselves,
we live unto him which died for us and rose again. Wherefore
henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have
known Christ after the flesh, Yet now, henceforth, we know
him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself. not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. I've titled this message, The
Love of Christ. The Love of Christ. You know
what love does? Love casts out fear. Do you know why? Because there's
no fear in love. That's what he tells us in 1
John chapter 4. Love constrains his people. Now
that word constrained, I was excited to find out the meaning
of that word constrained, it means to hold together. Hold
together lest it should fall to pieces. Hold together lest
it should fall to pieces. That's what constrained means.
Can you relate to that? Is that you? Is the love of Christ
what holds you together? Or you just fall to pieces? Not
even talking about spiritually, what about physically? We would
fall to pieces, wouldn't we? No, you that's tasted of the
grace of the Lord, is it not made known unto us that he's
the one that keeps his people? He keeps us by his love. He keeps
us by his power. Lest we should fall to pieces.
We would die without him. We would die without him, wouldn't
we? We know that to be true. We would perish eternally without
him. We would perish physically without him. We'd be of all men
most miserable. Better for us to not have been born than to
be born and not know Him. Jacob knew of the value of Christ,
had a love in his heart for the birthright, and desired the Lord's
blessing. And what did he do? Did he ask
and then say, well, I've done all I can. I'll just see what
happens. He latched a hold of the Lord, didn't he? He wrestled
with him. And men think that they can really, well, you need
to be like Jacob and wrestle with God. And I mentioned this
to us before, but just as a reminder, that wrestling that he did, he
clave unto him is what that word means. It's like a child that
cleaves to their parent when they're scared, when they're
frightened. The other night we had a thunderstorm and I had
a little girl that came. She was afraid. She was scared.
What's happening? I don't know. I don't know what's
happening, Daddy. In my arms, she fell right back
asleep. She knew I would protect her.
I didn't have the power over that storm, but our God does.
And that's the picture of Jacob wrestling as he said, my brother
is going to kill me, which is a picture of the law and sins
demands of death upon us. Lord, if you don't bless me,
I'm going to die. I'm going to die. If you don't
love me, I'm going to die. What did the Lord do? He touched
his hip, and he blessed him. What is that a picture of? Well,
Paul just told us we're now new creatures. We limp through this
life now. We're not running a race. We're
limping through this life, trying to get to him, and he's the one
keeping us, drawing us unto himself. We receive the blessing. What's
the blessing? Christ is the blessing. Christ
is, it's not the blessing of finances. It's not the blessing
of health. Those are good things, you know,
in this life, but Christ is the blessing to his people. He's
what we want. He's who we love. He's who we
desire more than anything else, more than anything else. He is
who Jacob had to have. David, knew about this as well. You read about the love that
he writes of the Lord and all the Psalms and throughout the
first and second Samuel, you see David's life and all the
things that he endured. He said this about the Lord,
though he slay me, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Can you say that? Though he slay
me, Lord, take my life. If that's your will, we bow to
that, don't we? Lord, I've got to have you. What compelled us to do that? The love of Christ that's been
shed abroad in our heart. We love him because he first
loved us. We love him and he loves us. I find that amazing that he loves,
that he would choose to love Jacob. That's amazing to me. I can see why he would hate Esau
very clearly. I can see why he would hate you
and I. But that's not what he said. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. There's a distinct difference.
He chose to love. Jacob says, I've got to have
you. David said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Yet
will I trust him. The Lord's people have been given
the love of Christ. Therefore we have to have him. We never brag about, you ever
brag about your love? Well, I love my wife so much,
I'm the, I got the most love for my wife of any other man.
I don't think I've ever heard a believer say something like
that. That's, how about, I wish I loved her more. I wish I showed
my love more to her. You ever thought that? I have,
many times. Lord's never thought that before. The Lord did show
forth his love, didn't he? He did, to the highest degree
possible. He showed forth his love on the
cross of Calvary. The greatest display of love
that's ever been for his people, for his bride. He accomplished salvation by
showing that love. Therefore, we love him because
he first loved us. Men say that the opposite of
love is hate, and I'm going to tell you that that's not true.
