You know, scripture reading is
just that. It's the reading of scripture. And it's needful to help us to
enter into worship. And when you read and you just
give the meaning of the words just enough to help us understand
it, to see it, to enter into it, that's good scripture reading. I appreciate that, Robbie. That
helped me. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In 2 Corinthians 5.14, I want
us to concentrate on this one little phrase. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. The love of Christ constraineth
us. When it came to believing and
preaching the gospel of Christ, some folks said that the Apostle
Paul was mad. They said he was crazy. They
said he was beside himself. And other folks said he was too
serious, too sober, too somber, too fanatical about the Word. And Paul said this in verse 13,
speaking by the Holy Spirit of God, he said, whether we be beside
ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it's for your cause,
for the love of Christ Now did Christ love for Paul? Did it
really make Paul forsake his former vain works religion? Did it make him forsake that?
It did. Did the love of Christ really
make Paul forsake everything to serve and worship and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? It really did. Did Christ's love
working in Paul, did it make Paul hazard his life going everywhere
Christ sent him to preach the gospel? It really did. It really did. That's what I
want us to see tonight. The love of Christ really does
constrain His people to believe and worship and serve Christ.
It really does. That's our topic, Christ constraining
love. Are you and I really constrained
by the love of Christ? When we have a decision to make,
do we think, first of all, what would Christ have me to do? Do
we want to see Christ's honor and Christ's glory? Do we go
to His Word and see what does Christ say about this? Or do
we just run in our own thoughts? and run in what we think we ought
to do. Are we constrained by the love
of Christ? If we are, I pray this message
would be used by our Savior to constrain us more. And if we're
not, I pray He'll make us honest with God and with ourselves and
constrain us. In this very hour, constrain
us by His love and His power to believe Him to glorify Him,
to serve Him, to truly worship Him. I want to show you three
things that Christ did and that He does in love to God His Father
and in love to His people by which Christ constrains us to
believe and serve Him. Let's begin in Matthew 22. I
don't normally preach a topical message, but that's what I'm
doing tonight. We'll see how this goes. Matthew 22. First of all, Christ
loved God the Father, and He loved His people perfectly. Look at Matthew 22, 36. Somebody came to Him, one of
the Pharisees, and they said to Him, Master, which is the
great commandment in the law? Which is the great commandment
in the law? Jesus said unto him, verse 37,
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the Law and the Prophets. Now that's what Christ said He
came to fulfill, was the Law and the Prophets. He said won't
anything pass till it's all been fulfilled. That's what He came
to do. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is the only one. He's
the only one who ever fulfilled the Law in perfection. in perfect righteousness, from
a holy heart, without any sin. Christ is the only one who ever
did this. He loved the Lord God with all
his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and he
loved his neighbor as himself. This is what Christ did, without
any hint of sin whatsoever. The place where we see this most
is at the cross. We can look prior to the cross. We can look and see that for
God and His Father, He left heaven's glory and came here to where
we are. Do you know what that was like for the righteous holy
Son of God? When I was in Louisiana, I was
talking to Brother Milton Howard and his son is a guard at the
prison. First day on the job, when his
son went to work. You know how the first day at
your job, you're already intimidated anyway, first day on the job.
First day on the job, he's in the hole. He's in solitary confinement. And him and another guard are
bringing out a fellow out of a cell. And as they're walking
him down the hall, all of a sudden, the door in this cell over here
busts off the hinges, and two skinheads jump out and go to
whipping that guy they're escorting down the hall. They had shaved
that door and worked on it. They were supposed to rotate
them and they didn't. And they had shaved that door and got it just
to the point where they could bust that door down. And they
wanted to kill that guy they were taking down the hall. And
he went to break it up. The other guard took off running
and locked the door and locked him in there. And he went to
break it up. He tried to break the fight up.
And those skinheads turned to him and they said, CO, get out
of this if you don't want to get hurt. and he stepped back. That's what they're supposed
to do. They're not supposed to get involved. They're supposed to
call for help. So he got out of the way and called for help.
You think about that. Your first day on the job. And
I got to thinking about that. What if you were in prison? What
if you were thrown in prison? That'd be terrifying. It would
be utterly terrifying. That's It's just a glimpse of
what it was like for Christ to come to this earth and dwell
in our midst and walk in our midst all the time. It's like being in a prison.
