Do You Love Christ?
After nineteen Lord's Day mornings contemplating the person of Christ, Pastor Martin presses one searching question on every conscience: do you love him? Working through 1 Peter 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 16:22, he shows that love to Christ is an indispensable mark of Christian character and that its absence is the infallible indication of coming judgment. He defines the essence of that love (with help from Bishop Leighton) as goodwill toward Christ, delight in Christ, and desire for Christ, traces its roots to a saving revelation of his glory and a believing reception of him, and identifies its infallible fruit as keeping his commandments.
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A full transcript is available on the tab. 177 paragraphs, roughly 57 minutes.
Looking Back on Nineteen Sundays on Christ
With but very few exceptions, each Lord's Day morning from the middle of July until this past Lord's Day has found us occupied with a serious consideration of the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the course of a series of studies entitled Here We Stand, we spent a few Lord's Day mornings contemplating the nature of the book we believe and obey, a few Lord's Day mornings considering the God whom we worship and confess, and then we began to study together the subject of the salvation we receive and proclaim. And after several Lord's Day's consideration of the objects of that salvation, we began to consider in the middle of July the central figure in that salvation.
And for 19 Lord's Day mornings, we have been at that same point considering our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have been contemplating him, not implicitly as he ought to be contemplated in every sermon, not obscurely as he ought never to be contemplated in any sermon, not indirectly as he must of necessity be considered in some sermons, but explicitly, plainly, directly, we have been meditating upon the glorious mystery of that person who is the object of saving faith, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
The next broad area of our concern will be to consider him now in the majesty of his offices Having looked upon him in terms of what he is in himself We now want to turn to the scriptures and consider him in terms of what he is in his functions as the redeemer of his people But before we move on to that, there is a question that I feel constrained to press upon the conscience of everyone who has sat through this series of studies concerning the mystery of Christ's person. And I want to ask this question of everyone. You children, I want you to listen. You young people, I want you to listen.
The Question Pressed: Do You Love Him?
You adults, church members, non-members, visitors, whoever you may be, there is a very simple but vital question that I want to press upon your conscience this morning. Having beheld Him as truly God. Having beheld Him from the Scriptures as truly man. Having considered him as he set before us in the scriptures, as God and man in one person and two natures forever, here's my question.
And I'm almost embarrassed by the simplicity of it. The question is this. Do you love him?
Do you love him?
Very simple question. But consider the question, do you love Him? Is the object of your love nothing less than that person whom we have seen in the Scriptures? Do you love Him who is very God of very God?
Do you love Him who is truly man? Do you love Him who is one person in two natures forever? Do you love Him?
Not do you love a Christ who is the concoction of sentimental notions, but do you love Him, the Christ of Holy Scripture, true God, true man, one person in the two natures. Do you love Him? I'm not asking do you believe everything you've heard about Him. I'm not asking do you ascribe truth to everything that's been proclaimed about Him.
I'm asking you, do you love him?
Not do you know some people who do love him. Not do you hope someday to love him, but my question is very simply, do you love, right now, do you love him? My question is very simple. Do you love him?
I'm not asking about your mom and dad. I'm not asking about the person sitting next to you. I'm not asking about your brother or your sister. I'm asking, do you, boys, girls, men, women, young people, do you love him?
That's a very simple question, but every word in it is pregnant.
With great implications. Do you love him? Now that's the question that forms the framework of our study in the scriptures this morning. For if all we have heard about the majesty and glory of his person has not been used of the Spirit to draw out your heart in love to him, you've missed the whole end for which Christ has been proclaimed.
Importance: Love an Indispensable Mark of Christian Character
Now consider with me, first of all, the importance of this question. How important is it for you to be able to answer yes to the question, Do you love him? What issues are at stake if you cannot answer yes to that question? Well, let me give you two biblical indications of the tremendous importance of this question.
First of all, the presence of this love is an indispensable ingredient of Christian character. The presence of love to the person of Jesus Christ is an indispensable ingredient of Christian character. That is, wherever a character has been formed by the Spirit making a man a Christian, love to Jesus Christ will inevitably be present. Turn please to 1 Peter chapter 1.
