I'd like to read the 13th verse. And now Paul says, Abideth faith,
hope, charity, which is love, these three, but the greatest
of these is charity. Now, I have been thinking a great
deal about how it is with many of the poor, afflicted family
of God in regards to assurance. And I recognize that there are
many of the Lord's people, they are the true people of God. They
do belong to the Lord. But they have a great deal of
difficulty with assurance as to whether or not they're really
saved or not, whether they're really in the Lord, whether they
really know that they're God's children or not. And so this
morning I want to speak here from verse 13. And I believe
that there are three questions that I can ask out of this verse
of scripture, and when we examine ourselves, I believe we can determine
whether or not we have in us the real hope of eternal life. Now, it is delightful to sing
with John Newton that sweet song of assurance. that we sang here
a few minutes ago, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost. Now you know it's necessary that
we be lost. before we can be found. I once was lost, but now am found,
John Newton said. I once was lost. You see, unless
we get lost, we cannot get found, we cannot get saved. And I believe
it is the business of the Holy Spirit to get people lost. to get them to the place where
they understand that they are lost in their souls and that
only when they're found by the divine spirit and regenerated
and called out do they become saved. But now, he says, am found,
twas blind, And that's the way we are in the state of nature.
We're blind to the things of God. We're blind to the truth
about ourselves. We're blind to so many things
that are in the Word of God. But John Newton said, but now
I see. but now I see. I see now because
God has enlightened my eyes. God has been pleased to put the
eyesalve of faith on my eyes and I'm able now to see. And
so there's a difference between being lost and being found. There's a difference between
being blind and seeing. And all of you, that's obvious
to all of you. But every sober-minded child
of God realizes that there's multitudes that have sung those
lines with joy on earth only to wake up in hell at last. They
sung Amazing Grace, and I hear it often at the funerals of dignitaries. I hear it often played and sung
in various situations across the nation. But there are many,
many people who sang those words who do not know a thing on earth
about what they mean. They mean nothing to them. They
just like the sound of the words, and they like the hymn, they
like the sound of the tune. And we realize that fact, and
we know the sin and the deceitfulness of our own hearts. And I've often
been compelled to sing another of John Newton's songs or hymns,
which he wrote, and I've read it many, many times, and I've
tried to sing it a few times, but let me just read it to you
this morning. And it's rather long, but I want
you to listen to it. John Newton said, "'Tis a point
I long to know. Often it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse. who have never heard his name.
Could my heart so hard remain, prayer a task and burden prove? Every trifle give me pain, if
I knew a Savior's love. When I turn my eyes within, all
is vain and dark and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I
deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? Could I joy his saints to meet,
choose the way I once abhorred, find at times the promise sweet,
if I did not love the Lord? Let me love thee more and more. Touch me with thy love, I pray. If I have not loved before, help
me to begin today. So we're often brought to read
those words and sing those words. Now we know that the vast, or
we feel, and we don't believe that it's mere assumption, that
the vast majority of religious people in this world are lost. The vast majority of those in
religious circles in this world are lost. Many profess faith
in Christ, but few possess true saving faith. Matthew 22 and
14 says many are called, but few are chosen. Luke 13, 23,
and 24 says, Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that
be saved? And he said unto them, Strive
to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say, unto you will
seek to enter in. and shall not be able. Now most religionists have been
deceived by human religion. Now what I mean by that, I mean
religion that has been concocted and put together and systemized
by men. Most of the religious people
of this world have been deceived by human religion. They walk
in the broad way which leads to destruction. And I'm equally
certain that many who profess and practice maybe the same things
that you and I would profess and practice, they're even yet
unconverted. I know of many in Calvinistic
circles who have a form, but they have not the power of divine
life. They have a form. I know there's
a certain religious group I'm thinking of right now, and these
people have a form, but they have no power. Most of the people
that attend that religious organizations, while they believe in election,
and while they believe in some of the great doctrines that we
hold to, yet they're dead. As we've often said, it's against
the law to bury them, but they're dead spiritually. They're conservative