There's where you see the love of Christ for His Father and
for His people. went through this world. But
if you go to the cross, there's where you really see it. There's
where you really see it. The place we see Christ fulfilling
the law is at the cross. On that cross, Christ loved God
the Father and He loved His people, all God's elect, by being made
sin for us. He was on that cross being made
the sin, our sin, of not loving God ever. and of not loving our
neighbor as ourself ever. That's what He was bearing on
the cross. Out of love for His Father and
for His people. On that cross, He was being made
a curse for His people. In the room instead of His people,
He was being made the curse that we deserve to be made for hating
God and for hating our neighbor. You see, it's not just that we
didn't love God and we didn't love our neighbor. We hated God
and we hated our neighbor. No man's ever loved God with
all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and his neighbor
as himself. You and I have never done that.
When's the last time you saw somebody's spouse die of cancer
and you said, I just wish that had been my spouse? Or it had
been me? or their house burned down and
you say, I'm just going to take my keys over there and give them
the key to my house. Move my family out in the street and
let them have my house. Christ Jesus looked at God His
Father and the justice that had to be upheld and the righteousness
that had to be brought in to declare the honor and glory of
His Father. And for the love of His Father,
He came to honor and to magnify and to uphold the truth of God. And he looked at his people,
houses burned down, raped, pillaged, bankrupt, robbed, the offscouring
of the earth, sin. You can't describe sin bad enough.
We talk about it, it just comes off our lips like it's nothing.
And if you try to use vulgar language to describe sin, folks
act like, oh, you should talk like that. But you just say sin
all the time. It's just that bad before God.
It's an abomination. We can't use language to describe
it bad enough. And Christ came and said, I will
take their place. I'll take their place. I will
stand as the one man, the one man condemned and deserving of
death by bearing their sin in their room instead. I'll stand
there and I'll take the fury and wrath and justice of God
in their room instead. Now that's loving God your Father
and your brethren as yourself. That is the fulfillment of the
law. Christ on the cross, we see there,
is the fulfillment of the law. He did this in love to God his
Father, manifesting the righteousness of God. There he is declaring
God's just. This is the gospel. If we ever
get this, he's declaring God is just. God satisfied divine
justice toward everybody He will save on the cross. That's what
it is to declare God just. And He's the justifier. It's
God that justified in Christ on the cross, reconciled all
His people to Himself. That's what He was doing on the
cross. God came and did that. The Son
of God, Christ Jesus, did that for His Father and for His people. That's what He did. He declared
God to be righteous. That's where you see true love.
Now that's true love. This stuff, this sentimental
mess people talk about is not true love. That's true love.
That's true love. We just zip our mouths talking
about our love and there's love. and bloody and beaten and his
visage marred more than any other man. He had given his soul in
offering for sin. Him being pained through and
through by the very wrath and justice of God. Forsaken of God
and forsaken of those he's dying for. The only ones that had anything
to do with those that were gnashing upon him with their teeth and
spitting upon him hell raging upon him. He bore that for his
people so his people won't have to bear it. So now it's all satisfied. It's all satisfied and when God
gives dead sinners his spirit, God shows us that the one way,
the only way that the law of God is established is by his
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way. Therefore we can
conclude that a man's justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Do we then make void the law
through faith? Nope. That's the only way we establish
it, is through faith. God shows us that we're not justified
by our law-keeping, it's by Christ's law-keeping. We're not made righteous
by our doing, it's by Christ's doing. It's by His dying. That's
how we're given life. That's how we're justified. That's
how we're made the righteousness of God. And when He brings us
to believe on Christ, He gives us this good news in our hearts
that God has imputed. He's charged. He's made us the
righteousness of God in His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And
when you're made the righteousness of God, that means you've got
the righteousness of God. It means that there's no sin
to charge to you, there's no record of it, there's nothing
but a perfect righteousness forever before God. eternally before
God. And He shows you that and He
makes you to see that it's all in Christ. Now that's the love
of God for His people. That's Christ's love for His
people. It's the finished work of Christ crucified. That's the
love of God. And that's the love that constrains
His people. It's not the law that constrains
us. It's the one who's the end of
the law who constrains us. He's the one that constrains
us. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. By Him all that believe are justified
from all things by which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. That's our Savior. That's His
love that constrains us. And here's the second thing.
Turn over to 1 John 4. 1 John chapter 4. I want you to see here now how
we're brought into this love. By Christ's work in our hearts,
His love constrains us to love God and to love our brethren.
