th th Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 42 from the hardback hymnal, number 42. All
hail the power of Jesus' name. Let's stand together. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth a royal diadem and
crown him Lord of all. Bring forth a royal diadem and
crown Him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,
ye ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by
His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every
tribe, on this terrestrial ball, to Him all majesty ascribe, and
crown Him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe, and
crown him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng
We at his feet may fall We'll join the everlasting song And
crown him Lord of all We'll join the everlasting song and crown
Him Lord of all. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
read from Psalm 121. If you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bible, Psalm 121. Very familiar, glorious passage
about Our crying out to the Lord. And
him delivering us. We were reminded again. Yesterday
that. That if. Christ only becomes all. When he is all you have, you
don't have anything else. And that's a good place to be.
Uh. Psalm 121 verse one, I will lift
up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help
cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not
suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even Forevermore. Jennifer texted us. Soon as she began to gain consciousness
from her surgery yesterday, I think it was yesterday that right?
And she just texted the family and said it is well with my soul. So so thankful, thankful for
you. Thank you for your prayers. She's
at home recovering so. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before thy holy presence thanking you that we have an
advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear son, The only one who gives us full
acceptance in thy presence. Yet what hope and what glory
we have in knowing that our help. Our help comes from the Lord.
Lord, we're so. Grateful for the many. Many gifts
of grace that you show us day by day. Most especially, we thank
you for the forgiveness of sin. We pray Lord that you would Remind
us once again tonight by thy word, the glorious person and
the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We would find
ourselves leaving here tonight, having full rest and full salvation
in his full completed work of redemption. We thank you for
the mercy that you showed us and Jennifer yesterday. We asked Lord for your hand of
strength to be upon her. We pray that you would continue
to cause her to find her rest and hope in thee. And we pray
for your hand of healing to restore her her body. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Number 44 from the Spiral Gospel
Hymns Hymnbook, number 44. And let's stand again. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now Thy precious
treasure, let Thy word hear Give to us a gracious measure,
Tis Thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Psalm 119 has always been a troubling
passage for me. Now I think it may be my favorite
song. As we've slowed down and began
to consider verse by verse what the Lord is telling us about
the Lord Jesus Christ. So many passages in Psalm 119
where David is committing himself to the faithfulness of keeping
God's law. And that's what concerned me
about this Psalm for so long, until I realized that David was
speaking prophetically about the Lord Jesus Christ, who fully
kept God's law, and in whom we keep God's law. So we can pray
these these prayers, knowing that in Christ we have. We have satisfied everything
that the law requires. Now there's there's two things
that that inspire me to preach. And that's listening to good
preaching. And listening to bad preaching. I listened to some
bad preaching yesterday. Had some time on my hands and
I went online and I listened to a man preach. And I didn't
go back. I wasn't looking for something
to pick him at. I thought, well, I'll just listen
to the last message he preached. So I listened to the passage
that he preached this past Sunday morning. And it was from Psalm
1. And it was very painful. And
I spent, well, 35 minutes into the message is when he finally
mentioned the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll go, we're going to go
to that Psalm in just a minute, but let me, let's look at our
text. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119. The Lord Jesus said, you did
not choose me. I chose you. We love him because he first
loved us. And in Psalm 119 verse 30, I
have chosen the way of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that can say that. I chose the way of truth. God put us in the way of truth. And he gives us a love for the
way of truth. And he causes us to look to Christ,
who he is himself, the way of truth. But only the Lord Jesus
Christ can say, before God almighty, I have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before
me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies. I have kept... Do you see why
this psalm would be a concern for a believer who didn't really
fully understand that this was speaking first and foremost of
Christ? And religious people read this
and they think, well, I can do that. I can do that. The message tonight actually
comes from verse 32. Look with me at verse 32. At
the end of verse 31 it says, Oh Lord, put me not to shame. Reward me for my faithfulness. And we come before God and we
say, Lord, we plead the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we believe that God will reward us for Christ's sake. Verse 32, I will run the way
of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
praying to the Father to enlarge his heart. But in order for his
heart to be enlarged in love toward his people, and that's
what's being referenced here. In order for God to make his
heart full and able to show the fullness of God's love to all
of God's people. We're going to look at that in
a minute from Isaiah chapter 60. That is exactly what this
is speaking of. The Lord had to first keep God's
law. He had to satisfy the demands
of God's law. He had to uphold divine justice. And that's exactly what he did.
