Turn one more time with us, please,
to 1 John, the fourth chapter. 1 John, the fourth chapter. There are three outstanding characteristics
of John's epistles. Three outstanding characteristics
of John's epistles. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. Number one, they're written in
the simplest words. You notice when Jay was reading
a moment ago how simple are the words, usually one, two, three
syllables, two most of the time. You'd never imagine that the
man who wrote 1 John wrote Revelation. It's difficult to suppose that
the man who wrote, and yet God used the same man to write 1
John who wrote the book of Revelation. These epistles are easy to read,
and they're easy to understand. I noticed the emphasis Jay was
putting on these scriptures as he was reading them. He that
loveth God loveth his brother also. That's pretty simple. That's
pretty easy to understand. If a man say, I love God and
hate his brother, he's a liar. That's plain language. It's not
too hard to understand. It's just pretty easy to understand. And all the way through like
that. The epistles of John are written in the simplest words
and so easy to read and easy to understand. The second thing
about John's epistle, especially this one, the spirit of the epistle
is love. L-O-V-E. Every line is saturated
and seasoned with love. Every line, every verse is seasoned
with love. He tries every claim by the rule
of love. He tries every claim. Know God,
love God. Love God, love your neighbor.
Don't love your neighbor, you don't love God. Everything's
measured by love. He measures every claim by love.
Do you love Christ? Do you love one another? This
is the spirit of this epistle all the way through, L-O-V-E,
love, love, love, love. And then the third thing, and
I started to entitled this message, The Web of Hypocrisy. The one we spin like spiders,
the web of hypocrisy. All the way through this epistle,
the third mark of John's epistle, is that he unravels the web of
hypocrisy. He's always working on it. He's
always exposing it. He will not let us be stale.
He will not suffer us to be deceived. He just won't do it. He will
not suffer us to deceive. He insists all the way through
this epistle that we deal with profession and reality. He insists
on it. He insists that we deal with
this subject of having or saying we have. He insists on it. Let
me show you that. Turn to 1 John 1, back here to
chapter 1, verse 6. This is all the way through this
epistle. As I say, there are three characteristics. Don't
hide, like I preached last Sunday morning, behind this little cliché,
you just can't understand the Bible. The Bible is just too
hard to understand. It's not so. We understand. We don't like what we read. We
understand up here anyway, whether we understand it here or not.
and he measures everything by love, and then thirdly, he unravels
continually the web of hypocrisy. He keeps pointing to it, keeps
pointing, keeps calling our attention back. If we say, if we say, if
we say, if we say, and do not have, there's a difference. All
right? Verse 6, if we say we have fellowship with him and
walk in darkness, we lie. We lie. You see, what we're saying
is contrary to what we're doing. We're saying one thing and doing
another. And this is not, this can't be, John said. It just
can't be. All right, verse 8. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We're keeping ourselves in the
dark if we say we have no sin. Anybody sitting out there this
morning says, I'm saved and sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost
and have no sin. You're a liar. You're deceiving
yourself. And other people know you're lying. You're deceiving
yourself. If you say that, it's just not
true. It's contrary to the truth. The truth's not in you. Look
at verse 10. If we say we have not sinned,
we make God a liar. We say we had no part in Adam's
fall. We had no part in original sin. We had no part in the corruption
of human nature. We had no part in this root of
sin, this principle of sin. We're not born in sin like other
men. We make God a liar. He says we are. Look at verse
4 of chapter 2. He that saith, he that saith,
I know him, keepeth not his commandments, he's a liar too, and the truth's
not in him. Look at 1 John 2.9. He that saith
he's in the light and hateth his brother, he's in darkness
even until now. Look at 1 John 4.20. Scripture
Jay read a moment ago. If a man saith, If a man say,
1 John 4, 20, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. So you see, all the way through
this epistle, John, in simple, easy to understand words, measuring
everything by the theme of love, unravels the web of hypocrisy
and makes us deal with things not as we say, but as they are. Not what we claim, but what is
really true. what is our experience. That won't do. And all the way
through the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah, verse 16, "...thus saith the
Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that
prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak
a vision of their own heart, and not of the mouth of the Lord."
