-
Our subject matter is the love of Christ.
-
And I would have you open your Bibles
-
to Ephesians 3.
-
And I would just like to read once again
-
starting in verse 14.
-
Ephesians 3:14,
-
The Apostle Paul writing
-
to the Ephesian church.
-
"For this reason, I bow my
knees before the Father..."
-
He's praying for these Christians
-
that make up this church
-
in the city of Ephesus
-
which is modern-day Turkey
-
on the coast.
-
He bows his knees to the Father
-
"from Whom the whole family
-
in heaven and on earth is named,
-
that according to the
riches of His glory..."
-
Paul is praying that God,
-
according to the riches of God's glory,
-
may grant something.
-
He wants to see this granted.
-
That these Christians would be
-
strengthened with power
through God's Spirit
-
in their inner being
-
to have Christ dwell,
-
settle down deeply and richly.
-
That's the idea.
-
Dwell.
-
It is a word that means to settle in.
-
Into their hearts through faith,
-
"that you being rooted
and grounded in love
-
may have strength to comprehend
-
with all the saints what is the breadth
-
and length and height and depth,
-
and to know the love of Christ
-
that surpasses knowledge
-
that you may be filled with
all the fullness of God."
-
Father, I pray,
-
please give us this comprehension.
-
We would pray for the same thing
-
that Paul prays for,
-
that according to the riches of Your glory
-
please strengthen our comprehension
-
that we would behold riches,
-
that we would behold such things
-
as perhaps we've never imagined
-
from this insurpassable love,
-
unknowable in its dimensions.
-
Please give us this.
-
I pray in Christ's name, Amen.
-
The first thing I want
to point out is this:
-
This prayer is not randomly positioned
-
in this letter.
-
It doesn't come at the
beginning of the letter.
-
It doesn't come at the end of the letter.
-
It comes in the middle of the letter.
-
You say, so what?
-
Just this.
-
Have you ever heard it said?
-
Have you ever noticed the reality
-
that often in Paul's epistles,
-
you get doctrine
-
and then you get a "therefore"?
-
Look at the beginning of chapter 4.
-
"I, therefore..."
-
A therefore.
-
Because that's true,
-
therefore this is how you ought to live.
-
For many of you, that is
not strange to hear this.
-
You know that the epistle that Paul wrote
-
to the Romans, you have 11 chapters,
-
largely of indicative verbs.
-
You say, I don't know about that.
-
Indicative verbs are simply verbs
-
that indicate realities.
-
They're not commanding
-
or exhorting us to do anything.
-
They're simply stating,
-
they're indicating - thus indicative -
-
they're indicating what's true.
-
And see, then, based on what's true,
-
Paul then says "therefore..."
-
Because of God's mercies,
-
this is how you ought to live.
-
You see, we are at that point
-
in this letter.
-
We are at the position of transition.
-
We need to notice that.
-
You say why?
-
What's that got to do with anything?
-
Just this.
-
Paul is not praying that we would
-
comprehend the love of Christ
-
until after he spent
-
the greater part of three chapters
-
telling us about that love,
-
and now having told us,
-
he says, "Father,
-
according to the riches of Your glory,
-
cause these people to comprehend
-
what I just told them.
-
Because now, I'm going
to turn my attentions
-
to them practically
living these things out."
-
You see, if you look at chapter 4,
-
"I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord
-
urge you to walk in a manner worthy
-
of the calling to which
you've been called."
-
You see the argumentation?
-
You have been called to something,
-
and I've just been telling you
-
about all the glories of your calling
-
and all the glories of the love
-
that God has for you,
-
and what He's powerfully done
-
to save your soul.
-
And now, because of all those things,
-
I want you to walk worthy.
-
And as you move down through here,
-
you can see what's coming at us.
-
You can see, Ephesians 4:17,
-
"You must no longer
walk as the Gentiles do."
-
This is about how we walk.
-
And 5:1, "Be imitators of God
-
as beloved children and walk in love."
-
You see, this is all about our walk.
-
He's going to tell us how to live.
-
But listen, the world,
-
the world's ethic, the world's morality -
-
I always remember,
-
when I was back, like late in high school
-
and in my college years.
-
I remember,
-
I was doing drugs.
-
I was misuing alcohol.
-
And I remember, you'd go to a bar
-
and you would see in the bathroom:
-
"Just Say No."
-
That was the world's slogan about drugs.
-
Just say no.
-
Well, that's how the world is.
-
The world starts with its commandments.
-
The world starts with its rules.
-
But that's not how Christianity is.
-
This is strategic.
-
Because Paul knows this,
-
he knows the if he can get God's people
-
overwhelmed with love,
-
then you know what?
-
The Christian ethic just
flows right out of it.
-
And listen, if you try to
live the Christian life
-
without the warmth of the love of Christ,
-
you have dead religion.
-
It's no good.
-
You know, Hudson Taylor
was so convinced of this,
-
you know, he had a thousand,
-
he got to the place of
a thousand missionaries
-
in the inland regions of China.
-
You know what he did?
-
Do you know what book Hudson Taylor wrote?
-
Now many of you know
-
the two-volume biography,
-
but that wasn't written by him.
-
Do you know what he wrote?
