I ask you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of Matthew. Go back to the book of Matthew
just a moment. I heard a message this past week
that impressed me in an unusual manner, and some parts of it
I want to include in my message tonight on the subject, the real
issue, the real, the real issue. And I know a lot of times we
preachers start our message with, this is the most important thing
you'll ever hear, and this is the crisis, and this is the acme,
and this is the epitome, and this is... Well, this is. And
this is. No question about it. And I'm
not going to take the time to name any of them, but anyone
who knows anything at all about present-day religion is aware
of the many, many issues. that preachers and churches and
teachers have burdened us with. I don't have to name all these
things. You're aware of all these things. The way they have burdened
us with so many questions and strife about the law and strife
about genealogy and strife about the last days and the millennium
and the Jew question and all this. So we're just loaded down
with all these things. And here's an example of it in
Matthew 22, starting with verse 15. Now, I'm not questioning
the sincerity of these men. Don't misunderstand me at all.
I'm questioning their accuracy Not necessarily their honesty
or sincerity. They may genuinely be taken up
with these things and feel that they are vital. I'm talking about
the men of our day. But this is what it says about
these people that questioned our Lord and raised all these
different unimportant issues. It says, Then went the Pharisees,
verse 15, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his
talk. Now, that was their purpose.
They wanted to confuse the issue. They wanted to entangle Christ
in his talk. They wanted to trap him in his
preaching and teaching and make him appear to be teaching error.
So they began asking him questions. Now, verse 17, the Pharisees
came first and they said, Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute
unto Caesar or not? Now, you know the situation.
The Jewish nation was under the heel of the Roman Empire. The Jewish nation, they thought,
was synonymous with the kingdom of God. They thought because
they were Jews, they were Abraham's seed, they were God's people.
And they said now, and this is what they're implying, if we're
the people of God, if we're the kingdom of God, if we're the
choice people of the living God, why should we pay taxes in tribute
to a pagan emperor and a pagan empire? And why should we? And
our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 18, perceived their wickedness. He saw through what they were
doing. And he said, why do you tempt me, you hypocrites? Show
me the tribute money. They brought him a penny, a piece
of money, and he said, whose is this image and superscription,
whose picture or inscription is on this coin? They said Caesar's.
He said, well, you render to Caesar the things of Caesar and
to God the things of God. And when they heard these words,
they marveled and left him. They left him alone. Now, the Sadducees were men who
did not believe in the resurrection. They were the liberals, I guess,
of that day. They didn't believe in the resurrection.
And they say there is no resurrection, and they said, Moses said, If a man die, having
no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up
seed to his brother." Now, here's the problem with seven brothers
and one woman. And to make it short, she married
each one of them, and then they came down with this, verse 28,
"...therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be?" Well,
they all were married to her. See, we face questions like this
all the time. It's like Brother Tim James the
other night was preaching in Crossville, Tennessee. And he
said, some fellow comes up to you and rolls his eyes, you know,
with a knowing stare, and he says, where is the land of Nod? That's supposed to be profound,
you know. I don't know where the land of Nod is. He says,
Cain went to the land of Nod. Well, let's just leave it there.
Let's leave a few things for God to know that we don't know.
I'd be satisfied with that, and I'm sure you would. Secret things
belong to God. The revealed things to men to
whom he gave the revealed things. But they don't quit there. Down
here in verse 34, so Christ said you do err not knowing the scriptures
nor the power of God in the resurrection, neither married nor given in
marriage, but like the angels. Now verse 34, Pharisee came to
him, well, the lawyer came to him, verse 35. Now, this wasn't
a lawyer in the sense that we know lawyers. This was a religious
teacher, a fellow that probably, like the scribes, had something
to do with interpreting the scriptures. This wasn't a lawyer in the sense
that he was a city attorney or something. But he asked him,
saying, verse 36, Master, which is the greatest commandment in
the law? And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment, and the second is likened to
it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets." Now then, he put to silence all
these people. I can't do it. I wish I could. Our Lord, with his infinite wisdom,
with his matchless understanding and ability to pry even into
the thoughts. I wouldn't even attempt these
things. I don't attempt to debate people in these things because
I don't have this type of wisdom. You don't either. No one else
does. And we're plagued with this sort of thing. We're plagued
with all this digging into things that are the secret things of
God and And the things that really do not matter. But our Lord hears
something, verse 41. Now here our Lord sets before
us the real issue. He sets before us that which
is critical. That which is critical. While
the Pharisees were gathered together, verse 41, Jesus asked them. Now listen to me. When the Lord,
when some Pharisee asks a question, you don't need to be too upset.