Now watch this. Look at 1 John 4 verse 10. Here
in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. There's not one
sinner that God saves that loved God first. Not one. Not any. God loved the sinner that He
saves first. That means God chose the sinner
He's going to save, and God sent His Son to save the sinner that
He's going to save, and Christ came, and He's the propitiation.
He's the mercy seeker. He's the atonement. He's the
one who brought God and His people together in one on the cross. That's who He is, and that's
what He accomplished. He didn't come to try it. He did it. He
came and did that. That's who He is. He sent His
Son, the propitiation for our sins. And that's who He is. He gave His best. God the Father
gave the very best He had. And you know what the love of
Christ constrains believers to do? To give the very best we
have. That's right. I want to look
at myself and I want to say, am I giving the very best I've
got to God? In every way, in my speech, in
my actions, in my doings, in my thoughts, in everything, in
my substance, in the things He's given me, am I giving to God
my very best? Am I setting forth that I believe
God gave His best for me and there's nothing good enough that
I can give to God that even come close to what He's given to me.
That's what His love constrains you to do. When Christ dwells
in us, then He constrains us to love God and our brethren.
Now look here in verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. Now here's how we're brought
to have this love. Verse 12. No man hath seen God
at any time. Isn't that a strange statement
to make when you're about to talk about the love of God? To
say no man has seen God at any time? What's he talking about?
Faith is the evidence of things not seen. We haven't seen God
at any time. Faith's evidence of things not
seen. And faith's a gift of God. And
it's by God's grace. And it's by the Spirit of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. What He's telling us here
is, I'm about to show you something that's a spiritual work. That's
how you're brought into this love. Now look here. If we love
one another, verse 12, God dwelleth in us. And His love is perfected
in us, is brought to an end in us, the end for which He purposed.
Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because
He hath given us of His Spirit. The reason that we believe, the
only reason that we believe and love Christ, and the reason we
love our brethren with a godly love, the only reason is because
God takes up His abode in us. That's what he's saying. He takes
up his abode in us. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us. You see that? You could switch
that. You could say, if God dwells
in us, then we love one another. Same thing. That's the only reason. If we love one another because
God dwells in us, it's because He's given us of His Spirit.
Now, God is love. You hear men going around saying,
God is love. And then they go about telling
you how they did everything for God. Well, now, let's see what
that means. God is love. What does that mean?
Here's what God's love does. God's love sovereignly, effectually,
irresistibly, invincibly. What does all those words mean?
It means God does it. He does it. He makes His people
to see and He makes them to testify. He makes them to believe and
He makes them to confess. And He makes us to confess that
God the Father sent His Son and His Son saved all His elect all
over this world. Look here, this is what He said,
verse 14. We have seen, He said there, it's because He gave us
of His Spirit and, here's the result, we have seen And we do
testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the
world. When He gives you His Spirit,
you'll realize God the Father did not fail and Christ did not
fail. He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world and He succeeded. His name is Jesus for He shall
save His people from their sins. That means whoever the world
is, He saved every one of them. That's so. Whoever the world
is, He saved every one of them. You know what the world means?
It means His elect scattered all over the world throughout
all the ages of time as long as this world exists. Wherever
they are, whenever they were, He saved them. That's what it
means. He saved them. He saved them.
God's love makes us believe and confess that Christ saved His
people from our sins. Now that's God's love and that's
what His love does. All right, here's another thing.
God's love, effectually, it gets it done. It brings each of His
children to confess Christ because God dwells in us, making us to
dwell in Him. Just adds a little more to it.
God dwells in us. He makes us to know we're dwelling
in Him. Look here in verse 15. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. You see that? God dwells in him
and he in God. Now here's the result. God's
love without fail. It always does. It makes his
child know and believe the love that God has toward us. Look
at the next thing in verse 16. God dwells in him, he in God,
and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. That's the result. That's the
fruit of it. That's the fruit of it. True believers dwell in
love. What does that mean? Isn't that
an odd way to say it? Would you say God's people live in
love? Their abode, their house, their
dwelling place, the place where they reside constantly is in
love? When you think of love, we think
of this emotion that we have and this sentimental thing we
have. Love's a person. Love's a person. We dwell in
that person. Look here. Look here, verse 16. God is love. God is love. This love is in whom we abide
as a person. God is love and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God. You see that? And God in him.
The love we're talking about here is a person. It's God. It's
Christ. He makes us to dwell in Him.
And when you dwell in God, you dwell in love. And love dwells
in you. God dwells in you. You see that?
