Our Love Must Be Properly Rooted

The Danger and Duty in an Age of Lawlessness

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, August 1st, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Please turn with me to the Gospel according to Matthew, in chapter 24, verses 12 and 13. Our Lord Jesus, speaking in what is commonly called the Olivet Discourse, says, And because iniquity or lawlessness shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold or be extinguished. But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Last Lord's Day evening we began what I purpose will be a brief series of messages on the theme, of the Christian's danger and duty in an age of abounding lawlessness.

1:18 The text I attempted to open up in your hearing, in which we studied together, is the text which I have again read in your hearing. After spending just a few minutes to catch the flow of thought in the Olivet Discourse and the place of these words in that flow of thought, I examined the text under three very simple headings. The condition described, lawlessness shall be multiplied. The declension predicted, the love of the many shall wax cold or be extinguished.

1:56 And the resistance demanded, but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Now from this text, it is clear that, that the great danger we face when lawlessness abounds, is its chilling blast upon the tender plant of the grace of love to Christ. And if our great danger is the waning of our love to Christ, then our great duty is to seek to have our love to Christ be genuine in its nature, warm, and growing in its degree, in spite of, and in the very midst of the chilling blast of abounding lawlessness. And tonight, as a natural sequence to last week's message, and as preparation for our coming to the Lord's table, we shall spend our allotted time seeking at least to begin to give an answer to this very vital question, that grows out of the text. How can the grace of love to Christ be kept burning and hot in an age of abounding lawlessness?

3:23 How can the grace of love to Christ be kept burning and hot in an age of abounding lawlessness? In an age when the love of the many shall wax cold or be extinguished, but the love of the true people of God will be maintained and sustained and even increased in those same conditions, enabling them to endure to the end, I say it is a question of life and death. It is a question of persevering grace. It's a question of salvation or damnation.

4:07 How can the grace of love to Christ be kept? How can the grace of love to Christ be kept? That burning and hot in an age of abounding lawlessness? My answer to that question will be set forth in two simple categories.

Two Categories for Maintaining Love: Rooted and Nourished

4:23 Our love to Christ must be properly rooted, and our love to Christ must be properly nourished. It must be properly rooted and properly nourished. Tonight, we take up only the first of those two hints. Rooted in the patience of Christ.

The Natural Heart's Incapacity for Enduring Love

4:46 powerful application of His saving grace in us. If we would have a love that will maintain intensity no matter how much wickedness abounds, it must be properly rooted. And the only proper root system of the grace of love to Christ is the powerful application of His saving grace in us. When the text says that the love of the many shall wax cold or be extinguished, it is telling us that many who profess in Christ and thereby come to love Christ manifested a semblance of what appeared to be love. For eventually constant chilling black age of abounding blissness by degrees suddenness. wishes what appeared to be love to Christ, thereby revealing that they never had any

6:10 genuine spirit-implanted love in their hearts to Christ in the first place. If they had had a supernaturally implanted love, it would be enduring love. It would be the love that would enable them to endure midst of and in spite of the abounding lawlessness, and thereby enjoy the consummate blessings of salvation. For it is he that endureth to the end that shall be saved. But it's equally true to say that he who is truly saved shall endure to the end. For the scripture tells us that in Philippians 1.6, that he who has been saved and begun a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. But we need to face from the teaching of this passage that by nature the human heart is incapable of that love to Christ which will endure no matter how intense become the blast and the chilling winds of an age of abounding lawlessness.

7:31 The human heart is incapable of that persevering, enduring love. And this is so because according to the scriptures, the heart by nature sees no beauty or loveliness in the person of Christ. Isaiah the prophet said that there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was viewed with natural eyes in terms of his naturalness.

8:03 natural form, and in terms of the only way we can now view him in the scriptures, no man by nature sees any beauty that makes Christ desirable to him. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3 says, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should dawn upon them. Satan blinds men's eyes to the outshining of the perfections of Christ that are seen in the gospel. The human heart sees no beauty or loveliness in the person of Christ to make him desirable. Further, the heart is in rebellion and is belligerent against the law of Christ. It not only perceives no beauty in the person. It is in a state of rebellion and belligerence against the law of Christ.

