I love to tell the story of unseen
things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because
I notice truth. It satisfies my longings as nothing
else can do. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus
and His love. I love to tell the story, more
wonderful it seems, And all the golden fancies of all our golden
dreams. I love to tell the story, it
did so much for me. And that is just the reason I
tell it now to thee. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus
and His love. I love to tell the story, it's
pleasant to repeat. But seems each time I tell it,
more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story, for
some have never heard. The message of salvation from
God's own Holy Word. I love to tell the story. It'll be my theme in glory to
tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. I love to tell
the story for those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. And when it seems of glory, I
sing the new, new song. It will be the old, old story
that I have loved so long. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme in glory
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Thank you. Brother Scott will
read scriptures. My brethren, be not many masters,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For
in many things we have been at all. If any man are fed but not
in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle
the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horse's
mouth, and then they obey us, and we turn about their whole
body. Behold, also the ships, which are through, are though
they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they
turned about with a very small helm, with a soever big governor
enlisted. Even so, the tongue is a little
member in most of the great things. Behold how great a manner a little
fire can live. And the tongue is a fire in a
world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members
that devoured the whole body and set it on fire in the course
of nature, and it is set on fire in hell. of every kind of beast,
and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is
tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no
man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison. Therewith, bless we God, even
the Father, and therewith, curse we men, which are made after
the civiltude of God. Out of the same mouth receive
a blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not to be, not so to be, Let the fountain send forth the same,
like sweet water and bitter. Can the fig tree, my brethren,
bear olive berries? Neither of mine figs. So can
no fountain yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man? In a dude with knowledge among
you, let him show out of good conversation his works with weakness
and wisdom. But if you have bitter in being
and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
devilish. For where evil and strife is,
there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy
to be treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,
without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is so in peace of them that make peace. Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for this passage of scripture. Lord, we ask that
you sow it in our hearts. Lord, we ask that you continue
to watch over this congregation and its members, the folks that
are members, and we just ask that you and watch over us and
care for us, Lord. And we ask that the message continue
to always be preached here. And we ask that you watch over
our pastor as he brings that message. And as he studies, Lord,
we ask that you watch over him in his travels to New Jersey. And we ask that you support him
as he brings the message to those folks. And we ask that you watch
over Dave Edmonds as he makes his trip over here. And Lord,
we ask for a a good time with him. And for me, again, just
ask that you open our eyes and hearts to the message that you're
going to bring us this morning. And continue to watch over Gary
Morrison, President. Our second hymn will be 352,
Jesus lover of my soul, 352. ? Jesus, lover of my soul ? Let
me to thy bosom fly ? While the nearer waters roll ? While the
tempest still is high ? Find me, O my Savior, high ? Till
the storm of life is past ? ? Safe into the haven guide ? ? Who'll
receive my soul at last ? ? Other refuge have I none ? ? Hangs
my helpless soul on thee ? Leave, ah, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. Oh, my trust on thee is stayed. ? All my help from thee I bring
? ? Cover my defenseless head ? ? With the shadow of thy wing
? ? Thou, O Christ, art all I want ? ? More than all in thee I find
? Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead
the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Last one, acapella. Thank you. I thought I had all
the verses on that, but I guess not. I'll be preaching from John.
