As a reminder, Sunday, I changed
it on the bulletin and I'll do the best I can to remind everybody.
We'll begin having the first service on Sunday mornings at
945. 945. That'll be the first service. We'll have a 15-minute
break in between. We'll start the second service
at 1030 and it'll end whenever I get through preaching. So,
hopefully it won't be that. About three o'clock today, I
had a long hectic day. It's just life. Everybody's got
that. Y'all work hard. Y'all go to your given occupations,
work all day, sweating so we can further the gospel. And stuff happens. And I was emailing
myself all my notes. And it was as clear as a bell,
Bob. That's the point, it's right
there. It's just as smooth and beautiful. And I had all the
references in my head, I struggled with those. That's John 17, that's
where he says this. That's Matthew 7, I don't know
exactly what he's talking about. Just didn't even look it up,
just writing it out. And I hit send, and then I picked out the
songs I was gonna sing tonight, because I forgot I had to do
that. And I sent them to myself, keep sending my notes to myself.
About three o'clock I got home, I said, all right, I need to
clean these up a little bit, put them in a Word document, good to go. Kids coming
home from school, gone. Ain't no cents, ain't no trash,
ain't no draft, it just ain't there. Cling, it'll probably
come in tonight, maybe. Or I'll send them to somebody
else. My insurance fellow's gonna have some real good notes on
John 14, 15. I'd be in a whole lot of trouble
if I hadn't experienced this. If the Lord hadn't spent years
and years and years teaching me what this means, you'd be
in trouble, too. If I had to memorize something
out of a book, or out of a creed, or out of a bunch of old dead
folks, I'm in trouble. You're in trouble. You're in
big trouble. Thankfully, I've lived it. He says in verse 15,
John 14 to 15, he said, if you love me, keep my commandments. John 14, 15, this is good, important
to look at. John 14, 15 says, if you love
me, keep my commandments. Down to verse 21, he says, he
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me. And he that loveth me shall be
loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest myself
to him. So many times this has been just
wrongly used. to whip people over the ears.
They see this, they say, the people in religion, I told somebody,
I ain't that religious. False religion is what I'm talking
about. Those people that, all around, Christians, you know,
how many Christians do you know? 10,000? Tons of them. They say,
if you keep his commandments, he's gonna love you. If you do
what God says, he's gonna love you. That's not what the text
says. That's wrong. It's wrong. It says, if you love me, and
then he gives the command. Keep my commandments. If he said,
let there be light, is there a light? You better close your
eyes and believe. They'll blind you. He said, keep
my commandments. Keep my commandments. This has
been whipped so many times with people. Remember whenever the
Sadducees, they come to our Lord, and they had this fictitious
lady built up in their heads, and they planned so long. And
she got married, and that man died, and her brother, his brother
married her, and then he died, and another brother, and then
seven brothers. She went through all of them. He said, now, whose
wife is she gonna be in glory? They didn't believe in the resurrection,
did they? We got him now. And he answered them. He said,
you do err. You err, not knowing the scriptures,
nor the power of God. You don't know it. So there's
a whole lot of people memorize scripture. They don't know what it means
and they don't understand its meaning and the power of God
and a lot of his power and a lot of his son. the right hand of
God, God in human flesh. And you're wrong. Natural man
says you keep commandments of God, he'll love you. Do good,
God'll love you. Nope. He said, if you love me,
keep my commandments. He's speaking to those he loves.
Remember who he's talking to? Who's he talking to? The apostles.
11, not Judas. He said, beat it. Ain't talking
to him. What's he talking about? We err
so often. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15. Have you ever heard someone say,
I am what I am by the grace of God? Have you ever said that?
Have you ever said, I am what I am by the grace of God? I have.
I've said that. I am what I am by the grace of God. Wrong. 1
Corinthians 15. Look at verse 9. Paul was right here and he says,
first Corinthians 15, nine. He said, for I'm the least of
the apostles that I'm not meet to be called an apostle. I'm
not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church.
I was killing folks, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. What come first? I am what I
am by the grace of God. Nope. Is that what it says that
it says, but by the grace of God that comes first, what comes
first? His love comes first. His grace comes first to us word. Then I am what I am. That love
came first. Grace came first and his grace,
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. If he, if he has
a servant, you think that service is going to be profitable. If he has a child, do you think
he's going to, as the Heavenly Father, do you think he's going
to raise his child and have an obedient child that knows, do
you think he's going to teach his children something? It ain't
in vain. He didn't save people with his
sheep and buy them with his own blood that's precious and just
leave them off on a hillside somewhere. He leaves the nanny
and nun and go get to, is that what he said? That's what he
said, wasn't it? Why do we disagree with him?