or some Sadducee ask a question, or some lawyer. But I'll tell
you, when our Lord, in all this religious discussion, this religious
atmosphere, this religious debate, when he puts it all aside with
his infinite wisdom, and when our Lord steps forth and seemingly
asks the question of questions, doesn't that seem to be what
it is? All of this excitement and all of this wrangling
and all of this talk has been going on about all of these things,
what about this, that and the other, and when he had set it
all aside, when he had blown all the smoke out of the air
and cleared the air, then he pinpoints something. And he says
here in verse 42, What do you think of Christ? Now, what do
you think of Christ? Our Lord confronted these men
as I confront, and I don't want to say you tonight, confront
us. I confront us with this vital
issue. What do you think of Christ?
Tell you what I think of the Catholics and the Baptists and
the Methodists. It really doesn't matter. Well, I'll tell you what
I think of the future, the millennium, of the Jewish question. It really
doesn't matter. I tell you what I think about
this, that, and the other, and all these issues that are facing
us. What about, we keep Sabbath,
the Sabbath day, which is Saturday, or should we worship on the first
day of the week, Sunday? They're just all kind of wrangling
over that. All kind of wrangling. But our Lord confronted these
men with this one vital issue. With all the mysteries of life
and death about us, with heaven and hell and sin and salvation,
this is the real issue. And I believe this, when this
matter is cleared up in your heart, it will clear up some
of these other things. I really believe that. I believe
perhaps the reason we have so much trouble with these other
things is this hasn't been dealt with. I really believe that,
Charles. I believe the reason we have
so much wrangling over law and grace and works and grace and
all these other things is we haven't settled this critical
issue right here. Who is Jesus Christ to me? What think ye of
Christ? Now, let me break it down this
way. First of all, it says, our Lord says, what think you of
Christ? Now, no hiding here behind the
hypocrite. Somebody comes and says, I'd
like for you to come to our church. Well, there are a lot of hypocrites
down there. Well, so what? There may be. But that's not
the issue. He says, what think you of Christ? What think you of Christ? No
hiding behind the hypocrite. No resting in the preacher of
the church. Well, we've got the best preacher in town. Well,
that's fine. But what think you of Christ?
Your preacher may be saved and you're not saved. Or you may
be saying your preacher's not saying. You can't see into the
heart. So it's not the issue here what
the preacher's preaching or what the preacher is or isn't. There's
no hiding behind him or the church. There's no falling in with a
trend or the crowd. Our Lord isolates us personally
and he says, what do you think of Christ? What do you think
of Christ? Now watch this, something else
here. It concerns something vital here. He says, what do you think
of Christ? There it is. What are your thoughts?
We're not dealing with the church creed. I tell you, we've adopted
what they call the London or Philadelphia confession of faith.
That's the soundest it's ever been written. You can be sound
as a dollar and lost as a goose. That's just so. There are a lot
of sound Calvinists who've missed Christ. I'm not talking about your creed.
Our Lord is talking about our thoughts. That's what he's talking
about. So what do you think? What do you think? I'm not inquiring
about your past decisions. I've made them too. We make them
every day. But we're not talking about decisions.
We're not talking about experiences. We're not talking about feeling.
I'm talking about right now. What do you think of Jesus Christ? What do I think? What do I think? Let's dig deep into our minds
and our hearts and our souls and our thoughts. When I'm alone,
when I'm alone, when I consider the things of life, when I consider
the things of death and judgment and eternity, what are my thoughts? My thoughts, not my creed, my
thoughts. What are my thoughts? I'm not
speaking of religious duties. Well, I've been faithful to the
church. I've attended every time the doors are open. I've gone
when I wasn't even able to go. I've heard folks talk like that,
you know. I've prayed every day. I've read my Bible every day.