-
Anybody know?
-
I'll tell you what he wrote.
-
He wrote a commentary
-
on the Song of Solomon.
-
His desire was to
encourage his missionaries.
-
So you know what he wrote on?
-
The Song of Solomon.
-
The allegory - a picture
-
of Christ and His love for the church.
-
You don't want to miss this.
-
You don't want to miss this.
-
Brethren, we do not want to try
-
to live the Christian life
-
without a sense of the great love
-
that God has for His people,
-
because if you do, you
will have dead religion.
-
It will be hollow and it will be dry.
-
I'll tell you this,
-
no people have turned
the world upside down
-
like the people who have been
-
ravished by the love of Christ.
-
That's just a reality.
-
Because when you're so moved by that love,
-
you will go to the stake to be burned.
-
You will go to the ends of the earth.
-
Why?
-
Paul said it.
-
He said the love of Christ constrains me.
-
That's not the first thing that he said.
-
You know what he said?
-
He said if I'm crazy,
-
if I'm out of my mind,
-
it's unto the Lord. It's unto God.
-
There were people like Festus
-
who said, "Paul, you're out of your mind.
-
Too much learning. You're crazy."
-
He said, "if I am, it's for God."
-
He said if I'm not in my right mind,
-
Corinthians, it's for you.
-
And then he said
-
the love of Christ constrains me.
-
What does that mean?
-
If I'm going to be a crazy man for God,
-
if I'm going to love the people of God,
-
behind it all,
-
I'm constrained by the love of Christ.
-
The love of Christ is constraining.
-
It is compelling.
-
So, you want to feel this.
-
You want to get this.
-
And I've spent the last days,
-
I think probably this is going to take
-
six or eight sermons.
-
And I want to try to
explore the love of Christ
-
from all manner of different perspectives.
-
And I was really thinking,
where do you start?
-
Where do you start?
-
Well, I know this.
-
That because of the place in this letter
-
where Paul prays this prayer,
-
he is thinking about the love of God,
-
the love of Christ
-
that he has already expressed
-
to these folks especially
in the first two chapters.
-
I know that.
-
And one of the most profound statements
-
that he made to them
-
comes at the beginning of chapter 2.
-
Brethren, I want us to
experience this love.
-
How do we go about trying to comprehend
-
the breadth, the length,
-
the height, the depth?
-
And perhaps a good place to start
-
is by reminding ourselves
right here at the beginning
-
how unworthy we are of Christ's love.
-
We don't deserve this.
-
Let us remember the mighty contrast
-
that Paul breaks forth with
-
back at the beginning of chapter 2.
-
Let's look at that.
-
Ephesians 2.
-
"And you were dead in the
trespasses and sins..."
-
You were.
-
This is reality here.
-
This is where people are.
-
This is where these Christians were
-
before they were saved.
-
"You were dead..."
-
See, lost people,
-
people who aren't Christians,
-
it's not a minor sickness.
-
It's an all-encompassing radical lostness.
-
Dead.
-
Dead in trespasses and sins
-
"in which you once walked,
-
following the course of this world."
-
We were worldly people.
-
"...Following the prince of
the power of the air."
-
That's the devil.
-
We were devilish people.
-
We didn't believe it - that we were.
-
"...The spirit that is now at work
-
in the sons of disobedience."
-
That's us.
-
Disobedient, rebellious.
-
Because we broke God's laws.
-
We may not have admitted
that we did, but we did.
-
And we may not have recognized
-
that God disapproved of it strongly.
-
We basically create a god
in our own imaginations
-
that doesn't care if we
break his commandments.
-
But, that's the reality.
-
We were sons of disobedience.
-
"...Among whom we all once lived
-
in the passions of our flesh."
-
Passionate, greedy, hungry,
-
lusting after our sin.
-
"Carrying out the desires of the body
-
and the mind."
-
And I want you to remember this,
-
"we're by nature children of wrath
-
like the rest of mankind."
-
I want us to focus on that.
-
Children of wrath.
-
V. 4, "But God being rich in mercy
-
because of the great love..."
-
See, here's the great love.
-
This is the great love of God,
-
"with which He loved us."
-
And He came with that love
even when we were dead
-
in our trespasses and made us
-
"alive together with Christ.
-
By grace you have been saved."
-
Now hear me.
-
Children of wrath.
-
Children of wrath doesn't
mean it's our wrath.
-
It doesn't mean we were angry.
-
It doesn't mean we were wrathful.
-
It means that in the face of the horrors
-
of the darkness of our deadness
-
and devilishness and lust,
-
God was angry.
-
God was angry with us.
-
We were children of wrath.
-
One of the lexicons describes wrath
-
as this vigorous upsurge.
-
That's what it was.
An upsurge of indignation.
-
You remember how God said to Abraham
-
concerning the Amorites?
-
The sin of the Amorites is not yet full.
-
When we sin it's like this sin
-
is building, it's filling up.
-
It's like this great container
-
is filling up with our sin
-
and proportionate to
it is the wrath of God.
-
And it intensifies and it upsurges
-
and it increases
-
and God is angrier and
angrier and angrier.
-
But here it is.
-
In His anger, He ought to destroy us.
-
But what happens?
