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For the Love of Christ Contols Us · HBCWestminster

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  Good morning, church. You do not know me. My name is Nathan Anderson. I am the family pastor here at Highland. And so, so very blessed to be so. If you would open up your Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians 5. We're going to read verses 14 and 15. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15 says this.
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  For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.
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  Let's pray. Father in Heaven, Lord, I pray in these moments this morning that You would be honored, that You would be glorified in the preaching of Your Word. God, teach us Your truth. God, may we revel in Your love. God, instill in us an appreciation for what You have given to us, Lord. Thank You for this time and Your Word this morning. In Your name, Amen. We are going to use this passage in 2 Corinthians 5.
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  as our launching point this morning. We're going to use it kind of as our marker for our central theme and focus. That being, the Christian is to be controlled, compelled by the love of Christ. But what does that look like? How can that happen? And what gets in the way of us living lives controlled or compelled by the love of Christ?
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  I believe that the problem, the things that get in the way, I think comes from the fact that we often, daily, moment by moment, forget just how awesome and amazing God's love is for us. If we truly understood the vastness, the depth, the breadth, and the width of God's love for us, I think we could write words as Paul did here in 2 Corinthians for the love.
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  of Christ controls us. Paul is saying here that he is controlled by the love of Christ and it is what causes him, moves him, draws his heart to serve, to suffer, to give of his life because of the love of Christ. Paul seems to have a very deep understanding of what God offers in love.
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  through His Son, Jesus Christ. And I want to explore this love this morning a little bit. And then I want to look at how we can respond to that at times. First thing, let's look at love expressed through Christ. And for this, I'm going to go to perhaps a portion of Scripture that you're very familiar with, but maybe we haven't approached in this way. We're going to flip over to 1 Corinthians 13, verses 4-8a.
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  It says this, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
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  This passage of Scripture, I'm sure, comes to many of us familiar this morning. In fact, I'm sure many of you guys have seen this passage of Scripture on a wall in a home or for sale in a store. And if you've been over to Carla in my house, you've actually seen this verse up on our dining room wall. This is a famous, very popular choice for people to pick in terms of verses to display in their homes because it's beautiful.
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  It's a wonderful picture of what love is. If you've ever heard this passage preached before, I'm sure you've heard it preached, no doubt, as a list of things that we as Christians ought to express, to do and act in our lives, the focus mainly being on us and what we should or can have present in our lives as Christians if we truly love. And that is true, and that is certainly true.
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  the way that it was shared with the Corinthians. But this morning I want to look at it from a little bit different point of view. When you read a passage like this, when you read a list of things that should be present in us as believers, I think it's easy for us sometimes as we examine our lives and we don't see those things represented to start feeling like we're somehow failures.
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  As I read this list of things, of what love is, I realize often that I don't succeed in these things. These things are often not present in my heart. I may act a certain way, but my heart represents something very different. And it's easy as we look at that and we see those lists and we see the fact that we're not fulfilling them, for us to at times believe as Christians that God must be disappointed with us.
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  We might even believe that He's angry with us for our failure. And this feeling, if I am honest with you, all can at times lead me to trying all the harder to somehow force myself to be more loving. To try harder to get on God's good side. Why? Why does our feeling of failure and then guilt drive us? Because we've forgotten that God is love.
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  That He has an eternal smile on His face. Immeasurable love that He has expressed and continues to express towards us through His Son, Jesus Christ. But what can we do? I find myself, I don't know if you find yourself, I find myself often in these moments pulling that try harder trigger in my life. Just try harder. Force myself to love God more.
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  And that only leads us back to the beginning of failure, guilt, and doubt. We condemn ourselves for our lack of success. We tell ourselves we really ought to do better. What's wrong with you? Aren't you a Christian? What's the answer? Only resting in God's love for us. You see, apart from the fuel of God's love, only self-condemnation for our failures await us. You might ask,
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  How can I rest in God's love? And I believe that brings us back to this passage in 1 Corinthians 13. And I want to read it to you guys again, but I'm going to replace each instance of love with Jesus' name. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy. Jesus does not boast. Not to Satan. Not to the Pharisees. Not to Pilate. Jesus is not rude.
