A tidal wave of darkness threatens believers around the globe. So how will the coming generation be strong enough to face this great challenge? It can only come through a right knowledge of God, a theme Paul Washer will address in this message geared toward young people. And this knowledge, he’ll explain, is revealed in the person and work of Christ, found in Scripture—a knowledge that gives strength to face hard times as we glorify Him.

It is a great privilege for me to be here with you this evening. A great privilege. The scriptures tell us That a lawyer came to Jesus asking him a question. And he said this, which is, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you tonight in the name of your Son. And we are so aware of our of our utter our total inability and our great need of you father please help Father, please help your people. Please help them. You know, O Lord, our enemies, the encroaching darkness, the battle within, you know, please help your You know.

Please help your people. Please strengthen us. Please help us to see Christ. And by that, to be transformed. To be motivated, to be moved.

We need you, Lord, so much. Please help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So a lawyer came to him, said, which is the great commandments in the law? In other places, we find out that It is the culmination of the law.

It is the purpose for the law. That the greatest of all commands and the greatest act of obedience is to love the Lord our God. In Matthew, it is to love him with all our heart, our soul, and our mind. We put all the witnesses together. It's to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

In this text, drawn from the law, neither the law or Jesus is seeking to use all these terms in order to break down what is to be components of the human psyche. This is a very Hebrew thing going on. For example, when God shows a glimpse of himself to Isaiah, we see the word, holy, holy, holy. And The idea is something of a Hebrew parallelism. So it's the idea of heaping one term upon another in order to prove a point.

So when he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, It's to love him with every fiber of your being. Now, this conference is about the chief end of man and that it's to glorify God. Now you know that's true. That's very true. As a matter of fact we are to glorify God whether we eat or drink and the most menial task we are to glorify God.

So it seems is there some sort of opposition going on here that in one case we find out that the chief end of everything is to glorify God. And the other we find that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. They are not set in opposition to one another. But I believe that It's not just that we glorify God by loving him, but it is love that leads us to desire to glorify him. And it is Love that maintains us in this action to live our life for the glory of God.

And I want to draw your attention to a text in the Song of Solomon. In chapter 8 verse 6. It says, Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death. Jealousy is as severe as shield.

It flashes or flashes of fire. The very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love. Nor will rivers overflow it. Now, this passage may seem strange to you, but let me let's just look for a moment.

I believe that there is a more accurate depiction of the Hebrew and the idea that is trying to come out of this text. I've read to you, for love is as strong as death, jealousy as severe as Sheol. One seems to be positive and the other seems to be quite negative. But when we look at the text in the original language, I would prefer to translate it this way. For love is as strong as death, and passion is as unrelenting and unflexible as the grave.

Now I want you to think about this for a moment. When we endeavor to glorify God, when we hear things like, you know, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we should glorify God. We're all in hearty agreement to that. That's not the problem. Theologically we understand it.

Not only do we understand it, we agree with it. But my problem is the strength to actually live it out. To actually live that way. When you're... I've walked now with the Lord for four decades.

And there's some things that you say and that you hear that almost makes you wince because as you get older you you think to yourself, I don't just want to say these things I don't just want to confess them I don't want to talk doctrine Christianity is not less than doctrine but you should be informed that it is far more than doctrine it is life I want to live this But sometimes I find in myself weakness. Sometimes I find myself in myself a sporadic strength that comes and goes. And it hinders me and it hurts me and it brings me lament. It brings me sadness. But I think I find something here that is a great encouragement to me.

What is it that can propel a person to live their life for the glory of God. It is love for God. Look at this. Love is as strong as death. In the Hebrew mind, in the Hebrew language, there's just nothing stronger than death.

That's why the resurrection is so extraordinary. In the light of Old Testament theology, Christ overcame death. Because for man, Nothing. Armies are not as strong as death. Nothing is as strong as death.

And yet here we read that love is. I need strength. I need Strength. Will it just come from discipline? Will it just come from doing the right thing?

No, none of those things are strong enough. It comes from love. Love for God. I'm not saying a heart in love with God. I don't approve of that language.

A heart that loves God is the key. It's the propellant. It's what moves a man, a woman, to do extraordinary things and make extraordinary sacrifices for the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom. It is love, and if it is not love, it's a faulty reason. So if I need something strong to work on my behalf, what is it?

