Love to Christ

The Moral and Spiritual Necessity of Repentance and Faith

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 19th, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. There are many things in this life concerning which ignorance or indifference are neither morally wrong or spiritually fatal. Many things concerning which we can be willfully ignorant, we can be willfully indifferent, and we will not be sinning, nor will we be placing our souls in jeopardy.

0:44 However, to be ignorant or indifferent to what the Bible teaches concerning repentance unto life and saving faith is both morally wrong, and spiritually fatal. If you sit here this morning indifferent and willfully ignorant about repentance and faith, you are sinning against God. For God commands you to repent, Acts 17.30.

1:19 God commands you to believe in His Son, 1 John 3.22. And you cannot either repent or believe if you are ignorant or indifferent to what it means. What it means to repent or to believe, and therefore to be willfully disobedient to clear commands of God, is wickedness.

1:40 It is sin.

1:42 I don't care how old you are, what your background is, what your present religious perspectives may be, to be willfully ignorant or indifferent concerning repentance and faith is morally wrong. It is sin. And furthermore, it is faithfulness. Tragically fatal.

2:06 For the Scripture says, He that believes not shall be damned. And he that believes not, the wrath of God abides upon him. And furthermore, the Scripture says, Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

2:24 And it is with the pressure of those convictions upon my own heart, that towards the end of the last year and into January of this new year, I began a series on the subject of repentance and faith, entitling that series, Repentance and Faith, The Hinge on the Door of Salvation.

The Nature and Object of Saving Faith

2:50 And in that series, I have sought to open up what the Bible teaches on the subject of that repentance which issues in spiritual life, and that faith which is unto salvation. Salvation. When we took up together the subject of repentance, I used the shorter catechism as a teaching framework, and the imagery of a tree as a visual object. And we saw together that repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred,

3:34 turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. And there's a part of me that would love to go back and just review the main text we covered, but time will not permit it. But may I remind you, if you came through that part of the instruction, in which text after text was opened up concerning what, what repentance unto life is, and you sit here still, impenitent, you have only increased the possibility of your damnation.

4:16 And then several studies ago, we began to take up together saving faith. We looked at its necessity, and we looked at its nature, or began to look at its nature, and we saw from the scriptures that the object of saving, saving faith is always Jesus Christ himself as he is offered to us in the gospel. As the shorter catechism says, what is saving faith? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation,

4:59 as he is offered to us in the gospel. And the point is, the point that I sought to make and I trust you grasped it, that it is Christ himself, not the doctrine of the atonement, not the doctrine of the incarnation, not the doctrine of the resurrection, it is Christ himself who is the object of saving faith, but Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel. Christ in the uniqueness of his person, fully God, fully man, two natures in the one person forever. Christ in the sufficiency of his work,

5:37 by which he secured salvation for all who will cast themselves upon him. So we saw that the object of saving faith is Christ himself, Christ as he is offered in the gospel, and then we began to look at the essential elements of saving faith, not seeking to dissect saving faith philosophically, but biblically. And we saw that the Bible gives us pictures of what saving faith is. And we considered together from the word of God that in its elements, saving faith is a receiving of Christ, John 1, 12.

6:19 It is a coming to Christ, John 6, 37. And it is an eating and a drinking of Christ, John chapter 6. The bottom line of all of those different pictures of faith, is that in saving faith the sinner in all of the nakedness of his need, and the Savior in all the plenitude of his saving grace, come together in the gospel with no church, no water, no wafer, no personal worker, no instrument between them. In saving faith, the heart and soul of the sinner lays hold,

The Necessary Fruits of Saving Faith: Love, Obedience, and Likeness

7:04 of the Savior directly lays hold of the Savior in the plenitude of his saving grace and power. Now this morning, and God willing again next Lord's Day, my last Lord's Day before I go off to Michigan to obtain a wife, and have a two-week honeymoon before returning to you, I want to speak to you concerning what I'm calling the necessary fruits, of saving faith, or if you like, the inevitable and universal accompaniments of saving faith. Our spiritual forefathers,

7:47 who were very careful to emphasize that we are saved by faith alone, and that word alone separated our spiritual forefathers from Romanism, and all of the man-made trappings of religion that existed, up until the Reformation in the vast majority of so-called Christendom, but they not only emphasized that we are saved by faith alone, they were careful to emphasize that the faith that saves is never alone. Saved by faith alone, but by a faith that is never alone.

