The Love of Christ, Part 3

Cameraman's on and ready to go. Today is part 3 of a three-part sermon I've given on the love of God. And we have been examining for the last two sermons Ephesians 3, verse 17 and 18. If you don't mind turning back there, we will touch it one more time. Ephesians 3. In fact, I'll go to verse 16. Ephesians 3 and verse 16, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the length, the depth, and the height, really, of God's love, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Interesting there. Passes all knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. So Paul gives the church in Ephesus, and he also, through the preservation of Scripture, gives us today in God's church a mandate.

He gives us an incredible mandate for our spiritual growth and our walk by those Scriptures we just read. Can you comprehend the width, the length, the depth, and the height of God's love? Last week we went into the width of God's love. And when you read, as we just did in verse 19, that it passes knowledge, which means this is out of this world thinking, that it's not natural, which means what?

That's right, Olivia. Super natural. Super natural to be filled with all the fullness of God. Are you there yet? Which tells us it's very possible for the saints, but obviously not very common. Rooted and grounded in agape. Have we started the process yet? We all need this love.

God has it. He shows it, as we looked at last week when we talked about the width in John 3.16. And His love is so wide, it is for the entire world. And as we looked at in 2 Peter 3.9, which stated that He desired none to perish. So His love is so wide, it covers 7 billion people, plus the 30 to 50 billion people who have ever lived. To desire to be filled with all the fullness of God is to desire to act and personify God in our fleshly bodies. Are we doing that? Are we striving to do that?

It actually says to show a divine nature in this physical body daily. And not just the human nature, our carnal nature that seems to want to pop up every day, doesn't it? So, are you ready to accept that mandate that He lays out here? That we can actually have the love of God in our lives, and we can be filled by the Holy Spirit to the fullness of God?

That is a big, humongous mandate. Since we looked at the width, now let's look at the length. Let's look at the length of God's love. How long is it? What length has God gone to for you?

Any of you that ever read one of Charles Dickens' books or novels, you might remember one called David Copperfield. He might have read the book or actually seen the couple movies they made about it. And you might remember that there was an uncle who took two kind of orphans in. One of them was his niece whose father had died.

Her name was Emily, and Emily was young at the time, and her uncle just really thought so much of her. He wanted to give her a chance to grow up and achieve all her dreams that she had been dreaming about, talking to him about. He cared so much for her, just like his own daughter. And she came from a very poor station in life at that time in the late 1800s of when the story took place.

And Emily began to grow into a beautiful young lady, but she always dreamed about a better life, moving past her station in life and going out and seeing the world that she had read so much about. But as Emily got older, she was engaged to be married to another young man who was a hardworking young man, the same station she was. But right before their wedding, a handsome young rich man came into her life that promised her, Run away with me, Emily!

Run away with me and we'll be able to see all the wonderful places you've ever dreamed of. I'll make your dreams come true. He was a charlatan, and so she did. And she ran off with this man who then promised he would marry her, but then did not, after he got what he wanted. But they did go and see various things in the world, and once he was tired of her, he left her, stuck, no money, very poor, stranded with no way to get back in touch with her uncle.

And by that time, she was totally embarrassed because she had to resort to the oldest profession in the world to survive. But her uncle had heard these terrible things that happened, but he did not know where she was. So her uncle went and took all the little money he had and spent years looking for her, all through Europe, from the street corners, trying to find her. Finally, he did. He found her, and he put his arms around her and took her home to take care of her. He had gone to great lengths to find her, and she couldn't figure out, how could someone still love me so much?

But he took her home and showed her the love that she'd been so longing for. The incredible length God has gone to, to save us from ourselves, the length He goes to, to help us on our individual journey to the kingdom. God's patience is so long. It is with Me. What about you? How long has it been with you? How long has He stayed with us as we are working on the sins in our lives for what, 10, 20, 30 years?

You know, He's going to great lengths to teach us every day if we read the book. He goes to great lengths to teach us, like Peter, to bear long with others, because He bears long with us. I'd like you to turn into Matthew 18, if you will. Matthew 18. I'll read from the New King James. Matthew 18. Jesus teaches them about dealing with a sinning brother, previous verses. And then He comes down to verse 21. And it says, Then Peter came to him, Christ, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me?