I've been faithful to give my tithes and offerings. I've done
all these things. That's not what our Lord asked
them. I'll tell you, these men to whom he put this question
could pass us on every one of those things. These men fasted
twice a week, and they gave tithes of all they
possessed. all they possess. All they possess. And they were all these other
things, but that's not what he asked them. He said, what do
you think? What do you think? What do you think? Now watch this, of the Christ. That's the issue. What do you
think of the Christ? Well, I think baptism is essential
to salvation. That's not the question. Paul
said he didn't baptize anybody but Stephanus and the household
of Stephanus and Crispus and Gaius. He thanked God he didn't
come to baptize, he came to preach the gospel. Baptism is not a
part of the gospel except as it pictures the gospel. The Lord's
table is not a part of the gospel only as it pictures the gospel.
I'm not asking you what you think of the creeds or the ordinances
or I'm asking you what Christ asked us and what he asked these
men. What do you think of Jesus Christ? He is the Christ. Jesus
of Nazareth is the Christ. Scripture says, and it goes back
beyond eternity. We're not just talking about
an event that occurred at Bethlehem. I'm talking about the suretyship
of Christ. What do you think about that?
I think many preachers, great fault is, they preach Christ,
they emphasize the humanity of Christ to the neglect of the
deity of Christ. But yet I must not preach the
deity of Christ to the neglect of the humanity of Christ. But
actually, as our surety, humanity of Christ does enter in. Because
he couldn't be a surety for men if he's only God. He's got to
be God and man. What do you think? Back before
the world began, when God purposed to save, when the whole thing
was set in motion, so to speak, and when that was is beyond my
understanding. I doubt that you could even pinpoint
a time in eternity because eternity and time are different. Eternity
is eternity, the everlasting present. But there was There
was a purpose, there was a counsel of God, in which God purposed
to have a people, to populate heaven, and he gave them to Christ
and made Christ their surety. What do you think about that?
He chose a people and gave them to Christ, and Christ assumed
the responsibility to redeem those people. And then in the
fullness of time, after all the pictures and types and shadows
and examples and so forth in the Old Testament, The angel
stood on the hillside one day of Judea and said to a bunch
of shepherds, we bring good news, good news from heaven, unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is none
other than Christ our Lord. And that person, Jesus Christ, born of
a woman, as God said he would be in Genesis 3.15, Isaiah 7.14, Isaiah 9 and 6 and so many scriptures. And that person born of the seed
of Abraham, as God said he would be all the way through the scripture,
that seed is Christ. Of the tribe of Judah, family
of Jesse, a prophet like Moses, a priest like Melchizedek, a
king like David. That person, Jesus Christ, grew
up in a carpenter's shop. And when he was 30 years of age,
he began his public ministry and he selected some disciples
and he went about doing good. And the scripture said he knew
no sin. He did no sin. And yet when he was 33 and a
half approximately, he was betrayed and denied and sold out and rejected
and despised and nailed to a cross and died and was buried and rose
again, the scripture said, and ascended to the right hand of
God where he's now our intercessor. What do you think about it? What
do you think? What do you think? Well, I'll
give you several testimonies of others. Turn to Matthew 3
about this man, Jesus Christ. I'm not asking you what you think
of religion, what you think of the law, what you think of the
Bible. I'm not asking you what you think
of morality. I'm not asking you what you think
of the creeds and the catechisms, me or anybody associated with
this whole affair. I want to pinpoint this, if possible,
to one person. What do you think of Jesus Christ?
And after all, he's the issue. God's going to judge the world
by that man, Jesus Christ. That's exactly right. He's not
going to judge this world by any standard which we've established.
You can hang your church covenant on the wall and read it every
Sunday, but that's not the standard by which God's going to judge
this world, you, me, or anybody else. It's the man, Jesus Christ.
He had ordered a day in which he was going to judge this world
by that man, Jesus Christ. What you think of Christ will
determine where you stand in that day. That's just so. You say you're stretching it.
