December 12, 2021 - Sunday Service Live Stream

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Grace and peace, they said to me, like sweet heavens standing within your gates,

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Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the

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Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the

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Lord. Our thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

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Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.

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For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, peace be within you.

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Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. Please pray with me.

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, what an honor and a privilege to come into your presence.

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We thank you for the merits of Jesus Christ who, as the perfect mediator, makes all of this possible.

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O Lord, we pray that you would tune our hearts to sing your praises.

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I pray that our worship would be pleasing in your sight. Lord, I pray that we would be here with hands and mouths open that you might fill us.

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We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please kneel as we confess our sin corporately.

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Let us join together now in the corporate confession of sin. O Father, we are gathered before you, the maker of heaven and earth, whose chosen dwelling place is with the broken in heart.

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To confess that we have sinned in thought, in word, and in deed.

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We have not loved you with all our heart and soul. We have not loved you with all our mind and strength.

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We have not even loved our Creator as ourselves. In your mercy, deepen our sorrow for the wrong we have done and for the good we have left undone, so that we may hate our sin with a holy hatred.

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Please stand. God, who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.

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For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his mercy toward us.

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Has he removed our transgression? What a glorious reality for the people of God.

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Please take the hymnal and turn to number 218. Insert and turn to the one that says,

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Jehovah reigns, from Psalm 97. I'm going to ask Alyssa to play through it for us one time.

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Turn in your

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Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 58. Isaiah 58.

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Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.

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Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their

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God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching

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God. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice?

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In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness.

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You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul?

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Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

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Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is it not the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

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Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out?

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When you see the naked, that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh.

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Then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you.

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The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here

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I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as noonday.

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The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones.

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You should be like a water garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places.

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You shall raise up the foundations of many generations and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets to dwell in.

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If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the

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Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him, not doing your own ways or finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the

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Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth. And feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father.

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The mouth of the Lord has spoken. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us join together in the singing of the

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Apostles' Creed. The Lamb is seated at the right,

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Holy Spirit, Catholic Church.

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Fourteen. Angels, we have heard on high. Two hundred and forty.

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Be Thine, and Thine alone be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

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Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do. As we live and work in the creation that displays

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His power, be pleased to dispose all things to His own glory.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and the kingdom of grace advanced.

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Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it, and the kingdom of glory hastened.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Our gracious God and Father, Your word tells us how can the strong man's house be plundered unless the strong man be bound.

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You, Lord Jesus, have bound the strong man, Satan, and we pray that we would plunder his house, taking captive the people that were formerly under his way and bringing them into your house, into your family.

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Father, we pray that Your grace would go out, that Your word would go forth and bring those many to Christ.

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And we pray, Father, that Your enemies would return to Your friends, and we ask this in Christ's name.

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Pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins. We are encouraged to ask this because by His grace we are able from the heart to forgive others.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

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Lord, hear our prayers. Our Father, taking encouragement and prayer from You alone, in our prayers we praise

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You, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to You. And to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say together,

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Amen. Please stand and take up Psalm 29, our

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Psalm of the Month. We are really singing it well.

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I expect great things from you today. Psalm 29. Please take up your

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Bibles and turn to 1 John, Chapter 4. This is the epistle, the first epistle of John, Chapter 4.

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I'm going to begin reading in verse 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.

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Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the

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Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

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And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

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And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

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You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

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They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

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We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us.

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By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.

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And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know

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God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten

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Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved

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God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

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No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

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By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his

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Spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the

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Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the

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Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

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God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

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Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.

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Because as he is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

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Because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

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We love him because he first loved us. If someone says,

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I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love

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God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves

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God must love his brother also. This is

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God's holy and infallible word. Please pray with me. O Lord, I pray that your people will be affected and moved as I was, considering this great subject today.

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And Lord, I pray that you would transform our hearts to a greater likeness of Christ.

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And that we would find our joy and our hope and our peace and our satisfaction in you.

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We ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

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We close our Advent season messages today with the fourth and final theme of love.

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Today, I want each of you to more fully understand that you are loved by God.

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The incarnation of Christ is a manifestation of the love of God.

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Because it is a manifestation of the divine nature. And the divine nature is love.

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The incarnation also manifests the love of God. And the love was manifested in Christ that you might, as our text today says, that you might live through him.

