Ephesians chapter six. The theme all throughout Ephesians
would be love, love in Christ. As far as the size of the letter
and the amount of, I think there's 2,100 words or something close
to that. The only other two books of the
Bible that has the word love more would be found in Psalm.
Well, that's 150 chapters, not just the six. And so you can
imagine how much of a, has it multiple times all throughout.
And that's a letter of confirmation for what they already know. And
it's a letter of edification, letter of encouragement, all
about the Lord's love and what he's done and successfully redeeming
his people. Now here at the end of the letter
is Paul's farewell, and he's communicating future hopes of
sending Tychias to them. And he calls him a beloved brother
and a faithful minister. Boy, I hope that's us, don't
you? A beloved brother and a faithful minister. If I could have that
accusation on my deathbed, I would really be Uh, well, I don't need
a title. Don't misunderstand. I want to
be found in Christ, but you understand what I'm saying. Lord, keep us,
make us faithful, make us be accepted in the beloved, make
us faithful ministers of you. That's, that's my hope. Now let's read this few verses
here in Ephesians chapter six, verse 21. but that ye also may
know my affairs and how I do. Tychicus, a beloved brother and
faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things
whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that you might
know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts. Peace be to the brethren and
love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with you all. Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. I had a simple thought
this hour and it's found where he says, grace unto you and among
the brethren, he says, love with faith, love with faith. That's what I've titled this
message. Love with faith. There's something very important
here that I've not saw before. We've spoken many times of the
Lord's love towards us. Um, even recently we've had several
messages in that John, uh, first John chapter four says here in
his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. We know that his
love is an everlasting love. That's what we hope in, isn't
it? His everlasting, unchangeable love. That's, uh, that's, that's
our hope is that it is everlasting. If his love was not everlasting,
we would be in trouble, wouldn't we? If it can change, if God
can, let us rest in knowing our God cannot change. He's the same
yesterday. He's the same today. He's the
same tomorrow. His love does not change either.
It is the object of his love that guarantees our perfection. Jesus Christ is the object of
the father to the son and the church is his bride. We are the
object of his love. Isn't that glorious? And this,
him looking to Christ and Christ fulfilling the work on the cross
has made his people perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were
baptized unto him by his death as we heard the first hour. We
know, and I wrote an article on this, but there's no greater
love, no greater display of love that ever has been or ever will
be than the cross of Calvary, when our Lord suffered and died
for his people. Now this morning, I wanted to
establish, we know it's his love, it's all about him, but I wanted
to consider our love, our love towards him and towards one another. I want to consider that this
morning. I hope we can rejoice in what the Lord has allowed
me to see in this. And as we go through this, I
pray he just gives us clarity. But men speak and they say, I
love Jesus. Ever heard the song, Oh, how
I love Jesus in religion? Do you remember that one? Oh,
how I love Jesus. Well, that's all about me, isn't it? That's
all about I, I, I, me, me, me. That's all that is. When men
say, I love Jesus. No, we believe what 1 John just
said. We love him because he first loved us. There's the cause
and effect. We don't love him in order to cause him to do something. It's not that we've decided to
follow Jesus. We decided to love him and that
changed something. No, it's his love that changed
things, isn't it? Men use love and don't really
know what love is. Our love is not everlasting.
Our love is not eternal. Our love fluctuates and it ever
changes. Not his love. Not his love. Men love God being what they
need him to be. Men come to the Lord saying,
I've given you my heart. I'm giving you my life. I've
obligated you to help me because I love you, because I'm devoted
to you, not the Lord's people. That's not how we love. That's
not how we love. We love with faith. There's the difference. See,
it's his love. It's the love of God that shed
abroad in our hearts what the scripture tells us. And by that
love, according to the faith that he gives us, we love him
perfectly. The new man loves him perfectly. You're saying my love for him
is perfect? Not in the flesh. Flesh hates God. But the new
man loves him perfect. Isn't that glorious? Why? Because it's love with faith.