It's just the same thing that Paul said when he said, Of God
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. of God. That's the true love
of God. The true love of God, it's not
just this, oh, he loves everybody, but his hands are bound and he's
tied and he's hoping to save some people. No. God's love comes
and saves his people. It comes and saves his people.
It comes and does the cross work necessary. It comes and dwells
in his heart, in the heart of his people, making a new heart,
a new person, and gets the job done. And here's the end. Here's
the end. This is what this word perfect
means. It means it brings us to this end, to this perfection
of what God purposed, God accomplishes. He brings us to this end right
here. Right here, verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
brought to this end, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. Christ is complete at God's right
hand. and every one of His people that
He's brought to believe on Him, we're complete in Him, even though
we're in this world right now. Christ Jesus is seated at the
right hand of God, He's accepted of God, and all His people are
at the right hand of God and accepted of God in Him, even
though we dwell in this world right now. That's where we are.
And that's where He brings us to see. He brings us to see,
I'm complete in Him. I'm really and truly complete
in Christ. I'm not out trying to keep the
law. I'm not out striving to keep the law. I'm not out trying
to please God. I have pleased God, Sarah. I
have pleased God. God is... However satisfied God
is with His Son, that's how satisfied He is with me. Isn't that good
news? That's where He brings us to.
Look here. And here's the end He brings
us to. He brings us to cease being tormented with the fear
of God and the fear of God's judgment. Look at verse 18. There's
no fear in love. You reckon, you know, I just,
this came to my mind. You think about being out in
the dark somewhere, alone and as a little child and you don't
have your parents around, your father's not there. It's you
all by yourself. You're just scared to death by yourself. If you were in your Father's
arm, wrapped up in His arm, and He had you, and He got you surrounded,
you wouldn't have any fear. You wouldn't have any fear then.
There's no fear in love. We saw love's God. God is love.
There's no fear in God. When He brings you to see you're
in Christ, seated at His right hand, there's no fear in Him.
Look here. But perfect love casts out fear,
because fear has torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. He's not been brought to this
end. We love Him because He first loved us. How's that connected
with His fear? When you see that God didn't
do any of this for you because of you, when you see that God
did all this just because He loved you, and He would, God
sent His Son, God saved you, God caused you, God made you
see that you're complete in Him. When you see God did all this
because He first loved you, Then you realize, well if he did that
for me without me doing a thing for him, I was cussing God and
running from God and I was, I deserved the deepest part of hell. He
loved me simply because He put me in His Son and He loved His
Son with a perfect love. And that perfect love came and
accomplished the righteousness of God on my behalf. And that
perfect love entered my heart and created me anew. And that
perfect love is seated at God's right hand. And I'm in that perfect
love. And then I see God's perfect
love for me in Christ. Do you think He's going to take
His Son down and put Him on a cross again? He's not going to do it
for one of His people either. He's not going to take His people
and throw one of them into hell because Christ already bore that
hell on the cross. There's no fear in that love
anymore. That's what He brings His child
to. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, Paul said, but you've received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. And look, and by being born of
His Spirit, God creates in us love for our brethren who are
born of the same Spirit. Look at verse 20. If a man say
I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. Now he's talking
here about one who professes to be a believer. If you say
you love God but you hate one for whom Christ died, he's saying
that man's a liar. Now look at his argument. For
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen. Here he goes
again with that. How can he love God whom he hath
not seen? And now he adds something else.
And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God
loveth his brother also. Now what does it mean here when
he says that, you know, you see your brother but you don't see
God, so then how can you love God and hate the brother you
see and love the God you don't see? And then he turns around
and says, plus we have the commandment from God to love one another.
He's saying that this love is the fruit of the Spirit of God.
He's saying that it's got to be put in the new heart. You
remember what with this commandment? He says, this commandment have
we from Him. Remember what Paul said over there in Romans 8?
The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the
commands of God and neither indeed can be. You can tell an unregenerate
carnal man, believe on Christ and rest in Christ until you
turn blue in the face. He ain't going to do it. He just
is not going to do it. you can tell him to love his
brethren, he's not going to do it. Now he'll fake it and say
I love God and hate his brother and John said and he's a liar.
How's he going to rest in Christ, believe on Christ as God commands
and love his brethren as God commands? He's going to have
to be born anew. A new man is going to have to
be created in him and the Spirit of Christ is going to have to
enter in and bring him to that point. That's exactly what he's
saying. Look at the next verse in the next chapter. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's the only
way you're going to believe. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that's begotten of him. You see it?
