particularly at chapter two, verse 20. On Thursday evening, we were looking at Jeremiah 31, verse three, and really that is the theme of the whole communion season. I'm expounding that verse, although we're looking at other verses. That verse says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness towards you. I have loved you with an everlasting love. And we thought about how God's love is infinite. It is beyond our understanding. We're not capable of understanding the limits of the unlimited love of God. It is beyond our understanding. Its breadth and its length and its height and its depth is so great that we can't conceive of the infinite. We are finite. But this infinite love of God finds its expression directed towards people, towards sinful people, whom God chose before the foundation of the world. And as we were thinking on Thursday evening, that phrase, I have loved you with an everlasting love, is synonymous with God saying, I have chosen you in love. I have set my love upon you even before the foundation of the world, that you might be holy and blameless before me. Nothing in us, nothing in the elect people of God can attract such love. Everything in us repels or would seek to repel such love. And as we thought on Thursday, we're left with that question, Lord, why me? We're left approaching the Lord's table today with humility and with gratitude. As we come before God, we think, why me? And I encouraged you on Thursday evening to make all diligence, to make your calling and election sure. We can do that. We can use God's word to do that. We can examine ourselves to see that we are in the faith. If we have been called and we've responded to that call, then we can argue back. Therefore, our election is sure. And therefore we can say in the words of the text, that God has loved us. God has loved me with an everlasting love. This everlasting love of God finds an expression. It's directed outwith of God. What we thought on Thursday about how there is that infinite love within the Trinity, the intra-Trinitarian love of God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit perfectly loving one another. But this love of God, as we're considering, is directed towards people. It's not a mere good feeling. It must move towards action. You think of someone, a young man who loves a young lady, he can't just have that love contained in his mind or in his heart. It needs to come out, it needs to prove itself in demonstrations of his love. And so it is with the love of God, it comes out. It comes forth into action. And particularly what we're considering this morning is how that love comes out in Christ giving himself for his people. 1 John 4 verse 10 says this, in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. You see how that love finds its way to action. He loved us and that love has demonstrated that he sends his son to be the propitiation, to be the sacrifice that satisfies divine justice and reconciles us to God. It's love that sends the son. Or Galatians 2.20, we're looking at today, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. See, it doesn't stop after loved me, full stop. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me. That would be a nice thought. But it continues on, who loved me and gave himself for me. That's the demonstration, the proof of the love. I want us to consider really two things today. First of all, whom did Christ love? And secondly, how did Christ love? First of all, whom did God or whom did Christ love? There are two ways we can answer this question, depending on what you're thinking about, what you think the question means. We could think of it in terms of Christ loving the elect. We thought about that on Thursday. Jacob have I loved, Esau I have hated. But that's not really what I'm looking at in asking this question. I'm not thinking about the quantity of people that Christ has loved? Has he loved a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand? Or how many are they like? That's not what I'm asking. Rather it's the quality of the people that Christ has loved. What are they like in themselves? And scripture is very clear. Those whom God has loved with this everlasting love, those for whom Christ has died, has given himself for, are sinners. God shows his love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I think there's an appropriate picture in the book of Hosea in the Old Testament. Hosea, of all prophets, had a hard task, a hard calling from God. All the prophets had difficulties, didn't they? They're told to go and preach to people who may not be particularly receptive to them. They're told to preach to people who may persecute them. But friends, I think you'll find that Hosea had it hard because he was told by God to go and marry a harlot. Go and marry a harlot, a wife of whoredom. And even after her sin against him, he was told to go and love her. Hosea 3 verse 1, the Lord said to me, Go again. Again is the very idea. It's not just once, but go again. Love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods. Which of us could do that? Which of us could swallow our pride to do that, to go and love an adulterous woman to love a wife of whoredom and who is actively engaged with another man. And it's a spiritual picture, isn't it? It's a spiritual picture of people turning aside from God to idols and uniting themselves so strongly to their idols, whoring after them, to use the language of the scripture. And God could look at them, couldn't he? And say, well, that's sin. It's so displeasing to me. It's so ugly to me that therefore I'm going to wipe you off the face of the earth. And yet, he says, go and love a woman who is an adulteress. Because God loves his people even though they are sinners. This is magnanimous mercy and generous grace. Could you do it? Could I do it? And yet God does it. See, our problem is, and we're all sitting here with the same problem, every single one of us. Even the most sanctified person here has the exact same problem. We all think that our sin is smaller than it actually is. Even friends, if you hate your sin, and I trust if you're gonna come to the Lord's table today, you can't come unless you hate your sin. But even though you hate your sin, you don't hate it as God hates sin. We think sin is small. And yet we were wretched sinners. The Bible calls us adulterers and adulteresses. James says that. Adulterers and adulteresses. Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? And at times we've sided with the world, we've chosen to be friends with the world, and that is a declaration of war against God. Friends, our original sin, that fallen nature that we had in Adam, the deadness of our soul that could offer nothing good to God, the odious leprosy of sin that hung around us, the hostility of our minds against God, the evil that springs out of a heart that is twisted with iniquity, where the deep well of sin is so deep that all that comes out is evil continuously. That is who we were by nature. If you're still in your sin, that is who you are. Sin is no small thing. Sin is evil, and God detests it. He abominates it. And yet, friends, for our purposes here, when did Christ love Paul? Was it when he had cleaned himself up? when he had become an apostle, when he had atoned for his sin by going out and doing some good works, by caring for the poor and preaching the gospel to needy sinners. Is that when God started to love Paul? No, look at what chapter two, verse 20 says at the end. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. When did Christ die? Well, Paul was alive when Christ died. And yet Paul was not one of the disciples. Paul was not someone of faith. He had no belief at all that Jesus was divine. He dismissed Jesus. He had no love for the offers of salvation in Christ. And in fact, what was he to become? But a persecutor and a blasphemer and an insolent opponent of the gospel, of the resurrection of Christ. He calls himself, doesn't he, the chief of sinners. That is what he was. And yet, friends, is it not for Paul that Christ gave himself? Christ who loved me and gave himself for me while he was still in that state, while he was still a filthy, odious sinner with nothing in him to merit the love of Christ, yet Christ loved him. And friends, what was true for Paul is true for all of us in Christ today. We have done nothing to merit and we can do nothing to merit the love of Christ. He loved us even before the foundation of the world. He loved us even when we were still in our sins. He loved us when we were dead. He loved us when we were going astray. He continues to love us, Christian friends, even when we sin against him. He loves us because he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Whom did Christ love? He loved sinners. Yes, we could go into the question of elect and non-elect, but I'm just considering the quality of the person that Christ has loved. Sinners, people who are unworthy of such love. As one Puritan says, fitter to be loathed than loved. That is whom Christ does love. People who are fitter, it would be more appropriate, we might think, that he would loathe them, hate them, and yet he has loved them. And then the second thing to consider is how did Christ love? And the answer in those words of the text, that he loved me and gave himself for me. He gave himself for his elect people. People who deserve no pity, who deserve no mercy, he gave himself. The Lord of all glory, the divine Son of God, the one who was eternally blessed within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. They loved each other and they needed nothing more. God does not need us. God does not need our worship. God does not need our love. You think about the love, Christians, that you have for God. It's so small and pathetic at times. It can be lukewarm. Do you think Christ died to gain that little bit of love from you and from me for himself? Was he there in eternity thinking, I don't have enough love? I'm not blessed enough, I'm not happy enough, I need something. There was absolutely no lack or need in God. No compulsion. And yet it tells us that Christ gave himself for me. First one, he gave himself for me. Go back to that example of a young fellow that loves a young lady, he will give her gifts, won't he? He will demonstrate his love, he will give her something, but will he give himself for her? Christ has given himself, his whole self, as the God-man, body and soul, he has given himself for his people. I think the beauty of this and the love of this is seen in the fact that there was no compulsion, but it is all voluntary. You give your money, to a variety of causes. And you do it not because you love those causes, but because you're forced to do it. That's what taxation is. You're taxed. The government takes money from you, whether from your income or whether through VAT, from what you spend, but the government takes that money from you. You're compelled to give it up. You've got no choice in it. And that money goes to a wide variety of things that you may not love those things. It's forced. But where you take your money and you give it to someone or to some cause, it's because you love, there's freedom in that. And for Christ, he has given himself willingly, voluntarily, and he has done so sovereignly. Notice what it says there. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He gave himself. Nobody required it. Nobody compelled him. No one forced him to do it. No one took his life away from him, but he sovereignly by his own free will gave himself for his people. It's an incredible thing, isn't it? How low he sank to give himself for his people. He sank not just to be near sinners, but to be in their place. It would have been a glorious thing if the God of all glory looked down from heaven and saw a sinful people, and he came down to identify with them, to be near them, and to encourage them. That would have been a glorious thing. If the Son of God had come down just to be near us in our sin, that would have been a kindness from God. But that's not what he's done. He's not just come down to show us a better example or to encourage us. He has come down to identify fully with his people. That he who knew no sin became sin for us. You see, he didn't just come beside us, but he took on himself the guilt of our sin. He put it upon his shoulders. He gave himself as a sacrifice in our place, as our lamb, as our scapegoat, as our surety, as our redeemer, living in our stead. So this is the inestimable love seen that Christ has given himself for a people so unworthy. And it's quite obvious, isn't it, that if there was any other way to redeem us, Surely Jesus would have taken that course. If there was a way that was less costly, he would have taken it. Even in the garden, as he's contemplating the cup of suffering that was placed into his hands, and as he's drawing so near to that point of the worst suffering, he shrinks back from the horrors of the wrath of God that's in the cup, and he asks if there's any other way. And yet the human will of Christ is submitted to the divine will. Yet not my will, but your will be done. He is willing to do what the Father has told him to do. He's willing to do what he agreed to do in the councils of eternity, in that covenant of redemption, to come for the sake of his people. If there was any other way to redeem us, any easier way, any less costly way, it would have been taken. But God demands the shedding of blood. God demands that sin be atoned for, be paid for. And therefore Jesus had to come and give himself. He had to give his back to those who strike. He had to not hide his face from disgrace and spitting. In bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, He therefore gave himself to be smitten by God and afflicted, to be pierced for our transgressions and to be crushed for our iniquities. This is what Jesus did. He gave himself to undergo these things. And it was all voluntary. It was all voluntary. He did it willingly. There's no greater love, is there, than laying down your life for your friends? No greater love than this. And Jesus did it. And every single part of his life, his ministry, and particularly of the passion, that is, of his sufferings, every action says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I've continued my faithfulness to you. When Jesus set his face to go up to Jerusalem, knowing that this was the road of suffering. He did it, of course, because he was always submissive to the will of the father. But at the same time, he did it saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. When Jesus went into that garden of Gethsemane and wrestled in prayer, sweating those great drops of blood, He was sorrowful even to the point of death. He almost died in the garden because of the sorrow that overwhelmed him. Yet he said, in effect, I have loved you with an everlasting love. When Jesus was tried by the Jewish Sanhedrin, by Herod, by Pontius Pilate, and when he was unjustly mocked and beaten, what was he doing? but saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. He was giving himself for his people. When Jesus was nailed to the cross and it was raised up and he hung there between heaven and earth, rejected by God and by men, what was he saying? But I have loved you with an everlasting love. When Jesus was on the cross, crushed for our iniquity, suffering in body and soul, paying the price for sinners, suffering that agony of hellfire in a moment, He was saying in effect to His people, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Friends, what gratefulness we should have when we come to the Lord's table. Because we're not simply hearing of the love of Christ, we're seeing it. We're seeing it represented to us in the pictures. And the children will look, as you always do, and you'll see the bread that is broken. It's a reminder of Jesus's broken body. But even that is a display of love, isn't it? I have loved you with an everlasting love that I have given my body to be broken for you. Or when we think of the cup and the wine, that is poured out, representing blood that has been shed. Jesus is saying, I have loved you, that I have given my blood for you. You see these actions, these elements display love. That's what this feast is, it's a love feast. The love of Christ is there, display this everlasting love that led Jesus to action. No boyfriend can love a girlfriend or no husband can love a wife to this extent. A Jesus who gave himself, body and soul, even to the pains of hell for his people. And if any of you are not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you hear of the love that is displayed at this table, when you hear of the love that was evident at the cross, that whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Well then, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, the love of Christ compels us, we who are ministers of the gospel, because we are ambassadors for Christ, because God is making his appeal through us. It's love that compels us to say, be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. through Jesus Christ. This broken body, it's broken to bring you near, to reconcile. This poured out wine or blood is so that your sins may be forgiven, because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. It's not the act of taking these elements that gives us the forgiveness, but it's Christ. It's faith in him. We go to him. in order to be reconciled to God. And so when we hear of love, surely we ought to go to the one who loves his people more than anyone is ever loved by anyone in this world. Friends, there's also a consequence of this love. Our text here shows us that. Chapter 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. It's a consequence of love. And there's a motivation that comes from love. If Jesus has loved you to give himself for you, what then? Well, this passage is showing us the union that we have with Jesus Christ. a never-ending