In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a man who was convicted of his sins after seeing a shadow of a cross while preparing to dive into a pool. This conviction led him to confess his sins and accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. The preacher emphasizes the boundless love of God, who gave his only Son for the forgiveness of sins. He encourages the congregation to humble themselves before God and seek forgiveness. The sermon also includes another story about a woman who obeyed God's prompting to brush a man's hair, despite her embarrassment, demonstrating the unconditional love of God. The preacher concludes by highlighting the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the ultimate expression of God's love and the means of salvation for all.

Thank you, Johnny, for leading us, brother. Thank you. I'd like to invite you to turn to John chapter 13 tonight. This is where we're going to begin. Thirteenth chapter of John. The burden that the Lord has put upon my heart tonight is that you and I would have an encounter with the boundless love of God. The boundless love of God. So the message tonight is boundless love. And essentially an encounter with God at Calvary. The cross of Jesus Christ. But here's where we begin. John chapter 13. And we'll start in verse 1. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter and Peter said to Him, Lord, are You washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Father, I thank You so much for Your living Word and I am so persuaded, Father, that You have something to say to us tonight, something to reveal to us, but no man can reveal it, not me, not anybody else. Holy Spirit, I ask You to open our eyes tonight, to open our ears, unstop our ears, that we may hear Your voice, Lord. Open our eyes that we may see You, Jesus. Open our hearts that we may receive Your Word. And I'm asking You, God, to fill me and anoint me with the power of Your Holy Spirit and speak through me Your words for Your glory and honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Verse 1 tells us that Jesus, having loved His own who were in the world, so He's talking about His disciples, those who belong to Him, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. He loved them to the end. He loved them to the fullest, that is. He loved them to the uttermost. Jesus loved them to the end. What kind of love is this that Jesus has toward His own? It is boundless love. Boundless love. It is pure. It is perfect. It is boundless love. Boundless love in that it goes beyond boundaries. It's the love of God that knows no limitations for His own. It's the kind of love, boundless love, that Christ has for His own people, for His children, is love without limit. It goes to the highest heavens and reaches to the lowest hell. It's farther and wider than the east is from the west. Boundless love has no boundaries. This is the kind of love that Jesus Christ loves His own with. Eternal, immeasurable, infinite, perfect, boundless, everlasting love. That is the love of God. It's the kind of love that when you think it can't reach any higher, it goes higher still. It's the kind of love when you think that it can't reach any deeper, it reaches deeper still. It's the kind of love that when you think it can't go any farther, it goes farther still. This is love to the uttermost. Love that goes beyond boundaries. And I want to share with you just a few things about this boundless love of Christ. The boundless love of God for His own people. First of all, it's a love that goes beyond self-centeredness. It goes beyond self-preservation. It's a love that goes beyond self. The Bible says that love seeketh not its own. There is nothing about the love of God that's selfish. There is nothing about the love of Christ that is self-centered. This kind of love, boundless love, goes beyond self-centeredness. Now, all of us have at one time or another put up the boundary of self-preservation, self-centeredness. Natural love says, come on, you've got to protect yourself, right? You've got to take care of yourself, so we put up a guard. We put up walls and we say, I will love that person this far, but no farther. But I remind you, brothers and sisters, that Jesus Christ never did that when it came to loving His own. His boundless love tears down walls and it goes beyond self-preservation. His love is totally unselfish, totally unself-centered. It is selfless. Again, verse 1 tells us that when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father. What does that mean? Jesus knew He was about to die. Jesus knew He was about to go to the cross. He knew that His hour had come and He was going to die soon, yet He was not thinking of Himself. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, but He wasn't thinking about Himself. Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny Him three times, but He wasn't thinking about Himself. Consider the timing of it all. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow and that somebody here was embarrassed of you and they were going to ultimately betray you and deny that they even knew you, who would you be thinking about? Them or you? The problem is, brothers and sisters, we're all born self-centered. The love of God is not natural. It's supernatural. We're all born selfish. If I were to take a picture, a photograph of all of you right now, and I would put it up on this screen, where would your eyes go first? You would look for you, because our eyes are usually upon us. We're self-centered. It's the truth. Love doesn't seek its own, but we naturally seek our own. We get upset with someone when they don't notice us, when they don't say hello to us, when they don't agree with every single little thing with us and we want to cut them off. We'll love you this far, but no farther. We put up boundaries. Boundless love goes beyond those boundaries. Boundless love not only goes beyond self, but it goes beyond reason. Someone would say, well, you're not really being reasonable, Brother Brian. And that's right. The boundless love of God goes beyond reason. It goes beyond reason. It's unreasonable love in that it goes beyond reason. Jesus is not delusional here. Verse 3, He tells us that He knew, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God. He's not delusional. He knows who He is. He is the King of kings. He is the King of glory. He is the Lord of lords. He is the Son of God. He is God. And the Father has placed all things into His hands, yet He takes those same holy hands and picks up a towel. The night before He would go to a cross, the night in which He was betrayed, He takes those same hands that the Father put all things into and He takes up a towel. And He picks up a basin full of water and He begins to take those holy hands and wash the feet of His betrayer. And wash the feet of the one who would deny Him three times. And wash the dirty feet of every single one of His disciples. Teaching us and teaching them this love goes beyond self and it goes beyond reason. It's not reasonable, is it? That God would reach down and wash dirty feet? Shouldn't the disciples be washing His feet? Shouldn't the disciples be doing this job that was only, in Jewish tradition, was only for a slave? But boundless love goes beyond reason. The King takes up a towel. The King takes up a basin and washes the feet of His disciples. You see, folks, if you love only those who love you, if you only love the lovable, if you only love those who treat you right all the time and agree with you on everything, then you're just being reasonable. You're staying in the bounds of reason. You're really staying in the walls and behind the walls of self-centeredness and self-preservation. If what we call love doesn't take us beyond ourselves and outside the boundaries of our comfort zones, then it's not the love of God. If the only kind of love you know is that which is safe and shrewd and reasonable, that which is never taken to extremes, then you may have natural affection and you may have human sentiment, but you do not have love. The love of God. You see, love is one of the most perverted words in our English vocabulary today. People don't even understand what it is. The love of God. The boundless love of God. And I hope in this message, God is going to reveal that very clearly what it truly is. Jesus comes to Simon Peter and Simon Peter, look at verse 6. He says, Lord, are You washing my feet? Then he says in verse 8, You shall never wash my feet. That's totally unreasonable. What Jesus was doing seemed to be almost crazy to them. But that's exactly where boundless love will take you. Beyond selfishness, beyond reason. It was the boundless love of God that compelled five young men to forsake their careers and leave their comforts along with their wives. They traveled to the jungles of Ecuador and they went there to a heathen people, Akha Indians who were cannibals, killing each other, eating each other, but a tribe of Indians that had never heard the name of Jesus. It was boundless love that led them there. And one of those young men's name was Jim Elliott. He was an athletic, smart college wrestler, but the love of Christ compelled him to go. Compelled him to go somewhere that he could very likely be killed. And those five young men, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a tribe of Akha Indians, sharing the love of God with them, each and every one of them was speared to death. Unreasonable? Yeah, but it's boundless. It's even more unreasonable that Jim Elliott's wife, Elizabeth, later goes back to that same group of people who killed her husband. And even more unreasonable that she takes her one and only daughter, who was just a toddler at the time, to preach again the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the very same men who killed her husband. This is the boundless love of God. It goes beyond reason. It goes beyond self-centeredness. It's the love of Christ. I can tell you a true story about a sister named Beth to demonstrate this and illustrate this. Beth was in an airport. She was waiting to board her plane. And she'd had a wonderful morning with the Lord that particular morning. She looks up and there's this old man sitting across from her. And this man is very thin. Clothes hanging off of him. He's old. He's sitting in a wheelchair. And his hair is very, very long and very matted. And immediately she sensed the Holy Spirit began to stir in her. And so she knew where that was leading. And she said, Oh, Lord, please, please, don't have me witness to Him in front of all these people. There's people crowded all around. Please just cause Him to get on the same plane as me and sit down right next to me, and then I'll witness to Him for you. And the