Chapter 14. While you're turning
there tonight, I'm going to be speaking on this subject. Bold
as a lion. Bold as a lion. And also this week, I'm going
to be preaching for the Grace Baptist Church in Heritageburg,
where David Collier is the pastor. I'll be there Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday, and it's less than an hour drive, about 50 minutes
from my house, and there's information on the backboard if anybody wants
to come to the services. I'm sure they would be encouraged
to see people come out. John chapter 14, verse 15. If you love me, keep my command. The word if tells us that not
everybody loves the Lord Jesus Christ. If you love me, not everybody
does. The Lord said in John chapter
7 verse 7, the world cannot hate you, but me it hated. Because I testified that the
works thereof are evil. Turn to John chapter 15 for just
a moment. Beginning in verse 18. The Lord
says to his disciples, if the world hate you, you know that
it hated me. before it hated you. If you were
of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hated you. Remember the word that I said
unto you. The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept
my shame, They'll keep yours also, but all these things will
they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him
that sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, that they had had no sin, but now they have no
cloak for their sin, he that hateth me, hateth my father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, They had not had sin, but
now they have both seen and hated, both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They
hated me without a cause. Here is the testimony of the
evil of men. Our Lord said, they hated Me
freely, without a cause. Now, I realize that men do not
hate the effeminate, weak Jesus that is preached from most pulpits. Men don't hate that Jesus. They
don't fear Him. The One who wants into your heart,
but He can't get in unless you let Him. The one who wants to
save everybody if they will just allow him to have his way. Nobody
hates that Jesus. But that Jesus is an idol. He's not the Jesus Christ of
the Bible. The one Paul called another Jesus. But men do in fact hate The Jesus
Christ of Scripture. I could give you so many examples
of this, but turn with me to Luke chapter 4. This is the only
example I'll give you. Verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah,
and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was
written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind. to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it to the minister, and
sat down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bearing
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he
said unto them, You will say unto me this proverb, Physician,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also thou in thy country. And he said, Verily
I say unto you, No prophet has accepted his own country, but
I tell you the truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of
them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, city of Sidon, unto
a woman that was a widow. She was a Gentile woman. God
passed by all the Israelite widows and saved this Gentile widow,
verse 27. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha, the prophet. And none of them were cleansed
except for Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile. God sovereignly chose
to save them. And what our Lord is saying is
He says, you fellas don't believe me. You fellas don't believe
me. You reject my testimony. God
in His sovereignty has passed you by. That's what he's saying
to these people, in no uncertain terms. Verse 28, And all they
in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with
wrath. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city, and led him under the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down, and long
they were going to throw him off the cliff. But he, passing
through the midst of them, went his way. Now let me remind you
that what these men wanted to do, you and I, have been guilty
of the same thing. And that is seen in the cross. Look in Luke chapter 23. You're
in the book of Luke. I want you to read this passage
of scripture with me. Beginning in verse 13. Luke 23, verse 13, And Pilate,
when he had called together the chief priests, and the rulers,
and the people, said unto them, You have brought this man unto
me as one that perverted the people. And behold, I have examined
him before you, and have found no fault in this man touching
those things whereof you accuse him. No, nor yet Herod, for I
sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of damage done unto him.
I will therefore chastise him, and release him. For of necessity
he must release unto them one at the feast. And they cried
all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us
Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder
was cast into prison. Pilate therefore, willing to
release Jesus, spake again to them, but they cried, saying,
Crucify him. crucify him. And he said unto
them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I found no
cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him,
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring, requiring that he might be crucified. And
the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And
Pilate gave sentence, that it should be as they required. And
he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast
into prison, whom they had desired, But look at this, but he delivered
Jesus, where? To their will. Now, I want you to listen to
this real carefully. If God led me and you to our
will, our natural will, what we are by nature, this is exactly
and precisely what you and I would have done and would do right
now. Now I hope you believe that.
