Address—Bruce Anstey
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Let's begin singing.
#200.
And.
290 Four 294 Come, oh, come, thou stricken Lamb of God, who sheds for us thine own life blood, and teaches all thy love. Then pain in life were sweet.
294.
Oh come thou stricken.
For us.
And they shall fall by love and pain.
Our God and our Father, we look up to Thee with thankful hearts for the Lamb of God, of whom we have been singing and addressing this little prayer hymn. And our God we thank Thee that what He has accomplished at Calvary has made it possible for us to have a relationship with thee and to be brought into a place of Northeast. Nearest possible relationship that could be given to a creature Muggles our minds and we can hardly.
We asked you this afternoon that thou would teach us all thy love. As we've been singing, we pray that thou would enlarge our scanty thoughts.
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Our capacity to enjoy Thy love, we pray would be deepened through reading Thy scriptures this afternoon and now we look up to Thee. We ask Thy help on the subject that is before us and pray a blessing upon each person that is here and remembering the Coleman family in Canada, and ask their God that our Minister to them is out to see fit to comfort.
Ten piece. Will you give the our thanks?
In the name of our Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.
I'd like to speak this afternoon on the deepest subject in the whole Bible.
No, that's not prophecy.
No, that's not the mystery.
I want to speak on the subject of the love of God.
Let's turn.
Ephesians chapter One.
Verse 345 and six Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of sons that should read our sonship.
By Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved wonderful verses here. And it tells us that God has supremely blessed us as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ Christ. He has put us in the highest possible place that His love could provide. He has put us in. What is known here in this chapter is sonship.
As I read there in verse 5, which is the Son's place before God?
And we find, as we read here, that this was all a result of the love of God.
And so you and I as Christians, believers on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are very favored creatures, above all the creatures that God has made. We only as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have been said in this very wonderful place. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. There is not one blessing that God could give us more that He hasn't already bestowed upon us.
And one of the greatest blessings of all is that of sonship, which simply means Son's place.
And that's the highest conferred blessing that we have in relation to the Father.
What an privilege it is to be a son of God, and you know not only sons of God, but loved of God. For it was the love of God that actually formed the whole plan to bring us into this place of nearness and blessing and favor. To be loved of God is a privilege that belongs only to one, uh, class of creatures, mankind. The Bible doesn't tell us that God loves his animals that he made. He cares for them, makes sure they get food when they run in the wild.
But it doesn't say that he loves them. In fact, the angels too.
You know, they're the highest form of creatures that God has made. They're faster, stronger, smarter than we are.
But it doesn't say that they love or that they are loved of God. They are creatures.
That obey God, work for God, serve God, do their will, and do his will. But there is one class of creatures that God loves, and I want to speak a little bit about that. That's men. Not just redeemed men, but all mankind. For the Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. It is a privilege to be a man and to be loved.
Of God. And this place of sonship to which we have been set, as I say, is the highest conferred place, a blessing that God could give us in relation to the Father. He could have lifted us to a lofty place of being one of the elect angels. That would have been wonderful, I suppose, or even to be an Archangel. But he didn't do that. He chose to put us in a place far higher than that. He put us in his own Son's place, with all the favor that rests on his Son now rests on us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it was all because he loved us. And I want to speak a little bit about the love of God and what it has accomplished. First of all, the incredible, incredible privilege of being loved of God. Then secondly the things that divine love.
Produces in its objects and then lastly what the way that Divine love takes to secure a deeper place in our hearts.
You know God loves in two ways.
Did you know that there are two words in the Greek that are translated love in our English version? And we kind of lose the sense of what the each of these two aspects of his love are? We're thankful for critical translations like Jan Darby's, which makes a footnote and tells you which one it is, but let me just demonstrate that a little bit here with a few verses in the UH in our Bibles. So let's turn over here to John's Gospel and Chapter 3.
John 3 and verse 35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
Well, this word love here in the original language, the Greek is Agapeo and that is the love of a settled disposition, a love of choice. It is a love that he has, as we says here for his son. He loves his son in this way. But if you turn over to chapter 5, you'll find similar words, but it's a different word for love. Let's look at chapter 5 and verse 20.
For the Father loveth the son and shows him all things that he himself doeth. But the word love, there is another word in the original language, and that is filio, which is a love of affection and emotion and of sentiment and so on. And so we find that God loves his Son in both these ways. Wonderful. Let's look a little further now we'll find that the Father loves us in both those two ways. So turn to chapter 14.
Chapter 14.
Verse 23.
Jesus said, answered, and said unto him, If a man loved me?
He will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will make our come to him and make our boat with him. But there the Father will love him is Agapeo, same love that he loves his son with. He loves us.
Chapter 16. We find that he God loves us in that other way as well.
Chapter 16 and verse 27 For the Father love himself loveth you because you love me, and I believe that I came out from the Father. So there is the Father not only loving his Son with the Agapeo love, and also with that love of affection and emotion, and so on and sentiment and Filio. But he loves you, and he loves me just the same. And if we were to turn over to the 17th chapter of John's Gospel.
I think it's verse 23. It tells you that he wants the whole world to know that he loves the Father Loves us.
Just as much as he loves his own son. Now let me read that for you 'cause this is mind boggling.
Chapter 17 and verse 23. I and them, and thou and me, that they may be perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
So just in the same way in which he loves the Son, he loves us. Think of this now.
God loves you and me just as much as He loves his own Son.
Now, if we didn't have that written in the Bible, I'd say I don't know about that one.
But I can stand here with all the authority that I can because I have the word of God open. It tells me that God loves you just as much as he loves his own Son. He has set his love upon us in the Agapeo love. That's what you get in Deuteronomy Chapter 7. Although it's not Greek, there is Hebrew. He has set his love upon them.
Yes, but he also has a love of affection for us as well. I won't, uh, go any farther with this, but I'll just give you a couple thoughts. I jotted down where uh yesterday. And that is, if you turn over to UH again John 15 and John 11, you'll find, which I understand the chapter that you're reading is on today. You'll find that the Son loves us just uh in those two ways as well. The Lord Jesus loves us with that agape of love and also with the filial love more than that.
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It tells us in first John 4:00 and also in Titus chapter three that we are to love one another with that love.
Agape and also with a filial love. But now this gets interesting. God loves lost men, but he only loves them with the agapio love, not with the filial love interesting. And more than that, John 14 No, it's Romans 14. Oh no man, Anything but love that word Love. There the word owed to all men is agapeo. We are to love the world as God loves sinners.
But not with the filial of.
And I think I can see a lesson there. Why? Because we can get emotionally wrapped up in their lives very easily and get carried along with wherever they're going on with it. We try to reach out and help them, but if we love them with the agape of love, as God tells us in His word, it's with a settled disposition without the emotion involved, but with the care of the individual involved, and so on. There you can see how that we are to reach out with the gospel, to the lost world, but not with the filial love many have and got affectionately attached to those objects that they are trying to reach the gospel with.
And I've gone into the path of sin that they're into, and all kinds of problems have happened as a result of it.
So we have to be very careful as it says here that we're going to Oh no man, anything but love, John Romans 14 but love, but that is Agapeo love. Now another thing you find in John 15 that lost men love each other with the filial love but not the agapea.
You know the world loveth its own John 15. That's a that's a filial.
So there's natural affection. There's emotion among men. A man marries a wife and he loves his best friend and all this kind of thing. But then John, 5 and 42, says the love of the father is not in you. Now that's the adoption of this world knows nothing about that kind of a love, a love. But loves because he sets his love. He chooses to love not because there's anything lovable in the object. That's what agape love, uh, does.
And so you know, we are loved in an incredible way that no other creatures in this vast universe.
Is and we experience that love on a day-to-day basis. Whether we appreciate it or enjoy it, that's another thing we're gonna talk about in a minute.
I don't know about you, but I Daydream a lot and some of my daydreams are a little far fetched. But anyway, one of them is not so far fetched really when I tell you.
And that is, I sometimes think of someday I'm gonna run into an Angel and I'm gonna sit down and talk to him. We're gonna compare notes to what is like to be an Angel, what it's like to be a redeemed man. And that's not so far fetched really. I don't think it's gonna happen. But you know when you think of it, it says in Hebrews that they're sent forth to be ministering spirits to them that are called errors of salvation. And we know that they come where and take human form sometimes and then have talked to angels. John talked to angels, the angels didn't he? I'm not expecting to necessarily, but I just thought about what would that be like.
Can you imagine sitting down like that and talking?
So, do you know the Lord? Yes, I know the Lord. But you know him as your savior. Oh, no, no, not at all. How do you know the Lord, then? Well, I have a relationship with him. Well, what kind of a relationship are you having if you're not saved? Oh, I'm not saved.
You're not safe, but you have a relationship with them.
Yes, God has redeemed you, but he's never redeemed me. I never sinned like men have. You've never sinned. You can just see how this picture would go.
No, and I don't need to be redeemed, but I'm in a relationship with God.
Do you love God? No.
You don't. You love me? No, I can understand that one.
I obey. I do the will of God. I use my power, strength and and energy and so on to do what God tells me to do.
But they don't have the capacity to love and I we may explain that a little bit later.
But what an incredible thing.
And when we are found and we are of all mankind now I'm now dividing the human race into two parts, the saved and the lost, and those with whom have God has wrought. And there has been a work of redemption, and life is in the soul. We now have a capacity to do something more than just be loved of God, but to enjoy we have that love we have been capacitated to enjoy the love of God. It's conditional as we get in John 14 that we have to walk in obedience and in holiness.
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But nevertheless, we have a capacity to enjoy the love of God. And when we do, incredible things take place in the life of the believer. And I'd like to just talk about that here this afternoon, what divine love produces in its objects. OK, let's turn first of all to Isaiah.
Chapter 38.
Isaiah 38.
Isaiah 38, verse 1718 and 19.
Behold, for peace I had great bitterness.
But thou hast in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption.
For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
For the grave cannot praise Thee. Death cannot celebrate the day that go down into the pit, cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, shall praise Thee as I do this day. So the first great thing that Divine loves does and produces in its objects is an appreciation for what Divine love has done in connection with our sins, and putting our sins away, and delivering us and saving us. It produces what?
Well, it says right here, praise. Yes, That's the first thing that divine love would like to produce in the hearts of its objects. And that is praise and Thanksgiving for what the Lord Jesus has done for us is just what he says there in verse 19. The living. The living. He shall praise thee as I do this day. And it's something for us to do every single day of our lives. And I think that it's only fitting that we should, every single day of our Christian life, thank the Lord Jesus for dying for us on the cross. Thank the Father for sending the Son to be the Savior of the world.
And to be brought into this place a blessing and favor that we never even dreamt that God would even do.
As I said, we stand in his own son's place. You couldn't find a higher place than that.
He lifted us up out of the pit of corruption and saved us. You know, I have a a business associate, Paul Woo, and he's a Chinese, uh, Christian man. I have many Christian friends, Uh, like him, but he's uh, dear to me, my wife. He's been at our house many times. Well, not many times, but few times with with his wife Susan. And one time I asked him, Paul, how did you turn away from Eastern religion and so on and uh, become a Christian.
He said. Well, I got to a place in my life.
Well, I felt like I was just down in a pit.
A slimy, cold, miserable pit.
With mud. And it was cold. And I realized it was the pit of my sins. And I tried to climb up that pit so many times. And every time I did climb up the face of that pit, I'd get you up a little bit. And I slipped back down into it and I could not get out. No matter how many times I tried to get out of that pit, I could not get out. And he said, one day a man came walking along and the man said to me, I said to him, who are you? And he said, I'm Confucius. And I said to him, Confucius, Confucius, can you help me get out of this pit? He said, well, let's see.
How did you get into that pit? And he said, well, I wasn't watching where I was going and I fell in. He said, well, if you would have followed my sayings, you would have never fallen in, he says. But can you Get Me Out of this pit? He says, Well, I tell you one thing, if you ever do get out of the pit and you follow my sayings, I can guarantee you that you won't fall in again.
That didn't help, so he said. UH wasn't very long after that another man came along.
And he said, who are you? He said I'm Buddha and she probably would have noticed that that stomach on him, but whatever.
He said Buddha, Buddha, can you help me get out of this pit?
And he said, oh, don't worry about that. You just fold your hands and close your eyes and lean back and just imagine that you're on a beach somewhere where the hot sun shining on you, and just let that feel of the sun come fake. Bake through your skin and the hot sand and just imagine that you're at peace and the wind is just breezing over your body and you'll feel a lot better where you are, he said. Well, that may be good for you, but I'm in this pit and I need to get out, he says. Don't worry about it, just keep meditating. That'll help.
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And then he said to me, it wasn't very long after that another man came along and I said, who are you? He said I'm Jesus.
He said, Lord Jesus, can you help me get out of this ****? And he got down into that pit with me and he lifted me out, set my feet upon a rock and put a song in my mouth, even praised unto my God. The Lord Jesus can do what no Eastern religion can do. He can bring us up out of that horrible pit. And that's what we get here. In this verse he delivered me from the pit of corruption and cast all our sins behind his back. Yes. Doesn't that deserve that our hearts having received?
In any sense of understood that love, that it would produce praise naturally, as he says here, let's look at another one.
2nd Corinthians chapter five. We might mow through these at higher speed.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
Verse 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us, because that we thus judge that if one died for all, then all have died, and that he died for all that they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Now this verse is talking about something else that love produces, and that is.
It produces a change and altering of the course of the life of an individual.
You see, there's two ways in which we can live our Christian lives, and it's mentioned in verse 15. And one, the first one is we can live unto ourselves, and the other is we can live unto him. It's as simple as that. But there's a force that is at work in the lives of individual Christians that makes us transition from unto us, unto ourselves and unto him. And that is the love of Christ constrains us. It brings before us the thought of devotion and dedication to the cause of Christ. And this is an amazing thing to me.
To see how the power of the love of God and the love of Christ works in the lives of individuals whom he has saved.
And create an incredible change in the course of one's life.
And I know I'm looking into the faces of many who have experienced that transition. And I you all know that it's the love of God, the love of Christ, which constrains us to do so.
And it's an amazing thing, really, because it makes persons disciples of the Lord. Jesus makes us willing to lose our life in this world and to deny ourselves and to be willing to suffer and to accept persecution and hardship. And all the rest of it goes along with following Christ as a disciple, and so on.
And you know, it's interesting because such things as discipleship and putting Christ in the place of Lord in our lives has got nothing to do with securing a better place for us in heaven, because there is no better place than we have, nor does it add to our spiritual blessings. We've been blessed with all spiritual blessings, but yet thousands of people are throwing their lives away for the cause of Christ, and many are still doing it to this day.
And why? What advantage is it? No, it doesn't secure any better place in heaven. As I said, you're not more saved.
Well, I tell you, it's the love of Christ that constrains us to live not unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. There is a mighty power in the love of Christ, and the closer we get to it, the more it will work in our lives. We're going to speak about that in a little bit.
Powerful love. Let's turn to John 15.
John 15 verses 8 and 9. Herein is my Father. Glorify that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye Abide in my love. Abide in my love. So when we abide in the love of Christ, we enjoy that love.
Is another thing takes place, and that is fruit in our lives, Fruit bearing. That's what he says in my Father's, glorified by it. Now what is fruit? Fruit is not service. It is not serving the Lord, doing things for him.
Fruit bearing is the reproduction. Fruit is the reproduction of the moral features of Christ in the life of the believer. In other words, when we become more Christ like in our manner, in our character, in our ways, and so on, that is fruit in our lives.
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OK, So what the enjoyment of the love of Christ does in our souls as it produces fruit. And there is a moral change that takes place in the life of believers who take time to enjoy Christ's love. Let's turn to 2nd Thessalonians.
2nd Thessalonians.
Chapter 3. Second Thessalonians, Chapter 3.
Verse 3 The Lord is faithful.
2nd Thessalonians Chapter 3, verse three. Who shall establish you and keep you from the Evil One? And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will.
Do the things which we command you and the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.
And the patient waiting for Christ Or the patient waiting patience of Christ?
Here we have another thing that divine love effects in its objects, and that is a preserving character preserve a preservation to our souls. He's faithful to keep us from the evil one, and how he does it is he directs our hearts into the love of God.
And to the patient waiting of the Lord Jesus. And well, we enjoy His love, and we are preserved and kept from the evil one, because the evil one can do nothing to one who lives in the presence of the Lord and in the enjoyment of His love. And uh, if we give up the uh this, this, and don't take time to uh, to enjoy the love of God, as he mentions here, we will get impatient with regard to his coming, the Lord's coming.
And begin to settle down into this world first of all. And then we have in the latter part of this chapter an example of the disorderly walk that comes as one who comes from one or in the life of one who is careless about this and has lost sight of the patients of Christ and his coming. And so it's can very important if we're gonna be preserved from sinking into the ways of this world and get away from the Lord, get into the hands of the evil one that we be found in every single day of our lives.
Enjoying the love of God and the love of Christ. First John chapter two. First John, chapter 2.
Verse 5 But whoso keepeth his word in him, verily is the love of God perfected, whereby hereby know we that we are in him.
And so here we find the idea of keeping His word, which is the idea of obedience. And so, uh, enjoying the love of Christ produces obedience in the life of the believer. Another wonderful and important feature that we want to see first John, chapter 3.
Turn over to Chapter 3.
And verse.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world's good, and see if his brother and have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? And so he brings before us another feature in which the love of God produces, and that is love for our brethren, and it's proved by self sacrifice and care for their brother, and not only for the brethren, but even for any person that is in need.
So the love of God produces love in his children.
That's well, I won't read anymore here. We'll just pass on because we wanna get to another stage here and that is.
Uh, it does produce assurance in the heart because you get in chapter 4. Let's read that real quick. Chapter 4, verse 17. Hereby is our love 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. The perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment.
He that Feareth has not been made perfect in love. We love him or love because he first loved us. So it gives us a sense of our acceptance and assurance and cast out fear, not just of judgment but also fears that we may have in the Christian pathway. So the enjoyment of God's love does a lot of things. I'll give you one more and that's in Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah 31, and we'll make some applications here.
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Jeremiah 31.
And verse 2 Thus saith the Lord, the people which are left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest, the Lord hath appeared of old to me, saying, Yeah, I have loved thee with everlasting love, Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Now the context of this chapter is the repentance.
And the restoration of the 10 tribes of Israel under the heading Ephraim.
And it's interesting to me. It's remarkable that you find that it does not begin with them repenting, but it begins with them finding grace and love. Notice verse two. They which were left of the sword, found grace. That's then verse three. Yeah, it's lovely, but an everlasting. Love, grace and love are what affect repentance in the hearts of God's people.
And the 10 tribes, as we know, need restoration. And we as Christians can get away from the Lord and may need restoration.
And it's not the law that's going to restore any person or judgment even.
It's grace and it's love. And So what you find throughout the chapter, the returning of the 10 tribes bemoaning themselves and in repentance we find God going before them when the reality of it sinks into their souls that he puts up signposts in the way so that they can't miss the way back. He sort of paves the way back as we speak in our terms today. But what starts it the sense of love and grace sweeping over the souls of the tribes of Israel.
In that coming day, this is a promise by the prophet, by the Lord given to us in the prophet Jeremiah, Second Corinthians chapter 13. I need to turn to it, but it produces a communion of love and unity amongst God's people. These are all good things. I don't know how many I've got to hear. Maybe 10. Think of it. Praise, dedication, fruit bearing in our lives, preservation from the wicked one and so on down through the line. These are Christian features that will build our Christian characters.
How are they built? By law? Keeping by legality? By all kinds of things we place upon ourselves. Is that we're going to do better and become better, Christians and all that? No. It is produced by the enjoyment of the love of God in our souls and the appreciation of what Christ has done. And it works out in all these wonderful things in our lives and capacitates us for the theme of praise that's before us in heaven now.
Divine Love produces these great things in our hearts. But you know, I also said I wanted to speak about the way that Divine Love takes to secure a deeper place in our hearts. He's not satisfied that we enjoy a snippet here and there of His love. He's not satisfied that we would enjoy His love in some superficial way. He wants to deepen that work because these things are so valuable to him, and he's looking for these things in our lives.
And so we need to have a deeper sense of that love in our souls, and divine love undertakes to operate that as well. He has thought of everything. So return to John 13. We'll read a few verses there as to one way in which he deepens our appreciation.
Verse one.
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, and that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end or through everything.
There was no object that could stop the mighty love of Christ for his people, even the cross.
Then supper being ended, and the Devil having put now into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things unto his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God.
He rises from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel or with he was girded.
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Then cometh he to Simon Peter, And Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? And Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do now?
Knowest thou not, but what thou shalt know hereafter? Peter said unto him.
Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered and said, If I washed thee not, thou shalt thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter then said, Lord, not my feet, but my hands, and feet only, but my hands and my feet. Jesus said unto him, He that is washed all over needeth not to be washed his feet, but it's clean every wit a year clean but not all this he spake of Judas. The point that I'm getting at here is the subject of foot washing.
And uh, you know the story here, of course, that this is near the end of the life of the Lord Jesus. He was about to go to Calvary. He's about to go to the cross to.
Pay the price of our sins, and he took his own aside into the upper room here to have a quiet time with them. He wanted to be alone with them, and he wanted to be alone for them with them for a reason. He wanted to tell them all his love. His heart was full of love toward them. And uh, so we find that uh. He begins by not uh Speaking of his love to them, but by undertaking to wash their feet so that they would be in a state to enjoy his love.
But the chapter does start with mentioning his love. But this is the narrative.
Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And he knew that if they were going to have a deeper understanding and appreciation and enjoyment of that love, it would need to have the foot washing. And foot washing is a figurative thing. It just means that he would like to cleanse our souls from the defilement that we pick up from the ways of the world and so on that we pass through so that there be nothing between our souls and himself to enjoy his love more deeply, more purely. It is necessary.
And and he knows that it's necessary. The fact that Peter would resist this action shows that we can resist it too. And Peter was warned there by the Lord that if he didn't wash his feet, he was going to miss having part with him, not part in him. Part in him is relationship That was not the subject here, but part with him is to do with communion. To have part with him enjoying his love required that he would have to have his feet washed. And it's just the same with us. We can enjoy communion with the Lord Jesus. We can enjoy the love of the Lord Jesus if we have dirty feet.
And we pick up dirty feet by getting our feet in the wrong place in dirty places. And we have to be careful where we walk. But sometimes we cannot help but go through this world being actions, with uh, interaction with work and with so on. And we pick up the file and unawares even sometimes you have to things on our feet we don't even know. And they need to be washed away by taking time to be alone with the Lord Jesus. His great desire is that his people, his disciples here.
Would enjoy His love while he was away. And every chapter that we have in John's Gospel that pertained to the Upper room mentions His love. And so he knows that we need to abide in His love and to continue in His love, but we need to take time to let Him wash our feet. And this I say, dear young people to you especially, but to all of us really, we need to let the Lord and hear the Lord's voice calling us aside to take time to be alone with Him in our lives, what we often call the quiet time.
We all need to have a quiet time with the Lord every day. A little time when we can just let Him wash our feet and let Him tell us how much He loves us, let us enjoy His love and to enjoy communion with him. It's going to be the engine of driving force of all these things to do with Christian character. It'll be that which will preserve us in this world. It'll be that which will produce praise in our lives and all the rest of it that we've been reading about.
If we neglect to take time to be with the Lord, we are going to miss the enjoyment of His love. It's not going to change our standing in heaven. It's not going to erase some of our spiritual blessings that we have in Christ. But we're going to be the losers because we're going to miss out on the enjoyment of His love. And it's a dangerous thing because it's so easy to get into a habit of not taking time as we ought to.
So I was just saying that this is the first great way in which the Lord would work to deepen His love in our hearts, and that is to wash our feet. But it requires us, hearing His voice, to come into, come aside and to spend some time alone with the Lord.
00:45:13
Now let's look at another way in which he the 2nd way I wanna speak of.
In which he deepens his.
Job job 23.
Job 23 verse 16.
For God maketh my heart soft.
And the almighty troubleth me.
Romans chapter 5.
And verse 3-4 and five.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience and experience, hope and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which he hath given unto us. I'm sure you can see what I I'm going with these next two verses. And that is the Lord has another way of deepening our appreciation of His love.
In our souls, and that is through trial.
Through trouble as we read.
And often times the Lord takes this way because He wants us to have a deeper sense of His love. Notice what it said there. In Job, it says that God softens our hearts. Our hearts are oftentimes hardened because of the ways the world we get walking and just.
Mundane things of life as we go through and slightly callous maybe, whatever the case is, but uh, the Lord knows how to soften up our hearts to make them more, uh, receptive and responsive to his love.
And it's not something that he's he likes to do, but he knows it's necessary if there's going to be a deepening of our of his love and our affections. And so he brings trouble sometimes into our lives. And every one of us have experienced trouble in one way or another, trial in one way or another, maybe a disappointment. It may be a sorrow, it may be a a sickness. It could be a financial problems, it could be a marital problem, it could be a one of 100 different things that the Lord may allow to test and touch our lives.
But we know that anything that does touch our lives is because it came from a hand and a heart that loves us, you know, it says all things work together for them that love God or called according to his purpose.
And uh.
All things may not be good, but all things do work together for good.
And so we know that God has a divine end, and he oftentimes uses trials and tribulations of the way.
And this is faith talking here in Romans chapter five, he says, we we, we glory or we rejoice in tribulations.
Now you have to be in the right state of soul to be able to rejoice in tribulations. But he's Speaking of the normal Christian experience here as one who is in communion with God, and he's able to rejoice and give thanks to God for the tribulations that he may be passing through because he knows something. And this no here. As you know in other places in the New Testament, there's two words used for no, just like 2 words used for love. And this is. And we're thankful again for the critical translations to give us the.
Details as to which aspect of know it is two different words in the Greek. One is a wider and the other is Genosko, A wider is a which is the one that's here. It has to do with a deep conscious love, each conscious knowledge through experience having experienced something. Whereas genosko is more of an objective knowledge that you know some certain things because of certain facts have been taught you are to you, you, you've laid hold of it.
But isn't it interesting that it's owed here?
So we have glory and tribulations because we know something. We know from experience that it produces certain things in our souls that she mentions here. A chain of them actually. Patience, experience, hope. And then also it leads out to the end, which is that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. It has a larger place in our lives, Mr. Darby said. Trial itself cannot confer grace, but under God's hand it can break the will and detect hidden and unsuspected evils.
00:50:17
And if judged, the new life has more fully developed, and God has a larger place in the heart.
Also buy it. Lowly dependence is taught, and as a result there is more distrust of self and the flesh and a consciousness that the world is nothing and what is eternally true and divine has a larger place in the soul. I realize that's a mouthful. That's why I read it, because I don't think I could quote that. But what an incredible statement. And true as it is, God is interested in your soul. He's picked you up. He's paid a price to redeem you. The blood of his own son has been shedded. Calvary for the.
To to prove the cost. And he is not going to let us go our own way and have just a simple, elementary understanding of his love. He wants to deepen that work in our souls, and he's willing to put us into situations where there's trials and difficulties to do that. And it's because he wants to have a deeper place in our hearts.
So we must understand that every time something comes in that is adverse, there is a purpose of love behind it. It's often been said that there's a.
I I in every There's a need to be behind every trial that we come into.
That God can sustain us at the time. And at such times those of us who are at the funeral of little Daniel can see that with Jeff and Heidi sustained remarkably at such a time because of the grace of God. And nothing happens by chance, you know. Nothing happens by chance.
You know, when that little child was born, the Lord sent an Angel or angels. I don't know how many look after him. The Bible tells us that they're sent forth to be ministers to those who are heirs of salvation.
And those angels looked after him every step of the way. Many times that little child probably was in danger. The Angel watched out, maybe alerted somebody to get that child out of the way for this and that, or maybe exerted some force on his own power. Whatever. And I know so because in our parking lot, immediately back out and there's children running behind your car never to see anyone get hurt. The angels kept that little boy every day.
Until the day came.
When that Angel saw him climb that little ladder and plunge into that jacuzzi.
And God said to that Angel.
Don't save them. Let them go. I want him to drown.
And the Angel obeyed.
Emotionally involved with the lives of those to whom they have been cared for, No creature could, with half the power of love, ever stand by with the power to save and leave it to die. But the Angel, he did exactly what he was told to do. God told him don't save him this time.
And he didn't. He obeyed God. And how is it that God would have to choose that as a trial for Jeff and Heidi and for all of us to look on?
Because he's interested in deepening his love in our hearts, and he knows how to make our hearts soft. So we would receive that love and respond to it in a deeper and appreciate it more, more, more profoundly. What an incredible God we have that would place us in the highest possible place that his own son is in, and then begin to work with us down here until we come to appreciate that more deeply in our lives. And he takes us through many, many souls and troubles. I don't suppose there's one person in this room, young person, old person.
That hasn't experienced A sorrow or trouble problem in your life, that it's been very bitter and to have the Lord Jesus comfort your troubled heart and help you, he's a great God, dear Sister Bev here told me years ago before a conference meeting in LA. She said. Bruce, I want to tell you something because before I got up on the speaking, I think she wanted me to just to touch my heart and it did and it's still to this day, she said, you know, Bruce?
Well, the Lord saved me.
50 years or 60 years, whatever it was years ago at that time.
I knew he loved me. I knew it because look at the cross, there's a proof of his love. What a demonstration, she said. I knew he loved me, but having walked with him for these 50 or 60 years, I didn't know that he loved me this much. You know, I can say the same thing.
00:55:04
He loves you so much. Dear young people and everybody in this audience, he loves you so much. He's not going to.
Stop at deepening the sense of His love and our souls because he wants us to learn all His love as we've been singing. Teach us now all thy love then Pain in life were sweet and death were gain. You know there are lessons that we can learn down here that we cannot learn in heaven. There are things that we can only learn here in this world that we cannot learn in heaven. You know He is called the God of all grace.
But you will not learn him in that way as far as experience is concerned.
When we get to heaven, we need to go through circumstances down here and to learn that he supplies grace. He giveth more grace and grace to help in time of need is found down here. And when we He touches our lives and He gives us grace to go through things, there's where we learn what he is to be the God of all grace. He's also called the God of all comfort. We'll never need any comfort in heaven with all our tears are going to be washed away then. But we need it down here and we learn Him as the God of all comfort down here. He's the God of all mercy.
And we know it because of the things that he has done for us down here. And so there are things that we do pass through down here that are for His glory and for our uh perfecting as far as our our uh.
Experience with with the Lord and it's worth it all. We may not be able to say that now, but when we get on the other side, we're going to thank God for His love that would also work in our lives to deepen its our hearts and and find a deeper place in our souls.
In the desert God shall teach thee what the God that thou hast found, patient, gracious, powerful, holy all his grace shall thereabound.
Let's stand in Thing #23.
Stand and sing #23.
Our God and our Father, We thank Thee that Thou art a great God and a good God. We thank Thee for thy power and thy grace, and for thy love. Of course we thank you for all the things that thy love rocks in our souls, all those good things, things that make us more like thy Son and form Christian character. And we thank you for Thy ways and grace that are past finding out.
That that was taken with each one of us.
Varied, indifferent for every individual. But we thank thee that thou art faithful, and we thank you for thy ways in working with us. May it be that our appreciation, our capacity to enjoy that love of thine, would be deepened as a result of all these things. Now we expand ourselves to Thee, praying for the family in Canada. Again, ask it now in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.