These are two certain facts, brethren. When we're born of
God, we shall believe Jesus is the Christ. That's the only time
you're going to obey God's command. And that's God's command. We just saw, He fulfilled all
the law. So you got all this law right
here. And you come to God not knowing what to do. What must
I do to work the works of God? I see all this law. Where do
I start? This is the work of God. You
believe on Him whom He has sent. All that is established if you
believe on Christ. And the only way a man is going
to do that is when God creates him anew and gives him a heart
to believe on Him. And He says, now you go forth
and love your brethren. Just like we saw Sunday. Take
the yoke off of them. Quit whipping them. Quit beating
them. Quit trying to make them do what you want them to do.
Trust Christ. Love them to Christ. Love them
to Christ. Love them to Christ. How am I going to do that? Only
when you're born of God. Only when He puts that love in
you. That's the only way. That's what He's saying. That's
what He's saying. And notice here, believe in Christ
and love in God is one and the same. Verse 1 says, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone
that loveth Him... You see that? They're one and
the same. If you believe Him, you love Him. You love Him. And that's the first thing. When
we're born of God, we're going to believe Christ. And the second
thing is, when Christ makes us born again, we're going to love
our brethren. That's a certain fact. And everyone that loveth
him that begat, everyone that loves Christ, loves him also
that's begotten of him. These are just two certain facts.
They just go together. If you believe Christ, truly
love Christ, it's because you're born of God. And if you're born
of God, you're going to love your brethren that's born of
that same Spirit. That's just so. It's impossible to believe
and to love Christ until we're born of God. And it's impossible
not to believe God when we are born of God. And it's possible
not to love your brother when we're born again. That's an impossibility.
Men can talk and make all the excuses they want to. John summed
it up. He's a liar. This is the truth. This is the truth. It's because
Christ and his people are one. And when he's taught you what
Christ has done for you, then you realize that's what Christ
has done for all his people. And because you love Him that
begat you by His work on the cross and His work that He's
done in you, you love them that He begat by His work on the cross
and by His work in them. Because you see what great price
He paid loving them. You see that He gave His darling
son and His son gave His life. You see His electing, redeeming,
regenerating love for His people. And you know He's made us so
one with Him that whatever I do to His brethren, I'm doing it
to Him. That's what He said. As much
as you've done it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you've
done it unto me. That's something good for a believer because,
you know, that's the closest we can come to doing something
for Christ right now is to doing something for our brethren. If
we really believed that, you know what I believe we'd be doing?
I believe our brethren would be the finest treated people
on the face of this planet. I believe they wouldn't want
for anything. I believe that we would cover them and provide
for them. And you know what? What he's
saying right here is that's exactly what God's people do. I've told
you this before. On the day of Pentecost, when
it says, and they took everything they own and they had everything
common, that's the grace of God. That's the heart He gives you.
I don't have anything that's mine. Everything I got, He gave
it to me. And if you want it, you're welcome
to it. It's yours. It's ours. He gave it to me.
Men try to copy that. They've tried to create communism.
They've tried to create socialism. You do that, and the man at the
top is going to despise the man at the bottom, and the man at
the bottom is going to take advantage of the man at the top. But when God
does it in the heart, it's not communism or socialism. It's
the love of God. It's altogether different. Altogether
different. Now, it'd be nice. You know,
I've heard people talk like this. it'd be nice if we lived in a
little town that had one little dirt road down the middle of
it and all every business right along each side of the street
and it was only about a quarter mile long and the church building
was right there at the end of town and you know and art and
Cheryl on the mercantile and and and Chris and Kevin were
the carpenter on the carpenter shop you know and and Scott Eric
on the computer store. We don't take it too far. And
and I could come out of the church at the end of the street, you
know, and walk down and say hello to each one of you and make my
rounds and get back to my study and still study as I ought to,
you know, that'd be wonderful. But we don't, it's a lot more
complicated than that in this day, because sin's brought us
to where we are now. This world, we're all separated,
and we're all having to try to eke out a living in this world,
and it's just not that simple. But you know what we do? We get
together a lot. Believers do. We get together.
We want to be together and we get together. Our house, I love
this, that our house is basically becoming a revolving door. I
like it. Somebody is at my house all the
time. There is a child or somebody at my house all the time. And
that is fine. I learned, my pastor, Marvin Stoddart, when you go
to his house, his door was open all the time. Unless he was studying,
you know, and he had to do that. But it was open all the time.