And if we've learned anything from our study in Psalms, we've
learned that these Psalms are first and foremost about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And until we see them like that,
we cannot see ourselves in Christ and we cannot enjoy the blessings
and the benefits that these Psalms speak of in reference to keeping
God's law. Turn with me to Psalm 1. The Psalms begin by speaking
of the blessed man. Now that message I listened to
yesterday The preacher spent quite a bit of time defining
from the original language the emphasis that is on the verbs
in the first verse. And he was right. The emphasis
on the verbs is in the perfect tense, and the verbs can be understood
as never, ever, ever. Okay? That's exactly the way
accurately to read Psalm 1 verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh
never, ever, ever in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
ever, never, ever in the way of sinners, nor sitteth never,
ever, ever in the seat of the scornful. That's what that, that's exact,
and he emphasized that, and that was true. This man is a language
scholar, I guess, of some sort, and he got it right. And then, and then he interpreted
this passage as that man being you and him. And I thought, you
liar. You hypocritical, self-righteous
liar. You think you can stand before
God's people and say that sort of thing? Turn with me to Matthew
chapter 23. That's exactly what he was doing. Now, by inference, He was holding himself
up as the standard of righteousness. He was saying to the people that
he was preaching to, you need to be like me. You need to never,
ever, ever stand in the way of centers. You need to never, ever,
ever sit. in the seat of the scornful.
You need to never, ever, ever walk in the way of the ungodly. And I thought, wait a minute,
wait a minute, this is a faithful saying, Christ Jesus came to
save sinners. And while we were yet without
Christ, He saves the ungodly, the ungodly. Let me show you a passage of
scripture that describes what this man was doing in his exposition
of Psalm 1. Matthew chapter 23, all therefore whatsoever they
bid you observe. He was talking about following
after the Lord and doing what's right. And the Lord says, that's
always the right thing to do what's right. But do you at, but do not ye
after their works for they say and do not do. Now look at verse
four, for they bind a heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay
them on men's shoulders. but they themselves will not
move them with one of their fingers." Now, if Psalm 1 is a description
of the believer left to himself to walk this walk, then I'm in
trouble. I'm in trouble. But if it is
a description of that blessed man, that man that the scripture
says, mark that man, mark that man. He's the man who never,
ever walked in the council of the ungodly. He never, ever stood
in the way of sinners and he never, ever sat in the seat of
the scornful. And God made him to be sin for
us, that we, might be made the righteousness of God in him. He's the tree that was planted
by rivers of living water. You know what that water is?
That water is the spirit of God. The Lord Jesus Christ came as
the anointed Messiah in the full power of the spirit of God to
do what? To accomplish his purpose. Look back with me at Psalm 1.
For his delight, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, doth he meditate
day and night. He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Now, when did the Lord Jesus
Christ bring forth his fruit? When was his season? You know
when it was. When he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross and said, It is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. And then when he send it back
up into glory and took with him all the names of those for whom
he lived and died, that's when he bore fruit in his season. And as he sends his spirit, he
bears the fruit of faith in the lives of those that he died for. I pray that he's bearing that
fruit, that this is his season right now, that he makes his
people willing in the day of his power, he causes them to
rest all their hope in him. His leaf also shall, and here
again, the verb tense is, never ever wither. Never ever. Now the leaves here is a picture
of the the medicine of grace. This is, uh, his grace never
withers. It's always sufficient for our
every need. And look at the last part of
verse three and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper everything that he did. And it's
the same. It's the same emphasis all through
these first three verses. It's all in the perfect tense.
