And I want to read these two
verses of amazing grace written by John Newton that very seldom
anybody hears. And these are the words. The
Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion
be as long as life endures. Yea, when this flesh and heart
shall fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within
the veil a life of joy and peace. Now those are words of assurance. But beloved, you know, and I
certainly would agree with anyone that would say it is a delightful
thing to sing with John Newton that sweet song of assurance
and rejoice in the words of that song. But every sober-minded
child of God in this world realizes that there are multitudes of
people that have sung those lines with a measure of joy and even
a measure of assurance on earth only to wake up in hell at last. Now, realizing that fact and
knowing the sin and the deceitfulness of my own heart, I want this
morning, if I can, to speak to you on the subject of assurance
out of this first chapter here, or 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. But before I do so, there's another
hymn of John Newton's that I feel that I ought to read to you,
because this is what I have to sing very often. Amazing Grace
is wonderful and delightful, but here this morning I want
to read these words. And the title to this song is,
"'Tis a Point I Long to Know." Oft 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. Yet, or you that love the Lord
indeed, tell me, is it thus with you? Could I join 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. Now, those are the words that
are often upon my mind. And this morning, I thought of
three searching questions that I ought to speak on today. I
had in mind to go back to the book of Revelation, the Revelation,
and finish up the message out of Revelation 3, but I felt burdened
this morning to go in this direction. I believe there's somebody here
that needs this morning to hear this message. Now we know that
the vast majority of religious people in this world are lost. Now, I want you to listen to
that statement again. It is my belief that the vast
majority of religious people in this world today are lost. They're outside the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, many profess faith in Christ. Many say, well, I believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Many have made a profession.
Many have walked an aisle. And we know that they might have
been very sincere in the doing of it. But there are few in this
world that possess real, true, saving faith in Jesus Christ. Now the Bible says in Matthew
chapter 7, in verses 13 and 14, listen to these words. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is
the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it. and few there be that find it. Now in verses 21 and 22 of this
same 7th chapter of Matthew, Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in
thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. And Matthew 22 and 14 says that
many are called, but few are chosen. And then our Lord in Luke 13
verses 23 and 24, 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 of those in
the religious world today have been deceived by human religion. Now, most of the churches in
our day and time, and this is not something that's just unique
to our day and time, But most churches believe that salvation
is a human project. They believe that men and women
are saved by their doing. They believe that folks are saved
by what they do or what they do not do. And their religion
is characterized by two letters, D-O. Do. Now the religion of
our Lord Jesus Christ is characterized by four letters, D-O-N-E. Done. Done by another. Sin or nothing
do, either great or small. Jesus did it, did it all, long,
long ago. Now, beloved, those in the religious
world that are depending upon themselves, they're walking the
broad way which leads to destruction. No man can save himself. There's
no man that has the ability to provide a righteousness through
his obedience unto the law of God that God Almighty will accept. No man has the ability to so
conform himself to a pattern of life that God will receive
him and accept him into heaven. No, the Bible teaches that a
man's got to be perfect to enter into heaven. We must be as righteous
as the Lord Jesus Christ to enter into eternal glory. And the only
way to be as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ is for us to
be made the righteousness of God in Him. It is as we stand
in him that we're as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ is and
can be received into glory. Now I'm equally certain that
many who profess and practice even the same things that we
as Calvinistic Baptists, call us whatever you want, Some are
called Reformed Baptists, others are called Independent Baptists,
whatever that you might want to call them. I'm persuaded that
many profess and practice the same things that I profess and
practice, but yet the root of the matter is not in them, yet
they are unconverted. Now, they are conservative and
they're orthodox, but they have missed the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Beloved, salvation is in a person. Salvation is not in a bunch of
do's and don'ts. Salvation is in a person. Now they embrace maybe the doctrines
that are taught in the Bible, but they do not. They have not
been joined savingly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, their religious
devotion, I believe, is just a form of godliness without the
power of life. The Spirit of God is not in them. Beloved, mere orthodoxy is not
Christianity. Some people say, well, I'll just
conform to whatever creed the church holds, and I'll be a Christian. I'll act like a Christian, and
I'll be one by acting like one. Beloved, such is not the case. Mere orthodoxy is not Christianity. And I've seen many whom I esteem
stronger and wiser and more zealous, more devoted, and more useful
than maybe most of us here forsake Christ and his gospel and go
back altogether. Just simply leave it all and
go back away from it. Now how do you explain that?