And I forgive him. Up to seven times? This guy keeps doing it, sinning against me. You know, how long do I have to put up with it? Peter was not known at this time for his patience, if you remember.

Jesus said to him, I do not say up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. That means you keep forgiving. Because that trains us to be like God. We begin to have that divine nature, instead of the human nature. Human nature teaches us, you deal with someone like that very quickly. Don't put up with it. And you'll be justified. But the love of God shows us the patience of God. What about those sins of omission and commission? See, God is about forgiveness and mercy.

Are we that fool yet? I hope we're not going to answer that yet. Most of us still have a little work to do. There's a chapter in the Bible that's known as the love chapter. Most of you know it from 1 Corinthians 13. I'd like to turn over there just a second. 1 Corinthians 13, we all know it. But it describes and teaches us about this love of God, this agape. It's agape love. And it says in verse 4 that it is what?

It is patient. It suffers long. Do we suffer long? Is it easier to have more patience with your own kids than your neighbor's kids who are constantly in your yard? Do we suffer long with others? That's what this is about. We might say, how long do I have to put up with this? The length of God's love. I'd like you to look at 1 Corinthians 13 in verse 2.

As Paul's trying to teach the people at Corinth, they obviously had an issue here, as you read about earlier in the book. And it says, though I have in verse 2, though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, you know we talked about earlier in the mysteries of God, and I have all knowledge. It means you know everything. And though I have all faith, which, boy, I would sure like to have more faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I have nothing.

So this agape is pretty important because we can have all these things, but if unless we have it, it's like we have nothing. Verse 3 says, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not agape, it proffers me nothing. But wait a minute, isn't that love? If I give stuff away?

If I do good? There's more to it than that, obviously. But he says, all knowledge. I can know everything about everything. I can know this Bible front and back, which would be nice gift to have. But unless I have agape, it's not worth anything. 1 Timothy 1. Like you'd turn there. 1 Timothy 1. I'll read from the New Living Translation. He puts it across a little better. 1 Timothy 1, verse 15. He says, this is a trustworthy thing, and everyone should accept it.

What's he saying? He says, Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I, Paul that's talking about, I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.

It includes a lot of us. He said, by doing this, then others will realize they too can believe in him and receive eternal life. He shows that patience. Through Paul, even though Paul's first part of his life wasn't something he was proud of, but God had the patience and the forgiveness for him.

And I guess that's what we think about in Hebrews 13, verse 5, where it says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. When I hear that verse, it's hard for us sometimes to realize the God of the universe. His Son will never leave us nor forsake us.

And I sometimes in the past have pictured the old King Kong movies, who I think are three. Three, and you saw this big ape who was, I don't know, 50, 60 foot tall. And you saw the three women in the movie. I think it was Fay Ray and Jessica Lange and Scarlett Johansson were the three ladies in the three movies that he had this attraction to. And he wanted to protect them, and so it would show a picture of this huge hand that was about the size of this here.

And it would just scoop up the beautiful young lady in the movie. And she was safe as long as she held on to that hand, or as long as he held on to her. And there was always trouble around the corner when she kind of let loose or wanted to run away. Brethren, with us, we are always safe as long as we do not let go. The problem comes when we let go of God.

That's where we typically run into problems, just like a picture in the movies. He said, he will never leave you. Never, ever leave you. Never is a long time. Brethren, that's the length of God's love. He wants us to have that length, like him. So we've looked at the width, we've looked at the length. Now let's look at the depth that it says we can have, that hopefully we will comprehend. We are rooted and grounded in this love. How deep is that love? It's a B.G. song he once said.

It's going to get in someone's head. God's love is so deep. It's so deep for us. He was willing to risk a family member to go through incredible pain and death. And he, God the Father, was forced to watch.

What would you be willing to do for your child? Would you give up your life? I think so many parents would. They have. And sometimes it's even harder when you don't have to give up your life, but you spend your life looking after them, taking care of them.

Your precious time. The work and sacrifice so your children can have a better life.

