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Ephesians 6:24
I need you to find this week and next week, I need you to find in your Bibles and know where the book of Nahum is. Because we're going to start a different book besides Ephesians, can you believe it? Lord willing, I think next week we're going to finish the book of Ephesians.
I think next week. Maybe one more week, but I think next week we'll finish. We've basically been in the book of Ephesians this entire presidential cycle, right? We started in 2020 and now we're finishing here in 2024.
Lord willing, we'll spend a few months. Don't laugh, I'm being serious. We'll spend a few months in Nahum. I think it'll just be a few months. It's just three chapters. Read that. Read that book this week or read it next week.
Read it with your family. We've read it together in one sitting as a family. It doesn't take very long. Good discussion. And so, Lord willing, we'll start on Nahum soon. But we still have some work to do in the book of Ephesians.
We find ourselves this morning in the very last verse of the book. And what I want to discuss this morning is what does it mean to love Jesus? I know that if we were to survey our town, our state, even our nation, I think a lot of people would say they love Jesus.
But their lives would indicate something different. So what I want, I'm not responsible for all the people in this nation, but I am responsible for the souls in this room in the sense that I and Pastor Jacob will have to give an account.
And so it's my burden this morning to do due diligence in making sure that those of us in this room understand what it means to love Jesus. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 24. Let's stand as we honor the reading of God's word.
Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Father, we could spend all eternity on the first word. Grace. Your sovereign, unmerited, glorious grace. There is not a soul in this room who is not here this morning apart from your grace.
Even those in our midst this morning who are not converted, they stand under your, as it were, common grace in the sense that they continue to have life and breath even though they deserve wrath. And here they are going to hear the gospel this morning.
We thank you for your grace. Help us to understand this morning what it means to love Christ. As the text says, grace is with those who love Christ. Therefore, help us to understand what it means to love Christ.
We confess to you this morning that we don't deserve Christ. We don't deserve the blessings you've given us. And yet you're so good to us. Help us to delight in your love and to live in the light of your love.
Our church, we pray, would be a church that extols the excellencies of Christ and his love to the nations. Bless our church. You have blessed. We're singing today. I couldn't help but think you've blessed our church so richly.
Help us to continue on in the blessings of Christ. And we pray, Lord, that you would be with us today. Give us ears to hear. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
This is not a sentence. It's what we would call a declarative or indicative sentence. It's not commanding us to do anything. It's not saying go out and do this. It's just a statement of reality. And the verse begins with maybe the one word that you could summarize Ephesians with.
And that is grace. God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what some have used to call grace. Grace. Grace. The letter of Ephesians drips with grace from beginning to the end. Maybe some of the most well-known verses in Christianity today are Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
I'll read that again in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. The text says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Grace began our journey in Christ. Grace, as we read this morning from the confession, brought us from death to life. Our regeneration flows from grace. Faith and repentance are gifts of grace. Our conversion is rooted in grace.
Romans 3, 24 says we're justified by grace. Listen church, our justification is rooted in grace. We are sanctified by grace and by the means of grace. And one day we'll stand before the God of heaven.
We will be glorified. And if he should ask why we should be allowed into his holy abode, we have a one word answer. The first word of our text, grace. Our salvation is sola gratia, by grace alone. It's all of grace.
And Paul says in Romans 11, verse 6,. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. So grace is not based on works. It flows from the unmerited and free pleasure of our glorious God.
But the text, the text reads maybe a little different. It almost seems conditional. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. With love incorruptible. So you might look at this verse, you might say, well, maybe it's kind of like an if-then statement.
This kind of maybe appears that way. Like if you love Jesus, then you get grace. The problem is that would make grace not grace. It would make the basis of grace your love for Jesus. And I'll just tell you something this morning.
That would mean you would be in a lot of trouble. And so would I. If I am required to love Jesus enough in order to get to heaven, then I am sunk. If I have to earn God's grace, if I have to do something so that God will be gracious to me, I am undone.
I'm like Isaiah. Woe is me. But as we consider this letter as a whole, as we consider the Bible as a whole, wasn't that a beautiful song? I hope you all liked that first song we sang this morning about Christ the true and better.
It's just like, I hope it makes the whole Bible seem different to you. It's like Jesus is the better Isaac, the better Moses, the better David.