That's not true. The Lord showed me what the opposite
of love is, is self. It's self. Think about it. Think
about it. The opposite of love is self,
not hate. It's self. What greater display
do we have of love, of the selflessness of Christ and on the cross of
Calvary, in all of time. Any other display that we would
compare it to, there's nothing that compares to the display
of love, of the selflessness, the devotion to his father, and
the display of love for his people and the redemptive work of Christ
by his hand alone. There's nothing that compares
to that. Nothing whatsoever. He accomplished salvation. He
didn't try. He was successful. He was successful. Ezekiel tells us that it was
all his doing. It was all by his work, all by
his hand. He says this, Ezekiel, in the
Lord's words, prophetically by Ezekiel, now when I passed by
thee, I looked upon thee, behold, my time was the time of love. I chose to love you. That's what
he's saying. When I passed by you, I saw you. I spread my skirt
over thee, the previous verse says that we were, we had no
covering, we were naked, we were dead, he uses the word dead,
we were polluted in our own blood, he passed by us. It was the time
of love and he spread his skirt over thee, covered thy nakedness,
yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, sayeth
the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. That's his doing, wasn't
it? That's his choosing. What can you compare our love
to when you look at that? It's ours is so cold. Ours is
so indifferent. Ours is so we have a twisted
love, don't we? Not him. It's perfect. Everything
about our God's perfect. He loves his people perfectly
with an everlasting love. And all by his choosing, all
by his doing, as we have already read, he made us the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing worthy in us. Now, if
we look to ourself, we'll, if the Lord gives grace to see what
we really are, we'll find nothing in us is worthy of Him. Nothing
of us is worthy of Him. So He made us worthy by making
us the righteousness of God in Him. He did it despite us. He did it in spite of us. He
chose to love His people. Jeremiah 31, three says the Lord
hath appeared of old unto me saying, yay, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. It's his love that draws his
people irresistibly. He's irresistible to his people.
Whenever. And this is a weak example, but
the first time I ever met my wife, they say, do you believe
in love at first sight? I think so, because I said, that's
the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And obviously, I'm
not telling you a fib. We've been married almost 20
years. The Lord's kept us thus far. We get no glory in that,
but you get what I'm saying. I loved her. I loved her. I still
do. But when the Lord, see, He's always loved us. It wasn't love at first sight.
He purposed to love us before time ever began. He purposed
for us to be born. He purposed in Him choosing to
make time to redeem us. Everything about it had nothing
to do with us. It wasn't our good looks. It wasn't our works. It wasn't our righteousness.
It wasn't anything about us. It was all about His choosing. That's the good news of the gospel.
We can't mess it up. He's the doer of it. He's the
doer of it. He did it before time ever began. How can the Holy Ghost, how can
the God of creation, how can the Lord love a creature like
you and I? We've already heard it. He's
made us the righteousness of God in him. But in Psalm 11,
David said the righteous Lord, the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. He hates the workers of iniquity.
He told us in Psalm chapter five, verse five, but he loveth righteousness. If we have any hope. of having
acceptance with God, of having the love of Christ. If we have
any hope of that, we have to be righteous. Not a little bit
righteous, 100% righteous. How are we gonna do that? We
can't. We're dead, remember? We're dead
in trespasses and in sin by birth. We have to have a substitute.
Therefore, God, in his sovereign grace and mercy, elected a people. Christ redeemed those people.
And in time, the spirit regenerates those people. Listen to what
Isaiah 43 says, since thou was precious in my sight, thou hast
been honorable and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men
for thee and people for thy life. He calls his bride precious.
Isaiah 43, the Lord said, you're precious in my sight. Can you
imagine God Can you imagine the Lord, can we enter into that
thought? God, the one that inhabits eternity, seated on his throne,
the sovereign creator and sustainer of all things says, you are precious
in my sight. What greater honor is there for
a child of God? What greater than to be called,
behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God? Since thou were precious, Why
is she precious? Why is she honorable? Because
his bride is robed in the righteous garments washed by his own blood.
He's made her precious. He's made her righteous. He's
made her honorable. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. It's the greatest display of
love in all time and eternity, isn't it? The cross of Calvary.
