Open—D. Nicolet, R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
For we're not what the world which faded away.
And out of the night. But children of day, the change that once bound us by Jesus, are riven where strangers on earth, our home is in heaven.
We're not of the world which paid upon.
Children.
My day.
A train drives once found us.
I did not sorrow.
We're strangers.
Our home is in heaven.
Our God is most crowded.
And dangerous.
To.
My track last ways.
Our journey lives true.
God of illness.
Breathe fresh gospel.
While that one working.
Our brave.
Came down from.
My dear school.
I'll read it and turn it on Blood. That's why I got surrounded and Crystal.
Him, Lord.
Our solid man's Lord, and forever and never.
Shall give.
Oh, glory and blessing.
Lord Jesus.
James Four and verse 4.
The adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is empathy with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
00:05:05
Then over to Chapter 2.
Verse 23.
Abraham believed God, it was repeated unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. We just pray.
Three questions. John 21.
Just read these questions.
Part of each of the verse.
John 21, verse 15.
In the middle of the verse, Jesus sayeth.
Lovest thou me more than these?
The 16th verse.
He saith.
Again the second time.
Lovest thou me?
Verse 17.
He saith unto him the third time.
Lovest thou me?
What I have on my heart, brethren, is to consider, with the Lord's help a little bit this afternoon, that question. Now we're aware that this was asked by the Lord Jesus to Simon Peter in relation to the lambs and the sheep.
But I would like to allow us to apply it to our souls this afternoon and this way that each of us sitting here would take those.
Desires.
Dreams. Hopes.
Satisfactions that we find in life.
Our relationships.
Our jobs, whatever it is, I'd like us to in our minds, each one individually, brethren, take each of those things.
And put them into a pile and in our hearts.
Before the Lord Jesus, look at those things.
And then answer that question individually in our hearts to the Lord Jesus.
Do you love me more than these things? Many of those things are good and right. Desires for our families, concerns about a career, concerns about a companion for life, concerns about the assembly, about brethren that we are exercised, about children. We could go on and on, brethren, with that list of good and right and necessary things that occupy our hearts and concern us.
But I would like to this afternoon address some remarks as the Lord helps with this question.
Are those things to me, things that I love more than the Lord Jesus?
It was obvious, I think, to all of our souls today as we meditated and considered that portion in Jude, that in the day in which we live, beloved brethren, it will require eyes and hearts fixed continually on the blessed Lord Jesus Christ if we're to walk through this world.
To His honor and glory, and consequently to our joy and satisfaction. I would like to suggest, beloved young people, that you can't really separate in your life those two things, walking through the honor of the Lord Jesus and real joy.
You might walk a life of supposed joy in this world, but if it's not an honor of life that glorifies and honors the Lord Jesus, you'll not find true joy.
And if you walk with the Lord Jesus as the 1St and initial exercise of your heart about everything that everything you do.
And say every thought of your heart and mind is taken in relation to what the Lord Jesus Christ thinks about it, how it affects his blessed name. Does it grieve his heart? The exercise, the desires that I have, the things I want to do, are they that which gives joy to the Lord's heart, or are they that which might cause grief to his heart? I suggest that if that's the first thing that we.
00:10:02
Gauge our lives and our actions with that. The joy if we say.
The Lord you're 1St that the joy must follow.
The Lord Jesus, I have often said, and I beg your allowing me to say it again, my blessed Savior and yours did not hang on that cross suffering.
Bleeding there to offer up his life, to be forsaken of God for those awful three dark hours that will never understand.
He didn't stand there and allow people to spit in his face, to beat him on the head with a rod, to slap him, to mock him.
So that you would go through this life miserable and unhappy.
He did that, that you might experience the fullness of joy.
And I too.
But that to do that I submit, beloved brethren, we have to answer this question individually and in reality before God. Loveth thou me more than these? May God help us all this afternoon to be able to say in faith looking we see Jesus seated, crowned with glory, seated at the Father's right hand in glory. We see him there. How do we see him there? It's my faith. Do you see him there or is that just a brethren theology?