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  Jesus does not insist on His own way. Philippians 2 tells us Jesus humbled Himself to obedience to death on a cross. Jesus does not insist on His own way. Jesus is not resentful or irritable. Jesus never rejoices in your wrongdoing when you fail. He's not waiting for us to mess up. He does rejoice in the truth. Jesus bared all things.
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  On the cross, the weight of the world's sins were on His shoulders. Jesus believes all things for you. Jesus hopes in all things for you. Jesus has endured all things for you. Jesus' love never ends. As we consider 1 Corinthians 13 as it reveals to us God's love,
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  and what it looks like as it is expressed in His Son, Jesus Christ, let us consider 1 John 4.19 where it says, We love because He first loved us. Allow me to read Mark 14.32-36. It says, And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray.
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  And He took with Him Peter, James, and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch. And going a little further, He fell on the ground and He prayed that if it were possible...
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  And he prayed, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what You will. What does God's love look like? It's Christ in His humility, in His humanity, feeling the full weight of what was coming, the rejection of His heavenly Father.
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  the sweating of blood and agony in the garden, being so distressed that he fell to the ground and prayed for the cup to be removed, yet in love for you and I, he walked in obedience to Calvary. That is the love of God. That is the love that can excite a fiery passion within us. That is a love that we can rest in, brothers and sisters, we can rest.
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  in that kind of love. That love expressed in 1 Corinthians 13. That is the love that John is referencing in 1 John 4.19 that allows us to love others because He first loved us. And that is the love of Christ that controlled and compelled Paul to do as he did. To serve. To suffer with joy. God wants us to rest in His love.
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  To truly believe that it is without end and abounding without limits. He wants us to know that our sin has been completely, unalterably, perfectly removed from us as far as the east is from the west. And as the song says, they have been cast into an ocean without bottom or shore. He wants us to understand this so that
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  we can be compelled, controlled by this love that it can motivate and move us to action, to appreciation and adornment for our Savior. Zephaniah has a really beautiful description of God's love. Zephaniah 3.17 says this, The Lord your God is in your midst. He is in our midst right now. A mighty One who will save.
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  He will rejoice over you with gladness. God is not waiting for you to fail. He's rejoicing over you. He will quiet you by His love. He will exult over you with loud singing. I like that. With loud singing. He will exult over us with loud singing. That is God's love. That is the love that compelled and controlled Paul.
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  in 2 Corinthians, if we're honest, even though we know that, we're often not moved by that. We're moved by other things. Our response to this expression of God's love can look several ways. I believe we can feel as though we want to justify or sanctify ourselves in several ways, both having their essence pride. I look at...
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  the rich ruler that comes to Jesus in Luke 18. And as Jesus expresses to him, asks him, have you kept these things? He says, I've kept all of them from my youth. Here's the crazy thing about us. We can read all those passages where God expresses His love, His immeasurable and exhaustible love, and we can respond in a couple ways.
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  And our responses have everything to do with what we feel really justifies, really sanctifies us as believers. The rich ruler said, all these I've kept from my youth. In his response, what does he reveal about himself? What is he saying? He's saying, I am justified. I am right. I am without fault in these things you have commanded. The rich ruler sees Christ and says he doesn't need Him.
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  The ruler was justifying himself by his standards, by his actions. He did not have a right view of himself or God. Before you make liars out of yourselves, before I make liars out of myself, let us not deny that we have done the same thing. That we have sat looking at Christ and tried to justify ourselves. Said, Lord, look at all the good things I've done. We've forgotten when we do this that we are sinners saved by grace.