8:30 And that very language is found in our own confession of faith. That where there is true and saving faith, that faith that is the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a sinner, though it is that empty hand that takes a full Christ, nothing hanging on the hand, nothing brought in the hand, yet that faith alone, which lays hold of Christ, will never be a faith that is alone, in its fruit, or in its accompaniments. And there are at least three such necessary fruits, or inevitable accompaniments of saving faith, and they are,

9:14 love for the person of Christ, secondly, obedience to the word of Christ, and thirdly, growth in likeness to Christ. And I want to state at the outset, that if you value your soul, gird up the loins of your mind, and pray, O God, search me and try me, whether or not these inevitable and necessary fruits of faith are found in me. For wherever there is the faith that lays hold of Christ and His salvation,

9:58 there will of necessity, there will inevitably be found, love for the person of Christ, obedience to the word of Christ, and growth in character likeness to Christ. This morning we'll take up just the first of these three. Love for the person of Christ, a necessary fruit of saving faith. In seeking to open up this vital aspect of biblical truth, I shall do so under three heads.

Establishing the Fact: Love for Christ is a Necessary Fruit of Faith

10:34 First of all, the truth or fact established. On what biblical grounds dare I stand here, and assert in your presence, that if you do not have love for the person of Christ, you have no true saving faith in Christ? On what grounds dare I make such a right angled, unequivocal statement, well, I want to set before you three texts, among many that could be set before you, that when a sinner lays hold of Christ and His salvation,

11:15 that sinner is not just thankful for the forgiveness received from Christ, filled with gratitude for the promise of eternal life in Christ, he is not just filled with joy at the privilege of being adopted into the family of God because of what Christ has done, but there will always be love for the one who made these things possible and actual in the life of that sinner. Now what scriptures make this unmistakably clear? I say I want to set before you three of them. The first is found in 1 Peter chapter 1.

12:00 1 Peter. 1 Peter and chapter 1. The first verse. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect who were sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

12:26 Peter acknowledges that he is the author of the letter. He is sending it to the people of God scattered about in the churches of Asia Minor, what we would now say Central Turkey. And as he writes to them, how does he view them? He views them as a people who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God.

12:48 Verse 2. That they are a people who have experienced the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They are a people who have been set apart unto a life of obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. As Peter sits to write and envisions the people of God way off there in Asia Minor, he envisions them all without exception as people who have been chosen according to God's foreknowledge.

13:22 That is, his loving choice beforehand. He envisions them, every one, as having experienced the sanctifying work of the Spirit. That is, having been regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit. They have been set apart unto God.

13:39 From sin and the world to a life of service to God. All without exception. And he envisions them all without exception as having been committed to a life of obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Then, in verse 3, he begins a eulogy.

14:00 He begins to speak well of God and of His great salvation in Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who according to His great mercy begat us unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away.

14:24 Reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter begins this eulogy blessing the God and Father of Christ. For the mercy that has begotten Him and all of the people of God without exception. He doesn't envision any one of the people of God in Asia Minor who has not been elect according to foreknowledge.

14:53 Who has not been set apart by the sanctifying work of the Spirit unto a life of obedience and sprinkling. He does not envision one of the people of God who has not been begotten unto this living hope. Begotten unto this inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and inheritance reserved in heaven. He does not envision one of the people of God who is not being kept by the power of God unto the consummate salvation ready to be revealed when Jesus returns.

15:30 Now then, he says in verse 6, wherein you greatly rejoice. That is, in this great salvation that is yours, all of you rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He knew. He had received information that the people of God in that area were in a crucible, of intense suffering.

16:06 And one of the great themes of this letter, as those of you I trust will remember when I preached through this letter verse by verse, was that they were suffering for the sake of Christ. And having stated this fact, that they were suffering right now, in a suffering that was intended by God to act upon them like fire acts upon metals, to show what they really are, to burn up the dross, to reveal whether they are fool's gold or real gold. And he completes that statement by saying that this faith that is being tested and proved by fire, if it indeed is real,

16:49 will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation that is the second coming of Christ. Now notice verse 8. Whom, having not seen, you love, on whom, though now you do not see him, yet believe him. Now here Peter makes it abundantly clear that he envisions every single true believer in Asia Minor, not having seen Christ, yet they believe upon Christ, and believing upon Christ, they are loving the person of Christ.