It's so whether you believe it or not. But such is the depravity
and sinfulness of all men by nature that if God left me or
you to ourselves we would crucify his dear son. Now, what I'm asking you to do
is to believe that. It's the testimony of the Word
of God. Men by nature hate Jesus Christ. He said, if you love me. keep
my commandments. But there are some people who
love the Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest thing that could
ever be for a man or for a woman is to be loved by Jesus Christ. No blessing like that blessing. He said, as many as I love, I
rebuke. And Jason, please listen carefully,
Jesus Christ does not love all men. He doesn't. That's a fact. He loved the church. and gave
himself for it. Now, our natural reaction to
that is, how could that be right? How could it be fair for him
not to love everybody? And, you know, when we have that reaction,
that's my natural reaction to it. I think, well, why didn't
he love everybody? He could have. Why didn't he do it? Why not? But
when we have a reaction like that, what we prove by that is
how warped our thinking is by nature. You mean you think God
owes you that? That's what we mean by that.
If we had any idea of who we really were, we wouldn't be thinking
that way. As a matter of fact, we wouldn't be amazed by his
hatred of some because we would really believe we deserve to
be hated by God. What we'd be amazed at is the fact that he
can love such sinful human beings. What a blessing it is to be loved
by the Lord Jesus Christ. John 13 says, having loved his
own, which were in the world, he loved them to the end. Jeremiah 31. God says, behold,
I've loved you. And this is what our Lord says
to behold, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness, Have I drawn thee? The Lord said in John chapter
15 verse 9 to his disciples, and he says this to every one
of his disciples. He says this to me. He says this to you as
the father had loved me. So have I loved you. Isn't that amazing? How did the
father love his son? I can't even describe it, but
that is how the Lord loves all of his People, I repeat, the
greatest thing that could ever be is to be loved by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Can you say amen to that? Amen
and amen. Now, I want to be like John,
that disciple that Jesus loved. I love the way he described himself.
That disciple. He didn't say the disciple that
loved Jesus, although he did. But remember, here in his love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Paul said in Ephesians
3, 18 and 19 that you might be able to comprehend with all the
saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might
be filled with all the fullness of the God. Oh, what a great
thing it is to be loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the next
greatest thing there is, first, to be loved by Him. And the next
greatest thing there is, is to love Him in return. We love Him
because He first loved us. But we do, in fact, love Him. We trace our love to Him from
His love to us. And we do love Him and love to
Christ other than being loved by Him. This is the greatest
thing a man or woman can experience, to love Him in return. Now, you
remember when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13, now abides faith,
hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity, is love. Now, why is that? Why is love
greater than faith and hope? I sure am thankful for hope and
I sure am thankful for faith. Those are the gift of God's grace.
And what a wonderful thing it is to have hope. To have a hope
that I'm going to be accepted before God. To have a, what a
great thing it is to believe God. How is it that charity is
greater? My hope. I hope that I'm perfect
before God. One of these days I'm going to
experience that. I'm going to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm experiencing. My hope will
be turned to experience. My faith. It's going to be turned
into sight. I'm going to see him who my soul
loves. Hope and faith will no longer be needed, but I will
continue to love him eternally. We love him and we love him as
he is. We love all of his attributes. I love. the holiness of Jesus Christ. I love the absolute sovereignty
of Jesus Christ. I love His kingship. I love the
fact that He's in control. I love the fact that I'm in His
hands. He's not in mine. I love the fact that you're in
His hands and not in mine. You ought to love that too. I
love His sovereignty. I love His justice. I love His
mercy. I love His wisdom. Everything you can say regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ as He's revealed in the Word of God,
I love. I love Him as He is revealed
in the Scriptures. I love His way of salvation.
I love His intercession. I love Him as my prophet. I love
Him as my priest. I love Him as my king. I love
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look back in John chapter
14. And this is very important. John
chapter 14. Verse 23. Jesus answered and said unto
him, if a man loved 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 saves." You see, you can't separate love
to the person of Christ and love to everything He said. Who He
is is defined by what He says. To say, I love Christ and not
love His words, to not love His doctrine, is hypocrisy. It's
not love. If I love Him, I love His words.
Look back in John chapter 6. I know I'm asking you to look
at a lot of Scriptures, but these are very important. Verse 59. These things said He in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Now, I would challenge you to
read John chapter 6. I say that all the time. John chapter 6
is a wonderful sermon that our Lord brought. And in this message,
look at the things that he said. Look in verse 29. I'm thankful
for this verse of Scripture. Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he has sent. Look down in verse 37. All that
the Father giveth me, shall come to me." There's divine election.
