Welcome to Fife's Pulpit for our Sunday service. My name is Pastor John, and I hope you're all keeping well and rejoicing greatly in the Lord. I want to do a reading from the last but one book of the Bible, the book of Jude, just from the 20th verse. And this is the reading, if you want to follow it with me. says Jude, but you dear friends, as you build yourself up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourself in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy upon those who waver, save others by snatching them from the fire, Have mercy on others, but with fear hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy. To the only wise God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, Majesty, authority, before all time, now and forever. Amen. It's a wonderful small doxology, right, at the end of that book of Jude. Jude, who is thought to be the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ in the earthly sense. And he wrote this little letter as a humble man, as he referred to himself simply as a servant of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James, which was probably the older brother after Jesus, who was another brother, as I say, of our Lord Jesus. But Jude, interestingly enough, identified himself with his earthly brother, and rightly says that he and James were servants of Jesus Christ. He wasn't bragging, he didn't boast and say, I grew up with Jesus. He said, I'm a servant with James together for you. Now, right at the end of the book of Jude, it's a very short book anyway, he writes a lovely doxology and it is so packed with doctrinal truth. Actually, a study of this would be beneficial for us if God were to spare us. But suffice to say that it goes like this from verse 20. He says, we as his dear friends are responsible for building up ourselves, praying together in the Holy Spirit, We are to keep ourselves, the Greek word is tereo, which means to watch over, to guard, to keep, to observe. We have a duty to work out what God has worked in and given us. And we are to keep ourselves in the agape, that selfless love of God. We then are eagerly awaiting, he says, and expecting to receive and welcomed into our house the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. And then we are to hate all sin and try to reach others in their sin. Then he concludes, and in case we think therefore all this is of us, it's all to do with our effort, he praises God. who alone, he says, is able to keep us from falling or stumbling, and he alone can present us faultless to stand in his presence with great joy. It is to the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, power and authority before all time, now and forever. So you see, what dear Jude has done for us is point out that we are responsible, of course, to keep ourselves, to watch over ourselves, and indeed to watch over others and encourage them. We are to keep ourselves in the agape of God. But ultimately, it is He, says Jude, who keeps us. And it is he who loves us so much that it gives him great joy to bring us to stand before his presence, perfect in Jesus. So every believer that goes to heaven, it gives God great joy to see them there. Now, of course, there is much in these verses, but what stuck out to me is the fact that we are to keep ourselves in the agape of God. How much do we understand the depth of this agape love that God has for us? Yes, we looked at the practical outworking of love, His list love in our lives, as we looked at several times at 1 Corinthians 13, all those wonderful practical outworkings of the fruit of Christ in our lives. But once again, I'm going to turn for the help to the Puritan Thomas Vincent. Thomas Vincent is one of my favourite Puritans, and in his little book that I've read over and over again, I keep bringing you parts from it, and I hope you're not dismayed by that, but I hope you've been blessed. His little book is called The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ. and where he simply defines some aspects of the love of Christ that we should keep ourselves in. He is simple, aye, yet challenging. He's challenging about the love of Christ that we should remind ourselves of. In one section, he lists four very simple things about the love of Christ for you and I to keep in our hearts and treasure. For those of you that think the Puritans were all to do with great depth and long, complicated words and complicated statements, then be ready to change your mind. For they were also men of great simplicity and passion. Let me show you exactly what I mean. Says Vincent. If you are Christians indeed, Christ loves you with, firstly, the freest love, secondly, the truest love, thirdly, with the strongest love, and fourthly, with the surest love. Very simple really, isn't it? Nothing complicated about that. The fact is, when we grasp these simple truths, they will indeed help us keep ourselves in this love of God. For it is logical that to keep yourself in something, you must be clear about it, and you must be clear about what that something is. You know, a man who who preaches or teaches, and he comes over as simple, is often a person who has a grasp of the depth of the subject, so he's enabled to put it over simply. The Puritans were like this. I can too testify that without being able to list these things, nevertheless, looking back over my Christian life, I can say that they have been my mainstay, really, if I think about it. And to quote the old naval saying, when in the midst of a bloody battle, they cry, hold fast my hearties. And in the midst of a terrible storm, when you have to strap yourself to something on the upper deck, it is these things that make us, hold fast my hearties, hold fast. Firstly then let's go straight into it. Christ's love to me, is the freest love. And this truth, you see, came over to me earlier in my Christian life. It was when I realised that there is, and was, absolutely