They're not bringing God's message, they're bringing their message.
Down here in verse 25, "...I have heard what the prophets
say, that prophesy lies in my name." They say, I've dreamed,
I've dreamed, I've had a vision. Let me warn you, any preacher
that stands up and closes his Bible and talks about his vision,
you'd better not listen to him. You'd better run as fast as you
can. I always thought Oral Roberts
was a fraud, but when he had that vision, I knew he was. I
was convinced of it then, you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
That's what it says. I have dreamed. Look down here
at verse 28 of Jeremiah 20. The prophet that hath a dream,
let him tell his dream. But he that hath the word of
God, let him preach the word faithfully. See, there it is
right there. Go ahead and tell your dream.
If that's what you got to preach, preach it. But that's not what
I got to preach. It's the Word, the instant, in
season, out of season. He says down here in verse 32,
Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith
the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their
lies, and by their likeness, their frivolity. I didn't send
them, God said. I sent them not, nor did I command
them, and therefore they shall not profit this people. They'll
profit themselves. They'll get rich. But they won't
profit you. They'll rob you and get rich
themselves. God says, I didn't send them.
So a man, a minister, let's start in the pulpit. I tell our preachers
in the preacher's class, let's don't use you, you, you. Let's
use us, we. This type of preaching just won't
do. You better repent. You better believe. And you better
lay hold on Christ. You nothing. I better repent
and lay hold on Christ. And I think if I do, some of
the folks I preach to might. They're just mine. Because you
can't preach to the heart except as you preach out of your heart.
You can't tell what you don't know. You can't preach repentance
if you've never repented. You can't preach faith if you've
never believed. You can't preach Christ if you've never met him.
So let's start in the Prophethood. A minister may say, if we say
we're sent of God, we may be lying. May be false prophets. A person may say I'm a Christian. I got a little amused the other
night after the election on Wednesday night. I was watching the battle
of the networks late Wednesday night after I came back from
church in Detroit. I turned on ABC's Nightline,
and from midnight till at 1.30 or 2 o'clock in the morning,
they had some interesting folks on there. They had Ted Koppel
and Jerry Falwell and Church and Beyer and McGovern and a
fellow leader of the Free Congress for America or something like
that. And one of the preachers says, Well, I'm not saying he's
not going to heaven. And Ted Koppel says, I hope we
all go to heaven, don't you? And one of the senators who was
defeated said, you know, I'm a Christian, my son's a minister.
And another one said, well, I'll stack my life up against any
of you preachers. You know, my friends, we say
we're Christians. I'm a Christian, you're a Christian,
he's a Christian, somebody else is a Christian, I'm moral, you're
moral. We may say these things and be told strangers to what
it means to be a Christian, what it means to be saved. a child
of God. And then a person may say, I
know God, I love God, and yet be like the Pharisees of old
to whom our Lord said, you neither know me nor my Father. We've got to come to some kind of understanding
of what it means to know What it means to be a Christian, what
it means to be this phrase that's been kicked around so much lately,
born again. We must not be content with the
knowledge of facts about Christ. We need to have as our concern
and prayer, like the Apostle Paul, oh that I may know him. Not the facts about him, but
I must not be content with saying I'm a Christian with my lips
while my heart is far from God. I must not be content to call
him Lord with my lips, while, as he said, your hearts are far
from me. I must not be content with the form and ceremony of
religion, and even the morality of religion, and miss a vital
living union with Christ. It's not written eternal life
is to know there is a God, it's eternal life is to know him.
