Let's turn together to Ephesians 5. We will read a passage there, and then we will go to the book of Galatians chapter 2. Ephesians 5. I want us to read together the first two verses. Ephesians 5 and verse 1. The Lord's Word says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour," or sweet-smelling fragrance. Now flip back to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." So far in the portion of this series that we've been dealing with, and as we have dealt with the simplicity that is in Christ, we've pondered some wonderful things answering the question, why did Christ suffer, bleed, and die? We have seen that Christ suffered and bled and died for our sin. We have seen that He suffered and bled and died to absorb the wrath of God. We have seen He did this to show us the value of the love of God, and that He suffered and bled and died to be perfected and to learn obedience. Today I want us to consider for a moment another wonderful truth. As we have stated, Christ died to show us the value of God, God the Father's love for us. But today I want us to consider that a little deeper, if you will, or maybe from a different angle. Today I want us to consider and marvel at what we have just read, that Christ suffered and bled and died to declare His love for us. His love for us. Sometimes when we think of the love of God it can seem far away and even abstract. I'm not justifying that in any sense. We shouldn't see it like that. But yet at times it seems that we do when we think of just the love of God. But as we look at Christ Himself, as we see Him in His humanity, as we see Him as a man being made like us, as we see His love, now that notion that abstractness should fade away. How His love should show us, how it should show us how personal His love is to us. Because, brothers and sisters, it is. The love of Christ is personal. The love of Christ for us is personal. Christ loves His people. Christ loves us. It says right here in this infallible book of truth that Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. But even more personal than this, brothers and sisters, we can think and we can know and should know and should think of the love of Christ just like the Apostle Paul thought of it. Christ loves me. Christ loves me. And He gave Himself Can you say, can you know that Christ loves me? Can you know that He Himself loves you? If you are His, you can. If God has granted you faith to believe in Him, you can say and know with full assurance that God, that Christ loves me. But as we know and say that, that Christ loves me, do we really understand? what we're saying. I want us for a few moments this morning just to simply consider a few of the realities of the love of Christ for us, of the love of Christ for me. First, Christ loves me. We dealt with this when we looked at the love of God, but we can never exhaust the reality and the truth of a Christ the eternal God, the eternal Son of God, the one and only appointed and anointed Christ of God, the prophesied one, the virgin-born Son, the sinless, perfect and impeccable God who walked on the face of this earth, the one who healed the sick, the one who calmed the seas was just a word. The one who received and deserved the praises of heaven and of glory. The one who raised the dead and the one who died on a cross himself and rose again in three days from the dead. The one and only Jesus who stood on the Mount of Olives one moment and in the next moment ascended in a cloud to heaven and to glory. The one who has promised to come again For the ones He loves, the one who owns the name and the place above all names and above all places, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, loves us. Brothers and sisters, He loves you. He loves me. Listen, the world might reduce this great truth to a license plate or a bumper sticker or a cute little song, but for us, brothers and sisters, might it cause our hearts to overflow with praise. Christ Jesus the Lord, the Lord of glory, the Lord and King of heaven and earth loves us personally. Yes, the Christ. He loves us. He loves us. We all should know how different our human and our most common kind of love is compared to God's, compared to Christ's love. Our love is almost always mercenary. It almost always expects something in return. But God's love, it gives. Notice how the love of Christ is illustrated in our text. Christ loves us and gave Himself. When we look at the value of God's love for us, we said that it could be measured in its sacrifice. And I think we can say that very same thing. for the love of Christ. What did Christ give? What did He sacrifice in His love for us, in this personal love for us? Now, the first answer that might come to your mind is, well, He gave His life, and that's true. But before that, before we get there, have you ever thought of the other things that He gave? As I was thinking of this message, thinking and contemplating this unsearchable subject, I thought about His glory. Have you ever thought of this? Christ gave His glory for us. He laid it aside to come to this earth and be made as a man. He laid it aside. Now, remember, this is God that we're speaking of. The one who is so jealous of His glory. The one who said, I will not share it with another, or give it to another. no flesh will glory in his presence because his glory is to be preeminence. The one whom all praise and worship is due to because of his essential glory. This is the one, as we have studied, who was absolutely content to be in