No Greater Love

But even as you're finding that I want to have a um a pastor congregate moment, a little vulnerability, uh if you will, and um ask for your forgiveness on something.

This is um I don't know if you've heard, I might have uh referred to the pulpit as a sacred desk before, but I hold that very um seriously with much respect that this is the sacred desk because what happens here is sacred.

Uh God's word is preached.

Spurgeon uh used to say that he would climb into the pulpit as he was taking the steps up to the pulpit and envisioning himself, if not even when he was by himself, on his hands and hands and knees, he would say at each step, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit.

And I've enjoyed actually that ever since I read that, that practice of going into the pulpit and and saying that.

There are um three relationships right here.

There's myself with the word of God.

Let me put it, let me put it in third person.

There's the preacher and the word, there is the preacher and God, and then there's the preacher and the congregation.

And so all three of those, they're not mutually exclusive in the sense that they're all uh joined, they're all happening at the same time.

My relationship with the word of God as a minister, and anybody who stands here, but for me, it's very important that I be faithful to the word.

And um we all you know passages where the the preacher, the teacher will be uh held in more uh jud harsher judgment uh because of what they teach and preach.

Um the relationship between the minister and God, I'll let you in on something, I don't know if you call it a secret or not, but between myself and God is that there's a constant tension there.

It's a good tension and it's a healthy tension.

But it's like Jacob, in a sense, wrestling.

There's a constant wrestling.

When I say a secret, you may not know that when I'm up here, I'm praying as I'm preaching as well.

Not constantly, but there'll be times when I'll move my hands like this, and just because I know I'm thinking of something, and I just keep going, and um, and we'll come back to that in just a minute.

But then there's a relationship between the minister and the congregation that is also sacred, and there's a trust that has to be learned and earned between.

I mentioned that actually the first week I was here, that there needs to be a trust.

You trust me to study and to bring God's word, to have prayed through it, applying it to my own life.

I trust you.

Benton prayed it just a minute.

He prayed for me, then he prayed for you because you have a responsibility to come prepared and uh to listen and to be humble as you receive God's word.

So all that to say, um, on May the 19th, I preached a sermon that I was struggling between me and the Lord.

I had lifted a great deal that sermon, 90% or more, counted the words versus the words.

And I mentioned it, but I didn't give full credit.

And I really want to ask for you to forgive me as a congregation because there's that, again, that relationship.

I want you to be able to trust me.

And um, but I I did if it was really between me and the Lord in so many ways, because even that morning I knew I had in my notes, and you may remember, if you were here, it was May 19, it was a one-off, it was 1 John 4.10, and I'd used John Blanchard's sermon, and I mentioned John Blanchard, I mentioned the sermon, I mentioned what the impact it had on me, but I did not take it to the next step of saying that I gleaned the sermon from him.

And so I'm embarrassed by that.

I apologize for that.

Um, I would ask you to forgive me for that.

Um, I had written in my notes the sermon was gleaned from John Blanchard.

Um, and I didn't say that was part of my struggle even in prayer with God that morning.

So um I felt like the session is aware of this, by the way.

I've been in much contact with the session, and I think they and I both agree that even I say, well, this relationship between me and God, you're affected by this, and I need to ask you to forgive me for that.

I'll close this little these moments by telling you, just in my own heart of hearts, um, you know, every single Sunday night I go to bed.

Every single Sunday night, I confess the sins of the day, and I always start with sins in the pulpit.

I just it's not false humility or any kind of way to try to put myself in a better light in this situation.

I confess sin in the pulpit every week.

And I, you know, I could tell you more sins that I've committed in the pulpit, but when we go to confession quietly, the first sin that I typically bow my head and say is God, please forgive me, because all I'm thinking about is myself right now.

So there's a lot going on up here, and there's a lot going on in here.

And um, I fail, I fail often.

And I just um again ask you to forgive me.

And um, if you want to talk more about that or you have more questions about even the extent of it or the situation, the circumstances, I'd love to talk to you, please.

Seriously, I'm wide open and an open book for you, an open door.

So uh just a couple of announcements uh before we turn to the word.