17:34 Whom, not having seen, now notice it's not an exhortation, you ought to love, nor is it a prophecy, whom, having not seen, you shall love when you see him, no, whom, having not seen, you presently, really, truly, love him. And on whom, though you see him not, yet believing. They believe upon him, and the Christ upon whom they believe is the object of their present affection, they love him.

18:15 Peter does not envision any true believer upon him who does not love him. There is no way to truly love him, but first of all to believe upon him. But if we truly believe upon him, it is morally, spiritually impossible not to love him. All who believe upon him truly love him.

18:43 They love him because of what they have come to know in believing upon him. But in their believing upon him what they know of him, and what has been revealed to them by the Spirit has quickened in them a love for his person. Love for an unseen Christ is the experience of every true believer. Not an exhortation, not a prophecy, not a distinguishing trait of some, it is the baseline experience of anyone who is the real thing.

19:26 So, I am not at all reluctant to say that a necessary fruit of saving faith, an inevitable fruit of saving faith wherever it is present, is love to the person of Christ. And if I had only this text, I would rest my case upon it. But I give you two more. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16.

1 Corinthians 16:22: The Curse on Those Who Do Not Love the Lord

19:53 1 Corinthians chapter 16. After Paul has dealt with a whole list of aberrations, of abnormalities, of grievous sins at Corinth, and again and again he traces the cause back to a defective view of what Christ has done, or who Christ is, or their relationship to Christ, or the demands of Christ. If you read 1 Corinthians, you see there is no problem all the way from the divisiveness to immorality, to taking brethren to court, to the abuse of Christian liberty. But Paul takes the problem

20:37 back to Christ, to Christ, to Christ. So when he comes to the end of his letter, verse 21 of chapter 16, he writes, The salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand. In other words, if you have any question that this letter is really from me, I put my own signature to it. Paul often, most frequently used in amanuensis, the secretary who would take his words and write them.

21:02 But Paul validates that this is his letter with his own signature. Then notice verse 22. If any man, literally if anyone, man, woman, boy or girl, if any man loves not the Lord, let him be accursed of God. What a text!

21:28 You want to know whether this epistle is from me? Yes it is! And in this epistle, you Corinthians, I have demonstrated how the person of Christ and the work of Christ and your relationship to Christ is the answer to all of the specific problems that I've had to address and concerning which you've written to me. And after this display of the glory and the sufficiency of Christ, if there's anyone there in the congregation at Corinth who doesn't love this Christ, let him be damned!

22:02 Let him be damned! Let him be accursed of God! Let him be cast away! Let him be consumed by the fiery indignation of Almighty God.

22:16 You see, that's not a very loving thing. Who are you to judge what is loving? Who am I to judge what is loving? The same apostle who sets forth the loveliness and the grace and the sufficiency of Christ all the way through this epistle, he finds it, as it were, almost impossible to think that there is no God.

22:39 It's impossible to think that anyone who names the name of Christ would not, after that display of Christ's glory in this letter, not have his or her love for Christ stirred. So he says, if anyone loves not, yes, I know the verb phileo is used and not agapao. Recent scholarship has clearly established that the long-held distinction that phileo refers to human affection and fondness and agapao to divine love simply doesn't hold up. To close at scrutiny, I'm fully aware of it, so please someone don't correct me at the door if you have a Greek text.

23:18 I'm fully aware it's there. If anyone loves not the Lord, let him be cursed of God. Why? Because if anyone doesn't love him, they don't believe upon him, and he that believes not should be damned.

23:33 You see, Paul does not envision that there can be a true believer in Christ who is not a lover of Christ. He finds it impossible to even think for a moment this Christ who arrested him, who has filled his vision, who has filled his letter, that anyone can have a spirit-wrought sight of Christ that draws forth the confidence of faith in Christ and not love this Christ. If anyone loves not the Lord, let him be damned. If he remains in that state, regardless of what he may know about Christ, regardless of what he or she may say about his or her relationship

24:17 to Christ, if you do not love him, you are under the curse of Almighty God. And if you do not come to love him, you remain under that curse. If any man loves not the Lord, let him be damned. Let him be anathema.

Ephesians 6:24: Grace for Those Who Love Christ

24:42 And then there is a third text on which I rest my case. That's found at the end of Ephesians. Ephesians, chapter 6. I'm simply trying to prove the fact that an inevitable and necessary accompaniment of faith in Christ is love for the person of Christ.

