I remember Sylvester, he fell
Friday. I took a lick on his arm and
it's blackened his eye, but his eye started, you know, sometimes
when you get a good road to the eye, your eyeball and the pipe
will just get covered in blood. And so we took him back to the
emergency room this morning, so that's why they're here. Atlantic. I don't want to throw
them around. I saw it say yes they were on
a carnival cruise, I think it was. I don't know about cruises
that are on, but on a carnival cruise they got into some rough
seas. I mean rough seas. People were secluded to their
cabins and people were bouncing off walls. I've done that a few
times at C-130s, but I don't know why I've been doing it in
the airstream. But remember them in your prayers
that they'll get back safely to us and they'll enjoy their
vacation time together. Let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 294, Savior, like a shepherd is. I do not care. If I close my mouth to speak
the truth, Lord, I lose my hope and rest. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, at the last time beyond, Blessed be such, blessed be such,
Thou and Father and Son in the all! Be our light, be Thou within
us, be the garden of our ways. Keep Thy promotion within us,
keep us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
Hear us, hear us when we pray Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
Hear, O hear us when we pray Thou hast promised to be seen Jesus. Christ in Jesus! Christ in Jesus! Early let us turn to Thee! Jesus. After Scripture in the Bible,
we'll sing hymn number 14. And the song breaks in. Turn to the revelation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 1. I'm going to read verses 5 and 6.
Verse 5. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead. And
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us,
washed us from our sins, in his own blood let us pray. Our father,
we are thankful that we can read such words read them in faith
because you have given your children faith by grace and when they
read these words they can apply them to themselves and be thankful
from the bottom of our hearts that he has washed us from our
sins with his own blood we know that throughout history in the
Jewish economy that hundreds and thousands, even millions
of lambs and bullocks and rams and kids and turtle doves were
slain. And all that blood that coursed
through history, not one sin was ever remitted. When Jesus Christ, our Lord,
said, Lo, I come, and the body of my book is written to me to
do thy will, O God, He buys one sacrifice perfected
for every living that are sanctified, putting away their sins, remitting
their sins. And you have said in your book
that where remission of these is, there is no more need for
sacrifice. We are thankful that by your
grace and your mercy and because of your great love, we're with
you, Lord. You sent your son into this world to assume our
debts, to take them upon himself, our sins, and to bore them up
under your total and complete wrath. To die to satisfy your justice,
to be buried, to take our sins to the grave, and to be raised
for our justification. We praise you. We pray for those
who are sick. We pray the members of Specialist
are rested in this injury he's got. We pray he'll be brought
to a good measure here. We pray for the standing trees
that are away from us. We ask, Lord, you'll watch over
them and keep them safe. We pray for this alfalfa that's
lost its loved one, lost a mother. We ask, Lord, your help for them
and strengthen them in Jesus Christ. We ask for your help
this day, Lord, as we preach the gospel, as we sing of your
glory, as we receive the Lord's table, and as we fellowship around
the table today. Let us do so with joy and thanksgiving
in our hearts, knowing full well that all we have that is eternal
is from you, and all we have that is temporal It's according
to your good pleasure. Help us now, Lord, to worship
you. In Christ's name, amen. And number 14, and can
it be that I should gain your interest in the Savior's love? me. Amazing love, how can it be,
that Thou my God shouldst die for me? Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus
Christ I. should stand for peace. He left his father's throne above,
so free, so independent in his grace. Emptied Himself of all the blood
He bled for His own chosen race. Dispersed the all He lives and
feeds, God, be proud of me Amazing love, how can it be That thou,
my God, shouldst die for me? Long may it live, songs hear
it play. Down in sin and nature's night,
Thine I give youth the gleaming ray, I hope the dawn shall make
with light I changed the law, my heart was
free I heard the Lord sing for me, I followed Him Amazing love,
how can it be No convocation now, I pray, Jesus,
and only Him is mine! Love, I have given, I give in
prayer, And holding righteousness divine,
Though thy righteousness be turned awry, I don't. Father, have we come again in the name of Jesus, our
great Savior. Indeed, amazed at your love,
giving all things and we return them to Thee that
which is Yours. Let us do so with joy and thanksgiving
in our hearts. In Christ's name, amen. So, here we go. so so Revelation chapter 1 describes
the Lord Jesus Christ and His character and His person and
what He did for His people. The last phrase says, unto Him
that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. The older I get, the fewer there
are things that astound me and amaze me. Once you've seen a great deal
of life, you kind of expect the unusual to happen and nothing
surprises you and nothing amazes you. But a few things still utterly
amaze me. One thing is this thing called
faith. I still ain't figured it out.
