Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Could we look, brethren, at Ephesians chapter 5?
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse one. Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
Could we turn also to 1St Epistle of John, First Epistle of John and the 4th chapter, verse 16?
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Here in his our love, or the margin love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world.
There is No Fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear.
Because fear hath taught he that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him because he first loved us. And then one other verse in Acts chapter 20.
Acts Chapter 20.
And the 35th verse.
I have showed you all things, how that soul laboring, he ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Well, our brother has just spoken to us about how abundant provision has been made a leader for us, the captain of our salvation, and also how he is there as our great High Priest and our advocate. That I was thinking also of how not only is the help supplied that we need for our pathway, but here we see, I believe, the outgoing of love that reaches out to others and seeks their blessing.
And I believe that is so important for us. Our brother remarked in the young people's meeting how that it was said by another that Christianity is known by what it brings and not by what it finds. And when the Lord Jesus came into this world, what did he find? He found everything that was opposed to God and to that which he had come to display as the perfect man and as the one who came to tell out.
Father's heart here in this world, everything was opposed to it, but there was that in His blessed heart that rose above every situation.
All the wickedness of man, all that they did to him, and all that misunderstanding that he had never changed that heart that he had. He had come to tell out the heart of God. And as it says, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
Not imputing their trespasses unto them, that is, he was in this world.
Seeking to show man what was in the heart of God. And so when that woman was brought to him, taken in sin, he said, neither do I condemn thee. It was not that he didn't condemn the sin, but he had come to bear her condemnation so that he could say to her, Neither do I condemn thee. How wondrous to trace that blessed pathway of love here through this world, how it touches our hearts.
As I believe it was Mr. Ballot who said when he read the Gospels here, he said I found a man.
Who never did one thing to please himself. His whole blessed pathway.
Was the outflow of the heart of God. And when man's evil rose to its height, as it did at the cross, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. There was that love that rose above all that man was and all that he is.
And rather than I believe we need to get this into our souls, we need to realize more of that love so that it would not only be something that we know, something that we know for ourselves, but you know, our natural hearts are selfish. Haman in the book of Esther said, to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?
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And I'm afraid secretly in our own hearts, that is a great deal of our thought.
That everything should be done for us. Everything should be done to make us happy.
Everything should be done for our pleasure and for our happiness, and this is the way the world operates. It operates on the principle of selfishness. But God has brought a new principle into your life and mine, a principle that was displayed in perfection in the blessed Lord Jesus as He walked through this world. Oh, how beautiful those words in Ephesians chapter 5.
Christ also hath loved us.
And have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. God delighted to have his heart told out and there was only one person who could do it perfectly. The cost was great, far greater than our hearts will ever know. But the Lord Jesus came to display that and it tells us He offered himself to God.
A sacrifice for a sweet smelling savour.
How God delighted as he looked down and saw one man in this world in whom he could find all his delight. Twice in the pathway of the Lord Jesus we find the heavens open, and the Father's voice saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The whole race of humanity had dishonored him, had turned against him, had not appreciated his sending His son-in-law. But there was one here who pleased him in everything that he did, and offered himself to God as a sweet smelling savor. His whole delight and joy was to do His Father's will. As I said before, he never did one thing to please Himself.
You don't find even a miracle, although He had the power that he did for His own comfort. That is rather striking, isn't it? Why, If we had the power, how quickly we would do miracles to help ourselves in problems, How readily we would use it if it was available? Because we're naturally selfish beings. But the Lord Jesus did everything for the glory of His Father and for the good of others.
When he was hungry, he wouldn't turn stones into bread without a word from his father.
But when that multitude were hungry, he could turn a boy's lunch into food for the whole company. He had power, but he didn't use it for himself. And I believe, brethren, that this is something that needs to get hold of our souls, and that is that we are not just a called upon to be receivers, but we are called upon to be givers. We are called upon first to give.
Praise and Thanksgiving as we think of all that He has done for us.
And then too, as it tells us in John 316, it says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How we praise God for that wonderful verse, and what God has done for us in giving His Son and giving us everlasting life.
But first John chapter 3 and verse 16 says.
And this was manifested the love of God toward us in that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. There ought to be that willingness that we have the privilege, and what an unspeakable privilege it is, and that we can be givers here in this world. And so he says that this work that the Lord Jesus did.
A unique work, a work in which we could have no part. It was his and his alone.
But that we can manifest that same spirit, we can walk in love.
We can be imitators of God as dear children, we can give ourselves, and that is what God desires that we should do, that we should give ourselves. Paul said in Romans 12 and verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which here's your reasonable, reasonable or your intelligent.