Love. Love. Love for God. And then if my translation of the Hebrew is correct in the second part, passion. Is as unrelenting and unflexible as the grave.

Is there anything more unrelenting than the grave? Is there anything more unflexible? Once you're there, you're there. It will not let you go. It grabs a hold of you and holds you.

Someone asked me one time, what was it like right before you, your heart stopped? Did you have any sensation? There was only one thing. It is like something grabbed me. And if you've ever been in a fight, there's nothing worse than being pinned to the ground and there's nothing you can do about it.

You can't break out from under it. The force, the strength of your opponent is too great and he can from that position mock you. It seemed as though it was unrelenting, inescapable. Now if we look at this from a positive side, if only there was a love in me for God that was as strong as death. If only there was a passion for the glory of God, that was as unrelenting and unflexible as the grave.

That once it grabbed a hold of this goal, this supreme goal, this sunim bonim of life. Once it grabbed a hold of it, it wouldn't let go. After so many years, I find myself grabbing a hold and letting go. Being cold and warm and hot and back to cold again. Mutable in all the most negative ways.

But if there could be something inside me that would be strong and unrelenting And isn't that the burden, isn't that the pain of all of us? We're so changeable. What's the answer? Love. And I want to say it this way, and I want you to be keen to remember my language.

Our love for God. But now I've only given you a partial solution. In fact, I've led you to another problem, haven't I? How? How do you do that?

How do you make yourself love God? How do you increase your love for God? I mean is it the proverbial pull yourself up by your own bootstraps? I mean if I was laying on the ground and you saw me laying on my back. And I had both hands and I was grasping my belt.

And I was pulling upward with all my might. You would maybe ask me what are you doing? And I would say, well, I'm trying to get up. And you would say, well, brother, if you had studied physics, you would know that in order to do that, you must be acted upon by an outside force. If you're going to do it that way, you can't pull yourself up.

Someone outside of you has to do it. And that's the same thing with the love of God. Our love for God. What are you going to do? Go to a conference, acquire the fire, get all wound up and excited because the songs are beautiful and emotional and the preaching is good.

And then three days later, like a little toy soldier, you unwind. And all that zeal for the glory of God is gone. And it makes you more bitter than when you started. Because here you are again. The same person.

How do we make ourselves love God? Well, jump with me again to 1 John. And you'll find the key. Chapter four. Verse 19.

We love. Because he loved. He Because he loved, he first loved us. So what do we see here? Our love is not self-generated is what we see.

So stop it. Stop trying to wind yourself up. It's not the way it works. We love him because he first loved us. That means any growth in love, any improvement in my love for God, to accelerate me to live for the glory of God.

Any augmentation of my love for God is utterly dependent on my understanding of God's love for me. I know that, you know, it's mainly my hard or radical sermons that become well known. But that's not really who I am, nor Is it what I want for God's people? If I could give God's people one thing in all my ministry, if I could give God's people one thing in all my preaching, It would be to show them Christ so that their love, their understanding of His love for them would be increased. And in that increased understanding, comprehension, reality of his love, their love would correspond.

It would be the greatest gift a preacher could ever give anyone. Because you see, we're not talking about unconverted folk. We're talking about converted folk. The heart of stone that is unresponsive to God has been taken out. And a heart of flesh that is responsive to God has been put in its place.

That loves righteousness. And that person, the more they understand how much God has loved them, and does love them, and will love them, the more they will love God. And that love will propel them to live for the glory of God. Do you see? Sometimes we're extraordinarily idolatrous.

So, you see a man who has an extraordinary love for his wife. And the first thing that pops into your head is what an extraordinary man. What an extraordinary man. Maybe he's not an extraordinary man at all. Maybe he's not even a normal man.

Maybe he's subnormal. You say, well, Brother Paul, how can you say that he has an extraordinary love for his wife? Maybe he has an extraordinary love for his wife, not because he's an extraordinary man, but because his wife is an extraordinary person. And it is her virtue, it is her beauty, It is her grace that draws love from even the stony heart of a brutish man. Do you see?

It's the same way in Christianity. You read the history of missionaries and preachers. You see an extraordinary love for God and what is the first thing you do? You run to them and lay an offering at their feet. You praise them.