It's a wonder. A wretched sinner, born in this world hating God, having heard the gospel of peace, can in a flash love God forever
for the rest of his life. That's amazing. Amazing to me. The grace of God. People talk about grace a great
deal, but the grace of God is a wonder. Because His favor toward you
and toward me and toward all His elect had nothing to do with
them as to who they were or what they were or what they did or
didn't do. how wretched they were, how societally
fine they were. He simply, of his own will, and
according to his purpose, chose some to salvation and left
others. And indeed, in some scripture
declared that he appointed some to condemnation. Amazing love is another one of those things
that absolutely amaze me. We know a little about love,
but most of it has to do with affection or like the way somebody looks. Physical attraction. Our love
is fickle. Because human beings are capable
of loving someone one minute, and hating the next. Our love is conditional. It's
almost always retroactive, or not retroactive, but it's reciprocal. Someone loves us, then we love
them, and if they stop loving us, we stop loving them, and
that's generally the way it works. Some of you who are mothers and
fathers, and had children that had gone astray. And your love
hasn't changed. You may be broken over them,
but you still love them. The love of a mother is considered,
next to God's, is the highest love in Scripture. Our Lord said
a mother might forsake her children. There's a possibility. But he
said, I'll never forsake my children. But the love of God is entirely
and completely unconditional as to its recipients. I grew up in religion and they
used to tell me if I did this or did that, Jesus wouldn't like
me anymore. That's a lie straight out of hell. If he ever loved
me, if he ever loved you, he will always love you. For he's
the Lord, he changes not. So once again, it's probably,
I don't know how many times I've tried this, but once again, I'm
going to undertake to speak of God's love this morning. When one does that, he's immediately
confronted with this patent inadequacy to meet the task. Spurgeon described
such an endeavor as casting his tiny bark onto a mighty raging
sea. Now, I've been pondering this
subject for some time, and many times I've sought to preach it,
and afterward found my efforts at explaining it, expounding
it to be woefully insufficient. And what brought about this endeavor
today was our Wednesday study on the Gospel of John, and expounding
the Lord's statement to those Jews that they had not the love
of God in them. I stated that one does not know
of God's love. One does not know of God's love. unless they believe the gospel. You can't know anything about
God's love no matter what religion says that he loves everybody.
You can't know anything and I can't know anything about God's love
unless God has sent a preacher to preach the gospel to us to
tell us the truth about God and about ourselves and find out
what God has done for those who he loves. Then we'll understand
and begin to understand what it is to know something about
the love of God. What precedes such knowledge
is the preaching of the gospel with the Holy Ghost come down
from heaven. And it is through the preaching of the gospel,
another wonder, the Holy Spirit takes the word of God and informs
and enlightens the elect, causing them to gain an interest in Christ.
And can it be that I should gain an interest? In the Savior's
blood died he for me who caused his pain, for me who him to death
pursued. God does so by giving men faith
and by grace to believe the report of the momentous work that Jesus
Christ has performed for them, creating in them a hunger and
a thirst for righteousness and eternal life. That's the basis
for having the love of God in you, for knowing that God loves
you is born of gratitude once you hear the gospel. Because God has done a precious
thing for you. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 12, That the reason the Holy Ghost takes the things
of God and reveals them unto us to show us what God has freely
given us in Jesus Christ. That's why we have the Spirit.