nothing in me that could make Him love me. My will is bound by my nature, and my nature is evil, beyond hope or redemption. As the Bible says, there is absolutely no soundness in me from head to foot. I am sinful sores in the sight of God. No matter how many tears I cry, or how I try to be good, or how much I try to keep the commandments, A leopard cannot change its spots. There is nothing in me that would cause forth the love of God. But God is glorious and pure, and he hates sin. So he can have nothing to do with me, and that's it. As John Newton says, an amazing grace that I am a wretch who saved a wretch like me? Oh, dear ones, you know how often the unconverted sing Amazing Grace and they don't know what it means. They sing, they saved a wretch like me, yet they know nothing of that. They are too proud to see that they are wretches. For someone to love me, they must first find something in me that draws out their love. We speak today of first impressions being the most important and that we form our opinions based on that. We either like or dislike a person fairly very quickly. But there is always something special in a person that somehow controls us and makes us like them. But you see, there is nothing in me that controls God. Nothing that he might say, wait a minute, out of all humanity, I actually find there is something attractive in John, more than any other person. What a terrible thing that is, for that most certainly is not true. Not in my case, it might be more in your case, but even then, I very much doubt it. And this is emphasised in Genesis, when the whole world lie in wickedness, sin and rebellion, and Noah was chosen. And the Hebrew is very clear. It says that Noah wasn't better than anybody else. But it says, but grace sought and found Noah. That is, it was grace alone that touched Noah and his godly line. But it's not Noah. It was God, a mere miracle that God actually out of all the wickedness and vileness of the earth that had become so bad that God could actually have enough mercy to save even eight people is phenomenal. Says Vincent, there is no one in the world that loves you or fancies that he finds some loveliness in you, some motive to draw love. There is nothing in yourself to draw and engage his love except deformity, enmity to him, except filthiness, which he loathes, and wickedness, in which his soul hates. There is nothing in me but the wrath of God upon my very soul, says Vincent. In others, you might find a smile that warms you, a tenderness maybe that draws you, a touch, a kiss, a hug, even their conduct, or maybe their lifestyle or even their riches. But you are overtaken by love, or regard for them. At that moment, they actually have control of you and have drawn you to them. But the love of Jesus is vastly different. We have no power over him to make him love us, but his love is completely free and governed by himself. So it is absolutely free, as Vincent says. And I realised this early in my Christian war, that in a mysterious and glorious manner, Christ chose for nothing in me, but to love me. And as I looked at the scriptures, what to my amazement I have found is that to show God's grace and love, he doesn't take the most beautiful, the most wise, the most devoted of people, but chooses so often the worst of humanity to display his wisdom. That's what Paul said. Just look at Moses, murderer, headstrong, lost his temper. David, murderer, adulterer, deceiver, headstrong, at times proud. Peter, headstrong, a failure, not in touch with his own weakness. Yet, yet, yet, yet, God took these men. Moses wrote the first five books, David expressed his battles and failures and devotion in heart-wrenching Psalms, and Peter wrote to us to say, don't be proud, don't try to resist God, it will not work. And the point is that Christ's love, you see, is completely free from anything at all in us that will influence him. Remember the words he spoke in the gospel, that he came not for those who see themselves as whole, but for sinners, he came. You should bury this truth in your heart, you know, and don't try to reason or understand it. Don't try to ask why he came to you and not to others, who you might think would make better Christians than you, but simply accept that he is God, And his love has to be free, uninfluenced, or he is not God at all. Of course, when on earth our Lord was moved with compassion, when he saw people like sheep without a shepherd, but that was a natural outflow of his love. Slightly different. But as Vincent says, Christ sees us through the comeliness which he has put on us. But Christ's first love was free, he says. So the first thing I've learned as a baby Christian, which has never, never, never left me, is the fact that Christ's love for me is completely free. It is not dictated to by anything in me to make him love me. Of course, it is always helpful in the work I do as an evangelist, and it has enabled me to state clearly that a person cannot ever earn the love of God, but freely it is given. As the wee chorus says, God forgave my sin in Jesus' name. I've been born again in Jesus' name. And in Jesus' name, I come to you. share his love as he told me to. Freely, freely you have received. Freely, freely give. Go in my name and because you believe, others will know that I live. God's love is free. We don't deserve it. There's nothing in us to cause his love to come out of his great heart. It just comes. I can't explain it, but I praise God that you and I have received it. Secondly, that His love for me is the truest love in all the world. All that flatters you, do not love you. As the old Puritan again says, flattery is like perfume. You can smell it, but don't swallow it. The world is good at saying, I love you guys. Remember every idle word we have to give an account for, and our love therefore should be true. Remember it was Job's friends that were friends, but when they vanished like the morning