Amen.
The whole Bible drips with grace. So as we consider this whole letter and the whole Bible, we understand that this if-then statement, really it's turned on its head. It's not, if you love Jesus, then grace will be with you.
Rather, it's, if grace is with you, then what? You will love Jesus. And this makes a profound difference. I'm here to tell you this morning, based on the authority of the Word of God, that those upon whom the grace of God has fallen, love Jesus.
Now, the Bible says things like, make your calling and election sure, 2 Peter 1 .10. Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. I believe that's 2 Corinthians 13 .5. And as we consider Ephesians 6 .24, this is an opportunity this morning for us to consider ourselves.
As we come to the end of this letter, I want us to, for a moment, look inwardly. But I don't want to stay there. Don't succumb to that morbid introspection that can leave us hopeless. Instead, look inwardly to examine yourself so that you may look outwardly to Christ, to behold His beauty and His glory, to consider again His atoning work on Calvary, to see again His love displayed, in that while we were sinners, the Bible says He died for us.
He lived for us. He died for us. He rose again the third day for us. What love is this? Now, those who have apprehended this gospel have a heart that loves Christ. So what does that look like? That's what we're going to talk about this morning.
I'm going to go through an outline, but let me just kind of give you a sermon in a sentence. The essence of loving Jesus is not rooted in sentimentality, but flows from the transformative power of grace.
Producing a devotion that obeys His commands, clings to His whole person, and manifests itself in holy actions reflective of His love, like love for the local church, all rooted in the sovereign grace that draws believers to Him.
I'll read that again toward the end. But just chew on that for a moment. That's our sermon today. We can go home, right? No, we're going to flesh that out. So the first thing I want us to consider this morning, number one is the reality of love.
Number one, the reality of love. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, with love incorruptible. I'm going to tell you something you may have never heard, but you should know it should be simple.
Maybe you've heard it before. It's really simple. It is a sin not to love Jesus. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 16, 22. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. That's 1 Corinthians 16, 22.
Jesus is worthy of love. It is a sin not to love Christ. Now, better thinkers than me have done well at distinguishing between what we'll call rational love and sentimental love. So hear me for just a moment.
The difference between sentimentality and a love that actually moves the wheel. Okay, so rational love and sentimental love. A love that we might just kind of say, you make me feel good. That's the kind of love that we have in our world today, right?
Love is love. What people mean is whatever makes me feel good, that's love. And if you tell me anything that never makes me feel good, then you don't love me. That's the false kind of sentimentality of our world today.
So we're not asking this morning about what sort of feeling Jesus brings to your heart. So much as we are asking, is there a love in your heart for Christ that moves the wheel to action? True affection for Christ is a love that moves us to give ourselves to Christ and to give ourselves to one another in the church.
Now, where does this love come from? It's actually in the text. We have to go back one, but look at verse 23. Peace be to the brothers in love with faith from God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The love that we have for Christ first comes from God. Now, listen, first, it's demonstrated by God. It's demonstrated in the gospel. So, you know, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
Now, when we say for God so loved the world, we don't mean for God so loved the world, but the word so there is God loved the world this way. This is how God loved the world. God demonstrated his love in this way by giving his son or Romans 5, 18.
God shows his love for us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So listen, God's love is not based on sentimentality. It's not based on I look down and I see Steve Turnage and I think, oh, what a lovely creature he is.
No, we're not lovely lost in sin. God's love is a love that results in action based on his will. And that action that he shows forth his love is the gospel. God, in his great love for sinners, devised a sovereign plan to rescue his people from the power and penalty of sin.
The Son of God took on human flesh in love. He was born of the Virgin Mary in love. He was obedient in love, love to God and love to his people. He is the greater Hosea chasing after a wife marred in gross immorality.
He went to the cross in love, receiving the just punishment for his bride in love. He died in love. He rose again in love. This is the gospel of love. God proves his love for us. And this love is applied in our regeneration, our being born again.
We saw it last week, but now just based on everything you just heard, let me show it to you from the text. So back to Ephesians 2 again, go back. I read these verses last week, but back to Ephesians 2 verse 4.
This literally is saying exactly what I just said. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
I'm asking for just a moment, where does our love for Jesus come from? And if you say it comes from inside yourself, it's down there somewhere. We just got to maybe beat it out of you, right? If we could just be disciplined enough, that love will come.