To constantly remind us of what God has given us in Jesus Christ. And He's given us all things
in Christ. Men and women do not naturally love God and have no
interest in Him loving them. Thankless, useless religion has
endeavored for many years to convince men that God loves them
when they couldn't care less whether God loves them. It's
like trying to convince somebody thirsty when they just had a
glass of water. Try to convince a person's hungry when they just
had a full meal. That's what religion does. It tells you you're
thirsty. I don't know whether I'm thirsty
or not. You can't tell me what I'm thinking. You're hungry.
You need Christ. You don't know what I need. That's
the language. In fact, the phrase, God loves
you, which is common as breathing in today's religion. The phrase,
God love you, is not found in all of this Bible. That phrase,
which is so prominent, in the preaching and the teaching that
men do. You'll not find Paul the Apostle. You'll not find
any prophet. You'll not find Peter, James,
John, Jude or the Lord Jesus Christ ever looking a person
in the face or standing up and preaching and saying God loves
you. That should tell them something. And when you see the word in
scripture, it is almost always in the past tense. That's the
way it is in our text. Unto him that loved us, loved
us, and washed us from our sins in
his own blood. If it's past tense in our language,
And God has revealed it to us that way. It means that whatever
He's talking about is eternal, having always existed, never
ending, and never changing. So if He has loved us, He has
always loved us, He will always love us, His love for us will
be never ending, and His love for us will never change. never change. When the word love
in the present tense, or as a noun, a thing, is employed in scriptures,
it's followed by a description of what it does. John 52, no greater love hath
any man than this, love, and he would lay down his life for
his friend. But again, love is seen by action. Men and women love God because
He first loved them. That's what Scripture says. But
how do we know the love of God? Do we know it as a general affection? Do we know it as a kind of a
hallmark Valentine's Day expression of affinity? Do we know it as
it's presented in numerous pulpits as ineffectual and unrequited? Do we know it as some anemic
attraction or divine infatuation or holy flirtation? These descriptions,
it seems to me, are the wheelhouse of what is regurgitated from
the vomitoriums that constitute the pulpits of America today. Talk about it, God loving you,
can't do anything about it. If I love you, don't matter whether
you accept it or not, if I love you, And if I love you, I can't demand
that you love me. But if you find yourself in a
time of need, and I'm able to help you, and I do help you,
I find this to be true, you'll increase in your fondness for
me. That's natural. That's gratitude. How is God's
love known and realized and embraced? How is any true love known? It's
known by science. God's love is never expressed
in a general or universal way, but in every case, an act of
love is attached to its declaration. The scripture is complete with
this truth. Isaiah 43, he says, you're precious
in my sight. Isaiah 43, 4, I have loved thee,
therefore I have given men for thee. I salute nations for thee. What? That love acted. That love
acted. Jeremiah 31, 3 says, I have loved
thee because I have loved thee with an everlasting love. I have
domed thee with tender heartedness and kindness. I loved you, therefore
I drew you. I brought you to myself. John
3, 16, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten
son. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life. I had John, God loved and he sent. So love was followed by an action
or love was proven by an action. Paul said in Galatians 3, he
loved me and gave himself for me. He loved and gave. He loved and gave. look at a few verses of scripture
look over to Ephesians chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4
and 5 but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sin quickened us together
with Christ by grace that he saved he loved us and quickened
us So those he loved are quickened. In Ephesians chapter 5 when he
talks about the love of a husband for his wife, he says in verse
25 of chapter 5 of Ephesians, husbands love your wife, love
your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it. and he gave himself for it. That's the language of scripture.
If you find the word love in scripture, you're going to have
it followed by some action. It's always followed. It's never
presented in just a general way or a generic sentence. In all
of these examples, the love of God is found to be in connection
with some aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
gospel is the declaration of Christ and Him crucified, His
successful work of salvation, His substitutionary sacrifice,
the death that He accomplished in Jerusalem, and all of his
entirety inextricably to God's eternal, unchangeable, everlasting
love. He loved us and washed us from
our sins. One knows nothing of God's love
that has not been given faith to believe the gospel and rest
entirely and only on Christ's work. that accomplished his salvation.