Uh one is that uh Beth Pearson's stepfather passed away uh this last week.

I know many of you have been praying for Tom, uh Tom Piper, and he went to be with the Lord on Thursday, May the 16th.

Uh the arrangements are that there'll be uh visitation and the service this next Friday, late afternoon and evening uh in Jefferson City, Missouri.

So I think the Pearsons plan to leave on Tuesday and just know we want to be in prayer for them.

Uh, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

And then uh with regard to the Pearsons as well, the Pearson announcement Sunday.

Uh many of you know, and some of you may not know, that John has been afforded uh sabbatical this summer, and we're real excited about that and well deserved uh time off.

He has really put in so much.

Um, he's been a lot of the glue for a long time.

And so uh we want him to take a good break and to rest.

Um, this sabbatical will begin on June the 23rd and end on August the 22nd, so two full months.

Uh let me give you a definition of a clergy sabbatical.

A clergy sabbatical leave is a period of time in which a minister is granted leave away from normal duties for intentional study, reflection, and renewal.

It is not a vacation, nor is it only continuing education.

The purpose is to promote the minister's spiritual, intellectual, and emotional renewal and growth in order to become a more effective minister of the gospel and shepherd of God's people.

So I know sort of what it's like to be in John's place when the congregation knows you're going away for a little while.

I've had two sabbaticals.

I didn't have them until I was in Montgomery.

So I went uh 21 years, and then thankfully the session did come to me like they did to John, and to say, we want to offer you this.

And so 2011 and 2018.

And so it's I just want you to know as you're talking to John about it, make him feel good about it, because it's uh it's a little awkward, you know, to be telling people who maybe are not afforded such a thing uh to go away for a time.

Um, and you feel very undeserving with it as well.

I will say this a lot of businesses are going toward that model.

If you are a leader in your business, you can read up on that.

The navigators actually require their employees to take six months off every seven years.

They're so committed to it.

They have a great um way to follow.

Uh not to think of the right word there, but um something you can follow to have a good sabbatical, a successful sabbatical.

Um, we all know John well, and John has an impeccable work ethic.

John loves you, and John loves this church, and so it's not gonna be easy for him to disengage.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, John, but I'm speaking on behalf uh as the outsider looking in at him.

Uh, he he's gonna be hard for him to disengage.

So let me just say, and I'll repeat this in June, the onus is on us as a congregation, really to love him enough to not text and not call and not expect him to be there.

I know many of you are very close to him, and you'd want him to be there as your pastor, um, but there can't be any exceptions because once you make an exception, then you have to make exception for everybody.

We have to let he and Beth go and uh pray for them as well.

Uh so um lastly, I'll just say again how well deserving John is of this.

I want you also to think in terms of this being good for the church.

Um it's good that he can go and rest.

We'll have a refreshed John, we'll have a recalibated, recalibrated John with us.

That's kind of scary, isn't it?

Um what to do?

No, he's so gifted, and so we'll look forward to his return.

Um, and then as you're turning in your Bibles or to the outline and the insert, it's just one verse.

Uh, but we are taking one Lord's day off here as a one-off, as we call it, away from Acts, because the sermon that would be next is Acts 6, 1 to 7.

And I realized that later than I should have uh in the week.

And we've already preached that.

I know it's been like six months, but that was still one of our first sermons together, and I really would have been only repeating.

Um, and so I could have gone to the next section, but that was also a little too late.

But this is where in God's providence he has us this morning, and I'll be honest with you, is to focus on the love of God.

And I think that's that's really nice.

It'd be good for us, uh, even in the last weeks, and for us to come settle, take a deep breath.

May is so busy, and just be reminded of his love for us and that truly there is no greater love.

And this verse has already been read in our assurance of pardon.

Um, but as you're able, if you'll stand, we'll have the one verse and then our singing response.

All of God's word is God breathed.

So it's it's wonderful that we have the inspiration of God's word giving us a definition of what love is.

In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

So uh the question before the house, so to speak, is what is love?

We go around the room, we would have fifty or more, perhaps different, at least variations by our definition of what love is.

