I want to begin by thanking Pastor Van Dudewerd and the members of the session for the opportunity to open the Lord's Word this evening. And I was just speaking with Pastor Van Dudewerd this morning and noting some similarities between the text we looked at this morning and the one we'll turn to in a few moments. And just struck again that God in his providence weaves these things together and often knows more about what we need than we do. And so, in some ways, this morning and this evening, we'll be really looking at variations on a theme. And we thank the Lord for that. If you would now, as you stand, please turn in your copy of God's Word to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter one. We'll be looking this evening in particular at verses five and six, but just to give us some context, we'll begin with verse one and read through verse eight. Revelation one, beginning in verse one, this is the word of the Lord. the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Thus ends the reading of God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible words. Before we look at this word together, let us go to the Lord's throne in prayer. O God and Father, we come to you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we would shudder this evening when we think of the possibility that a message might come in word only, but not in demonstration of the power and of the Holy Spirit. And so God, we confess, we confess that it is not by might, it is not by power, but it is by your Holy Spirit. O Lord, help us in complete dependence to truly say, You are our confidence. God, as we come around this word, change us more and more into the image of Your Son. Open our eyes that we might see what is there and leave changed people. We ask all this in Jesus' strong name. Amen. You may be seated. We tend to forget important things. We tend to forget important things, things that are so obvious, but that somehow get overlooked. This really hit home to me on September 6, 2013. On that day, I remembered to do a lot of things. I remembered to set my alarm clock. I remembered to wake up. I had breakfast. I went to class. I went to work. And then I got a phone call in the afternoon. And suddenly it dawned on me that I had forgotten my fiancé's birthday. We've been engaged for a couple weeks, and right off the bat, I blow it. And I forgot a really important thing, the one thing I needed to remember that day. It seems so obvious, but somehow it got overlooked. In case you're worried, we got married, she forgave me, and we have two children, and we have another on the way, and so it all worked out. But in that moment, I thought, this is going to cost me dearly. Maybe you've had the experience where you're getting ready to go to an event. Maybe it's a program. Maybe it's a concert or a play. And you get everybody together. You put your tie on. You have enough gas in the car. You gather all the children. I don't know what it's like in your house, but in my house, to get the children anywhere is sort of like preparing for deep sea diving. And it's very involved. And you finally get everybody in the car. And you arrive on time against all the odds. You put your hand in your pocket and it dawns on you, I forgot the tickets. I remembered everything, down to a T, but I forgot the one thing, the important thing that I needed to get into the event. It seems so obvious, but sometimes obvious things get overlooked. If that's true of life in general, is it not also true in the Christian life? I want to speak to us, even as Reformed Christians, of a particular danger that we may have. We love, and we should love, our confessions and our catechisms. We love our system of doctrine, and perhaps at times pride ourselves on a meticulous attention to detail. But it's possible that in so emphasizing reformed distinctives, however true and beautiful they are, and that perhaps in emphasizing minute points of doctrine and intramural reform debates, that it's possible that rigor can become rigor mortis, and that we can, in the midst of all our precision, lose sight of basic bedrock gospel truths, things that seem so obvious but that even as Reformed Christians we can forget. And this is not just a doctrinal issue. This is a deeply experiential issue. As Christians, when you're going through your life, and especially when you hit a trial, you hit a period of discouragement and you're in deep waters, it is particularly then that you are vulnerable to focusing on yourself your problems, your circumstances, your issues, and you can lose sight of, forget really important things that seem obvious, but that somehow slip through the cracks. This danger was one that was shared by John's audience in Revelation chapter 1. John's writing of the seven churches in Asia Minor. And these churches faced a lot of difficulties. They were surrounded by a worldly culture of sexual immorality. They had false teachers, false doctrine, persecutions. Life was busy. Life was complicated. And in the midst of all of that, some of these dear Christians, especially in the church at Ephesus, or in deep danger of forgetting, abandoning their first love. And so what does John do? John takes these Christians and he takes us back to basics, back to bedrock, simple, important, profound Christian doctrines. And we see one of them in verse five of our text. It says in the middle of that verse, to him who loves us. To him who loves us. Christianity 101, the first song you probably ever learned in Sunday school, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of your trials, in the midst of your studies, in the midst of your challenges, in the midst of your forgetfulness, the Apostle wants to home in on and address to you one simple message. And it's this. Worship Jesus because He loves you. Worship Jesus because He loves you. Jesus loves us. This we know, for the Bible tells