I want you to look back in 1
Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 4 and verse 5. 1 Thessalonians 1, 4 and 5. Knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God It says, Beloved of God, your election, is what
it says in the margin, for our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance,
for you know what manner of man we were among you for your sakes.
I want to deal with election this morning and the effects
of election on God's people, the effect of election on the
Lord's people. John said, you know, that we
assure our hearts before God. And here he says, knowing your
election, knowing it, knowing your election. The blessed doctrine
of eternal election is a scriptural truth. And it has a profound and profound
influence upon the heart and the minds, the emotions, the
experience, everything about a believer. And when God teaches
you the truth of election, it makes you understand what election
is. It becomes a most blessed, blessed
truth. Now, let me state it very first
at the beginning. God didn't look down through
time and see who would believe. And then he elected them. Then
he chose them. That couldn't be right. Because
our Lord says, no, you're not. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. Election starts with God. And
God doesn't have to look down through time. He ordained time.
He lives outside of time. He lives outside of space. He
lives outside of everything until he comes and opens a man's heart
and breaks him know the truth. And let me give you a few things
about election. I love election. I do. I love
it. It's the most blessed, glorious
thing. Election, first of all, is eternal. God didn't start electing people. You know, He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That's what the scripture
says. You know, brethren, we're bound
to thank God for you because God hath from the beginning chosen
you. under salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit. And what's this? Belief of the
truth. Belief of the truth. And oh my,
it's God's sovereign purpose to have a people. God chose us
in Christ. God gave us grace in Christ before
the world ever began. And not only is it eternal, but
it's personal. God elects people. People say,
well, God elects nations. You know, the only people that
got elected was the Jews. No, no. God elects people. He
chooses people. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he himself
says, No, you're not. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you. And whom he did foreknow, them
he also did predestinate. Knowing your election of God,
beloved, It's a personal election. That's what He says. You know,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justified them. It's Christ that died. He took
care of their sin, and He rose again for our justification. And then this election was promised. Do you know that? Election was
promised before anything ever happened. It was promised. Hold, hold First Thessalonians.
Look over in Matthew 24. Go over in Matthew 24, verse
22. Oh my. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Oh my. Our Lord said, Father's
gonna give me a people. When did he give them to you?
In Christ, before the foundation of the world. That's when he
gave them to you. Look what he said here in Matthew
22, chapter 24 and verse 22. And except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those
days will be shortened. that then if any man shall say
unto you, Christ is over here, or Christ is over there, believe
it not. For there shall arrive false
Christ, false prophets, and shall show you great signs and wonders,
insomuch if it were possible, listen to this now, they should
deceive the very elect. So the elect ain't gonna be deceived.
Oh my, and I wanna look at the effects the doctrine of election
has on our hearts. You know, I love to preach on
election. God taught me election. I loved
election. You start bringing, I remember
years ago when I'd mention election, you'd think folks would just
rejoice in it, but they didn't. They didn't. They didn't rejoice
in it. But I do. I do. And I want to look upon the effects
of election upon the hearts and lives of God's people, God's
elect people, believers, upon its effect upon our thinking,
upon our thinking, upon our emotions, upon our experience, upon our
devotions, and oh my, and upon our actions, how we live in this
world. So let's look at these things.
Now let me tell you, I'll ask a believer, I'll ask every one
of you, you ask them, what do you think God? What do you think about God?
What's your opinion about God? What did the doctrine of election,
the truth of election have upon the way you think about God?
That's the first question. Did it influence you and have
an effect upon you about how you think about God? I'll tell you what, you know
what it does? It says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the rising
prudent and revealed them unto babes. And David said it like
this, he says, God does whatsoever he pleases in the heavens, in
the earth, in the sea, in all deep places. And God said this
in Daniel 435, He said, All the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing, but God doeth according to His will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, that's
us, and nobody can stop Him. Go say unto him, What thou doest?
