preachers and prophets, men whom God has called. For example, he said about John
the Baptist, there was a man sent from God. And then the Apostle Paul said,
we have been put into the ministry. He said, God put me in the ministry. This is not something that I
sought for which I had ambition. But God, in an unusual and specific
fashion, put me in this ministry to deliver a message. Amos said,
I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. But God found him
where he was and sent him where he wanted him to go and gave
him the message he wanted him to preach. Moses was out on the
back side of a mountain taking care of sheep when God called
him at eighty years of age and sent him on a mission. And preachers
and prophets have occupied a most prominent place in the program
and purpose of Almighty God. Enoch was a preacher, talked
about Enoch prophesying. Noah was a preacher. Noah was
called a preacher of righteousness. David said here in Psalm 40,
I have preached. David was a preacher. And here's
an unusual thing that I noted, if you want to turn to Ecclesiastes
chapter 1. We talk about Solomon in his
great wisdom and wealth and power that came to visit him
and said to have never been told. But you know What Solomon called
himself, Ecclesiastes 1, verse 12, he called himself the preacher. In verse 1 of Ecclesiastes 1,
he said, these are the words of the preacher, the son of David,
king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the
preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Look at verse 12. I, the preacher,
was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Ninety-nine percent of us would
not say it that way. We'd say, I, the king, was a
preacher. But he said, I, the preacher, was a king. And then,
of course, John the Baptist came preaching, and it says in Luke
4, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent to preach the gospel to
the poor. And he said, I came to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord, and Paul said, how shall they
hear without a preacher? Now we're not promoters, we're not organizers, we're not
executives, we're not entertainers. Those men whom God has called
are preachers. And I try continually, I really
struggle and wrestle with this and try continually to find those
scriptures from the Word of God which will fully and powerfully
and yet briefly confront men and women of our day with the
testimony of God. To find those scriptures which
will fully, in a balanced fashion and yet powerfully, and because
our attention span is so brief, to find those scriptures which
will as men are passing by. He said, what is it to all you
that are passing by? Men and women are passing by.
Just briefly catch their attention and confront them. Just confront
them face to face with the message of God for this day. Paul said
to preach the same things to you to me is not tiresome. For
you it's profitable. And I found a passage in Psalm
40. You have it there before you.
Psalm 40, beginning with verse 5 and reading through verse 10.
Now, for those in the congregation who do preach and teach, I think
this will be most beneficial, I hope, for all of us and those
who hear this message at another time. But it says in Psalm 40,
Many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast
done, and thy thoughts which are to us which They cannot be
reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, there more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened or
deemed. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it's written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O my God, yea, thy law is within, in the midst of my bowels, within
my heart." Now, to whom do these words belong? Well, I know they
belong to David, but these words belong in the fullest sense to
our Lord Jesus Christ. If you'll take the time later,
you'll find that Paul quoted them in Hebrews chapter 10, verse
8 through 10. Our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
here. He's talking about this. He's
saying, Father, those Old Testament sacrifices and offerings never
afforded you any pleasure in regard to sinning. They never
put away sin. They never satisfied or honored
God's holy law and justice. But a body hast thou prepared
me. I come to do thy will in the
volume of the book that is written of me." Now, David wrote so much
of Christ. As I said to you this morning,
if we would know God, let us get into the Word. I'm going
to give you one illustration. Turn to Psalm 110. Psalm 110. David wrote so much of Christ.
When I was in the hospital in Cleveland back three or four
years ago, I took along no book. I took along just my Bible. And
I had plenty of time to just lie there and sit in the chair,
lie on the bed and read. And I read through the book of
Psalms and I put a C by every verse in the book of Psalms that
talked of Christ. That's astounding. Try it sometime.
David wrote of Christ. He wrote of his And here in Psalm
110, verse 1, David says, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou
at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Now, you know the Lord Jesus Christ said to those Pharisees,
He said, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Whose son is
the Christ? And they said, Well, he's the
son of David. And our Lord said, Well, why David call him Lord?