us so. This evening, I want to explore this theme under just three heads. First, we'll look at the reality of love, and then we'll see the expression of love, and finally, the response of love. In other words, we'll see the fact that Jesus loves you, how he has loved you, and what you must do in response. Let's begin with the reality of love. The reality of love. If you read the Church Father Augustine, he says there's three things that are necessary for love to be real. There's a lover, there's a beloved, and there's a love that exists between them. We see this in the Godhead. God is love. The Father loves the Son. The Son is loved by the Father, and the Spirit is the bond of love between them. We see this in a sound and solid marriage. The husband loves his wife. The wife is loved by her husband, and there is a bond, a spirit, an aroma of love between them. And so it is in our text in Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6. First, we have a lover. To him who loves. And who is he? It's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And we see this from the context. There's so many passages in the Bible that speak of the love of the Father, and they're glorious. For God so loved the world, but God commendeth His love toward us. But in this text, the Holy Spirit wants to put the spotlight on the special, the particular love of the Son, the love of Jesus. And as we look at the context, we see that verses 4 and 5 give us a Trinitarian blessing, one that Pastor Vendutoard uses often from this pulpit. It begins this way, Grace to you and peace, for him who was, and who is, and who is to come, that's the Father who represents the majesty of the Godhead. And then it says, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, that's the sevenfold spirit, the Holy Spirit. And then John says, and from Jesus Christ. When John comes to the name of Jesus, he almost can't help himself. He has to burst into a doxology, into a hymn of praise to him who loves. And we know it's about Jesus because he goes on to speak of his blood in verse 5. He speaks of his God and Father in verse 6. And then in verse 7 he has references to his second coming and to his crucifixion. The lover is Jesus. But what kind of lover is he? We just celebrated, at least some of us, Valentine's Day this past week. And as Pastor Peter mentioned this morning, our culture is obsessed with love, the concept in pop songs and movies. And yet often is it not depicted as something that is soft, something that is weak, something anemic, sentimental, merely emotional, mushy and gushy. But what does John do? He corrects all of that vision and he gives us Jesus. Yahweh saves. Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Prophet, the Priest, the King of Israel. And He's given a three-fold description in verse 5. He's called the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. He's the faithful witness. He's the Prophet who bore witness to the truth to the point of death, even death on the cross. This lover is the firstborn of the dead. He's the one who, having died, was raised up by his Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be the firstfruits of new creation. And he is the ruler of kings on earth. He's the one who, having been raised, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, made head over all things for the sake of his church. This Jesus is the lover, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of kings on earth, the lion who is a lamb, the lamb who is a lion, majestic in meekness, meek in majesty, and in all these things, his face like the sun, shining in full strength. No wonder John falls at his feet as though dead. This Jesus is the lover. And whom does he love? The second part of this reality of love is the beloved, but who is the object of Jesus' affection? Look at our text in verse 5. It says, to him who loves us. To him who loves us. The beloved is the church. the covenant people of God, believers and their children, you and me." Note the recipients of the letter. It's written to the seven churches that are in Asia. seven visible historical congregations in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and it was written to those real churches in history, in time, and in space. But it's clear from these opening chapters that these churches, in a sense, represent the whole people of God who are gathered in time and in space, all those who profess the true faith with their children. Note as well the first and second person pronouns. We have grace to you, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom. The whole passage is suffused with the first person and the second person. It's not just the third person. This happened to this guy over here or this person over there. No. You, us, us, us, our, us. It's written to the church, the covenant people of God, believers and their children. It is one thing to know that Jesus loves. It's another to know that Jesus loves me. And that's the beauty of our theology, that we can consistently sing and ask our children to sing and teach them to sing, Jesus loves me. That's why we have our children baptized. That's why Jesus took them up into his arms and blessed them. They belong to him. He loves them. He wants them to know that. So I want to encourage you parents, even in the midst of the difficulties of child rearing, never Never put the love of Jesus at arm's length from your children. Never do that. Teach them to sing, Jesus love me, and reinforce that to them again, and again, and again. And when you bring them into this assembly, remember the words of Luther, this is for you, take what is yours. This text, Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, is for you. Take what is yours. But perhaps this evening there's somebody here and you've come into this place and you're an unbeliever. You're outside of Christ, you're outside of his