It means that He always prospers, always. My word will accomplish
the purpose for which I sent it. It prospers. He prospered in accomplishing
salvation for his people. He prospered in satisfying the
demands of God's law. He prospered in saving all of
God's elect. He prospers now bringing his
people to repentance and faith. His work, whatever he does, shall
prosper. Go back with me to our text in
Psalm 119. I will run the way of thy commandments.
When thou shall. Enlarge my heart. Now the only
hope that you and I have to have our hearts enlarged is for us
to be completely confident that God is satisfied with the finished
work of Christ. And to be confident. To be confident in the love of
God. Now. We know that God is spirit
and yet the Lord condescends to our level to reveal himself. And one of the ways he does that
is he uses language that we can understand. The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now we know we, this is speaking
of God's omniscience. He sees everything and knows
everything. And, and in his eyes, his, his
people are loved. And, and, um, and yet we're not
going to, we're not going to say that God has eyes like we
have eyes. And yet the Lord uses that kind
of language, doesn't he? Um, when he speaks of the hand. of the Lord, accomplishing his
work. It's his power, his omnipotence,
and his accomplished work. Because we work with our hands
and God uses that figurative language to speak of his work. When the scriptures speak of
the feet of God, it's speaking of His omnipresence. He, just like we're, you and
I are present wherever our feet are, okay? And when God, when
the scripture speaks of the things of this earth being under His
feet, we're reminded that our God is omnipresent. He's omniscient. He's omnipotent. And this is language that God
uses to reveal himself to us. And so, because when I first
read this, I thought, how could God's heart be enlarged? I mean,
he's immutable. His heart is full and perfect
all the time. And yet, the Lord is using language
that we can understand. As we increase in our love and
in our affection towards someone, our hearts are enlarged. Turn
with me to Isaiah chapter 60. I'll show you this. Isaiah chapter
60. This is clearly speaking of the
mercy and the kindness and the love and the affection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When he says to his father, I'm
going to keep your law and you're going to enlarge my heart. Isaiah chapter 60, look at verse
one. So the man of Psalm one is the same man all throughout.
the Psalms, and he has kept God's law. He's the one that's speaking
in Psalm 119, and the hope and love for God's law that we have
is found in him. And now he says, here's the Father
speaking to the Son. Look at Isaiah chapter 60 at
verse 1. Arise, shine, for thy light has
come. The glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee. It's a reference to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the proof of his accomplished
work. And the father saying to him,
arise. Look at verse two, for behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth. And it did. Oh, a darkness
that could be felt from noon to three o'clock in the afternoon.
The lights were out. There was no, God was showing
to the world that the light of the world, that light that's
spoken of in Genesis chapter 1, let there be light. Christ
being that light, light is coming to the world. Men love darkness
rather than light. And here's the evidence of man's
sin. When Christ was made sin, the
earth was black. I mean pitch black. And so the
father saying to the son for behold, the darkness shall cover
the earth and gross darkness the people. Now that's the darkness
of our own sin and our own souls outside of Christ. And God saying
to his son, arise son, arise, light has come. But the Lord shall arise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. The glory of
God is only seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only hope
that you and I have to have our hearts enlarged as a work of
grace, and that's what we're, that's what, That's what we hope
for, isn't it? We hope that the Lord will grow
us in His grace and in the knowledge of Christ, that He will increase
our faith, that He will cause us to love Christ more and love
one another more and love His word more. How is that going
to happen? Only as we see that Christ fulfilled
the law of God and Christ's heart was rewarded with an enlarged
place for all of His people. Look at the next verse. This
is so clear. Lift up the Father still speaking to the Son. I'm
sorry, verse three. And the Gentiles shall come to
thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine
eyes round about thee, and see all they gather themselves together.