Herein is love, not that we love God. but that he loved us. It's
his. He is the God of love, the scripture
says. You remember the Greeks had all
their God, the God of the sun and Jupiter and all these other
gods, the God of the sea and whatever else. He's the God of
all of it, isn't he? He's the, they had a God of love. You know,
Valentine's Day stemmed from, well, I won't even get into all
that, but anyways, he's the God of love. Why? He's the creator
and sustainer of everything, everything that's been created.
It's one of his many characters. One of his beautiful perfections
is love. Our God loves. Who does he love?
He loves his people. How much did he love them to
make his son sin for us? Who knew no sin? To make him,
make Christ, as we just heard, the propitiation. He sent his
son to be the propitiation for his people, for our sin. Christ wrought redemption that
day on the cross of Calvary. Complete selflessness, complete
obedience unto the Father, all to redeem his people. What better
display is there of love than that? There's not, is there?
There's not. One of the comforting aspects
of God's love is that it's not a dependent love. It's not dependent
on you and I. Aren't you thankful for that?
All love is conditional. Somebody said, well, God loves
us unconditional. That's not true. You have to be in Christ
or he doesn't love you. That's the condition. We must
be found in Christ. We must be. That's condition.
And the condition of the father's love to his son is that's his
son. All the love is conditional. Don't fool yourself. The Lord
loves whom he loves because they are in Christ Jesus. Our love
is conditional. Our love is nothing to be compared
to his love. His love is everlasting. His
love is everlasting. His love is not conditioned based
upon you and I in any way. It's not dependent upon you and
I in any way. He chose to love and his love
accomplished salvation. His love accomplished that which
he purposed. It's based on Christ completely. His love is not a
powerless love. Our love even, we can love with
every, feels like with every fiber of our being, but what
does that accomplish? What does his love accomplish?
It has power behind it. It's sovereign love. Everything
about him is sovereign. Everything about him is perfect.
He has a sovereign love, just like he has sovereign grace. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. Those God chooses to reveal
his love towards cannot perish because of his love. You're kept
by the power of God. We're constrained by the love
of God. We're held together by the love of God. We see that
how beautiful the picture is of the love of Christ, the love
that God's given to his people in Christ Jesus. I understand something very important.
I would do a disservice to you if I didn't make this clear.
God does not love everybody. He does not. It's very clear
in the scripture. I've already said Jacob have
I loved Esau have I hated. John chapter 5 verse 42 Christ
tells the Pharisees I know you. You have not the love of God
in you. You don't have it. You have not
the love of God in you. He said, you're of your father,
the devil. God's not your father. That's a different place, but
it's the same, same people he's speaking to. You're of your father,
the devil. He did not come to try to redeem
anyone. He came to redeem and he did.
He didn't come to display His love so that someone could accept
it or reject it as if it is a Valentine's Day present. No, He came to accomplish
salvation, and He did. Who did He do that for? His people. His people. And we see that they
have been made the righteousness of God in Him. Are they made
the righteousness of God whenever they believe? No, they were made
the righteousness of God before time ever began. Our believing,
it doesn't change it. It's that's what faith just reveals
Christ, doesn't it? That's what faith does. It reveals
Christ. It doesn't make us righteous. It doesn't make us justified.
Christ did all that. And he did it all by his love,
all for his bride. to love God in return, to truly
love God. Men would say, I mean, you, if
you ask our children, do you love, do you love Jesus? Every
one of them is going to say yes. You ask adults, do you love Jesus?
Yeah, absolutely. Peter, when the Lord looked at
Peter and he said, Peter, do you love me? He was not talking
about a physical love. He was talking about a spiritual
love. Peter said, Lord, I love you with a physical love. He
confessed the truth. He said, I can only love you
the way that I love you, Lord. I love you. But what is my love?
It's physical. It's only in the flesh. Lord,
you're going to have to give me your love, the love of Christ. You're
going to have to give me spiritual love for you. You're going to
have to give me eyes of faith, is what he's saying. And when
you're given that faith, do we not love our Lord and Savior?
Do we not love our husband? Do we not love our king? He's
everything to us. He's everything to us. Although
we have an emotional connection to people, our nature is not
to love. We have to be compelled by the
Lord to love him the way that he is pleased with. And how is
that? He has to give us Christ's love. We don't, there's nothing,
I want to be so clear on this, there's nothing that we can produce,
nothing that we can generate, nothing that we can think, nothing
that we can say that pleases God in salvation. Christ did
all of that. Christ did it all. And if we're
going to have anything that pleases him, it must be bestowed. And he must be the doer. He must
be the bestower of it. And thank God he does for his
people. He does. Why? Because he loves
them. He loves them. Now the opposite of love is not
hate. It is self. And our nature is
to focus on self, isn't it? We're being honest with ourself.
