Well we come to 1st Samuel chapter
18 and I've called this message, He Loved Him as His Own Soul. Samuel, the prophet, God's prophet,
had told Saul, the king, the first king of Israel, that God
had rejected him as king and Samuel went and anointed David
to be king in place of Saul. And David went on to find favor
in Saul's sight. We read, I'm not sure about the
chronology of this, which order it went in, but certainly the
young man David played the harp to soothe the evil spirit that
came upon Saul. He got in terrible, terrible
black moods. And David would play the harp
to soothe him. And then we saw last time how
this young shepherd boy slew the giant, Goliath. with such
unlikely weapons, such unlikely weapons. We saw what a picture
it was of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the foes of his people.
And he succeeded, David succeeded in all he did. Why did he succeed
in all he did? It says, for God was with him. He was a man after God's own
heart, it says in the scriptures. Look at verse seven of chapter
18, verse seven. And the women answered one another
as they played, and said, Saul has slain his thousands, didn't
he do well? But David, he's slain his ten
thousands. And Saul was furious. And the
Saint displeased him. And he said, look, they're saying
David has killed his 10,000 of Israel's enemies. And to me,
they've said he's only killed 1,000. And what can he, David,
have more than the kingdom? Well, he's going to have the
kingdom, Saul, because you're rejected, because you disobeyed
God. You didn't walk in his ways as
Samuel had told you. You disobeyed God. He's going
to have the kingdom, for he is preferred before you in the eyes
of God. And it says in verse 9, Saul
eyed David from that day forward. In other words, he looked at
everything David did with the eye of suspicion. Looked on him,
he's planning something. He eyed David. from that day. Saul grew angrily envious because
David threatened Saul's dynasty, Saul's kingdom. And what about
Jonathan? Jonathan was the son, we've come
across him fleetingly, Jonathan was the son of Saul. He was the
heir apparent to the throne of Saul. He would be the king in
place of Saul. He was the one who had most to
lose if David became king. How did he feel about David?
It says, in verse 1, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the
soul of David, and Jonathan loved him, loved David as his own soul. It was knit together. You know,
the idea of knitting, and if you're wearing any knitting this
morning, yes, you know, the single thread, it's kind of all bound
together, you can't take it apart. That's how it was, between the
soul of Jonathan and the soul of David, knit together. For
the rest of 1 Samuel, there's another 13 chapters up to chapter
31, Saul tried again and again to kill David. Saul kept on trying
to kill him, but David and Jonathan remained in covenant love. Now,
I almost feel there's absolutely no need for me to say this, but
I'm going to say it anyway because you know what's about in these
days. I want to dismiss without any
further comment whatsoever that David and Jonathan had any hint
of the perversity in their mutual love that the world talks about
so much today. You know, the perversity of sodomy
that's out there in the world today will point at David and
Jonathan and say, there it is, absolute rubbish. That's a complete
affront to the word of God. So we dismiss that. We don't
even entertain to discuss it. It's utter nonsense. It's vile. It's terrible, what they suggest.
David and Jonathan had a very, very strong human love, one for
another. Human love. But what I do want
us to think on this morning is David and Jonathan as a picture
of the love between Christ and his believing people. That's
what it's a picture of. And I have just two main points,
and one we'll spend most of the time on, and the final one we'll
probably spend about two minutes on. But I want to talk about
the nature of the love bond. What kind of a love bond is it?
Knit is the word. Knit. Entwined like that thread
in a piece of knitting. Knit together. The nature of
the love bond, the characteristics of the love bond, and then secondly,
the maintenance of that love bond, the maintenance of it.
