Garth McKay

Romans 8: 37-39

Luke 22: 14-20, 27, 28

John 15: 9-17; 13: 1

         Sometimes the greatest things in our Christianity are very simple things and I would like to speak to you for a moment about the love of Jesus.  Sometimes the simplest things are the most profound, and the wondrous thing is that this can be taken hold of by the youngest, by all of us, the wonder of the fact that Jesus has loved us and that He does love us.  I hope you are conscious of the love of Jesus which is towards you.  It is one of the simplest things that you can understand, the children sing of it -

                  Jesus loves me, this I know

- but how profound and how limitless that love is.  I have felt the effect of the drawing power of a Man who has loved me.  I want to say a word about that to you.  It is not complex; there is no complicated reasoning in it.  It is a matter of the heart, and it is a matter of the heart of Jesus, that Man from whom the love proceeded.  It did not start with me, it started with Him.  He loved because He wanted to love, there was no other reason, and that love is beaming toward me now and toward you. 

         Paul speaks of it here in Romans.  It begins with the love of God; he starts by speaking about the love of God.  That is where it begins because it is the love of God.  The love of God is a great force in the universe which has been made known to us, it lies behind everything that God has done.  We spoke in the reading of God’s nature; God’s heart is so full of love that we can not only speak of God’s love coming from Him, but John writes, “God is love”, 1 John 4: 8.  It is inextricably linked with God.  That is this love that Paul speaks about.  What is this love like?  One thing, it is unconditional.  Paul says, “God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”, Rom 5: 8.  It sets it apart from any other kind of love.  That is God’s love.  He loved me when I was unlovable, loved me when there was no reason to love, but because it was His sovereign will to do it.  That is what this force is. 

         The Lord has directed me to speak about this in a personal way.  Are you conscious that you are loved with a love like that?

         Paul speaks here about how great it is; he reels off this long list of powers, and it is almost as if he lists all of the powers he could think of, “death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature”; things that he knew, things that were present or things to come, things that he did not know about.  All the powers he could think of, none of them would be able to separate him from the love of God, this great unconditional force of love that is towards you.  Then the other wonderful thing that we can say about this love is what he adds, “which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  That is the way it has come to us, that is the way that it has been made known, that is the way I have learned it, that is the way you have learned it no doubt.  You have learned that it is, “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  That is how God has shown it to us, that is how He has demonstrated it, and I believe that is how He gets to you in your heart because it is the love of a Man, and it has not remained distant.  How can you sit in the gospel and say that God’s love has remained distant?  How it has flowed out in the life and the actions of Jesus.  I want to talk to you about the love of Jesus, about a limitless love.  Have you come into contact with love like that?  The love of a Man, love that His disciples learned when they were with Him, love that John learned by leaning on His breast, how near He was to Jesus.  He describes Himself as one “whom Jesus loved”, John 13: 23.  Have you a consciousness of that?  Are you one that Jesus loves?  It was a love that the children learned.  When the children came to Jesus there were those who would have forbidden them.  They said, ‘No, stay back’, but He says, “Suffer the little children to come to me … having taken them in his arms … he blessed them”, Mark 10: 14, 16.  How real this love is, the love of Jesus, “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  The love of the good Shepherd who having lost His sheep left the ninety and nine and went and found that sheep, put it on His shoulders and brought it home, Luke 15: 4-7.  The love of the Saviour.  Do you feel that He has sought you like that?  How deep this is.  You say, ’How simple, but how profound, that Jesus should love me like that’. 

         There is love in His hour of greatest need in the garden when He prayed.  He came to them and they could not remain awake with Him.  He said, “Sleep on now and take your rest”, Matt 26: 45.  His love cared for them like that, and then when men came to take Him, He said, “if therefore ye seek me, let these go away”, John 18: 8.  It is a love that implored the Father for them in the hours before He was taken, love that implored the Father in His prayer to take care of them - 

         The love of Jesus, what it is,

         None but His loved ones know.

                    (Hymn 279)

Can I make an appeal to you today, freshly, about the love of Jesus?  This great limitless force which is towards you, which has no limit, no end; the love of a Man, “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  What Paul must have come to when he wrote, “the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”, Eph 3: 19!  Why me?  Why does He love me?  It is an unanswerable question, but He does.  Thank God He does.  Thank God for that love which has flowed to me in this way. 

         Luke 22 is the provision of His love: while He is absent He has made a provision for us.  I would like you to see it as a provision of His love.  It is His commandment, that is true - “this do in remembrance of me” - that we should take the Supper.  It is His commandment, but it is the provision of His love.  Why is it?  I think it is because in His wisdom He brings us back every week to these symbols of the love of a Man.  You go to the breaking of bread every week; I am glad if you do.  You see the bread and the cup on the table; what do they mean to you?  They are symbols of the greatest love there has ever been.  In God’s wisdom He brings us back to them, week after week after week.  How are you going to begin your week?  By reminding yourself that Jesus loves you, and by reminding yourself how deeply He loves you.  How can we look on those emblems on the table without being strongly affected by His giving and that unfailing love that He has for us?  It is a provision of His love and it goes on.  He gave it here that it might be with us while He was absent; it is a provision of His love.  He wanted to show them how much He loved them; He wants to tell you today freshly how much He loves you.  He will remind you of it in the morning; He will remind you of it next week if we are left, and the week after, in the bread and the cup.  He says, “With desire I have desired”; He stresses His love.  How His love was stressed in the giving of His body and the shedding of His blood.  I am not now talking about you being a sinner.  That is another subject.  I am talking about the Man who gave Himself for you.  He not only gave something that He had, but He gave Himself.  His love, it is a great force which is towards you.  May you be freshly affected by it today and every time you look at that bread and that cup, reminding us of that sacrificial love which proceeded from Him.