It's not a man-made love. It's not a figure of our imagination. It's love with faith. Men look at love, their love,
as evidence of salvation. Don't do that. That's not looking
to Christ. Look to His love. Can you find
any rest in looking to yourself? Boy, I can't. Every time I examine
myself, and Paul tells us, and we're gonna talk about this in
depth, Paul tells us to examine ourself. What does that mean?
Well, see if you're living right, right? Is that what it means?
Well, see if you're doing right. See if you're in the faith, you're
gonna be doing right. You're gonna be, that's not what he's talking about. He said examine
yourself, see if they be anything in you. Anything in you that
you are looking to for your salvation. Because if you are, you're not
of the faith. No faith looks to Christ, doesn't it? And we
love him because he first loved us with his faith, by his faith. Faith does not look to self,
it always looks to Christ. Now I wrote this down in bold
print and I underlined it because I wanted to make certain that
I say what I'm about to say as clear as I possibly can be because
there's a possibility of confusion and there's a possibility of
false accusations towards me. But I am not going to declare
something to you that's not true. And I need the Lord as always
to give me the words and you the ears and us the faith to
believe it and to look to Christ. That's what I'm hoping to see
this morning is Christ. I've probably never asked you to do
this before, but pray for me even right now that I would say
the right words. I don't want to, I never want to speak wrongly
of the Lord or wrongly of his ordinances, what he has commanded,
what he has purposed, but we don't shy away from them either,
do we? We must declare the full counsel. That's what Paul said.
I didn't, I didn't shun to declare the full counsel unto you. So that's what I want to try
to do this morning. To preface what I'm about to say, I want
to be very clear that salvation is all by grace through faith,
period. Salvation's by grace, through faith, not of works,
lest any man should boast, period. We preach Christ is our righteousness. We preach Christ is our justification,
period. I don't feel that necessary to
lay that foundation as I'm about to continue with the rest of
it. I'm just reiterating to be as clear as I possibly can be.
It's not in what we do before we're called or after we're called. It's not in what we do before
we're saved or after we're saved that merits righteousness, that
merits favor with God, that merits anything. Christ must be our
substitute in all things. We do not look to self for the
cause of salvation nor the evidence of salvation, do we? We don't.
We look to Christ. Christ is our hope and salvation,
not us. However, we are called to good
works. And I will explain that to us
this morning very carefully. We are called to good works.
Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. We never, ever, ever
look to our works. We never, ever, ever look to
our works as the evidence or the cause in salvation, but the
Lord has given us good works. I want to show us that this morning.
So just bear with me and I pray that we'll see this glorious
truth that he showed me. There's rest in this. All of
our works are by faith, which worketh by love. I'm talking
about love with faith. All of our works are by faith,
which worketh by love. Galatians 5, we looked at this
last week, but it says, for in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. So it doesn't matter whether
you work or you don't work. He's saying it's not gonna accomplish
anything. Whether you're circumcised or
you're uncircumcised, you're not gonna merit anything with
God. but faith with worketh by love. We are saved by grace alone. We are kept by the power of God
alone and we have been ordained unto good works. Look with me,
I wanna show us this in Ephesians chapter two. Now by the time
we're done, I'm confident that our Lord will let us see this.
and it will not be confusing, and nobody will be able to accuse
me of preaching works living. That's not what I'm doing. I
hope we can enter into this this morning. Ephesians chapter two,
look at verse eight. For by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Well, that's pretty clear, isn't
it? For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. Do you see that right there?
For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourself, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should both. For
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
The Lord has ordained his people to walk in good work in Christ
Jesus, in Christ Jesus, looking unto Him, looking unto Him. So what's a good work? Looking
to Christ. Looking to Christ is a good work. And we can't do that in and of
ourself, can we? We must have the faith to do
that. He gets all the glory in it, all the glory in it. We look
to Christ in all that we do. We work without working. I underlined
that. We work without working. Isn't
that glorious? Everything God required, he provided. Even the
faith that we have that looks to him, we work without working. Anytime we look at what we do
or don't do, whether it's our morality or our conduct or our
life in any way, that's unbelief. We don't examine ourself in the
sense of trying to figure out if we're living the right life
before God. Faith looks to Christ and we're
constrained by his love. Do we see that? He keeps his
people looking to him. And he says, there's good works.