That's just brethren language, something you hear on Lord's Day morning.
At the breaking of bread. Or is it a daily reality that by faith you and I have a view of the most incredible glory, Unimaginable, indescribable, but its glory because that blessed man is seated there.
And that object, above all objects, the Lord Jesus, His blessed Person, is the thing that guides our every decision in this life. I submit again, beloved young people, you cannot have Him as the object of your heart and not have along with it real, deep, abiding joy and satisfaction.
Now what I'd like to do with that background?
Lovest thou me more than these?
Is I would like to turn to the Old Testament and follow a well known story with four.
Well known figures 5 actually.
To look at.
Those who had the joy and the delight of a relationship with one who is called the man after God's own heart.
But in some of those cases.
There was something before that man that they loved and that got in the way.
And I would like to, I'm talking about the story obviously of David and I would like to follow in one of the chapters in that history.
Some people that had to do with David.
One saw.
One Jonathan. 1 Michael.
And one Samuel.
They would like to follow their histories because.
It's remarkable that in at least two of those instances, it talks about two of those people as loving David.
And yet, though they loved David, the circumstances of the life, the decisions they made, the exercises of their hearts, what was truly important to them, came out, and in those cases, denied them the fellowship of the one that they said they loved.
And did so at great cost to them individually.
And I'd like to look at this this afternoon that we might gain a few principles from the Word of God for our good and our blessing, because, beloved brethren, I believe that today.
It takes more, and it always has, than to just say I love Jesus.
To walk through this world fully satisfied and with real joy, and to walk in a path that keeps one from that horrible shipwreck of life that we see so many ending up in who profess to be Christians. And So what I want is to ask ourselves, do I love him more than these? Is it reality in my heart?
00:15:02
To have this object so before my soul that I can truly walk in fellowship and communion and joy with him.
Let's turn, please.
To First Samuel.
Chapter 19.
And we will go through this. We won't perhaps dwell a long time on it. I don't know, brethren, whether what I have on my heart this afternoon answers to an address or part of an open meeting. But you just trust above all that it's of the Lord.
Let's start with verse one.
And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they.
Should kill David.
So rather strange, isn't it?
Here's a man who saw his people, his armies, delivered from a foe that he was trembling to stand in the in front of.
Here's a man who reaped the spoils of this victory that he could do nothing about and had nothing to do with.
Here's a man who, in every step of his pathway since Goliath, was slain by David.
Has benefited and only benefited from David's courage and love for Jehovah and faith.
He's only been a receiver of good and what does it say about him?
It says that he speaks to his son and to his servants that they should kill David, get rid of the one and only source of true blessing that existed in his life. Now, I'm just going to make applications this afternoon, but I want to tell you in one application, beloved brethren, beloved young people especially.
The world through which you and I pass is a world that has indeed, especially the Western nations that we're part of.
The Christ of Calvary.
There is no one in this room who would willingly say I will give up my American citizenship.
And move to Malawi to live there the rest of my life in the conditions.
That exists there. There is no one here that would say I will willingly, unless called of God of course.
I will willingly give up my rights, my citizenship, that which I enjoy in this land and move to.
You can fill in 100 other places.
We live in a place that has been supremely blessed.
By God.
Christianity and the blessings that Christianity gives.
But you know, there's something that characterizes everyone of us, whether we're saved or not, we have something called the flesh.
The flesh which will never, ever bow and submit.
To the Lord Jesus Christ, so awful, so helpless, so worthless, so wicked.
That God could only do, I say reverently, one thing with it, and that's put it to death at the cross.
I know that in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
And that's all. I'd like to look at Saul that way, the flesh which is going to rise up and say I'm going to re ruling in my life, I'm going to be the king. I will not give up that authority and lordship to another.
And I will kill the one.
Who seeks and rightfully ought to have that place of lordship in my life.
Pretty harsh language. Is it possible Christians can talk that way? I believe it is.