They come to thee. Thy son shall come from afar,
and thy daughter shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt
see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged. Because the abundance of the
sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentile shall
come unto thee." The father is speaking to his son, saying,
because you were faithful to keep my law. because you were
faithful to bear the sin and shame of the sins of your people. You were faithful in accomplishing
their salvation and redeeming them. And all that blackness
and all that darkness has now been taken away by the light
of the resurrection of Christ. And the heart of Christ is spoken
in terms just like the eyes and the hand and the feet and other
things about God. It's called anthropomorphic language. God is using the shapes of human
things to describe his spiritual attributes, which have no physical
shape. Okay, these are the spiritual
application of these things. And so it is here, when the Father
says, I'm going to enlarge your heart. You know what it means
to have your heart enlarged. You know what it means to be
more and more in love with someone. More and more in love with. And
that's our prayer. Lord. And the father saying to
the son, I'm going to enlarge your heart and I'm going to make
it so large that it's going to be capable of receiving every
single one of your children. You know, we see this in the,
in the life of Solomon. You know, we, we read about Solomon
and we think about, you know, how we try to identify ourselves
with Solomon, but I want to speak of Solomon for just a moment
about a tie as a type of Christ. How many wives did Solomon have?
Well, he had 700 wives, 300 concubines, which makes up 1,000. And the
number 1,000 is significant in the scriptures in that it represents
fullness or wholeness or completeness. And there's hundreds of references
to the number 1,000 in the Bible. I think it's significant that
700 of them were wives and 300 of them were concubines. The concubines did not have the
benefits of marriage like the wife did. And I wonder, and I
fear for myself, and I fear for you, and I pray, Lord, I don't
want to be a concubine. This is a picture of the church.
The 1,000 wives, or the 700 wives and 300 concubines of Solomon
is a picture of the church and their union with Christ. And
there's going to be tares among the wheat and there's going to
be unbelievers that on the outward appearance they look just like
everybody else. But they're not married to Christ.
They don't believe on Christ. You know one of the things I
thought about listening to this guy yesterday. I thought, you
don't believe that Jesus Christ is God. You wouldn't talk about yourself
like you are. You wouldn't identify that passage
with man if you really believed that Jesus Christ was God. And
he would argue with me. I mean, he would fight with me
over that. Oh, the deity of Christ? Well, everybody believes in the
deity of Christ. No, they don't. If you really believe that Jesus
Christ is God, you're a believer. I'm talking about all the implications
of that. You won't, you won't be talking
about free will. You won't be talking about good
works. You won't be, you'll be worshiping. You'll, you'll say
there's not, when you see him, you'll say there's nothing in
me like him. That's God. He's in the heavens
and I'm up on the earth. I'm going to shut my mouth. He
didn't, but he doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is God. It
wouldn't talk like that if he did. So the Lord is having the promise
of the Father. Oh, Solomon. So, you know, I
don't want to... Solomon ended his life in shame. And I've always wondered, you
know, how could Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, the
Lord Jesus said that he was. obviously is a believer and yet
the scripture says that his wives led him astray and he died engaged
in false worship and I thought Well, there it is. I'm not going
to try to figure out what was going on in the heart of Solomon
as a man, but here we have a picture again of the Lord Jesus Christ. His wives led him astray. It was our sin that he bore in
his body upon that tree. And he died in shame because
of our rebellion. And then the scripture says,
and Solomon loved all his wives. I know our minds can think of,
imagine things that aren't, but it's a gospel picture. The love
that Christ has. And here's the father. Here's
the father in Psalm 119 saying to his son, because you've kept
my law. I'm going, because of the blackness
and darkness of sin that you've conquered, I'm going to raise
you from the dead. Your light is going to go out
into the Gentiles. They're going to come running
unto you, and I'm going to enlarge your heart to receive them all. Every one of them. You know,
the truth is, brethren, if we, if we could get a hold of the
love of Christ, I mean, this man was talking
about his love for Christ. And my love for Christ is so
shameful. Oh, but the only time I have any real confidence and
any real experience in loving him is when I look at what he
did to love me. Herein is love. Here's the definition
of love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. And greater love has no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And the Lord
Jesus, when praying to the father, he said, Father, I've loved them
to the end. To the end. Here's the father
saying to his son, I'm going to enlarge your heart. And like
Solomon, who loved all of his wives, I'm going to give you
the capacity, the capacity to love your wife, your church,
every single one of them, every one of them. Turn with me to
Romans chapter eight. Yeah, I know what you think.