First of all the nature of the love bond. Jonathan was heir
to Saul's throne and he was a man of valor, we've already seen
him go out on his own just with his armor bearer and cause great
disruption in the camp of the Philistines such that Israel
won the next battle over them. He's a man of great valour, and
he's a man of integrity. What we see repeatedly with Saul
is that he has no integrity. He's a man of impatience, he's
a man of unstable passions, whereas Jonathan is a man of integrity,
much more than his father. should he not assume the role
of Israel's king and think on it like this to a nation in those
days its king was its saviour its king was its saviour from
its enemies should not Jonathan who was well equipped a man of
valour and of integrity much more than Saul should he not
assume the role of Israel's king its saviour but he sees in David
that David was God's anointed one to save Israel. God's plan of salvation is bound
up in the salvation of Israel because When we get to New Testament
times, Paul writes to the Galatians about the Israel of God, which
is an Israel not just composed of Jews, but of Jews and Gentiles,
every tribe and tongue and kindred that we see in Revelation before
the throne of God. Who is going to save the Israel
of God? Who was going to save historical
Israel in these days? Jonathan, the rightful heir,
sees that really it's David. they were of a similar age. No
doubt they had similar interests, similar physical strength. I
would think if there was a contest between them, a fight between
them arranged to see who would win, that it would be a very
close battle because they were both young men of strength and
valour and integrity. But Jonathan knew that David
was to take his place. as the heir to the throne. Wouldn't
you have thought, naturally thinking, that Jonathan should be the one
to try and kill David? But no. He loved him as his own
soul. He loved him as his own soul. Love. Love. Believer. Believer. You who claim God as
your heavenly father. If you're a believer, you claim
that God is your heavenly father. Our father, which art in heaven.
You pray, you pray, dear father, heavenly father, you claim God
as your father. Do you know what Jesus said to
the Jews who said to him, we have God as our father? He said,
if God were your father, what would be the mark of it? You
would love me. Jesus said to them, if God were
your father, you would love me. Do you love him? Do you love
Christ? Do I love Christ? Who is the
king of your life? Who is your salvation? For the
natural man, for you in your natural state, for me in my natural
state, it is self. Self. I don't need anybody else.
Self is the one who's going to save you, make your own way,
sort things out for yourself. You're going to do it. Nobody's
going to rule. You will not have this man to rule over you. You'll
do it for yourself. But by grace, you have seen that
you can't save yourself. When you've seen what the justice
of God demands, you know that you are bankrupt, you are in
infinite debt, you know you cannot save yourself, and you bow by
grace, by that gift of faith that God gives, you bow to Christ,
not just in submission to him, not just in submission, but in
love. What sort of a love is it? Firstly, I've got a few points
here. Firstly, the first thing is,
it's based on his appearance. Human love between a man and
a woman generally begins with some sort of physical attraction.
Oh, who's she over there? I quite like the look of her.
You know? Begins like that, doesn't it? Human love between a man
and a woman begins with physical attraction. And you know what
they say, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Because
what you find beautiful, I might not find beautiful. Somebody
else might not find beautiful. Something else that I find very
beautiful. You might think, why do you find
that beautiful? I just don't see that. To the natural man,
the Lord Jesus Christ has, as Isaiah 53 says, no humbleness
that we should desire him. Nothing in him. You know, I know
people close to me that I know well, to whom they say, there's
just nothing there, nothing there at all. I just don't believe
there's anything in this. But to the eye of faith, The
eye of God-given faith, Christ is altogether lovely. To Jonathan's
eye, David was appealing, and vice versa. What did he see? He saw courage. What did Jonathan
see in David? He saw courage. He saw integrity. He saw success. He was the one
that had slain Goliath. Why is Christ of lovely appearance
to the eye of faith? Believer, why is he of lovely
appearance to you? Is he of lovely appearance to
you? He's the eternal God, who became
man. He's holy God, and just, and
righteous, yet full of grace and truth. And what a contrast
is in him to the world of lies and of deception that Satan spins. Oh, how good is Satan at spinning
lies and deception. and telling you that, oh, these
people, no, no, don't believe what they say. This is the way,
look at the way I've got all the rest of the world to go.
You come along with me and you'll be in the right place. It's a
world of lies. It's a refuge of lies, says the
scripture, and deception. But to the eye of faith, to the
child of God who loves God, who loves Christ, what do we see
in him? We see utterly dependable salvation. We see salvation we can rely
on. We see salvation we can rest
our eternal souls on. We can say with Paul, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep the...
