Churchwork
03-09-2009, 11:28 PM
We ought to sense the loveliness of God as well as the majesty of God. We draw near to God because of His loveliness. How does God love us? There are many passages in the Scriptures which tell us of the Lord’s love towards us. Such as, personally: "Who [Christ] loved me, and gave himself up for me" (Gal. 2.20c); or, corporately: "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it" (Eph. 5.25b). In Romans 5.8b we read: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In 1 John 4.10 it declares: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
Where can we find love apart from the cross? And why does the Lord command us to break the bread often? It is because He does not want us to drift away from Him. We seem so prone to forget, so He draws us back. How can we fail to love Him as we remember how miserable we were as sinners and how great was His grace in saving us! The children of Israel recalled in the wilderness the cucumbers and the leeks and the garlic of Egypt, but they forgot how they had suffered as slaves under the oppression of Pharaoh as well as how the Lord had delivered them out of their great afflictions. It appears that their hearts still lingered back in Egypt. If we forget the cross, we will also forget the love of God. If we forget the love of God, we will undoubtedly think of the world.
If you misread the aforementioned verses as not having to repent and believe in Christ in order to be regenerated instead of reminding us of the love of God, then you miss God's love and thus, pride yourself on being selected under a false salvation.
How can we love the Lord? "I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little" (Luke 7.47). If we remember how our sins were forgiven, we cannot help but love the Lord. The day the cross ever fails to move us, that very day we are fallen. Evan Roberts wept greatly when he realized that he was not moved by the cross; and this went on for several months until God moved him again. But there then followed the great Welsh Revival, the greatest spiritual renewal the world has ever seen. How did it happen that that woman washed the Lord’s feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and kissed them with her lips? It was because she remembered how all her sins had been forgiven her.
Many focus on whether the person is saved or not saved and how they come to be saved or why they remain unsaved, but the Bible is mostly focused on those who are born-again and given grace by these verses to keep us loving the Lord and remindful.
Let us continually stand at the foot of the cross. And even if later we should become spiritually stronger a hundred times more than what we are today, let us always remember how our sins were forgiven us by the Lord. "If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha" (1 Cor. 16.22). The choice is yours. How solemn is this word! Of a truth, if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be cursed.
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible" (Eph. 6.24). To whom will God give grace? To all those who love the Lord with a true heart. If anyone should ask you if you believe in the Lord, you will surprise the whole world if your answer is, "I love the Lord."
There is a corruptible love which says that some of you God intends never to give any opportunity to be saved and that those who are saved were coerced into it and made to believe without any choice in the matter. What love is this? Such a love as this is not real love but pride of thinking you are selected by the Lord when really you have been selected by Satan for a false salvation that you will carry with you to Hell.
"Whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (I Peter 1.8). Here we are told that we love Him because we have believed in Him. What comes out of such love as a result of faith? There is produced a joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.
In closing I would like to quote the parting word of an elderly man to a young man: May you ever be an ardent lover of the Lord Jesus!
Where can we find love apart from the cross? And why does the Lord command us to break the bread often? It is because He does not want us to drift away from Him. We seem so prone to forget, so He draws us back. How can we fail to love Him as we remember how miserable we were as sinners and how great was His grace in saving us! The children of Israel recalled in the wilderness the cucumbers and the leeks and the garlic of Egypt, but they forgot how they had suffered as slaves under the oppression of Pharaoh as well as how the Lord had delivered them out of their great afflictions. It appears that their hearts still lingered back in Egypt. If we forget the cross, we will also forget the love of God. If we forget the love of God, we will undoubtedly think of the world.
If you misread the aforementioned verses as not having to repent and believe in Christ in order to be regenerated instead of reminding us of the love of God, then you miss God's love and thus, pride yourself on being selected under a false salvation.
How can we love the Lord? "I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little" (Luke 7.47). If we remember how our sins were forgiven, we cannot help but love the Lord. The day the cross ever fails to move us, that very day we are fallen. Evan Roberts wept greatly when he realized that he was not moved by the cross; and this went on for several months until God moved him again. But there then followed the great Welsh Revival, the greatest spiritual renewal the world has ever seen. How did it happen that that woman washed the Lord’s feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and kissed them with her lips? It was because she remembered how all her sins had been forgiven her.
Many focus on whether the person is saved or not saved and how they come to be saved or why they remain unsaved, but the Bible is mostly focused on those who are born-again and given grace by these verses to keep us loving the Lord and remindful.
Let us continually stand at the foot of the cross. And even if later we should become spiritually stronger a hundred times more than what we are today, let us always remember how our sins were forgiven us by the Lord. "If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha" (1 Cor. 16.22). The choice is yours. How solemn is this word! Of a truth, if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be cursed.
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible" (Eph. 6.24). To whom will God give grace? To all those who love the Lord with a true heart. If anyone should ask you if you believe in the Lord, you will surprise the whole world if your answer is, "I love the Lord."
There is a corruptible love which says that some of you God intends never to give any opportunity to be saved and that those who are saved were coerced into it and made to believe without any choice in the matter. What love is this? Such a love as this is not real love but pride of thinking you are selected by the Lord when really you have been selected by Satan for a false salvation that you will carry with you to Hell.
"Whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (I Peter 1.8). Here we are told that we love Him because we have believed in Him. What comes out of such love as a result of faith? There is produced a joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.
In closing I would like to quote the parting word of an elderly man to a young man: May you ever be an ardent lover of the Lord Jesus!