Well, beloved, these people, they had an assurance, but it
was a false assurance. It seemed they had an assurance,
but apparently it was a false assurance. They had a peace,
but it was not that peace. which God Almighty gives to those
who are truly joined to His Son. The Bible says, therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. And a peace that comes through
the Lord Jesus Christ is a real peace that we will not be robbed
of. Now mere religious devotion and
outward righteousness is not Christianity. Now I want you
to mark that down. I want you to get that fixed.
in your mind this morning, that mere religious devotion and outward
righteousness, outward morality, and there are many people who
say, well, I'm as good morally as anybody in your church, and
I would have to agree with them. I say that's probably true. And
there are others that say, well, what do you find wrong with us?
Is there something that you can find outwardly that's wrong with
our practice? No, I don't find a whole lot
outwardly wrong with many religious people's practice. But beloved,
there is something missing. And I'll tell you that mere devotion
in religion and mere conformity to rules and regulations is not
is not saving, it is not Christianity, true Christianity. Well, how
can anyone say, Preacher, I don't want to get confused, and I truly
don't want to confuse any of you. You say, well, how then
can anyone, if people in the religious world, if they're lost,
even though they've made a profession, even though they're devoted,
even though they're outwardly good people, but they're lost.
Well, then how can anyone truly have an assurance that he's savingly
united with the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, beloved, let me say this,
that it's most needful for all who profess faith in Jesus Christ
to examine themselves by the Word of God. to examine themselves
honestly, and with judgment day honesty, as I remember hearing
a preacher say one time, being honest and sincere, asking God
to show us whether there is, in any way, if in any way we
be deceived. if in any way we're in the way
of death and eternal destruction instead of being on the road
that leads to life and to eternal bliss and blessing. In Psalm
139, in verses 23 and 24, the scripture says, Search me, O
God, and know my heart. is praying, search me, O God,
and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. David is crying out that God
would examine him, that God would search his heart. He wants to
know the worst of his case. He doesn't want to be deceived.
He doesn't want to wait until he gets to the judgment and find
out that he's been deceived and that he's been wrong. Now, beloved,
it is an awesome thing to think about standing before God. Now,
you need to examine yourself now, while you're yet among the
living, and consider your true state. In 2 Corinthians 13 and
5, Paul said, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, and
prove your own selves, and know ye not your own selves, how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. Now somebody
that Jesus Christ is not in, in the day of judgment will be
considered among the reprobates, the rejects, those that will
be cast away and sent off into everlasting darkness and judgment. Paul said, you know ye your own
selves how that Jesus Christ is in you. Beloved, it is Christ
in you that is the hope of glory. A Christ not in you is a Christ
not yours. And until He be in you, then
you are not a child of God. You are a reprobate. You are reject. And you will
be rejected in the day of judgment. Now we must prove ourselves by
the word of God, and make our calling and election sure, and
if we do these things, Peter said, we shall never fall. We
shall never fall. Now I cannot give you just a
certain formula by which assurance may be gained, but I know this.
But I know this. I want you to listen as I read
verse 13 of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul says, Now abideth faith,
hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is
charity. Beloved, there are three graces
created in the heart of every true believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ by God the Holy Spirit. And if you and I possess these
three graces, if they're really and truly created in us by the
power and the grace of God, then we are truly born of God. Now in these three graces, if
these three graces do not live in our hearts, then we're yet
under the wrath of God. So the first grace is faith. The first gift is faith, the
second is hope, and the third is love. But the greatest of
these, Paul said, is love. Well, where do these abide? Paul
says, now abideth faith, hope, and charity. Well, where do they
abide? Well, beloved, they abide in
the hearts of a child of God. They abide in the hearts of believers,
true believers, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here then are these
three questions with which you and I must examine ourselves
before Almighty God this morning. And I hope that we can be honest.