1 Peter chapter 1. As Peter begins his letter to the dispersed believers, he describes them in the first two verses as the elect of God, verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect. He describes them as those who are sanctified by the Spirit in verse 2, who have been brought unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. who is a Christian, he is an elect sinner.
He is a sanctified sinner. He is a sprinkled sinner who is now committed to a course of obedience. He further describes the character of a Christian in verse 3 as one who has been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And in the midst of this description of Christians, notice his wording in verse 8, whom having not seen ye love.
As surely as every Christian is one of the elect of God, as surely as every Christian comes into the orbit of the sanctifying influence of the Spirit, as sure as every Christian comes under the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, every Christian loves the Christ whom he has never seen. So you see how important this question is? Do you love him? It's important because love to the person of Jesus Christ is an indispensable ingredient of Christian character.
Where there is no love for the person of Christ, there is no saving relationship to Christ.
Importance: Absence of Love an Infallible Mark of Coming Judgment
And then secondly, the absence of this love is an infallible indication of coming judgment. The presence of this love, an indispensable indication of Christian character. The absence of this love, an infallible indication of coming judgment. Turn, please, to 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 22.
The Apostle Paul is bringing this great letter to a close, in which, though he has had to deal with many knotty and thorny problems, he has set forth Christ as the sufficient answer for every one of those problems. From the problem of division to immorality, to the problem of heretical thinking about the resurrection, Christ in the glory of his person and work has been Paul's answer to every Corinthian problem. And so has his mind been exercised concerning the sufficiency of Christ, that when he draws his letter to a close, he says, 1 Corinthians 16, 21 and 22, The salutation of me, Paul, with mine own hand, If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema, a cursed of God,
is perhaps the closest we can come in translating this word that in our English translations is just a transliteration. They've taken the Greek letters in their English equivalents and brought them over from the Greek into the English. The best translation would be, Let him be accursed of God. Now what do you need to do to have the curse of God fall upon you?
You just need to live and to die a stranger to love to Christ. If any man love not the Lord Let him be anathema The apostle does not even use the highest word For the richest, broadest, fullest kind of love He uses the word that is a bit more limited and weak If anyone have not a fondness for If there is not even fondness for Christ Let him be anathema A curse to God. Think of it. If this whole auditorium were filled, it isn't.
But if it were filled with people who had never once told a lie, who had never once stolen so much as a nickel, with kids who never so much had even cheated on one little math problem from the kindergarten right up through high school. It's not, but suppose it were. The auditorium was filled with people who never lied, never cheated, never done a lustful deed, never stolen, never thought a lustful thought. People who were models of morality.
But listen to me now. If there was not found love to Christ in every heart of such perfect people, the whole bunch of you would go to hell.
What do you need to do to go to hell? Leave and die a stranger to love to Christ. That's all. That's all.
Now that's a pretty important question, isn't it? It is important to know if I love him, because on the one hand, love to him is an indispensable ingredient of a character that is being formed by the Spirit, true Christian character. The absence of love to him is an infallible indication of coming judgment. Now, I trust I know my Bible well enough to know that our love to Christ is not the ground of our acceptance with God.
We don't go to heaven because we love Christ. If we ever go to heaven, it will be because God has provided a perfect righteousness that can stand the scrutiny of his own eye. The ground of our acceptance is not in us, not our love to Christ, not even our faith in Christ. The ground of our acceptance before God is the perfect righteousness of Christ.
Nor am I so foolish as to think that love is the means by which we lay hold of that righteousness. No, it is faith and faith alone. Love is an active grace. Faith in that sense is a passive, receptive grace.
Faith is the empty hand that takes the offered righteousness. I'm fully aware of that. I trust my theology is as sound as yours on that point. But listen, just as surely as the Bible teaches that our love to Christ is not the ground of our acceptance.
That's the righteousness of God in Christ. Just as surely as the Bible teaches that love is not the instrumental means of laying hold of Christ, that's faith. The Bible also teaches that if you're devoid of love to Christ, you're not a Christian and you'll go to hell.
No, it is not the ground of our acceptance. It is not the instrumental means of our laying hold of God's provision, but it is an indispensable element of Christian character without which the anathema of God rests upon us. So much for the importance of the question. Now, secondly, by what means shall we answer the question?
Where Is the Instrument to Test Our Hearts?
Do you love Christ, children? How are you going to answer?