Or maybe if we can just stop doing these things and start doing these things, then that love will come. Or if we can just show enough sappy movies about Jesus, or play enough songs at the end of the service, if we can just play 15 stanzas of Just As I Am, bow eyes, raise hands, pray a prayer, whatever the case may be, then love, that love that's down there in your heart, will come out.
No, I'm saying to you, you have no love in and of yourself for Christ. And that love for Christ comes from God. 1 John 4, 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
God's love has been demonstrated for us and then implanted in us as we're given a new heart and being born again. 1 John 4, 19, We love because He first loved us. Now, we need to keep these graces distinct, faith and love.
But they're also together often in the scriptures. Again, in verse 23, faith and love are there together. And love with faith from God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So just to explain myself, the call of the gospel is not love Christ, at least in the formal sense.
The formal call of the gospel is to repent and trust Christ by faith. Repent, what is repentance? Question 92 of the Baptist Catechism says, Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God and Christ doth with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.
That's repentance. By grace, we see the loveliness of Christ. We see the putridness of our sins. And we turn away from sin in repentance to Christ in faith. This is the formal call of the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel.
We need God first to break our heart. James Nichols Puritan preached, Whatever men may vainly talk, it is brokenness of heart and a sense of approaching ruin that gives the soul the first occasion of acquainting itself in good earnest with Christ.
Let me tell you something, Christian. If you're a believer, you know this. God in His mercy and in His love breaks the sinner's heart before He heals it. He shows us our corrupted love. He shows us our false loves in this world.
He shows us how we've loved sin and self and the world and the flesh and idols and false gods. The Spirit of God causes us to see the reality of our undeservedness of our approaching ruin and shines a spotlight upon Christ's mercy and His gospel of love.
And we run to Jesus as our only suitable and all-sufficient Savior. This is the reality of love. Has this happened to you? Have you felt your heart's corruption and ruin? Have you seen your wretchedness before a holy God?
Have you turned from sin and put your faith in the finished work of Jesus in His life and death and burial and resurrection? If not, then I call to you this day, not love Christ. Rather, I say, repent of your sin and believe the gospel.
But here's the reality. Those who repent of their sins and believe the gospel by grace actually and truly and sincerely love Christ. Saving faith produces love. Do you love Christ? There's the reality of love.
Secondly, consider the object of love. Now, I pointed this out last week, but in both verse 23 and 24, the full title of our Lord Jesus is used in Scripture. So I'll just read both verses. Peace be to the brothers in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 24. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Peter says in 1 Peter 1 .8,. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. I'm telling us this morning that Christ is the object of our love here.
And you must be warned this morning of the great counterfeits to this love. I'm not going to go through them all. We could spend a whole sermon series on that, but I'm just going to mention a few thoughts.
The greatest counterfeit. So please tune into this and hear me clearly. I mean, sometimes, you know, it's like you get used to the preacher. He's just monotonous, maybe. It's like my son said, like a train.
And you just get used to it and you're just able to sleep right through it. But you need to hear this very clearly, that the greatest counterfeit to love for Christ actually stems from love of self. Now, despite what modern psychology might tell you, love of self really is the greatest problem that we, one of the greatest problems we have in America today.
The problem today is not that people don't know how to love themselves. The problem is people love themselves too much or love themselves in the wrong way. You hear people say things like, you just got to learn to love yourself.
No, you don't. You don't have to learn to love yourself. Margie loves herself.
She didn't have to be taught that.
She was born with that. I love when I have young kids so I can talk about my own kids, right? The love of self is something we're born with. Worshiping self. Have you ever had to teach a kid how to fake cry?
They learn how to fake cry just a little early on in their childhood. And I want to say to you this morning that the love of self is literally unraveling our society. It is literally, our society is coming apart.
Our culture is coming apart at its very seams from the love of self. You love self too much. It destroys marriages. It destroys churches. It destroys souls. It is a counterfeit love because people can say they love Jesus when really who they love is self.
And this is actually not that hard.
Not as hard.
Like I said, well, how do we know? It's actually not hard to see or diagnose. So just listen to me for a second. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. When people use Jesus to do the opposite of what the Bible says, they don't love the Jesus of the Bible.