Do you lie down and go to sleep at night worried about dying
and eternity? The child of God says this, I
know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day of
judgment. That's it. I look to him, utterly
dependable regarding salvation. Oh, what a beautiful, glorious
appearance he has. Secondly, what's the nature of
this knitting, this love, this soul knit together? Child of
God, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, know this, it's a two-way,
it's a reciprocal love, isn't it? Reciprocal love. He loved
me first. He loved me in covenant bonds
to his elect people before the beginning of time. In eternity,
he set his love on his people. He loved me. In grace, he loved
me. Out of all humanity that would
exist and would fall in sin and violate the justice and the nature
of God, he loved a people for his own glory whom he foreknew
He loved them, it says in Jeremiah 31, with an everlasting love. When did God start loving you? He didn't. He always loved you. He loved you from before there
was a thing called time. He loved you then. In Proverbs
8, 31, wisdom is speaking. Do you know who wisdom is in
Proverbs 8? In Proverbs 8, wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ. the
second person of the Trinity, the Word, who became flesh. And
he says this, my delights, God speaking, God's delights, the
Son of God's delights, were with the sons of men. That's people
like you and me, believer. Human beings. His delights were
with the sons of men. Why do believers love Christ?
1 John, chapter 4, verse 19. We love him, says John. Why? Because he first loved us. That's
why. We didn't love him because we're
better than other people, we loved him because he first loved
us. and we saw by faith that gift of spiritual sight, the
lengths to which he was willing to go to save us from just condemnation. because He loved us everlastingly. Because He loved us everlastingly,
He became flesh. Because we are children of flesh
and blood and of sin, He had to take on Himself. If He's going
to redeem us from our sin debt, if He's going to redeem us from
the sins committed in the flesh, from that which we are by nature
in the flesh, He must become flesh that he might die the death
that the justice of God requires. He became flesh, laying aside
his eternal glory, that great staircase down from glory, where
he came down to this veil of tears where we live. He came
down there, laying aside that glory, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Herein is love, says John, 1
John 4 10. Herein is love. Herein is love. You want to know
about love? The world talks about love, the movies talk about love,
the literature talks about love, they don't scratch the surface.
Herein is love. Not that we loved God, because
it didn't originate with us, but that he loved us. And how do we know he loved us?
He sent his son. to be the propitiation for our
sins, to be the turning away of wrath for our sins, to be
the one who did that which was necessary to take the curse away,
for he has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a
curse for us. Reciprocal love. Thirdly, what
does this knitting of love between a believer and the Lord Jesus
Christ, of which the love between Jonathan and David is but a picture,
a faint picture. What does it tell us? What is
it like? What is it characterized by?
It's characterized by eternal betrothal. Eternal betrothal. An engagement to be married.
Because, believer, we saw in Revelation, didn't we? All those
months ago when we were looking at it. There's a marriage supper
coming. The marriage supper of the Lamb.
Turn to Hosea chapter two. It's a theme that God uses again
and again in his word. Hosea, I'll read it to you. Hosea
chapter two, verse 19. And I, this is God speaking through
the prophet, I will betroth thee unto me forever. That's what
God has said to his people. I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness. and in judgment, and in lovingkindness,
and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. It doesn't
matter about your sin. I will betroth you to me in righteousness,
and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. Betrothal, betrothal. He's loved us. Sorry, I have
espoused you, says Paul. to the Corinthians, he says,
I have espoused you, I have betrothed you to one husband. He's talking
to believers. I've married you to one husband,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. See? Speaking about marriage.
Why do I love Christ? What is a characteristic of my
love for Christ? It is like that in a marriage. I'm bound to him I'm bound with
him in marriage ties for eternity. We won't turn to it now for the
sake of time, but Ephesians chapter 5, which talks about husbands,
love your wife, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church,
a bride without blemish and without spot. That is not really, Paul
says, talking about husbands and wives. It is, but the key
thing is it's a picture. And what is it a picture of?
that eternal betrothal, that marriage between Christ and his
people. You see, the marriage between
Christ and his people is not fickle like the relationships
of the world. How fickle because of sin are
the relationships of the world? How in love and out of love are
the relationships? We see especially among the rich
and the famous and the film stars and how their head over heels
in love one minute and there's the most magnificent wedding
and you hear it less than a year or two later there's this enormous
great bust up and who's going to get how much money and who's
going to get the kids and all the other nonsense that goes
on. This isn't some casual sort of thing that we see all around
us in these days when marriage is not important. No. This is
true, true, eternal commitment. This is heavenly commitment,
heavenly marriage, heavenly, eternal betrothal. That's the
love of Christ for his people and the love of his people for
Christ. The next thing. What sort of
relationship is it? What sort of love is it? You
can see from the words, when it talks about Jonathan loving
David as his own soul. Do you know what's the most precious
thing to you? Your own soul? Yeah, your own
soul. He loved him as his own soul. Christ is precious to his believing
people. As his people are in, it's Malachi,
isn't it? God calls his people his jewels. you ladies have, well men as
well perhaps, but you have some jewellery and there's some things
that because they've got emotional attachment to them they're very
precious to you and it's not just the thing itself but everything
that goes with it what God says of his people, they are my jewels
they are my jewels, if his people are precious to him you can believe
it Christ is precious to his people. Peter says, 1 Peter chapter
2 verse 7, to you who believe he is precious. Think about true
married love, not the fickle sort that we see so much, but
that which God is pleased to have granted to some of us here
and others, many others I know who are listening. when you find
that true married love, the cherishing that there is, the devotion to
one another that there is. There's a mutual focus of desire. There's a yearning and a longing
when separated. Oh, I just want to get back home.