9:06 Romans 8, 7 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And nowhere does that reality come to clearer expression than when we plant a man or woman, boy or girl, in the presence of the demands of Christ, the yoke of Christ, who says, If any man will come after me, let him say a resolute, deep, irrevocable, no, living for himself, go to self, go to the core of living for himself, take of his cross, and follow me. If any man come to me, and hate not father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. If you would follow me, your divorce from sin must be so thorough that, sins is dear, as right hands and right eyes must be cut off and cast away, and plucked out and cast away, and before such law, yoke, terms, the language of the human heart by nature is that of Luke 19, 14. They sent an ambassador, a group of ambassadors after the Lord of the city, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

10:34 By nature sees no beauty. Your loveliness in the person of Christ. The heart by nature is in rebellion and belligerent against the law of Christ. And thirdly, the heart by nature is in a state of indifference and unbelief with respect to the work of Christ.

10:51 The fact that Christ has died for sinners, the culmination of a life of perfect obedience, and the righteousness comprised of that perfect life, and that substitutionary death, is regarded as a thing of naught. As Paul said of his fellow Jewish countrymen in Romans 12, 10, 3, they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. You see, where you have a human heart that sees no beauty or loveliness in the person of Christ, is in a state of rebellion and belligerence against the law of Christ, and in a state of indifference and unbelief with respect to the work of Christ. In a condition of indifference and unbelief with respect to the work of Christ, such a heart cannot, does not truly believe upon Christ, and therefore does not and cannot truly love Christ.

Superficial Professions vs. Supernaturally Rooted Love

11:53 But in that condition, and follow closely, in that condition, man whose heart sees no beauty in Christ, man whose heart is set against the law of Christ, man whose heart is indifferent to the work of Christ. He still has a conscience, still is susceptible to religious instruction, to religious traditions, to religious training and influence, and by the actings of conscience, under the light of the word of God, in providences, under the influence of effective parental training and instruction, under the influence of biblical teaching in the Sunday school and from the pulpit in the church to which children go. Under felt psychological needs for identity and meaning in life and acceptance, under the sense of peer pressure, under natural insecurities and the fear of death, and for a host of many other reasons, people whose, follow me closely now, eyes have never been supernaturally open to behold anything beauty and beautiful in Christ, whose wills have never been open to anything beautiful in Christ, whose wills have never been open to anything beautiful in Christ, whose heart has never been supernaturally renewed to embrace the

13:16 yoke of Christ, and whose hearts have never been so thoroughly crushed with Holy Ghost conviction to see their hotter, desperate need of the righteousness of Christ, then nonetheless, under the pressure of these many things, any one of them or any combination of them, make what appears to be a valid profession of faith in Christ. Amen. make some movement towards Christ, whether gradually under the nurture of a Christian hope, or within that context in a crisis of confrontation where they've really blown it and come under parental frown and the pressure of the unusual discipline, as was true in my case periodically, when my parents dealt with me and showed me the root of my problem in my sinful heart, there'd be a tremendous emotional upheaval and weeping and crying and praying and asking the Lord to save me, while yet, through beauty in Him, while yet my heart did not reach out to submit to His yoke, and while yet I did not see my utter

14:32 destitute state apart from His perfect life and His death on behalf of sinners being credited to me. And so our Lord assumes in this text, that there will be many who under the pressure of any one or combination of these things will come to some profession of faith in Christ and as the apparent fruit of that faith will profess to love Him, but, but, under the constant chilling blast of the winds of an age of abounding lawlessness, that professed love grows cold and disastrous. It grows cold and is extinguished, thereby manifesting that there was never any true love to Christ. And so in answer to the question, how can the grace of love to Christ be kept burning and hot in an age of abounding lawlessness, I answer, our Christ must be rooted in the powerful application of His love. saving grace in us an operation of grace that will take away the blindness which keeps us from seeing anything in the person of Christ will take away the rebellion

The Spirit's Work: Beholding Christ's Beauty and Embracing His Yoke

16:03 that keeps us from embracing the yoke of Christ and either the indifference to our sin or the misplaced confidence in another way of acceptance with God and brings us to see that our only hope is in the righteousness of Christ you see in the true convert the spirit of God does this powerful application or effects this powerful application of saving grace and whenever he does it he causes the sinner to behold a beauty in Christ that makes Christ to him what Christ himself described in the parable of the treasure hidden in the field and in the parable of the pearl of great price you remember our Lord Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like unto it has similarities with these realities and he speaks of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13 and verse 44 like unto a treasure hidden in the field which a man found found and hid and in his joy he goeth and selleth all and by many things were counted and reckoned in his judgment

