[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 6.! Ephesians chapter 6.! Ephesians heartbeat and pulse is certainly grace.
[0:14] ! The theme of the book is grace. Grace that chooses. Grace that predestines dead sinners and makes them alive. It's unstoppable grace.
[0:27] Unstoppable grace that takes warring humanity. And it's man against man. It's man hating each other. People from different sides of the tracks, we would say.
[0:40] And bringing them into one family, one glorious humanity. And in this humanity, there's new love. There's new gifts. A new destiny.
[0:52] It's grace that creates men and women who love each other. Who love each other. Who love righteousness and who don't want anything to do with the misdeeds of darkness.
[1:08] Ephesians calls us children of the light. And that's what we are. Children of the light. And all of this is born out of the love of God.
[1:19] That's what grace is. It's the love of God coming and interfering with men's lives. Horatius Bonar was right when he wrote, Thy love to me, O God.
[1:32] Not my love for thee. Salvation is about his love for me. Not our love for him. But what you see at the very end of Ephesians, and we're just going to read the last couple of verses, is the only response to that kind of grace.
[1:53] The only response that can come out of a soul that's been embraced with God's love. And you see it. It's full, sincere, incorruptible love for Jesus Christ.
[2:08] So I just want to read the very last two verses. It's Paul's final words. It's his benediction. It's his blessing upon these Ephesian believers. And you see this only response that we can have for God so great love.
[2:24] Verse 23. Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
[2:44] Paul says grace. God's favor. God's smile. God's blessing on all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
[2:59] Now, my main goal this morning is to look at this undying love that every Christian has for Jesus Christ. We're very used to thinking about his love for me.
[3:11] And that's where our emphasis should be. But this morning, I want to look at the other side of that. And that's our undying love for him. That's my main goal this morning.
[3:22] What does it look like? What does it mean? But I want to give you the applications first. The applications to this text. So I don't want you just to hear it and think about it and understand it.
[3:32] I want you to do something with it. To do something with it inside of you, inside of your heart. And so this very last verse, this is what we're going to look at. This very last verse. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
[3:45] This verse is a stethoscope. It's a stethoscope. And so you're a doctor coming home from work. You just got off your 12-hour shift at the hospital.
[3:58] And in front of you, there's a car accident. And there's a body on the ground. Thrown from the car on the ground. Now, are they alive or are they dead?
[4:10] Well, you can't tell by looking at them. And you can't tell by asking them if they're unconscious. But you do have a stethoscope over your neck.
[4:21] And so you slam those things into your ears. And you put it on their chest. And you hold it there. And you're listening. You're listening for a heartbeat. And so what do you hear?
[4:33] Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Ba-boom. So there's life there. You can't hear it. You can't see it. But there's life there. Now, this verse is a stethoscope.
[4:45] You can tell if you are a Christian or not by this verse. By comparing yourself to what this verse is about.
[4:56] All Christians love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. All Christians love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
[5:08] So, do you have the heartbeat? Is there a heartbeat inside of you? Do you love our Lord Jesus with an undying love? The second application is this.
[5:19] This is a peek under the bed at Christmas time. Or a peek in the closet where your parents keep the Christmas presents. Now, none of you, I'm sure, would ever, ever do something like that.
[5:34] None of you would ever be so bold to look into what your parents are giving you for Christmas. But that's what this verse is. It's a look into what God has planned for us.
[5:46] It's a look into the good things that God has promised that he's going to bring into our lives. Now, if you don't like the Christmas and looking under the bed illustration, it's a peek into God's planner.
[5:58] What does God have on his agenda for you and for your life? Well, if you love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love, he has grace written in the planner.
[6:09] He has good things waiting for you. He's inclined to do you good. You have a smile. So, that's what Paul is saying.
[6:20] Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. Now, it's a prayer. It's a wish. It's a blessing. But Paul is not wishing these things sort of like I'm wishing upon a star. He's not praying because he's not sure whether God is going to do it.
[6:34] He is saying, I know that God has grace for people like this who love our Lord with an undying love. And this grace is on its way.
[6:46] This grace is on its way. It's coming to you. It's in the future, but it's going to be meeting you. It's going to be meeting you. So, if you're doubting and fearful and anxious and concerned about anything, about do I have what it takes to go through the next few weeks?
