Good morning. If you would turn
in your Bibles this morning to 1 John chapter 4. That's where
our reading will be this morning. 1 John chapter 4. While you're
turning, I'm sure you all know that our pastor is, I believe
his surgery is next Friday, is that true? Scheduled for next
Friday, or this coming Friday. And he's got got to go to Lexington
Tuesday, I think for a COVID-19 test. And so let's keep, keep
him in prayer for that travel back and forth. And also that
the Lord would guide the hands of his care key caregivers. So
first John chapter four, and we're going to begin the reading
this morning in verse 10. First John chapter four, beginning
in verse 10 here in his love. not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected
in us. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him and he in us, because he hath given us his Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever, whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love. dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Can you
imagine that boldness before God's throne of judgment? Because
as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because
he first loved us. May the Lord bless his work. Let's pray. Our Holy, Most High, Heavenly
Father, we come before you this morning, a thankful people. and the needy people. Lord, we're
thankful for your many, many mercies to us. But Lord, we confess that we
need thee. Father, we pray that you would
send your spirit to be with us this morning, that you might
anoint the words of your preacher that you've sent here, that you
might give us hearing ears and receiving hearts, Lord, leave
us not alone as we attempt to worship, but send your spirit
to enable us to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, who is above all
and in all. Father, we pray for those who
are going through deep trials and pray especially for our pastor,
Lord. We know that it's been your will
to afflict his body at this time. Pray that you would give us the
ability to not just accept your will,
not just bow to you will, but to praise you for it, knowing
that in all things, You're working out all things for good of your
people, for those you've called. Father, we pray that as our young
people start back to school soon, that you would watch over them
and you would hedge them about, keep them safe, keep them healthy. Lord, but most of all for our
young people, we pray that you would one day in your power and
in your mercy and in your grace, reveal their need for Christ
the Savior to them, that you might call them to go to Christ,
to look to Christ for salvation, that you might have mercy on
their souls. Father, we pray for this world, this this trial that you've sent.
Father, we pray that you would accomplish your will in that
right soon. That the world would look to
you, would know that thou art God and beside thee there is
none else. And that salvation is in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, we pray that you
would bless this service here. and wherever men stand this morning
to tell sinners about the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
might be with them. Lord, help your word run freely. Call sinners into your fold,
that we might be seen as children of God in this world. Pray that
you would continue to bless this work here, that you might use
us to show forth the love of Christ in this world and to call
sinners to repentance. We ask all these things in that
name, which is above every name, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, this morning, I'm sure I don't have to introduce you
all to our To our speaker, Luke Coffey's been around here
for a long time, hasn't he? And we love him. We love Luke. We love his family. And we know
he loves us. And we trust he's going to tell
us about our work. Thank you, Luke. So, From every stormy wind that blows,
From every swelling tide of woes, There is a calm, a sure retreat,
Tis found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads. A place that all,
besides or sweet, it is the blood-bought mercy seat. There is a scene where spirits
blend, Where friends hold fellowship with friend. Though sundered
far, by faith they meet, Around one common mercy seat. Ah, whither could we flee for
aid When tempted, desolate, dismayed, Or how the hosts of hell defeat? Had suffering saints no mercy
seat? Ah, there on eagle wings we soar,
And sin and sense molest no more, And heaven comes down our souls
to greet, While glory crowns the mercy seat. Good morning. I bring with me
way too many greetings and hugs and everything else from Kingsport,
from many people there, especially my family and pastor who told
me to pass on how much they care, as well as a lot of well-wishers
towards Frank. We pray for him and Lord willing,
we hope that he would have the opportunity to come back and
preach the gospel again many more times to you. Dan, thank you for the introduction.
I promise this is what I was going to say at the beginning
of this, despite what you said. If you would open your Bibles
back to 1 John chapter 4. In my work, I meet a lot of new
people and I get to spend time with them. Well, it's inevitable
that at some point in our relationship, they will ask me because they'll
realize I'm not from Tennessee. They'll say, well, where are
you from? And my response usually is, well, I'm from northeast
Kentucky, and they give me a look because most people in Tennessee,
that's not a place they've ever thought about. And I say, well,
that's where Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky all meet. and usually
give me kind of a polite little, oh, OK. And then they say, where
specifically? And I say, I'm from Ashland.
