Yes. Can I tell you the delight it is to be here and to be with you all again? I'm going to be looking, once again, somewhat loosely, I don't mean in sense of truth, but in focus, in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to read verses 25 through 27. This is the Word of God. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it unto himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Amen. My father in heaven, please bless your people. Save thy people. Feed them also and lift them up forever. Father, these are thy eternally loved, blood-bought sheep. Encourage them, strengthen them, reprove, rebuke, exhort, comfort whatsoever thy people need. Come with the glories of Christ. Come, draw near, Lord Jesus. We are here to draw nigh unto thee. Thou has promised to draw nigh unto us. Help us take thy word and work in the hearts of thy people and draw the lost to saving faith in Christ. I ask it in Jesus's name, amen. Verbs. are important. They are the heart of every sentence. A verb expresses action or a state of being. In Paul's inspired words here, we find wonderful, powerful action verbs that tell us about his holy love for the church. And if Jesus Christ loves his church, so should we. How can we possibly say that we love Jesus if we do not love what and whom he loves? This isn't just about toleration. It's about the kind of self-sacrificing, self-effacing, self-denying love that Christ showed. Earl Blackburn wrote a book called Jesus Loves the Church and So Should You. It's a worthy read, but I will repeat that statement throughout this message. Jesus loves the church, so should you. So the main idea here this morning is Christ's love for the church. We won't be talking about husbands and wives, as people often go to this passage for. We're going to take out that portion that talks about Christ's love for the church. So may our loving Heavenly Father, our gracious Father, reveal from this infallible word the great and holy love Christ has for his church. And may the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with love for what Jesus loves. Now, our first thought is this. Christ's love for the church is past tense. We're going to see his love in three tenses. We're gonna look at it in past tense, verse 25. The sacred text gives us a command with a powerful action verb. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church. Love isn't, and I know everybody here has probably heard this, love isn't simply something, love does something. That's exactly the case. It is something, it is real. God is love. He's not a great big ball of emotions, that's not the idea. But he is and manifests the kind of love that we should show. because we're made in his image, number one. Number two, we are remade when we are born again by the power of God's Holy Spirit. We are able, if you have a new heart, we are able to love Like Christ we can't love as much as he did we can't love in exactly the same way that he did but we can love Because we're commanded to love and the reason the command is there is because by nature we just love us We don't love as Christ loves other people. I Now, this idea of husbands loving their wives, even as Christ loved the church, is an overwhelming task, an impossible task unless a man is born by the mighty power of God's spirit. It isn't going to happen apart from the new creation, the new man. Now, to obey that command, a husband must rely entirely upon God's life-giving spirit and God's light-giving word. Now by those two things alone, we can begin to understand Christ's astounding love for the church. This is just a shadow, just a picture of Christ's glorious love. Now that said, as I mentioned, this is not focusing on the relation of husband and wife in the human sense, and that is important. But our focus is on this, in this holy text is Christ's love, this overwhelming love, this thing that captures our hearts and draws us in, draws us up to him. So the first thing for us to notice here is the past tense of the verb, as Christ also loved the church. not loves the church, now he does, but when you see a tense change, the Holy Spirit is telling you something. Christ loved, past tense, the church. Christ loved the church in eternity before creation and in history after creation. So let's consider the first. Christ love and his love for his church in eternity. David said in Psalm 119, 130, the entrance of thy words, the entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding to the simple. I'm glad that's in the scriptures. Every time I bow and try to study, meditate, construct a sermon, the simple needs understanding. Now God's infallible word reveals the love that Christ had for the church in eternity before creation. Paul's command to husbands uses an analogy. even as Christ loved the church. The Greek word translated even as draws a comparison between the husband and Christ. The scripture reveals that Christ's holy love for the church is rooted in eternity. God the Father chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy, we hear that? That we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Theologians sometimes refer to this as the covenant of redemption. Others would use the term the covenant of grace, or as Paul puts it, God's eternal purpose. God the Father chose the members of Christ's church before the world began and purposed to accept repentant and believing sinners. those who repent of sin and believe on Christ, the God-man, Christ, the crucified, Christ, the resurrected, Christ, the ascended, Christ, seated at the Father's right hand. And God's Son clearly shared in this love. It's