That's what God the Father and Jesus Christ were determined to do for us.

As Jesus Christ, the Word went through this torture and this pain and came and died so that we may have eternal life.

That's a pretty deep love.

You know, saying and doing are two separate things.

God and Christ said it in this book. They promised it eternal life, and they went through with it so that we can now have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life on the God plane.

You know, love songs keep the music business in business.

Heard it. And I must say, when I heard this song a year or so ago, I had to laugh when I first heard it. I think I heard it only a couple of times because it made a big hit. And when I heard it, I had to laugh because it was so exaggerated from real life. It was such hyperbole that it stuck in my head.

And it was a catchy song by Bruno Mars called, Grenade.

You know, if many of you have heard it, you may have heard it in stores. That's where I first heard it.

But this young man is telling a girl the depth of his love and how much he loves her.

And most girls realize or come to realize that a lot of it is hyperbole.

A lot of it is just fluff. But guys will sometimes say anything.

And this is what he says in his song on the chorus. He said, I'd catch a grenade for you.

I don't know if you ever spent time in the military around grenades, but he said, I'd catch a grenade for you. I'd throw my hand on a blade for you.

I'd jump in front of a train for you. Oh, I would go through all this pain. Take a bullet straight to my brain. Yes, I would die for you, baby.

But you won't do the same. Really?

Really?

And we hear that song, and we kind of have to laugh because we know that's just exaggeration.

It sounds good, and it sounds like a love that's going to last forever.

But he usually doesn't. Does it last till the next pretty girl comes down the street?

I'd like you to turn to Romans 5. I'll read from the New Living Translation again.

Romans 5. Romans 5 and verse 3.

Paul is telling them, we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials.

We know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know, and I want to touch here, we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to what?

To fill our hearts with his love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though some might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die while we were yet still sinners. How dearly God loves us! God's love for us is personal.

It should be personal. Now, we understand that Christ died for the entire world, but it's sad that most of the entire world does not grasp that.

As a matter of fact, there's a majority of people in the world who don't even know Jesus Christ.

Billions.

But we should. Rather than we should, we must. To comprehend the love of God, and that's what this is about, to be filled with the fullness of God is this mandate to us.

Since we're over here in Romans, I'd like to turn over to one more Scripture because Paul really covers us well in Romans 8. He spends a large time of Romans 8 telling us just how great it will be when we are like him and all the wonderful promises he gives for our future.

But he shows that in verse 31. I read in Romans 8 verse 31 from the New Living Translation.

It says, What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for us, won't he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one.

For God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honorary God's right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity?

Or we're persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death?

No.

Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Isn't that a wonderful promise?

Neither death nor life nor angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of the grave can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below, indeed. Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. He wanted to make sure we got it. He said it two or three times there. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. That's how deep His love is for us. Charles Colson told the story of American prisoners of war during the Second World War, who were made to do hard labor in a prison camp, and each had a shovel. They were given and would dig all day. Then come in and give a count of that tool each evening. One evening, 20 prisoners were lined up by the guard and shovels were counted.

The guard counted 19 shovels and turned in rage to the 20 prisoners, demanding to know which one did not bring a shovel back. No one responded. The guard took out his gun and said he would shoot five men if the guilty prisoner did not step forward. After a moment of tense silence, a 19-year-old soldier stepped forward. With his head bowed down, the guard grabbed him, took him to the side of the little shed and shot him in the head. And then he turned to the other prisoners and warned the others that they had better be more careful than he was. And when he left, the men counted the shovels and there were 20. The guard had miscounted. The boy had given his life for his friends. Can you imagine the emotions those men must have felt? In five or six seconds, the young man had weighed his life and his future and that of the others, and the others weighed more.

John 15, verse 13, says, greater love has no one than this and to lay down one's life for his friends. Jesus Christ, our elder brother, our friend, did that for all of us.

The depth of God's love is simply incredible and unlimited.

Nothing God and Christ would not do for you. That's the depth of their love.

That's why he said, Jesus Christ said, do not fear little flock, for it is a father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

The width, the length, the depth, and now the height of God's love.

How high is God's love? Where is the throne of God?