When people use Jesus to justify breaking God's law, ignoring God's commands, dismissing or disparaging the church, they are loving self and not the Lord Jesus Christ. The other thing I'll mention here is the counterfeit love of religion.
Now, let me state up front, because I don't like that whole saying Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. That's false dichotomy. It's both. Actually, Christianity is a religion. In fact, I would say this.
It's the only true religion. But there is a counterfeit love within mankind whereby we love to do religious things. And this can make people think they love Jesus because they love, for example, let's say, very rigid and stringent rules, right?
So you can have these very stringent and rigid rules, and you say, because I follow these rules or even add rules, right? Because I follow these rules or I add rules, rules upon rules, right? Like a pancake, stacks upon stacks, rules upon rules upon rules.
I really love Jesus because I got all these rules. Or philanthropy, right? It makes me feel good to help people. I think I told you this before, but I have a family member years ago who was in the Peace Corps.
She's not a believer, right? Yeah, she served in the Peace Corps.
Why?
Because there's something about humanity. There's a self-righteousness that makes us feel good about helping people that could deceive us thinking that we love Christ when we really just are loving these things.
I'm just warning you here, especially when it comes to, like, rules and stuff. There's a way to love the outward things of Christianity and not love Christ. I really want to say that to this congregation because I think we, like, I want to bring an application home here because I think that we like to do things right here.
Praise God.
Like, we want to do what the Bible says for us to do, but I want to warn us. There's no sense, like, I could warn all the mega churches or the crazy stuff going on today,.
But they're not in here today.
You're in here. So listen to me. There is a way that we need to be warned of pride, even loving these things as a replacement for loving Christ. Be careful. We must be very careful to know that love for Christ can be counterfeited even with good things.
So let me speak for a moment then about our object. The object of love is Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. We must have no other gods before him. This is an exclusive love.
You cannot love Jesus as twisted by any other religion. You cannot love the Jesus of the Mormons or the Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Jesus of the Muslims. You cannot see Jesus in any false religion.
I believe it was C .S. Lewis who had the terrible and erroneous view that you just kind of got to serve Jesus as you see him in whatever false religion people are serving. No, you can't find that Jesus anywhere else.
The only love that will do is love for the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. This is the exclusivity of Christ. But I also might mention this. You must take him in his totality. The Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. We must love his whole person and all his offices. We love his divinity. We love his humanity. We love him as prophet to reveal God's Word to us.
We love him as priest to sacrifice himself for our sins. We love him as king to rule over us and defend us. This is who we love. Orpah loved Naomi in sentimentality. That is, she loved the idea of Naomi.
She loved the idea in her mind. You know, we all kind of have in the spur of the moment want to make these big commitments. She loved the idea of going back to Bethlehem with her. But when things got real and the decision was put before her, a future in Moab or deprivation in Bethlehem, she's out.
But not Ruth. Where you go, I go. Where you die, I die. So Orpah left Naomi, but Ruth clung to her. And this we may speak of the Christian. The Christian does not merely like the idea of Jesus. The Christian doesn't just like the idea of Jesus so long as things are going well, so long as I get success in this life, so long as I get blessings in this life, then me and Jesus are like this.
But when tough times come, I run back to the gods of this world. No, no, no. The Christian does not merely like the idea of Jesus. He or she clings to Christ. Jesus is not merely Savior. He's not merely friend.
He is those things.
But He is also Lord.
We cling to Him as the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to me this morning, church. If you're coming to Christ and you're saying, He's just my Savior, but I don't do the things that He commands me to do, but He's okay with that because what a friend I have in Jesus.
You are deceived. Grace be with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. I might also make a note here, a textual note. If you look in your Bibles, probably you don't have this, but I bet somewhere maybe you have a footnote or something.
If you have an LSB or NASB, it'll be in italics. So when it says grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, then it says with love incorruptible. The word love is not in the text. It reads something like grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption, something like that.
So some people say, well, maybe that modifies, instead of modifying love, maybe it modifies Christ. Now, I actually think the ESV doing some textual work and talking to some friends about it, I think the ESV translates it right.
Okay. However, we absolutely affirm that Jesus Christ is the incorruptible one. And this text may not be saying that He is the incorruptible one, but certainly we affirm that the Bible as a whole teaches He is incorruptible.