We've made it into John 15, but I'm so taken by the words of
our Lord in what we've already covered that sometimes there's
verses that are laid on my heart, and today it's from chapter 14. John 14, verse 23. Here our Lord says, if a man
love me, he will keep my words and my father will love him. And we will come unto him and
make our abode with him. Now I have three main points
that I want to cover with you in this message. First, where
our Lord says, if a man love me. This is a conditional promise. It's a conditional promise. And
if he loves him, then blessings will follow. And then second,
we see the comfort of this promise. comfort in a conditional promise? How is that possible? Well, the
comfort is found in Christ because he meets the condition for his
people. This accomplishment is founded
in Christ. And then third, what are the
blessings which follow? What are the blessings that follow
that our Lord speaks of here, if a man loves me? I've titled
this message, Manifest by Love. Manifest by Love. So the first
point here is, I want to look at this powerful and provocative
promise. It's a powerful and provocative
promise. He said, if a man love me. Now I've been thinking of these
words for a couple weeks now and I'm comforted by these words. I'm comforted by these words
that our Lord spoke because the promise is accomplished. It's founded in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the promises of God to you
who believe Christ are in Him. Yay and Amen. Yea and amen. They are sure and
certain in Christ. Now, this conditional promise,
that's how it's written here in this verse. If a man love
me, then something favorable will follow. And our Lord tells
us what those favorable things are. He says he will keep my
words. He says, my father will love
him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Now I can understand when we
read this and read it as a conditional promise that we could easily
despair as we consider this conditional promise, as we consider and ponder
the question, do I love the Lord? Do I love the Lord? You know,
Peter, that question was put to the Apostle Peter. That question
was put to the Apostle Peter three times as it's recorded
in Scripture. And it's found in John chapter
21. Let's turn there to John 21. And it begins in verse 14. Here our Lord met his disciples
on the beach. He came to them on the beach
and while they were out in the ship they had been fishing and
were told in verse 14 that this was the third time that Jesus
showed himself to his disciples. After that he was risen from
the dead. And so when they had dined, they ate together, again
confirming that Christ rose in bodily form. His body truly raised
from the dead. He was able to eat and consume
food just like you and me. He really rose from the dead.
So after they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Now it's not
clear whether Christ is referring to the occupation that Peter
had returned to, to go fishing. Peter, do you love me more than
being a fisherman? Do you love me more than the
boats and the nets and the sea and doing these things, Peter? Do you love me more than these
things? Or, as is more readily seen often, that he's referring
to the other disciples. Peter, do you love me more than
the other disciples? And that's because On the day
in which our Lord was betrayed, he told all his disciples, all
ye shall be offended because of me this night. And when Peter heard that, he
boasted himself. He exalted himself, stepping
on the backs of the other disciples, even to do it, saying, not me,
not me, Lord. Though all men should be offended
because of thee, Yet will I never be offended." I'm not going to
leave you. Not me, Lord. I'm convinced. I know what I know and nothing's
going to change that. I will not be abandoning you
this night, Lord. Now Peter, at this time when
the Lord asks him this question, Peter has been humbled. Peter has been brought low by
the chastening of the Lord. And he sees the sin of his own
pride. And Peter's response to the Lord
in this question is, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
And Christ said unto him, feed my lambs. Christ is teaching
Peter, you've been forgiven, Peter. You've been humbled. I've shown you your sin. I've
shown you that my word unto you is faithful and true, and that
what I say comes to pass, and the Lord has kept you. Peter, the devil came, and he
sought to sift you like wheat. He was going to destroy you.
But Peter, I prayed for you. I prayed for you. I delivered
you from the death which was ready to take you, to take you
down and destroy you the way that Judas was destroyed. But
I prayed for you, Peter." And he says to him, feed my lambs. You remember what you've been
taught. You remember my love for you,
Peter, and you be tenderhearted. You be kind and you be gracious
to others. who think more highly of themselves
than they ought to think, Peter. And you minister the word to
the weak and the tender-hearted brethren. You minister and be
kind to those who are struggling and those who need to hear the
grace of God revealed in the word of reconciliation. Then
verse 16, he saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest. Sorry, I skipped one. He saith
unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And the Lord,
oh, sorry, I'm getting mixed up here. Verse 16. He saith to
him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Be faithful in feeding my sheep,
Peter. In verse 17, he saith unto him
the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter
was grieved, because he said unto him the third time, lovest
thou me? It stung Peter. It stung his
heart. And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. was taught of the Lord that Peter
was being taught by the Lord. He was still being taught by
the Lord that the Lord knows all things. The Lord knew what
he was saying when he told the disciples, you're all going to
forsake me this night. You're all going to be scattered
from me. The Lord knows. He's greater
than our own knowledge of ourselves. So Peter said, thou knowest all
things, all things. You know better than me, Lord.
You know all things, and you know that I love thee." And in
that faith, that continued faith which Peter had, the Lord was
faithful to him in teaching Peter. He kept Peter. He preserved Peter. He delivered
Peter from death, and he was still being faithful to Peter.
He was still teaching Peter the Word. He was still declaring
the comfort of God's people through the Gospel to Peter. And our Lord does that for you
and I. And he does it that we would
learn to be gracious and faithful and tenderhearted to others.