Lord said to her, Beth, I'm not asking you to witness to Him. I'm asking you to brush His hair. She said, Lord, I will witness to Him right now. I'll go right now, no matter who's watching. Beth, I want you to brush His hair. She stood in this embarrassment because people were gathered all around. How am I going to do this in front of everybody? I'm embarrassed. I don't want people to see me. But she had to obey the Lord. And so this boundless, unreasonable love of God compelled her to approach this man. What she didn't know is that he was hard-hearing. And so she tries to whisper so no one notices. Sir, may I have the privilege of brushing your hair? He says, what's that? May I have the privilege of brushing your hair? He said, little lady, if you're going to talk to me, you're going to have to talk louder than that. She says, sir, may I have the privilege of brushing your hair? By this time, everybody is looking at her and watching her. He says, sure, if you want to. And then it dawned on her. She says, there's only one problem. I don't have a hairbrush. She was just obeying the Lord. He said, that's not a problem. There's a hairbrush in my bag behind the wheelchair. So she opens his bag and she takes out the hairbrush and she begins to carefully brush out this man's hair. And she said, at that moment, it was as if she and that old man were the only ones in the entire airport. And she experienced the love of God pouring through her, washing over her and him as she's talking to him. Sir, she says, do you know Jesus? He said, I sure do. He said, my bride wouldn't marry me until I first came to know Jesus. I've known him for so many years. He said, I've just been gone, had a heart surgery. My bride was too weak to go with me and I'm going back home now. And I was just sitting here thinking what a mess I am and what a mess I look. And how disappointed, you know, to go back to my bride looking like this. And here you came and brushed my hair. She ministered to him. Finished brushing his hair out nice. And he was actually assigned to get on a different plane than she was. He boards the plane. She's gathering up her things to get on hers. And one of the flight attendants had watched all of this. And after the man boarded the plane, she came back and she was crying, tears running down her face. She said, ma'am, that old man is just sobbing his eyes out in there. Crying in the plane. She said, why did you do that? What made you do that for him? And she began to tell this woman about Jesus. The boundless love of God not may lead you to do something unreasonable. He will lead you to do something unreasonable. He will lead you to go beyond reason, beyond self-preservation. This is the boundless love of God. To love those that may not love you in return. To love those who may actually hate you. The boundless love of God knows no boundaries. And there's one final thing, and I'm going to camp on this one. The love of God, brothers and sisters and friends, is not just words. It's action. The boundless love of God goes beyond words. 1 John 3, verse 18. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. There must have been a holy hush in the room when Jesus picked up the towel and poured water into a basin. But you know what? There must have also been a holy hush in heaven when Jesus picked not just a towel up, but a cross. And He was going to a hill called Calvary to die on that cross. Can you imagine all of heaven watching this? All of the angels watching the King of Glory who had become a man, now taking up a cross. Not just telling the world that God loves you, that I love you, but showing the world that He loves us. He took up a cross and carried it all the way to a hill called Calvary. Boundless love goes beyond words and takes action. It's supernatural love. It's the love that is only produced by the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Isn't it enough love from God that He would pick up a towel and a bowl and wash His disciples' feet? That's love enough. It's so great a love just the fact that God would even choose to create us. It's love enough that God would even choose to provide for us so faithfully every day. Clothing, water, food, a family, children. We've been given so much. That would be love enough. A wife. A husband. But God's love goes beyond that. It would be love enough just the fact that God became a man and dwelt among us. But God's love goes beyond that. The greatest love of all is that Christ died for us. The greatest love of all is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5.8 But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet ungodly, Christ died for us. While we were enemies of God, Jesus Christ died for us. And I wonder if we really understand that the pain and the sting and the meaning of that little word died. You know who understands the pain of that word? Ask a mom or a dad who has suffered the loss of a child and had a child die. They know the pain and the sting of that word died. Ask a wife who loves her husband so much but who suffered the loss of her husband and he died. Even though she knows he belonged to the Lord and he's in heaven, she knows what that little word died. The pain and the sting of that word. Ask a husband whose beloved wife has been taken from him and carried on into glory. He knows. Died. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But no one knows the sting and the pain of that word more than God Himself. And Christ Himself who died for us on a cross. And someone may say, can God really feel pain? Does God really, really feel pain? My mind immediately runs back to Scripture in Genesis 6 and verse 5. Listen to what the Bible says about that. Genesis 6 and verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth and He was grieved in his heart. The NIV says, and his heart was filled with pain. What I want you to see tonight is that our God, the only true God, is not an emotionless God. He's a God who feels pain. He's a God who loves. He's a God who grieves. Jesus said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. And how many times in Scripture do we read Jesus wept? We serve a God who is moved with compassion. We serve a God who knows the pain and the sting of that word died. Have you ever thought about the cross from the Father God's perspective, brothers and sisters? Have you ever just meditated about what was God the Father? What was going through His heart, His mind, as He Himself is having to pour out His judgment upon the Son of God on the cross at Calvary for sins He didn't commit, but that we all committed? It hit me the hardest when my son was suffering on a bed, as many of you know, suffering with cancer. But I'll never forget this one particular night when he was suffering in unspeakable pain and agony, and I could do nothing to comfort him. I'd try. I would say things. I would pray over him. I would touch him. Anything I could do. And you and I both, all of us who are parents, would rather suffer 100,000 times than have to see your son suffer or your daughter suffer one time. But not being able to relieve the pain. And I remember that night praying and suddenly it was a revelation to me. I'd never thought of it before. The cross from the Father's perspective. What was going on in the heart of God when He gave His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross for your sins and mine? You think He wasn't moved by that? Christ died for the ungodly. That word died stung and must have filled the Father's heart with pain. Someone said we grieve to the extent that we loved. We grieve to the extent that we loved. The more you love someone, and they're taking it from me, the deeper you grieve. If that is true, and I believe it is, what was going on in the heart of Father God when Christ died for the sins of the world? Consider how much God the Father loved His Son. Consider what He went through when Christ died on the cross. But on that cross, God is not only... on that cross, above all, God is demonstrating His love for us. The Father is demonstrating His love for us. Christ is demonstrating His love for us. Look at John 15 with me if you would. John 15. And see what Jesus says here. Verse 9. Jesus says, As the Father loved Me... Now think about this. How much did the Father love the Son? Remember when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River? And He came up out of the water? As soon as He came up out of the water, a voice thundered from heaven. It was the voice of God. And God said, This is My Son whom I love. This is My beloved Son. With Him, I am well pleased. How do you measure the love that the Father has for His only begotten Son? It is a love that is boundless. It is a love that can't be described or explained. And here, Jesus says to me, As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you. Boundless love. Chapter 16, verse 27. Jesus again says, For the Father Himself loves you. First, He tells me that as the Father loved Him, He loves us. Now He tells us, For the Father Himself loves you. With what kind of love? Boundless love. John chapter 17, verse 23. I in them, and you in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent Me, and have loved them as you have loved Me. Do you hear what the Word of God is saying there? It's incredible when you think of it. Jesus is saying that the Father has loved His own, His people, in the same way that He loved Christ, His only begotten Son. Amazing! Have loved them as you have loved Me. Verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Jesus, in essence, is saying, I love them so much. I pray, Father, I want them to be with Me where I am in glory. But in order for us to be with Him in glory, for that to happen, there must be a cross, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must die on it. For God to remain just and yet justify the ungodly sinner, such as ourselves, Christ had to die. God could not spare both us and His Son. His Son must die. The just for the unjust in order to save us. Peter didn't understand this at the time. And so when they come to arrest Jesus, look with me, if you will, in chapter 18. When they come to arrest Jesus, it says in verse 10, Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? To get another glimpse of this boundless love of God, it's essential that you and I understand something about this cup. Jesus said, shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? What is this cup? What is this cup that He's talking about here? Mark chapter 14. Turn there with me if you would. Mark chapter 14. This cup. Beginning in verse 32. Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray. And He took Peter, James, and John with Him and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. He went a little farther. And He fell on the ground. And He prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. I don't know of another place in Scripture where He says it just like this, but here Jesus says to God the Father, He cries out, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Folks, Abba in Aramaic is the same as saying, Dad, Daddy. This is Jesus crying out to His Father, saying, Dad, Daddy, please, take this cup. I say that reverently. Take this cup, Abba, from Me. Jesus did not want to drink this cup. What was it about this cup? What was Jesus dreading so much about drinking it? Was it the physical suffering? Was it the fact that He would be whipped across the back with the whip of cat-of-nine-tails? Was it the fact that He would be nailed through His hands and feet? Was it the crown of thorns that He would have pressed down upon His head? Was it the cross? I think it was more than that. In this cup, first of all, were the sins of the whole world. Now, this is also beyond our comprehension. In this cup were the sins of the whole world. Isaiah 53 v. 6 says, All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The sins of us all were laid upon Christ. John 1 v. 29, John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus, remember, said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. 1 John 2, verse 2 tells us that Christ is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. In this cup were the sins of the whole world. Now how do you comprehend that? I want you to think of a time. Think of a time when you committed a sin against God. A terrible sin against God. Think about the time when that weight of guilt and shame came upon you. There was guilt. There was shame. There was a sorrow. Now I want you to multiply that sin and pile upon that sin all the sins that you have ever committed in your entire life. Put them on Christ. Now it's not just your sins and all the sins you've ever committed in your entire life, but the sins of every one of us who are gathered here tonight placed upon Christ. Now not just those, but all the sins of everyone who lives in Ingram and Ladysmith and all this area, all of Wisconsin placed upon Christ. Now pile upon the sins of the entire country of the USA, all the homosexuality, sodomy in that cup upon Christ, child abuse upon Christ, gossip upon Christ, lust, anger, murder, all of it. All the abominations this country has committed and all the people in it upon Christ. We're still not finished. Now all of Africa and all the sins of Russia and all the sins of everyone who's ever lived in China. Now we're talking not just about all of those sins of the whole world today, but every single person who has ever lived on the face of this planet. Past, present, future. The sins of the whole world. How do you comprehend that? Placed in this cup. No wonder Jesus said, Abba, Abba Father, take this cup. He wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane. He wrestled in prayer. He agonized to the degree that He literally began to sweat drops of blood. There was sin in the cup. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Just as we became righteous in Christ, we received His righteousness, He received from us, took upon Himself our sins. All of them! And the sins of the whole world. He was made sin on the cross. And why did He do it? Love. Boundless love. That's why. What else was in the... The sins in that cup. I think of... I heard Brother Zach say one time, Brother Zach Poonen. I'll never forget this. It made me weep. And it's made me weep every time that I've heard him say this. He was thinking about Gethsemane. And it doesn't say this in here. It doesn't give us the details. But Brother Zach says, I've often thought about Jesus wrestling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and this imaginary conversation going on between the Father and the Son. Jesus valued fellowship and oneness with the Father more than anything else. And what is the wages of sin? Death. A separation from God. Jesus never knew separation from God the Father. For all eternity past, it's always been like this. He never knew separation from the Father. Never knew one break in fellowship with the Father. And He valued that fellowship more than anything else. And in this imaginary conversation between God the Father and His Son, Brother Zach shared, he said, I wonder as Jesus struggled so in prayer, sweating drops of blood, if the Father didn't say, Son, you don't have to drink the cup. You don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to die. You've never sinned. You've been faithful to Me even as a man for 33 1⁄2 years. You don't have to break our fellowship. You don't have to drink this cup. You can come straight up to heaven from Gethsemane. But Zach will go to hell. And Brian will go to hell. And Dale. And Jane. And Rob. And Esther. And Matt. And Alvin. Will go to hell. And Jesus says, Oh, I'll drink the cup. I'll drink the cup. Why? It was love. It was boundless, indescribable love. He didn't want us to go to hell. He wants us to be in glory with Him. It was love that motivated Him to say, Yes, Father. Not my will. But Yours be done. But there's something else in this cup. It's not just the sins of the world. That's enough. What else is in this cup? Psalm 75. Psalm 75. In verse 7. It says, But God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup. And the wine is red. It is fully mixed and He pours it out. Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down. Jeremiah 25 talks all about this cup. It's the cup of God's wrath. It's the cup of fury. The cup that would bring desolation, astonishment, hissing, and a curse. The cup of God's wrath. The cup that Jesus would drink was full of the wrath of God against sin. Wrath means anger, fury. Vengeful anger with an intent to harm. Imagine this holy anger. This holy, righteous anger and fury of God that is building up against sin. God hates sin. Folks, you want to know how serious sin is? Look at the cross at Calvary. You want to know how serious bitterness is? Gossip is? Unforgiveness is? Lust is? Anger is? Pride is? Sodomy is? Adultery is? Look at what Jesus Christ had to drink and look at what Jesus Christ had to endure on the cross. This will show you the seriousness of sin. In the cup was the wrath of God. This holy wrath that has been building up, building up like tsunami waves. Building up. Ready to be unleashed upon sin because God is a holy and just God. He must judge sin and this is all building up. And Jesus has to drink this cup and what happens is on the cross, when Jesus is upon the cross, all of the sudden the dam breaks and the wrath and fury of almighty God against sin is poured out upon His Son and His Son is literally crushed under the weight of God's wrath against sin. In Isaiah 53, it goes so far as to say, and it pleased the Lord to crush Him. He was crushed under the wrath of almighty God. At the cross of Jesus Christ, the perfect love of God and the perfect love of God for all of lost humanity, all of us sinners, the ungodly, the perfect love of God for us and the perfect justice of God against sin met at the cross and Christ Jesus was crucified. Romans 8, verse 32 says, He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. Mark 15. Look at this one with me. Mark 15, verse 33. This is when Jesus is actually on the cross and it says, Now when the sixth hour had come, that's about noontime, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani, which is translated, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? This is the first time that Jesus Christ ever addressed God the Father as My God. Always before, it's Abba. Always before, it's My Father. But now on the cross, as He drinks the wrath of Almighty God, He drinks the cup, His Father now becomes His judge. And Jesus Christ cries out for the first time ever, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? That was the payment for our sins. And there was a separation that took place. For the first time ever, the fellowship that the Father and the Son had was broken. And without question, the most severe judgment of the cross was that three hours when Jesus was forsaken by the Father, and the fellowship was broken, and Jesus Christ was forsaken. Again, imagine the pain that the Father experienced. Imagine the pain that the Son experienced. And again, I ask you, why? Love. The boundless love of God for lost sinners. It is indescribable, folks. It is unfathomable. How could God love us like that? That He would not even spare His only Son. That Jesus Christ would be willing to go all the way. We deserve the wrath. We deserve the judgment of a holy God. But Jesus Himself receives that wrath and judgment of God in our place. Jesus was our substitute. The perfect sacrifice. How could a just God ever justify the wicked and ungodly? He judged His perfect Son in our place once and for all on the cross. And that, again, is boundless love. It's all at the cross. At the cross. There was an Olympic diver named Charles Murray. A friend of his had been witnessing to him for several months, but he kept resisting and kept rejecting the Gospel. Then one night, Charles couldn't sleep. He thought about all of his accomplishments and yet how empty he was on the inside. He was tossing and turning in the bed until he finally decided just to get up and get out of bed. He was under conviction. Because he had access and permission to the Olympic pool in the city, he just took a drive and decided he would just go to the pool that night and go for a dive. Well, that particular night, the moon was full and he got to the pool and this indoor pool had a ceiling that was made of glass panes. And so as he makes his way in, he doesn't turn on any lights, just makes his way on into the pool, makes his way to the diving board, goes up the ladder, gets up on the diving board, turns around backwards to get ready for his dive. And because of the way the moonlight was shining through that glass paned ceiling, he gets ready for his dive and he puts out his arms like this and he sees a perfect shadow in front of him of his self as the perfect shadow of a cross. And suddenly he was struck, smitten with conviction of all the sins that he had committed against the One who created him and who loved him so much that He gave His only Son for him. And seeing the shadow of that cross and being under such conviction, he went right back down the ladder, knelt beside the pool and cried out, confessing his sin to God, asking God to forgive him for all of his sins. He received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior right there at that moment. And the Lord forgave him. As he finished praying, wiping his tears away, he looked up, and because again the way the moonlight was shining through that ceiling, he looked and noticed that the pool didn't have a drop of water in it. They had drained it just earlier that night for repairs. It was the shadow of the cross that saved his life. It was what Jesus did on the cross that saved his soul. And I want to plead with you tonight, if you have never been to the cross of Jesus Christ, you are still yet in your sins. And the judgment that Almighty God poured out upon His Son is hanging over you. And if you die in your sins, there is a very real, literal hell according to Scripture where the justice of God will be poured out for all eternity. I plead with you in Jesus' name to look to the cross of Jesus Christ where the Son of God died in your place. He is the perfect sacrifice. And God did it for you because He so loved you. What is the purpose of all this? What is the meaning of all this? Let me sum it all up for you. So simple, but so profound, and it's become so familiar to some of you that you've lost the wonder of it. Are you ready? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting. But God demonstrated His love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins. Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us. Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. No one took the life of the Lord Jesus. He willingly laid it down for you. And I want to say to you, you can be forgiven tonight for every single sin that you have ever committed. It can be washed away forever if you will by faith and repentance come to Jesus Christ and simply call out to Him. Jesus, save me. Jesus, forgive me. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If we believe in our heart, confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died, He was buried, that God raised Him from the dead on the third day, you can have eternal life. You can be forgiven in one moment and washed clean whiter than snow. And there's not a single sin that you have ever committed that cannot be washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. What will you do with such boundless love? And I want to ask you, Christian, what will you, Christian, do with such boundless love? There's only one response to being loved so much by God, brothers and sisters, and that is to give it right back to Him. You can't contain boundless love. And the moment you have a revelation of the love of God and a fresh encounter with the love of God, you can't contain it. You've got to give it back to Him. And you give it back to Him in obedience. Jesus said, if you love Me, you will obey Me. You give it back to Him in obedience. And you know what else you do? You give it back by giving it to others. Freely you have received. What did the love of God cost you? Nothing. Freely you have received. Now freely give. Freely give that love to your wife. Freely give that boundless love to your husband. Freely give that boundless love to your children. Freely give that boundless love to your neighbor. Freely give that boundless love to those outside of these walls who do not know Christ and need to hear the Gospel. Freely give that boundless love to your brothers and sisters in Christ. We're going to spend eternity together. And it's not right that we can't have fellowship here before we get there. Freely give the boundless love to one another. God gave us two commandments. The first and greatest of all is simply love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor and love one another just as Jesus Christ has loved you. Amen? Will you pray with me as Johnny comes? And I feel a need to respond to the message. If there's someone here tonight that needs to respond to the message, then as we're going to have a time of prayer, enter into a time of worship, will you please stand with me as we pray and these pews are open as an altar for you to kneel to the Lord. And you know what? Sometimes the altar is a place to give something up to God, but sometimes it's a place to receive. And I want to invite first and foremost those of you who are willing by faith to come and receive, first of all, through confession of your sin to God and repentance of sin to receive His forgiveness and receive His boundless love that will change you and transform you forever. Father God, I pray right now that by the power of Your Holy Spirit You would reveal what no man can reveal. The love that You demonstrated at Calvary. The love that You demonstrated in Gethsemane. The love that You demonstrated when You stretched out Your arms and died in our place, Lord Jesus. The love that You demonstrated when You were separated from Your Father to pay for our sins in full. The love, Almighty God, that You demonstrated by giving Your only begotten Son. Let it grip our hearts again. Let it open our eyes again. Let it melt the coldest of hearts tonight and break the hardest of hearts. I pray, my God, that You would move among us this evening in Jesus Christ's name. Now you thank Him. If you're a Christian, you better thank Him with all your heart that He loved you this way. Praise Him and thank Him. Johnny, lead us. There's pews up here if you want to come and pray and meet with God. You can meet with Him right where you're at, but there's something about humbling yourself on your knees before God, folks. There's something about humbling yourself before the Lord. And I invite you to do that tonight and to meet with God.