25:02 1 Peter 1.8, 1 Corinthians 16.22, and now Ephesians 6, verses 23 and 4. He comes to the end of this epistle and he writes, Peace be to the brethren.

25:17 As a Jew, though he's writing in Greek, Paul would think, peace is the shalom, the well-being that he wishes upon the brethren. Now notice. Peace be to the brethren, all of the brethren, whoever constitutes the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He wishes in this benediction not only the shalom, peace upon the brethren, but also increased measures of love and faith that will come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

25:57 Now notice. Grace, here he's using the normal Greek expression of goodwill. The peace was the Hebrew, the Greek was the grace. Grace be with, now how is he going to describe the brethren? Peace be to the brethren.

26:17 Who are the brethren? Here's a synonym. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. That is with a love that is real, a love that is abiding. Who are the

26:39 brethren upon whom peace is wished? They are all that love our Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. He doesn't say with a perfect love, with a constant and totally even, undisturbed, unvacillating love, but he says grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ. You see he had written earlier in this epistle, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works that none should boast. Here he envisions

27:18 all who have been saved by grace through faith love the Lord Jesus. And he pronounces his benediction and blessing only upon those who love our Lord Jesus Christ because only those who love him truly believe upon him. So, I established the fact with these three texts that when I say one of the necessary fruits of faith one of the inevitable accompaniments of faith is love to the person of Christ, this is not an Al Martin emphases, this is scripture folks, this is bible, this is the word of God.

28:02 If you do not love him, you do not truly believe upon him. If you say you believe and do not love him, you believe with a faith unrecognized by the bible except when it speaks that the demons also believe and they tremble, but they have no love for the one before whom they tremble. Then we come secondly having established the fact, let's consider then the nature of this love described. The fact of this love present in every believer established. Now

The Nature of This Love Described: Conscious and Supreme

28:41 secondly, the nature of this love described. And I'm not going to give you philosophical abstract descriptions of this love, but four biblical aspects of the nature of this love for the person of Christ clearly taught in the scriptures. Number one, it is a conscious love. It is a conscious love. And here I ask you to turn with me

29:10 to John's gospel and chapter 21. It is a conscious love. John chapter 21. You remember the setting, our Lord is risen from the dead, Peter with the others has gone fishing, and the Lord Jesus is found on the shore of the lake.

29:32 And we read in verse 15, and when they had broken their fast, Jesus has fed them. Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? And he said unto him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. He said unto him, feed my lambs. He said unto him a second

29:54 time, Simon son of John, do you love me? And he said unto him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. He said unto him, tend my sheep. He said unto him a third time, Simon son of John, do you love me?

30:11 And Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, do you love me? And he said unto him, Lord, you know all things you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. When our tender gracious Lord Jesus Christ is about to restore the man who had denied him three times, and draw from him the confession of his love attachment to him, in tenderness, in great wisdom, he asked the question, Simon son of John, do you love me? Now notice,

30:55 he didn't say, that is Peter if you really know what love is. Nor did Peter respond by saying, now Lord, what do you mean by love? Now Lord, can you give me a definition of love? I'll answer you.

31:07 If you tell me what you No, no, no. The Lord assumed that Peter would know well what he meant when he said do you love me? And though the two Greek words are used, phileo and agapao, there is no fundamental distinction in their significance. Our Lord assumes that Peter can know whether or not he loves him. In

31:32 fact, Peter affirms this very fact in his responses. He says, Lord, you know that I love you. You know all things. You know they love you.

31:44 In other words, Peter says, I know what you know. That there is in my heart genuine, real love for you. So love for the person of Christ is a conscious love. Just as much as love for one's parents and love for one's children and love for one's wife and love for one's neighbor and love for whomever is a conscious affection of the soul.

32:18 And it won't do to sit here and say, well, I'm not sure. No, no. You know whether you love him. If I ask you, do you love your wife?

32:28 You don't say, well, give me a philosophical definition of love. Well, I'm not quite sure whether or not I understand the intention. Come on, cut the baloney, man. Do you love your wife?

32:39 Yes. Not as much as I want to. Not as much as she would like me to. And certainly not as much as I hope to love her.

32:49 But I love her. You don't need philosophical and great philological analysis. I know what love is. And so, it is a conscious love.

33:03 And we'll come back to that in my application. Secondly, love to Christ that is the fruit of faith, now listen carefully, is a supreme love. It is a supreme love. The definition of supreme, it means the highest in quality or in degree. When

33:22 something is the supreme element, it is the highest in quality or degree. And the love for the person of Christ that is the accompaniment and fruit of faith is always a supreme love. There are many other legitimate objects of love. Husbands love your wives.