Well, I had an interaction in the last week or two with someone
that kept asking questions. And they said, well, did you
do you like Ashland? I said, I do. I like Ashland
a lot. And we talked a little more. And when that was over,
I was in my car and I started thinking, why do I like Ashland? Well, I do like this city. I grew up here and I have a lot
of fond memories of it. I do like the people in this
area. I have a lot of great friends.
But it was more than that. And it could best be summed up
by your pastor sending me a text recently that said, I really
appreciate you coming to preach for us. I hope you feel comfortable
with the congregation. And my immediate response and
just without even thinking, my thumbs just took off and I just
responded. I said, I love your congregation. And that's the
reason why I love Ashland. And it's not just the fond memories
I have here, it's not the the fond memories of sledding down
the enormous Thornberry Hill in the snow, it's not the the
memories of after church for a couple of years when I was
little, racing to the nursery so I could get, as he was called
then, little Luke, so I could take him to his parents. It's
not the pure joy of realizing that there was going to be a
set of chocolate chip cookies for me, or the last day of Bible
school when I finally realized I am old enough to make peanut
butter fudge. And it's not the even more important
memories that I have from you, such as the grace that many of
you have shown me in being generous to me and being kind to me. The
mercy that you've shown to me, the times where I behaved poorly,
where I said something I shouldn't have said, and you didn't call
me out. You didn't make me feel silly
or ignorant. And it's not even many of you
who have taught me so many things, whether it be in Sunday school
class or just many things that I've learned. But what it is,
that when I come here, I love to know that everybody here shares
the same admiration, the same purpose and the same love for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Seven years ago, I preached a
message. That was titled, I love the Lord
because. Now, this morning, the subject
matter is going to be the same, the object is the same. But the
title of the message will have one different word, which makes
it much different. It is not I love the Lord because,
but it is we love the Lord because. The focus this morning is not
going to be on our love. In the text there in verse 10,
it starts off saying herein is love, not that we love God. This has nothing to do with our
love, yet the object of whom we love. So let's look and read
these verses again to reemphasize the first point. Look in verse
10, it says, Herein is love, not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwelleth in Him and He in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and He that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God and God in Him. Herein is our love made
perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because
he first loved us. The first thing we love about
the Lord is that he first loved us. It's so important to realize
that we are incapable of love. Our Lord loved us first in time. Our Lord loved us before the
foundation of the world. His love for us was before we
even existed. His love is why we love him. We're sinful creatures. And it
plainly says that we are incapable of love. His love for us makes
us to love Him. That's the only way that we can
love Him. Now, we love the Lord because
He showed us who we are. This is not easy to go through. For every child of God, there
is a time where we have a little glimpse of who we are. It's uncomfortable because we
don't want to face who we are. We do not want to realize that
we're not love, we're hatred. That our thoughts are all enmity
against our God. That we struggle with his providence,
we struggle with his will. As Dan mentioned, make us not
just to be okay with his will, to be okay with his providence,
but let us to love it. Let us to trust in it. When he
shows us who we are, we get an appreciation for the love that
he has for us. A wonderful example of this is
Mephibosheth, the story in the scriptures where David has become
king. God has given David the power
to become king. He gave him the victory over
Saul. And in that time frame, when
a man became king, the first act, the understood first act,
it was just well known that what would happen is that king would
immediately get rid of anyone, kill anyone in the previous king's
family. Well, when David became king,
his thoughts were, is there anyone left in the house of Saul that
I might have mercy upon them? David finds out that there's
a son of Jonathan, name of Phibosheth. And Jonathan, Saul's son who
kept helping David. He kept saving him from his father,
from Saul, made a covenant with David. And he said, have mercy
upon my family. So David sent for Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth, as a young child,
had had a fall and became lame, which is a great illustration
of us. David sent to get Mephibosheth. Now, Mephibosheth's journey had
to be one of the most difficult journeys a man has ever taken. He was being brought by the king
to what had to be his death. It wasn't enough just to be killed,
but he was going to be taken before the king and had this
done to him. Mephibosheth, because he knew the position he was in,
because he knew that he was part of the family of Saul, Just as
we realize when the Lord shows us that we're marred with sin,
we are the family of Adam. Mephibosheth comes forth and
falls on his feet and begs for mercy, claims to be a servant. This is what makes the Lord's
love for us even more powerful and hits us even harder. When
we realize that what we deserve is death, We don't deserve His
love. We don't deserve His attention.
