O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ”
Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
They replied, “The Lord needs it.”
They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Introduction
Introduction
God’s sovereignty is wonderful, but we mustn’t consider it out of the context of his love.
Adolf Hitler was powerful and hateful.
God is love. God is good. He always does good. Therefore, we can trust him.
We trust those who love us, and God knows us the best and loves us.
We will never outgrow our need for the love of God.
We are prone to spiritual amnesia.
The world, the flesh, and the Devil work to cast doubt on God’s love.
Even the best of human relationships are not like God’s love.
Prayer
Prayer
Introduction
Introduction
One of my favorite hymns in Scripture says,
Could we with ink the ocean fill . . .
To comprehend the breadth and length and height and to know the love of God.
We can’t know God fully, but we can know him truly.
We can’t understand all of what God’s love means, but we can understand some of it.
1. God’s Love Defined
1. God’s Love Defined
God’s Love Defined
“Love is God’s eternal self-giving affection for his image-bearing creatures, that leads him to act on their behalf and for their welfare.”
“God’s love means that he eternally gives of himself to others.” (Grudem)
God’s agape love is self-less, deliberate, and purposeful.
Seeing the love of God in action is more helpful than just understanding its definition.
2. God’s Love Demonstrated
2. God’s Love Demonstrated
One event supremely demonstrates divine love: the sac
2.1. God’s love is demonstrated by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
2.1. God’s love is demonstrated by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Nothing demonstrates God’s love more than Jesus’ death.
The cross of Christ is the crowning proof of the reality and boundless nature of God’s love for us.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Demonstrates is present. Died is in the past tense. This demonstration is an ongoing act that keeps happening every day. The death of Christ happened once and for all and
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
It was not just any kind of death. It was the worst form of execution in that day and perhaps all time: crucifixion on a Roman cross. It was exceedingly worse than hanging, the firing squad, the electric chair, or . . . .
It was horrific on many levels, but most significant was the separation he experienced from his Father.
God the Son was separated from God the Father as the wrath of the Father was poured out on his son.
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus is the wrath remover.
Jesus took it all: all of your sins before you were saved, all of your sins after you were saved, and all of your sins you haven’t yet committed.
Colossians
Jesus suffered the rejection from his Father, so that you and I would never have to.
Jesus exhausted it all. There’s none left for us. Not a sip.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
Jesus could have stopped it at any time, but he didn’t. Why? Indescribable love for sinners.
A. W. Pink: “Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because he did love his people. Calvary is the supreme demonstration of divine love. Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, go back to Calvary.”
Here Is Love:
“Here is love, vast as the ocean. Loving kindness . . . .”
2.2. God’s love is demonstrated by our justification, our union with Christ, and our adoption as children of God.
2.2. God’s love is demonstrated by our justification, our union with Christ, and our adoption as children of God.
God declares you righteous
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
All of our sins were placed on Jesus, and all of Jesus’ righteousness were permanently placed on you.
Theologians call this the great exchange.
Jesus’ perfect record becomes you unerasable record.
Innocent not guilty forever.
You are not only justified by faith, you are placed in union with Christ. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. His identity, resurrection, and death became yours.
When God looks at you, he looks at you like he looks at his own Son.
God will never condemn you any more than he will condemn his own Son.
God doesn’t just put up with you; he cherishes you like he cherishes his own Son.
That should amaze you.
I think it’s the plight of man to sometimes wonder if God loves us.
God is not a liar. This is what he’s declared to be true.
This profound love of God is the cure for loneliness.
It’s the answer to our sturggle with sin, regret, fear, guilt, hopelessness, brokenheartedness, worries, and so many other things.
God loves you permanently.
We become children of God. We were once his enemies, and now we’re his children.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
:15-16
We have been adopted by our holy, pure, loving Father in heaven, who was pledged himself to us in the blood of his own Son.
We are not temporary foster children of God, wonder if we get to stay in his family. We are not on probation. We are permanently adopted and unconditionally loved by God. We’re not on trial.
Spirit of adoption
Many Christians live like they’re foster kids, not like they are God’s adopted children.
God’s love for us never change, even on our worst day.
All of this is cemented in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It’s not based
Tim Keller: “We are each one more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe but more . . than we ever dared hope.”
God’s discipline is always in love and never punitive.
Union vs. communion . . .
Union cannot be lost, but communion can be weakened. Fellowship can be weakened.
2.3. God’s love is demonstrated by his self-initiated pursuit of us.
2.3. God’s love is demonstrated by his self-initiated pursuit of us.
Theologians speak of God’s love being uninfluenced. There is nothing in human being prompting God’s love for us.
Human love is based on the object, but God’s love is rooted in the subject.
Spurgeon: “It is impossible to slander human nature. No words are bad enough to accurately describe our sinfulness.”
The only reason God anyone is his own good will.
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
The study of God’s love should humble us to the core.
Nothing can stop him from loving us.
2.4. God’s love is demonstrated by his immutability.
2.4. God’s love is demonstrated by his immutability.
“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
This is so different from human love.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
You can never get God to stop loving you.
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2.5. God’s love is demonstrated personally and individually.
2.5. God’s love is demonstrated personally and individually.
God’s love is personal. It’s aimed at you.
Jesus thought of you when he was on the cross. He didn’t have the generic masses of humanity on his mind.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
We are not a faceless, nameless person in the crowd of humanity.
He has you in the crosshairs of his love, day by day
“My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart.”
3. Our Response to God’s Love
3. Our Response to God’s Love
Awe, wonder, humility, relieved, comfort, courage, confidence, praise.
If we understand this love, we will love him and love others.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
This is the basis of our trust.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
God has already done the greatest thing for us. Therefore, we can trust him to do everything else for us, for our good and his glory.
Trust the Lord.
If you don’t know Jesus, you are under the wrath of God.
Prayer
Prayer
Closing prayer.
Follow-up Discussion Questions
Follow-up Discussion Questions
How would you define and describe God’s love?
What ways has God demonstrated His love for us? (add to what you heard in this message)
What might cause us to doubt God’s love for us? What is the antidote to such doubts?
How does our knowledge of God’s love strengthen our trust in Him in hard times?
How should God’s love impact how we think, behave, and feel?
What are some ways we can reflect God’s love to other people, saved and unsaved?