Verse 38, "...for I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which He sent me, that of all which He hath given me I
should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day."
There's His successful atonement for His elect. Go on reading
in that passage of Scripture and you find the sovereign grace
of God in Christ Jesus. I love that chapter. 59, these things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard, said, this is a hard saying. Who can be expected to listen
to this? Who can hear this? This is a harsh saying. This
is an austere saying, talking about God electing a people and
Christ dying for the elect and men not being able to come to
Christ and accept the father draws him. These are harsh sayings.
Verse 61, when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured
at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? These sayings
that you're hearing of mine? Doth this offend you? What, and
if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?
Now, what our Lord's saying is, is if you're offended now, you're
really going to be offended then. You're going to be a lot more
offended then when you see me in my glory. You just see me
as a man right now and you're offended, but one of these days
when you see me as I am, you'll really be offended. Verse 63,
it's the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, prophets, nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they're Spirit and they're life. Do you find His words that? His
words, Spirit and life. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.
God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him. Everything he
said is the Word of God. And not only are they spirit,
they are life. My life is found in these words. Verse 64, But there are some
of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And
he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come to
me, except it were given him of my father. From that time,
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, You fellas want to go too? You know, the Lord's not going to
keep anybody against their will. He watched all those people leave.
And He said, there's the door if you want to go too. And you
know, this is what's really glorious. You can't run away from one of
the Lord's people. You can't do it. Verse 68, then Simon Peter
answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. These words that they find harsh
sayings, we find them to be words of eternal life. And we believe
and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. You see, there's no loving Him
and not loving His words. Now, do you understand that?
If you love Me, and love to Him is seen in a love for His words,
what He said about Himself. If you love Me, keep my commandments."
Now, I've entitled this message, Love Is As Love Does. If you love me, keep my commandments. Love is as love does. You see, the love that we have
to him is like no other love. It is a love that will not tolerate. Anything or anybody that hinders
us in our pursuit of him. Our Lord said, if any man come
after me. And hate not. His father and mother wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple." If you love Christ, if I love
Christ, we will treat all things with relative disregard in comparison
to our love to him. You love him more than anything
or anyone else. Love is, as love does, if you
love me, keep my commandments. Now, what does he mean by commandments?
He says, if you love me, if you love my person, if you truly
adore my person, keep my commandments. What are meant by commandments
when he says keep my commandments? Now, here's the first question
I want to ask you. Does he mean the Ten Commandments? He didn't say,
if you love me, admire my commandments. He didn't say, if you love me,
greatly esteem my commandments, or even have them memorized,
or have them up on the wall where everybody can see them. He says,
if you love me, keep, keep, keep my commandments. Now, does he
mean the Ten Commandments? Well, if he does, then you're in a
lot of trouble, if that's what he means, because we've not kept
his commandments. Do you believe that? Now, I love God's holy law. I
steam it greatly. And in Christ Jesus, I have kept
his commandments. But in myself, I have not kept
them. I cannot say I've kept... In
fact, I can't even say I've kept one commandment. Not once. That's
true. That's the truth. If you love
me, Keep my commandments. What does he mean by commandments? His commandments are everything
he said. In Matthew chapter 28, verses
19 and 20, he said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded."
Now, everything he says is a commandment. Everything. When he says, believe
me, do you know that's a commandment? And your right to believe on
him comes with the command. When he says, follow me, that's
a commandment. When He says, Be ye kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you, that is a commandment. When He says, Deny yourself,
take up your cross daily, and follow Me, that is a commandment. When He says, Love your enemies,
That's a commandment. When he says, forsake not the
assembling of yourselves together, that is a commandment. When he
says, love not the world, that's a commandment. When he says, give to him that
asketh of thee, that's a commandment. While baptism is a commandment,
when he says be baptized, that is a commandment. It's not an
option. It's a commandment. Esteem others as better than
yourself is a commandment. It's a commandment. It ought
not be hard to keep if you have any honesty about yourself. Be
merciful is a commandment. By love, serve one another is
a commandment. I could go on and on. Everything
he said is a commandment. He said, if you love me, if you
love my person, if you love me as I'm revealed in the Word of
God, and I do, I can say with Peter, Lord, you
know all things. You know that I love you. I love
him to this extent. If it were in my power to change
anything about him, I wouldn't do it. I love him exactly as
he is revealed in this book. I love him. And he says, if you
do, keep my commandments. You see, faith without love is
not saving faith. Faith worketh by love. Love without
obedience is not love. Love is as love does. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
5. 1 John chapter 5. Verse 1. Believe that Jesus is the Christ,
is born of God. I believe that He's a Christ.