Huh? You ask somebody that God, what
it does to them. Oh my. David, you know, and this, you
ask them about what they think about God. Then you ask them
about, they'll say, well, he's eternal. God's eternal. He has no beginning, he has no
ending. Where did he come from? Where's
he going? Who can describe him? who can
find him out by searching. The heavens can't contain him.
The heaven of heavens can't contain him. And he inhabits eternity. Whatever eternity is, that's
where God dwells. And oh my, he said before, he
said, I'll tell you what, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have
mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So I'll tell you what, he says,
there will be no flesh going to be glorying in my presence.
Oh, we say he's eternal. He declared the end from the
beginning. From ancient times and things
that are not yet done. He said, I will do all what?
My pleasure. What do you think about God?
What does the effect of doctrine of election have on you when
you consider God? He declared the end from the
beginning. I know exactly what my ending's
gonna be. I know exactly, God done told
me where my end's gonna be. He said, I shall be glorified,
I shall be with Christ someday, where He is. Now that's the effect
of the doctrine of election on people. It don't make them mad. It don't upset them. And oh my,
I tell you something else they know about God, and then you
ask them what they think about Him, what their opinion about
Him is. They'll say, He's immutable. He cannot change. If He could
change, He would. If He could change, He'd change
His mind about me. He'll change his mind about what
he's gonna do. And that's what I've heard preachers
say sometimes. I've heard a couple preachers
say this sometimes. I believe that if we prayed, we could change
God's mind. I believe we could change God's
mind about our loved ones. I believe we could change God's
mind. Who would want to change God's mind? You know, listen. I don't know how to say it. But
how you gonna change God? How would you go about doing
that? He's immutable. He's unchangeable. In fact, he
says, you sons of Jacob, you're not consumed. Why? Because I'm
God, and I do not change. What God is, what God is, what
God was, and what God's will be is always the same. Jesus Christ today, yesterday,
and forever. Now what do you think about God?
What did the effect of the Doctrine and Covenants have on you? Huh? And I'll tell you something else
they say about him. They say he's sovereign. They're not so
much interested in man's will, they're interested in God's will.
Oh my, I'll tell you what. He's a sovereign God, and he
has the right to do what he will. Sovereign just means he's the
supreme. He's the one with all the power.
He's the one with all the reigning. That's why we love the term sovereign
grace or free grace. Grace reigns. It reigns through
Christ. God's sovereign. That means that
he answers to nobody. And I'll tell you what, if he
doesn't control everything in this world, me and you, Scott
Rich and you say, if there was just a couple inches on this
earth where God didn't dwell, he said, I wouldn't be the one
found standing on that spot of ground. If there's any place
on this earth where God's not, tell me where it is. If there's
any place that God doesn't reign in this world, tell me where
it is. And folks get upset, well, God, if he was a God of love,
he wouldn't let this happen. If he is a God of love, he wouldn't
let that happen. You know what you can put in
front of every one of God's attributes? Holy. His love's holy. His wrath's holy. His justice
is holy. His love is holy. Everything
about him is holy. And if he wants to destroy a
nation, if he wants to send an earthquake, if he wants to send
a tornado, if he wants to take people out, if he wants to let
a nation to go dry, that's his business. Our business is to
obey him and bow to him and submit to him and not question him what
he does anywhere in this world. That's what we think about it.
That's what I think about it. Oh my, and I'll tell you something
else. What do you think about God? Well, we know he's omnipotent. You know what that means? He
got all the power. We know he's omniscient. That
means that he knows everything. And we know he's omnipresent.
That means he's everywhere. He's everywhere. He's everywhere.