33:46 In Titus 2, the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands. To love their children. We are commanded to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. There are many loves that it is our duty to experience and feel and exercise.

34:08 We're even to love our enemies. But that love to the person of Christ that is the fruit and the accompaniment of faith is a supreme love. A love the highest in quality and the highest in degree. And without that, we don't belong to Christ.

34:31 Turn to Matthew chapter 10. Hear the words of the Savior himself. Matthew chapter 10 verse 34. Do not think that I came to send peace on earth. I did not

34:46 come to send peace but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. How in the world does the prince of peace take upon himself this role of being a divider of the deepest bonds of human affection? He takes full responsibility for it. He said don't

35:19 think that I came to send peace. I came to send literally I came to throw down a sword. And then he gets specific. I came to sever the natural love relationship between a man and his father, a daughter and her mother, the daughter in law and the mother in law within the household the most intimate bonds of natural affection.

35:44 He said I came to break it all up. Well how does he do that? Read on. He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loves son

36:01 or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that doth not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. What's the Lord saying? He's saying when I come in my distinguishing sovereign grace through the gospel and I invade a household and I bring captive the son but not the father. The daughter in law

36:23 but not the mother in law. I bring them into a love relationship with myself that is supreme. A love attachment to me that makes their loyalty to me unquestionable. And if it means that they must displease father, mother, daughter in law, mother in law, it doesn't matter because they in faith have become attached to me and as the fruit of that faith they love me with a supreme, a supreme love. He says

37:05 in essence the same thing in Luke chapter 14 verses 25 and following. Luke 14 and verse 25. Jesus sees great multitudes going after him. He's at the height of his season of great popularity.

37:24 And he turns to them and says in verse 26 if any man comes to me and hates not his own father, mother, wife, children, brethren, sisters, yes in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. If you come to me and think you're going to be attached to me in faith that I am your Messiah, that I am God's final and glorious prophet, priest, and king, and you do not have in that attachment a supreme love for me, you are not mine. You do not truly believe in me. You have not really seen me for who I am.

The Nature of This Love Described: Variable and Active

38:02 And you cannot be my disciple. It's a conscious love, the fruit of faith. It's a supreme love. Thirdly, it's a variable or you may want to use the synonym.

38:17 It's an uneven love. A variable or an uneven love. It is not consistent. It is not constantly the same in degree or intensity.

38:31 And here I quote the verse. You know it well, Revelation chapter 2 where the Lord speaks to the church at Ephesus and says, I have somewhat against you. You have left. You have abandoned your love at the first.

38:45 You've left your first love. Their love for him was not invariable, totally constant. It had waned and he calls them to repentance. In Philippians 1.9

39:00 Paul prays that the love of the Philippians would abound more and more. That love can grow. Matthew 24.12 Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold.

39:12 This love for the person of Christ that is the inevitable accompaniment and fruit of faith in Christ though it is a conscious love and a supreme love, alas it is a variable love. But in the heart of every true Christian, if you can pull off all the layers and get down to the baseline of who they are, you will find that there is love to the person of Christ conscious, supreme albeit variable love. You see the true and healthy believer can sing all three hymns that we sing in our hymn book and in our worship. He can sing

39:56 My Jesus I love Thee I know Thou art mine For Thee pleasures of sin I resign. That's the problem with some of you. You have never seen Christ in such a way that's captured your heart and you've got just enough of Jesus to make you comfortable that you're not going to hell, but you haven't repudiated the pleasures of this world. That's why you push your liberty to the envelope, to the edge in every area of your life.

40:28 You've never been enamored with Jesus. Never, never, never. The true believer can say, My Jesus, I love you. I know you are mine for you all the pleasures of sin I resign. We're

40:45 conscious of our love, but then we also sing We have not loved you as we ought, nor care that we are loved by you. And we're ashamed that one so lovable and so worthy of our love, we would have to say we've not loved him as we ought. But then we sing the third hymn that we sang this morning. We're not content with that low level of love. And we

41:13 sing more love to thee, O Christ. More love to thee. Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More

41:25 love, O Christ, to thee. And then the words don't stick in our throat when we sing the stanza. Send sorrow, grief, and pain. The messages sweep their refrain when they can say to me, more love, O Christ.