         Then He speaks in the atmosphere of His sufferings that were about to come upon Him.  We cannot really measure what was about to come on Him, what was in His spirit, what He was carrying - who could speak rightly of it; and yet He says, “ I am in the midst of you as the one that serves.  But ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”.  He commends them at such a moment.  I want to appeal to you about this, that no one loved like Jesus loved.  How He loved them and how He loves you; and how He loves every little thing that you have done for Him, and every little thing that you will do for Him, “ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”.  He knew how they would leave Him; He knew how weak they would be.  He knew that Peter would deny Him; He knew that they would all forsake Him and flee; and yet He says at such a moment, “ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”.  It is what you mean to Him, and I think He would commend us, and would encourage us with this word, commending us.  He would say that to every one of us, the big things and the small things that you have done for Him, “ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”.  Take courage that Jesus loves you.  He is not looking on you with a critical eye, He is looking on you because He loves you, and He loves the things that you do for Him.  May you have a fresh sense of His commending you.  He would commend you because He loves you; the might of His love is behind that. 

         In John 15 Jesus speaks of abiding in His love and I would that it was the portion of us all to abide in this love.  I think we get a sense when we are together that we are abiding in His love, His love is towards us.  But also He raises a question here.  He wants us to abide in His love and He wants our joy to be full; but then He says, “If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love”.  He might give us this word today, “If ye shall keep my commandments”.  You might say, this is becoming conditional then - I do not think it is.  I do not think this is a condition, there is no mention here of His love being withdrawn.  I am not talking to you today about the love of Jesus being withdrawn, but Jesus would put this word upon our shoulders lightly: “If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love”.  I think there is a responsibility laid on us lightly by the Lord about whether we earn His love, whether we are worthy of it.  There is no question of it being withdrawn but He promises it especially to those who keep His commandments.  There is a responsibility raised with each one of us that we might take up, from One who has loved us so well: surely He is worthy that we should walk in a way that He can support.  It is a question of finding His support in everything and abiding in His love. 

         I was looking at the scripture where the Lord’s natural brethren were outside and they said, ’They call for thee’; and He would not go.  We do not know why, we are not told why.  Instead He points out those who kept His commandments, and He says, “Behold my mother and my brethren”, Matt 12: 49.  I thought of those who should have had the right to His support, should have had His full support, should have had access to that love; and He withholds it and He points out rather those who kept His commandments.  I do not say any more but I think it is a word for us: what a thing it would be if I could earn such love.  The idea is that the love of Jesus has an effect on me so that I want to earn it, I want to be pleasing to Him, I want to earn His support and to be able to say that I am abiding in His love. 

         Then you might ask what His commandment is; and almost as though He anticipates the question He says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you”.  There is a test too.  When this question is raised about abiding in His love, and about keeping His commandments, the commandment that He picks is that we should love one another, “as I have loved you”.  What a commandment and what a standard!  These things are testing for us, that we should “love one another”  How?  Unconditionally, that is how we should love one another, as He has loved us, and deeply, and without limits.  This is His commandment.  I do not know why He chose this one, I cannot explain that, but He did.  Now, dear brethren, a miracle is working because now the love of Jesus is going to begin to be seen among His people.  See how this power of love starts to work if we take it up rightly as received from Him.  It will be the case that among His people, “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” becomes visible among His own, so that He could say, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35. 

         John 13 says, “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”.  I would like to send every one away from this room with that assurance in their heart, that Jesus will love you to the end.  Having loved you He is going to love you to the end.  Having set His love on you, He is going to carry it through to the very end.  He will not fail you.  How simple these things are: we come back to the simplicity of it.  The young children can understand about Someone who is never ever going to fail them.  I can assure you of my love and maybe even of your parents’ love, but I know that at some point it may waver and maybe even fail; but the love of Jesus is never going to fail - never ever - because it is “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  That is how we have come to know it.  The writer of the hymn says:

         But what to those who find? Ah! This

         Nor tongue nor pen can show;

         The love of Jesus, what it is

         None but His loved ones know.

                   (Hymn 279)

The writer ran out of expressions for His love, and we run out of expressions very fast when we consider such things, “loved them to the end”.  What is the end?  Maybe the end is when He comes for us.  He also says, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”, John 14: 18.  But the love of Jesus has prepared a place for us now where He is, and He is preparing for a day when He is going to come and take us and we will be forever with Him.  He will love you to the end of your pathway.  Your end might be different to mine, your end might be closer or further away than mine, but one thing is for sure: He will love you to the end. 

         I thought of the martyrs, those men and women who gave themselves sometimes in such terrible circumstances for the Lord: what assurance of His love they must have had to get them to the end.  I feel very unworthy to speak of them.  What they must have had, what a knowledge, what conviction of the fact that Jesus loved them.  Nothing more complicated than that - that Jesus loved them.  It got them to the end.

         Then Mr Darby’s note here is very interesting; he says, “To the end’ does not give the full force, for it makes it refer to time, whereas going through with everything is implied”.  I want to leave you with that, “loved them to the end” means going through with everything.  He will love you, not only to the end, but He will love you through everything.  I do not know what things there are in your life that are hard, what burdens you carry, what tests you have and what may be ahead; or what may have been behind and what may be current, but I know this, I know a Man who will get you through them with His love.  He will love you through everything.  There is nothing left out of that.  Can I just assure you of the love of Jesus, how blessed it is to know it?  I trust you have come into contact with it, and I trust you know the power and might of it, and I know it will help you to get through, the love of a Man who will go with you every step of the way.

         May He bless the word.

London

19th September 2009