And oh my, and what about his judgments? What about his judgments? I find no problem with his judgments. Oh, my. You know, and then let
me, what do you think about Christ? We talk about God. Now, what
do you think about Christ? What does the effect of the doctrine
of election have on you when you think about Christ? Oh, my. Well, I tell you, first thing
we think about him is he's an effectual savior. He's an effectual
savior. He didn't try to save. He didn't
come to make salvation possible. He didn't come to open the door
of salvation. He didn't come to give men chances. Thou shall call His name Jesus. And what does it say? He shall
save His people from their what? S-I-N. Oh, listen. He was our eternal, eternal representative. Christ Listen to me, God could
not never look upon any member of the human race had not Christ
stood for us in eternity. God gave us to Christ in the
eternal covenant of grace, and God has never ever viewed us
outside of Christ. And I'll tell you what, that
means He is our eternal, He represented us in eternity. He represented
us at the cross. He represented it in His life.
He represented us in His death. He represented it in His burial.
And He resurrected, He represented us in His resurrection. He represents
us now. Right now. How do we come to God? Through
Christ. How does God bless us? Through
Christ. What'd God do for us? Only in
Christ. And then he's a covenant head.
David said it like this, God has made with me an everlasting
covenant, order in all things insure. Oh, he's a covenant head. Oh my. He was, we talk about
him being our substitute. Oh, substitute. You know, I'll
be gone next week, and there's gonna be a substitute in here
taking my place. Aaron Greenleaf. He'll be taking
my place. And he'll be here to preach to
you, but I'll be back the next week. But the thing, what I'm
telling you is that Christ, as our substitute, he did everything that God required
for us to do. Let me tell you something. A
man must be perfect to be accepted. He has to have a righteousness
equal to God's. He can't have any sin. He can't have anything in his
life that's imperfect in any way. He can't have a spot or
a blemish. But you know what Christ did
for us? He provided every one of those things for us. No spot,
no blemish, no sin, and we have His righteousness. And our sin was put on Him, and
if it was on Him, it can't be on us at the same time. That's
the effect of the doctrine of election on us. Oh, my. And I'll tell you what, I'll
tell you, He's our life. When you ask what we think about
Christ, Christ is my life. My life. He's not, people say,
well, you need to make Christ the most important person in
your life. No, no, no, no, no, no. When Christ, our life shall
appear. Christ is our life. Oh my. Christ is our Lord. Christ is
our master. Christ is our redeemer. Oh my. And I tell you what, he is not,
people want to talk about their rights and, and, oh my. I, I, oh, I want his rights. I want him to, you know, he's
not a Johnny come lately. I know a lot of people talk about
him, you know, he didn't come until Christmas time. Didn't
come till December 25th, like that's the birth of Christ. They
make him, he's a paper king. He's just a paper king. He's
got no authority, he's got no power. He's just a pretender
after the throne. And he's a convenience. If you
need, you know, you come whenever you feel like coming. You come
and do whatever you want to. Take your sins, whack them on
Christ. Come up here and make your decision. Come on up and
get Christ as your insurance policy. But oh, no, no, no, no. We don't think like that about
Christ. He's our Lord. He's our master. He's our life. He's everything
to us. That's what doctrine of election
has to you. Oh, my. We say he is our all
and in all. We sing that old song. I need
thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour,
I need thee. And in all, my. What about the
Holy Spirit? What would be your opinion of
the Holy Spirit? Look what he said here in verse
5 of 1 Thessalonians. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also it came in power, not just an influence,
Not just to influence you to live right. Not just an influence
or some power to make you speak some foreign language or some
language you don't know or nobody else knows. But he came in power. The gospel did. And then the
Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is the one that's in it. And look
what he did. He come and gave you all the
assurance that you possibly need, that the gospel and Christ is
what you need. Oh, they come in power. He come
in the Holy Ghost. You know, when the Holy Spirit
comes, you know what the first thing He does? He convinces you
of sin. Convinces you of sin. Then He
convinces you that you don't have a righteousness. And then
He convinces you of judgment. And you ain't, you can't do it.
Old Bunyan said, you know, when he was, When he was under conviction
in the pilgrim's progress, he said, I have a burden on my back.