There's a lot of difference. It is not written he that saith
he believeth on the Son, but he that believeth. He that believeth. Not he that saith, I'm a Christian,
but he that believeth. Not he that saith, my life's
as good as yours, but he that believeth. Let me shock you a
little bit. Turn to Romans 11. I want to
say something here, but what I want you to do, I want you
to consider this before you form an opinion. I want you to consider
this carefully and prayerfully. before you condemn it. What I'm
saying is this. The best place to hide from the
gospel is in the church. Do you think about that? The
best place to hide from the gospel is in the average church. The
best place to hide from the truth is in ceremonies of religion.
That's the best place to hide from the truth. Get in the ceremony,
get in the tradition, get in the mainstream of religion, get
in the stream of morality. The best place to hide from true
righteousness is in morality. Let me show you this, Romans
11, verse 9. And this is talking about the Jews. Now, the Jews,
we know this. There's not a shadow of a doubt
in our minds that throughout the old, I talked to my Sunday
school class about this this morning, God chose men and rejected
angels. This thing of election, this
thing of God's prerogative, this thing of God's sovereignty, God
choosing whom he will, passing by whom he will, God setting
his love and affections upon whom he will. God chose men and
rejected the angels. It said he took not on him the
seed of the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. That
was true. The angels were his creatures
and they fell first. But there's no Savior for them.
They're reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the
day of judgment. God chose Adam's race. When it came down to people,
nations, he chose the Jew. The Jew had the tabernacle, the
Philistines had no tabernacle. The Babylonians had no tabernacle.
The Egyptians had no tabernacle. No other nation had a tabernacle.
There was one blessed tabernacle, and the Jews had it, Charlie,
just one. There was one place where God's
Shekinah glory came down. That was in that Holy of Holies,
and the Jews had it. That was God's choice, God's
sovereignty. Like it or not, it's so. There
was one high priest, one. He wasn't down in Moab. He was
in Israel. Nothing you can do with that.
And Abraham had two sons. One of them was born of Abraham.
Abraham conceived him. It doesn't matter who the mother
was. Abraham conceived him. He was Abraham's son. Ishmael
was his name. But God rejected him. God chose
Isaac. He said, And Isaac shall thy
seed be called. Put Ishmael out with his mother. He's just as
much Abraham's son as Isaac was, but God said in Isaac, Bob, I
chose Isaac. You run through that all the
way through this Bible. Like it or not, it's the truth all
the way through this Bible. And the Jews, they were God's
people. They had the tabernacle, the
priesthood, the law, the prophets, and all these things. And the
Messiah came through them. And they got so engrossed in
this chosen people, in this tabernacle, in this temple, in these sacrifices,
in this table of showbread, in this candlestick, in this burning
of incense, in these sacrifices. that when Christ came, they missed
him. They were so active. Paul said, they have a zeal for
God. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for my brethren in Israel is that they might be saved.
They have a zeal for God. But they're so busy. Christ came. Look at Romans 11, verse 9. And David said, let their table,
what table? Passover table? Table of showbread,
table of sacrifice, their table, their ceremony, their religious
enthusiasm and service and sacrifices, let their table be made a snare
and a trap and a stumbling block. I'll tell you this, I warn you,
you can get so busy studying the doctrines of Christ, you'll
miss Christ. You'll hide right here. I know
preachers galore. that are religious, they pray
much, they study much, they run much, they visit much, they preach
much, they talk much, they do all these things, they're so
busy, they miss Christ. Gee, they flat missed him. It's
the best place to miss him. Who's least concerned about death
in this town? The undertaker. He's with it
all the time. Death that somebody calls and
says, so-and-so died, when shall I pick up the body? You call the average person and
say, so-and-so died. Oh, no. When shall I pick up
the body? Somebody else died this morning
with him. He missed it. You see, he doesn't have any
feeling, no experience. You see what I'm saying? And
I tell you, you can come and sit like my people and act like
my people and sing like my people and pray like my people and preach
like my people and study like my people and never meet Christ.
It's like living by the railroad track. You hear the train so
much. I come to visit you. You live by the railroad track.
