TEXT: John 13:1

SUBJECT: Loved by Christ

My talk this afternoon is more of a meditation than it is a sermon. Preparing it revived my soul more than I can tell you. I hope it will do the same for yours. God bring it to pass. For Christ's sake. Amen.

Robert Dick Wilson was a long-time professor of Old Testament at Princeton Seminary. To call him a scholar is to understate his achievement. The man mastered forty-five languages. He read every learned book in his field. He published books and papers of the highest quality. Near the end of his life, he told his students what he had learned from it all,

The Love of Christ. There is no doctrine deeper, wider, or more mysterious than this one. "To know the love of Christ--Paul says--"passes knowledge". It's one of the first things a new believer learns. Yet he never outgrows it. It's one of the first sermons most people hear. Yet no one ever gets tired of hearing it.

Or, to the fullness of His infinite love. You've read these words before. Many times, I would guess. But they still touch you somewhere deep inside. They still move you to devotion; they still excite you to praise and thanksgiving.

But of course they do! The love of Christ did the same thing for David, who rejoiced,

And for Paul. Romans is the most technical, closely-reasoned thing he ever wrote, yet the love of Christ so filled him with joy that he broke off his argument and burst into praise,

And for Jonathan Edwards. He wasn't an emotional man or a religious fanatic, yet one day, out walking in the woods, he was flooded with a sense of Christ's love. Lying on his face for half-an-hour, he asked the Lord to take away the feeling because he couldn't survive it much longer.

The love of Christ is celebrated in the Great Hymns,

Nothing greater than the love of Christ.

The love of Christ can be thought of in two different ways. We have His General Love. It extends to every person without exception. The Rich Young Ruler was not a saved man, yet Mark says, "Then Jesus beholding him, loved him..." His love was deep and sincere; it took no pleasure in the man's love of money, but longed for him to "Turn from his way...and live".

The Rulers of Israel had spurned their Messiah and would soon drain the cup of God's wrath. Yet our Lord wept for them and would have "Gathered them to Himself as a hen gathers her brood under her wings". Why? Because He loved them and wanted the best for them.

His love for all is the very argument He uses to make us love everyone. We're to

In short, ""The Lord is good to all; His tender mercies are over all His works".

Everybody--saved or lost--is obliged to thank the Lord Jesus for His overflowing mercy,

This is love--make no mistake about it. But it's not the love that fills us with "A joy unspeakable and full of glory". No, that is His Special love.

It's given--not to everyone--but to His people. It does more than send rain or make the sun rise on us. It saves us from the guilt and power and penalty of our sins. It brings us into fellowship with God. It gives

This love is ours--not because there is something good in us--but because there's Something Good in Christ.

This is circular reasoning at its best! The Lord loves us because...the Lord loves us. He gives no further explanation. We need no further explanation.

Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory loves us. He loves us--"Not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth".

He loves us enough to endure "Golgotha--the place of the skull"--for our salvation.

This kind of love is unchanged and unchanging. The love that went to the cross hasn't been decayed by time or given up because of our thoughtless and ungrateful ways.

Jesus Christ has

His love for us can no more die than He can die. If "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever", then so is His love His people.

Meditating on His love, of course, will make you love Him. "We love Him because He first loved us".

Meditating on His love will give you a sense of identity. If you listen to people talk or read modern literature, you'll see nobody knows who he is or where he fits it!

The self-esteem movement has tried to answer this by affirming our goodness. But it doesn't work because we know we aren't good. We feel inferior and alienated and guilty because we are inferior and alienated and guilty. And repeating upbeat mantras won't change that.

But meditating on the love of Christ will! Who are you? You're somebody whom Jesus Christ loves! In the words of Paul, you're

Meditating on the love of Christ will make you love other Christians. It's not easy to despise someone or gossip about him or to exclude him when you're thinking "Jesus Christ loved Him and gave Himself for him"!

There's nothing I want more than a revival of brotherly love in the Church of God. Yet it will not come--it cannot come--until I start thinking about how much Jesus Christ loves you. With all your personal faults, He loves you. With all your mistakes in theology, He loves you. Even if you don't love me, He loves you, and I ought to love you for that reason alone!

I want you to think more about the love of Christ this week than you did last week. But it's not only I who wants this, but God does too. He wants you to

May the Lord reveal His love to you in a fullness unknown. Amen.