It is arguably the most often used word in the English language.

Uh something was sung in that last stanza of that hymn, uh, and John quoted it again in the prayer, but um speaking at a different angle as far as the love of God and how much ink that would take to talk about it.

But here's another angle, just love in general.

Uh, wars have been fought over it, oceans of ink have been spilt over it, acres and acres of paper have been covered by it.

And the interesting thing is we all want it.

There's not a person in this room who doesn't want to experience not only love, but real love, true love.

The problem with our various definitions is that all of us, and even Josh's prayer alluding to, are bent toward the first Adam, is that we want to uh define it in our terms, and we are so impacted by our culture as to what love really is.

So we read things that we read, it may be magazines, it can be books, it could be uh blogs.

Uh, probably the first place we begin to form a definition of love is by watching our mom and dad uh relationships, experiences that we've had, the music that we listen to.

There are hundreds of thousands, if not in the millions, of young girls who have been taught by Taylor Swift what love is.

May take a chuckle, I'm a Swifty myself, but um I told them about five months ago we were out on the field, and I said, Would it be bad if I said I was a Swifty, you know, from the pulpit?

And then I'll probably get in trouble for it now.

But um, she's quite talented.

Uh, college professors, philosophies, uh, whatever it may be.

The Christian knows better, okay?

I mean, we know where to turn.

You know, the there's a lot of obviousness with this sermon, but we know that we turn to God's word and to God's word alone for our definition of what love is.

And lo and behold, here's a passage, here's a verse in God's word, as I mentioned in the reading, inspired by God, that begins, This is love.

That's the NIV.

That's the way I memorized it.

This is love.

It is a very simple definition.

Let me say this about 1 John.

Of all the books in the Bible, 1 John contains more about love than any other book in the Bible.

Chapter 4 contains more about love than any other chapter in 1 John.

And the absolute central verse to 1 John chapter 4 is verse 10.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

And verse 10 begins: this is love.

But then you'll notice that there is this sudden denial.

It's like John is saying to us, okay, I'm gonna tell you under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what love is.

Here's what love is.

Here's a definition.

We're sitting on the edge of our seats because we want to know what is love, and he says, but first I got to tell you something else.

First, I got to tell you what love is not.

It's interesting coming from a man like John.

Because John, I'll remind you, John came from a well-to-do family.

So John, as a younger man, was impetuous.

Do you know what that word means?

Impetuous means uh reckless.

He wasn't very careful with his um his words.

He was uh he didn't take into account, maybe he couldn't read the word very well, not a lot of tack in John.

Um he was very prideful, uh, over-ambitious.

Don't blame all of that coming from a well-to-do family, but he was sheltered.

He was very extremely self-centered.

Everything was about him.

It wouldn't be hard to imagine John and then his brother James arguing about who was going to receive most when their dad died, you know, or when their dad retired from the business, who would get the bigger chunk of the business.

So, really, um, as a young man, John was in love with a man named John.

In other words, he loved himself until a day in his life, a glorious day in John's life, when Jesus came into his life.

And Jesus turned John's life upside down.

John's looking at this man, he is um looking in his face, he's hearing his words, he's hanging on every word, and um, this respect that he has for Jesus turns into an affection for Jesus.

And that affection grows and it turns into love so that there comes this day in John's life where he can say, Of Jesus Christ, I love that man unashamedly.

No matter the consequences, my love runs deep, deep, deep for this man.

It's like the hymn writer, as we'll sing actually later in the service.

My Jesus, I love thee.

I know thou art mine, for thee all the follies of sin I resign.

My gracious Redeemer, my savior art thou.

Hallelujah.

If ever if ever I love thee, my savior tis now.

I read that uh Robert Murray McShane said that uh some people's religion is like the stars.

Very high, very clear, but very cold.

I wonder if you know someone like that.

Not in a judgmental way right now, but you can think and think of people that you know that are they like to talk religion, they can argue theological points, but again, there's just not the glow of the Holy Spirit residing in them.

Not a real love, again, like was part of our confession this morning.