an extraordinary love. Nobody here, beginning behind the pulpit, comprehends this to the fullest. It's an eternal love. Your mind and my mind can try to reach up toward the term eternal, but I can tell you, you fall short as I do. Eternal, infinite, this is incomprehensible. And especially if you know anything truly about your own flesh, how could he love me? How could he love you? It seems impossible. He's holy. We are impure. But he does. And he did. That's why there is a love now. But I won't rush ahead. Paul said in another place that God the Father had saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Paul is encouraging Timothy with this. He had a problem with fear, but he's pointing out to him, what's the foundation of why you don't need to fear? because God loved you in Christ before the foundation of the world. Your salvation is secure. It was given to us before we ever existed in Christ who eternally existed. My friends, Christ has always loved his church. There was never a time when he said, well, I think I'll love these folk. He always has. That's above us too. Father manifested his love for his eternal son by giving him us. What a gift. But that's love, his love. It was a gift to his son. And that us is not just us as a handful of individuals. It's his church. It's his body. The father manifested his love in Christ. And because the son loved his father, he loved the church and purposed always to love it. He purposed to save her as the prophet to teach her the truth, the priest to offer the only acceptable sacrifice and to intercede for our souls. We will finish the course because of what Christ is, because of what Christ has done and because of what he will continue to do. He's our prophet, our priest and our King. He rules us. Christ's eternal love for the church was not a Hollywood style emotion binge. It was a holy desire to save his people from their sins, from that which would land them, make them lie down for eternity in the flames of hell. It is a love that was about rescue, about deliverance, about remaking. Christ was to provide for her. That's the kind of love I give of myself for thee and for you, plural. He gave himself to provide, to protect her, to cherish her. I get tired of me. I get tired of some people. But Christ does not grow weary of us because he has the end in view. He knows why he died. He knows why he's cleansing us daily. He knows that we are gonna rule with him for eternity. He's not going to lose one member of his bride, of his body. What an extraordinary love. And this was all rooted in eternity before God said, let there be light. It was all clear to God. There wasn't a plan where along the way they went, ah, wait, wait, this part's not working. We've got to back up and revamp. We do that, but not the living God. Oh, Christ's infinite, pure, holy love. for his church proceeds, proceeds from everlasting to everlasting. So let me ask you, do you love what Christ loves? Now do you tolerate it? Now do you just grit your teeth and put up with it? not just sighing because, oh, maybe I'd like to be in another church, but do you love what God has done in saving people from their sins and being grateful to God that you can be among them? Do you love what Jesus loves? That's an important question. Jesus loves the church, so should we. So let's consider Christ's love for his church in history. Out of eternity we see God's handiwork in history. That's the way it goes. The covenant of redemption down into the covenant of grace, if that's your understanding of the covenants, which is mine and of my confession. But at the same time, good men, Baptists, Presbyterians, have disagreed about certain aspects of the covenant. But no one can argue with the fact that what we see in history, in the outworking of the life of the Jews, the life of Jesus Christ, what's promised to us in the future, all started in eternity. All of it was rooted in everlasting, eternal, perfect and pure love. It's perfect. We don't love perfectly, but He does. We've got an example and we can learn from that example. So the eternal son of God loved his father and so loved his church that he became a man to save his people from their sins. And God's son, the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person took human nature to himself for the suffering of death. The saving his people could come one way only, death. Death, that thing we don't want to talk about. That thing that we act day in and day out like we're avoiding. Christ displayed his astonishing love in his incarnation. It is the most, in my opinion, opinions can change. If y'all want to argue theology, we can do that. But in my opinion, As unimportant as it is, I think the greatest miracle in the Bible is the incarnation. God became man. We will not understand that mystery this whole life that we live, but it's the very heart and soul of our salvation. The Christology matters. So, He came to suffer death. Why? That He might bring many sons unto glory. Notice, it doesn't just say, I found some miserable sinners and the miserable sinners came to me and they continued to just be miserable sinners until they dropped out of this world. That's the way some people preach grace, whether you realize that or not. No, He's bringing many sons into glory. He's transformed them, made them new creatures. He's given us a new heart. We have new desires, new goals that makes us seek new friends. We want to know people who are walking on that narrow path with us. We're not just miserable sinners saved by grace. Yes, we're miserable, we're wretched. You can't talk about us bad enough about what we are by nature, but by the glorious recreation, that incredible work of the new birth, we're different. We're not what we were or something didn't happen. Talk is cheap, especially in theology. Jesus is bringing many sons. We've been made sons and daughters by the glorious creative power of the Holy Spirit. We are his people and we're his sons. We're in the family. In our congregation, we have some wonderful, beautiful families who, even though they had numerous children, started fostering children, fostering, and then finally adopting. And when you go to one of those adoption court sessions, it's astounding. One of the things that the judge says is, now, do you agree and do you know that that child that you are bringing in your family has all the rights of your born, birthed children. And they have to say, yes, or they don't get the child. Now, here's the thing. We were outside God's family. We had no right to it whatsoever. The only thing we had a right to is what Paul says, the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Brethren, when Christ brought us into the family, we truly were and became His brethren. We are sons of God. We're not little gods, we're not ever gonna be God, but we are in union with the living God. We are sons of God. This is a miracle beyond our comprehension. This whole thing's beyond our comprehension. I mean, let's get real. Let's have a God that is God and not make him diminutive by our little thoughts. Many sons unto glory. I can't say it enough. Now Christ displayed this love. Though he was the eternal son of God, he was made a little lower than the angels, who themselves were creations. And he came to live in time, space, and history. You and I don't know what it's like for somebody to live in eternity. I mean, we can try to stretch our minds as far as possible, but you're gonna get to that place where all the circuits begin to melt down. You can't grasp eternity. I can't. But that's exactly what we're talking about. This is a love beyond compare, we sing it. It's a love beyond what we can think. But you can tell it doesn't reside in our consciences all the time because we gripe about some of the things that God does. How could you do that to me? You've forgotten who you were. Oh, my brethren, this is a love It is amazing. The birth of Christ was on this wise, says Matthew, when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together. He was found, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. See, see the love of God in that. God uniting in the dark place of a virgin's womb with humanity in some miracle that we cannot express other than to say the words and pray that the Spirit of God backs up our hearts and helps us to grasp the infinite, eternal, almighty God, all-knowing, becoming a man, a baby that need to be changed, that need to be fed. I mean, we often really don't get this while Mary is nurturing that baby at her breast. He's also holding the universe together. That God loved us. And we see it when he becomes A baby, something as natural as a baby. But when you look at that, don't just think, well, that's amazing. We should be thinking amazing love. How can it be that Christ my God died for me? Jesus is the word made flesh. He dwelt among us. I mean, some years ago, on certain campuses, they were having these extraordinary feats of mental ability called gross outs. And men, males, they would suit up, put their swimsuits on, and they would jump into sewage tanks. All right? You would say, who in his right mind would do that? Somebody that wanted to be on YouTube. That's how brilliant this is. And it's like they're swimming in this water that's unspeakably filthy. And they wanted to do it because in their minds there was some payoff. That is exactly what every single sinner is. He looks at the filth of this world and dives in head long because he thinks there'll be some payoff for it. And there is. Hell preceded by death. Brethren, do we believe this thing that we say is the gospel? Do we believe in Christ's love? Amazing that Christ would so love us that he would dive into the cesspool of this world It was filthy, rotten to the core. And yet what was driving him was love for somebody like me or you. You get that? That's what this book is about. It's astounding. Jesus loves the church. We're not lovable. Look at any church split and tell me how much of Christ's love was in it. I came down from heaven. Astonishing words. I came down from heaven. not to do mine own will, but to do the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will that has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Christ Jesus so loved His church that as a man, He kept the law that His church did not keep. He didn't save us because we were law keepers. We were law breakers. We were all under the death penalty. And he rescued us. He paid the price for us. He died as the sin bearing substitute upon Calvary's cross so that his perfect righteousness might become hers. His perfect righteousness might become hers, hers, who has none. What righteousness she may have had by law keeping or doing good things was still a dung heap. I mean, we need to be saved from our good works. Our best work, it's got the fingerprints of our sin on it. But we are children of God, loved before the foundation of the world, saved in the world by Jesus Christ, who became a man. The Lord Jesus described his love for the church this way. Behold, behold, look, give me your attention. We go up to Jerusalem and the son of man shall be delivered to the chief priest. Listen to the detail on this. I'm going to be delivered to the chief priests and under