and they're orthodox, but they've missed the Lord Jesus Christ. They embrace religious teachings,
but not Christ himself. And beloved, Christ is the difference
between life and death when it comes to spiritual life. Now
mere orthodoxy is not Christianity. Just for one to have a system
of truth or a system that he adheres to, that in itself is
not to be saved. And I've seen many whom I esteem
stronger and wiser and more zealous and maybe more devoted and more
useful than myself end up forsaking the gospel altogether, turning
their backs on the gospel. The Bible says that they that
put their hand to the plow and then look back, they're not fit
for the kingdom of God. And there are many who start
out and they say and they give their mental assent to many of
the doctrines that we believe and yet they turn back in the
day of battle. Now they had some kind of assurance,
I suppose. I don't know what it was, but
they seemed to have some kind of assurance, but it was a false
assurance apparently. Apparently it was not based upon
the Word of God as it ought to have been. They had a measure
of peace, but apparently it was a false peace. Now, how then
can anyone have real assurance, you say, if the religionists
or the majority of them are lost, and if human religion is so rampant
that it's affected the countless millions that are involved in
it, and if even many that have heard a measure of truth are
still not soundly converted and in the faith, then how can anybody
really have genuine assurance. How can anybody know that they're
savingly united to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, it's most needful
for all, I think, who profess faith in Christ to examine themselves
often by the Word of God, to honestly and sincerely ask the
Lord to show them whether or not they're in the way of life
and eternal bliss or in the way of death and eternal destruction. You see, beloved, examination
will not hurt us if we're truly in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
will not. If we're on the rock, it ain't
gonna hurt anything for our relationship with the Lord to be tested, for
it to be questioned, for it to be looked at, for it to be examined. Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24,
David said, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. Search me, and see if there be
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. This was the prayer of David.
And Paul in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 says, examine yourself,
whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates. Now we must prove ourselves by
the Holy Scriptures and make our calling, Peter said, an election
sure. If we do these things, beloved,
we have no fear in the end. We shall never fall, that is,
if we'll examine ourselves and be truthful with judgment day
honesty about our own state and about the true character of our
hearts. I cannot give you a certain formula
by which assurance may be gained, but I know this, that there are
three graces that are created in the heart of every believer
by God the Holy Spirit. And if you and I possess these
three graces, if they really and truly are created in us by
the power and grace of God, we are born of God. This I am confident
of. And so if you and I possess these
three graces, and if they're really and truly created in us,
we can be certain that God has touched our hearts, that God
has done something in our life. If these graces do not live in
our hearts, then apparently it's because we're yet under the wrath
of God. It's apparent that we are not
yet in Christ Jesus. It's apparent that still we're
lost and without hope for the one of faith and love toward
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Apostle said in verse
13, and now abideth faith Hope and love. One, faith. Two, hope. Three, love. But the greatest of these is
love. Where do they abide? Well, they dwell in the heart
of the child of God. That's where they abide. They're
in the heart of God's children. Now these three questions, by
which you and I must examine ourselves before God, are number
one, these. One, do I have the faith of God's
elect? Do I have it? Do I believe God? Do I believe God like old Abraham
believed God? Do I trust God? Do I have that
like precious faith that Peter spoke of? Is that faith which
has characterized the lives of God's children all the way back
Is that faith in my heart? The Bible says in John 3 and
36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. So it becomes mightily important
for me to ask myself this question. Do I believe on the Son of God? Do I truly believe on Christ? Now true faith We believe is
the gift of God. True faith is the gift of God. Ephesians 2 at 8 says, For by
grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. It is not merely a logical or
emotional decision, though it is both logical and emotional,
it is much more than that. Saving faith is created in the
heart by the power of God through the Holy Spirit. It is the gift
of the almighty grace of God. We believe Paul said, Ephesians
1 and verse 19, according to the working of His mighty power. Have you ever stopped to think
about what that means? We believe, Paul said, according
to the working of His mighty power. Meaning that if God's