So high, we can't even guess. It's in the third heaven.

We do not even have even the Hubble telescope or anything else that can see that far.

The height of God's love, theoretically, extends from God's throne to this very carpet that you're sitting here today on.

You remember when we went through Psalm 139?

He said, God loves us so much, he knows we're lying down and we're sitting up.

He knows what we're thinking about, and he thinks about us all the time.

He said, if you were to go to heaven, he'd be there. You're in the grave, he'd be there.

He said, his thoughts of you are more than the sand of the sea.

He's always with us, yet he's called the high and lofty one.

Understanding how great God's love is, is actually to understand the mind of God.

That is God's desire for us to understand the mind and the love of God.

And it's for all of his saints, his assembly, because that's where we are, where assembly of his people called out ones.

Like you turn to 2 Peter.

You turn to 2 Peter.

2 Peter 1.

Verse 2 through 4.

2 Peter 1. Verse 2. Said, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature.

Wow!

Partakers of the divine nature.

He's wanting to take us to new heights.

In this life.

And of course, beyond.

We will be unlimited.

But he says he would like us to have his nature and its divine.

Do we realize how precious that is?

God's love is so great, so high, that he must share it.

And he and Christ want to share their greatness, their essence, their very divinity.

Is that incredible knowledge? Yes.

Most people do not even believe it.

They think what?

We see movies, we see stories, we see books. You've got a bookstore and you can see scores of books about angels.

And you see movies and you see when someone dies, they become an angel.

And they can come back down and help us pour pitiful souls down here on earth.

Which is not in the scriptures at all.

In fact, it's a lie.

Because scripture tells us what?

God's not promising us to be an angel.

It's far above that.

You see, angels have their positions and it's not divine.

In the book of Hebrews, the writer tries to dispel this myth that is obviously big to the Jews at the time.

That the angels are these great, great beings.

And he spends the first two chapters telling them how much greater Jesus Christ is than the angels.

And obviously, it was a problem because he spent a lot of time.

But he was very blunt.

Fourth right.

He was very strong in making his point.

In Hebrews 1 and verse 13, he said, Which of the angels did I say sit at my right hand as he is quoting to God?

He's quoting God about Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father.

And then he goes on in Hebrews 2 and verse 5 and says, For he has not put the world to come, his kingdom, right?

Said, he has not put the world to come, of which we speak in subjection of angels. That's why he says we will reign with him for a thousand years.

And he even had to tell the church of Corinth, Do you not know that you will sit in judgment of angels?

Divine is what we're promised. If we're going to be divine and live forever, he'd like to see us practice a little bit.

Practice using a little bit of this deposit, the down payment. Because when he gives us his Holy Spirit, he just doesn't make us fully spirit.

That comes later.

But he gives a down payment. Here you go. Let's see what you do with this.

God's love is so high, he had to share it.

Do we share what little agape we have?

Do we share it?

Do we show it?

Is it possible we have so little of God's love because we share so little of it?

Is that possible?

Turn back to 1 John as we wrap this up.

1 John.

1 John 3.

Verse 1, and I'll read from the New King James because I think sometimes we...

And I've read the Scripture many times here because it is such an empowering Scripture that John is laying out to us this destiny that we have. It's interesting of the 27 books in the New Testament.

There's only two that does not mention about Christ's return and the glorified life that is ahead.

And that's just, I think, it's Philemon and 3 John, which are very little books.

But God wants to make sure we know that this is not all there is, that the best is yet to come with Jesus Christ.

And so he does this in 1 John 3 and verse 1.

The very first word is what?

Behold!

And you know, sometimes we just read over that.

We just read over that.

When you go back to the original meaning in the Greek and it goes back to the base root word, it's talking about seeing something that's amazing.

I mean, this is just something amazing you're going to see.

So whatever he's going to say, he wants us to... Behold!

This is simply amazing. He said, Behold! What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us.

Have you ever thought about it?

It's so great that John is actually saying before he dies, Get a load of this!

Wait till you hear this! Wait till you see this!

When you really understand the manner.

The manner of love.

Then the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.

We're not adopted.

We're not adopted.