He is worthy of our love. He is worthy of the church's love. He is the one that cannot be corrupted. You think about politicians, right? Politicians seem to say one thing and do something, and then it seems like the higher they get or the closer to Washington they get, all of a sudden, like they change their tune.
Like what happened? Well, we know what happened. Money starts flowing in, right? And they stood on these values and they stood on these principles. And now they get to the White House or they get to Congress or whatever, money starts coming in, and then the things that they said were so important and the platform they built, it begins to not be so important anymore.
Because they are corruptible, but not Christ. He's incorruptible. And Jonathan Edwards said this, holy persons in the exercise of holy affections do love divine things primarily for their holiness. They love God in the first place for the beauty of His holiness or moral perfection.
We love Christ because He's incorruptibly lovely. We love Christ because He's divine. We love Christ because He is the incorruptible one. We love Him because He's God. And it should be noted that our love for Christ is above every other love that we have.
Jesus says something quite hard in Luke 14. Maybe it's not the verse you think we'd look at that mentions mothers on Mother's Day. It does mention mothers, but listen, Luke 14, 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot, not may not, he cannot, it is impossible for him to be my disciple.
What do you preach about on Mother's Day? Well, I preach how we need to hate our moms. No, it's not what I'm saying. And it's not what Jesus is saying in terms of worldly hate. But listen, church, what he is saying is very important for us to understand.
We do not put our love for Jesus on the same plane as our love for our family. In fact, our love for Jesus is so far above the love for our parents and the love for our children and the love for our spouse and the love for our family.
And yes, even love for our own life. The love that we have for Christ is so much greater that the two are incomparable. In fact, if you were to compare them, one would seem like love and the other would seem like hate.
That's what Jesus is saying. We love those around us best, actually, if I can put it practically, when we love Christ most. In fact, I might even put it this way. Those who don't love Christ most aren't actually loving anyone at all in a biblical sense.
Moms, let me put it to you this way. You love your children best not when you love them most. Can you hear me? You love your children the best, not when you love them most. Oh, I know I'm supposed to love my husband.
No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying you love your children best when you love Christ most. And this is true of every other relationship. But according to Jesus, some will never become his disciples because their idea of love for others is on the same level as their love for Jesus or maybe even love for pizza or whatever, love for the Razorbacks.
I love all these things and I love Jesus. They say I love Jesus, but when their spouse disobeys Christ, they go along with it. They say they love Jesus, but they sin to satisfy the lusts of their children.
That is a love of sentimentality for Jesus, and it is not the love spoken of in our text. Those who have received the grace of God love Jesus in an actionable way. Now, that's going to lead us to our last point.
But since it's Mother's Day and it is a day that we think about the blessing and importance of godly mothers and the great gift that mothers are in this church, I'm going to give some extended application in terms of parenting.
So listen closely, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles. We must raise our children to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, theologically, I understand affecting love in the hearts of our children for Christ is beyond our control.
You can't put love for Christ in the hearts of your children. That's not you. God is sovereign with the dispensation of his grace. And sometimes parents can do everything right and our children can choose to forsake the Lord and they can go their own way.
But let me plead with you this morning, parents. It is your responsibility. It is your responsibility before God to set the loveliness of Christ before your children, to teach your children the glorious gospel of Christ, to teach your children the word of Christ, to teach your children God's ways, to recite the Bible with your children, to sing hymns together with your children.
Why do your children know all the Taylor Swift songs, but they don't know any of the songs that we sing at church, right? Teach your children to sing about Christ. Show them your own allegiance to Christ.
Explain the gospel. Listen, we do this all the time with everything else that we love. With streaming movies, with hunting, with work, with sports, with hobbies. I'm going to put little Johnny around this ball or this shovel or this golf club or this rifle or this hammer or whatever the case may be.
I'm going to put little Johnny in front of this thing until he loves it. And we do that. Or sometimes it's not even conscious. You're just setting all the things you love before your children, and they too come to love what you love.
Whether it's the latest series on Netflix or the latest sports game, whatever the case may be. What you love, you parade in front of your children. In fact, your children may have a better understanding of whether or not you love Christ more than you do.
Children are amazing. They haven't been taught yet how to dance around the issue. So they know that you love your hobbies because they see it. They know that you love them because they see it. But if they see haphazard commitment to the church, if they see weak commitment to evangelism, no time in the Bible together, what kind of love for Christ are you teaching your children?