mighty power has not worked in our hearts, there will be an
absence of faith. But if God's power has worked
in us to create faith, then that's why we believe. We believe according
to the working of His mighty power. And this is impossible
for us to do until God works in us. It's impossible for us
to believe. We know and we've often said
that faith is not the cause of regeneration or life in the Spirit. Regeneration is the cause of
our faith. We believe because we've been
born again. And so we believe God because
His Spirit has worked in us. We're united to Christ through
the faith of the operation of God. Paul said in Colossians
2 and verse 12, God alone can create faith in the heart of
a sinner. God alone can create faith in
the heart of a sinner. So you see, there's hope for
everyone that's under the sound of my voice this morning because
God has the ability to create faith in your heart. And let
me say that there is no faith that unites a soul to Christ
except that faith be created by God himself. And once God
creates faith in you, that faith will reach out, not to the preacher,
not to the church, but it'll reach out and embrace the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it'll do it every time. Faith
embraces the Lord Jesus Christ, God's provision for the sinner. Faith will embrace Him. We are
united to Christ through faith of the operation of God. God
alone can create this faith. God alone gives me faith. 1 Timothy
1 and verse 14, and this verse of Scripture, I love it. I love
it. It's a wonderful verse. It says,
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus. The grace of our Lord, the wonderful
grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, and those are wonderful
words, those are precious words, exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus. And so I trace the faith of God's
elect back to the grace of God. Is that all right? I trace it
back to the grace of our Lord. I trace it back to His creation
in our hearts. Now, and he does it through the
preaching of the gospel. We're confident of that, but
which Christ is revealed in the heart. Romans 10 and verse 17
says, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God. Men are told to believe. Believe
what? Well, faith must come from God,
and we don't get tired of saying that. It must come from God by
the hearing of His Word. As the Word is preached, men
are enabled by God to believe that Word. And then James 1 and
18 says, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. And 1 Peter
1, 23 through 25 says, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but by incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. for all flesh is as grass and
all the glory of man as the flower of the grass the grass withereth
and the flower thereof falleth away but the word of the Lord
endureth forever and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you so you see how that this faith comes by
the gospel as it's preached to you as you hear about Christ
being hung on a cross As you hear about Him suffering, bleeding,
dying, and you hear about that tree and how He was nailed to
that tree in order that He might bring us unto Himself, unto God,
then all of this creates, God uses it to create faith. Saving
faith is concerned about one thing. concerned about one thing,
and that is the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 6, 47, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Isn't that a powerful verse? Truly, truly, I say unto you,
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And I wanted
to say that twice in order that you that are lost might hear
it. You believe on the Son, you have everlasting life. Do you
believe? on the name of the Son of God,
John 6 and 45 says, it is written in the prophets, and they shall
be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. They come
unto me. Now this is the one issue which
is of eternal importance, what thank you of Christ. This is
your lifelong assignment, dear soul, what thank you of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you believe that He is that
sufficient, that successful Savior that God set Him for to be? Do
you believe upon Him? Is He the object of your faith
and your confidence? Nothing else really matters.
as far as salvation of the soul is concerned, but Christ. Have
you embraced Him? Have you been enabled to? Nothing
else, as we said, really matters. True faith is taking God at His
word. It is believing what God says
about His Son. If you would turn with me to
the book of 1 John, chapter 5, I'll show you this clearly. Eternal
life is believing what God has said about His Son, 1 John, chapter
5. And I want you to look with me
In verse 9, he says, If we receive the witness of men, the witness
of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. 1 John 5, 9. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Now that witness that He has
in Himself is the Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit which dwells
in us, and if He's given us of His Spirit to dwell in us, we
know, as verse 13 of the 4th chapter says, Hereby know we
that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given
us of His Spirit. We know that he dwells in us,
we dwell in him, because he has given us of his Holy Spirit.