-
God's power to save - and you see it here.
-
God's power to save,
-
it's coming face-to-face.
-
But what you have here in v. 3
-
is God - all of mankind,
-
we were children of wrath
like the rest of mankind.
-
That's all of mankind.
-
God is angry. They're children of wrath.
-
And God is going to destroy
-
these children of wrath.
-
But, God...
-
But, God being rich in mercy,
-
because of the great love...
-
it's like God's power to destroy
-
comes face-to-face with
God's power to save.
-
God's love is confronted by God's wrath.
-
That's what's happening
and here's the thing,
-
here's the thing, brethren.
-
If we underestimate God's wrath,
-
you will underestimate His love.
-
It is this backdrop of wrath
-
that makes this love so amazing.
-
But this happens.
-
This underestimation of wrath,
-
it happens all the time.
-
God's love and Christ's love -
-
it's taken for granted.
-
And I'll tell you why.
-
You know why.
-
Because people basically think
-
they're not children of wrath.
-
They don't think they're that bad.
-
They don't think they
follow in this course;
-
this following of the prince
of the power of the air.
-
They don't believe that
they're sons of disobedience.
-
They don't believe that
they're carrying out
-
all these passions of the flesh.
-
They don't believe it.
-
You know what?
-
You've heard it.
-
You've heard it from those -
-
those of you that have
gone out evangelizing,
-
you've heard it.
-
You always hear it.
-
People think that they're
pretty good people.
-
And you know what? When you
think you're pretty good people,
-
and you don't think
you're a child of wrath,
-
you know what?
-
You will not take God's love seriously
-
because God's love will be cheap.
-
That's the problem.
-
Mankind in general assumes
-
that we daughters and sons of Adam,
-
that we're lovable.
-
I mean, that's basically
how we view ourselves.
-
We think God likes us.
-
We're children of wrath.
-
Let me tell you something.
-
That means that God's hatred
-
is very much aimed at us.
-
We don't want to underestimate this love.
-
The vast majority of mankind
-
doesn't take death and eternity
-
and judgment seriously
-
for this very reason.
-
I have talked to so many people that say,
-
you know, they hope to just sort it out.
-
It will all work out.
-
What craziness!
-
It will all work out.
-
Here they are standing there.
-
They are under the wrath of God
-
and every day their sins
-
mount up higher and higher
-
and higher to heaven,
-
and they're filling up the
measure of their sin
-
and the day is coming
-
when the earth will not
bear them any longer
-
and that weight of sin will break through
-
and they will fall headlong into hell.
-
And God will be there to cast them.
-
He detests them and He will cast them
-
away from Himself.
-
This is the reality of Scripture.
-
We just have as mankind,
-
we just basically have this idea
-
that God indiscriminately, universally
-
throws His love around on all
-
the good people of this world
-
and that there's nothing to worry about.
-
And I'll tell you this,
-
man cannot appreciate the love of Christ
-
until he really appreciates who he is,
-
what he is,
-
who God is,
-
how God feels towards him.
-
Shall we take a test?
-
Let's take a test.
-
I want you to look at Romans 9.
-
Romans 9:13.
-
"As it is written..."
-
God is saying this.
-
"Jacob have I loved,
-
but Esau I hated."
-
Oh how men and women
-
try to reinterpret this.
-
They try to twist this.
-
They try to yank on this thing
-
and deny this reality
-
and do all sorts of somersaults
-
to avoid dealing with this.
-
A test.
-
God loves Jacob.
-
He hates Esau.
-
Somebody will say,
-
well, because Jacob was a good guy
-
and Esau was a bad guy.
-
But that's not what's happening here.
-
You know what Scripture says?
-
Before they were born,
-
before they had done either good or bad
-
that the purposes of God,
-
the purposes of God's election
-
might stand,
-
God chooses to love one,
-
and God's hatred is on the other.
-
You see, until we really come face-to-face
-
with the reality that God hates,
-
that backdrop makes
the love of Christ sweet.
-
The test.
-
The first thing you want to
recognize: this is true.
-
Here are twins. Two brothers.
-
God loves one. God hates the other.
-
And so how do you process the statement?
-
Listen, you know what so many men do?
-
They put this verse on trial.
-
But let me tell you something,
-
when you read a verse like this,
-
God is not on trial.
-
You are on trial.
-
How you respond to this verse
-
says an enormous amount about you.
-
You know what?
-
You pass the test
-
if you look at this statement
-
and you say,
-
Esau is getting exactly what he deserves.
-
Esau is hated by God and he deserves that.
-
You pass the test if
you look at this verse
-
and you say Esau is getting
-
exactly what I deserve.
-
You pass the test if you read this
-
and you marvel that
the infinitely holy God
-
would ever bestow His
love on the likes of Jacob.
-
You see, that's when you pass the test.
-
And the thing is, you know what?
-
You know what we can
tell by the next verse?
-
Paul expects most men to fail the test.
-
Can you see by the next verse
-
what he anticipates most
people are going to say?
-
Verse 14, "What shall we say then?
-
Is there injustice on God's part?"
-
That's what he expects.
-
He expects people to say,
-
"that's not fair."
-
That's what he expects.
-
You can see it.