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  We can, if we're honest, believe that Jesus is indeed our Savior, but still balk unbelievably at the fact and the idea that His fulfillment of the law replaces ours. We can think that since God desires obedience from us, that we should, and He should, somehow approve of us based on our list of righteous acts. Paul speaks against this directly in Galatians 3.3. He says,
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  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? When we consider the fact that God loves us, what is our response? Do we look at Him? Do we think that we can somehow pull God's love closer because we serve Him? Because we tithe? Because I'm a good dad, a good mom, a good wife, son, or daughter? When Oren was in his first year of life,
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  He got really sick. And Carla called the nurse's hotline to kind of figure out if there was something serious enough that we needed to take him to the doctor and get him checked out. He wasn't moving a lot. His fever was really severe. And so she relayed some of these things to the nurse, and the nurse said, you've got to take him to the doctor. You have to take him to the doctor right now.
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  This is not an option. So we packed everything up and drove to the hospital to get him checked out. And they began to do some tests and look at some things and it became very apparent that he was very sick. And they were very concerned that it was meningitis. They didn't know what kind of meningitis, but they were sure that it was that. And so the only way to find out what kind of meningitis and how specifically to treat it is they have to do...
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  a spinal tap. And a spinal tap is where they stick a big needle in your spine and draw out spinal fluid. And in order to do this, they had to bend my son basically in half so that he wouldn't move and injure himself. And all I could do as his dad was just get down and try and comfort him somehow. I couldn't touch him.
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  interact with him other than just say, buddy, I love you. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. And pray. They gave him antibiotics as we waited for the results. And as we waited, it was very clear that there was no way he was leaving that hospital until those results came in and they either came back as viral meningitis, which means it will run its course, or bacterial and they were going to treat it. And he was not leaving until that reading.
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  was zero. Praise the Lord it was viral and they were able to keep him comfortable and he was able to go home. But the seriousness of this situation reminds me of the seriousness of our sin. Any sin, thought, word, or act reveals in us that the infection of our hearts is still present. That it has not been eradicated. And as such, no mild effort to reduce
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  our sinful thoughts, words, or acts will suffice. If we think that God should love us because we obeyed, because we're a good dad, husband, wife, mom, son or daughter or friend, we have underestimated the righteousness of God and worse yet, we have forgotten the Gospel. Martin Luther says this, You must get this thought through your head and not doubt that you are the one who is torturing Christ.
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  for your sins surely wrought this. Therefore, when you see the nails piercing Christ's hands, you can be certain it is your work. When you behold the crown of thorns, you may rest assured that these are your evil thoughts. You feel a little uncomfortable right now? As I do. You feel a little unworthy of His love? I certainly do. And that's good.
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  Let the love of Christ melt away that self-justifying desire to be sanctified by the law and allow us to soothe our souls as we humbly admit, as Isaiah wrote, all my righteousness are as filthy rags. And then, let the truth of Ephesians 2, verse 4 wash over you. But God, but God being rich in mercy because of His great love
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  He loved us. That love is Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We are not justified by our acts. We are not pulling God any closer. He has come to earth to save us. There is no closeness that we can attain apart from His Holy Spirit resting in us. We can try and justify ourselves by our works. We can try and say, look at all my righteous acts. That's one response we can have. A second response we can have...
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  that's really connected to the first because they're both prideful. We can know our sin. We can see the cross. And in harshness, we can beat against ourselves with condemnation. We can, in contrast to trying to justify ourselves and sanctify ourselves by obedience to God, we can try to justify and sanctify ourselves by repentance. Hear me, please.
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  Brothers and sisters, repentance is not wrong. We are commanded to do it, but repentance is not the thing that justifies us. It is not the thing that sanctifies us. It is God's love alone expressed in Christ Jesus' finished work. We find ourselves here. We find ourselves not enthralled and comforted by God's love. Instead, we look at our sin and think that if somehow we could just think low enough of ourselves, of our sin, we would then find rest.