You think, well, I can see how God would love that person, but
me? Be careful. Be careful. There's a lot of self-righteousness
in that statement. You know, what you're saying
is, if I was a better person, I could earn God's love. No,
you wouldn't. No, you can't. His love is in spite of us. It's
not because of us. Here's the father rewarding his
son with an enlarged heart to love his bride. And he loves
them fully and completely and perfectly. And if we, if the
Lord, you know, it's the love of Christ that constraineth us.
It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And we
see His goodness, and His love, and His obedience to His Father,
and keeping the law of God, and being that blessed man, and satisfying
God's justice, and God rewarding him with the resurrection, and
enlarging his heart, and giving him the capacity to I'm not denying
the immutability of our God. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. And God didn't have to change,
the Lord Jesus Christ didn't have to change in order to have,
but that's the language that's being used. Because we can relate to that.
And what God's saying is, the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ
is sufficiently large to love every one of his children. They're
not what men are looking for. And yet we look for it in all
the wrong places, don't we? Here's the true love of God. Look at Romans chapter eight, verse 31. What shall we say to
these things? If God be for us, Who can be
against us? Brethren, here we have the promise
of God that the Father has enlarged his heart and rewarded him with
his bride and that he's loved his bride as Solomon did with
every single one of them, though they led him astray. Verse 32,
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? What is it that charges? What's
the instrument of law that charges men guilty? It's the law. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. Now, justified means to be without
sin. That means that God's law has
been kept in all these passages that we're reading in Psalm 119,
in all the Psalms, beginning in Psalm 1. God is saying to
us that you are without sin if you're in Christ. He's the blessed
man. He's the one who never never walked with the sinner,
never sat with the ungodly, never. Look, who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Now brethren, be reminded that
When there's an us, there's got to be a them. This is not a declaration of
God's love for all men. The world, you know, wants to
say, well, God loves everybody. And Christ died for everybody.
We know that's not true. That kind of love doesn't mean
anything. Be like me saying to my wife, honey, I love all the
women of the world and I love you too. You know, love, that's
not going to go over very good, is it? Love has to be particular
in order to have any meaning to it. And here's the Lord saying,
He's loved us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Who's going to separate us from
His love? He's going to love us even when we're unlovely. He's going to keep us on a chain
and he's going to keep wooing us and reminding us and he's
going to be like that, like that, that beloved in the song of Solomon
who knocked on the door of the, of his, of his bride and, and
she refused to get up and then he, then he went away and, and
her heart was enlarged, wasn't it? And she went out and she
said, where's my beloved? Where is he? What is your beloved
more than our beloved? Isn't that what they say? How
come you think you're special? You think you got some special
angle on God? And she went to describe his
beauty and his glory. And then they said, what'd they
say? Where is he? We want to find him too. And
he's down in the garden. He's down in the garden. That's
where we are right now. We're in the garden. Verse 35, shall tribulation or
distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword
for it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. I made a statement
Sunday. I want to make it again. I'm
going to make it a few times here. We died daily. Repentance. Like faith is a daily
experience. It's not something you just going
to, well, I got that taken care of. You know, I believed on Christ
and I repented of my sins and no, that's the work of grace
in the heart. Paul said, we died daily. We're
constantly being reminded of our own death and being brought
to the end of ourselves that we might be made alive in Christ. Nay, verse 37, in all these things,
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. There it is. That's what breaks
the heart. That's what brings us to repentance.