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I've broken this down into a couple of parts. The first is, number one, the divine nature.

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The divine nature. Second is a question, how is the love of God manifested?

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How is the love of God manifested? Third, why has

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God sent his only begotten son? The answer is going to surprise you.

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Why has God sent his only begotten son? And fourth, we're going to consider some application.

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All of this, all this material is basically found in the second half of chapter four.

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Loved by God. There is a security that comes with being loved.

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My wife and my children tell me that they love me. And this gives me great strength and courage in the world.

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And in fact, the love of God accompanied by that familial love has really helped me in some very, very difficult times.

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If you are loved, there is great security. And husbands, you can ask your wives about this.

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If they feel loved, they feel very secure. And that's very good for a wife and it's very good for a marriage.

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Today, I have a very simple message to give to you.

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And its depth is so profound. I hope we catch some of it. You have been loved by God.

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And that statement is really my sermon. I've been loved by God. I want to think about and consider the implications of what it means to be loved by God.

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Let's look at verse seven of chapter four. In this chapter, obviously, 1

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John has a great theme of providing assurance for the believer.

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And it's found largely in this concept of love and obedience. John has contrasted the difference between those who are under the sway of the false prophets, those who are not following Christ, and those who are.

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When it gets to verse seven, it says this.

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Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.

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And everyone who loves is born of God and knows

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God. He's speaking of a particular kind of love that can only be expressed from God to his redeemed creatures.

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Our God is a loving God. He loves this creation. He loves this world in a very general sense, a very particular sense.

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And he even loves, in some measure, the wicked because they're created in his image.

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But this kind of love here described in 1 John 4 is not a general benevolence.

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He's not just raining on the just and the unjust. He's not just supplying food and covering for the world.

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But he's loving in a different kind of way, in a special way. And the people who have received this love are those who are born of God and those who know him.

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He says negatively in verse eight, essentially this. He who does not love does not know

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God, for God himself is love.

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I want you to be reminded of something. Let's go back to the Gospel of Matthew really quickly.

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Actually, I'm just going to quote this, but I'm going to read it really fast to you. Matthew in chapter 22.

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Matthew 22. We begin reading in verse 34 of Matthew 22.

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When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

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Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying,

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Which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him,

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This is the first and great commandment.

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And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. It's all very familiar to us.

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But in thinking about this, when we think about theology proper, we think about the character and attributes of God.

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And in our text, in 1 John, it says that God is love.

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And we read a section like Matthew chapter 22, a very complex question on the surface.

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What is the greatest commandment and all the implications of what could be that commandment? And the second one, all hinge on this idea of love.

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Loving God with all that you are, entirely, exhaustively, comprehensively.

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And then loving your neighbor as yourself. There is no other ethical obligation to mankind than those two.

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There are a lot of things under those headings. But those are the grand ethical moral obligations of the world.

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So this concept, this idea of love, it's not just a squishy feeling.

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It's something much more potent than that. It's coming out of the very character and essence of God.

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God is love. Now, in modern times, we view the

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God of the Old Testament, maybe we ascribe that to be God the Father in a kind of a practical modalism.

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He was an angry God. He liked to slaughter pagans, things like that. And then we go to this period where we say, well,

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Jesus, he's the son of God, he's nicer. Jesus is that God of the

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Old Covenant. The one that we say, and we may say in error, he's an angry God. That's Jesus.

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And so how do we sort all of these things together? It seems that the arrival of Jesus is the expression of God's love, but God's love has been present.

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We could do a little BT study of biblical theology of love in the Old Testament, and we would be convinced at the end of it that God really is a loving

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God, not just when we get to the incarnation, but he has been a loving God through all this period of history.

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The giving of the law is a loving and gracious act of God. Let's turn back to our text.

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1 John 4. The focus of our discussion today is found in verse 9.

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This leads us to the second point already. How is the love of God manifested?

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This is what our text says. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us.

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And here's the answer. That God has sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him.

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It sounds like John's most famous verse, John 3 .16, doesn't it? There's certainly a similar concept being conveyed.

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But what I want you to think about today is the depth, the breadth of the love of God, what he has done in sending

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Christ. We're thinking we're focused on the incarnation. Our sensitivity is a little bit more aware to the idea of the incarnation.