So I say to parents, I say to mothers, do not neglect the high calling of raising our children to love Christ. I'm not saying that we absolutely, we're absolutely dependent on the grace of God. I'm not saying that we don't need, of course we need God.
But I'm saying to you, there's a responsibility before us. Those of you this morning who are doing these things, don't let the world look down on you because you're giving up other things for this great endeavor, right?
Let me speak to the moms for a second. You're just like, you're so tired, you're changing diapers, you're cleaning house, whatever the case may be. It's like, you're just like, it doesn't ever end, right?
I'm saying, encourage you, like, keep going. Don't let the world look down on you. Like, you understand, I'm getting a little bit of a tangent. You understand that there are people today, it's really about God's mercy that they're warning today.
They're warning, even though they're not Christians, but they give a warning. That is, 30, 40 years ago, these are women who bought into the lie that the most important thing I can do is get a career, make the most money I can, make a name for myself.
And now these ladies are in their 60s, 70s. They didn't ever stay married for very long. They don't have any children. And now they're openly admitting, I wish I'd had some kids. It's actually very sad to see our world crumbling in this way.
So I'm just saying to the moms in this room that are doing this, keep going. And I say to the moms in this room who are not doing this, I remind you that time is so precious. I encourage you today to not waste another day.
Do not waste another second. Pray for our children. May God be gracious to them. May He show them His great love and give them new hearts to love our Lord Jesus Christ. And may they pursue Christ with fervency and sincerity of heart.
May we raise up children here that learn to risk life and limb and livelihood and popularity to know the surpassing worth of Christ and to make Him known to the nations. Where are the Adoniram Judsons and Ann Judsons in this room, right?
That in every victory, every trial, every sorrow, every heartache, every rainy day, our children would press on in the Lord because they've tasted and they've seen that He is good. And yes, it's only because of God's unmerited and sovereign grace.
But they had a mommy and they had a daddy that said, Look son, here's Jesus and He's beautiful.
Here's Jesus and He's lovely. Here's Christ. See Christ and love Him.
He's worthy.
And may our children grow in this great love. And may we send them out into the world not with love for self and love for sin, but love for Christ. Set Christ before our children. Let us raise our children in the love of and unto the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now our last point, the characteristics of this love. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Have you ever heard someone say something like, Christianity is not about law, it's about love.
First of all, you need to understand that love is law. So to say, for example, all you have to do to be a Christian is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And your neighbor as yourself.
That's law. You understand? That's law. And it's hopeless. Because in and of yourself, you can't do that. You love sin too much. You love the world too much. You love self too much. What you need is someone to do that on your behalf.
And that is the gospel. That's what Jesus did. And then Jesus paid for your law breaking and lack of love in his atoning sacrifice on the cross. And he rose again from the dead in victory. And then what you need is for someone to replace your heart of stone and heart of unlovingness and give you a heart of flesh that loves God and loves his law.
And this you get in regeneration. This is why you must be born again. Friends, if you are not born again, you will perish eternally. You must be born again. And so the 1689 19 .7 says this of Christians.
The spirit of Christ subdues and enables the human will to do freely and cheerfully what the will of God as revealed in the law requires. So listen to me, church. This is what the new covenant gives us.
God's law is written on our hearts. And we desire it. 1 John 5, 2 and 3 says by this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.
That's interesting that John would say not burdensome. John, what are you talking about? Not burdensome. But what he means by not burdensome is not that the law is lowered for us, but that its condemnation has been removed.
And now for the Christian, we obey and our sins and our failures have been atoned for in Christ. And we don't see God's law as a burden for us to in order to keep to earn God's favor. Rather, it is our delight to obey.
Because we love Christ. Al Martin puts it this way. Wherever there is true faith in Christ, there will always be implanted genuine love to Christ. And where there is love to Christ, there will be obedience to Christ.
I hope that you're hearing me this morning, church. I'm going to give you two verses. They're easy to remember because they're just transposed. John 14, 15. John 15, 14. Know these verses. John 14, 15.