I hope that we will sincerely face these three questions that
I'm going to ask this morning, and I hope that we'll each one
of us be able to be so honest before God that when we leave
here this morning, we'll know where we stand with the Lord. The number one question is this,
do I have the faith of God's elect? Do I truly have the faith
of God's elect? John 3 and 36 says, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Do I have the faith of God's
elect? Does faith abide in my heart? True faith is the gift of God. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
8 tells us, for by grace are you saved through faith, that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Faith is a gift
of God. It is not merely a logical or
emotional decision, though it is both logical and emotional,
it is much more than this. Saving faith is created in the
heart by the power of God the Holy Spirit. It is the gift of
almighty grace. Where did you get what you are
calling faith? Where did you get it? Where did
it come from? There is nobody between the eternities,
no son of Adam between the eternities that can conjure up faith, saving
faith, whereby they can receive the efficacy of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ into their soul by themselves. Faith must come. Faith cometh. Cometh down from have faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but it's got to
come It's got to come from outside of you faith must be given to
your soul We believe according to the working of his mighty
power Paul said in Ephesians 1 and 19 Well, what does that
mean? He says well we believe according
to the working of your mighty power. We believe because your
mighty power has come to bear upon our soul and we have been
regenerated by your power and we believe. Now beloved, this
is very important. Faith is not the cause of our
regeneration. Most people believe that we are
alive in the Lord because we somehow or other dug up or got
some faith somewhere and we believed and therefore we have been regenerated. But that's not the way it is.
You see, regeneration or life must first be given to the soul
and then we're able to believe. Faith is not the cause of regeneration. Regeneration is the cause of
faith. That's why I believe. It's because
I've been born again. Because I've been born from heaven.
Because God has given me life in his son. Life in my soul. I was dead in sin. God has given
me life. And that's why I believe. That's
why I'm able to believe. And man doesn't have enough life
to know his death until God gives him life. You're not going to
find any sinner fleeing the wrath of God until God enlightens him,
convicts him, gives him life in his soul, and then he flees
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, we're united to Christ
through faith, Paul said in Colossians 2 and 12, of the operation of
God. It's an operation of God in the
heart that joins us to Jesus Christ. That's how we get in
Christ. Faith, Paul said, of the operation
of God. Now God alone can create this
faith in the heart of a sinner. God alone gives men faith. And
He does it, I believe, in the majority and most instances,
through the preaching of the gospel by which Christ is revealed
in the heart. Now, there are three portions
of Scripture, I believe, that teaches that. Romans 10 and 17,
a verse I quoted a few minutes ago, So then, faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Men are told in many
circles, in Arminian circles especially, to believe. Preacher
gets up and says, Believe! Believe! Believe! And I say,
Give them something, Preacher, to believe! And what are we going
to give them? We give them the Word of God.
We give them the Gospel. We tell them what the Bible says.
We tell them about God's Son who came down from heaven on
a mission. We tell them that God Almighty sent His Son into
the world and that He was born of the seed of the woman. We
tell them that God laid all of the sins of His people on Him
and that Jesus Christ went to the tree, to that gory, gory
tree outside the city of Jerusalem, that He was hung there the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God. We tell them
that God laid on him our sin and judged our sin in him. and that God has taken away all
of our sin because Jesus suffered our hell and paid for our sins
in our room instead. He died for me, and I tell men
and women that he died for believing sinners. If you can believe that
Christ died for you, Then my friend, that's what you're to
believe. You're to believe that Jesus Christ died, God raised
him from the dead, and now he's seated at the right hand of God
there to give repentance and faith to his people. Now in James
1.18, listen to these words. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures. Now this tells us that God of
His own will begat us, and He did it with the Word of Truth.