I'm sitting there and I say, does that train make that much
noise all the time? What train? What train? That's right. And a new person comes and sits
and says, your pastor preached this morning a point that I've
never seen before. What did he say? I didn't hear
him. I heard him so much I didn't
even hear him this morning. That's right. The best place to hide,
I'm telling you. Israel hid from Christ at the
Passover table. They hid from Christ in the temple
which is Christ, in the tabernacle which is Christ, in all of the
ceremonies which represent Christ, and you and I can hide at the
same place and never hear the gospel. It's a fearful, fearful
thing. It's a fearful, fearful thing.
And I've gone through 1 John here, chapter 4. I want you to
turn back there a moment. It's taking too long because
I want to get to the heart of this thing. But I'm trying to
say that John keeps unraveling the web of hypocrisy. He keeps
unraveling it. He keeps saying, be careful if
a man say, say, say, say, say, be careful, you miss the experience
of Christ, the person of Christ, the presence of Christ. These
things become mechanical. You get used to them. They lose
their joy, their delight. First love. First love. First love. You remember when
you were first in love? First love. Take things for granted
after the years go by. Take things for granted. All
right, let's look here. There are five things I want
you to see in the message. First John 4, it says in verse
6, We are of God. We are of God. We are of God. Well, what's some evidence that
we are of God? Number one, we are of God. He
that knoweth God, heareth us. Heareth us. And he that knoweth
not God, heareth not us. Now, the us here is not me. It's
not Jay. It's not Joe, Bill, Darvin, Bruce,
Charlie. We don't dare say that. I wouldn't
dare stand up here and say everybody that doesn't hear me is not of
God, doesn't know God. That'd be outright pride and
arrogance and haughtiness and it'd reveal I didn't know God.
John is saying here, he that is of God, heareth God's word. That's what it's saying. Turn
back to John 8. This is back to the 8th chapter of the gospel
of John. John 8, verse 47. John 8.47,
he that is of God, he that is of God, heareth God's word. That's
what he's saying, he hereth God's word. He hears it with approval. He hears it with joy. He hears
it with faith. He hears it with acceptance.
He doesn't argue with it. You find me a person sitting
around whining and critical and in finding fault with the word
of God, that's a man that doesn't know God. You find me a professor
or a student that's sitting around saying, well, this is not the
parting of the sea, actually. Jonah was not actually in the
belly of a whale. The election is not actually true. Jesus Christ didn't actually
die for sin. That man doesn't know God. He
that is of God, heareth God's word. He hears it with a willing
ear. He hears it with a ready ear.
He hears it with a submissive ear. He hears it with a loving
ear. He hears it, Jay, and delights
in it. He said something to me the other
day that I spent a great deal of time thinking about. Do we
love to preach the Word, or do we love the preaching of the
Word? I think there are a lot of preachers who just enjoy showing
off. They just enjoy being in the
limelight. They just enjoy popping off anywhere.
Is that what we're in love with, or is it the preaching of the
Word of God? The Reformation was based on
three great truths. The Reformation, back yonder
with Lutherans, Wingler, Calvin, and those fellows that turned
Europe upside down and consequently bought for us the freedom we
enjoy, the Reformation. It delivered that crowd out of
Catholicism and the bondage of works. Three things it was based
on. Number one, grace alone, as opposed
to works. Salvation by grace alone. We
need a new Reformation, don't we? Grace alone. Salvation by
grace alone. Grace, not works. Secondly, Christ
alone, as opposed to Mary, the Church, the law, anything or
anyone. Christ alone. I'm redeemed because
I'm baptized into the body of Christ, not sprinkled into the
church. Christ alone. And then the third, and the very
rock foundation, the Word alone, as opposed to tradition, dogmas,
and so forth that men come up with. I really think we preachers,
I think Calvinistic, sovereign grace preachers, I think some
of the younger preachers have the wrong idea about accumulating
and building big libraries. I think it's a waste of time.
I really do. I think we can become so engrossed
in books that we'll miss this book. Be careful. I know young
preachers that spend every nickel and dime they can scrape to buy
another book, buy another book, buy another book, take something.
