Next week we'll have the end
of the month. Got the heat back on the back
porch. So we'll be having dinner next week in the Lord's table.
No afternoon service. That's next week. We'll have
dinner in the Lord's table. And I cook. I bought some stuff
to cook before the flood hit. I'm going to cook it anyway.
It's been in the freezer, so it should be okay. we're looking forward to getting
back on a regular schedule. We'll start back on a regular
schedule next Sunday. Next Sunday we'll be thankful
for that. Other than that, I can't think of any other things added
to the prayer list Wednesday night. Elwynn Flying and Larry
Rockall. Is that right? Rockall? I believe
it is. Larry Rockall. So remember these
folks in your prayers. Yes? That's right. So Larry Rockwell. Oh, we're in. Oh, my goodness. Is your West
Virginia boy? Is he a minor? Was he a minor? No. Oh, well. Well, you don't have to get smoked
to get lung cancer. All you got to do is breathe the air and
eat food. Live normal and you get lung cancer just like everybody
else. I smoked for all my life, except for about,
I think I quit in 2019. my lungs were pink inside the
doctors said they were fine man I lived in them camels I loved
them things so you never know how it's going to work out how
your body's going to handle something let's begin our worship service
with hymn number two hundred and twenty-two there is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains, lose all Lose all their guilty
stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sin as much beneath that
blood. Lose all their guilty stains. Rejoice to see that fountain
in his day. And there may I, oh, vile as
he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. He washed all my sins away. And there may I go by as He washed the ransomed church of God. Be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. And some Church of God, please
stay to sin no more. If since by faith I saw the stream,
thy flowing would survive. has been my plea, and shall be
till I die. When this holy speech that brings
out my sigh, I'll sing thy pow'r to save. I'll sing thy pow'r to save. I'll sing thy pow'r to save. In a nobler, sweeter song, I'll
sing thy pow'r to save. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing a handout, Christ at the Cross. If you have your Bibles, turn with
me to the 13th chapter of Romans. Romans chapter 13. I'm going
to read the first 10 verses, take my text from verse 10 this
morning. Romans chapter 13. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to evil. Will thou then not be afraid
of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have the
praise of the same. For he is the minister of God
to thee for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he
is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that
doeth evil. Wherefore, ye must needs be subject,
not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. And for
this cause, pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers
attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore
to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to
whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. Owe
no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt
not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. If there be
any other commandments, it is briefly comprehended as saying,
namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill
to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, most gracious,
glorious, majestic Savior. We thank You for grace and mercy
for those in great need, those who know by Your grace and by
Your Spirit and through Your Word that they are sinners who
cannot of themselves do anything about their condition. We are thankful that you took
up their cause and stood in the breach for them as their substitute,
dying in their room instead, purchasing their salvation, redeeming
them from the slave market and setting them free. We thank you,
Father. that you did it all, for we know
the judge of all the earth shall do right, and we thank you that
you even proclaim that you justify men, because you have been satisfied
for their sin according to your law and justice, and you declare
your righteousness in the salvation of their souls. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick and going through trials on most
every case. Pray for our congregation that
would be a lighthouse on a hill, a hospital for sinners, a place
where sinners could come and hear the good news of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Pray for our area, Father, because
of this flood, these floods and landslides that occurred. We
know that our God, the rain, the thunderstorm, the lightning,
the earthquake, the whirlwind, all belong to Thee. And we know
that You do according to Your will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
Your hand or say unto You, what doest Thou? Father, we pray for those who
are going through troubles. Troubles that many of us could
never imagine. We ask your help for them, and
wherein we can be a help, Father, cause it to be so. We pray for
ourselves this day, that as we hear the gospel, we may worship
you in spirit and in truth, for you're worthy of all praise and
honor. Help us now to do so, we pray
in Christ's name. Amen. Your handout, Christ of the Cross. A hill far away died the Christ
of the cross. He yielded to suffering and shame. In His grace He died in my place
The purpose of God to fulfill So I'll cherish the Christ of
the cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to
the Christ of the Cross For He is the King I must crown Oh,
the Christ of the Cross So despised by the world As a wondrous attraction Lamb of God, lift His glory above,
to bear all my sin on the tree. So I'll cherish the Christ of
the cross, and before His throne ? To the Christ of the cross ?