He did it through the preaching of His Word, but He has born
us anew. Listen to 1 Peter 1, 23-25, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 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, and
the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this, Peter said,
is the word which by the gospel we preach unto you. This is the
word that we preach to you. This is the word, the seed that
is incorruptible by which we are saved. Now then, true saving
faith, and this is important to see, is concerned with one
thing. True saving faith is concerned
with one thing. And that one thing is the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what Jesus
said in John 6 and 47. He said, Verily, verily, or truly,
truly, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, he that believeth
on me hath everlasting life. Now that's what he said, you
can look it up. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth
on me, have everlasting life. And so the question is, do we
believe on the Son of God? Now hear me, I said that faith,
true saving faith, concerns itself with one thing. That is the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 6 and 45, the scripture
says, it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. Now hear me now, every man Every
man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father, Jesus
said, comes to me. Every one of them comes to me.
They don't go somewhere else. They don't go to Sinai. It's
a mountain. Fiery mountain. They don't go
off to some prophetic view of the end times and find their
solace and comfort there. They come to the Lord Jesus Christ. and their faith concerns itself
feeding upon his person and his work. Now that's the one issue
which is of eternal importance. Jesus said, all that the Father
giveth me, John 6 and 37, shall come to me. Every one of them,
they're going to get to me. They're going to come to me.
I'm going to teach, the Father's going to teach them to come to
me. And the faith which they have
will draw them to me, because it's from God, and God says they're
going to come to me. They're going to come to me.
And that's why we just keep on coming and coming and coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't ever get over it,
and I don't intend to ever get over it. I'll always, as long
as I'm breathing, I'll be coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. I think
that's what the Word of God teaches. Now, this is your lifelong assignment. In Matthew it says, this question
is asked, what think ye of Christ? What do you think of Him? Whose
son is he? What do you think of Christ?
Now, if you're a true believer, you know what you believe. Why?
You know, the old preacher told me a long time ago that only
a lunatic or a Christian believes that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now, he's right. Now, what he
meant to say was that nobody, and they're just left to their
carnal mind, fleshly mind, is going to believe that somebody
is going to be born in this world of the seed of a woman without
a man being involved in it, and is going to grow up to manhood,
and going to be able to shoulder all of the sins of each people
and die in their place. Why, they can't believe in the
virgin birth, nobody in their just carnal fleshly mind can't
reason that out and figure that out. But now somebody to whom
it's been revealed, somebody that's got the faith of the gospel,
they believe it. I believe it, don't you? I believe
it, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God born of the seed of
a woman. Born without a man being involved
in it, I believe that. Say, Preacher, that's something.
I never really thought about that that way. Well, that's exactly
what the Bible's talking about. Nothing else really matters as
far as the salvation of the soul is concerned. except the person
and work of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, true
faith is taking God at His word. It is believing what God says
about His Son. It's submitting oneself to the
revelation of God in the Scriptures. It is trusting, believing, receiving
Christ as He's revealed in the Word. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. They are born of God. Now he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, 1 John
5 and 13. So saving faith, beloved, comes
through our God, and that faith concerns itself with the Son. With the Son. Now this is important
because it'll shut you up to see where salvation really lies. God is not going to take you
someplace to drink out of a well that's empty or to pump a dry
well. He's not going to do that. He's
going to take you to His Son who is able to save. He's the all-sufficient Savior. Have you arrived, have you gotten
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been enabled to come
to Him? If you have, then I believe you
have true salvation. True faith is that willful and
deliberate voluntary confidence of my heart in the power and
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is trusting the merits of
His blood and righteousness as my only grounds of acceptance
before God. That's what it is, my only grounds. of acceptance before God. I don't
have any other ground. I don't have any other ground.