Now, if I ask the question, do you have a fever? However, we have an instrument to help us answer that question. The nurse, if you go down to the thing, there's a test coming up and you don't want to take it. So all of a sudden you, teacher, I don't feel so good.
You go down to the infirmary at the school and she says open up your mouth in goes the thermometer The nurse says I don think there anything wrong with you I think you got a temporary test upset That's about all. So you run back to your class. You see, if I ask the question, do you have a fever? I have an instrument to help me answer that question.
A thermometer. If I ask the question, are you five feet tall? I have an instrument by which to answer that question. That's called a ruler.
If I ask the question, do you weigh a hundred pounds? We have an instrument to help us answer that question, and that's called a scale. But now when we ask the question, do you love Christ? There's no love-o-meter that you can lay next to your heart that says, oh yes, how do we answer the question?
It's a matter of life and death, kids. Young people, children, men, women, teenagers. This is no thing to play games with. If any man love not our Lord, let him be accursed of God.
And bound up in that anathema is everything the Bible teaches about eternal torment, outer darkness, weeping and waning and gnashing of teeth. This is nothing to play around with. How can I know if I love him? Well, the way we discover if we love him is to take the Scriptures and do what 2 Corinthians 13, 5 commands us to do.
Examine ourselves and prove ourselves. We bring our state of heart to the touchstone of Scripture and we judge whether or not we love Him by what the Scripture describes as the essential ingredients and fruits of true love to Jesus Christ. And so I trust with the eagerness of one who realizes that this is life and death before us, will you examine yourself as we consider together, first of all, the essence of love to Christ, then the roots of love to Christ, and then the fruits of love to Christ. That's the heart of our study this morning.
The Essence of Love: Goodwill Toward Christ
Having looked at the importance of the question, we're now asking how can we resolve it, and I say go to the Scriptures and consider what Scripture teaches concerning the essence of love to Christ and asked, is that in me? The roots of love to Christ are those roots in me. And then the fruit of love to Christ is that fruit in me. First of all, then, the essence of love to Christ.
And you think you know what simple things are until you try to preach on them. And I thought it would be relatively easy to give a simple, workable definition of the essence of love to Christ. When I came up on the short end, And then I turned to all my trusted friends who sit on my shelves. And I began to consult them.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. And after probably more than a dozen, I lost track. And then one of them helped me. An old master in Israel.
A bishop in Scotland. What an anomaly. A bishop in Scotland. But he was a bishop in Scotland.
An old Bishop Layton. In his commentary upon that great text in 1 Peter said. that the essence of love to Christ must surely involve at least these three things. Goodwill towards Him, delight in Him, and desire for Him.
And surely as any acting of love they can't be split up and put in test tubes. There's an overlapping, an interpenetrating, an intertwining. But let's look at them. What is the essence of love to Christ?
Love to Christ involves in the first place goodwill toward him. You remember what the Apostle said in Romans 13? He said, Love worketh no ill towards his neighbor. It is of the essence of love to have goodwill toward its object.
How do we know that God has a general benevolence and affection and love for all His creatures? Jesus demonstrated it in Matthew 5. He sends His rain upon the just and upon the unjust, upon the good and upon the evil. God's love is manifested in His good will to His creatures.
He gives His servants the commandment to preach the gospel to the whole creation, to urge and command and invite all men to the Lord Jesus and to the gospel feast, to proclaim that He's a willing and an able Savior. You see, God's love to his creatures as creatures is manifested in his goodwill toward them. Whenever there is love in the heart of the creature to God, particularly when there is love in the heart of a redeemed sinner to the person of Christ, it will be evidenced in this ingredient, goodwill towards him. What do we mean by that?
Well, simply this. We're glad that he's just exactly what he is. When we've heard, as we've heard from week to week, that Jesus Christ is the mighty God, the Son given and the child born is the everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity. When we've heard that the one who was in the beginning with God was indeed God, there's been no controversy with that.
There has been goodwill to the Christ proclaimed as very God, of very God. We've not taken the posture of the unbelieving, impenitent, rationalistic Russellite who says you can't have God the Father and God the Son, and he speaks with language that makes you shiver. You wonder why the Son does not bear his arm of wrath and strike him dead. He has no goodwill to the Christ of the Bible.