Our nature is to focus on self. I love my life, but whenever
If she's sick and I'm sick at the same time, who do you think
I'm thinking about? I'm not constantly thinking of her. It's nature
to think of self, isn't it? May the Lord give us the grace
to put one another before each other. May the Lord give us the
grace and the love that he shed abroad in our heart towards us,
towards the brethren. Towards the brethren. Flesh says,
look at self, look at self, look at self, promotion. I won't mention
social media again. I mentioned it on Wednesday night,
but it's all about self, isn't it? Look at me, look at me. What
does the love of Christ teach us? It's all about Him. But did you know He didn't draw
attention to Himself? Think about what I'm saying.
Christ Jesus didn't come here to say, look at me, look at me.
Who did He always point to? His Father. Who did He always
give the glory to? His Father. Who was He doing
it for? His Father and for His bride.
It was a complete act of selflessness. Complete act of selflessness,
not a bit of selfishness in the Lord Jesus Christ, complete devotion
to his father for the love that he had for him and for his bride. It's what faith reveals, isn't
it? It reveals Christ, reveals Christ and his finished work,
his love. And that's what makes us love
each other. That's what makes us love him. That's what makes
us love each other. What's the greatest way that you can show
that you love him? John said, we know that we've
passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. We love
the brethren. Scripture says we are servants
one to another. Servants one to another. Servant
doesn't get much glory, does he? Not really. Most servants don't get paid.
That'd be a hireling. There's three kinds of servants. There's
a hireling, that gets paid. And they do it for the money.
Their heart's not in it. Their heart's not devoted to
what they're doing. They're just doing it to get paid. Then you
have a slave that's been bought. And most slaves are begrudging
for that reason. They have no power. They want
to be free. They can't. They are owned by the one that
bought them. Then you have a son. A son that
serves. And what is the motivation of
the son? It is love. Only one that is love. And that's
what you and I have been called is the sons of God, the daughters
of God in Christ Jesus. That's what we have been. And
that's what compels us to serve him and to serve one another. Love, love, his love. Galatians 5, 13 for brethren,
you've been called into liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. Don't think about yourself. Don't
think about yourself, but by love, serve one another. We are
his people serving him and each other in love. Jesus said this,
the book of John, this is my commandment that you love one
another. Well, do we love one another
so that we can have righteousness? No, we love one another because
we've been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We see
that whenever we, When we, is it not true? Is it not true when
we come together, we break bread? There's a love that we have for
the brethren, isn't there? What about the people that came
up for the conference? You remember, did you meet anybody that you
had never met before? And you just loved him. And you
couldn't explain other than the fact that you had the same God,
the same love that he has given to you, they had for him. The
same confession. I'm a dog, he's the savior. I'm
unrighteous, he's righteous. I'm unholy, he's holy. And we've
been made the righteousness of God in him all by his doing.
We both say amen to that and we fellowship. There's union
there. Why? Because the love of God
is shed abroad in the hearts of his people for him and for
each other. Love is selfless, love is selfless,
Christ is our example in that. Christ told the disciples. King's
going to make King's going to make a proclamation, he's going
to say when I was when I was sick. When I was sick, you visited
me when I was naked, when I was naked, you clothed me. When I
was in prison, you came to me. When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave
me to drink. The disciple said, Lord, when
did we do all that? We haven't done any of that. He said, when
you do it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto
me. Think about that. You ever showed
compassion on your brother? You done it unto Christ. We don't
do it for self-glory. We don't do it, look what I did
for so-and-so. Look at me, that's not love.
That's not love, that's self, isn't it? No, we do it, we do
it unto the Lord because of the love that he's given us for him
and for each other. Galatians 5.14 says, for all
the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. That word neighbor is kinsman.
Kinsman's a brother. Love your brother as yourself.
