Thank the Lord for that message,
Brother Todd. That was a blessing. Everyone
who feels that awful yet wonderful paradox,
I know they were blessed by that. I appreciate that. That last
comment, too, was a crowning touch. I need to hear that. Can God's people become self-righteous? It's unbelievable, but they can't. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, I asked
Todd his text and his message for tonight. Brother Tom switched
us around. I intended to bring a message
tonight that I think I'll bring tomorrow. I'll bring him tomorrow's
tonight after hearing Brother Todd, his text. I believe this will be a good
companion message with his. Brother Todd actually preached
from this, this very text in Kingsport last March, didn't
you say? I think it was not last March,
but before that. And I'm bringing this not because
he didn't do a good job with it, but because our folks looked
at it together and we were blessed by it. 1 Corinthians 16, read
verse 22 with me. 1 Corinthians 16, 22. If any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha,
which translates accursed when the Lord comes, damned when the
Lord comes. Now there was much written, there
is much written in the book of 1 Corinthians concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's this book, as with every
other, concerning him and the last nearly the last line in
this book after all is said and done he says he writes if any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ of whom it is written the volume
of the book let him be the curse so the bottom line is You either
love the Lord Jesus Christ or you don't. If any man loves, serious statement
isn't it? It behooves us to try to find
that out. Our Lord gave a parable one time
and he said the kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a marriage
for his son. That is what heaven is all about.
Heaven is a marriage. It's a marriage. God the Father has one only begotten
well-beloved Son. And He chose a people before
the foundation of the world to love His Son. To marry Him. Right? He betrothed them. to
his son. And heaven is a place where everyone
is in love with and married to the Lord Jesus Christ and adores
him. And that love begins right here.
Right here. That love is created and begins
right here on earth. Now, before I go any further
We do not like... God's people do love Him. But
they don't like to talk about their love for Him. They don't. They don't go around
talking about their love for Him. They don't... They're ashamed
of their love for Him. But they don't deny it. Do they? They don't like to talk about
it. I couldn't help but think about these fellows that... that
have on their bumper. You ever see these fellas that
have a bumper sticker that has, I love my wife? And on the other side, I love
my coon dog or something. We don't do that. God's people
don't go around talking. And you'll notice, I think you'll
notice, I hope you'll notice through this message is we're
not going to talk about anything that God's people do, per se,
to prove that love. No, no, no. But we're going to
find out, really, if we love Him. It behooves us to know if
any man does not. It behooves us to know, doesn't
it? He that loveth not. Alright,
if we do, now let me preface everything. John said we do love
Him. Why? Because He first loved us. There's a passage of scripture
that says, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. Okay? We cannot see the Lamb's
Book of Life. We cannot see our name written
there. How can we know that we'll be
one of the elect? Brother John, how can we know?
The call, right? If we've heard the call, if we've
received the gospel, if we've loved the gospel. That's how
you know. The gospel came, not in word
only, but power and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. You
became followers of God and turned from your idols. That's how you
know your election is by the call. Well, how do you know that
God loves you? If you love His Son. This is the Father, and I'm getting
a little ahead of myself, but God loves His Son supremely,
and He puts the same love, love for His Son, He puts the same
love in His people. We don't love Him perfectly here,
no, no, no, someday we will, won't we? Someday we will, but
that love is there. Because God sheds that love abroad
in the heart. We're not born loving Him. We
don't decide to love Him someday. No one up and decides just one
day, I think. No, God puts this love in their
heart for the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, how? This gave me comfort. How can we know? What is it to
love the Lord Jesus Christ? Just a few points. Well, six
or seven. To love the Lord Jesus Christ
is to love His glory and honor. Some of you are smiling already. We heard about Him and we'll
continue to hear about Him as long as we're here. This is what
this is about. His glory and His honor. Turn
with me to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Those who love
the Lord Jesus Christ love His glory and honor. They want Him
to receive it all. All of it. Don't they Tom? All
of it. All the honor and glory. One
who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, loves and seeks Christ's glory
and honor. They don't seek their own. Our Lord said of John the Baptist
here, the Lord Himself said of him, there was none greater than
he. Right? John was a great man. One of the greatest born of woman
by the toning. And yet John, when talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, look at verse 27, John 1, 27. He said,
He it is who coming after me is preferred before me. He said, I'm not worthy to tie
His shoes. Now John was the greatest man.