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But I think our vision of the love of God is far too narrow, and it doesn't reach high enough.

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What we think about, we think about the love of God as it relates to the incarnation, is that we are bad sinners, and we are.

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We are utterly, radically corrupt and depraved.

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We are filled with sin. And God's got to deal with this legal question.

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We stand before the holy tribunal of God and we're found guilty, and God, because of his mercy, has to relieve us of our guilt and our shame.

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And that's kind of where we stop. I love sola fide.

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I love the doctrine of justification by faith alone. But sometimes we stop a little too short.

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Look again at verse 9. God's essence, his character, his attributes are love.

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My suspicion is his concept of love is different than the love concept of the world in which we live, the culture in which we live.

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It looks different. But this is the highest ideal and expression of love.

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Whatever the kind of love that God has, that's the best kind. There's sappy romantic love.

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There's puppy love that teenagers have. There's love that people have. Whatever this grandiose concept of love is, it's perfect.

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It's potent. It's powerful. It's absolutely perfect in all of its respects.

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And God has that love for his people. If you have been loved by God, you have been thoroughly and comprehensively loved.

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You say, well, I know that's true. What's your point? This love, which seems to be reserved for the intra -Trinitarian relations between the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This love has now a new object.

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And that object is the people of God in Christ. And I want you to think of this.

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God loves you so much that he sends that which is most precious to him, his

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Son, to save you and to redeem you. Of course, the great idea, all the heresies, the counsels are resolved by this verse.

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The early church's struggles with the person, the divinity, the humanity of Christ.

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This is the only begotten Son. There's no one like him. He is not a created Son. He's a begotten

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Son. Babies are born into the world every day. But there's only been one begotten

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Son of God who's come into the world. The man, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us.

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That God sent his Son into the world that we might live through him.

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I believe, if memory serves me right, this idea of live is in the present tense.

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This isn't just salvation at the end after you die, or the end of the age, the great day.

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God has come in the person of Christ. He sent his Son, it says in our text.

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That we might live through him, and that's today. Today, we live as a result of the love of God.

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This begs another question. This is all deeply theological, but I hope it only comes across pastorally.

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The third point, and the question that I believe you would have a surprise in the answer.

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We're just asking this to a quiz in Sunday school. This is maybe the most profound question that would be life -changing for us to answer at the end of this all to understand this.

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Why has God sent his only begotten Son? It says here, in our idea, this very simple progression.

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God is love. This is his character and attribute. This is who he is.

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He is love. In our text, another question is answered. How is this love of God manifested to us?

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It's manifested in the arrival of Christ in the flesh. The third question, why has

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God sent his only begotten Son? We think we know the answer.

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It says here in our text that we might live through him, but there's still a why question behind it all.

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There's a big why. Let's turn to Romans chapter 5, and this is going to help us.

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This is one of the most familiar texts of scripture. Children, you should memorize this little section in Romans.

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It would be very helpful for you. This is the answer that we're most prone to give when asked this question.

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This is the right answer, but there's a question behind its rightness that I want to try to resolve today.

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It says, beginning in verse 6, When we were still without strength in due time,

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Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

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But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners,

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Christ died for us. God's love demonstrated that while we were still sinners,

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Christ died for us. Mark is a history buff.

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The guys who fulfill verse 7 in battle, they become congressional medal winners.

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These are the most exalted people. These are the heroes of history, people who do heroic acts to save the lives of their friends.

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God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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It's very good news. Now let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2.

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Another one of those sections. I should start, I know the ladies have been studying together

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Ephesians. And Ephesians has this backdrop of this doctrine of the church.

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And as Reformed Presbyterians, it has also the glorious doctrine of election.

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We are the chosen ones, and it's glorious. We should rejoice and revel in it. It says in verse 3,

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Blessed be the God and Father of our lives. This is chapter 1. Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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Now listen to this language. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

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That we should be holy and without blame before him. Here it is again, in love.

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Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself.

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According to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

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By which he accepted us in the beloved. Now I want you to picture this.

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The glorious doctrine of election. If you're unsure about it, talk to one of us about it after.

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About what we believe about that. That's something you struggle with. I think everybody knows where we stand on the idea of election. So I'm not going to speak much about that.