That we can every day get up with a decision to make either the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed on the cross to wash my sins away, who loved me so much that He came down into this world and walked in a world He had made and grieved over. A world that he had made, ruined by sin, and went to the cross. That he might have me with him forever.
That I get up every morning to make a decision that I will either practically and willingly walk with that one as the object of my heart.
As my Lord submitting to his thoughts and his ways, or I will in effect say, I'm going to put that out of my life, and I say reverently, in effect, I say, I'm going to stamp out the exercises and the desires and the rights of that one.
00:20:19
To rule in my life today that I love something else more than him.
And so Jonathan was presented with a very, very solemn decision. What are you going to do, Jonathan? Remember, Jonathan was the one after he saw what David did, it said he loved David as he loved his own soul. And he stripped himself of all that he had and he gave it to David as if to say, David, there's nothing about me that compares to you. You're worthy of my all. I give it all. I lay it all at your feet. Everything I have. That's a wonderful. That was a wonderful start. That was a start of one who truly loved David. I trust it so that each one in this room this afternoon.
Can say I truly do love the Lord Jesus and he is worthy of all.
But I say each day you and I get up and we have a decision to make.
Will we listen to Saul? That is the flesh saying kill David, put him out, don't allow him that place of authority and headship.
Or are we going to follow? What did Jonathan do about it well?
Let's look.
Jonathan, Saul's son.
Delighted much in David.
And Jonathan told David.
You know, that's a good thing to do. That's a very precious thing to do, to run to the one each day that has died to save me and to say, Lord, I know that there's something today that's going to come into my life to seek to displace thee and thy rights. But you see what Jonathan did, His faith wavered because he says.
I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place and hide thyself. Is that what you want, beloved young people?
Dear brethren, is that what we want to say? I'm glad that the Lord loves me. I'm glad He died on the cross for me.
But I want him to stay in a secret place until the morning. He's going to come very soon. There's going to be a wonderful and bright morning. We're going to be caught home to be with him forever, and that's soon enough for me to be connected with his glory in the morning. But for now, David, go and hide and stay hidden in a secret place.
Or.
Do we say Lord Jesus?
I want you to shine out of my life today. I want you to be the Lord in my life. I want to love you more than these, and I want to walk with your glory displayed in some measure in my life today. And so he goes on and he says.
In verse 4 I'm going to skip on Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father.
And he goes on there and he explains to Saul, he says all of those wonderful things that David has done, how Saul has benefited from them. David was rather Jonathan in his love for David, was reasoning and arguing and trying to set his father straight, beloved brethren.
In my application, may I say you and I are wasting our time if we try to bring that which is at enmity.
With God into agreement with him, That is, if I try to make my flesh religious.
If I try to somehow bring it in subjection that which hated Christ.
That which has no standing before Christ, that which had to be put to death in his death on the cross.
If I try to bring that into subjection and we see those efforts going on all around us in Christianity Today.
Some sort of Christianity, some sort of theology that says we're going to take.
That which has already been accounted as unchangeably, unhelpfully bad.
There's no good thing in it. It's fit only for death. But we're going to work in the name of Christ and we're going to improve it.
We're going to do something to make it better. No, it's got to be done with. Christ is the object, not the flesh, and so he talks to his Father.
And he tells him about all that he did. He said, he says in verse five he put his life in his hand and slew the Philistine.
And the Lord brought a great salvation for all Israel, and thou sawest it, and didst rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood to slay David?
Without a cause. This is most interesting, this next verse. And Saul hearkened onto the voice of Jonathan. And Saul swear as the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain. And so verse 7, Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence. As in the time passes in times past. Well, it seems like those efforts worked. It seems like there was, after all, something that could be done.
00:25:29
That could be worked on with Saul that could improve the situation.
And so Saul, even for a time, agrees with what Jonathan says. Yes, you're right, he did save us. Yes, you're right, He did me good. He slew the giant that I couldn't slay.
And so he says, I swear to you, I won't kill him. He can come back in my presence. But you know, if we were to read in Galatians, we read that about how that the flesh and the spirit are in a constant, a battle as it were, there's not going to be peace between them. And we'll see that's going to happen very soon here because it says there was war again, verse 8. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter.