That we would forgive others even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven us. That we would remember what he's
done for us. And so the Lord can put forth
a question, frame it as a condition, and use it to teach us. If a
man love me, do I love the Lord? Do I love the Lord? And it teaches
us because we see in ourselves unbelief. We see in ourselves
sin. We see in ourselves wickedness. We see in ourselves waywardness. We see in ourselves flesh. And yet it's the Lord who in
grace and mercy keeps us. And when questions like this
are put to us, when it's brought to us and stings us, and we're
brought to see our sin being kept and taught by the Lord,
we cry out, Lord save me. Lord, teach me. Lord, keep me.
Lord, I'm cold. Lord, I'm distant. Lord, I'm
being ignorant. Lord, I'm willfully rebelling. Save me. Have mercy. Deliver
me, Lord. Keep me. The Lord teaches us
through His Word. You know, how do I know? When the Lord says, feed my sheep,
how do I know how to feed the sheep of God? Well, what does
He do? He shows us our weakness. He shows me my emptiness, my
ignorance, my inability, which is a good thing, to feel weak
in ourselves, to feel insufficient for these things, so that we
learn what the Lord is teaching us in John 15, 5, when he says,
without me, you can do nothing, nothing. But he teaches us in
verse 7, if ye abide in me, and my word abide in you, if you
live in me, and I live in you, my word lives in you, ye shall
ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Because
seeing our insufficiency, knowing I can do nothing, causes the
child of God to lean and cry out to the Lord, save me Lord. I want to feed your sheep. I
want to feed them the faithful, true gospel of Jesus Christ,
because you and you alone save your sheep. You alone are the
salvation of your people. And so through the question like
this, if a man, well, through a conditional promise where he
says, if a man loved me, and he causes us to ask, do I love
the Lord? We feel him search our hearts. We know Him to be the searcher
of hearts. We know that we can't fool Him.
We can fool others, we can fool ourselves, but you can't fool
God who knows all things and is everywhere. So that we're
brought, Lord, You know all things. You know everything. And Peter
could have crumbled right there. He was certainly reminded in
that questioning of what he did when the Lord went away that
night to be crucified. How that he denied Christ three
times exactly as the Lord had said. And here he finds himself
in an open air fire, the same as he was the night that the
Lord was taken. when he denied him three times.
And now he's asked three times and it stung him greatly. And so Peter would learn this
and be taught this by the Lord so that being humbled himself.
And knowing the chastening of the Lord, who does this for those
that he loves, he could write in his epistle in 1 Peter 5,
5, when he said, all of you be subject one to another. Don't
think. Don't be so high and mighty that
you don't hear your brethren and don't consider your brethren. Be subject one to another. We're
not as wise as we think that we are. And be clothed with humility. We're not as solid as we think
that we are. Be clothed with humility. Even
if we were solid and sound, God won't have it. God's gonna teach
us that we're not. We're not as sure and as sound
as we think we are. And it says, or he says, for
God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So how could
Peter say, yea, Lord, I love you? Lord, you know that I love
you. He could say that he loved Christ
because the promise of life and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ
wasn't founded upon some self-righteousness in Peter. There was a time when
Peter said, I'm zealous. I know what I know. And I'm a
powerful speaker. I'm able to stand up in boldness
before my brethren. I have resolve, I have commitment
that I don't see in these other people. And he trusted in himself
before, but now he sees I'm nothing. The Lord knows all things. He
stripped me down, showed me I'm nothing in myself so that His
confidence wasn't in self, but was founded upon the promises
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which were made manifest in him. And
Peter believed Christ's word to him. Peter believed his word,
and so he continued to follow Christ by faith. And in following
him, in going after Christ, staying upon Christ, Christ was faithful
to him. Christ taught him. Christ loved
Peter. and was merciful to him. And
that's what I was saying there, where the Lord teaches us we
could do nothing. But seeing we can do nothing,
it causes us to cry out to our God. Because that promise lives
in us. It abides in us. And we see,
Lord, you say that without you I can do nothing. And I believe
you. And you say that whatsoever we
ask in your name, you'll give it. When that word abides in
you, because you're not asking according to the flesh, you're
not asking to consume it upon fleshly things, we're asking
it because we need help. We're asking it because the spirit
of adoption cries out, Abba Father, I'm nothing. Lord, I'm sinking. Lord, I need your help. And you
promise to help those who cry out to you. You promise life. You say, because I live, you
shall live also. And so he brings us through the
trials. He brings us through the afflictions.