Why David call him Lord? And I want you to note the number
of times that that verse right there is referred to in the New
Testament. Now watch this. Turn first to
Matthew 22. That one verse. How many times
David here, he said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at
my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Now watch
how many times you find this in the New Testament. Matthew
22, 44 is the first time. The Lord said unto my Lord,"
this is the passage I just quoted, "'Sit thou at my right hand,
till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call
him Lord, how is he his son?' Here our Master is putting his
approval, sanction, and pointing to David's writings as being
the Messianic psalm. He's saying, David wrote this,
and David wrote of me. Our Master is saying that. When
we read David's writings about the Christ, the Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, read them, because he's writing of
me. Now let me show you another, Mark 12. Mark 12, verse 36. Mark 12, 36. Now listen to this. For David himself, here's the
Master speaking again, Mark 12, 36. David himself said by the
Holy Ghost. This is the Lord speaking now.
David said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
All right, now turn to Luke 20. Luke chapter 20. It's really
provoking when people, and they're unlearned and ignorant, and they
make statements like this. You quote something, they say,
well that's in the Old Bible, as if it had no meaning. is if it
had no significance and power. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his
messages, quoted these men. And he's saying, you see, to
him give all the prophets witness. And he's saying David wrote this
by the Holy Ghost. It's as new and fresh today as
it was when he wrote it. Luke 20, verse 42. Here it is
again. And David himself said in the
book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. All right, now
turn to Acts 2. Now this is, you know, in relation
to all that God did, in relation to all that God said, in relation
to all that Jesus Christ said, this is a small book. One of
the writers said, if all that Christ did and said were written
in books, the world wouldn't contain them. And yet, in quoting
this one verse, here it is already four times in the Scripture,
showing the truth of David's writings, and the power of them,
and the authenticity of them. Here in Acts 2, now watch this,
verse 34. And this is Peter at Pentecost
preaching his first message. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, But he said himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
There's four times, that one verse written, penned by the
Shepherd David, Shepherd King, in Psalm 110. So back here in
Psalm 40, David, the words are applicable
to himself and to any preacher of the preacher of the Word of
God. But this is Christ speaking. This is the Master. Without question,
these are the words of that prophet. Moses said, God would raise up
that prophet of whom the Father said, this is my beloved Son.
Hear him? That prophet through whom God
has spoken in these last days. He spoke to us by the prophets,
now by his Son. And he gives us a summary of
that message which he preached here in verse nine. Now look
at it. He said, I have preached. I hope that I have sufficiently
prepared you for what I'm about to say. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, all these sacrifices and offerings and types and pictures
never brought pleasure, satisfaction to the Lord God. But I've come,
a body, you've prepared made me that prophet, sent me to reveal
thyself, and I've come, and I've preached." What did he preach? Here are five things he said.
Here's a summary of that message. I have preached, number one,
thy righteousness in the great congregation. I have not refrained
my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid. Now somebody
said this, I have not reframed my lips, I have not hid what
I have found, I have not concealed what has been revealed. But all
that is above me and all that is beneath me and all that is
behind me and all that is before me, may the Spirit of God compel
me to say with the deepest conviction what God has given me to say. All right, here they are, the
five things. He said, I have not hid, verse 10, thy righteousness,
I have declared thy faithfulness, thy salvation, thy lovingkindness,
and thy truth. I've not preached myself, I've
preached your righteousness. I've not preached mine, I've
preached yours. I haven't preached my faithfulness, nor the faithfulness
of our people, but your faithfulness. I've not preached our love and
grace, I've preached your love. I've not preached my salvation,
I've preached your salvation. And I've preached your truth.