[7:05] Do I have what it takes to face this test? I'm seeing possibilities out there. Whatever that might be for you. And you could be very doubtful and anxious and concerned.
[7:16] Well, I want you to be of good cheer. Grace is on its way. Grace is on its way. God has it in his planner for you. It's under the bed waiting for the right time to come out.
[7:28] Now, that's the second application. Here's the third application. This verse is a cup of strong coffee. It's a cup of strong coffee. So, you're feeling lethargic in the morning.
[7:39] And you're looking at what's ahead of you. And it's hard. It's a hard day. And you're not feeling up to it. Well, what do you need? You need a cup of coffee.
[7:50] And that's what this verse is. It's a shot of encouragement. It might not even be one of those big cups. It's one of those espresso things that has like five times the amount of caffeine.
[8:01] And you can just shoot it like that. That's what this verse is. Christian, here is the wonderful thing. Here is the wonderful thing. The love that you have for Jesus Christ.
[8:15] It's undying. It won't stop. It's real. And it's forever. And if you have the real thing, then you should be very encouraged.
[8:28] Very encouraged. Because hell, Satan, persecution, difficulties, trials. None of those things will separate you from the love that God has for you.
[8:40] And vice versa. None of those things will take the love that you have for Jesus Christ away. Many waters cannot extinguish this love that you have, that God has put into your heart for Jesus Christ.
[8:56] Ignatius, he was an early church father. He lived in sort of what's present-day Spain. It wasn't Spanish at the time. But early church father, he faced deadly persecution.
[9:09] And he ended up dying for his faith. But he said this. Let fire cross and all the torments which men or beasts can be inflicted on my body.
[9:22] Yea, and add to them what all the devils and hell can do upon it. Yet would I go through them all to come to the bosom of the Lord. And we say, I don't know if I could ever say something like that.
[9:40] In the face of persecution, we're literally being thrown to the beast. And we say, I don't think, I don't know if I could ever say that. I don't know if I could ever face that kind of persecution, that kind of opposition, that kind of difficulty so courageously.
[9:58] But Ignatius had only what this verse is talking about. He had what this verse is talking about.
[10:11] He had the same undying love that every Christian here has. Not different, not a different species, not a different kind.
[10:23] It's not a different animal. It's the same thing that you have. And it was enough. That love that he had for Jesus Christ propelled him through men and beasts and torments and all the devils and hell just to get to the bosom of the Lord.
[10:39] It was enough. It was more than enough. What was in him is in you. Do you understand that? What was in him is in you, Christian. And so you should be encouraged.
[10:50] This thing that you have inside of you for the Lord is not going to die. So it's a cup of strong coffee. So what is this verse? It's a stethoscope.
[11:01] It's a way to test the spirit. Are you alive or dead? It's a peek into the plan of God. Does God have good stored up for you? It's a shot of a strong coffee.
[11:13] It's encouragement. And so, brothers and sisters, as we look at this love and explore it, I want you to use it. I want you to apply it to your heart.
[11:24] You've seen the applications, and I want you to put it in and press it upon your heart. And then take it with you when you go. Take it with you when you go.
[11:35] These things that are true are not just true in the four walls of this building. These things are true when you're out there. So undying love. The word is incorruptible.
[11:47] It can't rot. It's not decaying. It's without any death. It's love born in heaven.
[11:58] Now, Romans 8 talks about all of creation being subjected to frustration. All of creation is subject to this decay that is going on. And we are.
[12:12] Our bodies are. Outwardly, we're wasting away, aren't we? We're older and we're more broken down than when we used to be. And that's what this.
[12:22] And so this word is the exact opposite of that. It's something that doesn't break down. That can't rot. That can't decay. That can't grow weaker.
[12:34] But in this love, and this is what Paul is saying, this love that is the possession of every Christian, of every Christian, every person who is in Christ has this undying love.
[12:47] There's nothing wearing away. There's nothing dying about it. This love that you have that God has begun in you below will last forever and ever and ever and ever.
[13:00] That's what this is saying. It's forever love. Now, do I have it? Do I have it? What is this love? What does it look like? Is it just saying I love him?