He brings us to times where we are humbled so that we cry out
to him in faith. believing his word, trusting
his promise, and see the proof of that promise revealed to us
in Christ. So that we see the Lord does
keep his word, the Lord does fulfill his word to me. You know, Peter could have gone
the way of Judas, but he was kept by the grace of God. He was sifted, but Christ preserved
him. Christ protected him. And so
Christ saying, my words abide in you, Peter. What word was
that? That confession that Peter had made some time ago, a while
ago back in John 6, verse 68 and 69, when he said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God." That word, which was revealed to him
by the Father, abided in him, it lived in him, it remained
in him, and so being kept alive by the Lord, he continued. Though he was saddened by his
own sin and rebellion and was humbled in the chastening, but
he stayed on Christ. Where could he go? Where could
he go? Christ alone has the words of
eternal life, and he hoped against hope that Christ would be merciful
and compassionate to him. And what a comfort that is to
us who are sinners, who know that we ourselves are fickle
and weak and foolish, but where can we go? Yes, we see our sin. Yes, we see our folly. But Lord,
I can't go anywhere else. And I can't muster up righteousness
of myself. I don't have strength of me,
but you do. And you promise in your word
that all who cry out to you shall be saved. And that you reveal
your word of promise to your people, which is why you've given
to us the Holy Spirit. And he reveals our need of Christ
in us. So this brings us to our second
point here, the condition which is established upon better promises. Every one of us here has done
some things, has said some things, have thought some things for
which we are ashamed. Since the time when we professed
to believe on Christ, We've done those things and feel shame and
sting in our heart when we think of those things. And we think,
we ask the question, how can a Christian do this? How can
someone who loves Christ do this or say this or think that? And so we're brought to feel
that shame. But like Peter, when we're chastened
and brought low in self, Like Peter, we stay upon the only
name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved,
because He's given us life, and His Word abides in us, so that
we continue to come back to Him, and look to Him, and are chastened,
because the Lord loves us, and teaches us, and will be gracious
and faithful and kind to us. And Christ restored Peter through
the promise of his word and the testimony of the Holy Spirit
because our God gives us the Holy Spirit who bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. He makes that
known. It's not that you don't have
the spirit because you're mighty in everything and you're all
wonderful and never make mistakes, you never sin, you never fall,
you never offend. That's not what it is. It's that
our God makes us to be meek and humble and to know our need of
him, to know we can do nothing without him, that we cry out
to him, repeating those promises, Lord, You say in your word, and
Lord, I believe, and I need you to do that by your spirit and
grace. And so what are the promises
upon which our faith is established and built up? We'll turn over
to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, verse three and four. He says that the promises there
are according as His divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue. whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." Our God is telling us
that you're not continuing, you're not following Christ by the strength
of this flesh. No, no. We see, we know, we know
the weakness of this flesh. We see what comes of our following
the Lord in this flesh. But here he's telling us, I've
given, I've promised you. I've given you great and exceeding
precious promises. I've given you my Holy Spirit
who reveals the truth of my word in you. And you're pressed, and
you're brought into trials, and you're shown your weakness that
you would call upon me looking for. those promises, trusting
those promises, believing God to bless us, who's promised this
word to us. And so our hope and trust in
Christ is not based upon what we see in ourselves. It's based
upon him whom we see by faith, who gives us his word and promises
his word to us. He said, because I live, he shall
live also. And so being made alive by him,
we're helped of him. We're taught of him. We're led
of him. We're kept by him. What's something
that he says? He says in John 8, 12, I'll give
you an example of what I'm saying. He said, I am the light of the
world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life. That's a promise. That's a promise
of God. So when our minds are filled
with darkness, when we are filled with confusion and doubt, and
sin and the follies of this flesh, what do we do? We lean upon our
Savior. Lord, save me. Lord, my mind
is full of noise. Lord, I am in darkness. Lord,
I am afraid. Lord, I doubt. Lord, I have unbelief. Lord, you say that those who
believe in you shall not walk in darkness, that you are the
light. Lord, shine that light in my heart as you promise in