Looking unto Jesus. Well, we don't get any glory
for it. I don't think this is confusing. I think it's very
clear. That is the good work that he's given his people is
the faith that looks to Christ. The moment we work to please
God as any part of salvation, it's iniquity. We work out of
love. The faith worketh by love, he
said. We work out of love. Looking to him and not self. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
11. This clarifies it so much. The problem with talking about
works is we immediately examine ourself to see if we're doing
something. And that's the point this morning, is Christ did the
work for his people. And then he gives us the faith
that looks to him. And just as, look what he says
about Moses here in Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was
born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw
he was a proper child. They were afraid of the king's
commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasure in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense
of the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him
who is invisible. Through faith, he kept the Passover
in the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. By faith, they passed through
the Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians, a saying
to do, were drowned. The key word here is by faith.
That's the key word here. Everything that Moses did was
by faith. Everything that the Lord's people
do is looking unto Jesus by faith. You're saying everything that
we do? As far as the new man is concerned, yes. See, it's
in Christ that we live and we move and we have our being. And
by faith, we look unto him. We don't ever look to ourself
and see, okay, am I living a life of faith? Did Moses look whenever
the Lord said, put the blood upon the doorpost lintel? Did
he say, look at the blood I've applied? No, he knew one thing,
I've got to be under the blood or I have no hope. I have no
hope. And that's what the Lord gives
his people. His parents were given faith, it says, and hid
him for three months because he was a proper child. That means
fair or beautiful. His parents saw that he wasn't
beautiful in the sight of men. I was thinking while I was studying,
well, he was just a cute baby. No, he wasn't. It's not what
he's talking about. It was before the Lord he was fair, he was
beautiful. The Lord put it on their heart
to save their baby. Did they get any glory in that?
No. No, how could they have known that Moses was gonna be the one
to lead all the children to Israel out of Egyptian bondage? They
couldn't have. Did they brag about, look what
we have done? No, no, no. That's the point. Everything that we do, we don't
look to ourself. We're looking unto Christ and
we see that he keeps us. And we do do things that he honors,
that he blesses. What about buying this church?
We don't look and say, look what we have done, do we? That's exactly
my point. We say, look what the Lord has
done. He's the one that gets all the glory. This was all by the eyes of faith. Faith is unnatural to the flesh
in every way. It's contrary. Contrary, that
means opposite. It's completely other than what
the flesh is. The flesh is enmity. Faith just
believes Christ. Faith caused Moses to believe
Christ rather than have the riches of Egypt. He literally esteemed
the reproach. Think about that. He chose, and
he uses the word Christ here, that's what faith does is it
looks to Christ. He esteemed the riches of Egypt. He esteemed the reproach of Christ
rather than desiring the riches of Egypt. Can you say that? Can
you say in your heart, you know, if you were to have Christ or
have a billion dollars, I'll tell you what, everything in
this world, everything, name it, everything, completely yours,
or the Lord Jesus Christ, what would you choose? I got to have
him. I've got to have him. Why? Why? Because he gives faith that has
to happen. We've got, he's our breath. He's
our life. No, the luster of this world is, is it's fading, isn't
it? It's, it's growing dim. No, I
don't need Egypt. I can't be satisfied with Egypt
anymore. I have to have him. Now, do we look at that desire
and say, there's my good works? No, no, we look to Christ. That's the point. That's the
point. And yet, doing so, the Lord calls it good works, looking
unto Christ. I don't understand that. I'm
not doing it. That's the point. We get no glory for it. Am I
making sense this morning? He's the one that gets all the
glory for this. All the glory. Moses believed
God. Why? Faith. Faith. Moses believed God. And faith
believes Christ over self. over treasures, over power, over
popularity, over pleasure. We have this warfare that we
have between the new man and the old man, but faith always
triumphs. The elder shall serve the younger. The elder shall serve the younger.