I believe He's God's prophet. I believe He's God's priest.
I believe He's God's king. I really believe that He's Christ.
That tells me I'm born of God. Take that just as it stands.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? You're born of God
if you do, if you really believe what the Bible means by Him being
the Christ. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God, and every one that loveth him that begeth loveth him also
that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that
we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous
or burdensome. Is it a burden to you to believe
God? When He says, Come unto Me, and
this is a commandment. Everybody in here, you listen
real carefully. This is a commandment. He says, Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of Me. Is that grievous? Is that
vexing? Is it grievous to love your enemies? Is it grievous to be merciful?
Is it grievous? No. What's grievous and burdensome
is my sin. That's what burdens me. But obedience
to Him is certainly not irksome. It's glorious. Now, here's the summary of all
that He commands. Look back in 1 John chapter 3. This is very,
very, very, very, very important. 1 John chapter 3. You want to know what His commandment
is? It can be summarized by this. Verse 23. And this is his commandment. Now, remember, you've got to
keep his commandments. You've got to believe his commandments. You've got to guard over his
words. You've got to keep it. This isn't a commandment that
you can admire and say, well, that's a good commandment. No,
you must keep, actually keep this commandment. I will not
be saved apart from keeping this commandment. Now, look what he
says in 1 John chapter 3, verse 23. And this is his commandment. that we should believe on the
name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he abides
in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. Now, all of his
commandments are summarized by these two things. Believing on
his name, and loving one another. And here's what I want to ask.
What does it mean to believe on his name? We're all familiar
with that phrase and that terminology to believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We even when we pray every time
I pray, I pray, Lord, I'm asking this in Christ's name. What does
it mean to believe on the name of the Son of God? Now this is
what was brought to my memory. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
27. I think this will give us some idea of what it means to
believe on his name. Now, remember, every one of these
stories in the Old Testament are given to illustrate the gospel
to us. Some aspect of the gospel or
saving faith. And if you want to understand
what it means to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to see if you do, listen real carefully. Here in Genesis 27,
you're probably familiar with this story. This is the story
of Jacob deceiving his father. In order to get the blessing.
Jacob deceiving his father in order to get the blessing and
that it's assorted unclean thing that he did. It was wrong. There
was nothing right about it. Yet, what an illustration we
have of what it is to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, let's let's read this story. Verse 27. And it came to pass that when
Isaac was old and his eyes were dimmed so that he could not see,
he called Esau, his eldest son, and said unto him, My son. And
he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Behold, now I'm
old. I know not the day of my death. Now, therefore, take,
I pray thee, thy weapons, and thy quiver, and thy bow. Esau
was his daddy's favorite. He was an athletic hunter, macho
guy. Jacob was, well, he was a, well,
He was what he was. He's kind of a wuss. You know,
I mean, he was he was a mama's boy. When you go on reading about
it, I mean, his mama favored him, you know, and and Isaac
favored Esau. Now let's go on reading. He says
to Esau, make me savory meat such as I love and bring it to
me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.
And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau
went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it. And
Rebekah, and Rebekah is a type of the Holy Spirit here. She's
a type of the Holy Spirit, teaching somebody the gospel. And Rebekah
spake unto Jacob, her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak
unto Esau, thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, or make me
savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord
before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, according
to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch
me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make
them savory meat for thy father, such as he loves. And thou shalt
bring it to thy father, that he may eat, that he may bless
thee before his death.' And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold,
Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father, peradventure, will
feel me, and I shall be seen to him as a deceiver, and thou
shalt bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. This will
get me in bad trouble. And his mother said unto him,
Upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice, and go fetch
them. And he went and fetched and brought
them to his mother. And his mother made savory meat
such as his father loved. And Rebecca took goodly raiment,
the goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which was with her
in the house. And she put in the palm, Jacob,
her younger son. And she put the skins of the
kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck.