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Serve us. And so here it tells us that we are to walk in love and we are to bring love into all the situations as the Lord Jesus did in his blessed pathway here. And then we find over in that passage that we read in.
First Epistle of John. How this is possible?
Says here.
In the 17th verse here in His, our love or love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. Isn't that a beautiful expression? Love with us? That is, God had shown His love, but we didn't respond to it. We didn't appreciate it. So what did God do? Well, He has given us.
That responds. He has given to us the very life of Christ.
And so to me, this is a most beautiful expression. Love with us. You might love a person and the person doesn't respond, but if the person responds as you would wish, then you can say love with us. It's something you share together because they enter into and enjoy what you were trying to show to them and respond to it. And that is exactly what God has done. He has given to us a life that is capable of.
Loving a life that enables us to manifest that love down here in this world.
As it tells us in Second Corinthians chapter 4, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be seen in our bodies. That is, our natural hearts are selfish. We think of ourselves, we think of our own interest, we think of all that concerns ourselves about as we put that.
Old nature into the place of death, and then we display in a practical way.
What the Lord Jesus displayed down here, because we have his life and so that we display the life of Jesus and it says as he is, so are we in this world. Brethren, will not be any more fit for heaven when the Lord comes than we are right now. We will not have a different life in heaven than we possess right now. We already possess the life that we will have up there in.
Forever. We possess it now, and He would have us, as the IT tells us in the epistle to Jude. It says looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Oh, you say, don't we already possess it? Yes, but we possess that life in a world where everything is different from it.
If a fish were taken out of the water and laid upon the shore.
It still has a fish life, but it's out of its element and if the fish could talk, it would say.
Please put me in my element. Brethren, God has given us a life that suited to heaven. And as we see the world getting worse and worse, our hearts say all want to be grand, to be in our element. But brethren, we're here. And what can we display down here in this world? The new life that we possess? And that is what He's telling us here.
In this in this 19th verse it says we love him.
I might mention here that in the new translation the word Him is omitted. It's just simply we love because he first loved us. The word Him is omitted. You say. Well, that kind of spoils the verse for me. No, brethren, it doesn't because we love Him, but it's much, it's much wider. We love his too. We love, We have the capacity to love. Sometimes we might say.
Well, I find it so hard to love that brother. God says, oh, you don't need to say that. I've given you a life that is capable of lovely loving. Even though there's no response. The Lord didn't find any response from our hearts, but he still loved us and he gave himself on Calvary Cross to display that love. And let us never say, oh, I couldn't love that brother. You can. You already possess the life of Christ we love.
Why? Because we're better than other people? Because we're nicer dispositions? No, because he first loved us. He loved us with a love that love because of what it is in itself, not because of something in the object. If there's a stream flowing down the mountainside, why? If you put a barrier in the way, what does the stream do? Well, it just rises a little higher, doesn't it? And the bigger the barrier, you put in the way.
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As long as there's plenty of water in the source, the higher the water rises. And all the barriers that men put in the way of the display of that love only caused it to flow out in a wider sphere. As the hymn writer said, the river of Thy grace, through righteousness supplied, is flowing ore, the barren place where Jesus died. And so here we have. We love because he first loved us.
And again, that verse that we read in Acts, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Well, we have received so much that it just overflows our hearts when we think of what we have received. And we can only say, if I should declare and speak of what He has done for me, it's more than can be numbered. We can't reckon the things up in order that He has done for us. But now it says.
We have the privilege of giving.
Because He has given us of His spirit, He has given us this new life.
Let's turn over to the epistle of Jude.
I just like to read from the 20th verse. But ye beloved, building up yourselves, our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some having have compassion making a difference, and others say with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling or stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
Here we find what sometimes been spoken of as the four anchors, and I believe we could think of them in this way. That ship that was waiting for the break of day didn't have a wreck until they took up the four anchors. But when they took up the four anchors, then there was a wreck even though they all got safely to shore. And here we have 4 anchors. Building up your cells on your most holy faith seems to me.
Answer to reading the word praying in the Holy Ghost. That's prayer.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, that is keeping the enjoyment of His love. Just like I might say to my child on a day when it's cold out but the sun is shining, I say, well, stay in the sunshine. It's nice and warm. If you stay in the sunshine. It's a cold world, brethren.
The sun is shining, and you and I can keep in the sunshine. And then it says, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Why we just long for the time when we're going to be taken out of this scene where everything is so contrary to the life that we possess. But this little expression in the end of the 24th verse I had particularly before me.
That he's able to keep us from stumbling.
And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.