That's what he said. Moses believed God because he
had faith. Did Moses get any glory? Did he get any glory? Did Moses get any glory of himself?
Did he ever brag about his good deeds? No. No, he didn't. Did
Moses say, I see my works are getting better. I see that I'm
progressively doing a little bit better. I don't do this as
bad as I used to, or that as bad as I used to. I'm breaking
my bad habits. I'm getting my life cleaned up.
You won't read that about Moses. You won't read that about Moses.
Moses believed Christ. That's what faith does. It looks
to Christ. It doesn't examine ourself and
hope that we see evidence. It looks to Christ. It looks
to Christ. Faith believes God. Because we
believe him, we see that we are saved by grace through faith.
And we work without working in everything that we do by looking
to him. I'm gonna say that again. We work without working. By looking
to Him in every single thing that we do. Isn't that glorious?
That's amazing to me. We ordained unto good works,
which is looking unto Christ in all things. We desire to worship
Him. We desire to honor Him. Don't
we? Do you desire to adore the Lord, to honor Him in your deeds?
We do, don't we? I don't want to live a life of
reproach of the gospel. I don't want to bring shame upon
the Lord's name. No, that would be embarrassing. Yet I know in
my flesh, I do. I'm constantly falling on my
face. Paul said, no wretched man that I am, not that I was.
So we don't look to ourself in anything. I need a substitute.
I need a savior, Lord. If there's going to be anything
that I do that's going to honor you in any way, you're going
to have to be the doer of it. I can't do anything good. I can't do
anything right. The Lord says, look to Christ, look to Christ. And you'll hear two responses.
The legalist people that hear me preach this are going to say,
yup. Amen. You got to have good works. And they didn't hear anything
I said, or the other is going to be antinomians. They're the
lawless ones that say, well, if I'm going to do good works,
God's going to be the one that has to do it. That's not my responsibility
to do anything. Well, that's not what the scripture says. That's not
what the scripture says. Men will go around just saying,
I'm just a sinner. I'm just a sinner. I'm just going
to keep sinning and there's nothing that's going to change that.
That's not the mentality that the Lord gives to his people.
We desire to work unto him in love, not to see evidence of
our works, not to get glory for ourself. I want the Lord to,
I want his gospel to go forth. And this is the means whereby
he is ordained to do it is what we're doing right now. We don't
look to it and say, okay, I've got good works. I know that I'm
His. No, no, no, that's not what we
do. We look to Christ in all things that we do, all things. God's people loathe their sin. That's what we acknowledge. We
loathe our sin. We don't love ourself and sin.
Our new man takes ownership of the sin that he doesn't even
have. He loathes that sin. You won't find the scripture
saying that we have a license to sin in it. It's non-existent.
It doesn't exist in the scripture. We know that we're going to,
don't we? We know that we're going to fall flat on our face.
We know the things that we would do, we don't do, and that which
we don't want to do. That's what we find ourself doing,
going just like the dog returning to its vomit. Lord, I need a
substitute. I need your good works. I don't
need to look at anything in my life and see good because it's
not. It's not good at all. Lord, you're the one that's good.
And I need you. I need you. Moses would have
told you himself he's a wretched, vile sinner the entire time he
was leading the children of Israel. They would murmur and complain.
He would come to the Lord and he would complain too. At any
time and point, he would have told you that he was a vile center
and he needed a substitute. He needed Christ. He had to have
the blood. He had to have the blood. See
the Lord, the Lord was not looking for Moses's actions. He was looking
for Moses's obedience. And what's the obedience that
we do look to Christ, but we have neither the power nor the
ability to do so. He has to give faith to do it. Yet we're found
obedient because it's bestowed. You see, I'm saying that everything
required God provided in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then you find yourself just believing him. And he gets all
the glory for it. We don't examine ourself. We
don't examine our good deeds, neither did Moses. But he had
to have the blood. And that's what you and I have
to have, isn't it? We have to have the blood. We see Moses's
life reflected, reflected God's faith in him. Didn't it? His obedience, the things that
he did, him saying, I don't want anything to do with Egypt. I
want everything to do with the Lord and his people. I have to
have Christ. That's a reflection of the faith that the Lord gave
him. Do you have to have Christ? That's a reflection of the faith
that he's given you. It just looks to Christ. Do we
see that? At no point do we look and say, okay, here I am. I'm
looking. Now I know that I'm a believer.