He hates the Christ who is truly God. In the heart of one who truly loves him, there's goodwill to him. Good will to him in the full integrity of his godhood Good will to him in the full reality of his manhood We're not ashamed to say our Savior was true man When we've seen him as we have in the past week Set before us as true man With a true human body And a true human soul We've had good will towards such a Christ Our hearts have run out and said Lord Jesus thank you for being true man And when we're confronted with the mystery that that God-man is one person in two distinct natures, the highest mystery of the Christian faith,
even though our minds have been boggled and we felt, as it were, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the mystery, there's been no secret controversy with it. There's been goodwill toward this Christ. To have goodwill to Christ, you see, is to be content that He's just the person that He is. To have this element of true love, goodwill, is to mean that I'm not only perfectly content with what He is in Himself, but with what He demands in His claims over me.
When I hear Him saying, If any man come to me, and hate not father, mother, brother, sister, yea, in his own life, he cannot be my disciple. when I behold this Christ making claims of total allegiance upon me, I have goodwill toward Him. I do not say the demands are too high. The standard is too stringent.
The claims are too all. Embrace it. No, no, no. There is goodwill towards Him in His claims.
And I say, Lord Jesus, Thou art worthy, infinitely worthy, of the absolute devotion of a billion hearts, if I could give them to You. That's what it is to have good will to Christ. It's to have good will to Him in what He is in Himself, in what He is in His claims, in what He is in His demands, in what He is in His purposes to save sinners, to humble human pride. That's what that element of love is.
Do you see it? Now the human heart by nature has none of that. Do you know what the language of the human heart is by nature? It's the language of Psalm 2.
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers gather together against the Lord and his anointed, saying, And what is the language of the aggregate masses of unregenerate men? Here's the language. Here it is. Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us.
We don't want that Christ, too, is God. and as God-man is the mediator to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given and who claims from all who would be his disciples absolute unrivaled religious attachment and affection. They don't want a Christ like that. The language of every unregenerate heart in the presence of the Christ of the Bible is the language of Luke 19, 14.
His servants sent a message after him saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. Or the language of Pharaoh, when he's commanded in the name of Jehovah to let the people of God go, that they may serve Jehovah, he says, Who is this Jehovah that I should obey him? Now you fellows and girls, listen this morning. What's the language of your heart to the Christ of the Bible?
Is it the language of goodwill? You're glad that Christ is just what He's proclaimed to be in Scripture. You're glad His claims are just what they are. You're glad that His demands are just what they are.
Or is there ill will towards Him? What do you feel about the commands that He gives to His servants to preach to you and to entreat you and exhort you? Are you irritated that in obedience to Christ someone stands in this place and talks to you directly? I've had people say to me on occasion, I don't like to listen to you, preacher.
Why? Because you look right in the eye and you ask questions and you're preaching right to me. Do you resent that? Come on, kids, young people.
Do you resent it? Or do you love Christ, that He takes a fellow sinner and so changes his heart that he's concerned about your soul? And do you thank Christ? Or do you resent it?
Do you have ill will toward Him? Do you wish the Lord would not send his messengers to press his claims? Or do you welcome his messengers? That's what Jesus meant when he said, He that receiveth you receiveth me.
That's what he meant.
The Essence of Love: Delight in Christ
What is the essence of love to Christ? Goodwill towards him. Do you have it? But secondly, the essence of love to him is delight in him.
The word delight, of course, simply means to give joy or pleasure. If someone comes to your home and you hear your mom or dad say, I'm delighted to see you, what you mean is the sight of that person gives you joy, gives you pleasure. If you stand there and you watch mom and dad see the car drive up and it's old Aunt Tilly that always comes with a sour face and all the rest, and she says, oh boy, here she comes. And then when she goes to the door, you see her force a smile at her hand, I'm delighted to see you, Aunt Tilly.
You know that that's not delight, that's prostituting the word delight. Delight, if it means anything, means true joy and pleasure. You children, if you really love your mom and dad, you have delight in their person. I can remember times when the kids were younger.
They still do it sometimes, not quite as much in the same way. But I'd be sitting reading a book or something and one of them would sit next to me and snuggle up the way they do when they want to, you know, ask you for something.