the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. Those filthy Gentiles, God's son turned over into the hand of pagans. And they shall condemn him. and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they shall mock him, and they shall scourge him. Nobody in here has ever had the pain of being scourged. There may be some people around the world, nobody here, nobody in my congregation, we read it and go, oh, that was nice. You see his blood dropping out of his body. Why? Because you hated God. Because you loved you more than anything on this planet. You were gonna pursue what you wanted to pursue because you were you. And that's it. And that would have ended in the flames of that eternal furnace. Why did he do that? Because he loves his church. I repeat, Not because I don't have anything else to say, but it should be stamped in our consciences. I repeat, not because we were just a loose handful of individuals, but his body, his church, a gathering. And he's making those all across the planet. He has been since the book of Acts. At least his new covenant people. Now, Jesus said that they will mock Him, they shall scourge Him, they shall spit upon Him, they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again. And as we looked in the last passage, they still didn't get it. They still didn't understand it. They didn't understand that His standing with them in the room was the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament pointed to. And that's purposeful repetition. So then, he sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground for his church. And he, even though the apostles, his church, let's not forget that, it was the beginning, his apostles forsook him and denied him. If we'd have written the story, they would have stood with him till the last man. No, they all ran like scared children. They ran away, big, strong fishermen. They ran like cowards. But Jesus faced them. Why did he face them? He knew what was coming. He knew that they were going to beat him, to mock him. He knew this. It's because he loved the church. That's all. He loved his father. His father gave him the church. And he said, I love her. and I'm going to show them. Even though they forsook and denied Him, He still went to the cross for them. Their scurrying away, the sound of their sandals flip-flopping as they ran as hard as they could, was about to be paid for on a cross. Now we may see in Him And we sing this again in a great hymn. For her life, he died. For her life, he died. That's the model for the love that you should love every soul in this church. Again, we're not perfect. We will not perfectly do that kind of loving but it can look like it. When your children sit down and draw some of those pretty pictures for you, and as they get a little bit older, you actually start understanding what some of those pictures are. At first, it's all those scribbles, and you go, thank you, sweetheart. Oh, I love you. Thank you. A little while later, it finally looks like a butterfly or something else. It begins to take shape. Does it look like a real butterfly? Do you look at it and think, oh, a butterfly just came into my house? No. But you see an act of love that has been given to you. It's not perfect, but you can recognize it. Can that be said of us? His love is the kind of love we should be showing. Or it may just be the scribbles at first. And then a little bit later, it might start to take shape. But to the best of our ability, we want it to look like Jesus. You say, wait, you're putting some kind of law on me. Oh, okay. How's this? Love one another as I've loved you. This is my commandment. You can yell grace all day long. The whole issue there is that he gives you the grace to do that. You have the grace to love like he loves, even though it will not be perfect love. But it'll be recognizable. You'll be able to see it. You'll read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you will be able to say, you know, I know that fellow. He's a pretty rough piece of bark. But there are just moments when I can see the love of God in that person. He was innocent, but he was executed as guilty. He died between two thieves. He that was mercy was shown no mercy. Christ's enemies beat him, spit upon him, scourged him, crowned him with thorns, crucified him with nails, mocked him and pierced him with a spear. So why did he endure the cross, despising the shame? Jesus loves his church, and so should we. You have no excuse for not loving, because he has given you the model. Yeah, well, I don't really like them. They're kind of like, ew. You ready for the day of judgment? Are you ready for the day of judgment? I know what you commanded, but I really couldn't count minutes now. When God commands, he's calling us to something real. We don't want to be Calvinistic phonies. If you believe the doctrines of grace, you ought to be one of the most loving people on the planet. And it's a love that's clear, and it's a love that is poured out on the unworthy. If not, what love do you think you're giving? How is that Jesus' love? Jesus loved the church, even its pastors. They take a lot of the heat that he did, but not anywhere nearly as much. And why do pastors go on? If they're men appointed by God, it's because they love those people. Whatever they're like, He loves them. Even sometimes when it's so difficult to manifest that love, they can do it. And so should we, all of us. Well, let me press on. I can just say Christ loved His church in eternity, and manifested that love in history. Unchanging, everlasting love. Now Jesus loved that, and do you brothers, sisters, and