Why do we live our lives in total vanity and obstinate rebellion
to Almighty God? He said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was
not in vain. He gave it to him. What did he
say over in Luke 12? He said, unto whomsoever much
is given, much shall be required. If the Lord's given you much
grace, he's going to use you. If he shed a whole lot of blood
to buy you, it ain't gonna be in vain. And Paul says, but I
labored more abundantly than they all. He ain't bragging,
he had. He wrote the bulk of the New Testament, hadn't he?
He preached more places than any of the other ones. Got bit
by a snake on Malta and just shook it off. And they said,
what's wrong with you? He said, come here, let me tell you about
it. Look what it says, but I labored
more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God,
which was with me. That's what did the labor. We
started in love. We started in grace, didn't we?
And then he gave me some and required much of me because he
gave me a bunch and he worked it in me. Therefore, whether
it were I or they, so we preach. It don't matter if it was Apollos
or whoever, it don't make a difference. And you believed. Paul, you ain't
going to get none of the glory. I don't care. Did you believe?
That's why I'm here for it. What has the Lord been teaching
these disciples back in our text? Believe him. Believe him. Who he is, he's almighty God
in human flesh. Believe his word. Believe everything
he's been telling you for three and a half years, since he called
you and said, follow me. He's taught him a lot. Told them
a lot. Believe the word. And if you
don't believe that, believe for the work's sake. And he says,
I'm not going to leave you without the ability to keep doing what
I want you to do. You're going to do it. And you're about to
get to work. That's what they were scared.
Those gifts going to go away. And he said, no, no, no, no. You have those
that's needed. And I'll be with you. You need
something. You asked me for the furtherance of the gospel. I'll
give it to you. I was thinking of Phillip going to go get that
Ethiopian unit. That's a long way. The man traveled 2,500 miles
at two miles an hour to go to services. Well, as long as our
way, uh, so. Now Phillip's got to catch up
with him. You reckon he prayed, Lord, let me run fast. I bet
that's the fastest marathon ever. Lord, I got to get to him. You
want me there? I'm going to go, but you're going to have to sustain
these legs. I ain't got no food with me. You think he sustained?
He knew what to ask for, for the furtherance of the gospel,
didn't he? He did. For those in Christ, if he commands
it, he enables it. If he requires it, he provides
it. There's gonna have to be a lamb.
He's gonna provide himself a lamb. If he's gonna command his children,
keep my commandments, you're going to. He's gonna enable it,
isn't he? He said, believe me, believe
my word, believe my works, didn't he? Do we believe him that loved
us first? We don't believe ourselves. We
deny ourselves. We believe him, don't we? Do
we believe his word? Not our word. You know what I
think? Stop it. Stop. Every man's a
liar. We don't even know our own heart.
It's deceitful. Who can know it? Is that what he said? What's
he say? Right? There's what it says,
Bob. That's what we're going to read. And we, we love his work singular,
his sacrifice and his works, all the things, his workmanship
in us, because all of our works, all of our righteousness is filthy
rags. And we desire to obey him. That's
so. Salvation's of the Lord, but
His children's gonna be obedient. Now that obedience comes after
salvation. That obedience, I'll get the
naysayers out, they can henpeck me if they want to, have at it.
But our obedience has nothing on salvation. When God gives
life and gives that new birth in a person, and there's life
in them, and He's loved them, and He's merciful to them, there's
gonna be obedience. Faith and obedience go hand in
hand. You can have obedience and not have faith. You can not
have faith and not have obedience. There's a new creation in you.
It ain't like that old creation, that old beast. It's new. Remember Matthew 7. We desire
to obey, but all we see is our utter failure. We love him because he's first
loved us. And we have that faith because we have love and we obey
because of Christ in us. That's why. Matthew 7, verse
21. He said, not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, remember what that was back in John? We'll
see it later. I'll just go ahead and tell you. What's the works
of God? What's the will of the Father? Believe on the Son. You
gonna believe? And what's other people gonna
say? Verse 22, many will say that, hey, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? Lord, if I ever preached a message
that was beneficial, you did it through me. I ain't got enough
sense to do it. What do they say? We've prophesied
in your name, and we've cast out devils in your name, and
in thy name, we've done many wonderful works. And then while
I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
that work iniquity. Wherefore whosoever heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will lock him into a wise man
who built his house upon a rock." What rock are you going to build
on? The rock that came to us, Christ. Everything's based on
him. Everything's based on him. I
was talking to my brother today, and Jared's off on the other
side of the country right now. And I thought, what if he wants
to go? We haven't had to live through that yet. Well, all my, the things
that impacts me is how you're gonna get the gospel that week.