John Blanchard, who, by the way, even in this sermon, this this was brought to my attention um, I guess in seminary, because the there was a woman named Jamie Pilla from uh Yazoo City who handed me a cassette tape of uh John Blanchard's sermon.

This I listened to it over and over and over, just became embedded.

That's why I even chose this verse for a one-off, just because um just even over decades I've spent time with this, and John Blanchard's uh started that.

God used him.

Um so he said in that sermon, uh, talking about their people like that's Christianity, their Christianity is measured by a slide rule applied to the head rather than a thermometer plunged in the heart.

We still come face to face with this uh sudden denial.

You know, when John wrote this, his brother James was already dead.

Imagine that.

Again, put that into context of his writing the entire epistle.

All right, so James had been killed at the hand of the sword of Herod Agrippa.

Why did Herod kill James?

Because James loved Jesus.

Ten years after James comes Nero, and Christians were persecuted.

I won't go into that detail this morning.

They were they were uh tragically tortured in so many different ways.

200 years after Nero, there was a man by the name of Genesius.

Genesius was an actor, and Genesius was in the midst of performing a play that was a parody on Christianity.

He was mocking Christianity.

And he would say things like, When I die, I want to fly to heaven where God is my refuge.

And everybody's just roaring with laughter because they know that's what Christians say.

There was a mock sham minister who came out and was talking to him and his dying, and this part of the play, and you know, they're all howling even they're goading him, they're telling their agony moan because they know again, that's exactly what ministers in Christianity would say to others.

And then, y'all, all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit came down on Genesius in like a real way.

And he cried out to everyone in the audience and said, Um, I his first words were, I want to receive the grace of Christ so that I may be born again and be rid of all this sin that has been my ruin.

And there was this hush of the crowd.

Now, the emperor then was Diocletian, and he was in the audience, and Genesius said, Um, Diocletian, emperor, he wouldn't call him an emperor, and all those of you who laughed at this parody, I tell you, there is only one Lord.

And Diocletian had him immediately taken, arrested, whatever you want to say, uh, stretched on the racks.

And again, we won't go into the detail of it.

There was great torture for Genesius.

His last words were There is no King but Jesus Christ, whom I now love and worship, for whom I would gladly die a thousand deaths.

Put yourself in that position.

You're here, put yourself in the position where you are today.

This man had never been.

To a worship service like you have, had never been to a small group Bible study, never had a community group, had never been to RYM, young people, never been to RUF, never been to a Billy Graham Crusade or had the four spiritual laws presented to him.

None of that.

He was taken up by the Holy Spirit, smitten by the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit moved in him in such a way that he would gladly have given his life a thousand times for Christ.

Simple definition, sudden denial, and then there's the superlative distinction when he says, but that he loved us.

Again, keep in mind the context, Nero's persecution was recent history when John says the ultimate in love is not that we loved him.

So in the shadow, in the recent history of martyr after martyr after martyr, John, even the eleven are dead.

And he says the ultimate love is not that we loved him.

If we added together all the sacrifices of every martyr down the ages, every single one of them, you put it together all their love, martyrs that we know, martyrs we've read about, but also martyrs that are only, as they say, only sung in heaven.

And you put all their love together, and then you took all the sacrifice and all the love of every missionary that's ever been to the field.

Everything they gave up because they love Jesus and they wanted other people to know Jesus Christ.

And then you took all the love of all the Christians ever and put all the love together, and then you added my little love and your little love, you would still come face to face that the ultimate love is not that we loved Him.

You would still come face to face with the fact that His love is the best.

His love's greater.

There's a phrase that said, Beyond the best, there is a better.

That's true in this passage.

Whatever you think about your love for him, whatever you can muster within yourself to express love to God, there's still a greater love.

And that's the love that he has for you.

I mean, his is his obviously is the greater love because his love preceded your love.

His love is greater because it reached further.

His is the greater love because, think about this theologically, that his love had no basis outside of himself.

That's the greater love.

And we say, well, why would we love him?

And then so then the question becomes, why would we not love him?

And I've used this panorama before out of Romans 8.

Um, so bear with me on this.

But uh it's affected to me.

It's just, you know, how do I know that I'm gonna be glorified one day.