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But there's another why question. Why does he elect?

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Why are there a number of people who are known as the elect?

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Before the foundation of the world. That's before the fall.

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That's before sin entered into the world. That's before the corruption of the human nature in sin.

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Why does he send his son? Why does he elect some?

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Why does he do all of these things? Let's turn over to chapter two of Ephesians.

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Beginning at verse one. And you he made alive who are dead in trespasses and sins.

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Do you remember your former life apart from Christ? When you were walking in your own ways.

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And you never acknowledge God and you live contrary to his commands.

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You were not loving God with all of your heart. You were not loving your neighbor as yourself. Do you remember those days?

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Back then the holy God loved you. Hard to fathom.

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How does this work? How does his holiness? How does it work with his love? You were dead in your trespasses and sin.

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You walked according to the course of this world.

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According to the prince of the power of the air. The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.

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Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh.

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Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And were by nature children of wrath.

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Just as the others. What is the explanation for all of this?

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How can a holy God elect, redeem, save sinners like you?

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Why does he do it? What's the reason? Let's look at verse 4.

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But God, who is rich in mercy. Because of his great love with which he loved us.

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Even when we were dead in trespasses. Made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace you have been saved. And raised us up together.

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And made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come.

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He might show the exceeding riches of his grace. And his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace you have been saved. Through faith in that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works.

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Lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works.

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Which God prepared beforehand. That we should walk in them.

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Let's turn to 1 John again. We talk about this stuff all the time.

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R .C. Sproul famously said you can exhaust any man with seven why questions.

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His knowledge. And your children do this to you when you're raising them. Why? Why?

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Because I said so. Is what the answer is. But we have,

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I believe, the great why. Given to us in 1 John.

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Supported all through scripture. That the question of the incarnation.

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Isn't just that there is a legal requirement that has to be satisfied. And there is.

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But we sometimes view our relationship with God transactionally. I have sinned.

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My ledger has all the debits. Christ is my mediator.

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He comes and he takes away my debits. And there's a glorious transaction. We believe in a double imputation.

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I'm sorry. We believe it. I believe. You believe. That my sin.

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Your sin has been imputed to Christ. And that perfect righteousness of Christ has been imputed to my account.

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That's what we believe. This is very much the heart of the gospel. It's what the reformation is about. But we stop there.

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We say the ledger's balance. Debits and credits.

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There's been a great exchange. Look at verse 9 again.

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It says, in this the love of God was manifested toward us. That God has sent his only begotten son into the world.

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That the world. Into the world that we might live through him.

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And we get something of the true character of love. Echoing the great chapter of verse Corinthians 13. In this is love.

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Not that we loved God. But that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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Do you remember when you had those foolish little childhood romances.

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And you would find out if the person liked you or not. Great country song.

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Check yes or no. I don't remember what it's called. The name of the song. If you like me, maybe

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I'll like you back. That's how it goes. God has chosen us as the object of his love.

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With no reciprocation on the front end. It's very amazing to think of.

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You and I look for reciprocal love. When I met my wife, I knew that I wanted to love that woman.

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But I wanted that woman to love me back. There's self -interest in there.

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There's some self -interest from God, but it's holy and pure. Not like my self -interest or yours.

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On the front side, you have been the object of God's love.

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This is utterly profound. If you begin to understand where I'm going here. So let's pause here.

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Let's see if you're tracking with me. God has a divine nature.

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One of the hallmark features of his character and attributes is love. We see and we know that God has manifested and hid this love for us.

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Because he sent his son in the flesh. What we're celebrating now in this season.

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The incarnation. That why question. Why has God sent his only begotten son?

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Maybe we go back to that justification answer in Ephesians 1 and 2.

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What about God's holiness? What about the sinfulness of man? What about his transgressions?

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What about his want of righteousness? What about his need of deliverance?

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Why does God do it? The most profound answer, the most transformative answer to all these questions is this.

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There's an incarnation. There's election. There's salvation. Because God has loved you.

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The end of the why questions. We go back and all this theology that we can do.

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At the end of the day, the question that comes. It's hard to answer. There's nowhere else to go than the character of God himself.

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He must have objects of love. He has created a world that he might show his love to his creatures.

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And if you are loved by God, you are utterly secure.