And I'd say, calling the child by name, whichever one it was, what do you want? And they'd say, well, nothing, Dad. I just want to love. What they're saying is, I just want to bask in the delight of my relationship to you.
There was just sheer joy and pleasure being under the arm of their dad. Now, that's what it means to love Christ. Not only to have goodwill towards him, but to have delight in him. Where do we find that in the Scriptures?
Ah, we find it throughout the Psalms in particular. We find again and again, even the exhortation such as we have in Psalm 37, Delight thyself in the Lord.
Now you see, a deceived man who thinks he's a Christian, delights only in the gifts of Christ, and he has no delight in the person of Christ. let me put it just this plainly there are a lot of people who profess to be Christians that would give up Christ if they could still have heaven you hear me? there are a lot of professing Christians who would give up Christ if they could still have heaven as opposed to hell that is, if they could have a state where there was no pain no sorrow, no grief, no income tax none of that they'd give up Christ if they could have heaven without it. But a true Christian says,
I would give up heaven itself if that were necessary to keep Christ.
The false believer would give up even Christ for heaven. The true believer will say, Give me Christ, heaven or not. And that is why the language of hymnody captures this because it is the reflex response of the Christian consciousness Jesus wondrous Savior Christ of kings the King Angels fall before thee, prostrate, worshiping. Fairest they confess thee in the heaven above.
We would sing thee, fairest, here in hymns of love. Now get the second stanza. All earth's flowing pleasures were a wintry sea. The hymn writer says take every pleasure, love of wife, love of husband, love of children, love of people, take every pleasurable experience in life, put it all together.
All earth's flowing pleasures were a wintry sea. Take Christ out of them And they bring no more delight Than if I were cast into the depths of the sea In the dead of winter The next line Heaven itself without thee Dark as night would be Lamb of God Thy glory is the light above Lamb of God Thy glory is the life of love Life is death if severed from thy throbbing heart. Death with life abundant at thy touch would start. Worlds and men and angels all consist in thee.
Yet thou camest to us in humility.
The Essence of Love: Desire for Christ
Whom having not seen ye love. What is the essence of love to Christ? It is not only goodwill towards him. It is delight in Him.
And thirdly, it involves desire for Him.
It is the essence of love, to quote old John Brown, it is the essence of love to seek union with its object. We naturally wish to be present with and become intimately acquainted with and to have and enjoy fellowship with the object of our affection. Look at Psalm 73 as a classic example of this. Here is genuine love manifesting itself in the language of Hebrew poetry.
Psalm 73, verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth But God is the strength of my heart And my portion forever Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none that I desire but thee Here is love manifesting itself in desire Or in the language of John 6 Things have been getting rough.
Our Lord's popularity has crested. He's teaching what would be called in our day high doctrine. And a lot of these false, these pseudo-disciples are offended and they turn and they walk away. And the Lord turns to the handful and says, Will ye also go away?
John 6 and verse 67, Jesus said to the twelve, Would you also go away? Simon Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Lord, to whom shall we go?
Our desire is towards you, having found the fountain of living waters. Shall we turn to cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water? What is the essence of love to Christ? It must surely involve desire for Him.
Desire that is not just resident as a passive attitude and disposition. Desire that will break out in the language of Psalm 73. Whom have I in heaven but thee? Desire that will break out in the language of John 6.
To whom shall we go? But desire that will also produce the activity of seeking the Lord. O God, thou art my God. earnestly will I seek thee.
It will express itself in joy and meditation upon him, panting for him in the public means of grace. When there is desire for the Lord Jesus, that ingredient of love, the heart is never satisfied with the public means of grace. His Christ is absent. There is nothing more painful to a true believer than a Christless Sabbath.
Nothing more painful than a Christless sermon, a Christless hour of public worship. The whole end for which we gather is to meet Him, and if that end is not realized, we don't leave feeling good, I've done my duty, I've gone to church. No, no, we leave grief, we leave pain, our spirits are shriveled. In the language of the Old Testament, we've been in Jerusalem and we've not seen the king.