For he is the king I must crown ? In the Christ of the cross
? And his blood so divine ? A marvelous beauty I see and long have been blind. We behold Him now on His throne,
so I'll cherish the Christ on the cross. And before His throne, I'll bow
down I will cling to the price of the cross, for he is the king
I must crown. Oh, the price of the cross I
must ever be true. His glory forever I'll share
So I'll cherish the Christ on the cross And before His throne
I'll bow down I will cling to the Christ on the cross Let us pray. Father, again we approach
in the name of Jesus Christ, our majestic and sovereign Lord,
who is at thy right hand ruling and reigning over all things,
controlling all things, giving all gifts. We know all good and
perfect gifts come from above, from the Father of lights, in
whom there is no variables, no shadow of turning. We thank you
for all you've given us. As we return some of it unto
thee, let us do so with thanksgiving and praise in our hearts. In
Christ's name we pray. Amen. you. I'd like to invite your attention
back to Romans, the 13th chapter. Preachers, when they preach a
message, what most people don't realize
is that the message is first aimed at themselves. A preacher supposedly and hopefully
is moved by the Lord to consider things or of value and worth,
and usually it's something that's been on his mind for some time. And for several weeks, I've been
laying down in bed at night, and certain verses have come
to mind. Verses like, men shall know you
are my disciples, because you love one another. We know we have passed from death
to life because we love one another. Over in 1 John chapter 5 it says
those that love Christ love all for whom Christ died. Our Lord said, love your enemies. And folks said, well, that's
the hard part. Not really. Loving anybody other than ourselves
is impossible for the old man. So this is a struggle that we
face every day. Paul, in writing to the Roman
church, who was under rule of Rome, that's why it's the church
in Rome, wrote to the Jewish people and the Christians that
were in Rome. Some say close to 10,000 people at that time
were professing Christ in this area. They were all under the
rule of a hard government. Rome was smart. raised up princes
and kings out of the people and let them rule under the rule
of the Roman government. Herod, for example, was a ruler
that was appointed by Rome under Pilate to be the king of the
Jews. So he was a king that was under
the rule of the Roman government. Paul, knowing the nature of humanity,
our carnal nature that struggles continually with our spirit. He knew that there would always be problems
within the church. You'd think, sure there's going
to be problems outside church and there's problems aplenty.
We know that. But he knew within the church
a bunch of sinners saved by grace who had personalities and preferences
and desires and such that often conflicted with one another.
Read the book of 1 Corinthians. It is a rebuke for 15 chapters
about how bad things were in the church some 25 years after
the Lord went to glory. But the 12th through the 16th
chapters of the Book of Romans, Paul, by the Spirit's inspiration,
writes to believers about living peaceably in a world, and particularly
living peaceably among the brethren as much as possible, as he says
in Mark chapter 12. And in these first eight verses
of this chapter, he's simply saying we should be law-abiding
citizens. And the reason that we are to
obey the laws of the land is because God Himself established
human government as His representative for the welfare and the peace
of His elect. And the government we have now
and the government we'll have in 16 days will be ordained for
that purpose. It may not feel that way. And
we may not think it's that way. And we may struggle with how
the election turns out one way or the other. But listen, that
government will be established for the good of the elect and
the glory of God, however it turns out. We are told to pay tribute to
government, as the government requires. It means paying our
debts and to honor those whom God has placed in power over
us, because they represent God and are there for the law-abiding
citizen's good. Now, when Peter wrote his epistle,
he said the same thing in chapter 2 and verse 18, being subject
to higher powers. And the person he was ruled under
was Nero, who was a crazy man. But the Lord said, to whom honor
is due. The Lord said, don't speak evil
of dignities. At the same time of this writing,
there were monarchs and democracies and republics under whose rule
the people of God lived. So with no exceptions, whereby
these civic and governmental laws may be set aside except
for one. That is, if the government forbids
you to preach the gospel, in that case, then we are to
obey God and not man. Otherwise, we are to faithfully
discharge our debts with government and with men so that we owe no
man anything. However, there is one debt that
can never be fully discharged. In verse 8, Paul says we are
not to owe man anything except one thing, and that's to love
one another. That's what we owe. I think that's