He said, I have to die and face the judgment. And with this burden
on my back, he said, I can't do one or the other. It wasn't until he got to the
cross that that burden fell off and he saw that shining one,
that Lord Jesus Christ. And oh my, he's not an influence,
but he's a conquering power. People say, you can resist him. Not if God calls you, not if
God elects you, you won't resist him. He's a sovereign, irresistible
power. And you know how he conquers
us, how he whips us, how he brings us to himself? He conquers us
with the love of God and the goodness of God and shows us
our Lord Jesus Christ. is our only hope and plea before
God Almighty. And not only that, but He must
uphold us. Holy Spirit must uphold us. He
teach us and He guides us into not just a little truth, but
eventually guides us into all truth, all truth. And oh my,
I take it too long on this, this one, but oh, the effects of the
doctrine of election. What did the effect of the doctrinal
election have on you and man in your relation to Adam and
the fall of man? What's the condition of the sinner?
What was the condition of yourself? Oh, my. There's an old song I
heard one time years and years ago. It said, ain't you got a
right to the tree of life? Oh, my. I talked to a preacher, he's
dead and gone now, but him and I parted ways, we was good friends
for a long time, but him and I parted ways over this issue
of depravity. He says that man had power and
everything, lost all his, everything but the power to choose. But the scriptures, when we talk
about depravity, that means that a man cannot do anything right,
nothing right. It don't mean a man is bad off
as he can be, but he's bad off in the sight of God as he can
possibly be. And I tell you what, you're depraved
in your faculties, your mind, your eyes, your mouth, your heart. There's not a sound place on
a human being outside of Christ that God would ever have anything
to do with. Oh my. I tell you what we've proved
before, both Jew and Gentile, all's under sin. Oh, not, you
know, people say, well, do we got a limited ability? No, we
don't have any ability, no spiritual ability. When our Lord said this
way, he says, no man, no man, no man can come unto me except
the Father which sent me drawing. That means every human being
on topside of God's earth. Oh, my. As you know, I've read
a little article the other day, and may even put it in our bullets.
I said, if a man's blind, giving him glasses ain't going to help
him. If he's dead, every one of us
has been to funerals. Every one of us been to funerals.
And I know some of you have stood and wept over the people that
you stood over. Did they see or feel your tears?
No. Did they feel you when you kissed
them on the cheek? Did they feel you when you rubbed
their hand? That's how dead a man is outside
of Christ. He can't feel Christ. He don't
know Christ. He can't understand Christ. He
can see Christ on a cross and it has no effect on him. That's
what depravity is. That's what being dead in sins
is. Oh my. No need to tell him about his
goodness and his rights. He knows he ain't got none. And
then what we think about salvation. Is it works or grace? Which one
is it? Is it election? Or is it sovereign
grace? What is it? God gave us grace in Christ before
the world ever began according to his purpose. All right. You talk about what the election
has on our, that's the way we think. That changed our thinking
dramatically. Wouldn't it? Huh? And you know, if you ever, if
God ever reveals to you that he chose you, your mind will change dramatically
just like ours has. It will. You know, I'll ask you
right now, what is your opinion of God? Your answer to that tells where
you're at. And then, let me tell you something.
It has the effect the Doctrine of Election has on our emotions.
We all got emotions. We're emotional creatures. We
all have emotions. Sometimes they're good, sometimes
they're bad. Sometimes we're happy, sometimes
we're sad. Them are all emotions. But when the Doctrine of Election
comes to us, it has such a profound effect upon our emotions. Not
just a head knowledge. but a heart belief. It's more
than just a doctrine for us that we glory in. Now let me tell
you something. Election is not our savior. Election is not our salvation. Christ is our salvation. Christ is our salvation. But
boy, boy, when he does save you, when he does make you to know
your salvation, and that He chose you, and election is unto salvation. If God elects you, it's unto
salvation. Knowing your election, brethren. Bound to give thanks to God because
He hath forgiven and chosen you. And I tell you what, the reason,
oh, what an effect it has upon our our emotions, oh my. Sometimes
it just fills us with such joy, such wonder. How could God, how
can it be, how can it be that God should love a soul like me? How could it be, huh? Oh my,
God saved us to the praise of the glory of his grace. And when
we receive the revelation of God's electing grace in Christ. Oh, my goodness, what joy, what
joy. Oh, I never will forget years
and years ago, we was up at Steve Dishman's house, and he lived
there in Springsport where Bruce does now, and we had sat there
way up in the morning, and we had talked about election and
talked about God choosing us, and when they first learned that,
the first thing they started doing was start crying, start
crying. Oh, how could God do? Oh, you
mean God chooses people like us? Chooses sinners like us?