And they fled from him.
Now wouldn't you think that would cause joy, that Saul would see that? And he would, his heart would just open up with joy and love and thankfulness to this one who caused such a great slaughter of the enemy.
But it says in the evil spirit from the Lord was upon so all as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand. You know, I'm not clear that I fully understand this, beloved brethren, but I'm going to suggest something for you at least to consider.
You have in the Word of God, various weapons mentioned. You have a javelin or a spear. You have a sword. You have a bow and arrow, a shield. I'm going to suggest at least a possible application for you to consider.
That John, that Saul sat there with an ability and a desire.
Even though he had sworn that he was going to be at peace with David and that David could come back into his presence.
And that he would sit there and allow David to be there in his presence. He still had in his hand a javelin. He still had the means and the desire.
To kill David. You know we learned early in the Word of God that Amalek, which is a picture of Satan acting on the flesh.
We learn early in the Word of God that there's going to be a constant battle between Amalek and the people of God.
And it's going to go on from generation to generation. They'll never not be in this world. A time where in the flesh.
Is lusting and fighting and contending against the Spirit. Even if theology or Christianity, professingly so, is used to somehow try to bring peace, it won't work because the flesh, ever, you might say, sits there with that javelin in its hand and that hateful spirit toward Christ, the rightful Lord, the rightful ruler. And so Saul has that javelin.
And it says.
In Saul, it says David played with his hand.
Think of it, you know they're in Psalms. It talks about the one who says.
I am for peace.
There for war, but when I am for peace, there for war. Here was David. What was he doing with his hand? Oh, he was playing with a heart, bringing comfort and joy into that company. What was Saul doing? He was sitting there with a javelin, trying to decide how and when he could kill David. Why am I saying this? Lovest thou me more than these? There are those things, beloved young people, beloved brethren, that rightfully have a place in our hearts and lives, but all.
That we might be ever so watchful of those things, and that we might be really before the Lord in judging and leaving the flesh where it belongs, is that which will ever and always be an enmity with David. Always have a javelin seeking to smite David.
It says it's all sought to smite David, even to the wall with the javelin, and David fled and escaped that night.
Well, there was the efforts of one who loved David, but he didn't love him enough.
Had he loved him enough, he would have fled with him. He would have gone out, he would have quit trying to get David to be comfortable and safe in Sauls presence, but he would have gone out with him until David was allowed by God to come into that place that he had rightfully the king over Israel.
But instead, instead, David has to flee. He has to leave. Jonathan, that's sad. You know, beloved brethren, if you and I daily seek in the flesh to live for Christ and seek by the means of the flesh and satisfying it or using it, whatever way that we're going to live and seek to follow the Lord and allow him and put him in that rightful place as Lord of our life, I say we're going to miss the joy of his company. He had to flee.
00:30:19
And Jonathan didn't go with him. Jonathan lost the joy.
Of the conscious presence of David, the one whom he loved because he tried to get David.
And Saul to be at peace, and there is no peace between them. But now we come to another one. If we would read later, it says of Michael Saws, Saul's young daughter, younger daughter. It says of Michael that she loved David. He comes back from the battle, from the victory. And the women are singing. Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10 thousands. And Saul gets angry because he says they've ascribed more to David than they have to me. And so the flesh rises up in pride and it's going to get rid of David because it can't stand to have anything more important, anything more of more value than itself.
Well, then Michael comes along and Saul's realizes that Michael loves David. What kind of a love was it? I will suggest to you that this is the second kind of thing.
Lovest thou these more that lovest thou these more than me that this love was a love?
That was willing to identify with David while David was being feeded as a glorious warrior. That as long as David was looked up to and adored and made an object of adulation and glory, Michael was quite willing to be in connection and relationship with him. And she loved him. But what she really loved was his glory, the honor that would be hers as being connected with him. And so he flees.
And it says here.
In verse 11, Saul also sent messengers on to David's house to watch him.