I just want to be back with her, my wife, or vice versa. This
concern for the other's welfare. You know, she hurts, I hurt,
and vice versa. Everything I have for eternity
I find in my Lord Jesus Christ. He's precious to me. In the way
that that marriage bond is but a picture, he is precious to
me. I have acceptance before the
holiness of God in him. I have clothing covering me with
God's righteousness, for he has made me the righteousness of
God in him. all that I am committed, all
that I am committed unto him against that day, for he is able
to keep it. As David and Jonathan's souls
were knit together, as a husband and wife become one, so much
more the believer and the Lord Jesus Christ. How does a man
win a woman's love? Maybe it sometimes happens the
other way around as well. How does it happen? By courting. by wooing, by her seeing virtue
in him. How does Christ become precious
to a believer? It's the Holy Spirit who comes,
quickening, making alive, implanting a new man, giving eyes to see
that which others cannot see. For I tell you, when I said beauty
is in the eye of the beholder, even with people that you know
very well and are very close to, And they say, not out of
trying to give you offense, but they say, I just see nothing
in him. You know, there's just nothing
there. There's just nothing there at all. To you, he's precious. He's altogether lovely. You know,
what is your beloved more than another beloved? Says the daughters
of Jerusalem to the Shulamite in Song of Solomon. What is your
beloved more than, you know, won't another beloved do? No,
no, no, no. My beloved has totally enraptured
my heart and you see his loveliness in a way that others do not see.
In all of his saving power. Next thing, that characterizes
this love, this knitting together of the soul of the believer and
Christ, of which David and Jonathan is but a picture. He keeps me. He keeps me. In the sense of
preventing me from falling away. Because my grip is weak. My grip
is subject to the sins of the flesh. My grip would let go. My fingers would slip, but he
keeps me. And he says, none is able to
pluck them out of my father's hand, for my father is greater
than all. His is eternal love. His is complete
love that holds its object. And in holding its object, it
brings forth love from its object. As He holds you, that holding
brings forth love for Him. And being utterly taken up with
Christ, being utterly, ask yourself, is this me? Is this what I'm
trying to describe? Does it characterize your love
for Christ? Being utterly taken up with Christ, the believer's
love for him dominates all that the believer thinks and does.
I want to please my wife and she wants to please me. In the
same way, true believers are happy, happy to do the bidding
of Christ. what makes it I want to do his
bidding that's what I want to do if you love me said Jesus
John 14 15 if you love me keep my commandments keep my commandments
the next point is that he's changed me the next point is he's changed
me I'm sure that Jonathan and David were changed as a result
of their love for one another David and Jonathan they were
changed they weren't the same people that they were before
because of their love for one another. Is that not right? You
come across different people at different stages of life.
You who are married, we who are married, you're changed. You're not the person you would
have been otherwise. You're changed. That love for that other person
has changed you. In John chapter 21, When the
risen Lord Jesus Christ cooks breakfast for the disciples who've
been out fishing and caught nothing, and he says to them, cast the
net on the other side. And there they are, skillful
fishermen. And they cast the net on the other side, and it
nearly breaks with the weight of fish that's there. And he
says, come to shore, come to shore, come and have some breakfast.
And while they're there, I wonder what the mood was, a sense of
him being there and them hardly daring to say anything. And Jesus
asks Peter, you know, Peter, Peter, the one who had betrayed
him, the one who'd been so bold and confident, and yet when it
came to it, a little maid said, aren't you one of his disciples?