That's what the Lord's saying there. Do we have the love of
Christ? If we do, it'll show up in how
we love our brethren. It will, it'll show up. We'll
know. I won't know that I have it,
and you won't know that you have it, but you'll know whether I
have it or not, and I'll know whether you have it or not, because
how we treat one another in love unto him, in our confession of
him being all. If we do love, it's by God's
grace in the heart. No greater love hath any man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. See,
our Christ, our Lord, is the example in all of this, the sacrifice
of himself, what he done on this earth for his people. We preach
not ourself, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your
servant for Jesus' sake, is what Paul says in this, in the chapter
right before this. Our Lord's example, and I'll
mention this the next hour or two, but our Lord said, the foxes
have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of
man had no place to lay his head. He didn't come here to set up
an earthly kingdom. He came here to set up a heavenly
kingdom. He came here for one purpose, and that was to redeem
those which he loved. Scripture says he set his eyes
like a flint towards the cross. He was purposed and determined
to redeem those that he loved. He's our example of complete
selflessness. Complete selflessness. And in
closing, I want to turn to First Corinthians, chapter 13. A few
pages back. Anytime you see the word charity,
you can just change that to love. Charity is a good definition,
maybe even a better definition than love, because love so often
now is thrown around so lightly. There's different kinds of love.
There's puppy love. Lord only has one kind of love
and it's perfect. Charity means that you're giving. That's what
charity literally means. We have charities around here.
That means you donate things, you give. That's what he's talking
about here is selflessness. First Corinthians chapter 13
says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal. If a preacher preaches and does
not have love towards the Lord's people in his preaching, he can
tell the truth, but he's just a sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal. Our message must be sweetened
by the love of Christ that compels us to declare it. Not just out
of obligation, not just our duty, not just a work. It must be out
of love. Why am I telling you the truth?
Because I love you. I love you. Why do I love you? Lord did it. Lord gave me a love
for you. I didn't even know who you people
were two years ago, three years ago. Speaking of which, today
marks exactly one year from when we moved up. We were here right
now. This Sunday would have been the
first Sunday of us meeting in that community. So a lot's changed
in a year's time, hasn't it? I still love you. And our love
grows one towards another, doesn't it? That's why we preach the
truth, is the love of God that he's given us and the love for
each other. If somebody gets up and don't tell you the truth,
they don't love you. Preachers that are in the pulpit this Sunday,
right now, they're talking. They're not telling the truth.
They don't love the people they're talking to. No, our obligation is to
tell the truth in love, isn't it? We don't want to become a
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. We want the love of God
to be shed abroad in our hearts. We want to see Christ Jesus high
and lifted up. We want to hear about his finished
work. Let's read on, in verse two he says, and though I have
the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
and though I have all faith. Think about what he's saying
here. I know the gift of prophecy, I understand all mysteries, nothing's
hid. I have all knowledge and all
faith so that I can remove mountains and have not charity. I'm nothing, I'm nothing. Though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. There's a lot of charities
that are around here that do just that, don't they? They bestow
goods and they feed the poor and they do that as their righteousness. But though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have
not charity, it profiteth me nothing. I'm not saying don't
feed the poor. But if we're doing it as our
righteousness, it's worthless. You know how we feed the poor?
You know how we feed the poor? We declare the gospel. That's
what the poor want to hear, it's Him. No, the second hour we're
gonna be talking about the Lord being made poor for us. We're
gonna talk about what that, we're gonna try to enter into what
that means, how the poorness of our Lord, it's an impossibility,
isn't it? We don't look at our poorness
and think that we have a righteousness because we're so poor, and we
don't give to the poor for our righteousness because we have
so much. No, this is talking about the gospel being preached
and taught. This is about the gospel being
declared, and it's declared to the poor, those who have a need
of the bread of life. That's what the poor need, the
fountain of living water. I must have charity to do that,
or it profiteth me nothing. Verse four, he describes charity,
he describes love. And this is the love of the Lord
he's describing, it suffereth long. Is our God not long-suffering
to us? It's what Peter said, he's long-suffering
to us. He's not willing that any, any
of his people, you can read the first chapter, that's exactly
who he's talking to. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. He's long-suffering. And it's
kind. Charity envieth not. It's not
selfish, is it? Charity vaunteth. It's not rash. Vaunteth not itself. It's not
puffed up. There's no pride in charity.