Now watch this as I develop it step by step. First of all, and
this is a summary. I don't think there's a more
complete summary in the scripture of the preacher's message than
right here. He says, I have preached thy
righteousness. Now, it's certain that men have
no righteousness. The Bible says this, there's
none righteous, no, not one. The Word of God says this, our
righteousnesses are filthy rags in God's sight. We all do faith
as the leaf. Our iniquities like the wind
have driven us away. And the Apostle Paul condemns
men who go about to establish their own righteousness. So when
he says, I have not heard thy righteousness, I have preached
thy righteousness, he's certainly not talking about our righteousness,
because we have none. And then he's not talking about
the personal, essential holiness and righteousness of God. Because,
now listen to me, and we preach God's holiness and God's righteousness. God is holy. That miser on the
high priest says, holiness unto the Lord. God is in His holy
temple. But the essential holiness of
God is not good news to sinners. If all we have to preach is the
essential holiness and righteousness of God, then we have no good
news at all. We are hopeless, helpless sinners
without hope and without help. But what we do preach is that
righteousness of God which He has purchased and provided for
sinners. And I'm going to turn to three
scriptures, just three scriptures, to define that righteousness.
Now turn to Romans 10, and this is a summary of what we preach. Romans chapter 10. In the tenth
chapter of Romans, beginning with verse one, now what I'm
defining here is the righteousness which we preach. Scripture tells us that Satan
is deceitful, subtle, and he has his own ministers. Even he
changes himself into an angel of light. No marvel that his
ministers should show themselves as ministers of righteousness.
But these ministers of Satan are not ministering or preaching
God's righteousness, but human You do good, be good, and God
will bless you. But that's not the righteousness
I'm preaching. Romans 10.1. Now, brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. For I bear them record. They
have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge, for
they're ignorant of God's righteousness. Now remember, David said, and
the Lord Jesus said, I have preached thy righteousness. And these
religious Jews, with their zeal for God, are ignorant of that
righteousness which Christ preached. And most religious people today
are ignorant of God's righteousness. They know something about God's
immutable, infinite holiness, essential holiness, but they
know nothing of this righteousness he's given us to preach, which
is good news and glad tidings for sinners. And consequently,
being ignorant of that righteousness, they're going about with much
religious activity to establish, to establish their own righteousness,
their own piety. their own holiness, their own
goodness. And they will not submit, they
will not receive, they will not commit or surrender themselves
unto God's righteousness. Or what's the next verse? For
Christ himself is the end. Now the word end there is the
goal, is the object, is the consummation, of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. God's righteousness, which we
preach, is not what you do, it's what Christ did. It's not anything
about you or in you or from you, it's all about Him and in Him
and from Him. That's God's righteousness. That's
what our Lord Jesus said, I have come preaching your righteousness. So that identifies it now, that
defines it. It's His righteousness accomplished
and produced by His Son. That's where it's found. It's
not found in us, it's not found in the law, it's not found in
our deeds, it's not found in our morality, because in the
flesh no man can please God. In the flesh, well, it's no good
thing. God's holiness provided, God's holiness purchased is in
Christ. All right, turn to Romans 3,
here's the second scripture. Now this is, you talk about the
heart of it, the essence of it. You talk about the hub of it.
This is it. Our Lord said, I preach, and
this is what I preach. Romans 3, 19, now watch this.
Now we know, we know this, and if you don't know this, you don't
know anything. If you go anywhere, you've got
to start right. If you're going north, you're just starting over.
All right? Now, we know that what thing
soever the law saith, the holy, perfect, immaculate law of God,
it saith to them who are under the law. Who's that? That's everybody.
That every mouth may be stopped. I'm talking about Granny's mouth
and Grandpa's mouth. I'm talking about the preacher's
mouth and the deacon's mouth. I'm talking about the so-called
past person and the empire. Let every mouth be shut up in
the presence of God, and stop with no alibi, no excuse, no
but, but, but. I haven't done this. I did this,
but I didn't do that. Let every mouth just be sealed. And the whole blessed Word become
guilty, guilty, guilty in God's presence. I mean guilty. If you're guilty in one point,
you're guilty the whole law comes. Just flat guilty. And that being
the case, verse 20, therefore, by the deeds or doings of the
law, there shall no flesh, white or black, rich or poor, old or
young, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For
by the law is not the cleansing of sin, but the knowledge of
sin. But now, right now, by God's
grace, the righteousness of God. What did Christ say he preached?