I am not, he said. And he cursed and defied three
times, he said, and the cock crew. And Jesus looked at Peter,
and Peter saw Jesus, who was there being tried and about to
be taken away to be crucified. And Peter wept bitterly. Jesus
had already said to him, when he said, I won't betray you,
he said, oh, yes, you will. He said, yes, you will. But he
said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me, in my father's house and many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you, John 14, end of 13 and chapter 14. But in chapter 21, after the
crucifixion and the resurrection, when Jesus meets them there on
the shore, he says, Peter, Peter, Do you love me more than these?
More than what? I don't really know, but it's
anything else. Do you love me more than anything? Do you love
me more than these fish that you've caught? Do you love me
more than these other disciples? Do you love me more than they
love me? Do you love me more than the things of this world?
Because your relationship with everything else is changed. by the love that you have for
the Lord Jesus Christ. The love that there is between
a believer and Christ changes everything else. I'm sure those
of us who are married and are believers, it's not that, oh,
putting Christ first pushes the husband or the wife out. The
very contrary is the case. Remember years ago, Sam wrote
an article for Evangelical Times saying two is not enough. Because
in a good marriage of believers, there's a third person who is
the most important of all, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every other relationship is changed. True love between a husband and
wife, in the sense that the Bible intends, is always marred even
in a Christian marriage by sin, but It's as close to what was
intended as you can get because each party is in a precious love
with the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear, don't you, even in
the world about love changing people. You hear of hard, unpleasant
men being changed by the love of a wife and vice versa. You
hear that, don't you? You hear stories that are true
stories of hard, unpleasant men being changed by the love of
a wife. Well, I tell you, the love of Christ for his people
and the people's love for him changes everything we are and
everything we do. And then, what characterizes
this knitting together, this love? You want to be with him. Don't you? You want to be with
him. Husbands and wives, happy together. Happy together. Not friction
together. I know it happens in worldly
marriages in all of us. There are times when we all have
to say that the flesh prickles and gets annoyed with the things
that the other party does. But husbands and wives who are
happy together, well in the same way, the believer is happy in
love with Christ. We want to be where he is. In
Song of Solomon chapter six and verse one, The Shulamite can't
find the beloved. She can't find the one that's
the picture of Christ. Where is he? Where is he? And
they say, he's in his garden. He's amongst the beds of spices.
He's gathering lilies. What's that talking about? It's
talking in poetic language about Christ being in his church, being
among his believing people. That's where he is. And where
he is, You're married to him. He's precious to you. You want
to be there with him, where his gospel is preached, because where
his gospel is preached, that's where he appears to your sight.
You want to be where his gospel is preached, hearing his gospel
preached, because when you hear it, he appears to your sight.
He appears to your sight. Far beyond the picture of David
and Jonathan, believers are bound in eternal union with Christ.
It says in Ephesians 5 verse 30, the chapter about marriage
and how marriage is a picture of Christ and the church, Paul
says, we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. You know, just as Eve was taken
from Adam in the Garden of Eden, that it says a rib, but I think
it means some genetic material was taken and changed slightly,
I'm not a biologist so I'm probably going to get this wrong, but
you know the 21 chromosomes that the man has and the 22 that the
woman has, I think that's what it's talking about. And Adam
says, look, she is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. She's my wife, but look, God
has made her out of me. And in the same way, he says
of Christ and his people, we are members of his body, of his
flesh, and of his bones. I ask you, and I ask myself,
do you love Christ? Is your love for Christ characterized
by these things that we've seen, this knitting together, if not,
and this is a stark warning, then God is not your father.
Surely what Christ said to those Pharisees applies to us. If we
don't love Christ, God is not your father. Is your soul knit
with Christ's? Is he precious to you? Are you
happy in his company, with his people, in his church? Do you
know, that's why we gather together, isn't it? Do you know why we
try, I know some of you can't get, for reason of age and transport
difficulties, but the reason why we try to meet up with the
folks down at Merton, in South London, is because when we're
together, and there's a good 30 or possibly more of us, sometimes
up to 40 of us there, That's a meeting of those who love Christ. And Christ is preached. And when
he's preached and we're all together, we see him there. He appears
in our midst. This is why we plan to have a
conference next year. Not just because we love the
hassle of all of the administration, no. But we want an opportunity
for God's people to come together. Christ's garden, the beds of
spices, the lilies, all those things. And we want Christ to
be preached and him to appear. and for the people to see him
and love him and be with him. Here's a test. Here's a test. We like doing tests, don't we?