partially what Paul was talking about in the first chapter of
his book. He says, I'm a debtor to all men. I'm a debtor to all men. Now,
the natural counter response to this is to endeavor to qualify
what that means. You remember the story of when
Christ gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. When he said
to love your neighbor and take care of your neighbor, the lawyer
stood up and said, well, who's my neighbor? let's qualify as
that, if you want to qualify. And the Lord made it this way,
who are you a neighbor to? Who are you a neighbor to? Some
say that our text only means to love all men redemptively,
and I think that's probably true to some extent, to seek the redemption
of all men. To everyone we meet, tell them
about Jesus Christ. I have no doubt that this is
part of the love referred to here, but it's not limited to
the only redemption. Someone endeavored to remove
this concept from real existence and plop it in the realm of philosophy. Asking the question, what is
love? I preached a message on this
many years ago before I came here as pastor. And that question
was actually asked of me after I finished preaching on it. Rosemont
Baptist Church, a fellow came up and said, what is love? as if no real definition of love
is possible. All sinners saved by grace struggle
here. Our wrestlings are of a legal
persuasion. The heart of legalism is love
for self. I know that God commands us to
love others as we love ourselves, but you'll not find anywhere
in scripture God commanding us to love ourselves because that
would be a waste of time we already do that that's a given that's
a given apart from a work of grace that's all we'll ever do
is love ourselves we'll never love anybody else our lord made
this clear when he referred to the pharisees reason for existence
in Matthew 23 when he talked about the pharisees in verses
5 through 10 he says they do what they do and desire what
they desire because they love the promotion and exaltation
of self And in this great parable, the Pharisee and the publican,
he said of those who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others. The words he spoke in Matthew
are in great part a response to a revealing question that
these same legal eagles ask to him. Because in the 22nd chapter
of Matthew, they say, which is the greater law? What's the greatest
law of them all? Now, they said that because they
kept some and didn't keep others, and they kept some partially
and didn't keep some altogether. They believed that sin was on
some kind of diminishing scale. They were probably the ones that
come up with the lie and the white lie. It's just a white
lie. And this propagates the idea
that venial sins, or sins that are more easily forgiven, and
cardinal sins, which are the really bad sins, that all sin,
in order to be forgiven, require the blood of God's Son, or they'll
never be forgiven, because there is no sin, no sin, white lie
or not, that is not only worthy, but is under the sentence of
eternal death. The soul that sinneth, It shall
die. Ain't no mistaking what that
means. Ain't no getting around what that means. Respectively,
all laws have the same importance, because all sin has the same
penalty. Look, however, at the way our
Lord answers their question. He said, Loving God and loving
your neighbor fulfills the law. So, according to what follows,
self-love is their problem. and it's our problem. Love your
neighbor leaves no room for exception. I confess to you as a sinner
saved by grace, as a man who's preached the gospel for many
years, I don't do that well. I don't love my neighbor as myself.
I disobey the commandment of God. I don't love God with my
own heart, all my heart. I don't do it. my only hope is that somebody
in the history of humanity stood up on this earth and walked and
breathed the air I breathe and loved God with all his heart
and loved his neighbor as himself and one did even our Lord Jesus
Christ In our text, our Lord defines love in a most simple
and beautiful way. The first four words of verse
10 is a grand and glorious treatise on love. Love worketh no ill. There you go. Next time you feel
ill and want to work ill and want to talk ill, think about
this. Love worketh no ill. That's what bothers me always
about myself. I must say this truth is further explained
throughout scripture you read 1st Corinthians chapter 13 it'll
tell you what love is let's look over there just for a moment we know this finally ends up
glorifying Christ because he's the only one that did it but
this is what he says In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 4 it says, charity
or love suffereth long and is kind. Love envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, does not behave itself unseemly, love seeks not its own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity,
but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never fails. Love never fails. I read that
and I see it as a lofty goal. First, our Lord said that love
works, no ill. First, He says love works. Love
works. That's important. If love works,
therefore, the first definition of love is that it's active.