If I have to drive a U-Haul. That's, my life revolves around
that, because that's what it's built on. Cross our rock, built
on him, isn't it? Everything's based on him, built
on him. The man that builds his house on a rock and the rain
descends, verse 25, and a flood came and the winds blew and all
these things. Beat on the house, he's the things of life that
come and go. And it fell not, why? It was found upon a rock.
And he changes not. And everyone that hears these
sayings of mine doeth him not. You don't believe, you believe
in yourself. You don't look to him, him alone. You look to yourself.
You don't believe his word. It's what you think and your
air and interpreting the scripture. They doeth him not, they should
be likened to a fool. A foolish man which built his house upon
the sand. That's their own ways and their own thoughts. And the
rain descends and the flood came and the wind blew and beat upon
that house and it fell. And great was the fall of it.
Why do you think he added that on there? It was a great fall. They were high and mighty and
I started right out. Pride cometh before fall. And then I went
and looked it up and I was wrong. Proud. Pride goes before destruction. The house was destroyed. And
a haughty spirit before fall. They were up high. That was a
mighty fall, wasn't it? Our text says, if you love me,
keep my commandments. What's the first thing? Love.
Love. That's the great commandment. You can't do it. He has to do
it in us. That's what all the prophets
of old, that they prophesied, that's what they're pointing
to, the love of Christ, isn't it? That's what all the law was hung upon,
on love. That law you're asking said,
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And here the Lord
spoke to him, and he said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This
is the first and great commandment, and the second's just like it,
like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. What about keeping the Sabbath? Would our Lord heal the most
on Sabbath day? He is the same. Cause he loved
us. Turn over to Luke's account of
that, what I just read you. Luke chapter 10. Luke records a lawyer here. It
may have been a different lawyer, or just Luke's account of it,
but this lawyer's telling instead of the Lord telling it. Look
here in Luke 10, 25. Said, and behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, saying, master, What shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And he saith unto him, what's
written in the law? How readest thou? What's he saying? What's your interpretation of
that? You've got the scriptures. You think you have life in them,
but they speak of him. How do you interpret that scripture?
Knowing who Christ of the scriptures is, who that's about, the power
of him. If you don't sit in light of
that, you're wrong. You're going to err, isn't it? That's what
we just saw in Matthew 22. Verse 27, he answered, said,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all
thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself. And he saith unto him, thou hast
answered right. Get all your doctrine in a row.
You have knowledge. This do. And thou shalt live. Now go do it. I want to talk about it. Let's
not talk about doing it, let's do it. He said do it, didn't
he? But he, willing to what? Justify
himself. Said unto Jesus, and who's my
neighbor? And who's my neighbor? I saw three things real quick,
real wrong with that. Didn't you? Did you see three
things? You did, didn't you? What's the first thing? He didn't
just bow to the lordship of the king right in front of him and
say, okay. I don't know how to, but yes, sir. You're my Lord,
yes. His word wasn't good enough,
was it? He didn't understand the Lordship of Christ. And second,
he's justified himself. What's the word say? The Lord's
the one that justifies. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. He's
gonna justify himself. I can do this. I can handle it.
And third, this is what a Pharisee would say that hasn't experienced
love and forgiveness and mercy. What do they ask? Give me rules.
Who's my neighbor? Maybe that was a serious question.
Maybe it's just the people in a half mile radius. Or what about
a three quarter of a mile radius? I can handle all the people in
my neighborhood. That's a pretty good neighborhood. Worked hard to
get in this neighborhood. Surely it couldn't be those Gentiles
way down there in Nazareth and them Samaritans and half breeds
and all that stuff. Couldn't be that. What good thing come
out of Nazareth? Not them Jews down there neither.