17:33 as worthy of being retained as valuable possessions until he found this one treasure hidden in the field and when he found that one treasure his sense of values underwent a radical upheaval everything else that up till that time he had accomplished yet accounted worthy of retention worthy of protection suddenly he released that one treasure hidden in the field likewise verse 45 again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls and having found one pearl of great price he went and sold all and bought there is a man who is a pearl merchant and he has many possessions and many pearls constantly seeking to escalate the worth of his pearls and trade off pearls of lesser worth for a pearl of greater worth but now something that he had never encountered before he found one pearl of such supreme worth liquidated that said in pearls that he might have it and if there is any contrast in the two parallels

18:58 it's the contrast of the lord may be utterly from the human standpoint utterly indifferent utterly without any previous consciousness of god awakening in him a hunger and a thirst for reality in the things of god and forgiveness of sins he is like someone who stumbles into a field and finds a treasure beneath the bush and the nettles and making sure that no one sees him he furtively goes out strikes his deal and comes back to possess the treasure upon which he stumbled in the second parallel it's the picture of a man on a quest he is a merchant seeking seeking seeking could it be that our lord is showing that in some the work of his grace comes as a surprise like a lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky and others it comes at the end of years and perhaps decades of quest but you see the common denominator no matter what the method of grace may be wherever the kingdom of god comes to a human heart the king himself is always perceived as worthy of being the sole treasure he shares with none

20:21 if the kingdom of god is come to you who has found the hidden treasure and you've sold all that you have christ is of supreme worth to you you see a beauty and a loveliness in christ that makes you say if you have christ i must lose every friend every single person that accepts me as a personal friend if i must lose every friend if i must lose even the love of father mother brother sister and my own life i am prepared for this treasure to sell all and the holy ghost never savingly reveals christ in any other life than that never breaks in upon the sinner god through the word and by the spirit Sinner is such a view of the beauty of Christ that causes sinner to choose him above all else.

21:44 Further, God is in supernatural power. He does that work of marvelous renewal that makes the sinner gladly embrace the yoke of Christ. It's described in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 as a spiritual heart transplant. God says, I will take out the heart of stone.

22:07 I will give them a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within them, write my law upon their hearts, and cause them to keep my spirit and my judgments. Jeremiah 32, God says, I'll put my fear in their hearts, and they shall never depart from my ways. In the language of our Lord Jesus, when he says, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

22:37 Take my yoke upon you. And the picture is either submitting to the yoke that he holds out, the yoke of his own commandments, as we heard this morning, that are not grievous, that only have the glory of God and the sanctity and the well-being of man as their end. It's either the yoke of his own will that he holds out to us, or his own yoke that he offers to share with us, that we may, as it were, pull and go in the direction of the knowledge of Christ, the ways of Christ, in company with the people of Christ, to advance the kingdom of Christ. But in either case, the animal that comes under the yoke, actions determined by another. Take my yoke upon you. Take my yoke upon you. The yoke that is carved and shaped by me, and that is custom fit to your own shoulders, and for which I will give you the grace to bear.

23:47 Whatever I call upon you to bear. To bear and to do. And when the Holy Spirit savingly reveals Christ, the whole concept that he's a meaning, that Christ, the Holy Ghost, takes away all such nonsense and shows us his yoke is easy, his burden is light, compared to the crushing galling laid upon us by our sin and by the devil that causes us to grind and be bent over. For the scripture says the way of the transgressor is hard and will ultimately, take us down to hell.

24:30 His yoke is easy and his burden is light, for it's suited to our renewed humanity. Man was not made for sin, but made for God. Sin is a wretched, crippling, twisting, destructive abnormality. And to come under the yoke of Christ and to move in the direction of holiness and obedience to God and living to the glory of God, it is a light yoke.

24:58 It's a lovely little chorus we used to sing as new Christians. His yoke is easy, his burden is light, I found it so, I found it so. He leadeth me by day and by night. His yoke is easy, his burden is light.