You want to see my library? I really don't care to. I go
somewhere and visit the preachers. You want to see my library? Why,
no. Who wants to stand looking at a bunch of books on the wall?
Look at it. I got this and that and the other
goes on. I'm not interested. That doesn't prove to me you
know God. That doesn't even prove to me you know the gospel. That
doesn't prove to me you even preached the gospel. I would
like to see a demonstration and a proclamation of this precious
book right here. Sixty-six books I need in my
library right here. And Barnard said a dictionary.
I need this book and a dictionary. But this is the... He that knoweth
God will bow to the Word. He that knoweth God will submit
to the Word in heart, in mind, in deed. The Word of God. Look at verse 6 again. We are
of God, he that knoweth God heareth us, he that knoweth not God heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. He'll hear the Word. Now brethren,
if a man comes to you preaching God is sovereign, and he reads
it from the Word, if you are of God, you'll hear it. If he
comes preaching God's elective grace, if you are of God, you'll
hear it. That's right. If he comes preaching
authority, authority on the job, authority in the home, authority
in the church, authority in the school, you're of God, you'll
hear it. Authority on the streets, you'll hear it. Speak, Lord,
thy servant heareth. How does God speak? Not here.
Secondly, look, if you will, at verse 7. Now, what we're doing,
you see, John is unraveling the web of hypocrisy. We say we're
preachers, but we don't preach the Word. We say we're Christians,
but we won't hear the Word. We say we're believers, won't
bow to the Word. John says, not so. The second
mark is this, in verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another.
Love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knows God. There it is, right there. He
that loveth not knoweth not God. Verse 8. He that loveth not,
just flat, doesn't know God. Now you can teach men doctrine.
You can't teach them love. God, that has to be shed or brought
in their hearts for the Holy Spirit. You can teach men convictions
and principles. This is right, that's wrong.
This is right, that's wrong. But you can't teach them love.
You can teach men tolerance. They're put up with people. They'll
smile when they're supposed to smile. They shake hands when
they're supposed to shake hands. They'll say, I'm glad to see you. You
can teach them tolerance. They don't fight. You can teach
them not to fight. Can't teach them to love. Can't do it. No way. Because God is love. And a man who does not have God
does not have love. I hate to be so Hate to be so
intolerant on this subject, but John was intolerant, wasn't he?
Men say, I love God and hate his brother. He's a liar. That's
pretty intolerant. I don't think I could get any
stronger than that. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. That's pretty strong. And that's
how strong I want us to be on this subject. Though I give my
body to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
I may be one of the martyrs at Smithfield. I may stand there
and burn because I won't recant on whether or not the body and
blood of Christ is in the wafer and the wine. I may say, I don't
believe it, I'll die for it. And have not love, I wasted my
blood. I may give my body to be burned.
I may have faith so that I can remove mountains. I may understand
prophecies and understand mysteries, understand a lot of tangled things
in this scripture that other men who do not have my brilliance
and intelligence can't understand. But if I have not Christ, I'm
nothing. I may speak like an angel. I
may speak like an orator. I may speak with words that charm
and thrill and encourage and challenge me and have not love.
Somebody might as well ring an old Chinese gong or tinkle on
a cymbal. Love. You can't teach that. If love is missing, God's missing.
If love is not there, God's not there. God's not there. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. And what kind of love are we
talking about? We're talking about love for Christ. We're talking
about love for believers. We're talking about love for
our enemies. We're talking about an understanding love, a forgiving
love, a gentle love, a tender love, a growing love. Love! Not bitterness. And I'll tell
you, if love is here, loving words come out of here. And when
bitterness comes from here, it's because bitterness is in here. And my friends, like John, if
we say, we say, we say we love God, we say we have fellowship,
we say these things, but now hold on. John says saying is
one thing, doing is another. And like I'm saying, you can
teach a man doctrine, you can teach him depravity, you can
teach him sovereignty, you can teach him election, you can teach
him perseverance, you can teach him doctrine, there's just one
person. And one spirit that can come
in here and conquer this heart and cause him to look upon even
his chief enemy without bitterness, without vengeance, and without
a desire to get even, and really in his heart be touched and moved
with affection and concern and compassion and pity for that
dear person. I know people, friends of mine
in the South, that can't see a black person on TV without
resentment coming up in their heart. They can't see a successful black
person without resentment coming up. I know something about this.