-
Injustice!
-
And you know what?
-
They're not saying,
-
"oh, I cannot believe that verse."
-
"How could God ever love Jacob?"
-
That's not what they're saying.
-
They're not saying, "that is unjust!
-
How could that ever happen?"
-
That's not what they're saying.
-
You know what they're saying?
-
"Esau got a raw deal.
-
That's not fair."
-
So, that's what Paul imagines.
-
But people immediately feel Esau,
-
he got a raw deal.
-
If anything in you shouts injustice,
-
it's going to be impossible for you
-
to appreciate the love of Christ.
-
Oh, if we would feel the love of Christ,
-
how necessary it is to
feel the hatred of Christ.
-
Does something in you cry:
that's not just?
-
Because look,
-
what you feel about Esau,
-
you will project to yourself.
-
You will feel like: "you don't know Esau."
-
You know why people cry out?
-
You know why people shout
-
"that's not fair"?
-
Not because they care a lick about Esau.
-
They could care less about Esau.
-
The reason they don't like it
-
is because of what it says
-
about how God deals with them
-
and who God is,
-
how that affects me.
-
That's the issue.
-
Let's just look at some things.
-
Psalm 5.
-
Many of you know this.
-
Let's think.
-
Let's think about the tenor of Scripture.
-
Psalm 5:5 - go back there.
-
Listen, Scripture says
-
we were children of wrath
-
like the rest of mankind.
-
You could just as easily say
-
we were children of God's hatred,
-
children of God's indignation,
-
children of God's anger.
-
That's what we were.
-
You have to remember the stock
-
from which we came.
-
Psalm 5:5,
-
"The Lord hates all evildoers."
-
And what you want to really recognize
-
is that little appendage to evil.
-
The "doers."
-
There's a common expression
-
that "God hates the sin,
but loves the sinner."
-
But you won't find that quoted
-
anywhere in Scripture.
-
It doesn't come from Scripture.
-
Men have devised that saying
-
because that's not what
the Scripture teaches.
-
Who does God hate?
-
God hates all - not just all evil.
-
He hates the doer of evil.
-
And if you look at the very next verse,
-
"the Lord abhors..."
-
That's probably even a
stronger word than hatred.
-
"The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty."
-
The bloodthirsty.
-
They don't care about other people.
-
"...And the deceitful."
-
The problem is that we all come
-
from the stock of liars.
-
We were breathing out lies
-
from the very beginning,
-
right from our mother's womb.
-
It says that the Lord abhors such.
-
Or go over a few pages to Psalm 11.
-
Psalm 11:5,
-
"The Lord..."
-
What does it say here?
-
"His soul hates the wicked
-
and the one who loves violence."
-
His soul hates, not just wickedness,
-
but the wicked.
-
Not just violence, but the one
-
who loves violence.
-
There are verses.
-
Let me just tell you a few verses.
-
Don't turn to these.
-
But in Leviticus 26, God says this,
-
"Walk contrary to Me,
-
My soul will abhor you."
-
Or this, Hosea 9, Ephraim -
-
"Every evil of Ephraim's..."
-
That was basically the way you described
-
the Northern kingdom.
-
"Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal.
-
There I began to hate them.
-
Because of the wickedness of their deeds,
-
I will drive them out of My house.
-
I will love them no more."
-
Or Jeremiah 12.
-
"My heritage..." here He's speaking
-
about the house of Judah.
-
"My heritage has become to Me
-
like a lion in the forest.
-
She has lifted up her voice against Me,
-
therefore, I hate her."
-
He's speaking about the people of Judah,
-
of the Southern kingdom.
-
In Proverbs 3:32,
-
"the devious person
-
is an abomination to the Lord."
-
Proverbs 6.
-
"There are six things that the Lord hates,
-
seven that are an abomination to Him."
-
And you know what two of them are.
-
It's not just the acts of wickedness.
-
It's "a false witness."
-
God says, I hate, I abominate
-
"a false witness who breathes out lies
-
and one who sows discord among brothers."
-
Somebody who's divisive, God hates them.
-
Not just what they do.
-
Scripture says, "them."
-
You can't go but six
chapters into your Bible,
-
and what happens?
-
God kills every man, woman, and child
-
on the face of the earth
-
except eight souls.
-
God hates not just the sin.
-
You know, years ago,
-
we had a tract that showed the ark.
-
Lightning, dark clouds,
the rain is falling.
-
And there are men and women desperate
-
as the waters are rising
-
trying to get into the ark.
-
And on the side of it is a smiley face
-
that says, "Smile. God loves you."
-
That tract was not made to be funny.
-
It was made to show how foolish
-
so much of modern-day evangelism is.
-
When you go out into this world
-
and you tell people to smile
-
because God loves them...
-
Look, what Scripture tells us
-
is that all of mankind
are children of wrath.
-
We are objects of the hatred of God
-
by nature.
-
We don't deserve His love.
-
God could say this:
-
Noah have I loved,
-
and the rest of the world I hated.
-
You see, we get stirred up -
-
Paul expects people to get stirred up
-
just when it's "Jacob have I loved
-
and Esau have I hated."
-
Just one and one.
-
God's love. God's hatred.