No sinner enlightened by the Spirit of God will claim any
other ground. Is that right? No other ground except this ground,
the ground of his righteousness and his merit. Now this involves
submission of my heart to Jesus Christ as my Lord, my all in
all. Any faith, hear me now, that
does not make you bow your knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ
is not the faith of the gospel. Jesus Christ is to be not only
Savior, He's our Lord. He's our Lord. He is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And any man who can thumb his
nose at the commands and teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. The commands and teachings of
the Word of God is not a man who possesses saving faith. Saving faith submits itself. Now, this true faith of God's
elect is also a persevering faith. It's a persevering faith. Now
Hebrews 3 and 6 says, but Christ is 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. In verse 14, for we are made
partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end. Arthur Pink said, God's elect
will persevere. God's elect must persevere. They
must. That is to say, I believe, if
a person truly believes on Christ, He'll just keep on believing
on Christ. Just keep on. Just keep on believing. Faith
is not, hear me now, don't get weary. You follow. This is important. This is important. This has eternal
importance. Faith is not an event in a Christian's
life. Faith is the believer's continual
way of life. The Bible says the just shall
live by faith. The true believer never ceases
to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. He
keeps on believing God. God's elect begins in faith,
they live in faith, and then they die in faith. Hebrews 11
and 13 says, It never quits. It does not give
up. I don't want to get involved
in this, but in Revelation 3 there in verse 10, where, you know,
we were preaching last week, our Lord was commending these
people for keeping the word of his patience. And what he meant by that was,
in the gospel, one of the things that's so clearly revealed is
the patience of our Lord Jesus Christ in all that he had to endure
in this world. Come into this world, all he
had to suffer, all he had to endure. And Jesus said, you kept the
word of my patience, meaning that you have endured, you've
suffered, you had a cross to bear, you didn't shuck it off,
you didn't quit, you just kept right on it going. You just kept,
stayed right with it. And that's what Jesus did. He
persevered to the cross and died on the cross. And you and I must
persevere in faith, not shuck off those things that try our
patience in this world, but stand up under it. Endure unto the
end. Now God's people will do that.
The way of the just is a shining light, shineth more and more
unto the perfect day. God's people are going on in
Christ. Their captain, the captain of
their salvation will lead them on. Well, the question then is,
after we finished now with this first part, is do we have the
faith of God's elect? Have we got it? Do we really
have true faith? The number two thing, and I'll
hurry, is this, do I have the hope of the gospel? He said now
about his faith, hope. Well, now where there is true
faith in the heart, There's also the confident hope of the gospel. Now there is a hope for those
who are righteous in Jesus Christ. There is a hope. There is an
expectancy for those who are as righteous as Christ is. They have a right to hope for
something and to expect something. Now, if I said our hope was built
on what we are, then you wouldn't have any real expectancy, would
you? If you was like I am, you'd just go out here and say, well,
that's nothing for me out there. But there is a hope, bless God.
Paul says that a man is saved who cannot be moved away from
the hope of the gospel. In Colossians 1.23, he said,
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 a man to Christ. Faith brings to 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 a troubled world You might write down this reference
I won't turn there Lamentations 3 21 through 26 and read it sometime. Well, what do the people of God
hope for? What do they got a right to expect?
beings that they're righteous in Christ. Well, I'll go through
these very quickly. Well, they have the hope of being
accepted before God. That they'll not be rejected
when they come before God. They have that hope. I'm going
to be accepted when I come before the Lord. Now they're not counting
on who they are, they're counting on who He is. They're trusting
what He did, not what they've done. And they hope to be fully
pardoned of all sin, completely acquitted of all charges before
God's holy law. They do not expect that when
they come before God, there'll be one thing charged to their
account. They do not believe that there's
going to be one sin charged to their account when they get before
God because all their sin was charged to the substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he paid for it in full. Now that's what
I'm hoping for. And that's what I believe I can
rightfully hope for because that is the hope of righteousness
through the Spirit. I hope to inherit all the glory
and bliss of Emmanuel's land because he's made me comely He's
made me lovely, beautiful through His comeliness. And I hope to
inherit it. I hope to be found in Christ
at last, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the
righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Christ. Well,
what is the basis or foundation of this hope? My answer is this,
that we rest, listen to me, all my hope before God for all things,
rest eternally and alone upon the blood and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, my all-sufficient substitute. I have absolutely
no confidence in the flesh, either mine or yours." No confidence. Paul said in Philippians 3 and
3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's what he said. He said,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the
flesh. The arm of flesh will fail you,
you dare not trust your own. Don't trust flesh. Trust the
all-sufficient Savior. In anything I have experienced,
I'll not trust that. In anything I've ever felt, and
I've felt a few things in my Christian life. I could tell
you about some of the things I've felt, but I won't. Because
I don't trust those things. Or in anything I've done, I've
preached for over 40 years. I don't know how much of the
Bible I've memorized. I don't know. I don't have any
way of knowing. I don't trust any of that. When all that goes
through the sieve, I mean, when everything goes through the sieve,
all of it's going through the sieve. Ain't but one thing. It's
like old John Knox said when he got ready to die. He said,
I've just strapped myself to the plank of God's righteousness
and I'm going to set sail on the sea of eternity. And that's
what I'm going to do. And that's what I've done already.