solitude, absolutely satisfied in his own essential glory. But Christ loves us so, and he loves us so. that He put His glory down. Is that right? Could that be true? That Christ would actually do that for us that He loved? This glory, that is Him. It is His being. It is His essence. Do you remember when the disciples saw a portion of it on the Mount of Transfiguration? They fell. At His feet is dead. It outshone, it said, it shined like, he shone like the midday sun. Is it right that Christ would lay his glory down for us? That he loved us so? Well, if you've been here on Wednesday evenings, we've been reading through and doing a brief study on the Lord's Prayer. And in John 17, in verse 5, listen to his petition. He says, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had had past tense with thee before the world was." He was praying, in essence, that he might once again pick that glory back up. Because, brothers and sisters, he laid it down for us. And I know for a fact, we don't get that. We don't understand the height and the depth and the width of that. We will one day, when we see Him as He is in all of His glory, we'll say, oh Lord, You laid that down to come down to this earth because You loved us so much. And praise will ring out from all eternity from our lips because He did just that. He laid down His glory. Along the same line, do you realize that Christ loved us so that he gave up the riches of heaven. We've never been there, we've only heard about it, but he gave it up to come to this earth. 2 Corinthians 8, 9, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Psalm 45, 1-8, it describes a little bit of what the Lord left behind when He came to this earth, and what He gave up. It describes a little bit of His glory, and of His position, and of His majesty. Listen to this, in Psalm 45, verse 1, My heart is indicting a good matter, the psalmist said. That means it's an overflowing and a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Now he begins to speak of the King, and make no doubt about it, this is the King of Glory he is talking about. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty, and thy glory, and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a scepter of righteousness, is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. all thy garments smell as myrrh and alloys and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad." He gave up the ivory palaces to come to the dust bowl of this earth. Left heaven's glory because he loved us so. Also, we know indeed he did give his body for us, a body that was conceived and prepared by God himself. I know this body was a human body, but I want to tell you, I believe that it was quite a specimen of humanity. The world pictures Christ as a weak, long-haired, feeble-looking man, and they like him like that. They like to picture him weak. such an infatuation with him as a baby. But you know what? I don't really think he was weak. I don't really think he was people looking. I remember as I was thinking about this, when he turned over the money changers table, he realized no one challenged him. Now this was people's money. This was their business. This was their occupation. And he come in there throwing stuff around. showing authority. No one challenged him. You remember the night they came to get him. They sent a whole posse after him. A whole group, a whole guard of the army went after him. Don't you think they really knew that he wouldn't be armed? Even he said, what are you coming at me like this for? I've been with you every day teaching and preaching in the temple. And you come out here with your swords and your guns, you know, the whole whole of ammunition, there's a whole guard of people, and you come out here to get me like this, and it says as they came on he spoke and they all fell back, which to me says they were scared to death anyway, even to approach him. I don't think he was weak at all. I think the body that he tabernacled in was a perfect human body as this world has ever known. Because you remember What is it that causes these bodies to fail? What is it that causes these bodies to get weak? What is it that causes these bodies to die? It's sin. And there was no sin in his body. None. He knew no sin. It knew no abuse brought on by indulgence and lust. The abuse he knew was all from outward agents, the wicked hands of men. He sure knew their abuse. But no inward abuse to that body. You ever consider that? But he laid it down as if it was nothing. He laid it down. He gave it over, as a matter of fact, into the hands of the wicked men. And they beat him and whipped him so that his perfect body could not even be recognized. And you know, I was thinking about that. I believe that was absolutely intentional. It was absolutely intentional. The natural man is so opposed to God, they wanted rid of even the memory of his face and of his body as they wailed on him in their depravity and in their sin until there was nothing left but a pulp of flesh and blood. You want to know what man thinks about God, thinks about his Christ? There it is. There it is. And to think Christ, God, He allowed this abuse. He could have stopped them at any time. But He let it go on. And He let it go on. And He let it go on. You know why? Because He loved me. He loved you, brothers and sisters. And He gave Himself for you. He gave His glory. He gave the riches of heaven. He gave His body. And yes, He gave His life. The life was snuffed out of that body, and the soul of Christ was separated on the cross from his body. But that's not the most valuable life he gave for you and me. No, he gave his spiritual life for you and me. I've said it often, but we best never forget. Christ, because of his love for us when he died on the cross that day, he did die physically, but he also died spiritually. He wasn't just quoting from the Psalms when he said, My God, my God, thou hast forsaken me. But the Psalms were testifying and prophesying of the day when he would bear spiritual death. And that's exactly what he did. Because of my sin and your sin upon him, he and his holy and righteous Father were separated that day. They were separated. As great as his suffering was up to that point, and it was unmercifully great, I believe that topped it all for Christ. We fly right over those words and don't even think of the implications. He didn't say those words in vain. He didn't say those words just to say them. He was telling us something. He was telling us what he was giving for us because he loved us and he gave. his spiritual life. He died spiritually that day. I believe that was the event that he sweat the drops of blood for in the garden the night before. Here's something for your pondering. In Hebrews 12, 2, when it says, for the joy said before him, he endured the cross, and it follows those words with despising the shame. Despising the shame. I wonder if the despised shame that that passage is referring to is the separation from his father. For indeed, because of our sin upon him, he became a shame in his father's sight. So much so, his father forsook him. His father, who delighted him from eternity past, forsook him that day. how Christ suffered, what He endured in giving Himself. Why? Because He loved us. He personally loved us. When the Father gave us to Him, He knew every name. He knew each one individually and personally. And it was with that love that He came to this earth. And it was with that love for those people that he endured all, he endured physical death, even spiritual death. Just think of the relationship between he and his father before the hour of separation. Even when he was upon the face of this earth walking, his father continually delighted in him, continually found pleasure in him. But yet Christ gave that up. He gave it up. Just a few days before, the Father said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. But on this day, when he gave himself for us, he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He became separated to give us reconciliation. In essence, as he died spiritually and physically, he counted us more worthy of life than he himself. Don't you see how he loves us, saints of God? He loves us. He, Christ, gave himself for us, for me. For me. In your heart, brothers and sisters, can you say that with me? Christ gave Himself for me. He loved me. He loves me and gave Himself for me. The love of Christ is personal. The world would have us to believe that it's more like a blanket than personal. But remember, it took personal love to take away personal sin. And I want to tell you, all of us need to understand Our sin is personal. Our sin is personal. We are sinners because we ourselves personally sinned against our Creator. Not one will stand before God. Not one will stand before Him and blame and lay their sin off on another. Not one of us will say, Oh, it's all Adam's fault. No. We sinned. And we sinned. And truth be known, we love to in the flesh. We love to. It's personal. I'll tell you one thing. The wrath of God is going to be personal also. His love is personal, but His wrath will also be personal. The white throne judgment, one by one, will give account of the works He's performed. And one by one, they will be cast into the lake of fire that burns forever and ever and ever. But praise be to the glory of the love of Christ. One by one, he has loved us and gave himself for us and saved us from that horrible end. Saved us from the wrath of God. You know, we talked earlier about Pharaoh and Paul. What was the difference in these men? We said Pharaoh deserved his end. But Paul, Saul, you know what? He deserved Pharaoh's end too, didn't he? Pharaoh was bad, but I don't think he was any worse than Paul. Paul killed the lovers of Christ, the followers of Christ. Killed them with a vengeance. He even persecuted Christ himself. That's what Christ said. Paul, Paul, why persecutest thou me? What was the difference then? Why did God destroy one and bless and use another so gloriously? You know, Paul himself answered that question in our text that we read. It was this. Christ loved me and gave himself for me. That was the difference. That was the difference between Pharaoh and Paul. That's the difference. between sinner and saint, the personal love of Christ. So we see that the glorious Christ loved and loves his people. It was demonstrated in him giving his glory, him giving his riches and position in heaven, him giving his body, him giving his life, both physical and spiritual for us personally. In Ephesians 3.19, it says that the love of Christ passes knowledge. It does, doesn't it? It passes knowledge. It is so gloriously high, but it's real. And it's personal. And lastly, this love of Christ is eternal. It's eternal. Listen to this, brothers and sisters. There never has been a time, nor eternity, past or future, in which Christ has not loved us. Never. To the children of God, we can understand that Christ has loved us in eternity past. In Proverbs 8.29, this passage that I love