-
But what about when God
takes the whole world
-
and His hatred is expressed
-
and He wipes them all out?
-
And He saves but eight souls?
-
This is the kind of God we have.
-
And let me tell you something,
-
when He wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah,
-
He has Peter tell us
-
He brought them to extinction.
-
He turned them to ashes
-
as an example of what is going to happen
-
to the ungodly now.
-
He spared Lot.
-
This is all through Scripture.
-
Lot have I loved,
-
Sodom and Gomorrah have I hated.
-
This is all over.
-
When the Lord hates somebody,
-
in Paul's estimation, it's not injustice.
-
Is there is injustice with God? Why?
-
Because Esau was hated.
-
He said, "by no means."
-
God said, "I will have mercy
-
upon whom I will have mercy,
-
and I will have compassion..."
-
Remember this,
-
mercy.
-
If you get justice
-
and you get what your sins deserve,
-
it is the full, all-out, deep wrath
-
and hatred and indignation and fury,
-
fierce anger of God,
-
and that is what mankind deserves
-
and we don't think so,
-
and we have to be reminded
-
over and over of this,
-
and this is the reason why
I wanted to go back to it.
-
Brethren, what stock do we come from?
-
We were children of wrath
-
like the rest of mankind.
-
Paul says it is no injustice on God's part
-
for Him to hate Esau.
-
Why? Because it's not unjust.
-
It's just.
-
That means it's right.
-
It is right for God to hate sinners.
-
And you can be sure of this,
-
if God hates somebody,
-
it's precisely because
they're hate-worthy.
-
If God abominates somebody,
-
it's because they're abominable.
-
If God is offended by somebody
-
it's because they're offensive.
-
That is the reality, brethren.
-
God is not unjust to hate mankind.
-
Because mankind is a hateful thing
-
by nature.
-
It ought to be hated.
-
Evil people ought to be hated
-
by a good and a holy God.
-
That is only right.
-
God hated mankind.
-
He wiped out mankind in the flood.
-
Why? Because those people
-
were such character that it demanded
-
that they be wiped out.
-
Justice demanded it.
-
God only damns those who are damnable.
-
But that's all of mankind.
There are no exceptions.
-
You can read there in Romans 3.
-
There's none righteous.
-
And in case we thought, well,
there might be an exception:
-
No, not one.
-
Boy, we have to be reminded,
-
reminded over and over.
-
You know, we just have this sense
-
that the world - we don't feel it.
-
We don't feel it.
-
We don't hear the thunder all the time
-
and see the dark clouds.
-
But like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress,
-
he recognized there is a storm.
-
There is destruction.
-
It's coming. It's on
the horizons out there.
-
But we have to be brought back.
-
We have to be reminded.
-
Brethren, by nature,
-
we were children of wrath.
-
Children of God's hatred.
-
Look, what did we do?
-
We followed the prince
-
of the power of the air.
-
We lived in the passions of our flesh.
-
We were dead in sin.
-
And what did we do?
-
We were haughty.
-
Have you ever read:
-
Six things God hates,
-
seven that are an abomination to Him?
-
And one of those things is:
-
haughty eyes.
-
Those were our eyes.
-
Liars.
-
We lied.
-
Some worse. Some less.
-
But what does Scripture say?
-
"Six things that the Lord hates,
-
seven that He abominates...
-
a lying tongue."
-
That was our tongue.
-
You may look at a child -
-
"did you take the cookie?"
-
And they're like "no,"
-
and you can look at that
-
and it can make you laugh.
-
You think that's laughable?
-
God says "I hate that."
-
"I hate it."
-
Men don't think like God thinks,
-
and the things that man cherishes,
-
God finds an abomination.
-
We devised wickedness.
-
That was me.
-
I was thinking of all sorts of ways
-
to appease myself and gratify myself
-
and enjoy myself
-
and devising it all the time,
-
not caring how many of God's commandments
-
it might break.
-
There are six things the Lord hates,
-
seven that are an abomination -
-
a heart that devises wicked plans.
-
That was my heart.
-
That was your heart.
-
Do you recognize when people like this die
-
and they come face-to-face with God,
-
what happens?
-
It is terror.
-
It is utterly terrifying.
-
You meet this God - holy, holy, holy -
-
you meet this God
-
and you don't have protection,
-
and you don't know anything,
-
really know something
of the love of Christ
-
in rescuing your soul
-
and pouring out His soul
on that cross for you,
-
and you come there unprotected,
-
and you come there unloved by Christ,
-
I'll tell you this.
-
You will not sort it all out.
-
You'll not say, like so many people say,
-
"Well, I'll say to God..."
-
Yeah. You will say nothing.
-
What you will hear is "depart from Me,
-
you workers of iniquity."
-
Depart.
-
It is like God saying...
-
it's Christ.
-
It's Christ saying "away with them."
-
Away!
-
I can't tolerate their presence.
-
Do you know what Isaiah said?
-
Isaiah said that we are all
-
like an unclean thing.
-
And all of our righteousnesses
-
are as filthy rags.
-
You look that up in the lexicon.
-
There's just one word.
-
Menstruation.
-
You see, we need to recognize
-
what we are by nature.
-
We are menstruation?