But you fail to realize that they were, they're all born out of the same stock of Adam. And the regenerating work of the Spirit was no greater in them than it is in you. Then why is it that they appeared to have an extraordinary love for God? It's only because they've seen an extraordinary vision of the love of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Your greatest need, your greatest need, It's the pain of the preacher.

That the preacher has not even the thousands part. He's not seen, He's seen nothing of Christ. And even what he has seen. He cannot comprehend and even what he comprehends he cannot speak. Because it's such an infinitely glorious subject.

But that is the work of the preacher to show you principle and wisdom and precept absolutely. But his greatest task is to show you the love of God in Christ. And that's why every time he preaches on the subject, he walks out of the pulpit and he just wants to leave the ministry. Because the subject is too high for him. And even in the best of all his preaching, he's only touched the rim of it.

You see, You need to know the love of Christ. And the only way you're going to live a life that is strong and inflexible with regard to its direction to glorify God is by Understanding how much God loves you and the only way you're ever going to understand that is by a greater and greater vision of Christ and the tree. The tree. That is the key. It is an overwhelming, transforming, and in some ways imprisoning love.

I want you to go now to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9. Paul says, Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. I believe that we can draw from this text that Paul is talking about a singular, controlling ambition. An earnestness, an ambition, a passion, a desire for one thing.

To be pleasing to him. I want you to note something. And I'm speaking about a missionary. As someone involved in missions. He doesn't say that his ambition is to plan a church.

He doesn't say his ambition is to even reach the world. He says his ambition is to be pleasing to him. You see that's the thing. To be pleasing to him. That is all that is required of a slave.

Is to be pleasing to his master. I think these conferences are very beneficial. I do. But. Don't ever think that someone.

Speaking in this conference is more pleasing to you who labors as a pastor of 50 people. Because the judgment is not on some apparent success. The judgment is this. Are you pleasing to him? Are you living for his glory?

Are you loving him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Paul said that was his ambition to be pleasing. But then he gives us two motivations with regard to being pleasing. And I call them, going back to creation, I call them the greater and the lesser light. The sun and the moon.

So let's look at the moon first. The lesser motivation that Paul had. It's in verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. That was a motivation in Paul's life.

His judgment. His assessment before the Lord. That is a valid and real Christian motivation that should not be discounted. We will all stand before the judgment of Christ. The Bema of Christ.

And we will all be judged with regard to our ambitions and how they moved us. Not just the inner thought of the heart. But he talks here about the body, deeds in the body. How did we actually live? Not what confession did we confess?

Not whether or not we memorized a catechism. But what did we actually do? And you say it's a whole point of this sermon. I love theology. But I would trade so much talk of theology for more living.

For more power. For more reality. I wouldn't trade theology for it, because it actually comes from good theology. But I'm tired of all the talking. I don't know how many years I have left.

I want to live. I want to live this stuff. So do you. Well, one of the motivations is this, we must all stand before him. And I do not like, I do not know, I have to confess, I do not know exactly how this is all going to play out.

I know there will be a judgment. I know there will even be loss and yet I know That we are beloved and the beloved. And know this, dear saint. Those of you who look at this passage. And you're afraid.

Just know this. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Did not come to earth. Live the life of a man. Suffer what he suffered and go to a cross, bear your sin, suffer the wrath of God, and die in your place.

He did not do all that so that the first thing you see when you walk into heaven is disappointment on his face with regard to you. That's not how it works. There will be a judgment. But I can assure you it will be in love. And I can't put it together.

And I have read other men and I do not think that they Hit the nail on the head either. We just have to hold these things to be self evident. That we are dearly loved and yet we are also responsible to the one who loves us. I think the best way of looking at it is as some poets have said, that when you look into the face of your judge, you will see a father and a brother. So that is a motivation.

But now let's go on. Because of time, let's just drop down to the greater light, the sun, the greater motivation to the Christian of life. He says in verse 13, For we are beside ourselves, If we are beside ourselves, it is for God. And if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.

What is the greatest motivation? What is the thing that fuels our returning, our responsive, our reciprocal love? What makes us love God? That he loves us. And Paul here is saying, for the love of Christ controls us.

Now here the genitive is very important to understand. Paul is not talking about his love for Christ. But he's talking about Christ's love for Him. So what causes Paul to love Christ? Well, we go back to 1 John, don't we?