We deserve nothing but death from Him. But as Mephibosheth
received from the king, we not only don't get death, but we
get a full portion of His mercy. We are brought to the king's
table. We sit with the king and we fellowship with him. Now, we love the Lord because
He chose us. Turn with me to Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1, look at verse 2. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will." He chose
us. It couldn't be more plain. According
as He hath chosen us. Many people in religion struggle
with that. They struggle with the thought
that the Lord did the choosing. But if you go to the next verse
when it says in verse five, I'm sorry, in verse four, it says
before the foundation of the world. How could we ever argue
that we had a part in the choosing in election if he chose us before
the foundation of the world? We were chosen before we even
created. Look in verse six. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
He gets all the glory for it. Since we didn't do anything,
He gets all the credit. And us saying anything, anybody
making any point of us having any inkling of a role or anything
in salvation is to take away the glory. Verse 7 says, "...in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,
which He has purposed in Himself." He's made known unto us the mystery
of His will. Election and who He chose is
a mystery. We obviously didn't deserve anything
and we just don't understand it. But we love the Lord because
he chose us. Then in verse 10, that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Our Lord predestinated the choosing of us. I have to be careful,
I'll keep going to my further points when I keep going in this.
We love the Lord because he called us. We love him because he first
loved us. We love him because he showed
us who we are. We love the Lord because he chose
us and we love him because he called us. In Second Timothy,
it says, God hath saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Again, we didn't have anything
to do with it. How could we? It's before the
world began. It's not a coincidence. that
these phrases, before the foundation of the earth, before the world
began, are included in these verses so often. It's to remind
us there's no way that we had any role to play. And where did
He call us? In 1 Peter it says this, The
God of all grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus. He hath called us unto His eternal
glory. Now here's one that I struggle
with. I struggle with them all, but
this one I can't even pretend to imagine. We love the Lord
because He prays for us. Turn with me to John chapter
17. It took me a long time to use
the phrase, I love the Lord. I don't know if that's because
I felt or I know that my love for Him is really inadequate
to actually say that I love Him. I don't know if it's the fear
of being sure that I do love Him. I'm not sure what it is,
but I always struggled with saying that. I'm now in the same place
with this. Look at John 17 verse 9. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me, for they
are Thine, and all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am
glorified in them." I heard a man in a message describing the Lord
praying for us, and using such lines as, He prays for each one
of us individually, for each of His children all the time.
There's never a time where a child of God is not being prayed for
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer is something that I'm
very inadequate at doing. We struggle with prayer. We find
ourselves praying and then all of a sudden thinking about who
knows what. If I'm going through a trial, I'm more likely to pray. Yet when that happens, it can
be something that's just which is so hard to deal with. And
I can close my eyes and I can get one line in and the next
thing I know, I'm thinking about a TV show. It's really embarrassing. Even in public prayer, when I'm
praying out loud, I find my mind wandering. It's just a sign of
our sin. But to think that the Lord prays
for us and His prayer for us is truly effectual. That what
He prays for us and what He purposes for us is what comes to pass. When we say that He chose us
and He called us and more of the things to come, all of it's
going to happen. When the Lord prays for something,
it happens. That's who He is. And something
that He praise for us and something He does for us, is we love the
Lord because He keeps us. Look in verse 11 of this same
John 17. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. This passage tells us, the Lord
says to His Father, keep through thine own name. Keep in the name
of God those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we
are. That we will be kept as one with
the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way that He and God Almighty
are one. The Lord holds us. He protects
us. We have many passages in the
scripture of Him holding us under His wing, Him holding us in His
arm, in His bosom, against His chest, all these things. But
the important part is that He's holding us, that we're with Him,
that we're one with Him. And it gets even better. Look
at verse 12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them
in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept. and none of them is lost, but
the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled."