-
I mean, that's basically a picture
-
of what my life outside
of Christ amounted to.
-
Do you recognize what sort of people
-
Christ has chosen to love?
-
The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to the Lord.
-
The way of the wicked is an
abomination to the Lord.
-
The thoughts of the wicked are
an abomination to the Lord.
-
Thus says Proverbs 15.
-
Brethren, do you hear what I'm saying?
-
Scripture says God hates idolatry.
-
We loved other things more than God.
-
God hates rebellion.
-
We were the ones breaking
His commandments.
-
God hates robbery.
-
We were the ones.
-
God hates wrong. God hates pride.
-
God hates arrogance.
-
You and I were the proud ones.
-
God hates perverted speech.
-
He hates haughtiness. He hates lying.
-
He abominates the ways of the wicked,
-
the thoughts of the wicked,
-
but more than that, He abominates
-
the wicked themselves.
-
What are we by nature?
-
These were our hearts,
-
our feet, our tongues.
-
By nature, we are children of wrath.
-
And you know what Scripture says
-
there in Ecclesiastes? It says,
-
"Because the sentence against
-
our evil deeds
-
was not executed speedily,
-
the heart of the children of man
-
is fully set to do evil."
-
God didn't kill us the very
first time we sinned,
-
and so you know what happened?
-
We grew bold in our sin.
-
That's what happens.
-
We sin. I'm not struck down.
-
We thought that God must not care.
-
Our sin must not be a big deal.
-
We thought our crimes were small.
-
But make no mistake about it,
-
the measure of our sin was filling up,
-
and you know what Scripture says?
-
That if you don't obey Jesus Christ,
-
the wrath of God abides upon you already.
-
It is hanging over you
-
and it is like this heavy cloud;
-
storm cloud that is just growing
-
heavier and heavier
-
with the wrath of God.
-
And that's where we were.
-
Because it hasn't fully
struck our consciences,
-
and we're such forgetful people,
-
we need to come back and recognize,
-
what hateful creatures we were to God.
-
I mean hating us with the intensity
-
of His entire divine being.
-
Scripture doesn't say because God knew
-
He was going to save us,
-
somehow we averted being children of wrath
-
like the rest of mankind.
-
That's what we were.
-
I'll tell you men provoke
God on every side
-
and we were right there in the crowd.
-
We were provoking Him,
-
and there is fierce wrath.
-
Brethren, do you see people like this?
-
You know, your neighbor?
-
Your co-worker?
-
Do you see people like this?
-
Men are highly offensive to God.
-
That's how man is by nature.
-
By nature, children of wrath.
-
So, you say,
-
man, I visited this church
today to hear this?
-
Look.
-
This is true.
-
And because it's strong,
-
because you may not like it,
-
it doesn't make it go away.
-
But what we have to remember
-
is if God stopped right there
-
just like with the demons
-
and He said, "I'm done with you.
-
You're all gone."
-
But He didn't.
-
You know what we have?
We have Ephesians 2:4.
-
And this is where you
can take a sigh of relief.
-
But you know, you can't
-
if you have not passed
-
from verses 1, 2, and 3 into 4.
-
The love. The love.
-
"But God being rich in mercy
-
because of the great love
-
with which He loved us
-
even when we were dead in our trespasses,
-
made us alive together with Christ."
-
If we would begin to comprehend something
-
of the love of the Son
of God for His people,
-
we need to recognize that Christ chooses.
-
Brethren, grasp this!
-
Who are those people that He says,
-
"Depart from Me"?
-
"Your works are like filthy rags."
-
You know who they are?
-
Children of wrath.
-
And such were we.
-
Children of wrath like
the rest of mankind.
-
Think about the most disgusting thing
-
you can think about.
-
God chooses to set His love there.
-
That's what Christ is doing.
-
Christ is loving those
who should be hated.
-
Look, we're no Cinderella story.
-
I just thought about this -
the love stories of this world.
-
You know, you look at Cinderella.
-
She's getting a raw deal
from an evil step-mother.
-
But she could sing beautifully
-
and she was beautiful,
-
and so when the prince comes along
-
and he bestows his love there...
-
Brethren, when a nation loves its leader
-
or it loves its sports star,
-
or when a prince sets his love
-
on the princess,
-
that love may be altogether real.
-
But you know what?
-
All the love stories of the world,
-
there's something lovable and admirable
-
in the one who ends up getting loved.
-
That's not true with us.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Here's the thing,
-
you can pull out your tape measure.
-
Is it not true that the more unlovable
-
the object loved,
-
the greater that love must be.
-
I mean, you can put your
tape measure next to this.
-
You can estimate something of the glory
-
of the love of Christ
-
based on who it is that He loved.
-
To love the unlovable.
-
But we have to come back to that
-
and remember.
-
Because that alone will
create an appreciation.
-
If you want to send the people out
-
to walk worthy of their calling,
-
you want to send people out
-
to walk no more like the Gentiles,
-
you want to send them out to walk in love,
-
if we're overwhelmed by that reality,
-
how could He have ever loved me?
-
How could this be?
-
It's that appreciation.
-
But let's measure it in another way.
-
Christ's special saving love.
-
You have to remember what Paul's doing.