25:15 Oh, dear young people, I've borne that yoke for forty-one years, but the whole forty-one years is lighter than one day of that other yoke that left me with a condemned conscience and with a frightening cloud of joy. And under that yoke that looked sweet became bitter in my mouth and more bitter in my spirit. His yoke is easy, his burden is light. And when God supernaturally and powerfully applies his grace in the gospel, sinners not only behold a beauty in the person of Christ that causes them to choose him as the supreme object of their affection, but he also does this work of renewal of the will, so that they with Paul, Saul of Tarsus, stricken to the ground, cry out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And then thirdly, he always brings the sinner to that place where seeing the guilt of his sin,

Resting Wholly on Christ's Righteousness and the Nature of True Faith

26:38 calling forth divine wrath upon him, that there is nothing he can do to commend himself to God. There's nothing he can do. There's nothing he ever has been or ever can become that would answer to the demands of God's holy law. Because the law touches the thoughts and the motives and desires of the heart as well as the deeds and the acts of the body.

27:03 And so he's ready to throw himself in the language of Philippians 3, wholly upon the righteousness of God in Christ. He's ready to count all of his religious heritage Philippians 3, Pharisee of the Pharisees, Hebrew of the Hebrews, all of his practice and all of his devotion, touching zeal, persecuting the church, external demands of the law, he said impeccably blameless, but what things were gained to me, these I counted loss for Christ. Yea, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as refuse that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. And the Spirit of God brings the sinner to where he does something more than in a nebulous way, not to the fact Christ died for sinners and I've blown it a few times and I guess I'm a sinner and therefore what he did must somehow be of help to me so I'll ascend to that, oh no, in saving faith unto the cross with a general notion I've blown it and Christ didn't.

28:28 Oh no, my friend, there is some clear perception that I am a hell-deserving sinner who has broken the law of a holy God and in the person of the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, one perfectly kept that law and under the curses of that law he was born upon the cross and bore the unleashed fury of the wrath of God until he drank into his soul that cup we contemplated a few months ago in our communion meditation and I see by eyes and by the spirit that in that perfect life and in that immolated God is my only hope of life and salvation and acceptance with God and with the full, may I use the term, with the full weight of the soul, soul has no weight I know but the full weight of the soul is thrown upon Christ by other refuge have I none hangs my helpless soul on thee. That's the language of faith, my helpless on thee. And faith is likened in Hebrews 6

29:51 to a man who is guilty of manslaughter. He did not deliberately kill a man. He's guilty of not murder but inadvertent manslaughter. The avenger of blood is on his heels and he knows there's a city of refuge some ten days away and though he's fat and out of shape if he can own a city of refuge and he's huffing and puffing and wondering if he's going to have a heart attack and he flees and he's stumbling and the door is shut behind him.

30:23 He breathes a sigh as he lies there panting and says I'm safe. God likens faith to a fleeing to Christ for refuge. He's the great city of refuge. God's law is the avenger of blood.

30:39 We are the guilty party and when we see it we don't casually tip our hat to Jesus. We're like a man who knows the dagger's at our back unless we get into him and we don't rest no matter how much our lungs may burn and our legs feel like lead. We'll run in the way of earnest seeking and crying after God and for mercy until we know we've been brought in and the door's been shut behind us. Dear people, that's the faith called in Titus 1-1 the faith of God's elect.

31:15 That's not a natural faith. No man's nature is so stripped of his own sense of importance that he says no hands I bring simply follow. Wash me Savior or I die. Now that faith that faith which is the faith of God's elect is always a faith that carries in its very arms the grace of love whom having not seen ye love in whom believing verse Peter 1 and verse 8 and it is that faith which by the grace of God has brought the sinner to see beauty in Christ brought the sinner to embrace joyfully the yoke of Christ brought the sinner to rest solely and truly upon the person and work of Christ. It is that faith alone which will be the mother of that love which will endure and persevere will maintain its heat and its glow through all the chilling blasts

32:44 of any of abounding lawlessness. But anything short of that won't do it. Remember in the parable of the sower Jesus said Luke 8 These that are sown upon the rocky soil are those who for a while believe the word comes is used who for a season believe believe in a cosmos of testing and that lawlessness causes their professed faith and its accompaniment of love to wither and to die. You see Bunyan understood this and in his own inimitable way captured it in so many ways in his immortal Pilgrim's Progress. Remember that incident in the house of interpreter? Then I saw in my dream the interpreter took Christian by the hand and led him to a place where there was a fire burning against a wall.