And believers want to care for one another. They want to love
one another. They want to be there when one's sick. They want
to bring a meal to somebody. They want to do whatever they
can to make that burden their brother's bearing a little easier
on their brother. That's what believers do. That's
what believers do. But you know the number one way
that we love one another? Is doing what we're doing right
here. Coming together. together in the house of the
Lord, where that's where his people are gathered. It don't
have anything to do with these walls. It's where his people are. That's
the house of the Lord coming together. And by coming together
like that, you exhort one another. You exhort one another to love
and to good works by being there, by your presence being there.
That's what the apostle said over in Hebrews. He said, Hold
fast the profession of your faith and forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together. Let me read it to you. He says,
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for He is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works. How? Not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the
day approaching. I don't have to come in here and say, well,
I'm the preacher, so I kind of do. You don't have to come in
here and say to your brother, now, You need to love and you
need to do good works. All you got to do is show up.
All you got to do is show up and sit down and hear the gospel
preached. And you're doing that and you're
exhorting one another that this is the most important thing there
is on the face of the planet. You're supporting the gospel. When you go out and there's a
million things you want and you think, you know what? We're a
small group. Everything counts. We've got
to keep this work together. We need the gospel more than
anything. David said it's more important than my necessary bread.
It's more important than anything else I put on my table at home.
And you think about that and you say, you know what? I don't
need that thing because I want this gospel to continue. That's
what you've learned to do, and you don't mind doing it. When
you're done doing it, you don't think, I haven't really sacrificed
anything. Look at what Christ has done. I haven't done anything. I just want to see the gospel
go forth, and I want to have it here for me, and my family,
and my children, and I don't want to see me go out and become
eyeballs in debt over my lust of my flesh. I want to see God's
people provided for. That's what the love of Christ
constrains you to do. All right, one more thing, and
I got to go real fast. Christ's love constrains the
believer to love the Word of God. That goes right along with
my last point. You know, John 1, I won't take
you there, but in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. Christ is the Word. Christ is
God. The Word is God. Christ is God. It says, And all things were
made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made. Christ the Word made everything. And it says, And in Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. Christ the Word is the life
and light of men. He's the life and light of you
men sitting here right now, boys and girls and men and women,
who don't even know God. He's your life and your light.
Just what Ravi read, He takes your breath away, you don't have
it anymore. but especially He's the life and light of His children,
that He's born again. Now that's who He is. And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. That's Christ the Word. Now look at 1 Peter 1.
1 Peter 1. Every true believer is born again
by the Word of God. Christ is the Word and we're
born by the Word. Now look at this. 1 Peter 1.23,
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which lives and abides forever. For all flesh
is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The
grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of
the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. Now let me read this statement,
because I want to say it like it needs to be said. Christ the Word and
the written Word, whereby the Gospel is preached, Christ the
Word and the written Word, whereby the Gospel is preached, are inseparable. They're inseparable. The written
Word was given by Christ. The written Word is all about
Christ. And it's Christ the Word who
comes in the preaching of that Word and enters into his child
whereby we're born of that incorruptible seed. Christ formed in you. You understand that? I can preach
to you all day long, but Christ the Word takes the written Word
and He is the seed that enters in and gives you life. I have
not seen nor heard, neither has it entered into the heart of
man, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.
God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. He comes and teaches
us these things. And Peter said in the second
epistle, whereby are given to us exceeding and precious promises,
that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption of the world through lust. This is what
He's done. You know what a blessing that
is? to have eyes to see and ears to hear, to pick up this Word,
and to see the things of God that He's revealed in His Word
to us. So here, seeing that Christ is
the Word, and seeing that the written Word is by Christ, and
seeing that the Word is all about Christ, and seeing that Christ
the Word makes the Word effectual in our heart, here's the conclusion,
1 Peter 2.1, wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile
and hypocrisies and envies and evil speaking, as newborn babies
desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. If so be you've tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Have you tasted that the Lord
is gracious? Have you tasted this milk? Has He put this on
your tongue and made you taste this milk? Imagine a man that's
blind from his birth, never saw a thing, and he's given sight
to see. You reckon that man would ever
get tired of just looking at the bluebird sky? You reckon
he'd ever tire of looking at a beautiful yellow wheat field?