There's no pride in love. There's no self in love. Not
the love of Christ. It's all selfless. Doth not behave
itself unseemly. Seeketh not her own. It never
points to self. Love of God and the love that
he's given to us, it does not point to self. If we find ourself
pointing to self, that's not the love. That's not the love.
That's self. It's not easily provoked. Thinketh
no evil. That's how we know it's the love
of God because everything we think is evil, isn't it? It's
just how we are. Verse six, it rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. It beareth all things. It believeth all things. Whatsoever
the Lord says, it believes. It hopeth in all things, which
is Christ. It endureth all things. And this
charity that I'm talking about, this love that I'm talking about,
never fails. Never fails, that's what he says.
Charity never faileth. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy
in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away." Everything that he's speaking
of here, he's saying all of this is temporary. All of this is
temporary, but one thing, charity, that's not temporary. He says,
when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child.
I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. I don't think on the temporary things
anymore. He said, because now we see through
a glass darkly. What that means is, brethren,
seeing through a glass darkly. During this time, they would
not have had glass as we have glass, where it was very clear
to look through in order to see yourself. When we go to the bathroom,
we have the mirrors on the wall back there, you can see yourself
very clearly. Now this is a dark glass. This is a dark glass,
would have probably been a reflective piece of metal even, and it would
have been dark. You couldn't really see all the
blemishes. You couldn't really see all the flaws. That's how
we're viewing Christ through the eyes of faith. We see through
a glass darkly. There's hidden mysteries there.
We can't see him face to face is what he's saying. It's darkened,
but then, Now we look through a glass darkly, but then face
to face know I impart, but then shall I know even as I, even
also I am known. Now look at this last verse. Now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three, but the greatest of these is charity. Do you know
why the greatest is charity? Because when we see him face
to face, we will no longer have faith. It ends in sight. When
we see him face to face, we will no longer have hope. That's the
end of all hope. It's fulfilled, isn't it? All
prophecies will be gone away with. He's the embodiment of
those prophecies. Everything that Paul's talking
about, it's all gonna go away except one thing. What is it?
Love. It's eternal. That's what heaven
is. That's what heaven is, is the
love of Christ for his people. And we get to bask in that for
all eternity, giving all glory and praise unto him, being filled
with the full peace of God forever and ever, just worshiping him
for his love, for his love. That charity endures forever
and ever because love is eternal. Faith and hope will end. Faith
and hope will end in sight, but love is eternal. That's what
heaven is. We're kept by his power. We are
constrained by his love. We are justified by his blood
alone. And one of these days we're going
to see him face to face. It's going to be an eternal day
of love, isn't it? I'm reminded of this picture of the bride
that when the groomsmen come in to a wedding that we have
in this day and time, we see that the groomsmen is It comes
forward and music's playing, but when the bride comes in,
what happens? Everything changes then, doesn't it? Everybody stands
up, the music starts, it changes. It's just an eruption of emotion. Look how beautiful the bride
is. We know that the one conducting
the ceremony at the end says, I now pronounce unto you, Mr.
and Mrs., and they use the name of the man that's the husband.
This all is a picture of what the Lord's love has accomplished
for His people. People don't even know the ceremony
that they're acting out as a representation of what Christ has done. When
the bride is going to be entered into the room, the Lord himself
has given all glory, the same glory wherewith he had of the
father unto her. He says, here's my bride, and
presents her to the father, and the father says, I'm pleased
with her, my son. You've made her perfectly righteous. We were gonna turn back and read
that again, but I'll quote it again. He who knew no sin, Became
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him See
the Son has given that's why she's dressed in white That's
why that's why her name is now Jehovah. Sit. Can you the Lord
our righteousness this was all done? By his doing because of
his everlasting eternal love for her Can you imagine? Imagine
the Father presenting you and I. One day, I can't even enter
into this, but the Lord said he's going to gird himself. He's
going to serve you and I at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Peter said, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. You're
not going to serve me. He says, if I don't wash your feet, you
have no part with me. Peter said, well, then not my feet only,
my hands and my head too. You think about the Lord serving
you if we say, Lord, you're not going to serve me. Yes, he will. It's
his duty and his honor and his sovereign right to serve his
bride. And he did it perfectly, didn't
he?