[13:11] Is it just feeling something? Well, this love has features, and it is a certain kind of love. It's a lot of things, but this morning I just want to look at five points, five things.
[13:26] And first, if you have this love, it's a love that loves Christ for saving you. That's at the very foundation level.
[13:40] That's the ribbon running all through this love. I love Christ because he saved me. It always has this sense.
[13:52] Whoever loves Christ with the undying love always has the sense that I would be completely ruined if it wasn't for him. But, oh, he saved me.
[14:03] I would be devastated. I would be destroyed. There would be no hope for me, but, oh, he saved me. So I was dying of spiritual thirst. I was broke. I was bankrupt.
[14:13] But he said to me, come all you who are thirsty. If you don't have money, come and buy. So he came when I was poor and thirsty and when I was brokenhearted and enslaved to my sin and chained to my sin.
[14:30] Do you remember that? Being chained to your sin where its consequences and its power and everything about it had you in its grips.
[14:42] I was chained to my sin and I was in deepest darkness. But as Isaiah 61 says, the spirit of the Lord was upon him. The spirit of the Lord was on him to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and to release and release from darkness for the prisoners.
[15:06] That I was there and he came and found me. He came and preached good news to me. I was a lost sheep. Ninety-nine were in the fold and I was wandering away and he went and found me and saved me.
[15:24] Romans 3 was my heart. My tongue. My tongue was deceitful. Just listen to Romans 3.
[15:37] There's no one righteous. And I would say, yeah, that was me. Not righteous. Not even one. There's no one who understands.
[15:47] No one who seeks God. All have turned away. They've together become worthless. There's no one who does good. Not even one. Their throats are open graves.
[15:57] Their tongues practice deceit. And then going on, there's no fear of God before their eyes. And that was me.
[16:11] And all those who have this undying love, you would say with me, yeah, that was me. That was me. And he found me. And he saved me.
[16:24] This undying love always begins with the conviction of our sin. Of our fallenness. Of our guilt. One old pastor said, no conviction, no love.
[16:37] No conviction, no love, no contrition. No being really, really sorry for your sin. No contrition, no affection. It's the broken and contrite heart that has the knife of conviction stuck into it that begins to love Christ.
[16:59] It's when I'm in the back of the church and I'm beating my chest and I'm saying, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus comes.
[17:13] And he comes to me. And he comes to me clothed in the gospel. And he takes my sins. He takes my sinfulness.
[17:26] He takes my death. And he saves me. And I see him able to save me. I see him as able to save me.
[17:37] So his cross was enough. It doesn't, my guilty conscience asks for nothing else and God himself asks for nothing else. So nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross.
[17:49] His cross I cling. And so I see him able to save me. His cross is enough. I look totally away from myself and his cross is enough. And so all I do is hold on to that cross. And what happens in my heart is something begins to burn.
[18:04] This undying love. He saved me. He was enough to save me. And I see that he is able. And I see him more than that that he's willing to save me.
[18:16] I see him coming to me, approaching me in my tragic condition, in my lost condition. And that's where this never-dying love begins to burn. It's where that never-dying love begins to sprout.
[18:30] So ask yourself, hold up the stethoscope. Have you ever found yourself lost? Lost. Lost. And undone.
[18:44] Have you ever realized, I'm ruined. This is it. I'm doomed. Have you ever by faith met Christ with him saying, sinner, trust in me.
[19:02] You're as lost as can be, but I can save you. If it's always been the same, if it's always been the same with you, and you do the right things, and you're here, and you believe the things that you're supposed to believe, this kind of thing, the sort of things you're supposed to believe, you believe those, but it's always been the same.
[19:24] And then I want to say to you, beware. Whatever love you have for Christ, and I'm sure it might be some kind of love, it's not undying love.
[19:37] Where there is no conviction of sin, there is no love for Jesus Christ as the Savior. But the soul that Jesus has saved can't help but loving him forever.
[19:54] So, when I was in deep distress, he flew to my relief, and so what else can I do but to love him? What else will I do forever and ever but love him?