The Secret Maintenance of Grace: Bunyan's Illustration

34:05 You can imagine now a fire burning against this front wall of the church underneath that heating and air duct vent. And one standing by it always casting much water upon it to quench it is someone with a large bucket and he's taking a lathe and constantly throwing water upon the fire trying to quench it. But Bunyan said yet did the fire burn down higher and hotter. Yet did the fire burn then said Christian what means this?

34:43 And the interpreter answered the fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart. He that casts water upon it to extinguish and put it out is the devil. But in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter thou shalt see the reason of that so he had him about to the back side of the wall. We go around and through the back of the street and we look on the other side of the wall and what do we find?

35:14 He took him there and this is what he found. So he had him to the back side of the wall where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand of which he did also continually cast but secretly into the fire. How did he get the oil through the wall and onto the fire that was on the front of the wall? He did it secretly.

35:37 Maybe Bunyan should have written written magic. I don't know how he did it but he was there. Was continually being poured upon that fire so in spite of the water being ladled upon it it burned yet hotter and brighter in spite of all the attempts to extinguish it. Then said Christian what means this?

36:04 The interpreter answered this is Christ who continually with the oil of his grace maintains the work already begun in the heart by the means of which notwithstanding what the devil can do the souls of his people prove gracious still. And in what thou sawest that the man capital N stood behind the wall to maintain the fire is to teach thee that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work is done that the work of grace is maintained in the soul. Bunyan the wise pastor saw the struggling Christian coming to him in pastoral interaction and saying oh pastor Bunyan the flames of my remaining sin being constantly up within me I feel that the fire will be extinguished those ladles of my own sin are cast upon me and enticements and snares from the devil are thrown upon me like ladles of water and yet all the while fairness and disturbance and longing for more grace was the very operation of grace within the heart of the sinner

Self-Examination: Is Your Love Properly Rooted?

37:32 turning him away from himself making him acutely aware of and honest regarding his sin and looking out of himself to have the graces implanted sustained by the power of God. So as I bring our meditation to a conclusion in preparation for the table tonight may I ask you and may you answer with judgment day honesty do you this night see a beauty in Christ that makes you value him above all other people relationships and possessions even life itself do you see the beauty in Christ that makes it reasonable to assume he is to you the pearl of great price and the treasure hidden in the field I'm not saying do you believe he is that in himself that's your theoretical theology of Christ I'm asking you is he that to you sitting where you sit tonight that's your experiential knowledge of Christ do you answer you see I'm not asking you do you profess to love Christ

38:56 for the love it was ultimately extinguished because it didn't have a proper root they never beheld Christ in their hearts as the pearl of great price and so I ask you to answer in the solemn presence of almighty God do you see a beauty in Christ that makes you value him above all other people relationships possessions and life itself do you love the yoke of his will his ways his laws I didn't say do you keep them as you long to I didn't say do you miserably fail in performing them as you ought to I love his laws and love his ways and love his yoke or is it always uncomfortable on your shoulders this children obey your parents honor father and mother I'm sixteen well big deal God England come down and rewrite the fifth commandment because you had your sixteenth birthday if you love Christ the yoke of the fifth commandment will feel more comfortable at sixteen than it did at fifty

40:20 because as you grow in knowledge you'll grow in appreciation of how good God is to give us parents to guide us into adulthood and even beyond we won't always be chafing with the rules and regulations and all the rest you'll see that's Christ's yoke and as he himself went down to Nazareth and was subject to his parents so you in the spirit of Christ will do the same with joy is that true of you kids listen to me now I want to go out to the conscience of you kids because we've had great hopes for some of you we've watched you grow up through your toddlers into your pre-teens and early teens and some of you profess to love Christ to truly trust Christ but that was before your hormones began to really get agitated you were somewhere between you know how I say the stages boys and girls pass through from yuck to hmm to hmm some of you are between the hmm and the hmm stage and now a whole new set of perspective enters having your first or second crush having the guys look at you having the gals look at you wondering if I look macho wondering if they say hey ain't he got a nice bob you say you know our language yeah I do and they ask you listen to me you kids let me ask is it all going down the tubes

41:47 in the next five years you gonna throw down the tubes all the standards of decency and modesty and chastity and the kids are all talking about who's made the bases and you say I ain't even been in the batter's box and took the bat in my hand kids know what I'm talking about are you ready to have them mock you out that your purity is unscathed because your body belongs to even if it's a gal or a guy in Trinity Church you want to start using your body for a playground are you ready to tell them off and get their dirty hands off you that body belongs to Christ and is his property bought by his precious blood is your love to Christ going to be enough to keep you sexually pure in an age of abounding sexual lawlessness if it's real it will if it's real it will no matter how many who's the devil from every your innocence has been robbed this commercialism and the vile lawlessness and the vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile

43:16 vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile vile And hot is behind the wall with a vessel of oil.