Brought no consolation to the king's son to be in Jerusalem, and yet to be shut out of seeing the king's face. What consolation is there to be in Jerusalem, Zion, city of God, the church, and not to see the face of our beloved? these are the essence of love to Christ when I say do you love him I'm asking you do you know anything of good will towards Christ do you know anything of delight in him of desire for him I did not say do you have such abundant measures of these things that you're willing to sell them as you leave this morning some of us would give the shirt off our back for just an ounce more than what we have
I'm not asking you to have so much that you're prepared to write a book on my love to Christ and how I've attained. No, no. But I'm asking, do you know something? Do you know something?
Have I been talking double talk, kids?
What about you adults? Have I been talking double talk? Do you know? Here, inwardly, experimentally, do you know whereof I'm speaking this morning?
Has your heart echoed an amen?
Do you love him? That's the question. Do you love him? It's an indispensable mark of Christian character, whom having not seen, he loved.
If you do not love him, it's an infallible prophecy of coming judgment. If anyone loved not our Lord, let him be anathema. What does it mean to love him? The essence of that love is goodwill towards him.
The Roots: Saving Revelation and Believing Reception
Delight in Him, desire for Him. Now consider in the second place the roots of this love. When Peter said, Whom having not seen ye love, how did this come to pass? Upon what root system was this love sustained?
Let me suggest that the roots of every true disposition of love to Christ are two and only two. but always two, inevitably two. And they are, first of all, a saving revelation of the glory of His person and secondly, a believing resignation to His person and work.
More simply, a fight of Him and trust in Him. Turn please to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Peter said, Whom having not seen ye love. It is possible, thank God, blissfully possible, to love an unseen Christ, but you cannot love an unknown Christ.
You can love an unseen Christ, but you cannot love an unknown Christ. And Christ will be an unknown Christ until he becomes a revealed Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The apostle has been treating of the subject of the glory of the new covenant ministry in contrast to the glory of the old covenant ministry.
He says in chapter 4 and verse 1, Seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully. but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
Now Paul says, I have a problem. I've renounced everything in my own personal life that would impede me from being everything I ought to be as a new covenant minister. I've renounced the hidden things that would cause shame before God and men. I'm not walking in any kind of craftiness or trickery that would cast dispersions upon the integrity of my motives.
Furthermore, he said, I manifest the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God. I preach plainly. I preach clearly. I preach with urgency.
But he says there's a problem. I'm trying to describe a beautiful picture to men who are blind.
And I'm all excited about the picture. And I point to the picture and I describe the picture. And they don't get excited. Why?
He says they're blind. He paints the picture of the glory of Christ. Look at the next verse. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus is Lord.
That's our great theme. Christ and Him crucified. And in the language of Galatians 3, 1, we openly placard Christ crucified before men. But he says they don't get enamored with the picture.
I see it and I describe it and I'm enthralled. But he says they're blind. The God of this world blinds them to what? Now look at the language.
The God of this world blinds them so that they do not see what? They do not see the gospel of the glory of Christ. Now follow me closer. The gospel has both a form and a glory.
Now the preacher can do only one thing. Set the form before you. That's his task.
And the human mind without the aid of the spirit can understand the form of the gospel. I'm a sinner. Christ died for sinners. Christ is God.
Christ is man. But you see, until the Holy Spirit comes and pulls the veil away from men's eyes, they'll never behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And it's not until you've beheld glory in the face of Christ that you'll love Him.
So the first root of all true love to Christ is what we read in verse 6. But God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to do what? not to give us a voice telling us we're saved. No, the operation of God in salvation is not some additional witness.
It is not some special divine whisper to our own sonship. No, no, look, look. He has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What happens?
We no longer see simply the form. we now see glory. It's not a different Christ. It's not a different gospel.
We've got a different set of eyes.
You see it? And some of you have sat here through this exposition on Christ's person. He is truly God. He is truly man.
One person in the two natures. And you perhaps are able to give all that back to me as propositional truth. But my friend, listen. Listen.
Has God shined in your heart so that you've beheld the very glory of God in the face of this Christ and your heart runs out to Him in genuine love. Until there is a saving revelation of the glory of His person, there'll be no love to Him. Peter says, Having not seen Him, you love Him. But they do not love a Christ who is unrevealed.
He is not seen with physical eyes, but He is seen with eyes illuminated by the Spirit. And that's always done in connection with the gospel. If you turn back to 1 Peter 1, that's why we do not tell people to go out and go off on a mountain somewhere and pray for a vision of Christ. No, no.