[20:05] And when I've been there 10,000 years, as bright shining as the sun, what will be the desire of my heart will be, I want to love him. He is worthy of love. He saved me.
[20:16] Now that's first. So this undying love is always the love of someone who realized that Christ has saved them. Not from pretend sins, not from just little sins, but I was ruined, and he saved me.
[20:31] Second, it's incorruptible love when you've tasted the Father's love through him. When you've tasted the Father's love through him or in him, all who have this undying love feel and know and are responding to, God the Father loves me.
[20:52] It's not just that Jesus Christ loves me. God the Father loves me. Jesus Christ came full of grace and truth. He came full of all of God's love, all of heaven's love.
[21:07] It's like he swallowed the sun up and he came down to earth and now the love of God is shining through Jesus Christ. But every Christian, every person who has this undying love travels those beams of light back to the source, back to the sun.
[21:24] they don't stop at Jesus. They see, oh, I know where this love began. I know where this salvation began. It began in the heart of a father in love, loving his children.
[21:40] You see what I'm saying? Again and again, you see that. Jesus comes in order that we might come to the Father. John 14, 6, that very famous word, there's no, I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life.
[21:54] No one comes to the Father except through me. All Christians, though, make their way to the Father. They find themselves basking in the Father's love. And that's how you know if you have this undying love.
[22:07] You felt and you know that the Father loves you. And so, we love him because he first loved us. you don't buy the devil's lie that says, Christ won for us a reluctant Father's heart.
[22:30] There are some people that think that. There are some Christians that wrestle with that. That it's a cursed lie. The Father is the sour, reluctant one and Jesus wins his love and affection over to us.
[22:42] And the only reason the Father can even stand us and even would bother to love us is because of him. Well, you know better than that. You've tasted the Father's love.
[22:53] You've tasted a Father's love in Jesus Christ. The beams of God's love have come through Jesus and fallen on your heart. And so, you cry out with Jesus.
[23:06] You have the same spirit within you that Jesus has that says, Abba, Father. You know the Father. You love him. And you love Christ because he's made you God's beloved child.
[23:18] You love Christ because he's brought you into the arms of a Father who loves you. And so, you love him forever. That's the second thing of the undying love.
[23:29] It loves Christ for saving me. It loves Christ because in Christ, I experience and I feel and the Father's love for me. Now third, this love emotionally.
[23:42] love emotionally responds to who Christ is. This is your affections, your posture, your emotional connection to God.
[23:59] This love emotionally responds to who Christ is. It's constantly pushing your heart. It's affecting your posture, your position towards him. And so, you feel things and you have a certain attitude towards Christ because of who he is.
[24:15] It's not like all the truth of the word of God is over here and your heart is facing the wrong way. No, what it says has an effect on you. It changes you.
[24:26] So, who is he? Well, he's the God man. He's the God man. And so, I can never, I can't be flippant with him.
[24:37] I can't be nonchalant with Jesus. I have to be humble and reverent. Intimacy, yes.
[24:51] Flippancy, no. Intimacy, yes. Flippancy, no. One of you told me about going to the doctor and the doctor trying to lead you into this strange Christianese meditation in order to heal you or to help give you relief from your ailment.
[25:17] And the doctor said, close your eyes and the doctor closed her eyes and think about going up to heaven and thinking about seeing Jesus.
[25:30] Do you want to give Jesus a hug? And the person said, no, I don't. I don't. Now, I'm not telling you the story very well because it should be kind of funny, but what's wrong with that picture?
[25:48] What's wrong with that? Well, that's flippant. Christ is not my lucky charm. Christ is not my talisman. Christ is not my nice little thought meditation to make me feel better to solve my physical ailments.
[26:04] Like, I'm just going to think about that and give Jesus a spiritual, mystical hug. That's trying to use him. That's trying to use Jesus and to sort of turn him into a magical formula.
[26:20] But he is the God-man. He is God. He is man. in Revelation 1, John saw the risen Savior and John was not saying, let me give you a hug.
[26:36] He was saying, I think I'm dead. I think I'm dead. Every part of us loves him. Now, we want intimacy. We want closeness to him.
[26:48] And that's right. We long to be near him. We sing nearer still nearer. We want that. There is this element that is attracted to him. Then we're going to talk about that next. That desires him.