mist. Remember the prodigal who had plenty of friends when he had plenty of money. Remember many people left Jesus when he cut down on the miracles and started to ask for commitment. Their love was not true. But the love of our Jesus is so different. It is so true. It is the truest of all love. He loves us even when we disobey him. He goes to the rooftop and watches for our return. He comes dripping with myrrh, like in the song of Solomon 5, to open our door. When we are afflicted so often, those who say that they love us are actually nowhere to be seen. A pastor may say he loves his people, but he's hardly seen when they're in need. This has to do, to some extent, It has shown itself in the pandemic, where some pastors have insisted to break legitimate government guidelines designed to protect everyone, especially the vulnerable. And I say that because my wife and I are very vulnerable, we feel that. But I have been appalled at some pastors who have shown a lack of care just so that they can continue to be puppeteers in the pulpit. And I say as a pastor who has to learn to adapt and will not put anyone in a dangerous position. In fact, my experience is that my people have grown more in this pandemic by adapting, getting used to the situation, looking forward to when, of course, we can return to that degree of normality, but simply saying, this is the providence of God for me and I will jolly well grow in it. Agape love puts others before yourself, and defends the weak, and bruised reeds. Many speak of love, but few know true love. But my Lord does. It is the truest of love. When I run, I hide. When I fail, and I eat pigswill. When I am afflicted, poor, despised by people, then he comes with the truest of his love. While others fail, he never does. While comforts fail and flee, the Lord will abide with me. We can count upon this love in times of blessing and in times of affliction. He will never, never, never leave us nor forsake us. Truly, when you have a friend in need, then you do have a friend in need. No wonder the woman in the Song of Solomon 5 says, this is my love, my friend, verse 18. My Jesus loves me truly and he will never let me or let his love fail. When like Jonah in the middle of running from God and in the belly of the Carthos, the great sea creature, God's love is true. He will never leave his child. It's true. He really does love me. Thirdly, he loves me with the strongest love. And this is important. For if we are faced with a situation that meant we would suffer pain and then die for someone we said we loved, would we really be able to do it? Honestly? Honestly, no. Would you love And you say you have to be strong enough to give up yourself for someone. As the scriptures clearly say, greater love hath no man than this. And he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you obey me, says Jesus. John 15, 13. This is true, Agape. Christ's love is one of the strongest things in the universe. It is strong. As Vincent says, the strength of Christ's love to you shows itself in the activity of his love, in his doing for you. And this will show itself in three things, says Vincent, in what he has done for you, what he is doing for you, and what he will do for you. Says Vincent, his love is so strong, that he who made the world was born from a virgin. He fulfilled all the righteousness for you. He yielded perfect obedience to the law, both moral and ceremonial, that we might benefit from it. It was his strong love that drove him out into the wilderness as the second Adam, to be tempted and suffer so he could understand how we felt when tempted. He took all that was thrown at him, the blasphemies of wicked men, just so that he could strengthen us and be an example of how to conduct ourselves. And all the time he has his eyes upon teaching us. Then He did the ultimate thing and He laid down His life for us, allowing this love to take Him to the ultimate agony, not only of physical pain but that mystical separation from the Father as He bore our sin. Such love, so strong and so unwavering. This love took him unto death. Romans 4 25. He who was delivered for our offences was raised for our justification. It was then this strong love that Vincent said, which carried him from earth to heaven, where he went before you, says Vincent. We need to grasp the unrelenting reality and the strength, the strength of this love. Not once did our Saviour waver. And as I thought about this love in preparation of this for you, I realised that this truth of God's love was, in a sense, two things. It is substitutional and redemptive. but it's also an example. Now, when our Queen speaks of Christ's death on the cross as being an example to us of how we should give ourselves to others, we must realise that she is partially right. Christ's death and his life are of course examples to us of how we are to give up ourselves for others, to put ourselves behind others and of how to humbly seek to face attack and to stand firm, to pray, to resist temptation and how to give ourselves to others. So all those things, she's perfectly right. We are to learn from the literal example of our Lord Jesus. But all these things are true and often as evangelicals, we forget this. But that is only part of it, and if we leave it there, then we're not understanding it at all. For his death and life, if we leave it just as an example, would just create nice social people. But His death and life was substitutionary. He came and delivered us from sin and from death upon the cruel cross at Calvary. And by His actual life, giving Himself as a propitiation for us, that is, He turned away the wrath for our sins and He took away our sins. And that is the main purpose. But also, of course, His love is an example of how we should then live on earth. But that is not the whole thing about this love. It is so strong that it deals with our sin. Deals with our sin. and is so strong and unwavering. Such