It's not passive. It's active. Paul, in defining
faith, said in Galatians chapter 5, faith worketh by love. Love is an act of the will. It's
an act of the will. When we consider what we are,
the only possible explanation of God's love for us is that
He willed to do so. There is nothing in us that would
generate love, someone loving us. There is nothing about us
that would cause someone to love us. We're simply unlovely and
unlovable. God loved us because he willed
to do so. It is not a commodity to give
or hold back. If it does not work, it is not
actively in the business of doing good for its object. It has neither right nor warrant
to wear the title of love. Love is always outward bound. It flows out in deeds to the
one who is love. That's the way love works. Love
is never about me. Love is about you. You say, well,
I get my feelings hurt. That's about you. That ain't
about love. Ain't about love. For God so
loved the world that he gave. Wait. He acted upon that love. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him
should not perish but have eternal life. God commendeth His love
for us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He loved us and gave Himself
for us. He loved us and gave Himself
for us. hearing his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son, the propitiation
for our sins. He hath loved us and washed us
in his own blood. Love is action. It ain't romance. It ain't sentimentality. It's
action. Love worketh, no ill. So in this text, love is spoken
of in a negative application, where love works no ill. Not,
don't work a lot of ill, or don't work some ill. It works no ill. Works no ill. Now if we start
to measuring our love by this, we'll all see ourself ultimately
as absolute failure in every line. We simply don't do it right. This is what love does not do.
Just like the Hippocratic Oath used to mean, first do no harm.
I'm not sure it means that anymore, but it used to mean that. Love
does not harm or hurt. Love worketh no ill. So if God
loved us, He will never do anything that
will harm us or hurt us. We're talking about in the spiritual
and eternal sense. And since we still have a problem
with the old man living in us, the fact of love for us remains
for the most part a fully unrealized attribute. We do love, but our
love is a wanting on numerous levels. Consider here love as
it's described. Love worketh no ill. God loves perfectly. Therefore,
his love works no ill, never could work ill. The cardinal
doctrine of false religion is that God loves everybody. That's
what they say. That's what preachers say. You
see it on signs. You hear preachers say it. God loves perfectly,
and they say God loves everyone. If we think in terms of eternity,
we must deal with the fact of eternal punishment. And if we think of eternal punishment,
it is safe to say that hell is the epitome of God's ill will. It is the opinion of many that
God loves all men and still sends some of them to hell. At the least, that scenario says
that love worketh ill. I'm sure nobody would say it's
a good thing to wind up in eternal flames forever. Perhaps some
might qualify this by asserting that God loves all men, but at
the judgment He switches to hating some men and therefore sends
them to hell. Setting aside the fact that this
makes the unchanging God change, isn't hating someone the working
of ill towards them? And how could He ever love them
if He works ill towards them? Love worketh no ill. being most
of God's love for all men, and saying that He will not override
man's will to save him. They say stupid things like God
is a gentleman, or some have described God as solicitous,
which means that God is a beggar at the door of man's will. Those
who boast that that God, who loves everybody, will not override
man's free will to save him, will also confess that He will
override man's will to put him in hell. what he goes to help out there
and cast bound and cast strange god this right man's will strange in it. That ain't love
because I know this from this passage of scripture, love worketh
no ill. When our Lord spoke of the love
of God revealed in the deeds and truth over in 1 John chapter
3, if you want to turn over there. verses 16 through 18, he is referring
to the manner in which God's love operates or what His love
will do, will always do. It says in these verses of Scripture,
verse 16, it says this, Hereby perceive we the love of God,
this is how God loves. This is how we understand how
God loves. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because He laid down His life for us. He laid down His
life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
If we love them, and the situation is the same that would cause
God to act in this manner, we should act and would act if we
love in the same manner. But whoso hath this world's goods,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his house with
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. In verse 16, our Lord declares
a wondrous truth, is that we can perceive the love of God
by the precious actions He took. The love of God is understood
in substitution. He gave His life for us. We perceive
the love of God because He laid down His life for us. Christ
said, I lay down my life for the sheep. This commandment,
if I receive to my Father, I lay it down on myself. No man taketh
it. I lay down my life. This lays the ax to the root
of the notion of God offering His love to anyone. Love has
to do with the life of the one who loves, giving that life for
the loved one. That's what it has to do with. Such action would be deemed vain
and empty if it were just a mere gesture. So this is not talking
about a mere gesture, though some religion would have it just
a gesture. If God hung his son on a tree
and poured out his wrath upon him as a mere gesture of some
how to express his love for his people, then he did ill to his
son. And love worketh no ill. No stretch of the imagination
could ever perceive such a thing as being love as a gesture. I love old Malcolm. I'm gonna
commit suicide. That'll really show you one.