43:49 What's going to happen in the next five years? What about career? The only door open to pursue your career goals means you've got to cut yourself off from any viable church situation. Are you ready?

44:06 Of having a climate to seek a godly partner to say no. It's necessary to take the bottom rung in the career goals. To seek first the kingdom of God. How about it, young people?

44:17 Well, you've got some real big ones to make in the next few years. And they're going to prove, they're going to prove whether the love that we hopefully see as the fruit of a work of God's grace was merely a love that was the combination of good parental influence, good Sunday school teachers, preaching, teaching, and all the rest. But it wasn't supernaturally rooted in the chilling blast and the ladles of the devil's water. They're going to extinguish it.

44:55 The many, it says, the love of the many. That means out of 20 young people, unless God makes an exception, maybe we'll have three or four that'll be worth anything ten years from now. And I tell you, that makes me want to weep. Because it wasn't the real thing.

45:30 And you've got some biggies in front of you. They're going to test whether you've got the root of the matter in you. Whether your present professed love is rooted in a supernatural work of God. God's grace wrought in you by the Holy Ghost.

45:49 And as we come to the table, isn't this the way we confess that our professed sight of the beauty of Christ initially, our professed acceptance of the yoke of Christ initially, our professed submission to the righteousness of God in Christ initially, was real? For if we have once truly believed it, the evidence is we continue to believe. And that's why Jesus said in John 6, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me.

46:24 And the eating of his flesh and drinking his blood is not the bread on the communion table and the juice and the fruit of the vine in the cup. But he's speaking of continually feeding upon him as crucified for sins. For faith in Christ is not the act of a moment, but the acquisition of a disposition. That grows and develops as we grow and know more and more of the extent and the depth and the magnitude of our sin.

46:54 So we are more and more driven into Christ. To feed upon him is our only hope of life and salvation. To drink of his blood by faith as the only ground by which our sins can be justly pardoned. Dear people, this is how love to Christ, in and of itself, in an abounding age of abounding lawlessness, is maintained.

Call to Repentance and Communion

47:22 First of all, it must be properly rooted. Our love to Christ must be rooted in the powerful application of his saving grace in us.

47:35 Is that what God has done for you? You say, I'm not sure. My friend, if you're not, don't give God any rest until you know. Or you may say, if that's what it means, to truly believe, then surely there's been no work in me.

47:53 My friend, God normally doesn't bring these things to our awareness before the day of judgment just to be a saver of death unto death. Bless God that he's shown you that that little tipping of the hat to Jesus is as far removed from true saving faith as heaven is from hell. And say, oh God, have mercy upon me. I've taken my sins so lightly.

48:15 I've resisted and balked at the yoke of your sin. Son, and I've seen nothing of beauty in him. Oh God, by the Spirit, show me the loveliness of Christ, the trustworthiness of Christ, the graciousness and the gentleness of Christ, that I may comply with his invitation. Come unto me.

48:37 Take my yoke upon you. May God grant that as we come to this table, our coming may not be the hypocritical act of those whose professed love will eventually, be extinguished because it is not rooted in a true work of grace in the heart. But may our coming be but another expression and outworking of that love which is the fruit of that faith, that faith that has brought within its corpus a sight of Christ that we count him worthy of our unrivaled, undiminished love and affection. We love his yoke. We want no other hiding place but his cross. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your holy word, which addresses the most vital issues of life, of time and of eternity.

49:45 And we pray that as we have meditated upon your word together, you will indeed shine upon the face of your beloved Son. And oh, that something of his beauty may be seen by many who hitherto have simply passed him by as unworthy of consideration, if regarded the smiles of their peers and the acceptance of their friends of greater worth than the companionship of Christ. Oh God, work that work that will make Christ exceedingly precious, the only object of trust and the object of their own faith, the undivided supreme loyalty and love, and one that will cause them to embrace his yoke with joy. Continue with us as we come to the table. May the Spirit attend our eating and our drinking in obedience to the Lord Jesus as we remember him who loved us and gave himself for us. We ask in his name.

50:53 Amen.