friends love like that? If you can't, if your answer is nope, then what I would say to you is keep listening to the truth about Christ, and keep listening to Him and His glorious, holy, pure love and what he endured to pay for the sins of criminals against heaven. You and I were not saved because we're lovable. We were loved despite the fact of our disgusting lives before God. Well, Christ's love for the church was self-sacrificing. Let's get down to that. We've already said the word, but let's think about it for just a few minutes. In a self-centered, self-loving, self-righteous, and self-deifying culture, It is difficult for us to imagine a self-denying, self-sacrificing love. It just is. Models of the earth generally don't give us examples of that. Occasionally, a lost man will do something so extraordinary that we're overwhelmed at his sacrifice. Look at 9-11, and look at all the people rushing out of that burning and about to collapse building, and look at all the firemen running up the stairs. That was self-sacrificing. That was a love for these people, a determination to save them from the flames. Where are God's people? With the people that have nothing to face before them, but the flames of hell. What kind of love is this? Oh, I love you, brother. And in a few weeks, or a few months, or a couple of years, you do something they don't like. And all of a sudden, the ice glacier forms. The hard heart sets in. You can't love them anymore. Brethren, how wonderful that we have a Savior that has shown us a love that when we come back to Him and said, I have not honored you today, His precious blood cleanses us. His gracious mercy lifts us up again. And says, go back. Go back into it. It's not over yet. A lot more to learn. I like to put it this way. God's school is the hardest school. The teacher is the best. The courses are the hardest. Graduation will be wonderful. And so it is. And with Christ's words here, giving himself for us and gave himself for it, meaning the church, this is the doctrine of substitution. This is an undergirding gospel theme. Christ in my place. Christ in my place. He took all my filth upon him. and didn't say, well, I'm really sorry I wasted this on you. That's the way we feel sometimes when we've sinned and we know we've sinned. We know that we failed that one who so loved us, but we can go directly to him. You know that you know him when if you sin, you don't run away from him, but you run immediately to him because he still same Christ, still the same blood. It will never wear out. It will never lose its value. Christ in her place. That's another way of speaking the gospel. Well, He that knew the praises of heaven and the unbroken holy and pure communion with his father was born of a sinful woman and had sinful half-brothers and sisters who didn't believe him, at least not at the beginning. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, though the beloved holy, harmless Son of God, the Son of God, gave himself for our sins. Remember that headlong dive into filth, and yet he never sinned. The sinless Lamb of God who took away our sins. Do you meditate on that love? Or do you meditate on your gripes and your murmurings and telling God what he should have done in this situation? Or do you say, You saved me. Whatever you bring, I will learn to praise you because I know it's coming from your unchanging love. This doesn't feel good. I want it to be over. But you're not finished. The school's not done. Graduation will be glorious. and we will know his love all the way. All the way. The good shepherd could say, I laid down my life for the sheep. Substitution. Christ's astonishing love could not be more beautifully expressed than in these words. Listen carefully. Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, Right there, there's the hinge. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Did you hear your salvation? It's right there in that verse. If this cup could pass, let's pass. But not what I will, but thine be done. Now Jesus was not sinfully complaining against his father. This God-man knew and understood that he was about to face the full wrath of God in his humanity. It was an understanding statement, not one of blind fear. All of God's children can say, He loved me and gave himself for me. He loved me and gave himself for me. That's the love. It's set right there in front of us. It's in words that you don't need to buy a dictionary or commentary to understand. There's some things like that in the scripture, but right there, you can't miss it. I'm dying in your place to save your immortal soul and to wash the filth of this world off of you every time you fall into it. I'm washing it away forever. Hereby we perceive or hereby perceive we. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. There's the commentary and everything else that's been said. There it is. There's that love. If you've got any hunting instinct in you, you ought to be saying right there, there it is. That's the prize. That's the goal. I will hunt to love like Christ until I'm gone. What did Paul say? You can see it in ministers. He said, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. Oh, that's the echo of Christ's love in Paul. There should be echoes like that in our lives. I say once again, God has given you a pastor who is willing to spend and be spent. That's why those that come and attend regularly and hear the word of God and put it into practice, have experienced the wonderful blessing of God from a faithful pastor who continues to set Christ before you. Well, I've got to move more quickly. Christ's love for his church was and is particular. It wasn't just substitutionary, it's particular. It meant it was spent on particular people. Paul says emphatically, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Repeatedly in scripture, when the inspired authors speak specifically about those for whom Christ shed his blood, it is particular. He shall save his people from their sins. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Who gave himself for our sins, the church, that he might deliver us, the church, Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Who's saying that? The church. And sent his son to be the propitiation, that appeasement, that sacrifice that turns away God's wrath. God has so much love. that he turned away his own anger, his own wrath, for sinful and hateful God-hating rebels. He turned his own wrath away. How did he do that? He sent his son. And his son showed the Father's love to us by dying in our place. That's the love. We can't say, oh, that's really nice, but I just have a temper problem. I can't do it. Oh, I see it. I got it. It's beautiful. But I just can't control my tongue from talking about people, especially some of those in the church. Let's get ahold of this. Pastors know the reality. They have to deal with themselves. More challenging, perhaps, their wives have to live with them. And they know that they get in the pulpit week after week and they preach the glories of Christ and they preach what our lives should be. And they also know that sometimes they can come home after the sermon and do something that was not Christ-like love. They know that. When you pray for your pastor, you should pray for his wife, always. And that would be loving. That would be Christ-like love. Oh, Christ died for his church. and he left others to their wicked desires. They get what they want. God always gives people what they want. If they don't want him and won't have him, he will give them a Christ-less life. And those of us that were among that number, he'll give us what we want. Because when he saves us, we want Jesus. We want Christ because we see that great love. Jesus loved the church. So should we. There's the model. It's set before us time and again in scripture. As plain as it can be. If Jesus loved the church like that, what about us? Okay, get all the arguments out of the way. I'm not perfect. That's not news. We know that. We know you. Well, you don't know the way I was brought up. Stop blaming people for that. Nobody in here had perfect parents. None. But you could be good parents. You could be Christ-loving parents. You could be parents that bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord while along the way having to stop and repent to your children for the unchrist-like things you've done. One of the hardest things in my life was to sit down with my children and say, you heard how I just talked to your mom. You heard how I blamed her for what happened. And that's not the way it was. This was my fault. It was my sin. And that means I sinned before you and set the wrong example. Children, would you forgive me for my wickedness? That's the kind of love that we should be manifesting across the board in context. There's always context. Brethren, let's stop talking about being Christians unless we desire to love what Jesus loves. And that's his people. Those people. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the present tense in the time that we have left. Let's talk a few minutes about the present tense. That's just the past tense. He loved us, and we can see it, it's there in the scriptures, in eternity, down in history. But now in the present tense, verse 26, let us look at the text. Jesus not only loved, past tense, his church and gave himself for it, but that same love carries over into the present. He loves his church. It didn't stop somewhere along the way because of our failings. How may we describe this love? Well first, It's a sanctifying and cleansing love. He loves us so much. He's not going to let you have the excuse, well, I'm just a poor old man. I'm just an old sinner. He's not going to let you get away with that. I've saved you. I've given you my spirit. I've given you my righteousness. I've given you my word and I've given you my church so that you can grow up in faith and come to that full stature of the son of God. I had an aunt who conveyed this particular trait to my mother. And my mother would never let me have the pleasure of my griping. I would say, oh, this, oh, that, I'm upset, I can't believe this has happened. And she'd say, oh, yeah, but you know what? There's people in this world that have it a lot worse than you do. Let me tell you about the things you've got. And it would be, I don't want to hear that. I'm enjoying my griping. And it was miserable in a loving way. She would constantly steal my murmuring. She would defeat it on the battleground. It would just lie there lifeless. I wanted her to say, oh, you poor thing. Oh, life's so hard for you. Oh, I can't believe it. Somebody needs to write a novel. She would not let me. And I thank God for it. Well, Christ is not going to let you get away with your griping and murmuring and moaning and groaning. He's sending those hard things into your life to make you look more like Christ. He is knocking off all this stuff that doesn't look like Jesus when he sends some of those cleansing fires. And they're not enjoyable, but they bear much fruit, if you're a good student. He just loves us. He's not gonna let us get away with all that. He might for a little while, and that's never a good sign, because the lessons are gonna be a lot tougher. Stop