One of the greatest men born of women. But Brother Rowland,
he said, I'm not worthy to tie the shoes of the Lord Jesus Christ. I prefer Him infinitely above
myself. His glory and honor. Look at
verse 30. He said, This is He of whom I
said, After me comeeth a man who is preferred before me. He
was before me. Verses 35 through 37, John had
a couple of disciples and they were following him. He was a
fine man to follow, wasn't he? He was worthy to be followed
as he followed the Lord, wasn't he? Didn't Paul say that one
time? Follow me as I follow the Lord. You can follow a man who
is following Christ. Well, these two fellows were
disciples of John. They were following John. Well,
John kept preaching Christ. Didn't he John? Three days running. That was his only message. Behold
the Lamb. Next day, Behold the Lamb. Third
day, Behold the Lamb. Well these two disciples quit
following John and started following the Lord Jesus Christ. John was
thrilled. He was thrilled. Look over in
chapter 3. This is a man who loves the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't follow me. I'm not trying
to get you to follow me," John said. Follow Him. Look at chapter
3, verses 27 and following. He said, A man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven. He's referring not only to the
Lord and all that He was given to do, but Himself. Verse 28, You yourselves bear
me witness. I said, I'm not the Christ. Brother
Todd, that's the first thing he said when they came to him.
Who are you? I'm not the Christ. Didn't he? He confessed and denied
not. These men who come in their own name, you know, and start
talking about Jesus. It really appears that they sure
don't confess, do they? That they're not the Christ.
They're sure not pointing men away from themselves. He that
loves the Lord Jesus Christ. His glory and honor. Read on. Look at verse 29. He that hath
the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of
the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease. As said, the love that the Father
has to Christ, well, look at verse 35. The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into His hand. The love that the Father has
to Christ, love to His honor, is the love that He puts in the
heart of His people. And they love His honor and His
glory. They don't seek it for themselves
either. And here it is to love His honor and glory. To love
His honor and glory is to hate anybody that takes away from
that honor and glory. To hate anything and everything
that diminishes His honor and glory and that would share that
honor and glory. Right? Anything and everyone that dishonors
their Lord David said this, and this is the paradox. He tells
us to love our enemies, but we don't love his enemies. David
said, do not I hate them that hate thee. In other words, he
said, they only consult to bring him down from his excellency.
Can you love somebody like that? No, sir. Yeah, I consider them
my enemies. I hate them with a perfect hatred,
he said. Don't diminish my lords. I ask
you, let me ask you, what do you think of all that men in
modern religion are saying about the Lord Jesus Christ? How does
that make you feel? These bulletins, these boards
up on the side of the highway that they have God's name signed
down at the bottom, how does that make you feel? Lying on
God, how does that make you feel? All that they're saying about
the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing Him down, making Him to appear
to be an utter failure, Making him seem to still be on the cross
or outside. How does that make you feel?
Honestly? To make you mad? Why? They're diminishing his glory,
his honor. Well, then you must love his
honor and glory. That's a good thing. That's not self-righteousness.
That's loving the Lord's glory. And what about all these false
apostles? Those who say they're apostles
and you've found them to be liars. That's what the Lord said to
the church at Ephesus, didn't it? What about all these fellows
who claim to be? All these priests? What about
these priests that go running around talking about themselves
as if they were the Christ? Or this Pope? This Pope? When
Jesus Christ is the only most high potentate. Oh, you can't help but hate those
things which diminish His glory if you love His glory. It's all
an abomination to God. And it's an abomination to all
those who love His Son too. Right? So, to love the Lord Jesus
Christ is to love His honor and glory, that He receive it all.
To love the Lord Jesus Christ is to love His salvation. And it is His. It's in His hands. Salvation is of the Lord. One hundred percent. Start to
finish. He's the author of it. And He's
the finisher of it. Salvation belongeth to the Lord. Means it's in His hands. What do you think about that? When the Lord said, all power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. That the Father has given
power unto the Son over all flesh, that He should give, not offer,
but give, bestow eternal life on as many as those the Father
has given Him. What do you think about that? As He is to give
or withhold. Belongs to Him. If the average person were sitting
in here right now, be gritting their teeth, gnashing their teeth
at them. You've seen it. I see smiles. I see heads nodding. Heads nodding. They love his salvation. Oh my. Let such, the scripture says,
let such as love thy salvation. Say continually, the Lord be
magnified. Listen to this. Jesus Christ
is God. He's equal with the Father. What
do you think about that? Jehovah's Witnesses hate that.
Mormons hate that. The Southern Baptists hate that,
really. What do you think about that? You know, God said He was.
God said, under the sun, He said, Thy throne, O God, is heaven.
Jesus Christ is God, equal to the Father. He quickens whom
He will. Just like the Father did. All judgments committed
into His hand. He is the way. There is no other
way. He is the truth. Everything else
is a lie. He's the life. He's the half-mother,
son, half-mother. He is that prophet. He is the
only High Priest. He is the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. The King's heart, the President,
Prime Minister, His heart is in the hands of the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Absolute authority, despot, sovereign
over all. What do you think about that?