I know that I will be.

How do you know that?

From Romans 8.

I know it because I have been justified in the sight of God.

And you say, well, how do you know that you've been justified?

I would say, because I've been called by the Holy Spirit, by Christ to be his.

How do you know that you've been called?

Well, I've been predestined to be called.

And you say, well, how in the world would you know that you were predestined?

And I would say, because I know he loves me.

That's how I know.

He loves me.

And you say, well, why do you why did he do that?

Why would he love you?

And then that's when we throw our hands off and we would say, I don't know.

I don't, I don't have a reason as to why he loved me.

I just know that he loves me.

All my sin.

Think about all, and you put yourself there, I'll just preach and say it.

You know, I think all my sin, all the all my anger, all my frustrations, all my first reactions to people, my first reaction to events, my first reaction to things that frustrate me, whatever it may be, uh, the way I treat my wife, the way I treat my children, all this that we confessed earlier about not loving those that we've been called to love.

Think about it just over and over and over again.

And he knew that.

He knew he knew all of that, and yet he still protected me as a baby and then allowed me to grow up and that the fact that I didn't die in high school or college with all the things that we did, you know, but God was protecting me and he was bringing the gospel before me.

I was so blessed.

In a church like this, I mean, where I was hearing the word, college ministries, over and over and over again.

And then there comes a time when the Holy Spirit removes the scales from my eyes, and I can see I He removed, He removes the scales from my ears, and I'm able to actually hear the gospel for the first time.

The Holy Spirit plunges that knife into my heart and convinces me of his love for me and guarantees that one day I'll be with him in glory.

That's how much he loves me.

I could sit down and write on a piece of paper, take all day, maybe it would take weeks and months, to write down if I could come up with every single sin I could ever remember that I've ever committed.

Not a bad exercise, you know, to sit down and just maybe not that much, but just say all the sins I can think of in my life and write them so that you don't get distracted, and then take that piece of paper and look at it and say, There's not a sin on that piece of paper that Jesus didn't die for.

There's not one thing that you've done that he didn't sacrifice and become this big word in here, propitiation, which means a separation between you and the wrath of God.

That's what he did.

You know, Moses was um faced with the same question.

And this is what he said to Israel God chose you not because you were the largest.

Um, in fact, he says to Israel, in fact, you're the smallest.

God chose you, God loves you because, and do you know in Scripture, this is the only reason Moses could come up with because he loved you.

He's saying that to Israel.

He loves you because he loves you.

All of eternity would be too short to utter all the reasons why you should love him.

Are you following me?

All of eternity would be too short for you to utter all the reasons why you should love him.

Eternity will not be long enough for you to search out one reason why he should love you.

Eternity trying to find one reason why he loved you, other than the fact he loved you by grace.

Simple definition, sudden denial, superlative distinction, and then a saving demonstration.

He sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins.

He sent his son.

I've heard that phrase too.

The only way you can measure love is by seeing what love does.

And the father did the best.

The father sent the son.

We could sing it, we can sing that forever, we can hear it, we say we can't, we can't sing it enough, we can't hear it enough, can't say it enough.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

No greater love has any man than this, but that he lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends, Jesus says, if you do what I command you.

I don't know if you some people are fond of it and some people aren't, walking through cemeteries, but a lot of times it's interesting to read markers, and no doubt we're all, you know, our eyes fall on the youngest and wonder what the story was, or maybe even the oldest, where you say, Wow, you know, that person lived so long.

Um, I'm drawn more, and I think anybody who studies whatever history, they may look for uh the you know Civil War type markers and see they lived during this war, this war, that war.

For me, for some reason I look at the their ending date during World War II.

So if you you go to a cemetery and you see 1918, most of those guys were born in 1915 to 1920, somewhere in there.

And then you see the next date, 1942, 1944.

And a lot of times there's in the marker engraved, you know, something patriotic or what they did, where they serve, what armed branch branches of the government, I mean of the military that they served.

So your mind can go there and imagine back way back in 1940, you know, even on that particular day, you know the family was standing at that very plot of ground bearing their son.