No, that's not looking to Christ. That's looking to self. And it's
simple. It's very simple. Does our faith,
and it's called our faith, I can say that. He calls it the faith
of Christ and our faith. It's Christ's faith bestowed.
He gives us ownership of it, doesn't he? That's what he's
saying. Does our faith look to Christ? Because if it doesn't,
it's not his faith, and he's not getting the glory for it.
That's not a good work then. We're looking to self, we're
examining ourself. Paul even said, I mentioned this
earlier, examine yourself, whether you be in the faith, 2 Corinthians
13, but I already told what's that mean? That means, is there
anything in me that I glory in? Is there anything in me whereby
I look and say, yup, that's how I know that I'm a believer. If
that's the case, it's not looking to him by faith, is it? Is Christ
everything we are looking to, everything that we're hoping
in, everything that we're believing on? See, Moses had to have the
blood alone. He knew that God required one
thing, blood. And so Moses went and slayed
an animal and put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel,
and he made sure his family was inside of that. You're coming
here because you know that you have a need. I'm coming here
because I have a need. I have to have the blood. We
cannot apply the blood. The Lord does that, but we have
to have the blood. We physically woke up this morning
and put our clothes on and came here in hopes of seeing the Lord
Jesus Christ and his finished work all by his blood. We, that's,
that's the same as Moses did. Do we see that? Moses gets all the glory. I'm
sorry. The Lord gets all the glory for Moses's actions because
it's by his faith. If that is your confession, you
have to have the blood and you have been. You have good works
created in Christ Jesus by faith. Did you know that that's just
that's so simple. God was not looking for anything
in Moses and he's not looking for anything in us. He's looking
for the blood of loan blood alone. The faith that looks to Christ. Moses believed God. Boy, I hope
that's our confession. I hope we believe God, don't
you? I don't ever want to be duped. We're so deceitful in
our heart. I want to believe Him. I want to know Him and the power
of His resurrection. I want to see Christ. I don't
want to see myself getting better because that's a lie. I've got
to see Him. I want to see Him, His glory.
We hope He gets all the glory, don't we? I don't want a bit
of it. No, if I find myself glorified, whenever I go to the grave or
whether he comes back in the sky, if I find myself glorified,
it's going to be all by his doing. And I want him to have all the
glory for it. That's what the Lord's people want, isn't it?
Lord, I want you to have all of it. And he's going to have
all of it anyways, but he gives us the heart that wants what
he wants. Our rest only comes through and
by looking to Christ. And God is the doer of that.
It's only by seeing Him and resting in His love by faith. His love by faith. We love Him
because He first loved us. And we've been given faith that
works by love, by love. In everything, in everything
we look to Him. We're desirous to see Him. We're desirous to know Him. in
everything. We're desirous to serve him.
Seeing that we're sinners, now answer this question for me.
Seeing that you're a sinner, does that make you want to sin
more? Does it make you want to sin? Does it give you a desire?
Seeing yourself as a sinner, does it make you want to sin
more? No. No, it makes me want to substitute. I need a savior. It doesn't make me proud of what
I am, but my only hope is that the Lord Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. of whom I am chief. Lord, you're
going to have to have mercy upon me, the sinner. Seeing ourself
a sinner doesn't make us want to sin more, even though we know
good and well that's all we are by nature. That's all we're going
to do by nature. Makes us flee to Christ, doesn't
it? He gives us repentance to see that we're a sinner in faith
that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can no longer enjoy
or find comfort in the pleasures of Egypt like we once did, do
we? Now, I wanna be clear on this so everybody understands
what the scripture teaches. Enjoy the things of the world.