You will read that. It's a mistranslation in some of the things that says the adoption is not.

It's the only thing they can understand because the world doesn't understand that if you're of the very essence of your family, you're not adopted.

Orlando Murray.

Stephen is of their very DNA, the very essence of those two.

He's not adopted. He's a real son.

He's legitimate heir to these two.

When we are born from above and we receive the Holy Spirit, which is the very essence of God, we have the DNA, if I can use that term, of God in us by the Holy Spirit.

We're not adopted.

We are actually sons, daughters of God.

Wow, that's a powerful, powerful promise and statement that sadly the world does not understand.

We're still lost in angels.

And we're talking gods!

Being in the family of God because we're born into the family of God by His Holy Spirit.

Awesome!

Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Pretty plain there.

Jesus Christ, God came in the flesh. Guess what? You didn't know who He was.

Who's this guy?

Beloved. Now we are. You need to like that term.

Anybody use that besides family members? My beloved.

He calls us beloved.

That's a term of endearment that you use for family.

Beloved.

Now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.

But we know that when He is revealed, when Jesus Christ returns as the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Messiah, the Savior of this world, our High Priest, when He is revealed, we shall be what? Like Him.

The fresh green tea in 15. Changed in a moment. The twinkling of an eye. The quickening. Or a change from one form to the next. We are completely spirit, just like God.

For we shall see Him as He is.

How important is this knowledge? Well, to me it was so important that I thought we needed three sermons about it.

Because once we see how much we are loved and to what depth, what length, and what height God goes to for us, it's so much easier to turn to Him.

He has incredible patience with everyone in this room.

He has such love. So I hope you will read Ephesians 3, verse 8 through 19 again, and I'll read it again.

And again in the weeks to come, as we prepare for the spring holy days. And see just how powerful and empowering these scriptures are for the saints of God. And why they're overlooked by a lot of people in the world.

And this incredible mandate that Paul's given to his church. Will you accept it? Do you accept it? You know, the only thing holding us back from being, what does it say, filled? Filled with the fullness of God. The only thing holding us back from apprehending or comprehending the love of God is us.

We're the only thing holding that back. If we turn to God, we recognize what He's trying to do in our lives. How He's trying to make us just like Jesus Christ.

It is about us, to God. The small handful of people when you look at the seven billion, who really truly want to worship God. And they're about that. That's what it's about. Now, you're like me, boy, I wish. I wish sometimes I wasn't so fleshly. That human nature didn't just rear its ugly head when it shouldn't. That I could give up things of the world that I need to. Finish with a story of a little girl who is about six years old. She has a very close relationship with her father. And she thinks the world of him, and he thinks the world of her. And so when she's six years old for her sixth birthday, he comes into her room with this little case. And he opens it up, and it's this plastic string of pearls that he's gotten her. And they look almost real, but they're plastic, and they're shiny. And he gives it to her and puts them around her neck, and she just, oh, Daddy, that's just, oh, this is the greatest gift. She said, I'm never going to take these off. And he goes, well, you can't wear them all the time. I'm going to wear them every night to bed then. And then I'll put them in my case every day. And that she does.

And so a few years later, he comes to her and says, I think it's time that you gave up your pearl necklace. And she goes, oh, no, Daddy, I can't give those up. I've had those all this time. Yes, I'd like you to give them to me. No, I can't. So a couple years later, when she's about 10 years of age, he comes in one night and he says, I ask you again, will you give me or give up those, that necklace? And she said, Daddy, I don't want to. And he said, trust me. And so she took them off and she hands them to him. And little hands are shaking. She's almost crying. And he hugs her. And he hands her another box. And in it are real pearls. And he puts them around her. And said, I just wanted you to give up something that is not real for something that is. But it had to be your decision. Are we ready to give up? Are we ready to give up the love that we think is in this world? The fake love? And ask God to give us the real love, agape. So just like that little girl, God can smile and give us the real love, the real thing, His love. So let's let God give us real agape, brethren. See the main focus of God. When we can focus on that, we will be able to be rooted and grounded so that we can comprehend the width, the length, the depth, and the height of God's love, not only for now, but for eternity.