It's not just enough that He keeps us in this world, that
our path in this world is hedged about by Him. But the key is,
He keeps us eternally. If we weren't alive yet, how
did He already keep us? On this earth, He did what was
necessary for us to be kept forever. We love the Lord because He feeds
us. Turn over to Luke chapter 12. As with so many other things
in the Scriptures, there is both an earthly and a spiritual picture
with them. Our God will most definitely
provide for us. And we often think of this as
feeding our bellies when we say He'll feed us. But it is definitely
much more than that. Look in verse 22 of Luke 12. And he said unto his disciples,
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what
ye shall eat, neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The
life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider
the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have
storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are
ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking
thought can add to his stature one cubit?" He first addresses
the things of this world. He says, give it absolutely no
thought. He says, I will take care of
you. I will provide for you. He uses the raven and birds as
an example. They don't sow any crops. They
don't reap anything. They don't have any part in their
food. The Lord just provides for them.
And that's what He'll do for His children. Then we continue. Verse 26, if you then be not
able to do that thing which is least, why take you thought for
the rest? Meaning you can't do anything
about it anyway, so stop worrying about it. Verse 27, consider
the lilies how they grow. They toil not, they spend not.
And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass
which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith? And
seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither
be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations
of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have
need of these things." And then look at verse 31. But rather,
seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added
to you." Our earthly needs are truly met. But focus on the spiritual
things, which are equally secure, but they are much greater. All
the time we spent worrying of things of this world, instead,
think of and ponder about the wonderful things that the Lord
has procured for the future. The things that He has done for
us. Now, how can all of this be possible?
How can all of these things we've said be possible? Can it all
really be done? Well, we love the Lord because
He's omnipotent, because He's all powerful. The fact that He
is all powerful is undisputable. It's pointless to argue and it's
pointless to debate it, though many men and women have tried
throughout history. Many of you have heard this story
before, but it's a good example of this. When I was in college,
we were forced to take a religion class. And in that class, the
first day, the teacher asked us all, there were about 30 students,
said, I want every student in the class to go up to the board
and write one word describing God. So I was, I think I was 23rd.
We were going around the room. So I started just writing down
words as fast as I could write them down. And the first person
went up and wrote holy. The next person went up and wrote
merciful. And I'm just scratching off words that I've written down.
And a lot of good words were going up. So it got to me at
number 23. And the next word on my list
was all powerful. I'm not sure I knew omnipotent
yet, but all powerful is what I went up and wrote. And I didn't
give it much thought. So we went through 30 words on
the board. And when that ended, the teacher then just started
talking. And she spent 10 or 15 minutes discussing and detailing
the tragic events of the Holocaust. Which I remember sitting there
thinking, this is awful. I don't know if I've ever heard
some of this stuff. And when that finished, she said, OK,
now we're going to start on the other side of the room. And I
want every kid to go up now and write another word describing
God. Well, I remember being confused.
I remember sitting there thinking, I don't understand, like this
doesn't make any sense to me. Well, the first or second kid
that went up wrote the word mysterious. And then someone else wrote the
word confused, and it hit me what was happening. And by the
grace of God, because I didn't have a heart knowledge at that
point, but when it came to my turn, I walked up and wrote S-T-I-L-L
hyphen in front of holy. Nothing mattered. All the words
she said, no matter what it would have been, the words describing
our God are the same at the beginning and the end. There's nothing
that can happen on this world that changes that. Despite man
constantly trying to take credit for things, man trying to show
that different things with God aren't true, or it's not really
that way, or we have a role, or whatever it is. Everything
that we try to put in between who God is, anything, and who
God is, it's all irrelevant. God is omnipotent. He is all
powerful. And not only does it not matter
what we say, what we think about God, it has no bearing on anything. His power is so amazing, and
I know we're all very thankful for it. But the part we truly
love about his power is what he's used it for. If I had power, or any moment
I have power or think I do, I abuse it. I use it for my own good.