-
He is addressing Christians at Ephesus.
-
He's not addressing the world.
-
And when he says, "I'm praying,
-
I'm bending my knee before the Father,"
-
He says I'm praying
-
that you might have this
strength to comprehend
-
the vast dimensions of this love -
-
you remember,
-
it's that they might comprehend
-
with all the saints.
-
The saints. The Christians.
-
The ones who have had this love
-
bestowed upon them.
-
Do you know something?
-
Jesus does not give His love -
-
His saving love, His special love,
-
the love that Paul is praying
-
that these people would
be able to comprehend -
-
Jesus doesn't give that
love indiscriminately
-
and universally.
-
And one of the ways that we can measure
-
and get a feel for the love of Christ
-
is its rarity.
-
You know when I was a kid,
-
I collected coins,
-
baseball cards,
-
hockey cards, basketball cards,
-
football cards,
-
butterflies, stamps -
-
I collected a number of stuff.
-
And you know this?
-
What is it that really
makes a coin valuable?
-
There's something about its rarity.
-
If you just start to think,
-
sometimes this just comes over me.
-
Jacob have I loved.
-
Esau have I hated.
-
Christ's love is possessed
-
by relatively few.
-
Do you recognize
-
that when you go out through this city,
-
if you're one of the ones
who is loved by Christ
-
with the same love that these
Ephesians were loved with,
-
do you recognize
-
that as you're driving home,
-
it's not like all the cars
that are passing you,
-
the people possess that love.
-
It's not like on the freeway,
-
the people possess that
love that you're driving by.
-
Do you recognize that when
you walk into a grocery store
-
or you are out in the midst
-
of the populations of this earth,
-
those who Christ has set
His love upon like this
-
are relatively few.
-
That makes this love so precious.
-
I'll tell you this,
-
if Jesus Christ after man had sinned
-
had chosen to save all of mankind,
-
that love would be altogether precious.
-
But you know how man would view it?
-
You know how he would view it?
-
What would we say?
-
See, God is concerned
about what people say.
-
You remember how it was with Gideon?
-
How was it?
-
No, if you go out there
with 32,000 people,
-
you're going to say we got us the victory.
-
God is concerned about what people say.
-
And you know if Jesus saved everybody,
-
you know what man would say?
-
Well, somehow we had it coming.
-
I mean, somehow we deserved it.
-
Somehow we weren't really that bad.
-
Do you know what the
backdrop of hell does?
-
Especially when the multitudes,
-
it really shows that is a backdrop
-
against which the preciousness
-
of Christ's love becomes so vivid.
-
Isaiah in Romans 9.
-
You know what he said?
-
He said,
-
"Though the number of the sons of Israel
-
be as the sand of the sea,
-
only a remnant of them will I save."
-
Have you ever read that?
-
They may be like the sands upon the sea,
-
like the numbers of the stars,
-
and God says, "a remnant."
-
What is a remnant?
-
A remnant.
-
Only a remnant will be saved.
-
Or have you ever read this?
-
"The gate is narrow.
-
The way is hard that leads to life."
-
How many find it?
-
Few there be that find it.
-
Or how about this?
-
Many are called, and what?
-
Few are chosen.
-
Do you realize in a world
-
of eight billion people
-
and all through the history of mankind?
-
I think somebody in some
Christian magazine
-
or some Christian book that
I was reading years ago,
-
I remember somebody was basically
-
taking numbers from like the Gallup Poll
-
and saying, look, if we basically believe
-
that people are genuine
-
who claim to be Christians,
-
who go to evangelical churches,
-
who believe in the Trinity,
-
believe in the resurrection,
-
believe just some basic tenets.
-
And they worked those numbers down
-
across the world.
-
Have you ever looked at Operation World?
-
And looked even at their
maybe more liberal estimations?
-
Country after country after country?
-
How few true Christians there are
-
in all those countries?
-
And then you think about this.
-
Even within the church itself,
-
Jesus says that in the last day,
-
there's going to be many from our ranks
-
who are going to say we did
many mighty works for God,
-
even in the church.
-
He says there's an enemy who sows tares
-
and even in our midst,
-
many are going to turn out to not be true.
-
Do you recognize that
if you have this love,
-
how rare it is?
-
Look, I'm not saying that Jesus
-
doesn't offer that love freely
-
to all who will come to Him to have it.
-
He does.
-
But in the end,
-
Scripture affirms how few there be
-
that find it.
-
Listen, in this very book,
-
Paul's going to say,
-
"Husbands, love your wives..."
-
not like Christ loves the whole world.
-
"Love your wives like
Christ loves His church."
-
It's a very narrow,
very small - who is it?
-
It's His bride.
-
It's the true church.
-
It's those who He gave Himself up for.
-
Just like a husband.
-
A husband doesn't just
indiscriminately love
-
all women in the world.
-
He focuses that love,
-
and so it is with Christ.
-
The disciples came to Him one day,
-
and said,
-
"Lord, why do You speak
to them in parables?"
-
Remember that?
-
Remember what Jesus said?
-
"To you," speaking to the 11 of the 12,
-
"to you it has been given
-
to know the secrets of
the kingdom of heaven."
-
But to them - to who?