I'm not stretching it at all. I wish I could. I wish I could
enlarge upon it. It can't be exaggerated. No way
to exaggerate a critical issue like this. Do you breathe? Well, yes. If you don't, you're
dead. Do you love Christ? Well, yes, if you don't, you're
dead. It's just that plain. If you don't, you're dead. In Matthew 3, verse 13, Then
cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized
of him. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee. Comest thou to me? Jesus
answering said to him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. So he baptized him. And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lining upon him. And, lo,
a voice from heaven," whose voice? The voice of the Father, saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. What do you
think about that? What the Father said is, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. It's been in Mark
1. Let's look at this, Mark 1. Mark
1, verse 23. Here's another testimony. Now, don't you dare sidetrack
this thing now. I'm forcing the issue. I'm bringing
us down to one point. You, your thoughts, Jesus Christ. Let's leave it right there. Me,
my thoughts, Jesus, God. The Father said, This is my Son,
in whom I am well pleased. The devil, watch this, Mark 1,
verse 23. And there was in the synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let
us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee, I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.
And the devil says that. That's what he thinks. I want
to know what you think. Turn, if you will, to Luke 4.
This is astounding, Luke 4. You see, there's no middle road
here. There's no middle ground. It's two choices. It's to acknowledge,
honor, receive, submit to him in all of his character, holiness,
office work, or to nadine. He said, he that is not with
me is against me. He that gathers not with me scattereth
abroad. There's no middle ground. Will
I just be neutral? I beg your part. You can't be. Because God does not look on
the outward countenance, he looks on the heart. God does not judge
men by their profession, but by their thoughts. What? Think
ye of Christ. And I'm just showing you what
scripture says in Luke 4, verse 40, what's this? Luke 4, verse
40. Now, when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them
to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed
them. And devils, demons, also came out of many. I've often
said this. And people try to duplicate,
and sometimes when we try to duplicate things, we get ourselves
in trouble. There were some sons of Seba
who tried to cast out some demons, and they fell on them and nearly
killed them, the demons. And the demons said, Jesus we
know and Paul we know, but who are you? Now, the lesson to be
learned here, I don't mess with demons. You say, well, you need
the Holy Ghost. I'm telling you this, you see,
I'm not Jesus Christ. I'm not the Lord Jesus Christ,
nor am I possessed with the powers of Christ, nor the Spirit of
God without limit as was Christ. And I don't even dwell in an
area where Christ could read men's thoughts and see in men's
hearts and this sort of thing. and deal with even Satan and
demons, and the disciples were given the same power to some
degree, gifts and so forth. But I don't want to fool with
this area, and you'd be wise if you didn't. You'd just be
so wise if you didn't, because it's beyond your ability, understanding,
or power, your comprehension. It's not in your, you don't move
in this area. Our strength is Christ. And our
power is Christ, and I'm giving you good advice. And even the
angel, when Satan argued with him over the body of Moses, he
wouldn't fool with him. He said, the Lord rebuketh thee.
Now, that's the best thing you can do in rebuking Satan is let
the Lord do it. You turn him over to Christ.
You don't want him on your hands or in your home and all these
movies and things that are coming out with, I can't even pronounce
that word, exorcists or something like that. Don't fool with it. Don't even read those books.