And the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And so in verse 10, he that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. And he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And verse 11, and this is the
record. This is the record, listen to
it, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that hath the Son, verse 12,
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And so that shows you the importance
of the statement that we made that there's only one thing,
nothing else really matters in the matter of eternal life, but
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and having Him dwelling in your
heart by faith. Look at verse 13. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And so if you
want to know that you have eternal life, you've got to believe the
record that God gave of His Son. And that record is that he that
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not spiritual life. Now, I believe also it is submitting
to the revelation of God in the Scriptures. You're never going
to know God any other way except as God reveals Himself through
the Word. It won't do any good for a preacher
to get up and give you some kind of a book report or some kind
of an essay on some particular subject of interest to you, the
only thing that's going to help you is for the revelation of
God in the Holy Scriptures to be sent forth to you. That's
the only thing that's going to help you. That's the only thing
that's going to get you out of the mess that you're in. And
you must submit yourself to the revelation of God in the Holy
Scriptures. All that we know about God is
that which He's revealed about Himself. And God best knows Himself,
and He has revealed Himself on the pages of the Scriptures.
And you're never going to know God until you hear Him revealed
as He speaks from the pages of this Holy Bible. And then it
is trusting and believing and receiving Christ. as He is revealed
in the Word. I mentioned a few minutes ago
that the Lord Jesus is revealed in the Scriptures as being a
sufficient Savior. He is revealed as being a Savior
that can save you all by Himself. He's revealed as being a Savior
that can save you without any assistance of yours or anybody
else assisting Him in the saving of your soul. He can save you
entirely and completely, everlastingly, making you unreprovable and unblameable
before Him, before His sight. He can do it all Himself. And
He doesn't need any help from you to do it or anybody else. assisting, coming alongside and
assisting. But you know there's a word that
sets forth the Christ of the Bible like no other word. And that word is... Successful. Now I wanted to mention this
because you know we hear about many Jesus's from preachers in
our day. We hear preachers getting up
talking about Jesus trying this, Jesus trying that, Jesus wanting
to do this, Jesus wanting to do something else, people won't
let him do it, he's frustrated, he's tested, he's tried, he's
sitting in glory looking over the banister, down on the earth
and seeing everybody frustrating his plan and thwarting his plan. Listen to me. The Jesus of the
Bible is a successful Jesus. And don't you ever forget that.
And that's what sets him apart from all the other Jesuses that
are being preached. And Paul said, if anybody preach
any other Jesus to you than that which I preach to you, let him
go to hell when the true Christ comes back from heaven to this
earth. Now listen to me, when I'm talking
about a successful Jesus, I'm talking about one from his very
birth unto his death. His very birth to His death,
His very birth unto His eternal glory, that He successfully accomplishes
all that He set out to accomplish. My friend, I am sorry. I'm very
sorry that I cannot worship a Christ who is a failure. I cannot worship
a Christ who sets out to do something. I'm sorry that you have gotten
involved with that kind of a Jesus, but I can't worship with you.
I can't. I worship at the footstool of
a Jesus that accomplished that cannot fail, that accomplished
everything that the Father gave Him to do. He successfully provided
redemption for all of His people. He died to save His people and
He accomplished that work. He did not fail in His effort
to save His people. Everybody for whom He died will
everlastingly be with Him in glory. He will not fail. to bring
all the sons home to glory that God gave him to represent in
the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
That's the Jesus that I worship, the successful Jesus. He's sufficient and he is successful. Now that's the Christ that's
revealed in this book. And so if you're going to believe
You say, I'd like to believe, preacher, on Christ. This is
the Christ you must believe in, one that is successful. Now,
isn't it wonderful to be able to bow your knee and worship
one who cannot fail, who will not fail, but must, but must
see the travail of his soul, must in the end see why he suffered,
and must have all of those for whom he suffered? I mean, isn't
that wonderful to worship at his footstool? I mean, that's
the way that my own heart is blessed and encouraged, is by
worshiping this Christ. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. If you believe on this Jesus,
you are born of God. He that hath the Son, we told
you, and I'll say it again, hath life. And he that hath not the
Son of God, oh, God forbid that any of you should be here without
Christ. But you are. There are some of you, and I
would not be so naive to believe that there's nobody here that's
without Him. There are some of you that don't
have the Son. And, oh, it's he that hath the Son of God that
has eternal life. Saving faith is a work of the
heart. Romans 10, 9 and 10. That is,
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou
shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. True
faith is the willful, it is the deliberate, it is the voluntary
confidence of my heart in the power and grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It is trusting the merits of
His blood and His righteousness as my only grounds of acceptance
before God. I know, as the old song said,
no other stand. Even in Emmanuel's land, I know
of no other stand. except upon the merit and blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In true faith, the faith of God's
elect, don't we believe also that it is a persevering faith?