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  and God would then be pleased with us. This again reveals in us a pride issue. We still feel that it's up to us, that we are somehow going to pull God's love closer. You find yourself here in your desire, in our desire to show God just how much we love Him, to prove to Him that He is the most important thing.
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  in our lives, we can find ourselves ending up resenting God. Resenting Him for His demanding ways. Our souls will never find the rest that Christ talks about in Matthew 11 where He says, come to Me all who labor and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. We'll never find rest if we try to prove our love for God. I have a question. When you look at God,
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  how do you see Him? What do you picture of Him? Do you see Him as a parent, patient, just enough to put up with you and your disobedience? In essence, He puts up with you as some defective kid. He's not going to disown you, but He really doesn't want to be near you.
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  Do you find yourself hanging onto the little flecks of hope that somehow you will see your depravity for what it is and then it will spur you to be good? The Gospel, the love of God expressed in Christ sees something so much different than that. We are each of us helpless. And the beauty is that our helplessness is the only thing that qualifies us for the Gospel.
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  If we accept our helplessness, we see our need for God and then we can see God and the offer of His love expressed in Christ Jesus as an invitation to freedom, to joy, and that we are justified and sanctified by His works of grace in our lives and through this we have no need to hide. Church, we have no reason to hide. We have no reason...
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  to condemn. We have no reason to revile ourselves. But rather, we get to simply act in loving response to Him. The reason for us to look at our sin is for us to be able to respond in love towards a God who has lavished on us in His amazing words, it is finished. Our disbelief in the Gospel is removed as those words wash over us.
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  We no longer feel we justify ourselves by our repentance. Rather, we gain deeper appreciation for the unwavering, unrelenting love of God as we repent and live in the truth that we stand forgiven already. There's two realities I know that are present in this sanctuary right now, and I know this because they're present in my life right now. The reality is that sitting here in this sanctuary, there are those of us who have been justifying ourselves by our works.
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  You think that somehow you deserve God's love because you obey Him. I am there with you. I find myself here too often, brothers and sisters. My friends, we miss the opportunity for a joy that is inexpressible, which comes from the freedom of knowing that you are helpless, that we are helpless apart from the love of God. There are some of us here today who are desperately trying to think,
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  low enough of ourselves that God might somehow accept us. And honestly, we probably waver between these two things on a daily basis. You might find yourself trying so very hard to detest your sin like God does so that you will find favor with Him. Let me encourage you, you're not the defective child whom God wants only to save but not be with. Rather than revile yourself, allow the love of God to fill you.
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  fill you with the warm light that deflects the sin of self-condemnation and reveals the truth of God's grace and mercy toward you because of the love of the father expressed in his son Jesus Christ we can be free to have true deep meaningful real fellowship with one another we can actually live freely with one another because we no longer need to impress one another
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  And the beauty is we're no longer impressed with each other apart from Christ. Let us flood our souls with the truth of John 3.16 that the Father loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us and the Son loved the Father and us so much that He was made to be sin despite Him never knowing sin.
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  And that that love presented in 1 Corinthians 13 can be seen as a presentation of the love of Christ that He expresses to us ongoing for eternity and that this all gives weight and depth to the meaning of 2 Corinthians 5.14 when Paul writes, for the love of Christ controls and compels us. May we be compelled and controlled by the love of Christ.
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  There is nothing else. There's nothing else that's going to fill. There's nothing else that's going to move. There's nothing else that's going to draw out of us compassion, passion, and freedom and joy apart from knowing His great love. Allow me to pray. Lord, cause us to be firmly, deeply rooted, grounded in love.
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  Father, grant us the strength to try and comprehend with all here and the saints in the entire world, Lord, what is the incredible breadth, length, width, and depth of Your vast, mighty, gracious love for us that we might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge and in so knowing be filled with the fullness of God through the regenerating power
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  and the sanctifying grace of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.