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Some of you I know have endured hard things in your life. You've been spitefully treated.

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You've been abused in some way emotionally. Otherwise, you've not been treated as you are.

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You've had heartbreak. You've had all kinds of things happen to you. But if you've been loved by God, if you know something of the love of God, you're utterly secure.

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And a lot of the problems that you and I face in our lives are operating from a place of insecurity.

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In our text, it says there's no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment.

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He who fears has not been made perfect in love. Oh, Lord, perfect us, complete us in your love today.

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Your word has plainly said to us that you have loved us. We are the beloved of God.

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We've been accepted into your love. We could go to John 17. Oh, Lord, the love that exists into a

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Trinitarian love now has been brought to the people of God in Christ.

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I must tell you, if you understand this, there's no way your heart will not be gripped because it changes absolutely everything.

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That's what Jesus did when he came. He changed everything because now we see it.

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The love of God has been manifested. I wish I could take every little kid who's being bullied at school and I could tell them the bullies are insecure.

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They're weak. They fear. They don't know the love of God. It's not you.

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It's them. That's the reality. Do you know that you're loved by God?

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So First John is about if you're having troubles with that, read First John. Are you experiencing the joy, the hope, the peace of this communion with God that he has secured in Christ?

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The legal part is really good. I love justification by faith alone.

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But I have to confess to you the relational covenantal part is even better.

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Before there was a world. What about your value? What about your how you're feeling about yourself?

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If you'd be in Christ today before there was a world, your name was written on his hand.

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It's unbelievable. There's nothing like this in the world.

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We like to make ourselves important. We rub shoulders with celebrities or we know someone we we drop names because it elevates us.

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We feel good about ourselves when we have a connection to a famous person. We have been loved by the greatest one.

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And all this is manifested in the incarnation. A person of Christ.

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Why does Christ go to the cross? Why does Christ step out of the throne room of heaven to live and dwell among us?

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Why does he endure all the suffering and the scorn and the shame and the hostility?

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Maybe the final question.

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How great is the father's love? That he pours out all of his wrath on the son of his love that he might bring you in.

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And how does Jesus take that break in fellowship, that moment of human suffering where he is the the object of God's wrath?

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How does he endure it? Because of his great love for you.

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The fourth Sunday of Advent is about love.

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And oh, people of God, I hope today that you will know something of what it means to be loved by God.

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Whatever you're facing, whatever you're enduring, you can persevere because you've been loved by God.

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That tension, that angst, that anxiety, that depression, all of those fears lay down.

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You have been accepted in the beloved. You're loved by God. Walk in that love and obedience.

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Well, a quick word of application and we'll conclude here. At the end of this little section, a paragraph that we're reading from.

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Starts in verse 10 and ends with that phrase I just mentioned that his son is the propitiation, the satisfaction of God's wrath for our sins.

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The application goes this way. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

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But you could say, I've been mistreated. I've been taken advantage of.

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My love has not been reciprocated. I would say you love them anyway because of the security that you have.

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You have been loved by God. We ought to love one another.

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No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another,

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God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. People make fun of our little church.

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They talk bad about us. They have historically. There's many things,

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I guess, to attack. But what if we today embody this idea of those who are the loved by God?

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The reign and rule of Christ and his love would be in our hearts and we carry that with us everywhere that we went.

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They couldn't say we were weird any longer. They'd have to say those people really love Jesus and they really are obedient.

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This truth has set us free and we have to walk in that glorious liberty of the children of God.

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There's something else. Maybe the question, why is he given us his spirit? He never wants us to go a moment of our lives without a tangible connection to the triune

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God. Why? Because he loves us. Verse 17 says,

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Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.

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I'm going to go marching up with the brashness of Peter to the throne of God.

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And the reason I'm going to have that boldness is because I've been loved by God. It's been proven in the work of Christ.

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I can stand there. You can stand in the holy presence of God because you've been loved by him.

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And so many of us are struggling with fear and all of these things in our lives.

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And I believe John has this in mind. He says, there is no fear in love. And a lot of the mistakes that you made or you make are because of fear.

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This perfect love has come. Let it drive out, cast out that fear.

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Let us respond to him as Matthew 22 says, We love him because he first loved us.

