God's Love

[0:00] I'm talking this morning actually about the love of God and there's so many songs in our book we can talk about to really introduce that we could have sung for example love divine all love excelling all love's excelling all love's all human love's love divine chapter 15 from verse 9 it says as the father have loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full this is my commandment but you love one another as I have loved you greater love have no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends verse 12 this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you

[1:14] Matthew 22 we have the account of a man asking the Lord what is the greatest commandment Matthew 22 from verse 36 verse 36 of Matthew 22 master which is the great commandment in the law Jesus saith unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets let us pray heavenly father we thank you for that grace that is greater than all our sin that our hearts would be bare open exposed to your spirit that you would do a heart operation this morning in everyone by your grace that you would minister to everyone

[2:40] Lord we ask we pray we need your unction we need your touch each one help us Lord that we might be receptive that our hearts would open to your word that it can find entrance and bring light in Jesus name we pray Amen God's love consider his commandments we started with John 15 and verse 10 it says if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love we live in a world where people give scarcely a thought for what God wants for what God wants I was listening just last night to a preaching video and it was talking about at times what is the emphasis in the modern church world where it's all about salvation is all about saving us from hell and about the benefits we get out of it without thinking about it's all about him it's all about Christ and his grace it's all about Christ and his glory it's not some fire insurance policy and we should want to love him and serve him even if he sends us to hell because he is worthy that's where the emphasis should be it's not about us accepting him so that we can have a free ticket to heaven it's about his grace it's about he is worthy whether he sends us to hell or heaven it's not about you or me and about what we want and about accepting Christ so you have a carefree life that's not so anyway but it's about

[4:50] Christ is worthy worthy is the land and sometimes the spotlight is wrongly focused on man and what man wants and that Christianity is all about you having what you want and blessings but it's all about him it's all about him brother sister it's not about what we want and yet the world has got this focus on what they want what the world wants what people want and it's the wrong idea it's the wrong focus he says keep my commandments and you shall abide in my love now of course we know of our own efforts and strength we fail every time to keep his commandments and yet shouldn't there be that prompting within that wanting to obey him that wanting to follow him to honour him to follow his will to love him how can we treat Christianity so lightly the word of God so lightly how can we treat sin so lightly I speak for myself and my failings and

[5:55] I'm no well I am a saint but you could say I'm not really a saint you know as the world would say we know we're not saintly as saintly as we should be none of us and yet if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love God's love should keep us from sin God's love should keep us on track should keep us because we love him we want to follow him we want to live for him what do you love is the question we can all answer for ourselves what is it that we love what is it that we care about that we long for that we count as a priority spurgeon said this can you love sin if I had a brother who had been murdered what would you think of me if I daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brother's heart surely

[6:55] I too must be an accomplice in the crime sin murdered Christ will you be a friend to it sin pierced the heart of the incarnate God can you love it sometimes we treat sin so lightly we treat our Christianity so lightly so flippantly so carelessly it's just paying lip service how we need that awareness of God that grips people that love of God that should grip us that should change us that should urge us compel us that we can be God fearing men and women it's missing by and large the gospel is missing in many church circles the gospel is missing the challenge to living for Christ is missing the emphasis is all wrong and many preachers and evangelists and sermons are missing the whole point of what salvation is all about in many circles it's all about accepting

[8:05] Christ so you can have a carefree life and you can have joy you can have blessings you can have benefits now of course that's true but it's the wrong emphasis it's all about Christ and his grace grace that is greater than all my sin it's his grace and it's his glory and it's him who is worthy worthy as the lamb that is and we need to get grip with the reality of the seriousness of our state before him of our great need of him of our great lack of the enormity of our sin of our guilt if we're outside of Christ we should be gripped with that with the dread of that of his judgment of his righteousness of the holiness of God of the righteousness of God of the justice of God but thank God more than the law of God the grace of God greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends

[9:12] God's love is the greatest kind of love we can ever know or experience the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell the guilty pair bowed down with care God gave his son to win his erring child he reconciled and pardoned from his sin oh love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song could ween with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the hole though stretched from sky to sky his love is so great and he wants you to be an agent of his love some time ago a teenager

[10:15] Arthur Hinckley lifted a 3000 pound tractor with his bare hands he wasn't a light lifter but his friend was pinned underneath the tractor when Arthur heard Lloyd scream he somehow lifted the tractor enough for his friend to wriggle out love was the real motivation love gave him a strength that was unnatural and 2 corinthians 5 14 says for the love of christ constrain it does because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're more dead the love of christ is a constraining power a compelling power a force within as we serve the lord it gives us a motivation our love for him drives us to serve him there's basically two philosophies in the world one is called humanism where the chief end of being is the happiness of man the other is christianity which says the end of all being is the glory of god which will you choose choose his love choose christ love let the love of god come and live within and change and transform you from the inside out consider his life sacrificial life greater love have no man than this his life was poured out for us someone said my only reason for being is the glory of god in jesus christ let his life be your life you are loved today with god's love have you experienced it it's something you can never be separated from romans 8 38 for

[11:56] I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord his love is unending jeremiah 31 3 it says the lord hath appeared of old unto me saying yea i have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have i drawn thee his love is an everlasting love faithful unmerited unconditional as the hymn goes oh how he loves you and me and 1 john 4 19 says we love him because he first loved us we truly deserve god's anger and wrath we honestly deserve that shouldn't it prompt in us a love of him to love him to see his love as expressed at the cross as demonstrated when he took our very place there his love should be evident in us someone described the love for god and the believer as evidenced in love for the saviour we love him because he first loved us love for the scriptures love for the sanctuary the gathering together with the believers love for the saints god's people and love for the sinners those outside of christ the love of christ constrains us to tell others to introduce others to christ let him get the glory lived out in your everyday night