me now, Lord, before I go on with this. We are filthy and polluted and corrupt, but the prophet, the priest, and king, the head of the church, is intent on cleansing us and making us holy. He's not going to stop. The school will not become easier as you go. Brother John, I will tell you, somewhere along the way I picked up the completely absurd notion that as you go on into the later years of your pastorate, somehow things got sweeter and more rosy. Not true. but he bears fruit when he pushes us into that vice grip of reality. Jeff, here's what you really are, and here's what you're like, and believe it or not, some of these people that love you very dearly, they've just told you what they've been seeing, and you're resisting it. You don't want to hear it. Let's have some of that love. Well, I just got it and didn't realize it. You need to see yourself. I just had to write a letter to someone in the congregation and said, listen carefully, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Now, I'm writing this to you because you don't see yourself, you don't hear yourself, and you need to consider seriously what's being said right here. That's what Jesus does to us regularly. He wants us to see, not so that we get depressed, not so that we want to give up, but so that we will repent, trust Christ, grow, and walk more faithfully with Him. That's real love. It's wonderful. It's sanctifying and cleansing. It's gracious. Everyone knows, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We know that here. You've faithfully heard that for many decades. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We could only be described as having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling. Those are some of the most frightening words in the Bible. You don't want to be in that place. Being, past, feeling. Hard as a rock. Cold as an iceberg. The Lord sends someone to reprove you, to correct you, to shine the light of truth in your heart, and you don't receive it, and you can't receive it. Being past feeling. You don't want that. Christians can harden their hearts. That's not just for Pharaoh. We were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world. Nevertheless, God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we've been saved by His life. Glory to God! Brethren, I mean, if we really believe this, When we pick up that hymnal and it talks about the blood of Christ. How can you not? How can I not sing with all your heart? A murmuring church and a church that can't seem to get any life in its singing is not bringing God glory. You have rescued me. And I want to show my love back to you and my love for this people. Notice what it says in the scriptures, singing with grace in your heart to one another. When we're singing God's truth, we're all preaching to each other. Women, there's your opportunity to preach. I must bring this to an end. Christ's love for the church is a future tense, not past tense only. It's not just now, but it's in the future as well. In this very text, it's verse 27, Paul says that Christ sanctifies and cleanses us that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle. What do you get ramped up about? What do you get excited about? I mean, what makes you want to run around the building and shout and stomp and foam? What gets your attention and you go, yeah, that's great. Oh, man, I love that. What is it? What does that? Well, whatever that does, as long as it's lawful, doesn't mean it's a bad thing. But what about what's coming? You know, children, when they're going on a trip, parents, how many times do they ask you, are we there yet? When are we going to get there? How much longer before we get there? Do we think like that? Do we think, I'm going to see Jesus face to face. Can't wait. Can't wait. When are we going to get there? I'm ready. Not yet, I'm still here. But brethren, what gets your heart? You see, Jesus loves the church. So should we, because we're all gonna meet again. If we were, all of us, to walk out of here in some horrifying event like what just happened in the state of Florida and in North Carolina, and the flood comes and washes us all away, that's not the end. We're going to be with Jesus. And we're going to see him when he returns. We're going to spend eternity ruling with him. I don't know what that means. I don't know how that will look. I don't, I don't know what, well, I'm giving this fellow 10 because he did 10's worth of faithfulness. I'm giving this guy five because it's five worth of faithfulness. I don't understand all that. I read it. I read good commentaries, but it's still above us. but it's coming and we're a day closer. So my brethren, does your heart rise up in joy because the one that loved you from eternity, the one that loves you now is coming back for you and you're going to spend eternity. There will be no end. I'm gonna get in my car tomorrow and I'm gonna drive back to Florida. And I'm going to miss my brothers and sisters here. But the great gathering, the great conference, the great assembly of God's people is a day closer. And we will have a united gathering. I mean, the 60s was always talking about love fest. No, the love fest for all eternity is coming. We will know the unhindered love of Christ. And we will know an unhindered love for one another. We won't be able to look at that brother or that sister and say, they're all right, but won't happen. Never once. This is a transforming love. If you believe this, if you believe that Christ loves you this way, it's transforming. It is endless. And so I'm going to end by giving you four quick applications that will