union, that God's people, his elect people, are united to him, to Jesus, and therefore were united to him in his death. If you were to be transported back 2,000 years and to go to Golgotha and look at the cross and see Jesus there, it was only Jesus who died in the place of sinners. And yet he died as our head, as our representative, as our surety. And in some sense, we are united to him there in the cross. So that the death that he died to sin, we have died to sin. And the life that he has being raised from the dead, we have been raised together with Christ. We are united with him, bound up part and parcel with him. That what has happened to him has happened to us, indeed as it's happened for us. And so we are dead to sin because Christ has died. But not only do we have that union with Christ, we're encouraged in the scripture to have communion with Christ. It's a fact that believers are united to Jesus, and that cannot be changed. But we're to interact with him, we're to fellowship with him, and to fellowship with him in his death and in his life. I now live by faith in the Son of God. See what it's saying here? It's Christ who lives in me. It's by the union I have with Christ by faith that he lives in me. And so I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul is making it clear here in the wider context of Galatians that you're justified by free grace, you're justified by Christ alone, not by the works of the law, but that does not mean that you go on sinning. That does not mean, Christian brother or sister, that you take the freebies, you take the grace and the kindness and the love and you then go on your merry way and live the way you want to live. No, there's a consequence. It doesn't lead to license. but sin is to be put to death and we're to live righteous. This is sanctification and sanctification is only possible through union with Christ because we're united part and parcel with our savior. It is his love that motivates us to living in fellowship or communion with him day by day. The fact that he has given himself for us encourages us to live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. See, Christ in his love has given himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, but also to purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. There's a consequence of his death. It's not just to forgive you or redeem you, but to purify you. and to make you zealous for good works? Are you seeking to live this way before Christ? It's the love of Christ that motivates us. And so it should be a consequence when we come forward to the table and eat and drink of this sacrament, the consequence of this should be a determination, a motivation, hearing that I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I'm going to leave this table and live by faith in the Son of God who loved me. and gave himself for me. But I want you also to notice the assurance of this love. At the end of verse 20, Paul says, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul does not say, as Arminians say today, as many Christians put on posters today, Jesus loves you. He loves everyone. Paul did not say that because Paul did not believe that. Paul knew that there was an elect people. But he could have, in a theologically sound way, he could have modified this and said, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved the church and gave himself for her. That's perfectly sound, perfectly true. But he does not say that. He says, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He doesn't dilute it and say who loved us and gave himself for us, although that could be true, but who loved me and gave himself for me. This is assurance, isn't it? Not every believer has assurance of faith. And not every believer who has assurance has it throughout their whole life. It can come and go, and doubts can come in. Does God really love me? How could Jesus really love me with all my sin? Our confession of faith is not a dull, dry theology textbook. It's really pastoral, and it reminds us that assurance is not of the essence of faith. In other words, it's saying, just because you don't have assurance of faith, doesn't mean you're not a Christian. It can come and go, it can ebb and flow. Faith in its essence, in its truest sense, does not necessarily have to have assurance. But yet, friends, your Heavenly Father, who has loved you with an everlasting love, wants you to have assurance. He doesn't want you paralyzed by fears. Love casts out fear. He doesn't want you paralyzed with doubts. Does Jesus love me? Did he die for me? He doesn't want that. He wants you and he wants me to be able to say, as Paul said, that Christ loved me and gave himself for me. Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? and that the one who trusts in him is blessed. Have you seen the evidence of saving faith in your life? Can you see the fruit of the Spirit? Have you believed the promises? Have you responded to the calling that God has given to you to repent and to believe? Do you believe these promises? Have you come to faith in Christ? And have you seen the outworking of that in your life? My friends, surely, taking everything the scripture says, knowing all our theology, knowing that no one is righteous, no not one, no one seeks God, that there has to be the work of God's Spirit to produce these things. Surely then you can say, if there is the evidence of the Spirit's work, therefore Christ loved me and gave himself for me. Where we see the work of Christ, we see this. We reason backwards, don't we? If I have these gifts and these graces, therefore Christ must have loved me and have given himself for me. And this feast that we partake of today at this table is Jesus once again reconfirming that to you, his people, that as you partake in faith, it's as if he's whispering in your ear, don't forget this. I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have loved you and I have given myself for you. Amen. We're going to sing from