Paul would say, I love Him, Because he first loved me. And I love him more with every greater glimpse of him that I see. I love him more. Now, notice here, Paul says something that seems unusual in verse 13. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

If we are of sound mind, it is for you. It seems that there were accusations against Paul. He was unstable. His zeal was disproportionate. He worked too much, he sacrificed too much, he put himself in too great a danger.

When he spoke to people. It seemed sometimes like the man was losing touch. I want to read something from from Albert Barnes on this passage. This is probably designed to meet some of the charges which the false teachers in Corinth brought against Paul and to furnish his friends there with a ready answer. As well as to show them the true principles upon which he acted and his real love for them.

It is altogether probable that he was charged with being deranged, that many who boasted themselves of prudence and soberness and wisdom regarded him as acting like a madman. It has not been uncommon by any means for the cold and the prudent, for formal professors and for hypocrites to regard the warm-hearted and zealous friends of religion as maniacs. Festus thought Paul was deranged when he said, Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad." And the Savior Himself was regarded by His immediate relatives and friends as beside Himself. And at all times there have been many, both in the church and out of it, who have regarded the friends of revivals and of missions and all those who have been evidenced any extraordinary zeal in religion to be simply deranged. The object of Paul here is to show whatever might be the appearance or the estimate which they affixed to his conduct.

What were the real principles which actuated him? These were zeal for God, love to the church and the constraining influences of the love of Christ. He goes on and he says, with regard to the phrase, it is to God, if I'm out of my mind, it is to God. Says it is in the cause of God and from love to God. It is such a zeal for him, such an absorbing interest in God's cause, such love prompting him to so great self-denial, and teaching us to act so much unlike people as to lead them to think that we are deranged.

The doctrine here is that there may be such a zeal for the glory of God, such an active and ardent desire to promote his honor as to lead others to charge us with derangement. It does not prove, however, that a man is deranged on the subject of religion because he is unlike others or because he pursues a course of life that differs materially from that of other professors of religion and from the man of the world. He may be the truly sane man after all. And all the madness that may exist may be where there is a profession of religion without zeal, A professed belief in the existence of God and then the realities of eternity that produce no difference in the conduct between the professor and other people or an utter unconcern about eternal realities when a man is walking on the brink of death and of hell. I would dare say that there are times we can become unruly in an unbiblical fashion.

But if no one has ever accused you of being mad or off, then I have great concern for you. Paul says, the love of Christ controls us, constrains us, imprisons us. I know a young man that was at a university and was somewhat respected. Somewhat respected. And he came to know Christ and a few days later he's standing on the quad, handing out tracts, telling people, Jesus saves.

Jesus save me. His friends came to him. They said, what are you doing? What are you doing? Everyone thinks you're a madman.

What happened to you? Look, men are making fun of you. Girls are laughing at you. What are you doing? His only response was what else can I do?

What else can I do? He died He died He died For me for me For me. What else can I do now? My life is gone. It is.

It is. And that's what we see here in Paul. The love of Christ controls us. It owns us. Because I can assure you that if Solomon can write about the love of men, and say that it is strong as death, that passion is unrelenting as the grave, How much more does this apply to the love of God that captures the heart of a man or a woman?

Captures them and does not let them go. And then after saying, look what he says for the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for us. We've died to the world.

Not only that, but if we go back to Romans 5 and we read it correctly, we died to that sphere of being in Adam. And we're now in that sphere of being in Christ. He's going to go on and he's going to say in verse 17, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The text says that. But it says so much more than that.

Actually, what is said here is inside a greater reality. It actually says, therefore if anyone in Christ knew creation. And What does it mean? Not just individualistically that we are new creatures. We're prone to do that with our western mind.

To think individual. But I believe what he's actually saying here is that those who are in Christ have entered into the new creation. Going back again to Romans 5. Escaping sin, death and condemnation. And entering in to this new realm of existence.

That one day will take material form in the new heaven and the new earth. But it's already begun. But go back to 15, and He died for all. So that they who live, might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. So I have a greater and a lesser light here.

And I have always said, that in some ways, we live as Christians between two days. The day when Christ hung on a cross before men. And the day when all men will kneel before Christ on the throne. This is our reality. This is our reality.