41:51 We welcome the disciplines that make us let loose of our toys that bleed the effect bereavement of Lord Jesus. But to leave me in this barren state where my love for you is so pathetically weak. It's a variable love. We say with Bonar, my love is oft times low.

42:34 My joy still ebbs and flows, but peace with him remains the same. No change. Jehovah. So it is a conscious love, supreme love, a variable love, and fourthly it's an active love.

42:52 It's an active love. More of this in the next two messages in separate headings, but suffice it to say, this love for the person of Christ is not just a feeling. It is a healing. But it's not just a feeling.

43:08 It is a healing, but not just a feeling. It creates a principle disposition of the soul that Jesus describes in this way. John 14, 21. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. If you love

43:28 me, you will keep my word. That's why he said to Peter, Peter do you love me? Yes, Lord. He says alright, it's going to be an active love. Feed

43:38 my sheep. Take care of my lambs. I've got work for you to do. That love that burns and looks for an outlet to express itself, expresses itself in active service to Christ. Dictated

43:52 by the word of Christ and carried on in the power of the Spirit of Christ. That's the nature of this love described. It's a conscious love, John 21. A supreme love, Matthew 10.

Application: Deep Personal Self-Examination

44:08 A variable love, Revelation 2. And an active love, John 14. Now having established the truth that love for the person of Christ is a necessary fruit and inevitable accompaniment of faith in Christ, having sought to describe briefly the nature of this love to Christ, now I want to apply it. The truth applied in two directions.

44:34 Number one, as a word of deep, personal self-examination. As a word of deep, personal self-examination. Do you say you believe upon Christ? Then go in your mind's eye to the lake shore, there in Galilee, and envision the Lord Jesus himself calling you aside like he called Peter aside.

45:10 His face is 18 inches from yours. Those eyes that are as a flame of fire, those eyes that are redolent with omniscience, as well as overwhelming love. They look you straight in the eyeballs back to your retinas, and they say to you, not Simon, son of John, but Mary, John, George, Albert, Jeff, Pete. Shall I go on?

45:50 And he looks you straight in the eye and he says, do you, do you, do you, you, you, I'm calling you by name, do you love me? Could you say with Peter, Lord, you know everything. No place for sham. No place for monkey business.

46:14 No place for playing games. No place for keeping up front. Lord, you are the omniscient Lord of the deepest recesses of my heart. And you know that in there, in spite of what I did a few hours ago, when I took oaths of self-malediction and said I didn't even know you, Lord, down underneath, in spite of that, in spite of the times I've been the bumbling outspoken number of the twelve, Lord, Jesus, you know I love you. I love you.

46:52 You ask again with the same searching look, and you say, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Could you tell him what Peter did? No game playing now.

47:07 You're not with your buddies. Not with your girlfriends. All of whom are propped up with cultural Trinity Baptist Church religious decency. Not some of you.

47:21 You're propped up from being little hellion by the pressure and the influence of religious cultural Trinity Baptist Church religious associations. The question is not, are you decent? Are you propped up? But do you love me? You say, Pastor, how can I

47:43 know? Let me give you one little test. When you love someone, you delight to commune with them, to speak to them, and you delight to speak about them. You get around me for five minutes and you've got an illustration of that these days. Added to the hour

48:07 phone call every night is a morning phone call and often a midday phone call. Why? Because I love her. Loving her, I delight to commune and speak to her.

48:24 And hear her speak to me. If I began to get careless and indifferent and bored with the phone call, she'd have every reason to say, Al, what's happened to the passion of your love for me? And I don't care what the subject is. I'll find a way to talk about her. Because

48:50 I love her. When you love someone, you delight to commune. And there are some of you sitting here who say you believe on Christ, you'll talk about everything, and anything but the Savior. The Olympics, then you know about the outline of the book of Ephesians.

49:17 You can tell more. Who won this event and that event? Time to stay up late watching Olympics. No time to get up early and hear your Savior speak in His Word.