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and
man. There is no other. God will not
fear anyone else. He's the only mediator between
God and man. I'm glad that's so. Aren't you?
He's the only mediator. He's the only righteousness.
There is no other righteousness. Nobody's accepted except in the
beloved Son. He's it. What do you think about
that? The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth with names in His mind, in His heart, written on
the palms of His hands of a particular people, an elect people, which
God Almighty chose before the world began. He came to this
earth with the purpose, with the will to save those people. to live, to establish a perfect
righteousness for them and charge it to, impute it completely to
them. They had nothing to do with it.
He did it all. Then he went to Calvary's tree with all of their
sin, not the world's, but his elect's sin, on his shoulder. He was made sin for them. Went
and paid for all their sins. Left none unpaid. Paid for every
single sin. Then he was killed on that cross,
was buried and rose again and went to the right hand of the
majesty on high and sat down. He by himself purged all the
sins of God's people and every one of those elect for whom he
died are saved. Their sins are put away. And
He's coming back to earth someday to get every one of them, not
a hoof will be left behind. And He'll bring every single
one of those, not the world, and He's going to destroy the
planet and those all that are in it, and take His people home
to be with Him and glory. What do you think about that? He didn't come to try, He came
and accomplished the salvation of God's people. Do you love that? That's His
glory. That's His greatest glory. All
these things go together. If you love His glory, you have
to love His salvation to accomplish. Heaven is a celebration by those whom Christ hath saved
and it's all about Him. That's what they're saying in
glory right now. Unto Him. Listen to this. Unto
Him. It's all about Him. Heaven is
a celebration. Worthy is the Lamb. 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands and thousands are saying worthy is the Lamb
that it was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing. All of it. Everybody in glory is saying
that. They love Him. What do you say? To love the Lord Jesus Christ
is to love His honor, His glory, and His salvation, and it's to
love His person. It's to love His person. Isaiah
53, he said concerning the coming Christ, when we see Him, there's
no beauty that we should desire Him. And that was true of every one
of us in Him. Upon first hearing the Gospel, I mean just with these ears,
And I heard it a lot growing up, and I didn't love the Lord
Jesus Christ. I really was not interested.
Isn't that right? Man loves sin, not holiness.
Man loves himself. He doesn't love God. Man loves
darkness, not light. Christ is light. He came into
the world. Man loves darkness, not light. All those Pharisees
who said they loved God, well, God came and it hated them, didn't
it? Christ came into this world.
Scripture says He's separate from sinners, undefiled. Separate
from sinners. Holy, spotless, pure, merciful,
good, gracious, and kind. Brother Todd, when he preached
this, he kept asking the question, and not love the Lord Jesus Christ? How could you not? Well, no,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. A natural man doesn't love. God doesn't love Christ, neither
did you, neither did I. We're born loving self, loving
sin, but God. As we said in the beginning,
those who love Him, His glory, His honor, His salvation, His
person, you love Him because He first loved you. And God,
supernaturally, amazingly, miraculously, puts this love for His Son, His
person in you. When at one time you saw no beauty
in Him that you should desire Him, there comes a time when
you see Him as an altogether lovely one. And you want to be, like Todd
said, just like Him. David said, I'll be satisfied. And I'm not going to be satisfied
until I wake with His likeness. That's what it means to love
the Lord, to love His person, and to want to be just like Him.
You know, one cannot love Christ and love himself. Can't be done. If you really see Christ as He
is, it will... That's a lovely one. You can't
love yourself, can you? No way. Here's another thing. To love Christ is to love His
Word. His Word. Turn with me quickly
to John 14. John chapter 14. And this is
one thing that made me think this would be a good companion
message. In Psalm 119, he talked about
keeping His Word diligently, His commandments. Well, John
14, those who love the Lord Jesus Christ love His Word. John 14, look at this, verse
23 and 24. The Lord said, If a man love
Me, he will keep My words. And my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that
loveth me not keepeth not my saying." Now, the primary meaning,
whenever it says keep, it means it's something you do not want
to lose. It's something you lay hold of
as not wanting to ever lose it. Do you have anything you want
to keep at home? Ladies have keep sakes, don't
they? Do you have any old love letters
from your husband or wife that you want to keep? My brother
was killed in Vietnam in 1969 and I was 14, 15 years old at the time. He wrote me a couple of letters
while he was there. And I don't apologize for this,
I cherish those letters. I kept them all in here. I don't
intend to give them up. This is a letter. God's, someone said it's a love
letter to His people. This is for His people. And His people love every word
of it. Let me ask you, let me ask you
to ask yourself this question. Is there any verse in this book
that you'd throw out? Brother Gary, any verse that
you, if you had your way, you'd just take a pen and knife and
cut it out. The world, buddy, would like
to start at Romans 1 and throw the rest of it out, wouldn't
it? Brother John, is it one verse?