That's what causes us to fall in worship before him. For I
am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God. You know, that last verse, well,
which is in Christ Jesus. That's where the love of God
is not anywhere else. Not anywhere else. God has enlarged
his heart, even as his. The eyes of the Lord represent
his omniscience and his feet, his omnipresence and his hands,
his omnipotence. His eyes represent his love. I mean, his heart, the enlarging
of his heart represents his love, his affection, his mercy, which
is what brought him to the cross. His love for the father is love
for his people. And it's what brings us to him. What do we say? Lord, enlarge
my heart. Enlarge my heart. Turn me to
Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. That's. I need an enlarged capacity to
love God. I needed enlarged capacity to
love his word and to love his people. And Lord, you're going
to have to enlarge my heart. And when he does, it'll be through
the perfect obedience and the accomplished work, the resurrection,
Isaiah chapter 60, the Gentiles are going to come running to
you. The darkness is going to be put away. The light's going
to shine. And they're going to see that the law has been satisfied
and nothing can separate them from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus. Ephesians chapter 3, look at
verse 14. Paul said, For this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant
you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith and that you being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and the length and the depth and the height and to know
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. You know, the same
words here is used that the, the, uh, peace of God, passive
surpasses understanding here. The same, the same thing's being
said here that the love of Christ is better than knowledge. It's
better than understanding. It's the, it's, it's the meat
of the gospel. It is the meat of the gospel.
You know, religion they talk about the doctrines of grace
being the complicated things that are to be debated only among
mature Christians and and that no no those are those are the
that's the milk of the gospel that's the that's that's the
basics Hebrews chapter 6 is clear on that's the foundational stuff
total depravity and unconditional election and limited atonement,
particular redemption, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the
saints. That's the milk of the gospel. That's the basics. Every believer
believes those things. The meat of the gospel is the
love of God. That's where we have to have
our hearts enlarged. That's, you know, sometimes the older we get, we
have thoughts of being not as useful as we once were. Not as strong, not as capable,
not as, especially, Our elder brethren might feel like, you
know, there's just not much for me to contribute anymore to the
church. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. God slows you down physically.
What he's given you to offer his church is so much better
than anything that you could possibly do with your body. In
terms of the graces that the Lord, your faithfulness, your
faith, your love, your example of grace. That's what the church
needs more than anything else that you've ever done in your
life. And those are the gifts that
God gives to his church. These young people, they need
that example. They need to see what the older
brethren are doing in their latter years and believing God and loving
God's people. And that's the meat of the gospel.
They're still drinking milk. Oh, that you may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breath and to know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge, verse 19. that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end. Lord enlarge our hearts. increase our capacity to love. And if he does, it'll be not because
we're glorying in something that we've
done, but it'll be because we're glorying in his enlarged heart
and in his obedience and in his perfect love. Who can know the mind of God?
We have the mind of Christ. We're the mind of Christ. And
here the Lord, the father is promising his son, because you've
stuck to my testimonies, because you've been faithful to the end. You'll be obedient even unto
death. I'm going to enlarge your heart. You're going to love your
people. And they're going to love you.
They're going to love you. It doesn't get any better than
that. You're not dead. That's that's
the meat of the gospel, brother. That's the that's the. That's
the maturity that we all strive for. Is love. God, enlarge my heart. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 326, let's stand together. Yeah. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. ? More of his love who died for
me ? More about Jesus let me learn ? More of his holy will
discern ? Spirit of God my teacher be ? Showing the things of Christ
to me ? More, more about Jesus More, more about Jesus, More
of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me. More about Jesus in His Word. Holy communion with my Lord. Hearing His voice in every line. Making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus on His throne,
riches and glory all His own. More of His kingdom sure increase,
more of His coming Prince of Peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.