But if you go back, whether it be a year or two or three years, and there's this uh farewell to the son, and he's got his uniform on, and maybe at a train station or an airport or something, and you know, he's saying, he's hugging them and saying he's fighting back tears and saying, it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay.

I'll be back, I'll be back.

And the parents, you know, you picture them all dressed up in their Sunday best, and and they are um they're hugging him as well and saying, yeah, yeah, you know, they're crying, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine, we'll see you again.

Knowing that it very well may not be okay.

Knowing they may not see their son.

If you'll you'll see that, if you'll have that in picture in your mind, and then transition that to another scene, to another farewell, but this time it's the gates of heaven.

And there's a father and a son.

And the father sends the son for an eternity of now being in the flesh forever and ever and ever.

He sends the son knowing it's not gonna be okay.

Knowing that his son will be rejected and hated and spat upon, and they'll actually call him a man of sorrows.

Once he's gone, once he's on the mission, everybody's gonna remember my son as being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

That they would pierce his body, they put the crown of thorns on his head, they would put the spear in his side, his body would lie in that tomb lifeless.

The father sent the son.

The father.

I mean, this is a father of all fathers when you imagine what he's done for you.

Because he hates sin.

And he doesn't tolerate sin, and he can't be in sin's presence.

He's light.

In him there's no darkness.

All must be punished.

We know that part of the gospel.

We know that from scripture.

All sin must be punished.

Every sinner must die.

Every sinner must die.

Every sinner must be punished.

What?

Except you.

Isn't that right?

Didn't he make an exception out of you?

You know he did.

He made an exception, he made a special case out of you by sending his son to become this propitiation, which again, this separation between us and the wrath of God because of Jesus forever and ever and ever.

And so Jesus took our sin.

Some way we think it was laid on him, and it was like a coat.

It was imputed to him.

So he actually became our sin.

And then we become his righteousness.

It's not just something, again, like a coat we put on or some actions we do.

It's imputed.

It's his righteousness is now my righteousness.

That's how righteous I am before a righteous God.

I mean, you talk about an exchange.

Bearing shame and scoffing root, another hymn.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude.

In my place, condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood.

Hallelujah.

What a savior.

And it's that simple to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

It didn't stay in the tomb.

The Holy Spirit came in that power, the power of the Holy Spirit to raise him from the dead and then ascend into heaven is to be at the right hand of the Father.

It's as simple, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

No one in this room need leave here without peace.

There's no peace with the wicked.

So, in other words, there's no peace with the unbeliever.

There's no reason to leave like that.

No reason to stumble over something as simple as hearing this man say, to become a Christian, all I must do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, believe what's been preached.

Believe in that love, believe in the Son, believe he's God's Son, believe he is God, that he died, and when he did, that righteousness sin exchange happened to me personally.

You're not a believer unless you know that in your heart to be true.

Again, simplicity that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief.

So when we come to the table this morning, we realize the love of God.

We realize that I am coming here and taking the bread and the juice as the body and the blood because he loved me, because he restored me, he redeemed me, he rescued me.

He has remade me.

And then remember that this Savior longs to be here with you more than you long to be here with him.

That's how, again, the stretch of his love, the fact that his love is greater than yours is seeing the fact he desires this meal with you more than you desire this meal with him.

But when we come together, we come as this family.

That's part of what we're doing when we do this: the unity.

We come forward, you can see people and you see them as they come down, you pray for them, you smile at them, whatever it is.

We're singing together with them because we're one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is over all, through all, and in all who are his people.

So I invite you and encourage you, come to the table and eat, come to the table and drink.

Let's pray together.

Our God and our Father, we thank you for the love that you have bestowed upon us.

It's so easy to say, and it is so easy actually to forget.

It's easy to take for granted.

We don't want to do it.

We pray thanksgiving for reminders like this, and we can come to worship and be with other believers who believe the same thing we do and who are loved like we are.

And then this stark reminder at the table that you sacrificed so much for us so that you could love someone like us and take away our sin.

So we celebrate that now in these moments, dear Father.

It's in your son's name we pray.

Amen.