If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. That's what Jesus says. And then in John 15, 14, he says, you are my friends if you do what I command you. And then we go to our text. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
So what does it mean to love the Lord Jesus Christ? It means that we are unworthy recipients of the grace of God. It means that the love of God has been shed abroad into our hearts. It means that we have seen our sins, our law-breaking, our self-righteousness, our idolatry.
We have repented. We have taken these things to Christ. It means that we have received Christ in saving faith by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, trusting him alone as our only suitable and all-sufficient Savior.
It means that we have been born again. God has removed the heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh, writing his law upon our hearts. And then it means that we actually desire to do and actually do what Christ commands us to do.
If you say this, but you don't do what he commands you to do, then according to Jesus, you don't love Jesus. You say, well, this thing is kind of hard because I kind of like doing these other things, but I like the warm, fuzzy feeling that Jesus brings.
I like maybe singing some songs. But when it comes right down to it, I don't like to be a husband that leads my wife and respects my wife and loves my wife. And I don't like to be a wife that submits to my husband.
And I don't like to be a child that listens to my mommy and daddy. Well, it doesn't matter how much you say you love Jesus if we're not seeking to follow what he commands. Now, listen, there's so much to say in this, but people will be like, well, that's legalism.
No, it's not legalism. Legalism would be like we do these things in order for God to love us. That's not what we're saying. We fail. I fail daily. And I need the grace of God daily. That's what I have in the gospel.
I go to Christ daily because Jesus has atoned for my law breaking. But he is also in regeneration, giving me the desire to follow his word. That's what a church does. That's what believers do. John 3, 36, whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.
Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains upon him. Listen, we're not saved by faith and obedience. No, we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone.
And this faith produces in us a love for Christ and love for Christ produces in us a desire and willingness to follow what Christ has commanded. And this means denying ourselves. This is a continual battle.
Let me just ask you a pretty personal and pointed question. When is the last time that you submitted yourself to scripture in denial of self? You listen to the junk. I wanted to say a stronger word, C-R-A-P.
You listen to the junk that is given to you on things that claim to be Christianity. Some of the blurbs on K-Love or some of the videos that you see on Facebook. Some of the messages and devotions that you see and the quotes that you see.
And it's just filling you with candy and foolishness. And you believe that everything that you desire to do and want to do must be of God. When the Bible confronts us and says, no, no, no, no. There's still remaining sin in us.
And things come up to us and confront us sometime where we need to repent. We need to deny self and not go this way, but go that way and change. When's the last time you changed in your theology? Well, I've never changed in my theology.
You've not read the Bible? You're not grown in your awe of the majesty of God? I'm not talking about, you understand, I'm not talking about change from, you know, being a Baptist to a Presbyterian or whatever.
I'm talking about growing in our love and adoration of the sovereign goodness of God. We get into this rhythm in conservative or reformed circles where we just believe everything we're doing is of the Lord.
And we never stop and search the Scriptures and pray and consider and adjust our lives according to what God's Word says. You must seek to have the Bible shape your life.
Because we love Christ.
Take this to heart.
Pick up the Word of God. Seek Christ's commands and adjust your lives by His grace. Now, one last thing. The text says that the love that the church has for Christ is incorruptible. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
Now, here's what that means. It's not perfect. Man, that's coming one day. One day we will see Christ and our love for Him will not be affected by our sin. Aren't you ready for that? Aren't you ready for the day that we'll love Jesus Christ perfectly?
That day is coming. It's not yet. But the love that we have for Christ, it is incorruptible in the sense that it is sincere and it is lasting. We really do love Christ. We really do obey Christ. And this lasts.
You've seen the teenage boy or girl. They say, I'm so in love with this person, right? And three months later, now they're in love with this person. And there wasn't real love. So, too, it is with those who say they love Christ, but they leave him for loves of the world.
They did not possess incorruptible love. They held. Momentary fascination like those who saw Jesus doing the miracles in the Gospels, and they were like, wow, wow. And then they just got back to their lives of sin and self.
What I'm telling you this morning is that in regeneration, we're given love for Christ and it is a love that lasts. It grows over the years. It shows itself in love for the things that Christ commands.
Like like the heart of a true Christian is not like. You hear so many people like, quit telling about all those rules. But the heart of a true Christian is like. Show me what God wants me to do, and I want to live that way.