Now, there are verses, you know what speaks about trembling at
God's Word? There are verses that you really hate to read
because you're so convicted by them. Isn't that right? I don't
mean hate to read, I mean when you read it, it's so conviction,
would you throw it out? Now all whom the Lord loveth,
He chastened them. God's people lay hold of His
Word. Why? The Lord said, Father, I
have given them Thy Word. This is how that you know you're
one of His. He gives you His Word. Boy, you
could take that and run with it, couldn't you? I give you
My Word. But He gives us this Word, and He said they have kept
it. They have believed it. They've
laid hold of it, Brother Tom, and don't want to let go. And
loathe and hate anybody that takes away from it or adds to
it. You can't have this. Isn't that
what you say? Brother Lionel, don't you hate
what they're doing to God's Word today? Hate it. Corrupting it. We are not as
many which corrupt the Word of God. Do it. Lay hold of it. Keep it. You can't have this.
They said in John 6 when the Lord said all that He said about
His glorious self. There's some people that heard
His words and they said, these are hard things. We don't like
that. What do you say? You say what
Simon Peter said, don't you? Oh, this is life. It's not hard,
it's life. It's words of life. They convict
me, but I love them nonetheless. I love them nonetheless. Oh my,
they love His Word. How do you know if you love the
Lord Jesus Christ? You love His glory, you love
His honor, you love His salvation, you love His person, you love
His Word. I'm not talking about you doing anything, am I? He's talking about the reaction,
the heartfelt attitude toward the Lord Jesus
Christ and His Word. Those that love the Lord Jesus
Christ love His presence, His presence. You know that the Lord
is chiefly, mainly with His people where two or three are gathered
together in His name, the worship servant. The Lord never said
anything as a figure of speech, did He? When He said, where two
or three are gathered together in My name, He meant that, didn't
He? He's there. When we come here, and when God's
people come to worship, they're not coming to church, they're
not coming to whatever. They're coming to meet the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're coming to hear Him. They're
coming to worship Him. They're coming to hear a man
get up and wag on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this is.
A celebration of his person and his work. Those who love him,
can't get enough of it. Can't get enough of it. You can't
quit. I've got a granddaughter. She's
the most beautiful granddaughter in the world. Sorry John. She is. Absolutely. No questions asked. That's settled.
You can't, we can't, you can't talk about her enough to bring
up the subject. We'll listen just as long as
you want to talk about her. As long as you want to hear her. I just don't see us ever growing
tired of talking about that girl. We love her. Those that love
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's enough to hear about
him. celebration we had a birthday
party for Isabella that's her name and we had a birthday party
and everybody that was there was there for her honor and to
celebrate her presents were for her what if a fella came in there
and just insisted on everybody you know what about me? would
I get in? God ain't kicked out. That's what the father says about
those who don't worship his son. How'd you get in here without
that wedding gown? Why are you here? I'm just here for the food.
This is about my son. Everybody here is here to honor
my son. Bind him and kick him out of here. That's right. That's not figure of speech.
That's truth. I love His presence. I love His presence. I love to
worship Him. I come to see Him. Those who love the Lord Jesus
Christ love His people. They love His people. Because
they're the most like Him. David said this. I love this
psalm. He said, I am a companion of
them that fear Thee. Those are my companions. I love
those that love Him, that fear Him. And let me close. To love the Lord Jesus Christ
is to love His kingdom. His kingdom. Our Lord, well the
scripture says, If any man love the world and the
things of the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
His kingdom is not of this world. Not of this world. There's some
things we like about it, but God's people truly are looking
for another city, right? A country. This is not their dwelling place,
their continuing city. They love the thoughts of a place
wherein dwelleth righteousness, where everybody's like the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's inconceivable, isn't it? Isn't it so? And the kingdom
of God, they say, thy kingdom come. And they love His coming.
Lastly, those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, love His coming.
They look forward to it. If there's someone you love and
you haven't seen them for a long time, and they say, I'm coming
home. You can't wait, can you? You
can't wait. The Lord said, I come quickly,
surely. I come quickly. The world doesn't
look forward to Christ coming, to them, if it's so. They hope
it's not so. Because the world loves this
world and loves everything about it. They don't want Him to come.
But God's people do. They really do. They say, even
so, come quickly, Lord, come. Come, get your people. So to
love the Lord Jesus Christ. And if any man does not, he will
be accursed when the Lord comes. But to love the Lord Jesus Christ
is to love His glory, His honor, love His salvation. It's in His
hand. To love His person, to love His
Word, love His presence of the worship, of the Lord, to love
His people, to love His kingdom, and that love is coming. How
about you? Okay. May the Lord bless them.
Thank you.