Hebrews 3 and 6 says, but Christ has a son over his own house,
whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. I believe that the righteous
shall hold on his way, and they that have clean hands shall be
stronger and stronger. Verse 14 says, for we're made
partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end. God's elect They will persevere. They that endure unto the end
shall be saved. They must persevere and they
will persevere. What is that song? My anchor
holds. My anchor holds. By the grace of God, my anchor
holds. And it holds if we know the Lord
Jesus Christ through true faith. Now then, faith is not an event
in the believer's life. Let me say that. Faith is not
an event in the believer's life. It is the believer's continual
way of life. The true believer never ceases
to live by faith in Christ. God's elect begin in faith. They
live in faith, and they die in faith. Hebrews 11 and 13 says
these all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. True
faith never quits. True faith never quits. Revelation
3 and 10 says, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience,
I'll keep you from the hour of temptation that is coming on
the earth. It is not the man who begins
the race who wins it, and wins the prize, but the one who finishes
the race. And so the question is, the first
question is, do I have the faith of God's elect? And if you can
answer Yeah, I have the faith. I believe God has given me faith
and I have embraced his son. I do believe on his son. Preacher,
I'm weak, but I do trust in the blood and merit of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you can say yes, I do, then
I think you have a measure of assurance in your heart that
you truly belong to the Lord. We'll hurry on these next two
questions. Okay, the second one is, do I
have the hope of the gospel? Paul says there abides faith
and hope and love. Do I have the hope of the gospel? Now where there is true faith
in the heart, there's also the confident hope of the gospel. Paul says that a man is saved
who cannot be moved away from the hope of the gospel, Colossians
1 and verse 23. He cannot be moved away. Now,
you see, it is necessary, and we know the devil tries his best
to keep men from the refuge Christ. He would stand between you and
Christ, and he would do all he could to keep you away from coming
to Christ. Of course, almighty grace will
prevail, effectual grace will prevail. But once you're in the
refuge, the battle is not over. Because Satan would do all he
could to come and get a hold of you and drag you out of the
refuge. He would drag you away from it
in your mind. He would fill your mind with
many discouragements and many doubts about yourself. He would
blind you by causing you to always be looking at your weaknesses
and your frailties. And you would be, sometimes you
would feel that you had lost your grit. on the hope of the
gospel. But Paul says that a man is saved
who cannot be moved away from the hope of the gospel, and we
believe that all God's dear children, those truly born of God, that
they're shut up, not to their hold on Him, but to His hold
on them, and they will persevere, and they will hold on. But I
want you to see this. There's no superfluous warnings
given in the Word of God. None whatsoever. Every one of
them are necessary. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, be not moved away from the hope of the
Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every
creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Faith unites us to Christ. Faith brings us all the blessings
of grace and salvation in Christ, but hope anchors my soul in the
stormy sea of life. Hope inspires my courage in the
midst of the troubles that I have here in this world. And hope
causes me to persevere looking beyond the things of time to
eternity. And I remember in Lamentations
3 and 21 where Jeremiah said, I remember, I recall, and therefore
I have hope. He remembered what God said in
his word to him, and therefore he had hope. And he says, it
is good that a man both hope and he quietly wait for the Lord's
salvation, for the Lord's deliverance. And so, beloved, hope causes
me to look beyond the things of time to the Lord and to eternity. For what do the people of God
hope? Well, they hope to be accepted before God. They hope that when
they stand before God, there will not be one sin charged against
them. They hope that when they stand
before God, they'll stand there in robes white. There will not
be one blemish. There will not be a spot on those
robes. Those robes will be the garments
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they hope to be accepted
before God. And they hope to be fully pardoned
of all sin, completely acquitted of all charges, before God's
holy throne. And they hope to inherit all
the glory and the bliss of Emmanuel's land. that we've sung about a
few minutes ago. They hope to be found in Christ
at last, not having their own righteousness, which is after
the law, but the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what is the basis or foundation
of a child of God's hope? My answer is, all my hope before
God for all things rests entirely and alone upon the blood and
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, my sufficient substitute. Philippians 3 and 3, Paul said,
For ye are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoicing
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Well,
Paul said, I have absolutely no confidence in the flesh. I
have none, either yours or mine. I have no confidence in the flesh,
nor in anything that I've experienced, nor in anything I've ever felt,
nor in anything I've ever done. Now, you can run what you've
done through the Sith. I preached for 48 years, basically,
and you can run it all through the Sith. And when it's all run
through the sieve, and I think it will all go through the sieve,
every bit of it, there's nothing of it that really, really is
of eternal value from the standpoint of my soul's salvation. Nothing. Nothing. Paul said there ain't
anything that I've ever experienced, felt, anything I've ever done
that's gonna really matter. My soul's hope is Christ alone. I have a good hope through grace,
an everlasting consolation. I have a good hope, and that
hope is through grace. The poet said, my hope is built
on nothing less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. His oath, His covenant,
and His blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around
my soul gives way, He then is all my hope. and all my stay."