your word. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. Keep me, Lord. Show me your glory. Restore to me that joy and that
fellowship and that light in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
encourages us with his word. He says to you that he's called
you by his gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not by our strength. He's
promised that we have obtained that glory even now and we shall
come into that eternal inheritance by the grace and power of our
God. He tells us that we are His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them. Ephesians 2.10. So, we do love
Christ. We do love Christ. Don't look
at your actions and your flesh and think that you're going to
find something in yourselves to find this confidence. We'll
be stripped and humbled and brought low that we might find all our
strength, all our hope, all our glory in Him who promised life
to us by grace according to His promise. And so we do love Christ. We do love His salvation. We
are thankful for His mercy and His compassion toward us. We're
thankful and rejoiced that Christ came in the flesh, a perfect
fit sacrifice for me. I'm the sinner and you're the
sinner who needs that perfect salvation and Christ came to
pay the debt of sin for you his people whom he loved from all
eternity and he came and faithfully fulfilled everything to put away
our sin to die our death and to give us life in him and the
comfort to our hearts when we're looking at this conditional promise
because I said it's not fulfilled by us, it's fulfilled unto us,
it's made truth, it's made alive unto us by His grace. When He says, if a man love Me,
the truth is, as the Apostle John said in his epistle, 1 John
4, when he said first in verse 10, hear in His love. Not that
we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins, to turn away the wrath of God against
our disobedience and to give us life in Him. And He says in
1 John 4, 19, we love Him because he first loved us. And
so we see that that word is fulfilled not by us, but by Christ. So that we who love him, we who
walk by his spirit, we who walk by faith, believing the promises,
do so because he loved us first and gave us life and gives us
the spirit whereby we cry out in the spirit of adoption, Abba
Father. Help me, Lord, save me. Reveal
these promises in me, which you say to your people. And so this
is that promise of the covenant of grace established for us in
Christ's blood. He says, well, go to Hebrews
10. Hebrews 10, verse 14 through 17. He said, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days. Saith the Lord, I will put my
laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them,
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And so that love for our Savior
is formed in our hearts. The Holy Spirit, which is given
unto you, is a witness to you that you live in Christ, that
Christ laid down His life for you. Because we've been raised
from the dead and have fellowship and communion with our God. And we have these blessings founded
upon the blood of Christ. And in Him, these great and exceeding
precious promises are made unto us. Believe Him. That's why we're
walking by faith, because we're trusting Him to fulfill His word
of promise unto us. Alright now, the last point is
the blessings which follow. So let's go back there to John
14, 23. What are these blessings which
are founded upon this promise in Christ? Jesus answered, verse
23, and said unto unto him, unto Judas, or Didymus, if a man love
me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and
we will come unto him, and make our abode with him, so that these
blessings are given to strengthen our love and communion with our
God. that we would look for him, that
we would trust him, that we would believe him. He says, if a man
love me, he will keep my words. So that where life is, faith
will follow. There will be faith in his children. And we'll be looking for Christ. Paul writes it this way. He says,
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Ephesians 4.1.
Then in Colossians 1, 10 and 11, he wrote to that church,
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all
might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness. He teaches us this. He says again
to the church in Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 2.12, he said
that ye walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom
in glory, so that if you don't see in yourselves a walk worthy,
by the spirit of his grace we pray. Lord help us. I know what your word says, and
I don't feel good at all about myself. And I don't see what
I think I should see in myself, and we never will. We never will. But we do love him, and we want
to be faithful to him. We want to walk worthy. We want
him to teach us what a worthy walk is, because we don't know
what a worthy walk is in this flesh. And so we cry out to Him
and we pray and we seek Him because this is His Word. His Word of
promise is that we do live in Him and we believe Him. We believe
by faith that He has given us life in Him. And so we seek Him
for it. That's not how we're made righteous.