That's why the Lord's given to you. Enjoy that there's pleasure
in food. Enjoy the food. There's pleasure
in drinks. Enjoy the drinks. Scripture's clear on this. It's
not what goes into a man, but what comes out that defiles him.
It's enjoy what the Lord's given us in life, looking unto him
in all things. Looking unto him in all things,
whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do
all to the glory of God. We don't do that for salvation.
We do it because he's given faith that looks to him in all things. That's why that's why we do it.
If you find yourself looking to him, he's the doer of it.
He gets all the glory and we love it that way, don't we? Now, I trust that I'm being as
clear as I can be, we no longer hope in this world. or what we
do, we hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't look to what
we do, we look to what he has done. And the faith that he's
given us, the faith that he's given us does produce good works. We don't look to him, we don't
see him, I can see him in you. And I hope that if I'm his, you
can see him in me doing unto him, unto him we're gonna We
have a cleaning schedule that's here. What do we clean the church
for? Unto Him, for His glory. I don't sweep the floor and say,
boy, look at the good job I did. No, no, no, no. Whatever our
hands find to do, we do it with all our might, looking unto the
Lord. At any time we start looking
to ourself, we've made it a work, and it's useless. It's useless. We just look to Him. That's what
faith does. Nothing comforts the heart of His people other
than seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness revealed. That's
where our rest comes. That's where our hope comes from.
When he sends his spirit, he makes his gospel effectual. So
he's seeing his finished work. That is peace, isn't it? He is
our peace. That's what we preached on, what we talked about Wednesday.
He is our peace. He is our hope. He is our everything. We can find no peace looking
to ourself anymore. And do you agree that the I'm
young, I know you guys tell me that all the time, but the older
I do get and what little bit of understanding I do have of
our Lord, the world's splendor fades. It gets dimmer and dimmer.
I don't get, don't misunderstand what I'm
saying. I enjoy the things of the world. There's things that
I do enjoy, but I'm needing one thing more and more and more.
Can you relate to that? I have one need that's ever growing. I need the Lord Jesus Christ.
I need his shed blood. I need a substitute. I need to
see him because if I can't see him, I have no rest. I have no
peace. I have no hope. He gives faith. That's exactly what it does.
It has to see always looks to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing that we glory
in, but the cross is there. We can see nothing in self worthy
of salvation. We can't see growth. I was talking
to somebody the other day and they were saying, I see growth
in myself. No, you don't. No, you lying
to yourself. You don't see growth. No, you
don't see growth. You see moral, maybe morality
change, but they ain't changing anything on the inside. No, the
inside, the inward man's already been made perfectly righteous
by Jesus Christ. He didn't come to save the flesh.
So how should we live? Well, we live like we want to
and look to Christ. What does that mean? What does
that mean? We live lawless lives of frivolousness
and whatever? No, we look to Christ. We look
to Christ. That's how we live our life,
don't we? In every way. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy path. Lord, ever so much more cause
me to look to your son, cause me to see his face in everything
around me. I was talking to someone on the
phone the other day and I think it was one of you, but I can't
remember right now, so you'll have to forgive me, but we made the statement
that he's everywhere all around us. We see the trees and the
life that they're going to start dying soon. They're going to
start dying soon. The leaves are going to fall
off, but what happens in the springtime? Well, the buds pop out and life
is brought back again. How's that done? By the sun.
That's how we live and move and have our being is by the sun.
And we need our dead leaves shaken off sometime, don't we? So that
we, Lord, if I'm gonna have fruit, I'm gonna have to be in your
vine as one of your branches, and the fruit's gonna have to
come through and by you, because I can't produce anything, nothing,
nothing that's good. And he does, and it's a miracle.
It's a miracle all by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't see growth, we can't
see good, we can't see ourself getting better. What do we see?
Our ever-growing need of Him. Our ever-growing need of His
blood, His love, His peace. We love Him with faith, don't
we? We love Him truly. Peter, the Lord asked Peter,
do you love me, Peter? Peter, do you love me with a spiritual
love? And Peter said, Lord, I love you with a physical love. I don't
know how to love you spiritually. He confessed the truth. He confessed,
Lord, you know I love you. And the word is agape and phaleo. They're physical and spiritual.