And to slay him in the morning. And Michael, David's wife told him, if thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain.
You know, I'm amazed as I look at this story, beloved brethren.
To see how in both cases, those who love David.
Are encouraging him to hide himself or to disappear in the night.
Now I'm again, I'm saying I'm repeating, I'm making applications here. But you know, we couldn't, as we heard this morning, be in a more dark day than the day we live in right now. It's morally as much of A night as it can ever possibly be.
This is not a time to tell the Lord Jesus, as it were, to flee. This is a time to walk with the Lord Jesus at that light of testimony might shine brightly at a time when it so desperately needed.
Michael loved David, but she loved the David who was honored and glorified, not a David who was chaste.
And ridiculed. Which Lord, may I say, reverently beloved young people?
Do you love? Do you love a popular Jesus that's quite acceptable to the world?
And looked up to and respected as a mighty man, as a great teacher, as a leader of a huge following, as a political activist, or on and on and on all the different ways that he's acceptably looked at in the world.
Is that the one that you love? That's not the true Christ.
Is the one that is the true Christ? Are you saying to him, flee away?
Flee away tonight. I don't want to be connected with you. You've got to get away.
Because the true Christ is one that it says, when we shall see him, there is no beauty.
That we should desire him.
The true Christ is one that the world hated. The true Christ was the one who when Pilate brought him forth and said, Behold the man, they said, crucify him. And when he brought him forth again and he said, Behold your king, they said, we have no king but Caesar.
The true Christ, the true glory, the true Person seated in glory today.
As we go through this awful memorial night in this world is not a popular Jesus.
It's not a Jesus that if you connect yourself with and you're going to find honor and glory.
It's a Jesus, I say reverently, who's despised, and if he were to walk back into this world today, men would just as happily today, spit in his face.
00:35:02
As they did 2000 years ago when he was here.
That's the Jesus.
That you have to decide whether or not you're going to flee with and be in relation with, or whether you're going to say you flee away. But that's not all Michael did.
We find that after David fled.
It says in verse 13, Michael took an image and laid it in the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster and covered it with a cloth.
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said he is sick.
And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him. And when the messengers were coming, behold.
There was an image in the bed with a pillow of gold's hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michael, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away my enemy, that he has escaped? And Michael answered Saul. He said unto me, Think of this, beloved brethren. Here's one who supposedly loved David, and now here's what she's saying about David.
He said unto me, Let me go. Why should I kill thee?
She's saying like father to Saul. She's saying my father. If, if, if he said to me, if I don't let him go, he's going to kill me.
She was quite satisfied to have what appeared to be David.
In her house, I'm just going to make that as a simple application. She put that tariff in the bed. She covered it. She made it look like David was in the bed.
She made it appear that he was there, but he wasn't. He was gone. There was Number glory that she was interested in and so she made excuses. She said the reason he's there is because he's sick.
Is that how you look at your savior today? That you want to outwardly have it look like you have a relationship with Him?
But in fact, you look at him, as I say, very reverently sick and unable to really help you.
And walk with you and unworthy of your walking with him. Michael said she loved David.
And that she lied about him.
And she used the excuse that he was going to harm her, David.
Who slew the enemies of the people of God, and wouldn't lay his hand on his most inveterate enemy? Saul, but said, Let the let the Lord take care of him.
He becomes the object of the lives of one who said she loved him. All beloved young people, beloved brethren, love us style these more than me. I want to suggest that there are those things in our life that we can get so taken up with that it causes us to live.
A lie to live as though we have Christ and are in relationship to Him.
When in fact we have, we want nothing to do with the despised and rejected and dishonored Christ.
May God help us in this dark day to lay hold of him and say, David, if you're going to flee, I'm going with you.
Wherever you go, that's what Iti the Gittite said, he said. David, wherever you go, in life or death, I'm going to be with you.
His heart had been truly won by David and we see other beautiful pictures of that throughout the word of God. Those who said I won't leave, I'm going to go with you in real love. They stayed with the object of their affection. Or may it be that we don't just simply stay with an outward form.