God's righteousness. God's righteousness. And that
righteousness of God, a while ago we read Paul said Christ
is the righteousness of God. All right? The righteousness
of God without the law. That is, without your obedience
to it. If righteousness comes by keeping the law, then I've
got to preach the law. But I'll tell you what the law says. It
says to them that are under the law, guilty. The law doesn't
have any good news. The law has no mercy, nothing
but justice. But this righteousness of God,
without my obedience to the law, without my conformity to the
law, is manifesting. It's shown, it's revealed, it's
right up there on the table before you, and it's witnessed by the
Word of God and the prophets. What is it? It's even the righteousness
of God which is by faith or by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And who's it for? It's for everybody,
all and upon all of them that believe there's no difference.
Abraham believed God and it was imputed or counted to him for
righteousness. And that wasn't written for his
sake alone, that righteousness was imputed to him by believing
on Christ, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we
can believe on Christ. A perfect, absolute, immaculate
holiness. And it's not through doing on
my part. It's by the doing of Christ.
By the perfect life of Christ. Oh, that turned the Romans five.
Romans 5, verse 19. And it says here in Romans 5,
19, "...far as by one man's disobedience." How do we get in the mess we're
in? By Adam's disobedience. How do we get in the state of
sin? By Adam's disobedience. How do we get in this condition
of rebellion and evil and corruption? Our daddy sinned. How does a
man get into the favor of God? How does a man get out of this
state of nature and sin into a state of grace and mercy and
acceptance? By the righteousness of Christ.
All right, look at it. For by one man's disobedience,
thee many, thee many, were made sinners, became sinners. By the obedience of one shall
the many be made righteous. I mean righteous. I mean holy. I mean immaculately, infinitely,
spotless, unblameable in God's sight. Colossians, Colossians,
if you will, chapter 1. Now this is what we're talking
about. Colossians chapter 1, verse 21. Now listen to it. And
you, he said, I'm talking about you, Paul said, you barbarians,
you that were one time alienated, you that were enemies. You see
this, Colossians 1, 21. Enemies, alienated in your mind
by your wicked, wicked works, thoughts, imagination. Yet now
hath God reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy, same holiness God has. Perfect. Unblameable, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight, that's what I'm talking about. That's the righteousness
we're talking about. And I'll tell you, it's the righteousness
God requires, it's the righteousness God must have. I tell you this,
because I'd like to see everybody in glory. I can't really say
that I want anybody to go to hell. But I'll tell you this,
the only people that are going to be in glory are holy people.
And I don't mean pretty good or pretty religious. I mean as
holy as God himself. Now that's what God's got to
have. That's the God of the Bible. He cannot receive or accept or
admit into His presence anything but perfect holiness, and that's
not found in the water or in the wafer or in the wine or in
the law or in the doings of men. It's found only in Christ. He perfected it and performed
it. And if we're in Him, we have that holiness. Now you say, that's
what I pray. All right, look at Psalm 40 quickly. So I preach
something else. Now don't you listen to this.
I've really thought this through and done some work on it. Here's
the second thing I preach. I preach God's faithfulness.
God's faithfulness. Now we haven't learned to preach
Christ until we can preach Christ. Now listen to me, in such a way
that men are totally shut up to God's faithfulness and not
theirs. I mean totally shut up, to His mercy, His grace, His
love. And yet, in such a way that our
heroes are led to seek Him. And our heroes are led to call
upon Him. And our heroes are led to love
Him and serve Him and continue in faith, believing on Him. You
know what, here's what I'm saying. You see, this water, precious
commodity, precious commodity, is totally free. I'm talking
about water in the stream. I'm not talking about this commercialized,
chlorinated, fluoride, all this. I'm talking about as if this
were without, like the Indians in the, and it all comes from
God anyway. This water is absolutely free. Water is something I can't produce.
Water is something that I can't manufacture. Water is something
that God gave. It's free. It's something I can't
live without. All right, there it is. What
am I going to do about it? I'm going to drink it. I take
no credit. I take no praise. But I'm going
to drink it. But I know I didn't produce it.
I didn't manufacture it. I had nothing to do with it.