Christ is our righteousness. He is all our righteousness,
but we are given His Spirit whereby we walk by faith. Not by sight, but we walk trusting
Him, crying out to Him in fellowship, breathing out the Spirit that's
been given unto us because we live and breathe by the grace
of God. And Peter said it this way, 2
Peter 3.18, But grow in grace and in the knowledge of your
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and
forever. Amen. There is a desire put in
us that Christ be glorified. And we want to walk by faith
in Him, trusting Him, discovering the glory of His promises and
His power. all his glory. And then our Lord
says, and my father will love him, so that through the preaching
of Christ, through the preaching of this gospel, he turns our
hearts from dead works and sets them upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
so that we do love him more and more, growing in him, rejoicing
in him and having more comfort as he reveals the promises in
us and turns our hearts from trying out something new and
doing dead works, but rather being turned again to our God
and crying out, Lord, save me, have mercy on me. And he adds,
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. We're going
to face adversity. We're going to face trials and
difficulties disappointments, afflictions, temptations, all
these things are brought to us, and they show us weaknesses in
ourselves. We're disappointed with ourselves,
and we disappoint others, and fine flesh yet dwells, or sin
yet dwells in this flesh, because our God is continually teaching
us, without me. He can do nothing. And he does it faithfully and
tempered and he does it in wisdom and in compassion and kindness
to teach us and to grow us in Christ. And so it's not an easy
lesson for us to learn. You think about how Peter learned
it. Was that an easy thing? Could
you imagine being like Peter who denied the Lord three times
just as the Lord said? And when Christ looked at him
there recorded in Luke, how that must have pierced his heart.
How that word divided soul and spirit and just exposed him for
what he is in the flesh. That was a hard lesson to learn.
Is it any different for us as the Lord is teaching us? So Peter
wrote in 1 Peter 5, 6, and 7, humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him. We love the Lord, and so
we do care about his name. We do care about our walk, and
we have no strength or ability in ourselves to walk worthy.
And so we do cast that care upon him and say, Lord, Fulfill unto
me the promise of your word. Teach me, grow me, be patient
with me. And I know, Lord, you do all
things well and for my good. And so we find through that abiding
presence of our God that he does love us, that he is the one keeping
us, that he hasn't let us go and turned us over to our own
flesh, that we haven't departed like Judas or like Demas or like
others who went away and been destroyed. He's showing us that
we are his children. because his word abides in us.
And we cry out to him and he keeps us, all by his grace. And so it's going to be received
by faith, resting on the promises of our God made unto us in Christ. If a man love me, our Savior
manifests his love in us and it's through his glorious power
and grace and the giving of his Holy Spirit And it's wonderful
to discover that grace, that we love Him because He first
loved us. And so I pray the Lord comfort
your hearts and bless you in that word to believe your Savior
and walk by faith in Him. Amen. All right, let's close in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, Father, we thank you for your word. We thank
you for your promise of life, that you do reveal life and love
for our Savior in us. And where there is love for the
Savior, it's because God loves that child. And that your word,
according to your promise, is and will be fulfilled in them. They shall walk. according to
your word and Lord that the father does love us and that Our God
the fullness of the Godhead dwells with us That we should that we
would abide in him and walk by faith in him having the spirit
of adoption in us crying out Abba father to keep us, to deliver
us from dead things and dead works and to live upon our God
and to rejoice in Him. Lord, we pray for our brethren,
those who are sick, those who are suffering, those who have
wounds and sores and need healing. Lord, that you would be merciful,
that you would heal our bodies, that you would give us strength.
Lord, help us, enable us to come together to hear the word of
God. We do pray for Brother David Edmondson coming next week, that
you would bless that word, that you would bless the word to the
hearts of your people, that you would gather your people together
and bless them all. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, trusting Jesus 262. 262. Simply trusting every day, trusting
through a stormy way. Even when my faith is small,
trusting Jesus, that is all. ? Trusting as the moments fly
? ? Trusting as the days go by ? ? Trusting Him whate'er befall
? ? Trusting Jesus, that is all ? ? Brightly doth His spirit
shine ? to this poor heart of mine. While he leads, I cannot
fall, trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moments
fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting Him whate'er befall,
trusting Jesus at His own. Praying if my way is clear, Praying
if the path be drear, If in danger for him call, Trusting Jesus,
that is all. Trusting as the moments fly,
trusting as the days go by, trusting Him on e'er befall, trusting
Jesus, that is all. Trusting Him while life shall
last, trusting Him till earth be past. Still within the jasper
wall, trusting Jesus at His all. Trusting as the moments fly,
trusting as the days go by, trusting Him whate'er befall, trusting
Jesus, that is all. Thank you.