But that in reality we find ourselves with David. So David flees from one that loved him, flees away from his presence because he won't live the leave the presence of Saul. Now he flees from another who says that she loves him. Now he flees away. And now we come to the third and the last one. And this is interesting because this is where he goes.
So David verse 18 fled and escaped and came to Samuel.
To Rama.
Now I'm going to bring this to a close, beloved brethren, and leave time perhaps for someone else, but I would like to suggest this a very interesting thing. As far as I know, and I will be corrected on this because I don't know absolutely for sure, but as far as I know I have. I have not read in the Word of God ever that Samuel loved David. Those words I read that Jonathan loved David. I read that Michael loved David.
I don't read that Samuel loved David, but his actions speak louder than his words.
And you know, I just want to make this little practical application.
00:40:03
It doesn't really mean a whole lot. It's not really in one way too important what you and I say today in this Dark World. But what we do is very, very important because as it's often been said in the gospel meetings and other times, it may be that the only gospel message your unsaved neighbor gets is the way you live your life.
And if you and I do not live our lives for the glory and the honor of the Lord Jesus, not a whole lot that we say is going to make much difference.
Samuel lived as one who, you might say, could enjoy happy fellowship with David, and it was to such a one that David, when everybody else had rejected him, fled.
He flees to Samuel, Samuel, who as a little boy grew up in that temple, who learned at an early age to say, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.
Who, it became evident to all in Israel, was set up by God.
As a prophet of the people of God.
And Samuel walked with his God.
Faithfully, with a very stumbling, backsliding, confused, divided people. The day that Samuel walked, in many ways is like the day you and I are walking. A very dark, confused day where the people of God are at odds with each other, divided over many things, which king is going to reign, and on and on and on. What sadness?
But Samuel walked with God and it was clear by his walk that he had been set up as a very special vessel of God in walking in faithfulness with the Lord. Can you and I do that, beloved brethren, to get up each day, not to be some mighty giant of, of, of Christianity, but to simply do what Enoch did to each day of our lives. Wake up in the morning and pray before the Lord, and then get up and to walk with the Lord that day.
Well, David flees to Samuel and we'll just.
Notice what happens? Saul sends messengers.
They come into Samuel's presence, and in that presence they end up changed in their character. Instead of coming to slay the One, the man after God's own heart, they become a mouthpiece for God's mind. What a tremendous blessing, what a tremendous power and force, a life lived for Christ with Him as the object of the life and a heart can be.
And so twice that happens. The messengers are sent in, twice into Samuel's presence, they come and their whole character is changed and they prophecy. And then even Saul himself comes to seek to slay David. And I won't go into this any further other than to say that in Samuel's presence where David was, where David, you might say, found safety in the presence of this man.
Who sought to follow and serve the Lord, whatever costs it was that Saul is stripped of all that he was characterized by in his power and glory, as you know.
Wonderful if you and I could say that in our lives and in our ways.
When the Lord Jesus says to us, as it were, do you love me more than these? He's not saying, I say that we should look down or disregard those natural responsibilities and cares of our life, but all that we might so live that David, you might say in this world which has rejected him, can find a place where fellowship can be enjoyed and can flee. When those who say they love him and then fail and he has to flee away.
That there can be a place where his presence can be known. May we be like Samuel, May we be able to say, yes, Lord Jesus, in some little measure I can say in my heart, Thou art more precious than all of these other things. And in some little measure, as Peter said, Lord, thou knowest, thou knowest all things, Thou knowest I love thee. But to be able to say, Lord Jesus, you know my heart. And if I don't, if I have some other object besides thee.
00:45:00
This afternoon, if I have some other object, tomorrow morning, if the Lord leaves us here and I get up, Lord Jesus, I want that object to be put in second place. I want thee to be first, that thou needest not flee away, but find a place of refuge and fellowship. May the Lord help us, beloved brethren, to see Him in glory, to be filled with the glory of His person, and to say, yes, Lord Jesus, I love thee more.
Than these.
They will always be alone.
When I hear.
My heart.