Here at this conference, you are going to hear many splendid things. Take them to heart. Own them. But this is something only of an igniter. You must go home.

And you must press on to know the Lord. Now that's an Old Testament passage. When you bring it alongside the gospel, you must press on to know Christ. And the fellowship of his sufferings, you must press on to know him. To know him.

To know everything that He is. To know everything that He did for you. Everything that resulted from it. And that it is so great, so splendid, so infinite. It will just keep going on throughout eternity in ever increasing measure.

So many people think, go to heaven, that it's static. You know, I get there. There it is. It's not. It's not static.

It's dynamic. It's a never ending infinite chase. To see greater and greater beauty and you never get to the end of it. And the more beauty you see the more you're transformed by it. And you never get to the end.

The love of Christ. That is what you need to see. How do you do that? Through the Scriptures? Through prayer?

And I'm not talking about prayer with your boots on. I'm not talking about intercession. That's warfare. That's very little pleasure in that. I'm talking about chasing him in prayer.

And I'll step out on a limb here. It's not just intellectual. It's not just academic. It's subjective. It's not just academic facts.

It's experimental. You can know him. A heightened awareness of his presence. A heightened awareness of his beauty. You're not just trading theological remarks with other people.

He can show himself to you in such a way that you have to say, Lord, take your hand off me lest I die. Show me no more. Not tonight. We are so afraid. Of all the nonsense out there in the world today.

All the subjective nonsense, all the testimonies of experience and everything that we have out of fear, run ourselves into a corner where the only thing you have is academic knowledge of a book and that is not Christianity. It will never be less than doctrine. But it is more. It's knowing him. You can go through a passage that you've been through a thousand times and all of a sudden by the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit you can see it in a way and see Christ in that passage as you have never seen him before and you are cast to the ground with joy unspeakable and full of glory and your children need to know that this is more than just being right about a confessional statement it's more than just being moral it's knowing him it's knowing him And there are no boundaries that I can see in the older New Testament to what we can to what we can know of him, what we can experience of him, the joy, the strength, the life, the beauty.

Yes, The beauty. And so as you read, you're saying, show me God. Show me him. Show me him or I die. I must have more.

I must see him. That is the answer. To so many of your problems with regard to zeal, with regard to actually chasing after the glory of God in an unrelenting manner. It's knowing him. Knowing him.

It's worth a chase. It's worth a chase. Pastors. And that servant went after Isaac's bride. I wonder sometimes, I I wonder sometimes if, I wonder what he told her about the groom that coaxed her out from that coaxed her out from her own people and brought her to him.

I wonder if every time as they were making their way back, every time the servant of Abraham saw a doubt in her eye, did he not pull out another gold piece and place it on her arm? Did he not say to her, no, don't go. He will be worth it. He will be worth it. When they stopped at a watering hole and there were young men there moving the stone so that all could drink.

And that servant saw that bride to be glance over at one of the handsome young men. Did he go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, That is nothing compared to what awaits you. Here's another gift from him. If you want to know what the job of a preacher is, it's that. Keep showing the bride more and more reasons to wait for the groom.

But in order to do that, preacher. You have to stop being so busy. Stop doing the work of a deacon. What would happen to the church if the men who were called to pastor and if the church itself recognized most of this activity needs to be done by God called deacons And men lock themselves away for hours a day seeking the beauty of Christ so that on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday. Those men could place it, place another bracelet.

On the arm of Christ's bride and say, no, no, no, no, don't look away from him. Don't look at other loves, don't doubt. He'll be worth it. He'll be worth it. He loves you so much.

He loves you. So much. That's your job. That's why you spend time in the night watch. That's why you pray.

That's why you study the word of God. Yes, you must bring forth principles and precepts and great wisdom. And it is from that wisdom that the nations will know that there is no people like God's people. But that's only the rim of it. Your true job, preacher, is to show God's bride, Christ's bride, the beauty of the groom, the love of Christ.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your kindness. Oh God, empower us, especially those who are called to feed your people. To paint a picture of Christ to your bride.

Please help us to see him. That we might proclaim him. Please, your people, Lord, are hungry. They're weak. They're afraid.

They're weak. They're afraid. Many times even uncertain. That You will greet them with joy and bring them into Your joy. Help us, Lord.

Bless Your people. In Jesus' name, Amen. God bless you. Thank you.