[26:59] We want to be close to him, but it's never flippant. We're never going to use him. He's too much for that. And so the only response can be, it has to be humble.
[27:13] How can it be anything else? And so I read Philippians chapter 2. And he is God. The very nature of God. And he becomes, he takes on the form of a servant.
[27:25] He takes on flesh and he becomes a servant. And if I am in my spiritually right mind and I am connected to Jesus, I have to bow down before that mystery.
[27:39] And I say, I don't understand that. That's okay. No one in creation understands it. And I go to John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God.
[27:53] And the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And I love him.
[28:06] When you hear those words and see that truth, if you have this undying love, you love him. I love him for being God.
[28:18] I love him that he is God. And I love that he holds the nations in his hands and the nations are just like a drop in the bucket to him. I love, I love that the kings of the earth and all the men are like grasshoppers at his feet.
[28:33] I love that he is God. and I love that he is man. And I love him for being both at the same time.
[28:47] In my, in my heart, doesn't it, it melt at his greatness of who he is and what he's done and what he's become for us and we don't understand it, but you know what?
[29:01] We will gladly fall down in worship. We will gladly love him. That's undying love. It responds to who he is. But as I said, he's more than the God man.
[29:12] He's, he is, he's our husband. He's our husband. He's our best friend. He's the lover of our souls.
[29:23] And I desire him and I delight in him. Everything about him I find enjoyable and sweet because he's my husband. The Puritans loved to read the book of Song of Solomon as an allegory.
[29:39] Of, an allegory of this love relationship between Christ and the church or, or Christ and the Christian. And it's, and when you read it like that, it's full of affection and desire and passion and longing to be with each other.
[29:58] and they love to think that that was saying that's how Christ and the church and Christ and the Christian are. Now, I don't think they were all together right in the way they interpreted it because actually when you get into it, some of it seems kind of far-fetched.
[30:15] But, I don't think they were all together wrong either. It's this book of Ephesians and Ephesians chapter 5 that talks about the marriage of Christ and His church and becoming one flesh and everything that that means.
[30:34] So, this is a love match and every person with an undying love has some sense of that. That I love Him. He's the one that I'm made for.
[30:46] Everything about Him draws me out and so it makes me want to be close with Him. And yeah, sometimes I'm the moth and He's the flame and I get too close and He burns me for just who He is but I still want Him.
[30:59] Undying love is anything but indifferent. That's what I'm saying. This undying love that every Christian has, it can be indifferent. It can be passionless and heartless and emotionless.
[31:13] You've read the Chronicles of Narnia and there's something about Aslan that attracts everyone to Him and yet when they get there He's really hard to deal with.
[31:26] He's too much. He's not safe but we want Him. And that's how, that's the Christian's posture towards the Lord. We can't control Him. We can't manipulate Him.
[31:37] We can bow down before Him but yet there's something about Him that is so perfect and so lovely and what He's done for me and what He does for me now.
[31:49] we love Him for it. So you see, that's the third thing. We love Him for how He saved us. We love Him because in Him we feel the Father's love.
[32:01] And third, we emotionally, we, in our posture, in our attitude, we relate to who He is. He's not this great God man and we're like, eh.
[32:14] No. We either bow down, we love Him. we connect with Him. Fourth, this undying love is joined to Him in His sorrows and in His successes.
[32:29] It's joined to Him in His sorrows and His successes. Isn't that love? I thought of Dennis and Billy. They're not here this morning. Dennis and Billy, how proud they must have been when their oldest son graduated from medical school and became a doctor.
[32:46] You put on the white coat, you get your stethoscope, and people call you Dr. Berry. Now, how proud Mom and Dad were. I'm sure Jesse felt all sorts of things that day.
[32:59] All sorts of pride, all sense of accomplishment, all the good feelings, right? But who was right there along with them feeling all of those things? Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.
[33:11] That's what love does. And it's not just the good things. It's when your child is sick, really sick. I mean, you see those pictures of the children in the cancer ward at the hospital and they're bald and your heart breaks for them and you don't even know them.
[33:27] Think about how the parents feel. They're joined to this child in sorrow. Or when your spouse is really sick and hurting, you join them in their pain.