church, and you come here in rejection of who Jesus is. I want to address you briefly. Though this passage is addressed to the church, God has something for you as well. And it's this, that this Jesus spoken of here is presented to you as a loving, as a gracious, as a merciful Savior. He is the Savior of the world, that He gave His life for the life of the world. And if you are here today as an unbeliever, a non-Christian, I appeal to you, repent and believe the Gospel. Turn from your idols and serve the living and true God. Receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone as He is offered to you in the Gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You and your household repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. because the beloved is the church, the covenant people of God, believers and their children. You, congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and me. We have a lover, it's Jesus. We have a beloved, it's the people of God. There's a third component to this reality, the love that exists between them. And as pastor has already raised today, that brings us to the question, what is love? What is love? And it's hard to define. And I think especially because we use it so broadly. I say to people, I love my wife. And I love college basketball. And I love Subway Subs. And I love my country. And we use it for everything. So I want to focus us in on a biblical definition of love. When we turn to the scriptures, we see that love, and in particular the love of Jesus, has two parts. First, it is Jesus' benevolence towards you. It's Jesus' benevolence towards you. It is his purpose to do you good. This is a love, this is a purpose that is unconditional, it is undeserved. It's not something you can merit. It's not something you can merit to attain. It's not something you can merit to keep. It's unconditional, undeserved, ill-deserved. And we see a great example of this in Deuteronomy. 7, verses 7 and 8, where the Bible says, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. There was nothing in Israel that would occasion the love of God. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that I swore to your fathers. It's Jesus' benevolence towards you. It is his purpose to do you good, unconditional, undeserved. He loves you because he loves you. But there's a second component to the love of Jesus, and that is this, that it is Jesus' desire for you. It's His desire for you. It is His passion to do you good. And here we see a love that is fierce, a love that is jealous, a love that is dynamic, a love that is personal. And what better place to see it than in 3 John, by the same author, where John writes, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. You see, when you, as God's people, by grace through faith, walk with the Lord, and you keep His commandments, and you keep His statutes, you confess your sins, you forsake your sins, you repent of them, and you desire by grace, imperfectly but sincerely, to be faithful, Jesus is positively delighted in you. He's delighted in you. He rejoices to see you walking in the truth. And do we not know this as parents? When you see your children, you see the conscience that is moved, you see the heart that turns, and you see obedience from that heart, and it thrills your soul. You rejoice in them, you delight in them. I think my favorite passage in the Old Testament that captures this is Zephaniah 3, 17, where it says, the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. Do you realize, as we faithfully come and worship the Lord, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, that the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven looks down with delight and sings over his people? He inhabits the praises of his people. He rejoices in us as we rejoice in God. He leads us in joy to the Father's throne. The love of Jesus, his benevolence, His desire, His purpose, His passion to do you good. And yet at times, with His desire for us, this means something else as well. Because what happens when we go astray? When we turn again to our own ways? When we do not keep His commandments? when we fall into unrepentant sin, when we do not confess our faults and we harden our hearts, when those moments the Lord Jesus is displeased, the Spirit is grieved, Jesus is grieved, and yet in love He disciplines and He chastens. We often don't think of those things going together. But in chapter 3 of the book of Revelation, in verse 19, it says what? Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. There's someone here today, you're a professing believer in the Lord Jesus, but you have begun to slide back. And perhaps no one else knows it, but you're sitting here in your pew and you know there are sins that have accumulated, that you're not repenting of, that you're growing harder and harder in your heart. And you don't delight to come among God's people because it convicts you. And you know firsthand that the way of the transgressor is hard. Let me call out to you, a brother or a sister, that God's chastening hand is upon you. It is the hand of Jesus Christ in chastening and in disciplining love. And it is not meant to harden you. It is meant to bring you to repentance. So be zealous and repent. This is the love of Jesus. Benevolence, desire, purpose, and passion to do you good. But is it true today? Is it a present reality? Maybe some of you think this is merely a past reality. There was a time when Jesus loved me, but then I committed a particularly heinous sin. I made a very big mistake. Or maybe somebody else came and sinned against me and my life is a wreck. And to be honest with you, as I sit here today, I used to think that Jesus loved me. But I don't know about today. Or maybe it's the opposite. Love is merely a future reality. Someday, if I work hard, if I do better, if I try harder, someday I can earn his love. I can