Please, I'm warning you, don't inquire or delve into things
that are dangerous. And I'm not denying the presence
of Satan or the presence of demons or the power of Satan I'm denying
you and I any ability to deal with them or to understand them. We just don't have that kind
of understanding. But our Lord did, and he dealt
with them all. You say it's in the Bible. I know it's in the
Bible. But our Lord, he raised the dead. That's in the Bible,
too, but I can't raise them. Our Lord gave sight to the blind,
but I can't give sight to the blind. There are a lot of things
in the Bible I can't duplicate. And I'd be a fool to try. I'm
not an apostle, and I'm not the Son of God. Let's do what Jesus
did." I doubt that you can do that. I just doubt that. And here our Lord said, just
go ahead here, "...and devils came out of many, crying out,
saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God." That's what
they said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. Now, you know,
let me just quote these for you to move on the message. Peter's
great declaration, he said, Whom do you say that I, the Son of
Man, am? And Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. And then Thomas, you remember,
Thomas fell down and worshiped him and said, My Lord and my
God. That's what he thought. my Lord
and my God." And then Paul's experience on the road to Damascus
when he said, Lord, who art thou? And he said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, Lord, what wilt thou have me do? Name it. Name it. And then let's all turn to Revelation
chapter 1 and listen to this. Revelation chapter 1. And let's
dispel all questions about About Jesus Christ just being a great
teacher, a great reformer, a great leader, a great healer, a great
so-and-so, Jesus Christ, our thoughts must be according to
the scriptures concerning Christ. According to the scriptures,
according to the report God had given of Christ. Now here in
Revelation 1, let's look at verse 10. John said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as a
trumpet. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last. What thou seest, write in a book,
and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. And he names
them. John said in verse 12, I turned
to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks
one likened to the Son of Man. Clothed with a garment down to
the foot, and girt about the pats with a golden girdle, His
head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow,
and his eyes were a flame of fire, and his feet like a defiant
brass, as if they burned in a furnace. His voice is the sound of many
waters, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of
his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. His countenance was as
the sun shineth in his strength, and when I saw him, I fell at
his feet." That's what I'm getting at. What do you think of Christ? I don't want us just to go through
the motions of religion and the motions and form and ceremony
of this thing, but there's something here that I want to lay hold
of. John heard him, saw him, and fell at his feet as a dead
man in worship, in worship. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 16. Here's that other text that I
read a moment ago. And as I said a moment ago, in
relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you think of Christ?
It's either, and there's no neutrality here, there's no, listen, there's
not even any putting off this thing. It's our Lord Jesus Christ
said, what do you think? Not what do you plan on thinking,
or what did you used to think, what do you think of Christ?
Right there. And then Paul says this in 1
Corinthians 16, verse 22, if any man, Now, he draws it to this point. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. That's pretty plain, let him
be accursed. So what I'm saying here, and
this is what I'm going to deal with, what is love, the object of this love and affection,
the blessing of this relationship and the results of not loving
him, and I'll try to be brief. Now, what is love? What do we think of Christ? What
do we love Christ? Now, let's get into this thing.
What is love? Well, I may offend some folks
here, but we're going to take a shot at this anyway. Four or
five things. Now, I hear people say there
are different kinds of love. How do I understand that? There
are different kinds of hate? There are different degrees of
hate. But you hate somebody a whole
lot or you hate them a little bit. Or you don't hate them at
all. But you don't hate one person with one kind of hate and another
with another kind of hate. Are there different kinds of
faith? There are different degrees of faith. But if you believe,
you believe. Are you with me? There are not
different kinds of faith. You say, I've got one kind of
faith in God and another kind of faith in my friend. I beg your pardon? The Bible doesn't talk about
different kinds of faith. It talks about little faith or
great faith, but it's just faith. Different kinds of hope. How
about it? Faith, hope, and love. Different degrees of love, but
not different kinds. I beg your pardon. You think
that over. And what we're doing, that's
a cop-out, is what that is. We're justifying not loving somebody. That's what that is. Now, I'll
give you what love is. It has to do with five things.
The first is it has to do with the heart. It has to do with
the inner man. That's where this whole principle
is settled. Love is a principle of the heart.
That's what it is. Love dictates action. Action
is not love. It dictates action. It produces
certain actions. But action is not love. In other
words, you can take two people doing the same thing and one
do it for the motive of love and the other for the motive
of self-gain. So you can't tell. In other words, here's a person
having a birthday. Four people bring him a present.
Maybe two of them love him and two of them don't. But how do
you know? How does he know? He doesn't know. So it's a heart
matter, isn't it? Love produces. Love brings gifts. But bringing gifts is not love.
That's so. Bringing gifts is not love. You
may adorn someone with gifts, but that doesn't mean you love
them. You may be trying to get something from them. But love
will produce action. It will bring gifts. It will
produce deeds. But love is a principle which
produces. Love, like sin, is a principle. There are results of sin. There
are the effects of sin. There are the deeds of sin. But
sin is a principle. It's a nature. It's an attitude.
And so is love. Love is an attitude. Love is
in the heart. It has to do with the thoughts.
It has to do with the mind. It has to do with the heart.