The thought that the Lord Jesus Christ used His power to show
mercy, to show grace, and to choose a people and to save them
is something that we can't really even get a grasp of. To think
that what we deserve, He's shown us who we are. To think that
knowing that, He still used His authority and power, which He
could do anything He wanted. He used it to save us. Like Mephibosheth,
we deserve to die, but that's not what the Lord gives to His
people. Now, how does He show us these things? Well, we love
the Lord because He makes us to believe. Look at John chapter
3. All these things that the Lord
has done for us, they all don't exist in time. We are, as men and women, we
are dominated by time. That's everything to us. We have
a life, and we get older, and we have places to go and things
to do, and everything's about a day and a night in time. Well,
all the things the Lord has done for us, He doesn't have time. He doesn't have that. All of
this stuff that we see in this order of things is done for us.
The Lord chose us, He saved us, He kept us, He feeds us. All
these things He's done, He did all of them before time began.
And He fulfilled them when He came to this earth. But all of
it is done well before. It's just for our experience
that we have. And this is the same thing with us believing.
The Word of God is very simple, yet the smartest people in the
world can't seem to understand it. It contains the greatest
message a sinner could ever hear, yet there is such little interest
in it. And this is the only place to
ever find hope and peace. Yet so many men and women are
searching for hope and peace, and they have no desire to look
in this book. Look at verse 10 of John 3. Jesus answered and
said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things,
and you believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly
things?" We can't even take credit in
believing. An example I thought of is if you've ever played a
board game where the question and the answer is on the same
card. And on that card, the answer is written, but they do something
to it to where you can't actually see it until you put that red
film over it and it's plain as day. That's how man is with believing
God. We have no idea anything that
this scripture says. We can read the words, we can
do anything we want, but all we see is just blurred lines
and it doesn't mean anything to us. We can't get a question
answered. We can't have any of that stuff
because we just can't see it. But thankfully. What the Lord
does is he removes the veil, he gives us a glimpse and shows
us the truth, and that's how we believe. If you've ever tried
to read one of those cards without using the red thing, it just
will give you a headache. You can get as close as you want.
You can get it as far as you want. You can turn it. All the
things you can do. But it's so simple because once you see it
through the Lord, once you see this word through the Lord, It's
plain as day. Once the Lord causes a man or
woman to believe, everything is so simple. The thought is,
how in the world did I not already believe this? This is so great. We cry out and we say, Lord,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Now,
what does he make us to believe? Well, We love the Lord because
He became a man. Keep going here in John 3, look
at verse 13. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of Man which
is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. This says, whoever believes will
not perish, but have eternal life. Remember what we just said.
The Lord makes us to believe. We can't believe on our own.
But Him giving us belief will make us to have eternal life.