merit his affection. The congregation, that's not what the text says. Different translations render this a little differently, but I think the English Standard Version reflects the best manuscripts when it says, to him who loves us. Literally, to him who is loving us. Not merely past. not merely future, in the present, in the moments, as you sit under the proclamation of the Word of God, as Jesus sits enthroned in heaven, His Holy Spirit bears witness with your spirits, the love of Jesus, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells us so. Presence, reality. Lover, beloved, love itself. That's the reality, the present reality for the child of God. But as we've spoken of these things, it's possible that a gnawing question has begun to eat at your soul, and even now it's rising up in your mind. A question that was voiced by the children of Israel in the days of Malachi. When it was said, I have loved you, says the Lord, you say, how have you loved us? I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us? And that brings us to our second point, the expression of love. What's the evidence? What's the proof? Show me. I see the text says that to Him who loves us, but where's the evidence? Where's the expression that Jesus really has? And if you have that question, you have that doubt, there's only one place in the whole universe that you can go, and that's go straight to the cross. Because at the cross, we come face to face with the ultimate expression of love. At the cross, we learn three key things about the love of Jesus, three things that are expressed on Mount Calvary. And the first is this, that Jesus' love is efficacious. Jesus' love is efficacious. It's a love that actually does something. It's a love that has actually accomplished and purchased something. And we see that as we continue to read in verse five. It says, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins. How has Jesus loved you? He's freed you from your sins. In love, He's freed you from the guilt of sin. That's justification. That's pardon. But in love, He's also freed you from the power of sin, and that's sanctification. That's transformation. That's power to live a holy life. Jesus has freed you from your sins. It's efficacious love. It's love that actually does something, actually achieves something. And we get a glimmer of this in the Old Testament, where we see the children of Israel under the sentence, under the shadow of death. And what happens? God applies the blood to the doorposts and the death angel passes over. but they're still enslaved. And so what does God do? He brings them through the Red Sea in deliverance, in the Exodus, and so it is with us. Jesus, delivered for our transgressions, raised for our justification, in Him, dead to sin, in Him, alive to righteousness, free, free indeed, free from the guilt of sin, free from the power of sin, liberated people. That's love. it's efficacious. I want to speak to you briefly, to you children in the congregation, because this is so important to how we obey our parents. Let me explain. You know that verse maybe your parents tell you sometimes, the Apostle Paul says, Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, that you might live long in the earth. We say that verse a lot in our households. I'm hoping eventually they'll memorize it and really get it. And that's right. But what happens when you disobey your parents? What happens when you break the laws of the household? What do you do? Well, I want to encourage you children that you need to look to Jesus and his love for two things. First, Come to God. Confess your sins. Say, Lord, I confess that I was unkind to my brother, that I hit him and then I lied about it. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I forsake it. Lord, I confess it." Or whatever else it is. Confess your sin to God and He will forgive you because Jesus has freed us from the guilt of sin. In that same breath of prayer, dear children, turn to God and say, Give me grace to obey my parents from the heart, because in myself I can't. Lord, give me grace to be kind to my siblings. Lord, give me grace to obey my parents with the right attitude. Lord, give me grace. And he not only loves to hear that prayer, but he will answer that prayer because Jesus has freed us from the power of sin. It's efficacious love. There's a third thing that we see at the cross of Jesus Christ. Sorry, a second thing of our three. Second expression is that this love is not only efficacious, it is costly. It is costly to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood. Just park on that phrase. Stop on that phrase. By His blood. Costly love. As pastor has said already today, sacrificial love. Freedom. Freedom from sins is not free. It comes at a very high price. The ransom price. of blood. You say, how have you loved us? Here's how. The eternal Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us. And He lived a perfect life, and yet He was condemned. And He was scourged with whips. And he was pierced with nails in his hands and in his feet. And he had a crown of thorns thrust upon his head. And he had a spear driven through his side. And all of this in that hour of darkness until the blood ran down in torrents. Sorrow and love flamingled down by his blood. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, but we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was bruised for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed by His blood. costly love. Congregation, you mocked him. He loves you. He loves you. You scourged him. He loves you. You pierced him. He loves you. You killed him. He loves you, and with His dying breath, it was an act of love on your behalf. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, costly love by His blood. If you still have that question in your mind, how has He loved us? Well, we've seen it's efficacious love of the cross, we've seen it's costly, but there's a third element, a third expression, and that's that His love is gracious. His love is gracious. It's a love that gives gifts, a love that makes lovely, a love that glorifies, beautifies, transforms. Let's keep reading. To Him who loves us and has made us a kingdom, priests, to his God and Father. This language, drawn from Exodus 19, the pastor read earlier, really unveils for us, expresses to us three wonderful gifts of the love of Jesus. The gift of kingship, the gift of priesthood, and the gift of adoption. First, with Jesus' gracious love, we see the gift of a kingdom. He has made us a kingdom. members and belong to the kingdom of Satan. But in love and in mercy and in grace, you have been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. You still live on earth as pilgrims, but you're already citizens of the kingdom of heaven. And under the High King Jesus, there is an analogous sense in which you are little kings, little queens, princes and princesses called to rule, subdue, nurture, cultivate, and be faithful within your own little areas of responsibility. It might be a kitchen pantry. might be a cubicle somewhere, might be in home office, whatever it is, an assembly line, Jesus has called you to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, to faithfully serve Him as your Lord. The kingdom of God is within you. But He's also given us another gift, not only the gift of a kingdom, But the gift of priesthood has made us priests to His God and Father. Now we know that just as Jesus is the High King, even so He is the High Priest. He is the exclusive mediator between God and men. But in Christ, we confess the priesthood of all believers. Priests to His God and Father every Lord's Day. You have the privilege, as a priestly people, to serve God in His special presence. Every Lord's Day, you have the privilege to ascend by the Spirit, by faith, into the heavenly sanctuary, and there worship and praise the triune gods. You have the privilege, you have the responsibility to sing God's praises, to read a Bible in your own language, to confess your faith, to confess your sins, to hear the assurance of pardon. In all of these things, you're a priestly people. Christ has made a new and living way. In the Old Covenant, high priests once a year got to enter into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. Every Lord's Day, twice on the Lord's Day, we get to enter His special presence once again. What a gift. There's a third gift of this gracious love, not only a kingdom and a priesthood, but third, adoption. Adoption. And you may have missed this gift if you don't look carefully, but notice that John says, "...a kingdom, priests to his God and Father." His God and Father. First and foremost, God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Eternal, who is the Messianic Son of God. But do you realize that in Jesus, you get to become part of the family? You become children of God. You are sons in the Son. Adoption, an act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number and have all the rights and privileges of the sons of God. That's why we are able and allowed to pray our Father, which art in heaven. Because of the gift of adoption, we can call upon Him as our Father. We have Christ as our elder brother. We have the Spirit as the bond of union and communion. Let us not squander these privileges. One of the hardest things, at least for me in my Christian life, is to treasure and value the access that we have in prayer. So when you remember that you're a kingly people called to obey Jesus Christ, and a priestly people called to worship Him, and adopted sons and daughters called into His presence, let us pray to Him regularly. Pray to the Father through the Son, by the Spirit, because we've been given access. He's our God. He's our Father. What status? What access, what gifts of love. And that means as I look out upon this assembly of God's people, I don't just see redeemed sinners. Although I do, and it's wonderful. But I see kings and queens, priests and priestesses, sons and daughters of God. Because that's gracious love. What is the expression of love? How has He loved us? Well, He's loved us with a love that is efficacious. It set us free. It's costly. It was His very own lifeblood that was spilt to purchase our redemption. And it's gracious. It abounds in gifts. It makes lovely. It beautifies. It glorifies. It transforms us. Jesus loves us, this we know, for the Bible tells us so. He's written it in words of blood. So if you ever have those doubts, I encourage you, come back again and again to the cross of Christ. And as you do so, realize that people talk about red-letter Bibles. Well, the whole thing's a red-letter Bible because God spoke it through His Word by His Spirit, and it's signed, and it's sealed by the blood of the new covenant. Jesus loves us. This we know. But we've seen this reality. We've gone to the cross and we've seen this expression. There's a lingering question. What must you do in response? And that brings us to our third and last point, the response of love. When you encounter the love of Jesus Christ, there's only one appropriate response, and it's praise. It's adoration, it's worship, it's doxology, and that's exactly where John takes us. Look at verse 5 again. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priest, who is God and Father. And here comes the doxology. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Having received the love of Jesus, it solicits, it demands, it invites, it calls for, it summons a response of love in return. And what better way to do that than in worship? That's true. You can't add any luster to Jesus' glory. You can't. And you can't add any authority to His dominion. And you can't add any years or length of time to His forever and ever. And you can't add any truth to His definitive and final Amen, the final word of God. But what were you made to do? What were you saved to do? You are called to ascribe to acknowledge, to magnify, to reflect back to Jesus His beauty, His love, His wonder. I think it was Jonathan Edwards who gave the image of a catch basin, and the sun of glory shines upon it, and that catch basin receives that glory and shines it right back. Or as John Piper has put it very memorably, he calls worship a way of gladly reflecting back to Jesus the radiance of his worth. That's worship. And we do it in our singing, we do it in our praises, in the preaching, in the tithes and offering, and in every element, even of our ordinary lives, we do it in a special way, in the Lord's service. But this is a way of reflecting back to Him, the radiance of His worth. To Him who loves us, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And with that amen, we set our seal to it. We own it. We believe it. It is ours. It's true. As finite fallen creatures, as those who have the spirit As those who are new creations, but at the same time have indwelling sin, we tend, even now, to forget important things. Things that should be so obvious, so essential, but maybe because they are, they get overlooked, and they fall through the cracks. Well, in the midst of your forgetfulness, in the midst of the emails, and the calendars, and the smartphone updates, in the midst of reformed teaching that you prize and love, but perhaps have become so obsessed with the details that you're missing the big picture, in the midst of all of that, in the midst of your trials, we have seen the reality, we have seen the expression, and we have seen the response of love. Worship Jesus because He loves you. Worship Jesus because He loves you. In the rest of this service, in the rest of this week, in the rest of life, let that be the calibrated setting of your whole existence. Worship Jesus because He loves you. For He has loved you with an everlasting love. And He expressed that love on the cross. And even now, He goes on loving you from the throne in heaven. O congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, you must love Him. Do not, I urge you, do not spurn the love of Jesus. Do not spurn the love of Jesus in disobedience, unbelief, and unrepentance. Do not trample underfoot the Son of God. Do not profane the blood of the covenant by which you were sanctified. Do not outrage the Spirit of grace. Do not reject the love of Jesus. Because if you do, if you, surrounded with all these privileges and all of this insight and all of this revelation, can go out those doors and walk away from it all and reject His love, then behold, He is coming with the clouds and the whole earth will see Him in all tribes of the earth, even those who pierced Him, and they will wail on account of Him. If you've heard this message, but you walk out, and you reject it, and you spurn His love, and you harden under His discipline, then you will wail on account of Him. But beloved, it need not be so. Better things. Better things. Things that accompany salvation. You can't walk away from a text like this and be neutral. So embrace Jesus Christ. Embrace His love. Love Him because He's first loved you. love Him in return. I recently heard a preacher whom I respect greatly. He's been in the ministry for about 40 years, and he spoke of a time 30 years ago when he'd been in the ministry for 10 years, a decade, and an older and wiser mentor figure came up to him. And remember, this man He's 10 years of ministry at this point. At this point he had a PhD in New Testament. He was teaching in a seminary. His whole life was immersed in the Bible. Very well respected. And this older mentor figure came up to him and he said, I'm praying for you. I'm praying that you would fall in love with Jesus. And that man was so struck, so embarrassed, he had to storm out of the room because he knew that in the midst of his studies, in the midst of his privileges, his heart was cold to the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps today, as I have felt at times, your affection waxes and wanes. Perhaps now, The fire on the hearth of your hearts is low. Maybe it's embers, it's glowing, but it's cold. Let us pray the prayer of the hymn writer. As a people, as the people of God, let us pray. More love to Thee, O Christ. More love to Thee. Hear now the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. It's only by going back to the cross, it's only by the power of the Holy Spirit, that God can work in us the faith that echoes the love that echoes the love of the Lord Jesus. Do not forget this basic, this bedrock truth, this Christianity 101, this Sunday school lesson. No matter what you're going through, no matter where you are, this is true north. This is an anchor of the soul. To him who loves, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Jesus loves us. This we know, for the Bible tells us so. Let us worship Him. Let us pray. O Father, we are spellbound by the mysterious love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise him for all the benevolence and all the desire and all the affection that he has for us, even when we stumble. Oh God, enable us to love the Lord Jesus in return, and oh God, help us to truly fall in love with Jesus. It seems so simple, Lord, but we are so prone to forget. May we never abandon our first love. May we never forget our first love. And oh Lord, as we leave this place, We take upon our lips the prayer of that saint of old, saying, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. According to your word, for our eyes have truly seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. Lord, help us now to depart in peace and with assurances of your love, the love of the Father, the love of the Son, and the love of the Holy Spirit. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.