And that's what I'm going to do every day of my life. Just
strap myself to the plank of God's righteousness and sail
on. I don't have any confidence in anything I've ever done. So
now, 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 stay. is all, my hope and stay. All
right, the last thing is this. There's another question which
I think we got to talk about and then we're going to close.
Now, this, I think I should say that in
some ways this is the most telling of the three. This question searches
deeper and it tells more, I really believe, about us than either
of the first two. Do I have the love of Christ
in my heart? I do so want the love of Christ
in my heart. Is my heart ruled? Is it governed? Is it motivated by love toward
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I have within me the kind
of love that Christ produces? in his people? Do I have it?
That's a good question. Paul tells us that if we have
all other things and have not this love, then all these other
things will profit us nothing. Nothing. Did you get this? Listen
to the sound of that word. Nothing. Prophet to you, nothing. If you have all these things
that he mentioned here, numerated, you can look at it, verses 1
through 3 there, and you see that you would have nothing.
Love is absolutely essential to true godliness. Say, preacher,
but I've got this, I've got that. Love is absolutely essential
to true godliness. Now, listen, the absence of love
in an individual's heart is fatal. It's fatal. Now, as you read
and meditate on this chapter, do not think to yourself, and
I remember a time maybe when I did, love is a very great thing. It's a very great thing to have. It's a great virtue. It's most
commendable. And it's most useful. And it
would be a great thing if all Christians just had this love. Beloved, that's not it. Nope. It's not optional, you see. We
must You've got to have this love. Now, the Holy Spirit tells
us that this love is something which characterizes all who are
born of God. 1 John 3 and 14 says we know
that we have passed from death into life because, because we
love the brethren. We love the people of God. We
love those that are in Christ Jesus. Now then we must have
it or else we're not born of God. We are not of God if we
do not have the love of God in our hearts. If I do not have
this love, no matter what else I may have, no matter what else
I may do, if I do not have the love of Christ in my heart, I'm
a lost man and the same is true of you. The same is true of you. Spurgeon said this, 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 who
truly know the Lord. Now this love is not a condition
to be met in order to get salvation, but is the sure result of God's
saving grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Thessalonians, the
scripture says we are taught of God to love one another. Christian love is greater than
all other spiritual gifts and graces and the reason is that
without love all the other gifts and graces are meaningless and
they're useless. The one thing that I want to
just mention briefly and I'm going right on is love is the
fulfilling of the law. You cannot fulfill the law of
God except as you have the love of Christ in your heart. That's the only way. that you
can fulfill, that's Romans 13, verses 8-10. Love is the one
sure mark and evidence of a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, by this shall all men
know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to another. Well, where this love is absent,
grace is absent. Now, no man is born of God who
does not have this love of Christ implanted in his heart as a ruling
principle of life. There are many verses in 1 John
that you could read, in 1 John 2 verses 9 through 11, in the
3rd chapter verse 14 and verse 23, the 4th chapter verses 7
and 8, 16, verses 20 and 21, if you want to write those down,
or just read the whole book of 1 John. It's very good on this
subject. Now the love of Christ, or the
absence of it, is a thing that is easy to identify. Now, we are not saying when we're
talking about love, and I don't want anyone to get the wrong
impression, we're not saying that we don't believe in church
discipline, we just believe in loving folks regardless of what
they do, and letting things, tolerate things that are unbecoming
to the gospel. We don't mean that at all. Any
more than when we say a parent loves his child. that that parent
allows that child to be disrespectful, allows that child
to misbehave, allow that child to rebel against the rules and
regulations of the House, allow that child to in some way or
another bring a reproach on his parents. Parents that love their
children, they discipline their children, and they will not have
it any other way. They love the child, they'll
discipline the child. And I know we're living in a
very strange day, when people, many, many people just simply
do not have just the natural, what I call, You just have natural love. So they send up their children. But God's people bring up their
children. And there's a difference in that.