Think about all the things that you love in your life, the things
that are precious to you and think about them one by one and
think about taking them away from you and how you'd cope.
You know, I remember once at one of the conferences, I made
an illustration of how much I loved my phone at the time, because
I'd got a fairly new iPhone then, it must be five or six years
ago now. And I said, you know, so precious to me was that device,
and it still is. You know something, I reckon
I could probably live without it. If they took it off me, I could
probably live without it. I'd get used to it. But my car,
I like my car. It's a really useful thing to
have. You know, I could probably learn to live without it. But
my house. I like my house. I like my home.
I'm sure we'd find somewhere else. You know, we would. My
food. Yeah, well, God said he won't
let his children go starving. My wife. Oh. Oh, I'd hate to
be without her. Oh, dear. I'd hate to be without
her. But, you know, maybe some of you have had to. Some of you
have had to. Some of you have lost husbands.
I know. I know. Yeah. That's quite hard, isn't
it? That is hard. I know. I know
that's hard. It's hard. Your money in the bank. Yeah,
it's nice to have it, but the day's coming when it's going
to have zero value whatsoever. It's just moth and rust, isn't
it? All of these things. What about Christ? Do you love
Christ? Say your liberty's taken away
from you. John Bunyan's liberty was taken away from him for 12
years. They couldn't take Christ from
him. He wouldn't let go of Christ. While his liberty and everything
in the world was taken away from him, the things of Christ were
ever more precious. What or who, this is the test,
let me remind you, what or who is the last thing you think you
could let go? If you're a true believer you'll
say Christ. Which is what he meant when he said he that loves
mother or father or wife or husband more than me is not worthy of
me. That wasn't an unkind, unsympathetic thing to say. No, he's telling
you truthfully. Everything else only works if
he is at the head of all that you are. Psalm 73 verse 25 says
this, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon
earth that I desire beside thee. Now, We've got one more point
to go. But don't worry, I'm gonna be
about one minute with this. Don't worry at all. The maintenance
of that love bond. If you turn over a couple of
pages to chapter 20 and verse 16. So there's been quite a lot
going on and Saul's had a few attempts at killing David. And
in verse 16 of chapter 20, Jonathan, we read, made a covenant with
the house of David, saying, let the Lord even require it at the
hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to
swear again, because he loved him, for he loved him as he loved
his own soul. What do we see there? We see
a renewal of the pledge that we saw in verse one of chapter
18. We see renewed. You see, it wasn't
a one-off thing. It was that which kept on being
renewed. The covenant was renewed. He
caused David to swear a covenant love. And do you know that covenant
love? You get on into 2 Samuel, it
worked out years later with Jonathan's son. Remember his name? Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth. Why did David show
kindness to Mephibosheth? Because he was Jonathan's son.
And there was a covenant of love between them. So believer and
Christ, it goes on. It needs constant maintenance.
As with marriage, complacency and indifference leads to separation
and strife. So we need regular, frequent
reminders of the nature and basis of our love for Christ. And isn't
it apt that this morning we come to our regular first Sunday of
the month, remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ in communion.
Why do we do it? Why do we break bread? Why do
we share the wine? In remembrance of him whom our
soul loves. If we're his, he is him. You'll
see that phrase again and again in the Song of Solomon. Him whom
my soul loveth. It's a reminder of him. at the
baptism service we looked at Acts chapter 2 and verse 42 describes
the disciples, the believers, the new church, the baptized
believers together, they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Oh we must have all the doctrine
of Christ if we're to have Christ, we must have, not academically
but we must know and believe and feed on. They continued in
the Apostles' Doctrine, and fellowship together. Don't go away on your
own. Don't grow cold. You need to
meet. You need to meet. I know many
listening to this just have nobody to meet with, and they try to
meet by correspondence with us, and that's good. But if you can,
if you possibly can, come together. Meet together. Fellowship. And
in breaking of bread, what we're about to do in the communion
service, because it reminds us of him. It's another, this do
in remembrance as me, as oft as you eat it and oft as you
drink it, you do show the Lord's death. How long? Until he come. That's how long. That's the reason
we do what we do now. Believer, do you love him? Is
your soul knit with the Lord Jesus Christ?