so much, it says, When He gave to the sea His decree that the water should not pass His commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I, Christ, was by Him, by the Father, as one brought up with Him. And I was daily His delight, rejoicing all the way before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. And my delights were with the sons of men." That's eternity past. Where was the delight, the pleasure, yea, the love of Christ with the sons of men? In that Messianic Psalm we looked at last week, Psalm 16 says, O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extended not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Christ Himself. He Himself loves us and loved us and delighted in us in eternity past. There never was a place in eternity past that He did not love us. As we have already seen by His sacrifice and by His words, He has loved us and does love us in time. In time. Right now we are living in time. Just a little blink of time. This is seen so wonderfully in Romans 8, 34 and 35. It says, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And His love is scribed all over that verse. For us. And it is followed by this. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? child tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. You see, those things are the things that happen in time. And who can separate us from His love in time? The answer to that is no one. Not only are we not separated, though we be condemned, they can't even condemn us because of His love. We're, as it were, untouchable. Because of the love He has set upon us. Christ loves us. And nothing can separate us from it. Because so much of religion thinks that He loves you. You can make Him stop loving you. If you can make Him stop loving you, He would have never loved you in the first place. Because He's known the whole story. He declared the end from the beginning. He knew exactly what we were and all that we would be. But praise be to the glory of His grace. He loved us anyway, in spite of us. He loved us and loves us. And you know what? He will love us for all eternity. Now, do you remember the very best, the very most that God can love us? Do you remember that? of either the first or the second message. The very best, the very most that we can be loved by God is for him to show us his glory and give us himself. And what is the will of Christ for eternity revealed to us in John 17, 24? Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." The very best we could ever be loved is not a million things or a million dollars or a million possessions that we could ever gain in this world. The very best that we could ever be loved in time and eternity is for God to show us His glory and give us Himself. And what is the will of Christ? To show us His glory and give us Himself. He has loved us. He does love us. He will always love us. We are His. We are His. We are in His hand. And none, none can pluck us out. No one or no thing can pluck us out of His hand. Because He loves us. You see, Christ suffered and bled and died to declare His wonderful, giving, personal, eternal love for us. This is the simplicity that is in Christ. I want to ask you something. Has Satan ever loved you? Has he ever loved you? Has He ever gave Himself for your good? Has He ever blessed you with an undeserved blessing? Has He ever laid down His life for you? Has He ever loved you? Then why would you continue to serve Him? Why in the world would you continue to serve Him? You might say, oh, I don't serve Satan, friend. The fact of the matter is, if you do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ, you do serve Satan. You do serve him. It's one or the other. It's one or the other. It's either Christ or Satan, and it's that simple. If you do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ, you are serving sin, serving Satan. Why would you want to serve him? Why? I can't think of one reason. But I want to tell you, I can think of many reasons that I would want to serve the risen Christ. One, it says, because His love constraineth me. He wasn't expecting anything back. It was a gift of His grace. But I want to tell you something about the love of Christ. It moves you. When you experience a love so great, it moves you. to serve you, serving. It moves you to worship Him. It moves you to seek with all your being to honor Him. What a great love it is that He has personally loved us with. May the Lord give us the grace to turn to Christ. May He, this moment, by His Spirit, through His Word, and for His own name's sake, show you personally His wonderful love for you. I can't show you personally. I can preach loud enough where maybe you can hear it in your ear and that's where it stops. But He can take this word about the love of Christ and bring it to our heart and awaken a dead soul with it. He can do that. You're looking at an example of it before your eyes right now. But only He can. May it please him to work so effectually in our services this morning. May it please him to work so effectually where these tapes and these messages go out that he would quicken with his great love for sinners. May he be praised because he is the only one that deserves any praise or any honor or any glory. Brothers and sisters, Christ loves you. He loves you with an everlasting love. Serve Him. Serve Him. Yield your life and instrument unto righteousness for His namesake. We praise the Lord for His word. We pray that it will enter into our hearts and move our feet to serve Him.