49:27 What is it? It's a manifestation of an absence of love to the Savior. Why is your tongue tied when opportunities are spread before you in a very natural way to speak about Him? It's because if you ever did know love to Him, there's been a waning of that love to Him. Dear people,

49:55 this word is a word of deep, personal self-examination. Do you love me? The Savior says. If you don't love me, it's because you don't really believe on me. And you don't believe on

50:10 me because you've never beheld my glory or the glory of my Father in my face. I am just a collection of propositions to you. I am just a collation of theological and biblical notions. But Paul said God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

50:38 And that you've never known. Young adults who know more about the taste of the latest mixed drink and can talk about it with greater fervor than they can talk about what the Savior said to them in the morning in their devotions. Young men who can get far more excited about this sport event and that sport event and others of you far more excited have you served this group and have you heard this CD? And you're never excited about the music of the Savior's ear coming to your

51:23 heart as you commune with him. Face it! My greatest fear for the future of Trinity Baptist Church is not liberalism. A giving up of orthodox theology right away.

51:39 It is cultural Trinity Baptist second generation non-Christ loving religion. That's my great fear. Young men and women growing up in this setting who can't help but know the facts about who Christ is and what he did and can give them back and live a reasonably decent life. But no obsession with Jesus.

52:11 No passion of love that needs to be channeled and restrained at times for the sheer pressure of its intensity. That's my great fear. I've shared this fear with one or two of my brethren in sister churches and they've said to me Pastor Martin that's my great fear for the place where I minister. This is a word of deep personal consolation.

Application: A Word of Deep Personal Consolation

52:47 Some of you who struggle with the doctrine of assurance listen, listen. If you love him, don't worry about whether or not you believe on him. Because no one can come to truly love him except in the way of believing upon him. And if you find sitting here this morning with all your heart you're resting in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation you are eating of Christ drinking of Christ coming to Christ.

53:22 That's the motion of your soul. Because of that you'll love him. Don't worry about the fact that God's dealings with you were so fuzzy and so as it were indistinct and you don't know exactly when did I pass from death unto life. No.

53:42 If you've beheld glory in the face of Christ it has captured your heart and you love him more than father, mother brother, sister in your own life also determined to follow him. And listen, you choose the friends who like to talk about him. When you have a choice your friends are not those who talk about everything under the sun except Jesus. But you choose those who because they talk to him and he talks to them through the word they like to talk about him and you find those are the ones

54:26 I want to be around. You need not question whether you truly believe. These are the fruits of love and the fruit is not there without the root. So this study of these things should be to you a word of deep personal consolation.

The Crucial Issue for the Church's Future and Personal Choices

54:49 And I trust that God will help each of us to know which it ought to be for us. It's been a long time since I have pressed an issue with the urgency with which I've pressed this issue this morning. Because I do believe it is the crucial issue for the future of this church. It's only as your passion for the person of Christ remains white hot that you will tolerate a ministry.

55:20 You will not tolerate any ministry in which Christ is not the beginning middle and end of that ministry. You won't be satisfied that a ministry seems to expound the word and seems to be true to the word but does not exude the fragrance of Christ. And even though you may not be able to put your finger on it you'll say something's missing, something's missing. My soul thirsts for the voice of my beloved.

55:47 My heart yearns to be ravished with new sights of my beloved. That'll be our greatest safety as we seek to know the mind of God regarding the future of this church. You see this has all kinds of implications. The choice of a spouse.

56:11 What are you going to look for girls? Shoulders? Handsome face? Good bank account? God may

56:17 curse all of it. You look for someone that obviously loves to speak to the Savior because he loves him. And loves to speak about the Savior because he loves him. You guys the same thing.

56:36 Long after all of this skill of all of the plastic surgeons in the world can't overcome the bags and the sags. If she loves the Savior with a passion to make your journey a delight. I know. I spent 48 years with a woman like that.

Conclusion and Prayer

56:58 And I stand on the threshold of beginning who knows how many years with another one. What is the first and inevitable fruit of saving faith? It is love for the person of Christ. I sought to establish the truth from three pivotal texts.

57:20 I sought to demonstrate the nature of this love from four other passages and secondary passages and apply it to your conscience. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to this church. Let's pray. Our Father we thank you for your holy word and how we pray that that word will work powerfully and effectually in all of our hearts this morning. Many

57:58 of us who can say Lord you know all things you know that we love you. We are painfully conscious of the pathetic measure of that love of the shameful vacillation of that love that so quickly is dampened by excessive worldliness by prayerlessness by neglect of the word and the other means of grace. Oh God help us, help us that we may determine from this morning onward that this tender plant of love for Christ will be carefully nurtured and nourished within our hearts. Send your Holy Spirit upon us that he may take afresh of the things of Christ and make

58:42 them exceedingly precious to us. Hear our prayers and answer us we pray in his worthy name. Amen.