Because that's what it means to love Christ. That's how it shows. No, we don't love the rules. We love Christ. And because we love Christ. We don't love the rules in replacement of Christ. What I'm saying?
We love Christ. And it shows itself in a holy life. It shows itself in building your life around a healthy church. It shows itself in in love for making disciples for evangelism and in raising children.
In the nurture and admonition of the Lord and having a godly home with godly priorities for the glory of God in serving the body of Christ and committing oneself to the local church and in committing oneself to the unity and purity of the church and not just being present in a church's worship service, but being a functional part of the body of Christ.
Loving point into and learning from one another. It shows itself. And what I'm talking about. What does it mean to love Christ? It shows itself in loving sanctification. That is desiring to grow in the Lord.
Like I don't want to be satisfied.
I want to wake up every morning. And in one sense, I want to be mad, right?
Why am I not further along than I was? And I want to go to battle.
I want to go to war.
I want to fight sin and self.
I want to throw down the phone. I want to pick up the Bible. I want to fall on my knees. I want to read the scriptures. I want to pray. I want to grow.
Because I love Christ. To love Christ more today than you did yesterday. And all of this flows not out of our efforts, friends. But out of the grace of God. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
Grace causes us to seek Christ. He is the lovely one. He is the one whom our hearts desire. Again, the sermon in a sentence. The essence of loving Jesus is not rooted in sentimentality, but flows from the transformative power of grace, producing a devotion that obeys His commands, clings to His whole person, and manifests itself in holy actions reflective of His love, like love for the local church, all rooted in the sovereign grace that draws believers to Him.
Friend, do you love Christ? I know I want to be careful because I don't want to hurt sincere believers. Because man, when you ask a real believer with sometimes a weak disposition, do you love Christ?
It just makes them crumble. I'm not trying to just make you crumble. But do you love Christ today? Do you love Him for who He is? Do you love Jesus for what He has done? Have you seen the blood flowing from the wounds in His hands,.
In His head, in His feet?
The spear piercing His side? Have you seen Christ on the cross? It's all in love. Have you gone to Him in trust? Do you love His law? Do you love His commands? Do you love His church? Do not go to the judgment seat saying no one ever explained these things to you.
No one ever told me that. I thought all I had to do was just check a box and I could just go on living my life. I could just love the world. I could just love money. I could just love prestige. I could just love all the things the world loves.
I thought I could do these things, love these things, but in my heart feel warm and fuzzy about Jesus. No one ever told me these things.
Yes, they have. You've been told today.
They have been explained.
What's left is for you to consider. Do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? Based on a biblical definition of love and a biblical definition of Jesus, do I love Him? I tell you this day, this entire letter of Ephesians has shown us the great grace of God.
Some of you, some of you will feel the sting of loving this world, but you just press on in it anyway, knowing you should love Jesus more, knowing you should love Him more, but quieting your conscience with easy believism.
But I say to you today, is there anyone here that would seek the God of all grace this morning, who would say,.
I see it, preacher. You're right.
The Bible is right. I have not loved Christ, but I see today He is merciful and He will receive sinners. I see today that He is gracious. I will go to Him this very instant. I will trust Him even now.
I will ask Him to help my unbelief. I will leave off my sins and believe the gospel I heard today by faith. I believe is that you, there's grace today. And church, church,.
Oh church,.
Christ is lovely. Will we seek today to cultivate love in our hearts for Christ? This isn't a competition. I'm not looking for an award. I'm not looking for a certificate to tack up on the wall. But could we not aspire as a goal for our church to say, I don't know what every other church may do, but we're going to seek here to love Christ supremely.
We're going to seek here, by God's grace, to love Christ as much as humanly possible in this fallen world. Will you ask the Lord to aid our church in this, to root out competing loves and to conform our hearts ever more to Christ?
Let's pray.
Father, help us to understand the great grace we've been given in the gospel. Who are we to be sitting in this place, to be hearing this gospel? Who are we to love Christ? If I were to look down through time, I would pick a better person than Alan Nelson to love Christ.
There are better people than me.
But your great grace has fallen upon this place. Help us to respond in a way that brings glory and honor to the Lord. And help us to live our lives in love for Christ. And they could say a lot of crazy things about us.
That's fine. But may they not be able to deny this one thing. Those people at Providence Baptist Church, they love Christ. In Jesus' name,.