How could that be? How can he do that? Oh, my. It makes you thankful. It brings
joy, brings joy to your heart. Oh, my. Men, you know, they approach
dignitaries only by invitation. That's not the way God brings
us to himself. No, no. Not so with God. He said, blessed, oh, blessed
is the man you choose. And listen to the next one, causes them to approach you. We only get in the presence of
dignitaries by invitation. I'll never be invited to the
White House. I'll never be invited to our
Senator's house. I'll never be invited. But God
brought me to Christ. And I tell you, He brought me
by His own power. He brought me by His own grace.
He brought me by His own strength. He did it all. Caused me to approach
Him. And once He causes you to approach
unto Him, He'll keep right on causing you to come. You know,
once it starts causing you, you never stop. He never stops causing
you. Ain't you grateful it's like
that? Oh, my. He may have to make you,
you know, may have to bring something in your life to say, oh, Lord,
I'm sorry. Here I come. Here I come. Oh, my. And I tell you what,
an inhumility. Who made you to differ? Who made
you to differ? What have you got? What do you
have in your spiritual life that you did not receive? What have
you got? It's like David and Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth came into the presence
of David and when he got there, he fell, oh, got down before
David and said, oh, why would you look upon such a dead dog
as I am? Oh. It makes us have a true estimation
of ourselves in the sight of God. Oh, my. Oh, my. And oh, my, this awful
sin. God said he hates pride. It's
an abomination. Oh, my. And then I'll tell you
something else that affects our emotions is it gives us great,
great comfort in hard, hard trials. You know, and we're gonna have
them. Yeah, I know folks right now
that's going through some hard things, hard things. And I tell you what, when those
hard things start coming, where do you get your comfort at? Lord,
we know, this is something that we know, we know that all things,
A-L-L things. Work as comprehensive. Work together for our good. And
here's the kicker to it, who are thee called according to
his purpose. You say, boy, I'll tell you what,
that was the hardest thing I ever went through. What got you through
it? What covered you through it?
Oh, my. It's the Lord, let him do what
seemeth right. He's a judge of all the earth,
he must do right. And oh my, our confidence and
assurance. Look with me in Romans chapter
eight. Romans chapter eight. Here's our confidence and assurance
in Romans chapter eight. I know we've looked at this countless
times over the years, but it won't hurt to look at it again.
Oh my. And this ain't presumption. To
believe God's not presumptuous. It's not arrogant. To believe
God. And look what he said here now
in verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And
that's where we're all going to end up at. God's predestinated
us to that. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, them he also justified. Who did, who
is this, he's talking about them, he's talking about those he did
foreknow, those he did predestinate, them, them, and who, He also justified them. He also glorified. That's where
we're going to end up at. Well, listen, what in
the world are we going to say to something like this? What
are we going to say? What are we going to say? If
God be for us, who can be against us? And he that spared not his own
son, did not spare him, did not spare him in his wrath, in his
judgment, did not spare him to give him, deliver him to the
cross, did not spare him from the hands of wicked men, but
delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him, with
Christ, freely give us all things? Listen to it now. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified
them. Oh, listen now. Who's going to
condemn them? It's Christ that died for them.