Hope, then, there abides faith and there abides hope. Have you
got hope in your heart? Hope for eternity? Hope before
God? Well, that brings me to the third
and the last, and that is, there's another question here which I
think we must answer. There's one other thing here
that I must have if I'm truly born of God and that I will have,
and he said, abideth faith, hope, and charity, or love. These three,
but the greatest of these is love. Now, I want you to follow
me, and I'm going to be done here just in a moment. In some
ways, this is the most telling, I think, of the three. The question,
I think, it searches deeper and tells more about us, maybe, than
the other two. Do I have the love of Christ
in my heart? Has the love of Christ been shed abroad in my
heart by the Holy Spirit? Is my heart ruled? Is it governed? Is it motivated by the love of
Jesus Christ? Do I do what I do because I love
Christ? That's the question. Will I so
love Christ that I would be the same, be true to Him because
I love Him? Do I have within me the kind
of love that Christ would produce in His people? Love is absolutely
essential to true godliness. Nobody's going to be truly godly
if they don't love Christ. Because that's the only motivation.
Now you can take the whip of the law and you can drive people
with that. That'll never make them holy.
It'll never make them godly. But if in their hearts they truly
love the Lord, if in their hearts they truly love Christ, then
they will walk the best they know how before God in that love. Paul tells us that if we have
all other things and have not love, they'll profit us nothing.
We read that earlier today when we read this chapter. The absence
of love is a fatal deficiency. It is fatal. If you don't love
God, then Jesus said, if any man love not Paul said, if any
man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, he is, let him be anathema maranatha. We must love the Lord Jesus Christ. That anathema maranatha means
let that individual die and go to hell if he doesn't love Christ.
And he will die and go to hell if he doesn't love the Lord Jesus.
As you read and meditate on this chapter, do not think to yourself
that love is a very great thing. And it's a great virtue that
is most commendable and useful. It would be a great thing, would
it not, if all Christians had it? Oh, my friend, listen to
me. We must have it. It's not that
it's just a great virtue and commendable and useful and a
great thing. But we must have it. It is not,
listen to me, it's not optional. It is imperative. We must have
it. It's not something that we can
say, it'd be wonderful if Christians would love one another, if Christians
would love God. My friend, Christians do love
God. Christians walk with God and
they love God. They have a love of God in their
hearts. Listen, the Holy Spirit tells us that love is something
which characterizes all who are born of God. We know that we
passed from death unto life because we what? We love the brethren. That's exactly right. We love
the people of God. We know that we're no longer
dead in sin, but that we're alive in the Lord because we love the
brethren. We must have it or else we're
not born of God and we are not of God. He that loveth not is
not of God. The Bible says if we do not have
His love, no matter what else we may have, no matter I'm sorry,
no matter what else we may do, if I do not have the love of
Christ in my heart, I must be a lost man. The same is true
of you if you have not the love of Christ in you. Spurgeon said
this love is the common everyday livery of the people of God.
It is not the prerogative of a few, it is the possession of
all. all those who know the Lord.