I was raised in that, and you were too, and some of the rest
of you were. That's not Christ. That's not love. And that's not
salvation. You say, but I know the doctrines.
You can teach a poly parent to say, But you can't give him the
heart of a son. Can you think about that? You
can't give him the heart of a son. You see, anybody can call God
Father, but to love him and to love his word and to love his
people and to love, have a gentleness and a sweet spirit and arms that
reach out and embrace and love, forgive. Give me the drunk who
hath some love, rather than a religionist who hath none. I'll have better
fellowship with him. A religionist without love is
a monster. He'll destroy everything he breathes
upon. That's true. Everything. So I'm
saying what John's saying here. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. And that love is a tender love,
a love for Christ. You say, I love the Lord! Yeah,
but he ain't down here right now. You see, I know he's here
in presence and spirit, but that fellow next door to you, he is.
You see what I'm saying, Paul? It's easy to love the Lord, he's
in glory. I don't mean that facetiously
now, but I'm talking about that old boy sitting right across
the aisle from you. Do you love him? No, I don't love him. Well,
you don't love the Lord then. You are Pharisees, what you are. Verse 13. Hereby we know that
we know him, if we hear his word, if we love. And hereby we know
him, and he dwells in us, and we in him, he's given us his
Spirit. His Spirit. Spirit of mercy,
Spirit of grace, Spirit of kindness. His Spirit has quickened us to
spiritual life. His Spirit has revealed Christ
to us as our Lord and Savior. His Spirit has guided us into
the truth of the Word. His Spirit brings forth fruit,
the fruit of the Holy Spirit. His Spirit gives us gifts for
the ministry. His Spirit gives us assurance
and comfort. He's given us His Spirit. We
have the living Spirit of God, the loving Spirit of God, the
truthful Spirit of God. We're not just bound by human
nature. We have God's Spirit. Well, by
the way, I can't love so and so. No, you can't, but His Spirit
can. I can't do this. You know, Christ,
I can do all things. I'm not saying, like Jay prayed,
it's not our nature to love one another. No, it's not our nature.
It's not the nature with which we were born the first time,
but it is our nature where the nature is born the second time.
Now, that's so. No, sir, there's a warfare between
the flesh and the spirit. I'm not saying you won't get
upset, uptight, a lot of ways. But that Holy Spirit who dwells
in you is going to take over. He's going to settle this issue
and calm it down. I'm talking about a tenor of
life, a general tenor of life. The man who walks in darkness
and the man who walks in light. Now this man who walks in darkness
just might once in a while do something light, something commendable. He just might once in a while,
and he does. And this man who walks in light may occasionally
step into darkness, and he will. And he knows it quicker than
anybody. And he's disturbed about it more than anybody. He does,
he does step into darkness, but that's not his direction, that's
not his tenor of life, that's not the bend of his will, that's
not the way he's going. You see what I'm saying? He walks
in the light as Christ is in the light. Not that he never
knows any darkness and never knows any hatred, never knows
any intemperance, never knows any... He certainly does. He's
the first one to admit it. But that's not his general direction.
That's not his characteristic. That's not his personality. But this fellow over here, that's
his nature. He's a grumbler by nature, he's
a complainer by nature, he's a fault finder by nature, he's
a fighter by nature, he's contentious by nature, he's a troublemaker
by nature, he's a church splitter by nature, he's going to hell
by nature. And he once in a while... But he knows the Bible, a lot
of folks do. But he ties, a lot of folks do.