a wonderful love. Secondly, in this as well, His love is strong by what He is doing right now in us. He is watching right now. He is praying. He is interceding at the Father's right hand. His love is so strong that it doesn't just stop when His work on earth is done. Right now he is preparing a place for you in heaven. He is making sure all is ready at the feast for you. So right now his love continues. As I write, I am thinking of a communication that May and I received the other day from a lovely lady from Brighton called Barbara. Dear sweet soul that ooze the love of Jesus. She was one of those people that radiated Christ. And I can tell you many things of her. But one thing I will say about her is that she is now dying. And she sent her moving communication expressing her faith and the love for Jesus. Within a short while, she will be seeing the wonders of heaven and meet her Lord. But his love is so strong for her. that he is right now comfort in her, and he will never give up his love for our dear Barbara, never, never, just as the same as us. Thirdly, in this small head, is his love is strong enough to finish everything he's begun in us. He cannot, nor will he ever lose you. He is making all things work together for you, for your good, He will stand by us in our time of death. He will give us the grace we need at that moment. We don't need it right now, but then we will receive it when we need it. He will send his angels to take charge of you and bring you into heaven either by death or when he returns. He will crown you, admit you, bless you and nothing can take away from you or take your inheritance away from you. So strong is the love of our Lord Jesus. that at not one point from eternity past to eternity future does his love for you ever, ever waver or ever, ever change in the slightest. Remember, he cannot love you any more and he cannot love you any less than he does. And fourthly, the final point that Vincent makes is this, that the love of Christ is the surest of all loves. As we've seen, it is the truest love. In short, he means it. He lays down his life for his friends, but it is also the surest of loves. You and I will always, always, always be able to depend upon it. Some may love you for a while and appear to maybe even love you strongly. But if differences arise, their love will grow cold and become unsure. And they can even become your enemy in some cases. But with the love of Jesus, nothing can surprise him. Says Vincent, if he begins to love us, he will continue. If he loves once, he will love you to the end, or rather, without end. The love of Christ is not subject to mutations or changes like ours. If you lag in your love, he will not fail in his love, even if you offend him." End of quote. He may seem, you see, to withdraw his love, but there is always a purpose so that we may appreciate him all the more, but he cannot and will not ever, ever, ever remove his love from his own. to sleep tonight, wake up and his love is still there, steadfast and sure. If you are in pain or broken-hearted, if you are fearful and afraid, we've all been there. There's no disgrace, we've been there so often, so were the disciples, so were the apostles, If you have all have forsook you and fled, and no one understands you, his love is steadfast. One of our most beautiful friends, as I said, is now dying in Brighton, and she wrote to tell us how she is now spending her days with her daughter, not in a hospice. Through her life, she, as I have said, radiated Christ. She became a joy to my heart and to the heart of the Fellowship in Brighton. And now she rests, surrounded by those who love her. She rests and waits in the freest, truest, surest, most steadfast love of our Saviour. And gloriously she can do no more, and he can do no more, but love her and be with her. Right now, dear ones, times may be hard for you, or they may be easy. It's possible for Christians to have easy times too, you know. It doesn't mean that God loves you any more or any less, for His love is not displayed in your providence, but in the fact that you belong to Him, remember Malachi? And the fact that He cannot change that love. I know of a minister who was in my congregation just a while ago who believed that somehow you could lose that love which Christ had given, that somehow a believer could be lost. I'm not talking about someone who was never saved, but a true believer. And after Jesus had said that those given to him by the Father will never be snatched out of his hand, I find the very thought of my Lord who has loved me freely, without condition, could somehow open his hand and let me go, after all those promises. For my salvation depends upon God's sovereign grace, and upon his unmerited mercy, and I have no keep in power. But he will hold me up always, because his love is free, it is true, it is sure, it is steadfast, like that of his nature, unchangeable, eternal, it cannot, it cannot ever be any other. So to my dear friend Barbara, that I mentioned, who is waiting on heaven, I say, rest, dear one, you are precious. And sadly, soon earth will be all the poorer at your departure, but heaven will be all the richer. Let us pray. Father, thank you for your amazing love through your Saviour, who will never, never, never leave us or forsake us. We pray now for all those who are in need of prayer and who are suffering and pray for those who are in joy, that they will not be overtaken by the joy and the joy might become more important than the Saviour who gave it. But we pray for them, O God. for all your children, that you will assure them and keep them and watch over them. For it is the deep, deep love of Jesus that keeps us going. And its fullness over me Underneath me, all around me Is the current of His love All the deep, deep love of Jesus For it lifts me up to Thee Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore How He loved them, ever loving, changeth never