I need some rules. No, the Lord said be merciful
without end. Forgive your brother infinitely. Now do it. Don't
talk about doing it, do it. Verse 30 says, and Jesus answered
him. He said, who's my neighbor, right? Here's the answer, it's
kind of a long one, but it's a good one. And Jesus answered
and said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem, this was
a Jew, to Jericho and fell among thieves and was stripped of his
raiment and wounded and departed, leaving him half dead. And by
chance there came down a certain priest that way, religious fellow. And when they saw him, he passed
on the other side. Let's get on the other side of the street.
I don't even want to get close to him. And likewise, a Levite. Those people
are important, aren't they? And when he was at the place,
came and looked on him. He did another step. He didn't
go the other side. He come over and took a good glance at him
and passed on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, you
remember us looking at that a long time ago? Remember them Samaritans? They were the half-breeds, wasn't
they? And they had laws. They couldn't be around the Jews.
If they didn't go to town, they had to go all the way the long
way. They couldn't have any interaction with them. It was against the
law. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, he came where
he was, and when he saw him, he had what? Compassion on him. Compassion. He just said, I feel
sorry for that fella, he's down in a ditch. No, the word means
his bowels, his intestines, they yearned because someone had had
compassion on him. He had sympathy because he had
experienced it. You can't show it no other way.
Someone can't be merciful unless they've experienced mercy. And
you can love as man loves, but you can't love as God loves unless
he loved you first. You can't do it. He has to equip
it. He has to give it. He had compassion on him and
he went to him, verse 34, and bound up his wounds, poured oil
and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn
and took care of him. Did he just go up to him and
say, well, I'm only gonna help those that help themselves. What
kind of, have you heard people say that? God only helps those
that help themselves. That's a lie. He helps the helpless. He comes to those that are dead
and trespasses and sins, not bruised a little bit, those that
fell in the garden, not those that stubbed their toe. And on the morrow when he departed,
he took out two pants and gave it to the host and said to them,
take care of him. And whatsoever thou spendest more on him, when
I come again, I'll repay thee. He put it on me. I'm the one. Now, which of these three thinkest
thou was the neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?
And he said unto him, he that showed mercy on him. And Jesus
said unto him, go and do thou likewise. Get to having mercy. How in the world could this lawyer
know what he's talking about unless he's experienced it? If
this was just words, if this was just facts, dry, dead letter
doctrine, you know what he'd do? He would go down on the wayside
and he'd start up a roadside mission. Get a little first aid kit out
there. The Lord told him to patch wounds or something. I don't
know what he's talking about. If God had been merciful to him,
a sinner, he'd have been merciful to other sinners. He didn't know
exactly what he was talking about. If we have the love of God in
us, what are the commandments? He gave us to keep. He gave us
some commandments to keep. He said, if you love me, keep
my commandments, didn't he? What's the first thing? Believe
him. Over and over and over again throughout the scripture, the
Lord said, believe me, believe me. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. We want to work the works of
God. What's that? Well, here's the work of God. Believe on him
who he sent. That means God's going to do
the work. You can't. You can't believe in something
you don't believe in. You can't choose to believe something.
I'll give you a good example. Dear friend of mine, Danny Parks.
Everybody calls him Moose. He is a tried and true diehard
Duke fan. Man, it gives me goosebumps.
I'm of the cloth of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, Bob. Those
are rivals. And I thought, you know, out
of my love for Moose, I could dress up in Duke outfits. I could
put Duke bumper stickers on my car. I could talk about how much
I love Duke. I could go to all their games.
I could buy season tickets. I could spend a whole bunch of
money and donate to their programs and say I'm the biggest Duke
fan on earth, but alone in my closet. I can't stand Duke. I can't. I can't do it. I can't. I can't
give to it. You can't believe unless God
makes you believe. You can't choose to believe something.
You can't choose to love. You love, you don't. And if you
do love, you can't stop loving. Is that the first thing he said?
That's what he told him a lot. Here's his commandments. You're
going to keep them if you love me. Believe me. We believe in him, his word,
and his works. We do, don't we? You know what
the other thing he told us? Be baptized. And so, he said, confess him
publicly, or I won't confess you before the Father. That's
what he said. You go into all the world, you
preach to them, you baptize them, and you teach them. That's what
he said. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before man, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before man, him also
will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. I can't explain
that away, that's what it says. The Lord said that, didn't he?
If you won't confess him and believers baptism, he won't have
nothing to do with it. Well, why? Well, I just can't
do that. Now I'm old and I've been baptized 57 times already,
or I did it when I was a kid, or it was good enough back in
that better Armenian church, that reformed church that makes
you do a bunch of works. And all of a sudden, it counted
then. No, it ain't. What did Ethiopian eunuch do?