[33:40] And so when I read of Jesus in Gethsemane and I slow down enough to think about what that was like and I enter into that scene and it says he's filled with sorrow and he's troubled in his soul to the point of death.
[34:05] He almost died before he got to the cross. It was so painful. And something in me echoes his pain.
[34:17] There's something in my heart in his loneliness and his fear. I feel that. Now I know it's over and I know he'll never ever go to a Gethsemane again.
[34:35] He'll never feel that trouble and that sorrow ever ever again. But that he was there. That he did go through that.
[34:47] The very thought fills me with sadness. And then after Gethsemane he went to Gavatha.
[35:00] It was Pilate's court. He was there and instead of getting justice he was just handed over for political expediency and he stood there silent and I want you to imagine the scene of a crowd of people raging, crying, crucify him, crucify him.
[35:25] He wasn't deaf. He wasn't a block of wood. their anger and their fury crashed on him and he stood there silent.
[35:38] Was there ever grief like his? He was dying for some of these people. He loved and cried for these people. Now again, I know it's over and I know just as we sang he's raised to glory he's up from the grave he arose but the thought of my love going there and standing there and hearing that cry it fills me with sorrow.
[36:05] And then at Golgotha he's rejected by his father and that his pure innocent soul faced that that's the hardest that he tasted that.
[36:25] There's there's you know when I think about that there's something very fitting about if I was there. I mean my soul is dirty I'm rotten I'm disgusting in my sin but compared to him and so there would be something fitting about a cross for me to hear the father say to hear the father say nothing to be silent that that would be fitting for me but not for him.
[36:51] But we also know that he felt all the sorrows and the rejection of hell and his soul of judgment that look from God his father that put infinite distance between he God and him.
[37:06] And again I know that that's all for my salvation. I know we can sing hallelujah for the cross but that my love would do that for me.
[37:21] Alas alas you know that word alas means I can't believe this this is a tragedy something like that alas and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I now undying love enters into the sorrows of our Lord and even now even now even now so we've been talking about past things and you know what we should connect in sorrow to what our Lord endured it would make us deeper more spiritual Christians if we would go there and realize his sorrow and my sorrow where we where my sorrows are joined with his sorrows but even now they call him teacher they call him teacher and they don't obey him they don't learn from him they call him Lord and they don't obey him they don't do what he says his name is a curse his name is something that you say when you're really upset and they don't bow before his throne just look at the news seriously you will not find anything that is of infinite internal value in the news and I don't mean to be flipping about any of it but they act like presidential elections and pandemics and business is what is really important but you know who is not important in their mind at all
[38:55] Jesus Christ the king and I'm not saying those things don't have some relative importance but what I'm saying is he is not important to them and that should not be that should not be there should be something indignant in the heart of every Christian that the whole world can just go on and they can leave Jesus behind thank you very much but so it's now we enter into his sorrows even now but there's another side isn't there we did sing up from the grave he arose and our hearts are thrilled to think of him when we were singing that up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foes his winning his victory our hearts are stirred and we enter into his success and when we sing in Christ alone and he and and that I think it's the third verse and it says as and as he stands in victory our hearts are excited that he is there besides whatever else that means to us his resurrection is our justification and our salvation but but but before it's anything that has to do with us it's his victory and the fact that he tore the bars away we're happy with that and to think of him coming again to think of him coming again and destroying the man of sin the antichrist with the glory of his coming that's what second thessalonian says this man this height of the world and sinful man opposed to
[40:35] God and Jesus just destroys him with the glory of his coming that thrills our heart not because it has really anything to do with us even though yes it has everything to do with us but because of what it means and it counts for him all his angels around him on that second coming again what matters most is what will happen for him and why is that because I love him I love him and his success is my success and his success is good enough for me and so in heaven Samuel Rutherford said the bride eye is not her garment she's not looking at how beautiful she is but at her dear bridegroom face I will not gaze at glory but on my king of grace that's the joy of heaven it's a lot of things but you know what is not first on the list is what is going to be good for me and what what
[41:42] I'm going to be and how wonderful it is going to be for me what is first on the list is that Jesus is there and he is unveiled with his blazing joyous glory and every eye will see him and every heart will love him and the lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land and so when we are there we will be second and he will be first and our joy will be his glory his success his victory that's what we're looking for undying love it joins Christ in his sorrows so we are persecuted with him and we gladly bear that scorn and it and it's joined him in his joys so it's two hearts intertwined do you see that if the book of Hebrews talks about every high priest is chosen among men and he's able to be sympathetic with those who are who are wrestling with sin and temptation there is the sense that
[42:44] Jesus enters into our sorrows and our difficulties and that word sympathy means that when our hearts are beat and wrung and we're struggling in heaven there's a sympathetic heart beating with ours yes it goes from him to us and you know what our love goes from us to him do you see what I'm saying our hearts are joined with him in our sorrows!