Can sleep.
Which one die first?
In my life.
00:50:34
We have found a friend in Jesus. Know how He loves. This is great. You'd like to bless us. Know how He loves, how our hearts be like to hear Him fit us well in safety near Him. Why should we distrust or fear Him? Oh how He loves.
Explorer.
Where?
He lost.
Oh God, we are.
Joy.
And Jesus to the Lord.
Oh.
Through his name.
We are for heaven.
Oh, how we love.
Where is the child our goals? It's a breadth and bread and.
00:55:48
So we have a few more minutes, brethren, until 3:15. I'd like to read in connection.
With what our brother has given us in the end of the book of Ephesians.
Chapter 6 and verse 24.
The Scripture says here Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
In One Corinthians chapter 16.
And verse 22.
If any man.
Love not.
The Lord Jesus Christ, let him be.
Anathema Maranatha.
I cursed at his coming.
Just those two verses stand out as to.
A real believer in the Lord Jesus.
Loves the Lord Jesus.
There is no question about it, he loves the Lord Jesus.
And if anyone loved not our Lord Jesus.
Let him be a curse at his at his coming.
It shows, dear brethren, that there is no neutral ground in this question.
Do you love the Lord Jesus?
Those that love him in sincerity are.
Truly his people.
Now remember how it challenged me as a younger person years ago?
Born and raised in Walla Walla and the brethren used to go down to the street corner to preach on Sunday afternoon.
On 4th and Main St.
And I was in high school at the time.
And I remember some of my school companions riding up and down the street.
Where they were preaching and they look over and look at me.
I can remember.
The reproach of being identified with that group that was announcing the name of the Lord Jesus.
But I thought about a future day.
And it encouraged me when the Lord Jesus will come in power and glory from heaven.
Am I going to be ashamed of Jesus then?
Absolutely impossible and that encouraged me.
To stand.
Even though it was in feebleness and a lot of failure on my part I'm sure.
Identified with that which was connected with the name.
Of the Lord Jesus. If you are a real believer in the Lord Jesus, you love him.
I'd like to go to two verses in John chapter 14.
In connection with this matter of loving the Lord Jesus.
It is a response to his love, says in First Epistle of John. We love because he first loved us, in other words.
Our love is a love of response to him because he loved us so much.
01:00:02
But there is a proper response now on our part if we have learned to enjoy.
The Lord's love in John 14 and verse 15 If ye love me.
Jesus says.
Keep my commandments.
Yes, dear young brother and sister in the Lord Jesus. Dear older ones too. We have commandments in the New Testament, things that are specifically said to do and other things not to do.
He has said, Be not ye unequally yoked with unbelievers. It's of command.
He doesn't leave it to our discretion to decide if we want to or not. He says don't do it. And then he says if ye love me, keep my commandments.
And then down further in this chapter. Notice.
In verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, This is Judas, not Iscariot.
If a man love me, he will keep.
My words and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
So it's more than even keeping his commandments, it's keeping his.
Words.
And I like to think as the words, as the full expression of his thoughts.
There's a lot in the New Testament that is not exactly commands, but it is his words, it is the expression of his thoughts. And if you really love him, you're not going to only keep his commandments, you're going to keep his word.
And we don't have a whole lot of time this afternoon, but I'd like to.
Briefly, in connection with this, referred to three of David's mighty men.
Who are an illustration of this that I've enjoyed so much? Let's go back to.
The list of David's mighty men in Second Samuel.
Chapter.
23.
And verse.
15.
And David longed Davidson The Cave of Adulam.
In verse 13 it tells us and David longed and said.
All that one would give me drink of the water.
Of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.
Is this a command?
Don't think so.
It is simply an expression of a desire that he has.
He was brought up in Bethlehem.
He evidently had drunk at that well a lot of times. He knew how good that water was, and here he's trapped in this.
Desolate cave with these men and he has a desire. Oh, wouldn't it be good to have a drink of that water right now?
Verse 16 and three and the three mighty men break.
Through the host of the philistines, and drew water out of the well of.