Christ that put away their sins. Christ that made them acceptable
to the beloved. Christ that made acceptable to
God. Yea, rather it's risen again. Where's he at? He's at the right
hand of God. What's he doing? Pleading for
us before God. And then here's another one.
Who shall separate us from the love of God? Nothing shall separate
us from the love of God. Oh my, you're talking about assurance.
And all those, what effect they have upon our emotions. And then,
oh my, what about our experience? You know, they call it experiential.
But you look at five people in the Bible, when they saw the
Lord, when they saw the Lord, Job, oh my, people, you cannot,
you know, when you don't, when you see the Lord, that's when
you see yourself. Nephemisheth saw David the king. Oh, why do you look up on such
a dog as I? Jacob, God said, Jacob thou worm. He said, I've loved Jacob with
an everlasting love. And Isaiah said, Isaiah served
under four kings, under four kings. And he said, in the year
that King Uzziah died, you know what happened? He said, I saw
the Lord. He'd been a prophet for years. And he said, I saw
the Lord. What'd he look like? His glory
would fill that everything about it. And His presence make the
doors to tremble. And he said, I saw Him. And there
were some seraphims around there. There were six of them. Two of
them had their eyes, because God's too holy to look on. Two
of them had over their ears, because God's too holy to let
you hear in your ears. And oh my, and then they had
over their mouth, and they flew, crying, holy, holy, holy is the
Lord. And then he said, when I saw
him, the first thing I cried, woe is me. Woe is me. Not woe is my neighbor. Not woe is my wife. Not woe is
that preacher. Woe is me. He said, I'm undone. And I'm unclean, unclean. And when I see everybody around
me, I said, they're just like I am. They're unclean too. But you know what the Lord did?
Come, and they have an altar where the sacrifice is offered,
an altar where the sacrifice is offered. And he took some
coals off of that altar, and he brought it down. The effects
of that sacrifice put it on my lips. He said, now you're clean. Now you're clean. Oh, the testimonies
of our day was, they said, oh, boy, I was a cocaine addict. I was a, you know, I was a big
shot and I got to tell you what all, how bad I was. Listen, believers
don't have to tell everybody how bad they are. They know everybody's
the same boat they are. We all, we all know how bad we
are. You don't have to tell me how bad you are. I know how bad
you are. We don't have to get up and give a testimony. Listen,
our testimony is this. Salvation's of the Lord. Alpha
and Omega. The will of the Lord be done,
that's our testimony. Salvation by grace is our testimony. The Lord saved me, that's our
testimony. Oh my. And I tell you what, the
testimony of a child of God gives God all the glory, all the glory. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory, both now and forever. Mm-hmm. Oh, my. Paul, it said, oh, when it pleased
God. This is his experience. He was
a blasphemer. He was a persecutor. He persecuted
the church of God without measure. Then he says, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace. Why did he do that? And he said,
to reveal his son in me. Oh, my. Ah, most people misquote
what Paul said, they'll say, I am what I am by the grace of
God. No, Paul didn't say that. He said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. You know, and I tell you what,
you can't be saved, can't know God without having experience.
And we have lots of experience. But here's the difference in
us who know God. We have experiences, but we don't
trust our experiences. We trust Christ. different than our devotions.
Let me hurry up. When I talk about devotions,
I'm talking about how we are in the presence of
God. When we pray, when we pray, we don't tell God what to do. We don't tell God how to act.
We don't tell God how to treat us. We pray and the first thing
that comes out of our mouth is Thanksgiving. And praise, we
offer the sacrifice of our lips, even praise. Our spiritual sacrifices
are made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And oh my, it's
whom we pray to. We pray to a God that's alive. We pray to a Christ that sits
at the right hand of God, sits on a throne. We're not, we're not, our faith
is not blind. We know who we're praying to.