That would make him a hairy man. And she gave the savory meat
and the bread which she had prepared and the hand of her son into
the hand of her son, Jacob. And he came unto his father and
said, You reckon he was nervous? You reckon he was scared when
this was going on? Now, he knows he's deceiving. And he came to
his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I. Who art
thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father,
I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according to that
thou babest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat
of my venison that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto
his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my
son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me.
And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may
feel thee, my son. whether thou be my very son Esau
or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac
his father, and he felt him. And he said, The voice of Jacob's
voice, but the hands of the hands of Esau. And he discerned him
not. Because his hands were hairy,
and his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. And he said,
Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said,
bring it near to me, and I'll eat of my son's venison, that
my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him,
and he did eat. And he brought him wine, and he drank. And his
father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
And he came near, and he kissed him, and he smelled the smell
of his raiment. Remember, it was Esau's clothing
he had on. And he blessed him, he said, See, the smell of my
son is as the smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed.
Therefore, God give thee the dew of heaven, and the fatness
of the earth, and the plenty of corn and wine. Let people
serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren.
Let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
cursed thee. And he blessed, and blessed be
all that bless thee. When Jacob came to his father
to get the blessing, he understood this. I have to be Esau or I
will not get the blessing. He had to smell like Esau. He
had to feel like Esau. He had to be Esau. And when his father said, Are
you Esau? He answered, Yes, I am. And his father could not discern
the difference. Are thou my son Esau? I am. Now to believe on the name of
Christ is to come to the Father by No other way. I come only in His name. We are commanded to believe on
the name of His Son, and our right comes with the command.
But what Jacob did was deceitful. And it was deceitful. Nobody's
arguing against that. But I'll tell you this, he had
enough spiritual sense to know that the only way he could get
the blessing is if he was Esau. And I know this, when I come
to the Father, when I come into the presence of God, I know the
only way that I'll get the blessing is if I'm Christ, if I'm united
to Him. So God cannot see the difference
between me and His blessed Son, just like He couldn't discern
the difference between Jacob and Esau. Now, that's what it
is to come in his name. Do you want to understand what
it means to come to the Father in his name? I know I'm like
Jacob. Jacob wasn't much to him. I mean,
if you look at his character, there just wasn't much to this
fellow. But I'll tell you this, he understood that the only way
that he could be accepted by the Father and get the blessing
is if he was Esau. And I understand that the only
way that I can be blessed of God is in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you understand that? That's
what it is. So here's his first commandment.
His first commandment is that we believe on the name of his
son. I keep that commandment. When my name is called. I His name is the only name I know
the answer to. That's what it is to believe on this day. And
to love one another as he gave us commandment, a love that is
not in word only, but in deed and in truth. You see, my love
to Jesus Christ. Is only expressed by my love
to you. That's the only way it's expressed.
Inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me." Now this summarizes keeping his commandments,
believing on his name, and loving his people. Do you know that
the greatest sin there is, is to not love him? That's why Paul said, if any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha. Let him be damned upon the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 14, the love of Christ constrains us. His love to me
and my love to him. The love of Christ constrains
us, it restrains us. If you love me, he said, if you
love me, keep my commandments. Love is as love does. Now let's look at one other verse
in John chapter 14. Verse 21, He that hath my commandments,
we believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I
do believe on His name. I come to the Father by Him. And keepeth Him. I do believe. And I do love His people. He
it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself
to him." You see, there's great reward in love to Christ. I know that the love we have
is the gift of His grace. And the love we have for Him
is only because He gave it to us. And He gets all the credit.
But there is great reward in love to Christ. He'll manifest
Himself to us. And He will love us. That's a
great place to be, isn't it? Love is as love does. I would like to sing as a closing
hymn,