-
To the crowds, it has not been given.
-
You see that love gives.
-
And to be one of those objects
-
that have received
this special, saving love;
-
to receive ears to hear.
-
It's been given.
-
Or how about this?
-
In Luke, Jesus says to those
-
that were returning - the 72,
-
"Do not rejoice in this,
-
that the spirits are subject to you.
-
Rejoice..."
-
Rejoice.
-
"Rejoice that your names
-
are written in heaven.
-
In that same hour,
-
He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit,
-
and He said this,
-
'I thank You, Father,
-
Lord of Heaven and earth,
-
that You have hidden...'"
-
I was struck by this.
-
In John 14,
-
"I will love you
-
and manifest Myself to you."
-
"Father, You have hidden these things
-
from the wise and understanding,
-
revealed them to little children.
-
Yes, Father, for such
was Your gracious will."
-
What I find is this, love gives.
-
And one of the primary things
-
that we find that loves gives
-
is a revelation of itself.
-
You think about a man and a woman
-
and as they give themselves to each other,
-
there is a greater and greater revealing.
-
And where Christ loves,
-
He says it's been given to you to know.
-
It's been given to you
to have your eyes open
-
and to have your ears open.
-
It's been given to you to have
-
manifestations of Myself.
-
He says, "Peter,
-
but who do you say that I am?"
-
"Thou art the Christ.
-
The Son of the living God."
-
He says, "Peter, blessed are you."
-
He says, "that was revealed to you
-
not by flesh and blood,
-
that was revealed to you by My Father."
-
There's this revelation.
-
Jesus says, "I no longer
call you servants,
-
for the servant does not know
-
what his master is doing.
-
I have called you friends.
-
For all that I have heard from My Father,
-
I have made known to you."
-
"You did not choose Me.
-
I chose you."
-
We're going through
life children of wrath.
-
We're going through life hating God,
-
following the devil,
-
dead in sins,
-
and Christ comes along.
-
We're detestable, we're hateful.
-
And such things move in God -
-
how could He do it?
-
How could He love such as us?
-
But He chooses.
-
It's a rare love.
-
That makes it especially valuable.
-
Jesus said it.
-
"In truth I tell you,
-
there were many widows in Israel
-
in the days of Elijah
-
when the heavens were shut
up three years and six months.
-
A great famine over the land.
-
Elijah was sent to none of them,
-
but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon
-
to a woman who was a widow."
-
You see how there were many,
-
and God's specific love passes over
-
all of them to this widow.
-
There were many lepers in the days.
-
"The prophet Elijah cleansed none
-
but Naaman the Syrian."
-
And you know what?
It filled them with wrath
-
and they wanted to
throw Him over the cliff.
-
That's the same wrath that people feel -
-
"Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated."
-
There's those words of the psalmist
-
that the lovingkindness of God,
-
or His steadfast love endures forever.
-
It seems like we heard
about that just recently.
-
But His steadfast love endures forever.
-
It says He wiped out Pharaoh.
-
He killed all their firstborn.
-
But the steadfast love of God
-
endures forever.
-
Do you see?
-
How does it endure forever
-
when He's killing all the firstborn?
-
Because He loves Israel.
-
It's a very specific love.
-
We're talking about the love of Christ.
-
It's special. It's special.
-
Do you remember Jesus,
-
He says, "Fear not, little flock."
-
Why not?
-
"For it's your Father's good pleasure
-
to give you the kingdom."
-
You need to let this grab hold.
-
You walk out in the world,
-
remember the stock from which you came.
-
And remember,
-
if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ,
-
such a love is upon you that is rare.
-
You are one of the remnant.
-
You are one of the few.
-
You are one of the little flock.
-
For Jesus to call His flock "little."
-
I know that in the end it's going to be
-
such a number from all
the tribes and tongues.
-
I know that.
-
But at any given snapshot,
-
those who truly know His love,
-
I'll tell you what, I can tell you
-
what He told those that came back
-
from casting out those demons.
-
You ought to rejoice.
-
You ought to jump up and down.
-
If Christ's love is upon you,
-
you have everything!
-
I mean, what could you complain about?
-
You're one of the few.
-
You're one of the little flock.
-
When you're gripped with
this and you go out,
-
and now, you're hearing, "walk worthy."
-
Walk worthy because you're
not like everyone else.
-
You are special
-
because that special love
-
was bestowed on you
-
because He chose to put it there.
-
What a thing is this!
-
What an honor!
-
What a gift!
-
What love!
-
That would do such things
for such people as us.
-
You think about where you'd be
-
if you'd have died six months
-
before you got saved.
-
You'd be in hell
-
and altogether deserving those torments.
-
But He stood in our place
-
and He drank that cup.
-
And now, the benefits of that.
-
A good deal of us in this room,
-
and I'll tell you,
-
if you find yourself on the outside,
-
don't go out and hang yourself like Judas.
-
The thing to do is hear these words.
-
Jesus says,
-
"him that comes to Me,
-
I will in no wise cast out."
-
You know what that means?
-
"You come to Me and I will love you.
-
I will embrace you with My love
-
and I will not let you go."
-
Father, I pray, help us
-
to feel this and to be moved by it.
-
I pray in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.