What does hinder me to be baptized? Well, why do you want to be baptized,
Ethiopian eunuch? Because I believe God. He said,
be baptized. I said, okay. I want to confess
Christ. He told me to. I want to do it.
Won't you be embarrassed? Weren't you baptized before?
Yeah, but I didn't believe until now. That was all just religion.
That was just playing church. I believe God now. And I'm going
to do what he said, because I love him, because he loved me first.
I believe him. He said, get in that water. I lived when he lived. I died when he died. I was crucified
when he crucified. And whenever he came up, I don't
know how that worked, but I was up with him. And I'm with him
now, even though I'm here. I believe him. And I'm gonna
do what he says. With that faith comes obedience.
Or it's like, well, that's good enough for a buddy. You know what goes hand in hand
with that? His commandment was to believe
him. His commandment, he gave that ordinance to the church.
Baptize, confess him in believers baptism. I just can't bring myself
to do that. That means yourself is more important
than him. And he said, gather with the saints, didn't he? He
was speaking through those words he gave his disciples. I remember
reading that last week in John 17, 20. He said, and through
their words, my people's going to believe. Well, what did his
people write? Them apostles write. They said,
not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner
of some is. We come into this house to worship
God. Why? He loved us. We love him. We believe him. We obey him. I want to be where he is, don't
you? If he's loved us, he don't change. It don't go away. That's
good. My love comes and goes and is
fickle and whatever, but not him. Can a mother that has a
sucking child, can she forget her young? You better believe
it. Happens all the time. See it
on the news, don't you? He said, I'll never forget you. And we want to be where those
that love him are. Peter was ashamed of denying the Lord publicly. It wasn't when the Lord looked
at him. That look, boy, I don't want to have that look. And by
God's grace, he wanted to make amends, didn't he? And the Lord
came to him and asked him three times. He said, Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me? You love me? He saith unto them,
yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. You know all things. And
what did he tell them to do? He said, go off by yourself on
a deserted island and live it up. He said, feed my sheep. They're a herd animal. They need one another. They got
no defenses. You go feed them. Go tell them
what I've done for you. Go show them what I've done for
you. And love your brethren. And that's the order it goes
in. We believe, we profess Him. We confess what He did for us,
and in us, to us. That wasn't me, He did it. And
we gather together with the saints, the preacher of the gospel, where
He puts His people together. That's where I wanna be. That's
where my body is. And we love the brethren. He
said, love your brethren. That's not advice. Do you know
that? That's a command. Love you, brethren. Love you,
brethren. Mom used to tell us, she said,
if you don't get along with your siblings, I'm going to make you
hug. And I've seen people argue before. I said, if you don't
knock it off, I'm going to make you hug. You're going to hug it out until
you get happy. We love our brethren in person,
don't we? Sheep are fed in person. We don't get a picture of feed,
of sheep feed, do we? We don't get a letter about sheep
feed. I was thinking of that fellow,
they sent him a picture of a ticket, he got a speeding ticket, and
he sent him back a picture of money, and they sent him back
a picture of handcuffs. It's real, it's in person too,
isn't it? It's so. People don't get that. But we
love our brethren. The Lord said, a new commandment
I give you, not a suggestion, it'd help you out a whole lot
if you did this, it's a good rule. He said, a commandment
I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this shall all men know you
are my disciples. And you just, it's so, he wasn't
lying. If you have love one towards
another, can't keep from it. A Pharisee says, well, who's
my neighbor? Who do I have to love? Love says, I want to love my
enemies. Remember when you hated God? That's when he loved me. He loved
me when I was an enemy with him. When I hated him and I was playing
church, I want to love my enemies that way. You know how sweet
of a relationship it would be if the Lord broke the heart of
those that just hated you worse than anything on this earth?
Your arch nemesis. If the Lord broke both of y'all's
hearts. I've seen that happen. I've seen that happen. You know
what happened? They believed because God loved them. They
saw his love shed abroad in their hearts. They believe they're
baptized. They gather together with the saints. And they say,
I'm sorry. Like Paul, I persecuted the church.
I was wrong. I love you. Oh, I wish I wouldn't
have done that. John said that in 1 John 4, didn't
he? He said, we love him because he first loved us. And then immediately,
what's he say next? If a man say, I love God, he
hates his brother, he's a liar. That's pretty strong, isn't it?