not be developed, but I at least would have you think about them. Considering this, Past tense, present tense, future tense. It's a love that cannot die and never will. It is a powerful, transforming love. If you really know it, you can't stay your selfish little pinched self. You can't. You can't. There is something that burns in your soul to emulate that love. Number one, how can you love the church as Christ did? How can you do that? First and foremost, top of the list, pray for them. Pray for them. If you've got to make a list of the names of all the people in the church, write them all down. You say, well, that's too much for one day. Break it up for the week. You can say, this is your day, Brother John, you're in the A list. I'm praying for him today. Oh God have mercy on our pastor. all of the saints of God here. Pray for them. Pray for the fathers. Pray that they will be faithful men. Pray that they will lead their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Bring them up. Show them what it means to be a Christ-like individual. Pray for every mother that is striving day by day to help bring those children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Pray for them. Pray for the lost. Lord God, there are lost people. They are flowing out of the world. Save your people. I mean, I know this is not a good theological statement, but Charles Spurgeon said, Lord, save the elect and then save some more. But save them. Come in thy mighty power. Come in that light. Number two, attend worship regularly. Listen to what's being preached and then find something in that sermon that speaks to you and say, I'm applying that to my life today. I'm going to walk with what I've just heard. Maybe you're just being reminded of something. Do you walk away and forget everything that was preached? Happens all the time. I mean, stop and think. Sermon audio is a great blessing. I know the brother that started it. I know that it has done a world of good to the world. You can download a million, a million sermons from it and listen to all of them and never walk away with a transformed life. It's got to be the spirit of God. You've got to be in communion with the living God. It's not like, oh, I've got my baseball cards. Here are my favorite players. We'll do that. And it's, here are my five favorite preachers. Now, it's OK to love and esteem preachers. That's OK in itself. But just understand, all they are are Dixie cups. They're just paper cups that are bringing to you the water of life. They're disposable. They can be wrapped up and tossed away and replaced. And that happens all the time. But they're bringing you the water of life. They're bringing you the Lord. Pray, pray for the whole church. Pray that your worship will be fervent, that you won't be halfway nodding off while you're singing, while somebody is preaching. Take care of yourself enough on Saturday to be in gear for the Lord's day and come and worship with the whole heart. Here's something you can do. Take the book, look up in your concordance, whole heart, and see how often it is applied to your worship. wholeheart. That won't happen unless you love Christ. And you won't love Christ unless you focus on His love for you. Is that right? Lastly, pray for and submit yourself to the elders. There's blessing accorded there. I'm not talking about people who obviously live violating the commands of God's scripture. Not talking about that. The faithful men, they've been studying and saying, God give me something to say to your people. Listen. Listen. Why? Because it's not that weak, feeble man and his hours of study. Christ speaks by His Word. And if they're faithfully giving you the Word of God, listen and pray for and submit and encourage them along the way. And last, I said last about the last one, show hospitality to and fellowship with the members of your congregation. Don't just open them up to the five people you get along with. You can't pick my friends. I know that. I'm not trying to do that. But I'm telling you that God has chosen your family. Those are the people, the people that are regenerate, you're going to be with for eternity. You need to figure out in some way how to encourage and love them. You don't have to put a five star meal on the table and have them over. Drink some five star coffee and enjoy one another or get to know them. Maybe those people that feel so foreign to you actually might become some of your better friends. But you can't go to a church, be completely ignorant of everybody around you and have no idea what's going on with them, just what's going on in my life, which is so important, when God has said, look at them and love them. So, Jesus loves the church, and so should we. He has manifested it in three tenses, past tense, present tense, future tense. We have the model set before us. Let us learn more about loving like that. Amen. Father, I thank Thee for Thy great goodness. We are weak and feeble. Lord, Thou knowest the feeble vessel of dust that is preaching these things. But I also know that great and glorious love really does transform. Come, O God. I thank Thee for the many years of faithfulness of both pastor and members here. And bless those, O Lord, who are struggling. Encourage those, comfort those that are afflicted. Build them up in the faith. And, O Father, may they carry one another's burdens. Lord, it was Thee that did say through John, here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us. And it also says we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Help us, O Christ, to walk in these things. May it be to thy everlasting glory. Amen.