[43:12] Now last and fifth and very quickly he's our one true love he's our one true love a husband doesn't love his wife if he's willing to share her and a wife doesn't love her husband if there's another incorruptible love has no rivals no second no close seconds Philippians 3 8 I consider them rubbish trash excrement compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord my love everything else I'll lose but he's our treasure and that's the heartbeat of the whole church he's our treasure and so how does revelation end with the church crying out come Lord Jesus come quickly we want him and so if we are fine with Christ being one of many of our concerns one of many of our loves if he's just one of several things that we kind of like to dabble in then we don't have this undying love we do not have this undying love none but
[44:27] Jesus none but Jesus so this verse is a stethoscope are you alive and if you say this is not me I don't know this this isn't what I'm feeling I can't my heart isn't resonating with what you're saying if you're saying this is not me then you know what you've heard the gospel I've preached the gospel this morning the good news about how Jesus Christ saves sinners and the gospel is not love Jesus like this that's not the gospel it's not the gospel is that you are a dead guilty ruined sinner with no hope outside of one person Jesus Christ in Christ Jesus is willing to save you he is able to save you the cross is enough for you and all you have to do is believe that message it's not about your love for him it's about his love for you and about what
[45:28] God has provided for you the cross is your his excuse me his provision for your salvation so what do you need to do you need to believe you need to believe this message and when you've come to your senses and you've seen I'm a ruined sinner and I've cleaned to Jesus Christ and he saves me that's where this undying love begins don't put the cart in front of the horse the gospel is about his love for you not your love for him so are you alive and maybe you say yes I am I love Christ like this not as much as I wish not as much as I want to but I love him I do love him something like that then take heart remember the second thing this is a plan this is a peek into God's plan what does God have plan for you dear Christian who loves Jesus like this he has grace for you you're going to see troubles and sorrows and heartaches and difficulties but if you love
[46:28] Christ like this God's smile is on you he has grace stored up for you Psalm 23 goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life you love his son you love his son the father loves you and will bless you do you love Christ like this then again this is a strong cup of coffee this is encouragement because again the rain is going to fall storms are going to come but this love that God has begun in you he is not going to let anything extinguish nothing can wash it away nothing can snuff it out this love isn't born on this earth it comes from heaven it's a tree planted there and so you know maybe you worry you're looking out and you're saying this is getting frightening I don't like how all this is going or maybe
[47:30] I'm in a situation and I don't this is getting frightening and I'm wondering will I be able to make it to the end or will I prove to be like Judas who up until the last second no one could tell that he was a fraud will I be like Judas and prove unfaithful in the end will that fear get the better of me there is undying love there is undying love and Christian you have it nothing can separate you from the love of God read the end of Romans 8 nothing can separate you from the love of God and but the other the alternative is true the vice versa is true nothing can destroy the love you have for Christ either nothing can destroy the love you have for Christ this is a!
[48:23] tree! this is a fire that cannot be put out if it's in you take heart take heart what God has done what God has begun he's going to complete and so do you love him like this then Paul's benediction is for you grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with undying love grace to you let's pray our Lord take your word and plant it deep within us shape and fashion us after your likeness prepare us for glory and give us grace to walk with you thank you for what you have begun below and what you are going to complete above we pray for those who do not love you with undying love you must work on their behalf and so we put them into your hands and we ask for mercy do us good bless your people bless your children
[49:38] I pray amen