Well, I just can't assemble with them folks. I just don't want
to be around the Lord's people. But I love God. Liar? That ain't Kevin saying it, God
said it. We take his table, don't we?
Why? He told us to. We were sitting back in that
table one day, and I said, if I, will you take that glass and
set it over? And Cass grabbed the glass and moved it over.
And I said, why'd you do that? And you said, because you told
me to. That's it, isn't it? Why would
we be baptized? He just told us. He said, believe
me. You're going to believe him. Be baptized, be baptized. Take
my table. Remember me. That's what he said,
wasn't it? He said, take, eat. I try to
emphasize that the first every month. Take, eat to the enunciation. It's a command to his people.
Well, I don't feel like taking the Lord's table. I ain't into,
it's got gluten and I used to be alcoholic. Well, don't take
it and eat it. He said, take and eat. This is my body, which
is broken for you. his sinless body. That's why
there's no leaven in it. He had no sin. He knew no sin.
And he was broken for my sin. And he said, this is due in remembrance
of me, not of your commitment. You remember my commitment to
you. You do it in remembrance. And he said, the same hour he
took the cup, and when he sucked, he said, this cup is a New Testament
in my blood. There's no lees in it. There's
no yeast in it. It's wine, well-refined, off
the lees. That means they racked the wine. You look that up, and
the only thing left is nothing but alcohol. Well refined, off
the list. He said, this do as often as
you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until
he come. Do we take his table? Yeah, we
do. Are you begrudgingly like, I
don't mind, I don't want to take that. No, it's an honor, we know
him. We get to. We don't have an aversion to
it. Unleavened bread, that wine, well refined. No, we want to.
And he said, be merciful. That's a command. Be merciful. Look over in Luke 6. Luke 6, verse 31. Here's the golden rule everybody
can tell you about. People quote scripture. Well, if I get to context, what's
he talking about? Luke 6, 31. It says, and as ye
would that men should do to you, do ye also unto them likewise. Treat others how you want to
be treated. There's going to be some context to that. Verse
32, for if you love them which love you, what thank have ye.
Is that hard love in your family? If a whole family comprised one
church, would that be hard to love them? You've loved them
your whole life. What thank have you? For sinners
also love them that love them, love those that love them. And
if you do good to them, they'll do good to you. What thank have
you? For sinners also do the same. Well, I'm going to be nice
to them because they bought my dinner 15 times in a row. Anybody
does that. And if you lean to them and you
hope to receive, what thank have you? Sinners also lend to sinners
to receive as much again. They'll get back to me later.
But love your enemies, love your enemies, and do good and lend
and hope for nothing again. You give to them, don't ask for
it again. And your reward shall be great right then. If you have
the spirit to do that, Lord gave me everything. Give me a cloak
also, here you go. Lord gave me his robe of righteousness.
Right then, your reward's great, because you saw him. He's our
reward. Your reward shall be great, and
you shall be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil. You ever been unthankful? You
ever been evil? Maybe one time. That's when he's kind to us.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
You want mercy? You want mercy? I'll tell you
what, if you need it, you want it. If he showed you your need
of mercy, you want mercy. You want mercy. And if he gives
you much, much mercy, it ain't nothing to be merciful to somebody
else. That's the only way you can be. A self-righteous Pharisee,
they can give and they can love those that love them. And they
can do all those things when the sun's shining and the rain
ain't falling. But when it gets down to the
nitty gritty, Someone's offended you, and I don't mean like they
kind of parked in your parking spot. They've done something
terrible to you and they hate you. Now be merciful to them. Do you want mercy? That's what
I started with, wasn't it? Treat others as you want to be treated?
You want mercy? Now be merciful. I heard a man say one time, he
said, if they won't be merciful, I won't be. Oh, buddy, that gave
me goosebumps, Bob. We're going to meet the Lord
one day. I need mercy. I don't just want it. I need
it. How can we do these things? God
commanded these things. This ain't a suggestion. It's a commandment. Believe him.
Be baptized. Gather with his saints. Love
your brother. Be merciful. Take my table. Confess to be
a believer and be baptized. How can we do these things? We
look to our Lord for all these things. He has to perform it.
I can't do that. I can't do any of that. You have
to put a new life in me. I have to look to you to perform
all these things. And you know what else we do?