That'll show you how much I love you. The only way that such an action
could possibly be construed as love is that it is a voluntary
act that accomplishes some good for the loved one. The only acceptable, reasonable
good would be a life for life in the situation of us being
a sinner and unable to save ourselves. God being He who has the wherewithal,
the ability, and the riches of grace and mercy to accomplish
that which we cannot accomplish for ourselves. if that would give me life. A life for a possibility is not
defining love because it is the possibility of ill. It's the
same with probability, an offer or proffer. Without accomplishing
good for the loved one, such an action is valueless. Now much of our love ends up
being that. Much of our love is unrequited.
A lot of times we want to do for our loved ones what we are
unable to do. That's not the case with God, whose love is
perfect. We know from the clear declaration
that the giving of Christ's life resulted in something. It resulted
in the full salvation of those He loved. Love worketh no ill. Our Lord
then proclaims that if such sacrificial love is of God, for He's talking
about the love of God, God's love, and we are His children,
we are, then such sacrificial love is in us would produce the
same action that it produced in Him. Because this is how God's
love is. And He says if that, and He finishes
everything, the love of God's not in you if it's not this love,
this sacrificial love. Our Lord proclaims this. We ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren. Our God then makes
a distinction. Since our lives being laid down
for the brethren would never produce redemption, because in
a matter of sacrifice our lives are of no value concerning eternal
life, laying down our life would be useless at any rate because
there are already brethren that He is talking to. Their lives
have already been saved. He equates the giving of life
on our part as doing what is necessary according to our ability
to do so for the welfare of the one we love, of our brethren. He describes this as love as
the love of God dwelling in us. Simply put, if your brother is
in need, and you see that need and you have at your disposal
that which is necessary to relieve that need and rescue your brother,
yet do nothing, you don't love him. Because God never acted
like that. When God sees a need in His children,
He fulfills it. My grace is sufficient for you,
He said. And He will give you all things
according to the riches of His grace. This is how God operates. The love of God does not dwell
in you if your love that you say is from God will not be exercised
in actively doing what you can for your loved ones. This is
what he's saying. You see why I've been in a such
a state? So stressed about this, so broken about this, seeing
my own heart and my own mind. This is the truth of the word
of God. Thus our blessed Lord gives us a real perception of
his own love. His loved ones, who are they?
They are poor, bankrupt, pitiful, ruined, helpless, and hopeless
sinners. God sees this, and He possesses what is necessary to
rescue and recover and relieve them. By laying down His life
for them, He will put away their sin. By giving His Son for them,
they will have life, and they will have righteousness that
is fit for heaven. He does not act in redeeming
and saving manner toward them. He simply does not love them. Because He said, Hereby perceive
we the love of God. He laid down His life for us. fulfilling of the law. Father,
bless His true understanding, bless it in my understanding,
we pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right. God bless you.