It has to do with the inner man. Now, that's so. Now, you put
that down, that's so. Secondly, love has to do with
a person. I hear people say, I love good
chocolate cake. No, you don't. You don't love
chocolate cake. You like it. You enjoy it. You don't love it. Chocolate
cake doesn't have any part in your heart. It has a part in
your belly. There's a difference. I think
that we mistake love for lust and everything else, passion,
all this other stuff. Our bellies, our flesh, that's
not love. Infatuation is not love. Love
has to do with the heart, the inner person, the inner man.
Love never fails. I see people stand right here
and get married and six years divorce, hating each other. They
never loved each other. Love never fails. Love, you say,
I loved him. You're a liar. Don't you call
God a liar. God says, Love beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
You know what the Word says? Love never fails. I'm tired of
people questioning God's Word. You were infatuated. You were
taken up with a feeling. You were taken up with something
of the moment. You didn't love anybody but yourself. That's
so. That's God's Word. You don't
love chocolate cake. You don't love land. I love my
home. No, you don't. You like it. You
enjoy it. You're comfortable in it. You
don't love it. You don't love things. You use
things. You love people. That's so, Don. You love people, a person. A
person. That's true. That's two things
I've established. I know those two things are so.
What is love? I worked on this. This wasn't,
somebody said, I'm going to take and prepare that message. Thirty-seven
years. It has to do with a heart. It
has to do with a person. A person. Thirdly, now this is
what you're going to have to work on a little bit. It has
to do with ourselves and association. That's right. It has to do with
ourselves and association. In other words, now listen to
our Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, thy God, with all
thy heart, thy mind, and thy soul. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. You can't love what you don't
know anything about. You say, well, I love people
everywhere. Well, that's still your world. That's still your
race. It still has an association.
It still has to do with you. What did our Lord tell the Church?
He said, Husbands, love your wives as you love yourself. No man ever yet hated his own
body. See what I'm saying? That's exactly so. Now watch
this. Let me illustrate this. I have a body here. This is me
up here. I have four fingers and a thumb,
four fingers and a thumb, and every part is here as far as
I know, you know. And I love every part of it.
That's so. And you love every part of your
body. Every member. You love yourself. There's no
doubt. I know you sometimes sit around and say, I hate myself.
I know you hate your sins, you hate those things that that upset
you, that cloud come between you and God, but you don't really
hate yourself. No, you don't either, you'd destroy
yourself if you did. But you don't hate yourself,
you love yourself. Now then, I cut this thumb, messed around
with your tape, your tape in there, that broad tape, I was
going to see if that thing where you tear the tape was sharp enough,
and it is, it's very sharp. But that thumb, last night I
woke up, and I had to go in and put a band-aid on it. That thing
woke me up at two o'clock in the morning, hurting, and I had
to go do something. But I didn't go in and whack it off. I love
that thumb, even though it's wounded. See what I'm driving
at? That thumb's part of me. Actually,
I've seen people lie in bed and doctors say that leg needs to
come off, and they say, no sir, it's not coming off. Well, it's
rotten. It's got gangrene. It's not coming off. Why would
any man want to keep that rotten member? He loves it. And this is what I'm accusing
us of not loving. I'm saying that someone can offend
us and we're ready to cut them off. We don't love as we love
ourselves. That's exactly right. We'll hang
on to a member of our bodies until it takes us to the grave,
but we'll go with it because we love it. We love it. We love ourselves. This is what
our Lord says, and love has to happen. I love my God. I love
my neighbor. I love my wife, my children,
my family. I love my friends. Now watch
this. He says, Love your enemies. They're
yours. They're your enemies. They're
your enemies. They're your diseased members
of your human race, and so forth. So this is what I'm saying. If
we can ever get this relationship, E. W. Johnson calls it a vital
union, or a living union, or whatever. If I can ever understand
that God is my God, my Creator, my Lord. What did Thomas say? My Lord and my God. If I can
bring him, if he can by his Spirit bring me into some kind of living
relationship with him, there's a possibility some form of love
can exist between us. But I can't love him if I don't
know him. I can't love your God. It's got
to be my God. You see what I'm saying? And
the same thing is true, and this is what we get at degrees. I
can't love anybody like I love my son and my daughter. My granddaughter,
yes, yes I can if they're mine too. If Cecil's my brother, I
love him like that brother my mother and daddy gave me. Huh? If Mike is my brother, but no,
he's a member of the church. You see what I'm saying? But
if he ever becomes my brother, if he ever becomes my brother
in my thoughts, I'll love him like I do that other brother.