Look at verse 16. Keep going. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on
him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God." It plainly says at the end of verse 17,
the only reason, the reason that he became a man was that through
the world he might be saved. He became a man so that He could
save His people. That was His purpose. In 1 John
4 it says, We have seen and do testify that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him and He in
God. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a man to do what we couldn't do. He fulfilled the law by being
perfect and never sinning. And then, to fulfill that, we
love the Lord because He died for us. Turn to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. Now, it wasn't enough that the
Lord Jesus Christ was perfect as a man. We still had sin that
must be punished. It's not enough that the Lord
would come and live the life we couldn't. But He had to die
to bear our sins. Look at verse 1 in 1 Corinthians
15. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the Gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ died on
the cross bearing the sins of His people. Our sins. Do we ever consider that anguish
and the pain that He went through was all because of us? I read of the account of the
Lord on the cross at Calvary. And though it does seem to be
so difficult and so gruesome and so horrific, especially considering
it was to someone who didn't deserve it or someone had done
nothing to deserve that. But to imagine that what he did
was so that we didn't have to have that, that we didn't have
to be put to death in such a horrifying way. is a thought that's difficult. And do we realize that when He
proclaimed at the end of that, it is finished, He was specifically
referring to the payment of all of our sins. He wasn't just saying
it's finished, meaning that I'm done. He was saying it's finished,
meaning there's not a single thing that any child of God will
ever have to do to be saved. It's done. It's finished. Everything
was paid for. And to punctuate that, His holiness,
His perfection, all of that was manifested in that we love the
Lord because He arose from the grave. Look at verse 4 here in
1 Corinthians 15. and that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now go down
to verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every
man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they
that are Christ at his coming. Then cometh the end when he shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and all power,
for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he shall
put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things
are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted which did
put all things under him." Our Lord is all-powerful. He will
get the victory. And it says the last thing that
must be conquered, put under His foot, is death. And when
He said it's finished, He took the payment for our sins. And
when He arose, He became victorious. And that's where all of us have
the same victory. The Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty,
has successfully made us perfect, made us complete in Him. He paid the sin debt and instead
gave us His perfect righteousness. Now, to review these things,
we love the Lord because He first loved us. We love Him because
He showed us who we are, because He chose us, He elected us, He
called us. He prays for us. He keeps us. He feeds us. He is omnipotent,
all powerful. He made us to believe, gives
us faith to believe. Then He became a man. He died
for us and He arose for us. And in conclusion, we love the
Lord because He is sitting on the throne of glory right now. He is ruling. He is reigning
as the whole host of heaven praise Him and shout, glory to God in
the highest. And finally, we love Him because
one day, maybe today, maybe it weighs off, we will be in that
host. Without this rotten flesh, without
the burden of sin, Instead, we will be perfectly clothed in
his righteousness. And in that moment, in that day,
in that host, we also will be shouting. We also will be singing
and we also will be glorifying the Lord God of heaven as we
can finally love him in the way that we really, truly should.
All right, let's offer thanks and you'll be dismissed. Our Heavenly Father, as we've spent this time this
morning talking about the many things
You've done for us, Lord, we are thankful for it.
And Lord, we pray that it truly is a genuine thought. It's a genuine emotion that when
we say we love You, we really do love You. We know that's not
in us, that's not in our nature, that's not something we can do.
But if you would, if you can give us that love, Lord, we truly
do want to love you. Lord, we ask that you would never
give us a moment where we take it for granted. Lord, we pray
that as we use the word we and us, Lord, we do pray that you
would as long as you tarry, that you would continue to call out
your sheep. Lord, we pray that for this city, for this area,
for this country. Lord, we specifically pray for
our young people. Lord, we teach so many lessons. We say so many things to our
children, to the young people. We emphasize so many things,
Lord. But as we read in your word, We need not fret over those
things. Lord, we we need to make it our
our number, our only goal, our only thought, our only desire
is that you would continue to call out your sheep, that you
would save them, you would save our children and that you would
save us. Lord, we. We pray that. You would be with. Frank and
his family at this time, we We understand that you send trials
our way. We understand that your will
is, your will will be done. And Lord, we we need to find
comfort in it. We know that your purpose is
so much greater than we can comprehend. And Lord, we thank you for your
providence. But we do ask that if it be your
will, you would make him to feel better and and allow him to preach
your gospel faithfully again. Lord, we. We pray that you would continue
to give us the opportunity to worship. Lord, we ask that you
would continue to keep doors open of places like this where
your gospel is preached, that we might. As we are so needful
of, we might be reminded constantly that the Lord Jesus Christ is
our Savior, our hope and the one that we need and that we
love. Lord, we thank you, ask for your forgiveness of our many
sins. In Christ's name we pray.