And this is the only way God's love is understood, grasped,
and perceived. Men talk about God's love all
the time. But the only way you'll know it is if God has given you
faith to hang your soul on the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know nothing of love until God has given you faith
to do that. You won't do it naturally. You
can't do it naturally. You have no understanding of
love, period, naturally, except for love for self. And we all
are afflicted with that. It's our major affliction in
this life, love for self. But to love God only comes one
way. And the Lord declares that. Look
over 1 John 3. Compare verse 1 to verse 16,
1 John chapter 3. John talks about the love of
God. He said, Behold, be amazed, be astounded what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. What manner of love the Father
has bestowed past His on us? Look at verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. This is how we get it, understand
it, grasp and embrace it. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because He laid down His life for us. That's how we understand it.
He laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our
lives for our brethren. Now he goes on to explain what
that means. Why did he lay down his life
for us? Was it just a general thing like men preach today that
he made this so that salvation might be possible for someone?
He made this commodity called the love of God or this commodity
called the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's just out there.
It's preaching. It's out there. It's hanging in the atmosphere
in the ether. All you got to do is pluck it
down for yourself. Is that what he meant? Hereby perceive we
the love of God. Well, how is the love of God
manifest in you? He said. Do you have the love
of God in you? How is that proven? He says in
verse 16, of verse 17, but whoso hath this world's goods, and
seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion, how dwelleth the love of God in him. What's he saying? If I have the
ability, the wherewithal, and the power, and so when I say
I love, is in trouble and dying and needs my help. If I don't
give them that help, I don't love them. Now here we have a religion in
the world that says God loves everybody. We have men and women
dying and perishing and going to hell. He has the wherewithal,
the power, the means to save them And if He don't save them,
it can only mean one thing. He don't love them. Someone can
make a cousin. Bring it down to the natural
level to you and I. If we see a brother in need,
we don't help him, we don't love him. That's what He's saying. So this is not a general affection
or a universal love that has no power to perform anything.
God's love says He loved us and gave Himself for us. He loved
us and washed us clean. from our sins in His own blood.
He loved us. He loved us and died for us.
He loved us and laid down His life for us. This is how we understand
God's love. We look at the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We look at what Jesus Christ
did, what He did on Calvary's tree. And we begin to understand
and perceive what is love. In order to take care of and
save the one I love. I must be willing and will give
my life to make it happen. That's what God did. Hereby perceive
we the love of God and He laid down His life for us. Look at 1 John chapter 4 and
verse 10. Herein is love. You want to know what love is? Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us. And sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. You'll see that the words to
be are in italics. They were added supposedly by
the translators to help us understand this phrase, but it doesn't.
It confuses the phrase. When He said to be the propitiation,
that could just be about intent. He sent Him to be that. But it
doesn't say He was that. That was added. That was not
in the original. Here's the way the original reads. Here it is,
Lord, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son, the propitiation for our sins. Something happened. Our sins were propitiated. That's what this says. Love demanded
our sins be propitiated. What does that mean? That means
God was appeased for us. We were sinners. We are sinners. It's through the blood of the
cross we were reconciled to God. That's the only way. He was appeased
for us. Satisfied. That's what it means.
Well, what was God satisfied for? He was satisfied for the
payment of our offense. We offended God. We were His
enemy. Our sins were smoking His nostrils. Jesus Christ took our sins upon
Himself. It's called the doctrine of imputation
or charging. He was charged with our sin.
He was never a sinner. He was the spotless lamb of God. He never had a sinful thought,
never did a sinful deed. He walked on this earth in perfect
righteousness as a human being. But he willfully and willingly
said, put their sins, the sins of the one I love, on me. And I'll take the punishment
But there's still a price yet to pay. I must die because that's
the price and penalty of sin. And my death must be of such
great value that it would be the same, or greater actually,
than a person spending eternity in hell paying for their sin.