We look at him. We look to him to perform it and we look at
him. How do we look at the Lord? We look at him as our friend,
as our father, as our husbandman, as the mercy giver. as our king,
as the one that suffered in our stead. And when we look at him,
we admire him and we want to be like him more and more. Just
like a child looks to his father, or if you, whoever, if you got
a good example, you got a good role model, you got a friend
or a buddy or a father figure or whatever. And you say, I want
to be like them. That's who I want to be like. Cause you admire
them. You look at them and you admire
them. You want to be like them. And we look at the Lord and we want to be
like him. I want to be conformed to his image. Do you? He's got
to do that too. I want it. Paul said to the church at Philippi,
I said, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. He said,
so I'm going to straight betwixt the two. I have a desire to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better. And I know it's better.
I want to be with them. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. For you, you talk about loving
brethren. I'll wait to be with the Lord
so you can be comforted. That's love and breath. You talk
about denying self. You think he didn't want to go
be with the Lord? He'll sustain me. I'll ask him to sustain me
and he will so I can be here for you. It's needful for you.
God has people here and I got to preach to them. You know,
he gave us a lot of commandments in a lot of areas, didn't he?
It's so. Salvations of the Lord. We've
established that, right? He didn't give us commandments
and then we're saved. And then we didn't do these things and
he loves us because he's loved us. And that's in light of that
only. That's the motivation of it.
He gave commandments to husbands. Husbands love your wives. How?
As Christ loved the church. He gave commandments to wives.
Wives submit your husbands. As what? Unto the Lord. Not as
good old gray haired lady down the street. No, as unto the Lord.
To parents, how to govern our children and our homes. To children,
obey your parents. To business owners, to employees,
to slaves, to masters. Those that are polygamists, he
gave instruction to them. Retailers, lenders, borrowers. Those are the banking industry.
The list goes on, huh? Chefs, how to cook food. Citizens, church members, pastors. It's plain. If he says, that's
a command. And I love every one of them. Get you a pen knife. Which one
of God's commandments or his precepts would you cut out and
say, ask the devil? Do you have a desire to keep every
one of them? I do. I don't. I break every
one of them. So do you. So does everybody,
don't we? That's what Paul said in Romans 7. He said, for the
good that I would like to try something. He said, the good
that I would do. That's the verb. The good that I would do, I do
not. But the evil which I would not
do, that I do. That's what I do. Are your children yours because
they're obedient? No. Why are they your children?
You gave them life. That's why they're your children.
You birthed them. That was a new birth, wasn't it? Are they your
children because they love you? No, my children are not my children
because they love me. My children are my children because
I love them. That's why. That's why. And that'll prove
true. My children do things for me. I've got some gifts at the
house just because they like daddy. And they didn't have to
do that. Not a thing of it. But they loved
me. They were obedient. Gonna do something for me. In
the end, our father's gonna say, well done, my good and faithful
servant. And what are we gonna say? When
did we ever do anything good? Never. Man said one time, I said,
just tell me what Christ has done for me. You don't tell me
what my response to his ability is. You don't go tell me what
he said about what I'm supposed to do for him. Wrong. They go hand in hand. They go
hand in hand. If we see the ability of the
almighty God and what he's done for us, there's going to be a
response. What's man's responsibility? Our response to his ability.
That new creation in us can't keep from it. It's instinct.
It has to. Believers don't brag on how much they love the Lord.
You mind my words. This is what I got to tell you.
Believers don't brag on how much they love the Lord. They brag
on how much the Lord loves them in spite of ourselves. And they
declare their shortcomings and then desires to be more like
him. I can't do it. He's got to do it. And I wish
he'd do it today. That'd be great. If I could just put off his body
of flesh and be like him. We're going to have some brethren
real soon. Maybe every one of us. I don't get people scared to
death to die. I guess I just don't have no hope in Christ. I don't understand that. I want
to live here for y'all's sake, my children's sake. Thank God
gave me something to do. Just like Paul said, but for me to die is gain. That's far better. Far better,
isn't it? I want to be like him. I want
to. I want to do. He's loved me. I love him. And
I want to keep his commandments. What other commandments did he
give us? This one real quick. 11 disciples, we went away to Galilee and a
mountain where Jesus had appointed them. He made them go there.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. Some doubted,
and he came and spoke to him, he said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and earth. What's that? Fear not. He's on
his throne, isn't he? Then he gave commandment, go
ye therefore, because he's on his throne, because all powers
he has, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always,
even to the end of the world. Amen. That's how he ends it.
Amen. All right. If you will, let's take our Hamnols.