But he does this, a lot of folks do. But he doesn't know God. Some folks do. I'm talking about
the General Director. He's given us his Spirit. He
has given us his Spirit! We know him. And we measure our words and
our actions. That's not the Spirit of God,
is it? We know it's not. Paul said,
when I would do good evils present with me, I'm aware of it. But
I delight in the law of God after the inward man. And then quickly,
number four, verse 15 says, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the
Son of God, God dwells in him. Brother, we confess who Christ
is. No question about it, no argument. The man who knows God
has no doubts or reservations about the Son of God. No doubts
or reservations. We know who he is. We know what
he did on that cross and in his life, we know why he did it,
and we know where he is now. There are no reservations. And
it's not a head knowledge of facts. The fundamentals of religion,
this is a heart knowledge, which consumes us. It just literally
consumes us. This man Jesus Christ just takes
over. Have you ever known a person
whose personality is so strong, his appearance so captivating,
When he walks in a room, he just takes over. If you have people
that dominate a room, that's my Lord. He takes over. He walks
in, he takes over. His love is the greatest, his
charm is the greatest, his power is the greatest, his appearance
is the greatest, his countenance is the greatest, his glory is
the greatest. He just comes in and just influences everything
that's done and said. He takes over. Every question
is directed to him, every comment in his direction, everything
he says, we hang on every word. But he takes over. And then last
of all, I close, verse 16. It says, And we have known and
believed that the love that God hath to us. Verse 19, We love
him because he first loved us. I believe a man who knows God
knows that God is the source of all his mercies. Paul said,
By the grace of God I am what I am, whatever I am, by the grace
of God. what I have, what I know, what
I shall be, what I possess is by the grace of God. He's the
source of all grace. I don't see how, I don't see
how a person can read this book and know the living God and not
ascribe to that God all the glory for everything. I know there's
always a question, there's always somebody arguing whether or not
a man can be saved. Who does not recognize the sovereignty
of God and the election and God's particular mercy and grace? I
can't answer that question, except maybe to make this comment. I
don't see how any man can know God without ascribing to God all
the glory for everything. Now, you think about that, how
you can know God, who he is in his glory, in his power, in his
presence, and who I am, the weakness and insufficiency and frailty
and emptiness, without a scratch. He that glories, let him glory
in the Lord. What I eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. Whatever
you do, do it to the glory of God, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. He gets all the glory. And that man knows God. I love
him, yes, because he first loved me. I called on him one day,
but he called on me first. And these, if I produce any fruits
of grace, if I show any fruit of the Spirit, it's not I but
Christ and his Spirit. and ascribe the glory to him.
The web of hypocrisy. Let's don't create a religious
monster. Let's seek the Lord. Let's seek
the Lord. And seeking him, pray that by
his grace we may find him. And finding him, pray that by
his grace we may experience and demonstrate his love. His grace, His mercy. His mercy. Our Father, Lord, we love Thy law because
it's Thy law. We love this day because it's
Thy day. We love this word because it's
Thy word. We love the gospel because it's
Thy gospel. Lord, let us never be taken up
with things so as to miss the person of Christ, with the table
and with the ceremony, with the tradition, with the law, with
the convictions and principles, or with the Church, or with any
blessed truth, and neglect him who is truth. Oh, that we may
know him and the power of his resurrected life, that we may
win Christ and be found in him. Lord, as John Newton said, if
I have not loved Thee before, let me love Thee today. Loving
Thee, I love others. Loving Thee, I love all that
pertains to Thee. And loving Thee, I love Thy glory
and give Thee all the glory and the praise. Grant that I may
grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and these who hear
me. may grow in that same grace and that blessed knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Show thy glory and thy greatness
among us. And may those who come among
us be led to say, God is with them. I felt the presence of
the Lord in their conduct and in their conversation and in
their message. I felt the presence of the Lord.
Surely God is among them. And we may be able to say with
Moses of old, come thou with us and we'll do thee good. We'll
do thee good.