When did they come to have this saving revelation of God's glory in the face of Christ? He moves right on from verse 8, whom having not seen ye loved, in whom yet believing ye rejoice, greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And then he starts talking about the salvation rooted in the Old Testament prophets. How did it come to them?
Verse 12 to whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these things which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven Which things angels desire to look into. Listen, listen, listen. People are always itching for some vision of Christ. Listen, the angels have the direct vision of Christ.
And they say, we want to peer into these mysteries.
Redeemed sinners see something that angels don't see.
Isn't that what he says? Which things angels desire to look into. Why does not the Holy Spirit give them a saving revelation of the glory of God in the face of Christ? They don't need it.
They're not lost. We are.
The Holy Ghost has come to testify of Christ to those who need Him. Sinners such as you. Sinners such as I am. Sinners such as we all are.
And there's never any love to Christ until there is, first of all, a saving revelation of His glory. And then, secondly, there must be a believing resignation to His person in work. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 8 again. It's a key text on any thought concerning love to Christ.
Whom, having not seen, ye love. And now notice the close connection. on whom though ye see him not yet believing. You see him not, but you love him.
You see him not, yet you believe upon him. It is in the context of a believing resignation to this person and to him in terms of his mighty work of salvation that love is created in the heart towards him. John states it so beautifully. We love Him because He first loved us.
That's it. Our love to Christ is not something that we pray the Holy Spirit will give us before we embrace Christ. No, no. in embracing Christ as He's offered in the Gospel, the wonder of His love to us then creates this reflex response of our love to Him.
And that's why love to Christ is only created not only in the context of the preaching of the Gospel, but in the context of the believing response to the Gospel. But now I must hurry to a conclusion. Do I love Him? How can I know if I love Him?
The Fruit of Love: Keeping His Commandments
Well, the essence of that love we've considered. Secondly, the roots of that love. And now thirdly, the fruit of love to Christ. Do you love Christ?
Do you love Christ? Well, love to Christ will never be a dormant, lifeless principle in the soul, lying inactive and unused like an old worn-out sweater stored away in the attic somewhere. No, no. follow me closely now the most powerful and active grace in all the world is love to Jesus Christ.
If we could ever capture everything that love to Christ has caused men to do what an amazing display it would be.
Some of you need to get the little book Fair Sunshine and you'll read of children You listen to me, kids. Children the age of some of you, 10 and 11 years of age, who voluntarily, deliberately, consciously gave themselves up to lingering torturous death in the highlands of Scotland out of sheer love to Jesus Christ.
Children to whom death is such a foreboding thing. Children who have such a love of life and who think in terms of a full life ahead of them. Little children willingly and gladly died. Why?
Because they loved Christ.
Every drop of martyr's blood is an eloquent testimony to the power of this motive, love to Christ.
And our Lord himself tells us the infallible fruit, or the infallible test of love. Turn please, and this is the last passage we shall consider, to John chapter 14.
What is the fruit of love to Christ?
John chapter 14, and beginning with verse 15.
John 14 and verse 15. If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. Now notice our Lord did not say you'll keep the commandments that it's natural for you to keep. That your past cultural conditioning makes it easy for you to keep.
The commandments that are convenient for you to keep, that you can keep without losing face, losing money, running the risk of losing friends. No, no. If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And all you need to know is that they're my commandments.
That's all. And every consideration is sacrificed to that principle. We read on in the same chapter, verse 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
There you are. Do I love him, the Lord says. Do you keep my commandments? And that word keep.
There's a word for simple obedience, but that's not the word used here. This word keep means not just to obey, but to cherish as a thing of worth and therefore to obey.
You see, there is an external Pharisaic wooden kind of obedience. Well, the Bible says Christians are supposed to do it. No, no. If you love me, you will keep, you will cherish my commandments.
Read further in the same chapter, verse 23. If a man loved me, he will keep my word. If a man loved me, he will keep my word. Verse 24, He that loveth me not keepeth not my words.
And then look at the classic example in verse 31, But that the world may know that I love the Father, I shall now give an eloquent description of what love to the Father means in the heart of God the Son no he says that the world may know that I love the Father what do I do? as the Father gave me commandment even so I do and then those next words are eloquent with all the realization of Gethsemane in the agony of Golgotha the abandonment of the brassy and the blackened heavens He says that the world may know that I truly love my Father. That all my professed love is not empty talk. That the world may know that I love my Father.