It's God-given, it's God-created, it's God-supplied, it's God-given,
it's His given. But bless your heart, I'm going
to drink it. I'm going to air it. Air is God-given. It's free. I can't live without
it. I can't live a minute without
it. But I can't manufacture it. I
can't produce it. It's God-given. What am I going
to do? I'm going to breathe it. And
I'm going to take in all I can. And I'm going to thank God for
it. Jesus Christ is God-given. He's a gift of God's faithfulness. He's a gift of God's love. Just
like that's a gift of God's love and God's mercy. Like that is
a gift of God's You don't hear anybody run around saying, boy,
I got, where you got it? Yes, some have, they're windbags.
Christ is God-given. I can't live without Him. And
yet I can't manufacture Him, I can't produce Him. His grace
is free. It's not my work but His. You
know what I'm going to do? I'm going to breathe Him and
drink Him and eat Him and thank God for it. So then, I don't preach my faithfulness
nor yours. I don't preach my works nor yours. I preach His faithfulness. And
just as thanking God I breathe and thanking God I drink and
thanking God I live by His faithfulness. See what I'm saying? Great is
thy faithfulness, O God my Savior. There's no shadow of turning
with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. All thou hast been, thou forever
shalt be. God's faithfulness is God's unchangeableness,
immutability. You know the reason I don't perish?
Because I'm holding on. Oh no, I don't perish because
the Lord changes not. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not concerned. Do you know
why I don't fall and fail and perish in unbelief? Because the
gifts and calling of God are without change. Because Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. If I walk
on streets of gold in the kingdom of glory, it will be because
God was faithful to his covenant, faithful to his word, faithful
to his son. So I'm preaching his faithfulness. All right, look at the third
thing. I preach your righteousness and your faithfulness. We don't
want to give anybody one iota of room to boast. Not even a
glimmer, not even a taint. He said, I have preached thy
salvation. Let others be content to appeal
to sinners to save themselves, to accept the Lord, to make their
decision for Jesus. But I firmly stand on the Scriptures
and on the belief that this thing of salvation, from its regenerating
work to its consummation, is of God and of humanity. I believe
God shows mercy but he shows mercy to whom he will. God is
gracious, but he's gracious to whom he will. Listen to these
scriptures. Salvation is of the Lord. The
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. David said, Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. Paul said, For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it's the gift
of God. This thing of salvation is of
the Lord in its beginning, in its origin. He said, you didn't
choose me, I chose you. This thing of salvation is of
the Lord in its execution. God sent his Son into the world.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. This thing of salvation
is of the Lord in its application. As many as received Christ, to
them gave he the privilege to become sons of God, who were
born not of blood, Not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, but born of God. This thing of salvation is of
the Lord in its sustaining power. We are kept by the power of God through faith. It's not of him
that will it, nor of him that run it, it's of God that showeth
mercy. And this thing of salvation is
of the Lord in its ultimate perfection. Turn to the book of Philippians
a moment. Philippians chapter 3. Now brethren,
let's just face it, it's not something that we like to dwell
on, but it's appointed unto men once to die. Nobody realizes
the frailty of the flesh quite like when somebody dies. A person
lying there and they die, their spirit leaves and there's a dead
body. And we've got to do something with it pretty quickly. Because
it already begins to corrupt from within. And we take that
dead, helpless body and put it in a casket or beautiful surrounding
and put it in the ground. That's it. There's not a thing in the world
we can do about that. We can get a man down the aisle.
We can get a man into the church. We can get him into the pulpit.
We can get him into the pool. We can get his name on the roll.
We can do all these things. Nobody can get him out of the
ground. But God. That's exactly right. But God.