And really, more by the grace of God. That's right. I may be talking foreign language,
but I'm telling the truth. This is speaking in tongues.
But love still has to do with ourselves and association. Now, you wear that out. I've
worn it out a little bit. Don't you pass judgment on that
like that. I'm talking about something that
most people know nothing about. He that loveth knoweth God. And
he that loveth not knoweth not God. And the reason he doesn't
love, he doesn't know God. And this is eternal life to know
God and Jesus Christ. And because you can't enter into
this, don't pass judgment on it, because it might be what
you don't know anything about. It certainly has nothing to do
with experience or a decision or a creed or a catechism or
a doctor or a church membership. It has to do with life, life
from above, life of God. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? God's love
for us? No, that's the nature of God. The principle of love,
the character of God is put within his people when they're regenerated.
That's so. And then fourthly, love has to
do with approval. Approval, especially in regard
to Christ. If any man love not our Lord
Jesus Christ, he is worthy to be loved. He is worthy to be
adored. He is worthy to be worshiped.
If a man loves light, he'll love Christ. Christ is light. If a
man loves truth, he'll love Christ. Christ is truth, approval. If a man loves life, he'll love
Christ. Christ is life. If a man loves
holiness, he'll love Christ. Christ is holiness. He is the epitome of holiness.
He is holiness personified. And you can't love right and
righteousness and truth and justice and mercy without loving Christ. He is all of those things. In
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then
love has to do with gratitude. We love him because he first
loved us. It does. It springs from gratitude. Herein
is love, not that we love God, not by nature. No man is born
loving God. No man loves God because he's
religious. A man loves God because God loved
him, made him an object of his affections. Herein is love, not
that we love God, but he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins. Now, look back at the text. If
any man loved not, I hope that's been helpful to
you. It was helpful to me. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's
the object of affection. We're not talking about loving
his blessings. We're talking about loving the blesser. We're
not talking about loving the benefits. We're talking about
loving the benefactor. We're not talking about loving
his gifts. We're talking about loving the
giver. You see what I'm saying? It's loving him. Loving him regardless
of what he may do with me. Loving him because he's worthy
to be loved. And here's the thing, if we love
Christ, we love everything associated with Christ. We love his people,
his gospel, his word, his kingdom. So you really don't have his
second coming, his ordinances, we love anything associated with
Christ. And here's the thing, look here,
if any man loves not our, watch Paul distinctly says, Lord Jesus
Christ. And I said the other Sunday,
Lord is his deity. His eternal glory. Son of God. Jesus. I shall call His name
Jesus. That's His name of humanity.
His name of humiliation. Son of man. God, man. And Christ is His office. Please
remember that. When he says, what think ye of
Christ, he's talking about the Christ, the office of Christ.
You see, they talked about the Christ in the Old Testament under
different names, Messiah. the branch, the king of Salem,
Shiloh, all these different names. Christ is his office, prophet,
priest, and king. Christ is his work which he has
cut. Christ is the anointed Christ,
he is the Messiah. So if any man, you can't love
Jesus and not love the Christ. I'll say you can't do it. I know that's being preached,
accept Jesus as your Savior and take him later to be your Lord.
You can't divide him. You can't love his humanity and
hate his deity. You can't love his humanity and
hate his atonement. You can't even love his kingship
and lordship and hate his sacrifice. It's got to be the whole thing
or nothing. You've got to love our Lord Jesus
Christ as he is in every part of his office work. The object
of love is Christ. And the blessing of this relationship,
all things work together for good to them who love Christ.
And then the results of not loving him, and I quit with this. I
want you to, I'm not going to burden you too much with this
message because I want you to think about the things I've tried
to say. He said, if any man doesn't love him, doesn't love him, but
I professed him. No, he says, love him. But I
made a decision for Jesus. No, he said, love him, love him. Any man who doesn't love him,
let him be a curse. So that's the reason I say this
is the real issue. This is where the whole battle
is fought. It's in the heart. It's a heart relationship with
a person. And I still say that when this issue is settled, these
other things will work out.