My payment must be greater because hell is forever because God is
never satisfied. Because I'm satisfied with people
in hell, it goes on forever and ever and ever because a human
being can never pay for his own sin. It must be such a transaction
made on Calvary that God himself said, that's enough. I've gotten
my payment. I'm satisfied. I'm appeased. Jesus Christ is that appeasement.
He sent His Son, THE, the devil and oracle, not AN, not OF, THE
propitiation for our sins. His law was satisfied for Christ
fulfilled it perfectly in His life. His justice was satisfied
because Christ died and paid the debt of His people and God
Almighty the thrice holy God, before whom the stars and moon
and sun are not pure in His sight. Sharon, you stand before Him
and He's as happy with you as He can be. Not because of anything
you did. Because of what Christ did 2000
years ago. He's satisfied. Satisfied with what Christ did
when Christ said it is finished. Therefore he is utterly satisfied
with his life, having propitiated or having been propitiated because
he loved us. He rests in that love. The Bible
says that. Zebaniah chapter 3 verse 17 says
the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save
He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. For He will enjoy over thee with
singing. That's the love of God. Revelation
1 verse 5. It says He loved us. and washed us from our sins in
His own blood. In His own blood. Whose blood
is that? It's God's blood. Don't ask me to explain that. But in Acts chapter 20, after
Paul made the glorious statement that he was free from the blood
of all men because he had not shunned and declared all the
counsel of God. He was leaving Ephesus to go to Jerusalem to
be put in chains. He says in verse 28, take heed
to the preachers that were still there in Ephesus. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost
has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he purchased
with his own blood. With his own blood. We're about to receive the Lord's
table this morning. We do it according to the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ to show forth His death until it comes
again. But His death for His people
is a product of His eternal love for His people. He loved us. He washed us from
our sins in His own blood. The Lord's table is a commemoration
of the work that the Lord did on Calvary's tree. It is indeed a perception of
the love of God for his people. What Christ did on Calvary's
tree, he did because God loved us. To take this table, which
is reserved for believers, who are trusted wholly in the merits
of Jesus Christ, and understand God's love, and understand and
perceive that the reason that we understand His love is because
He laid down His life for us, is to take this table as a reminder
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The bread represents
His broken body, the wine represents His shed blood, and that's what
He said to His disciples. to receive this table and to
do so with thanksgiving and gratitude for the fact that
we, as the children of God, receive the love of God. We understand it. Oh, wretched man that I am. I
understand that. I perceive the love of God, because
he died in my ribbon state. Let's ask the Lord's blessing
upon the elders. Father, we thank you that we can perform this simple ordinance
that you left for your people. To eat this bread as typical
and picturing the body of Jesus Christ broken for us. And to
drink this wine in commemoration of the fact that He shed His
blood for us. And in doing so propitiating you for us. So that you remember our sins
no more. Utterly forgiven and made utterly righteous in Him. Were it not for faith that you
have given us, this would seem to us an utterly foolish thing
to even think of. But you've given us faith, and
those poor sinners actually believe it. Thank you, Father. Let us
rejoice to take these elements now. We pray in Christ's name.
Amen. On the night our orders were
betrayed, he took bread, bread of the Passover feast, unleavened
bread, as exemplary of his pure, perfect body, which will righteously
fulfill the law of God while he lives here on earth, and to
his disciples, prophesying to them that in a few days he would
die in their room instead. He said, take this broken bread.
This is my body broken for you. As often as you do it, do it
in remembrance of me. On that same evening, he took
the cup of new wine representing his blood. He said, this cup, It's the new
covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant to finish the work
of salvation rather than requiring the obedience of man. It only required the obedience of
one man, but one that was obedient unto death. It's highly exalted
for it. It's the new covenant in my blood.
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do so
forth my death, till I come again. Do this, remember. And it says they stirred it,
they sang a hymn. Now you stand together. My hope is built on nothing less
and Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground Amazing love that God loved us. As He loved us according to the
Word of God, we ought to love one another. God bless you.