You think he'd ever tire of looking at his father's face? What about a man who never could
hear and all of a sudden he's giving ears to hear? You think
he's going to say, I'm so sick of hearing birds singing? Oh,
I get so weary of hearing children playing. I don't want to hear
the voice of my father or my mother. No. When I got hearing
aids, I heard the first part of my life. When I got hearing
aids, I'd been deaf so long, I was delighted to know there
was a train within 100 yards of our house. Melinda knew it,
I didn't. Delighted. And when the believer
is given eyes and ears to hear, we don't get tired of God's Word,
we have a hunger for it for the first time in our life. You see,
you look into the Word, you see Christ in that innocent lamb
that was slain to give Adam and Eve a covering. You look into
it and you see Christ in Abel's offering. He's our Lamb whereby
we're accepted of God. You look into it and you see
Christ is Noah's Ark. He's the one who bore the rain
of judgment so that Noah could live. You look into this Word
and you see Christ is our Passover Lamb whereby we're delivered
out of the Egyptian bondage. You look into this Word and you
see Christ is our brazen serpent lifted up. And we look on Him,
that one that was made the thing that was biting us, and we're
healed. They say, you don't get tired
of that. Imagine Christ is the Word. Imagine somebody going,
I just get so sick of the Word. Would you ever say I'm so sick
of Christ? No. Not a believer. No, sir. I was in Rock Valley, Iowa in
2003, and I picked up this lady's Bible, one of the members there,
and I was going to preach out of Isaiah 43. And I picked up
her Bible, and I looked at Isaiah 43, and she had my whole outline
written in the margin of her Bible. Right there. And she had
about four dates of when men had been there and preached that
same message from that pulpit. And I was so delighted. I was
so encouraged by that. And when I got through preaching,
she ran up to me and she said, it's just as new as the first
time I ever heard it. Don't get tired of hearing about
Christ. Get tired of hearing exceeding precious promises.
What? His people delight to hear his
word. They'd like to hear it. Well, somebody will say this,
though. Somebody will say, well, I don't have trouble understanding
the Word of God. But you know a skilled tradesman,
he don't get skillful on day one. He don't just pick it up
and say, well, I know how to do that. He got to practice.
Look at what it said. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word that you may grow thereby. You see that? How could you expect
a baby to grow by milk if you don't ever drink the milk? That's
what he said. You come to me. You come to my
word. You read my word. You hear my
gospel preached. You ask me. You know, you pick
the book up and I do this preaching. You pick it up. You read it.
The first thing you do. Let me go see what Robert Hawker said
about this. Robert Hawker didn't write the book. Go to the one
who wrote the book. Go to the one who breathed it.
Go to the one who's gonna open it up to you in ways that no
man's ever seen before if he's pleased to do so. Go to him and
ask him, Lord, teach me this. He ain't ever turned away a baby
that came to him wanting some milk. I guarantee you that. And
he won't. He'll teach you. Well, I got
all these school books I'm required to read and I got all this homework
I gotta do and you can't expect me to read the Word when I get
done with all that. Jesus answered and said, Martha, Martha, you've
cumbered about much serving, and there's just one thing needful.
Mary's chosen that one thing that will not be taken from her.
You're going to go to college, and you're going to go around
all these folks, going to tell you there's all these other things
that's important, and all these other things you've got to do,
and it's just... I look at all that stuff as Satan just trying
to build up roadblocks, and build up hedges, and just trying to
turn you away every way you can. I'm getting aware, I look at
headphones and music and all that. I know it's okay. Sometimes
you want to walk on your tiptoes and it lifts your spirits and
all that. But I look at all that now, it's just more hindrance
and more hindrance to try to take your attention and your
heart and your mind away from Christ. You know what we have
to do? We're going to literally have
to do this. Lay aside the malice and the
guile and the evil speakings of this flesh and of this world
and of everything, the TV and everything that we're hearing.
We're going to have to lay it aside and say, Lord, teach me. Pick
up the book, open it and say, Lord, teach me. Isn't that right? That's what He gives you a hunger
and a thirst to do when He's called you. That's what He gives
you a hunger and a thirst to do. His love constrains us to
believe and rest in Him and rest in God our Father and Christ
His Son. His love constrains us to love our brethren, and
His love constrains us to have a hunger and a thirst after His
Word. Let the world call us crazy. Let them say that we're beside
ourselves. We'll say with Paul, the love of Christ constrains
us. Does it constrain you? Amen.