And that's what I'm saying. This thing of salvation. This
thing of transportation from death to life. This thing of
translation from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
God's dear Son is nowhere revealed quite like when we put somebody
in the ground. But it says here in Philippians
3, 20, listen, Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change
our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue
all things unto himself." And I'm telling you this, and this
is what this preacher believed, what the Word of God teaches,
that that condition of that body physically is the very picture
of every son of Adam's spirit. Whether we like to admit it or
not, we're dead in trespasses and sins. We have a body of death
and a body of sin, and the only one who can bring a corrupt,
rotting, dead, bony body out of the ground and subdue all
this death and corruption, subdue all these things, and make that
person just like Christ, is the Lord himself by his own personal
power. And I'm saying this goes right
back to man's state of deadness and sin. We can appeal to men
to turn over a new leaf, to join the church, to get religion,
to straighten up, to be a better husband or father or wife or
daughter or son or quit the doping and drinking and drugs, and we
can do all these things, but to give the dead life is God's
work. That's exactly right. So I say
salvation's of the Lord. Salvation totally of the Lord. It's of the Lord in its origin,
in its execution, in its application, in its sustaining power, in its
ultimate perfection. It's something God has to do.
And I say anybody here tonight, in that grave of death, spiritually,
if he's pleased to call your name and say, live, you're going
to live. If he's pleased to give you spiritual
life, and he's the only one who's able to subdue, like it says,
subdue all things to himself, and change these vile, filthy,
not only bodies, but natures, and give us a holy nature, that's
his work. You say, what'll that do? I'll
tell you this, it'll drive us to prayer for people. And it will drive sinners away
from human alters and human decisions to come like the leper in Matthew
8, in their guilt, in their filth, in their inability, and look
to Christ and say, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And it may be that he will. He
did. You see, I'm not discouraging people from coming to Christ.
I'm encouraging them to. I'm discouraging them from going
to anything else, or anyone else. I'm encouraging them to go to
Christ. He's the one who's able. I'm
not, and you're not. And there's no religious system
that's able, and there's no organization, or there's no system. Law that can do it. We don't
go to these things. We're just in our helpless, hopeless
condition like the thief on the cross. We just look to Christ
and say, here I am, remember me. Here I am. All right, here's
the fourth thing. He said, look over here at verse,
now listen to this, chapter 40 of Psalms again. Preach your
righteousness, your faithfulness, your salvation, and I've not
concealed your loving kindness. You know, David said something
about that in Psalm 51. He said, according to thy loving
kindness. Now, there's no problem here. You say, don't you preach God's
wrath and anger? Yeah, now you listen to me. The
Word of God speaks of God's wrath. It says, God is angry with the
wicked. It says, he that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of
God abideth on him. Now, you can't deny those scriptures.
It says that God hated the workers of iniquity. Now listen to this,
when the Bible speaks of God's wrath, it is always against sin,
sin, sin. It says the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness. Now file that away. When you
hear God's wrath is against sin, wherever he finds it, in whomever
he finds God's love, when the Bible speaks of God's love, listen
to me, it's always in Christ. Now, that'll help you a little
bit. When the Bible speaks of God's wrath, it's always against
sin. When the Bible speaks of God's
love, it is always in Christ. Turn to John 5, 20. Let me show
you several verses here now. This is interesting. God's love
is always in Christ. Well, you know that verse, for
God so loved the world that he gave his son. All right, watch
this, John 5, 20. For the Father loveth the Son. The Father loveth the Son, John
5, 20, and showeth him all things that himself do. All right, turn
to John 14. The Father loveth the Son. Now
look at John 14 verse 21. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him. He that loves me will be loved
of my Father. God loves in Christ. All right,
John 16. Let's just turn on over. John
16, 27. John 16, 27. For the Father himself
loveth you, because you love me, and have believed that I
came from God. He loves you because you love
Christ. That's where God loveth. Look at John 17. John 17, 23. Listen to this. I in them, and
thou in me, that they may be perfect in one, that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as ye
loved me." Romans 5, 8. Listen to this. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for That's
where God's love was. Romans 8, 39. Romans 8, 39. And you know the beginning of
this, but here's the ending. Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus. And Ephesians. I want to show
you this one here before I close. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, 4 through
7. Now listen to this. But God, who is rich in mercy,"
Ephesians 2 forward, "...for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together
with Christ," by grace are you saved, "...and hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us," where is it? It's
through Christ Jesus. And that's where it is. God's
love is always consistent with God's holiness.