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I can love my enemies who have done all kinds of bad things against me because I've been loved by God.

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The why question I believe is exhausted, not just a justification. Why is there an elect?

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Why is there a covenant of redemption? All of these big theological questions. It's too simple.

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It slaps us in the face. We can't even see it. The questions are answered.

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The theological problems are resolved. You've been loved by God. Evident, expressed, manifested so beautifully.

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In the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. On Saturday morning.

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Wake up. I hope you're excited about all that you're going to do on that day for Christmas.

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But I hope you'll be a bit more excited. And more profoundly moved than the superficial character of what will happen to the transaction of gifts.

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You've been loved by God. Everything has been changed. Walk in the security, the glorious liberty of the people of God in Christ.

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Let's pray together. Lord, we rejoice that part of your essential character is love.

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Our ethical moral obligations are defined by love. Lord, you have revealed the fullness of your love in the person and work of Christ.

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Why would you choose us? Oh, God. The laundry list of accusations that haunt me from my life without you.

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Some wouldn't say. And the answer can only be that you have designed, implemented a plan where the objects of your love would be those who are in Christ.

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That you would take them, that you would wash them, that you would bring them into the security of a divine marriage.

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Being unified, united. One flesh with Christ. Lord, we ask that you would grant another benefit to us.

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That we would take this principle as the ones who have been the objects of your great love.

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That we would be great lovers of the church. That we would love all of those whom you have loved.

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That we would see the sea of humanity without Christ. And know that you have people there who are the object of your affections.

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And that we would go and tell them the glorious good news of Christ. And oh

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Lord, I pray that in this last week of Advent, we would use these occasions, these gatherings, the spirit of the people in the stores and all of these things.

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That we would use this to share your love. With a lost and dying and hurting and grieving and anxious and fearful world.

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And all of this would bring glory to your name. We ask these things in the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Let's continue our time of worship through the presentation of tithes and offerings.

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Please stand and let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your gracious provision.

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Out of your great love, you have supplied our every need. We are so grateful for your kindness and mercy to us.

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We pray that these tithes and offerings would be used for the advance of your kingdom. The glorification of your most holy name.

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We ask these things in Jesus' name. There's a proper response to this good news.

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And it's doxology. We have the minor doxology in our liturgy. The major one is at the end.

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The Gloria Patri is second to that one. With great zeal. Let us give thanks to the

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Lord. It is right and good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,

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O Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death.

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And to make us heirs in him of everlasting life. That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name.

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Evermore praising you and singing. Be seated and pray with me.

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These glorious things. O Lord, we ask for the blessings that you give to sons.

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Because you've promised them to us. We ask that you would give us in the fullest expression the filling of your

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Holy Spirit. That we might commune with you more fully and appropriately.

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We ask that you would take these ordinary creaturely elements of bread and wine.

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And that you would enable us to partake of the body and blood of Christ crucified for us.

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That you would spiritually nourish your people that they might know and love and experience the fullness of God.

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We ask your blessing as we go out today.

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That we would live as those who have been fed by your hand. Who have been loved by you.

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We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Our Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed.

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Took bread. Blessed and broke it. Gave it to his disciples saying take eat.

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This is my body. Likewise he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

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Drink from it all of you. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup.

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You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore we proclaim the faith.

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Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

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Let's approach the table now by praying together in unison. Do not presume to come to this your table.

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O merciful Lord. Trusting in our own righteousness. Put in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore a gracious Lord.

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So to eat the flesh of your dear son Jesus Christ. And to drink of his blood.

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That our sinful bodies may be cleaned by his body. And our souls washed through his most precious blood.

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And that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen. Christ our

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Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let's keep the feast.

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The gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to the Lord. Great prayer of commitment.

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Almighty and ever -living God. We thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food.

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Of the most precious body and blood of your Son. Our Savior Jesus Christ.

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And for assuring us in these holy mysteries. That we are living members of the body of your

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Son. And heirs of your eternal kingdom. And oh Lord grant us this other benefit.

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That you will never allow us to forget these things. But having them imprinted on our hearts.

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May we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.

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And now Father send us out to do the work you have given us to do. To love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit. The honor and glory now and forever.

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Amen. Please stand. Children with attentive ears.

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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the love of God.

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And the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.