I've preached to you that before, but isn't that true? The Lord
said, do you love me? Oh, we would hang our head and
say, Lord, you know I do. I do, and I want to do right
in your eyes, but I know I can't. That's not an excuse to not try.
I want my life to be honorable, but that which I would, I can't
find, and that which I wouldn't do, that's exactly what I'm doing.
Lord, you're gonna have to give me faith that looks to Christ.
If you're gonna be pleased with me, it's gonna have to be Him,
because there's nothing good I can do. Lord says, do you love
me? Yes. Well, did he tell Peter,
well, don't do anything then? He said, feed my sheep. There's
your work. Feed my sheep. Declare the gospel.
That's what we do. And we do it unto him, looking
to Christ in everything, in everything. If we can see good in our behavior,
then we have never seen him. If we can see good in our behavior,
if I can say, okay, that's a really good behavior I have right there.
I'm getting better. We've never seen him. When we see him high
and lifted up, when he truly gives repentance, Now we'll see
that we're nothing but dead dog sinners that need a substitute.
We need a substitute. Aren't you glad for the Lord's
finished work? Aren't you glad for the substitution
of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people, putting away their
sin, making us, making his people the righteousness of God in him? Everything he requires the Lord
Jesus Christ provided. Faith does not examine self,
it looks to Christ and everything he provided. Everything he provided. What did the blind man say? They
were accusing Christ of being a sinner, and I'm coming to a
close, but they were accusing Christ of being a sinner because
he opened the blind eyes of the man on the Sabbath. He is the
Sabbath. They couldn't see that, could they? And what did the
man say? Whether he's a sinner or no, there's one thing I know.
Whereas I was blind, now I see. Can you confess that, Lord? I
don't, there's only one thing I know. I need the Lord Jesus
Christ. I've got to have him. I see him
as the necessary substitute of his people. I've got to be found
in him or I have no hope. If that's your confession, then
you've been given love of faith. You've been given the faith of
the Lord and love that just looks to him. Faith just looks to him.
We love him because he first loved us. We find ourself looking,
God's the doer of it. Now in closing, I do want to
look in our text again, Ephesians chapter six. I want to read that
verse again where Paul was closing. Verse 23, peace be to the brethren
and love with faith. But he doesn't say from us or
from me, and Tychicus, or from me and whoever else he may have
been with, he says, from God. Do you see that? Peace be to
the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace be with you all. Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Do you love the Lord sincerely?
Oh, I want to. I want to, I would say with Peter,
yes, Lord, you know that I love you, but you know, my love is
so frail and I can't look to that as any hope of my salvation.
I can look to your love. I believe that your love accomplished
salvation. Lord calls me evermore to love
you more. Sincerely to call, love you more. Sincerely. This
peace and the love with faith that Paul's talking about comes
from God. It didn't come from Paul. It's not manmade. That's
our need, isn't it? We need the confirmation of the
Holy Spirit making us look to Christ by the eyes of faith.
That's what the gospel does. It just, just as Paul's writing
this letter, it just keeps confirming. The gospel just keeps confirming.
Gospel just keeps confirming. What does it confirm? Christ
is all. Christ is all. And if we had
that confirmation, what would we fear? Well, we do have the
confirmation, don't we? Through the gospel. Why do we
fear then? Because we're so frail. That's why we can't look to ourself,
we look to Christ. Faith believes the Lord Jesus
Christ is all in salvation. And faith worketh by love, looking
to Christ, believing in him in all things, in all things. He has given His people love
with faith. And with that faith, every day when we tie our shoe,
we're thinking, Lord, I hope I'm in You. I've got to be found
in You. Whenever we are driving down
the road, faith says, I've got to have Christ. When we're working,
when we're sleeping, faith says, I've got to have Christ, and
looks to Him. Is that your confession? You've
got to have Him, don't you? He's given us love with faith.
Isn't that glorious?