We know why we have to pray and we can't help but pray. Oh my,
prayer. I, I was reading something by Martin
Lloyd-Jones one time. He said, everybody's got their
time of prayer and every way they do it. He said, I can't
pray. When I first get up, he said,
I can't pray. And other people get out of bed,
and the first thing they do is start praying. The one thing
we can do, even when we don't pray like we should, we can praise
Him. He's worthy of our praise. He's
worthy of our thanksgiving. And oh my, we're calling on a
Lord that's on the throne. You reckon that, you know, He
says He's touched with the feelings of our infirmity. You got any
infirmity? You got any infirmity? Go ahead on. Go ahead on. Go ahead on. And then our action,
how we live in this world. I'll close with it. We seek to
imitate our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, to be like him in some ways.
You know, in Bunyan's Holy War, when Emmanuel took over the soul
of Mansoul, took over the city of Mansoul, and sat on the throne
of his heart. He said, understanding, watched
him, and watched Emmanuel walk through
the city of Mansoul. And he said, as he watched him
walk through the city of Mansoul, he said, I watched how he stepped
and how he carried himself. And he said, I watched where
he stepped, and I tried to put my foot there, and that foot
there, and my foot there, and my foot there. Tried to walk
right where he stepped. But here's just the way I think
we need to imitate him more than any way, is in love. Love. Love. Here in his love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us. Oh my. Oh, look over in Luke
with me, Luke 35. Look in Luke 6, 635, excuse me. Luke 635, I'll wind this thing
up. Oh, to have love. You know, love
will do things and don't want no reward for
it. Don't even want recognition for it. Don't even want any recognition
for it. When you love somebody, you just do what you do because
out of love. Look what he said here in Luke
635. Ought to be like our master,
but love your enemies. Love you and do good. Do good
to your enemy. hoping nothing for again. And
your reward should be great, and you should be the children
of the highest, for he's kind unto the unthankful and to the
evil. Be ye therefore merciful, oh,
to be merciful like Christ, as your Father is also merciful. Judge not, don't judge, and you
shall not be judged, Don't go around condemning everything
and everybody. You shall be condemned. Forgive,
and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto
you, oh, with such a good measure. God will press it down and shake
it together, and it'll run over. Oh, my cup runneth over, and
men will give into your bosom. With the same measure that you
meet, it shall be measured to you. And all to love, and then
forgiving. Look in forgiving. I want Colossians.
If you're back in first Thessalonians, look over here in Colossians
chapter three. All to be forgiving, to love
like our master. Love. We know we've passed from
death unto life. Why? We love the brethren. And then forgiving. Forgiving. Look what he said here in Colossians
3.12. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, that's what we've been preaching on, holy and beloved,
vows of mercy. That vows of mercy means heart.
You're very inwards, your heart. Kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, So also do ye. And above all
these things, put on charity, put on love, which is the thing
that binds everything else to perfectly together, perfectly
together. Oh, my. And then generosity. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, he became
poor. And oh, my. generosity, and in
witnessing, oh my, our action, we only can tell what we've seen
and heard, and only what we know for ourselves. That's the effect the doctrine
of election has on people. What does it have on you? Our Father, O our Lord and our
God, we thank you for your great, great mercy you give us in Christ
even before the world began. We thank you, Lord, for your election of grace, your
election of love, your election of power, But we most of all thank you
that you chose us in Christ, in Christ. And God bless this message to
the hearts and understandings. Make men see God as he is, not
like they think he is, not like they hope he is, not they'd like
for him to be, but as he is. Make them see Christ as he is. And do it for your glory, your
glory, and to the praise of the glory of your grace. We ask these
things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. This thing at 318,
everybody knows that one. But this Santa's saying it. And
then you'll be at liberty to go, and I'll see you tonight,
6 o'clock. 318. Let's stand together. I need thee every hour. Most gracious Lord, no tender
voice like Thine can peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee,
every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need thee every hour. Stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power. when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee,
every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. Enjoy your pain. Oh, life is vain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Most Holy One, O make me Thine
indeed. Well, Lord willing, I'll see
you tonight, six o'clock. I know.