Is that right? There's a difference in that. Between sending one
up and bringing them up. I think there's a difference.
And discipline is involved in that. And in the church, discipline. We must have discipline. Now,
but I will say this. You can easily identify where
this love is absent. This is not some profound, mysterious
point of theology that's so hard to detect whether somebody has
love or not. Old Roland Hill, a preacher over
in England, said that if a man had the love of God in him, his
dog and his cat would even be better off for it. Well, I believe
there's a measure of truth to that. I believe that. There's
a measure of truth to that. My dog is too fat. I'm going
to have to cut her back on a ratio. He's too much. And so if I love
her, I guess I'll cut her back and discipline her a little bit
in that way. Well, now the love of Christ
can be clearly demonstrated and must be in the lives of God's
elect. And if you were to study here
in 1 Corinthians verses 4 through 7, I recommend you do that. Well, we must move on, it's almost
12 o'clock. Love is practical to all other
gifts and greater than all other graces because love is the only
thing that will last forever. Verses 8 through 13 teach that. All other gifts will come to
an end, all other graces will cease, but love will go on in
heaven. Faith will be no more when we
see His face That one in whom we have believed, hope will be
no more when we have that for which we've hoped. But love will
continue and come to perfection when we enter heaven. Love is
the only thing we have in this world which we can carry into
the world to come. Loving our hearts for God, loving
our hearts for the Lord's people. Heaven is a world of love, perfect,
unceasing, glorious, Christ-like love. No one will enter that
city of peace and world of love except those who have the love
of Christ in their hearts. Mark it down. Ain't nobody going
there. You see, you don't have the right
to expect anything in eternity, the seed of which is not in your
life here in this world. You don't have any right to do
that. And if you don't love Christ and love God's people, what business
have you got in heaven? Why would you want to go to heaven? So you see the importance of
this. Do you have the love of Christ in you? Is it in you? Do I have the faith of God's
elect? These are the three searching questions. I leave them with
you. Hope that you will earnestly examine yourself before God. Do I have the faith of God's
elect? Do I have that confident hope of the gospel? Do I have
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart? Paul said, now abideth
faith and hope and love and the greatest of these He said, His
love. Have we examined ourselves? Well,
how did we fare this morning? Where do we stand? Is the root
of the matter in us? The brother mentioned that verse
the other day. It's found in the book of Job. Is the root
of the matter in us? Is it? Is it really in our hearts? Father, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, there be a poor soul here today who has come
understand in this service today that they've been deceived, that
they have a false hope. I pray that thou will just take
up the work and bring them, my Father, savingly to Christ. And may they rejoice in a full
and finished salvation in his person and in his work. Lord,
give us all the ability to look at ourselves and to see ourselves,
and then look away from ourselves unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the
one altogether lovely. And may we, as we condemn ourselves,
rejoice in Him who was condemned in our room instead in place,
and who was received at the right hand of God, us in Him, that
we are now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Father, I do pray that thou wilt
win victories, deliver us, and Lord give us wisdom how to deal
with one another. And may we keep the word of your
patience. I pray it in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen.