Prelude Veni Emmanuel
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
Offertory
Hymn of Commitment
Doxology
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
Hymn of Commitment
“I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves” (John 5:42).
Audio Sermon: John 5:41-47
Do you have the love of God in you? Does the love of God constrain you? Do you study His love? Are His loves your loves? Do you live in the habitual thought of the wonder of God’s love for you personally?
What do you witness when you study God’s love? You see the Cross. No other event allows you to capture the length, height, depth and width of His love. At the Cross, you discover no loveableness in man, yet God’s brand of love comes from the depth of Himself who loves because He is love.
In God’s love through Christ, you perceive that true love shrinks from no sacrifice: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Ro. 8:32-35).
Why should you examine God’s love for you? In your investigation, you will behold:
The Holy Spirit dwelling within you bearing witness with your spirit that you are God’s alone - no longer a stranger or alien to grace, but one with the Kinsman Redeemer
The angels are your ministering spirits bearing you up so that you might not dash your foot against the stone
The trials/afflictions/persecutions coming your way are sculpting you into Christlikeness
That Jesus is not ashamed to call you His brethren, to proclaim your name to all eternity
You are commanded to perceive what has truly occurred. Pry into the inner chambers of perpetual love and you discover that God (not man!) calls you His child. He gifts you with the most coveted name in all of heaven and hell - Christian. Behold your adoption! Can you imagine that one of the depraved race of Adam should become a child of glory? When you reach the new Jerusalem will you not speak throughout eternity of your regeneration and of the miracles of grace?
Because you are your Lord’s and are taking on the likeness of Christ, this world does not know you because it does not know Christ. The world’s rejection of you is your confirmation of your relationship to Christ. God’s love is more powerful than death and sin, yet oh so gentle as it descends upon you as an autumnal dew. He gives you Christ and then the sequel/continuation of Christ is the Holy Spirit within you. You, a partaker of the divine nature, are more nearly resembling the divine nature you have come to love.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (I Jn. 3:1, KJV).
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO!
“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me” (John 5:39).
Audio Sermon: John 5:30-40
The cultural, civic and church leaders in Jesus’ society refused to believe what the Bible said. They refused to appreciate the everlasting truth that their eternity depended upon their address to Scripture. They did not want to see Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures, so they did not see Him.
Scores of churchmen torture the Bible with their obstinate refusals to accept what God says is His word. Facts are stubborn, they just do not move - the Bible is the same way except it never changes. That God has spoken and you have His speaking is foundational to the fullness of life. Can you find Jesus and His exclusivity in both Testaments?
Every century brings apparently new challenges, but they are just the old woman with a new dress. Those of the First Century A. D. and in your century are engaged in a holy war with unholy half-truths and untruth. The war is difficult because many of those in the enemy’s camp wear your uniform, but it is not impossible to discern their true allegiances.
Contemporary people no longer “stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it” (Jer. 6:16). Those in certain gatherings are declaring that what God declares as sin (see I Cor. 6:9f. for a catalogue) is more a matter of choice for them. They perceive vice as virtue because they refuse to believe that God said what He intended and intended all He said. They want to eliminate doctrine because they recognize its divisiveness. They are right in that it does divide the church militant from one another because biblical doctrine is the only means to bind Christ’s true bride to Himself. They want liberty at the cost of righteousness and only too late they will discover that their refusal of righteousness has denied them of eternity’s most splendid freedom.
You can discern when those claiming Christianity leave the doctrinal truths because a clear loss of purity, chastity, righteousness, heavenliness begins to surface in their lives. They no longer speak so often, so fondly or so deeply of their Christianity. They are offended when they think they are being judged. Their pleasures and amusements become more dominant than their love for worshiping God. Their church becomes the theater, the mountains, the beaches and rivers, the golf courses and sports outlets.
They are drinking deeply of the cup of worldly poison. God is calling you to search the Scriptures so that your hearts may be opened to His holy truth. You cannot miss the person of Christ, the holiness of Christ, the uniqueness of Christ and the presence of Christ throughout God’s Bible. Trust Him to illumine your way to His presence by praying for the Spirit of Christ to direct your heart and eyes to His truth.
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