This love is not a condition to be met in order to get salvation,
but it is the sure result of God's saving grace in Christ.
We are taught of God to love one another. Christian love is
greater than all other spiritual gifts and graces. Paul explained
that right here. Without love, all other gifts
and graces are meaningless and they're useless. Verses 1 through
3 spells that out. This one thing, love, is the
fulfilling of the law of God in Romans 13, verses 8 through
10. And sometime when you have time,
you should look that up. and you'll see what he refers
to there as the law of God. For love is the one sure mark
and evidence of saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you
have love one toward another. Well, where this love is absent,
grace is absent. No man is born of God who does
not have the love of Christ implanted in his heart. The love of Christ
or the absence of it is a thing that is easy to identify. This is not some profound, mysterious
point of theology. It is not some sweet-sounding,
useless emotion. If the devil, and you know, there's
some people that says, well, you know, I profess to be a Christian,
but I'm really a very sour person. I'm just a sour person. I'm a miserable person. And my
actions and attitude not always what they ought to be. Well,
you know, people blame all of their... I don't even know whether
I can say the word or not, so I won't try. But anyway, there's
people that are eccentric, and there's a little word that goes
before that, but I won't try to say it all together. But nevertheless,
you may blame all of that on your Constitution. say I'm just
I'm just I was just rubbed with a corn cob and baptized in vinegar
preacher you have to excuse me I don't love people like I ought
to and I don't have much use for other people other than me
and mine and my own I'm concerned about them and I love them but
the rest well really I don't care too much for them and what
you got to say is sweet sounding and and but it really is a useless
emotion when it comes to me Well, the love of Christ is a gift
of divine grace that's clearly demonstrated in the lives of
God's people. You can look at verse 4 through 7 here, chapter
13, and you can see how that works. And then love is preferable
to all other gifts, greater than all other graces, because love
is the only thing that will last forever. Verses 8 through 13
here in our text. All other gifts will come to
an end, all other graces are going to cease, but love will
go on in heaven. Faith will be no more when we
see Him whom we have believed. Hope will be no more when we
have that for which we have hoped, but love will continue to come,
perfection, and it will come to perfection when we enter heaven. Love is the only thing we have
in this world, somebody said, which we can carry in the world
to come. Love. Heaven is a world of love, perfect,
unceasing, glorious, Christ-like love, and no one will enter that
city of peace, world of love, except those who have the love
of Christ in their heart to mark it down. And if we have a love
of Christ in our heart, it will be evident. People will be able
to tell. Do you think that people can
tell when you love them or when you don't love them? They can
tell. They're not dumb. They're not idiots. They understand
when they're being loved. And God's people know. And there's
sometimes, you know, we meet people and they profess to be
Christians. We're around them for a little
while. And my soul, it becomes so evident that there's nothing
between us and them. There isn't anything that joins
our hearts or binds our hearts to them. There isn't anything
we feel about them. It's absolutely all coldness.
And we know and we hear later that they backbite and say all
manner of things about us and they have no regard for us as
the Lord's people at all. bickering and telling all kinds
of stuff and destroying our character and so on and so forth. You say
those people love the people of God? Absolutely not. Absolutely
not. And they'll say if you pin them
down, well the devil made me do it. Well the devil can have
a cardiac arrest and die right now and they'd still be as mean
as hell as long as you as you know because their own nature
is Is that way they're not Christians? They're not the people of God
and the love of Christ is not in their hearts now That's what
I believe about and they can make all kinds of excuses for
being being mean and honoring contrary But I just say it's
because the love of Christ is not in their hearts so the light
of these three questions and I think anybody who earnestly
and honestly examines his own self before God can ask himself,
do I have the faith of God's elect? Do I have the hope of
the gospel? Do I have the love of Christ in my heart? Well,
Paul said, now abides faith, hope, and love, and the greatest
of these is love. May God bless these truths this
morning to your heart, give you the ability And I know there's
been a lot said, but I hope that the Lord will give you the ability
to digest these spiritual truths and make them a part of your
spiritual system. May the Lord bless you. Mike,
would you come and lead us?