As the Father gave commandments, so I do. Arise! Let us go hence. Hence to what?
Hence to Gethsemane. Hence to the desertion of the disciples. Hence to the agony and abandonment of Golgotha. Hence to the blood.
Hence to the shame. Hence to the death. Hence to your hell and mine.
Now he says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. That's the fruit of love to Christ. Now do you love him? Do you love him?
Children, young people, do you love him? Can you answer that question in the light of this teaching? Do you keep his commandments? The commandments that are not grievous.
the commandments that first of all call you to forsake all hope and salvation in yourself. He says this is the Father's commandment. Believe on Him whom He hath sent. Do you find joy in obeying the command to turn from your own righteousness, turn from your own merits, and to cling only to Christ?
His commandment is deny yourself. Take up the cross and follow Him. Lose your life. Say no to self as the governing principle of life.
Do you keep that commandment? Do you take up the cross daily? His commandment is in the pathway of discipleship, sins and obstacles to holiness, as dear as right hands and right eyes must be plucked out and cast from us. Are you keeping His commandment?
His commandment is if you profess to be His disciple, to confess Him openly in the appointed way. Repent and be baptized. You say you love Him. You say you trust Him.
You've not yet been baptized. You're living in disobedience to Him. If you love me, He says, you'll keep my commandments. And His commandments are not grievous.
Do you love Him? Do you love Him, wives? You've heard His commandments in recent weeks. Wives, be subject to your husbands in everything.
Do you love Him? If you keep His commandments, you husbands will hear the word of God to you tonight. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. Do you love Him?
Are you proving it by giving yourself to being a loving, gentle, tender, understanding husband? You children, do you love Him? He says, honor father and mother. Do you love Him, children?
He says, obey Him that has the rule over you.
Do you love Him? Do you love Him? measured by the fruit of obedience. Do you love him?
Closing Self Examination and Prayer
That's where I leave you today. But the question, the question that I trust burns into your conscience. Do I love him? And would God that some of us would be able to say with Peter, I said the last passage was John 14.
I must back off and conclude with John 21. You remember what Peter could say The Lord said Peter do you love me Now Peter could no longer boast The Lord says do you love me with that supreme love He uses the highest word for love And Peter now he's had the wind knocked out of his sails He says Lord you know that I'm fond of you He was humbled He was crushed Full with a sense of failure and declension and all the rest But oh to be able to say with Peter amidst all of his sense of failure and the rest, he could say, Lord, Thou knowest all things. And as the omniscient Lord, You can read in this heart of a man who just a few hours before
denied You and cursed and swore and miserably fell. Lord Jesus, You know all things. You know that I love You. Oh, can You say that to the omniscient Son of God this morning. Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love you. Can you say that?
Can you? Oh, my friend, can you say it this morning? Do you love him? Can you say, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee? There is in my heart no ill will towards you. Lord Jesus, There is naught but goodwill towards you.
There is delight in you, desire for you. I thank you that you've shown me your glory. I thank you you've brought me to trust in you and in your salvation. And I thank you you've set my feet upon the path of obedience.
If that's what it means to say, I love him, can you say you love him? and dear child of God if you can say I love him but I love him so poorly I love him so feebly where do I get my love strengthened not by looking at your love but by looking at him that's where that love was first born the saving sight of Christ and that's where it will grow as you ever look unto Jesus if there were any words that I would want ringing in your ears as Mrs. Martin and I leave tomorrow morning and you think of us and pray for us, it's these words, oh, that the Holy Ghost will bring them back again and again. Do you love Him?
Do you love Him?
Let us pray. O our Father, how we plead that by the Spirit you will take this simple but all-important question and rip it to the conscience of every person in this auditorium. And we pray that some who this morning must in honesty say, I do not love him. Oh God, may they be able to say before this day is over, Thou knowest all things, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.
Seal the word to the salvation of some and to the prophet of us all. We ask in the name of Him whom we love,
even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
Whom having not seen ye love sets the indispensable mark of Christian character
Anathema maranatha pronounced on whoever loves not the Lord
If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments establishes the infallible fruit of love