Oh, good morning. Turn to Revelation, the last book in the Bible.
There is a verse and a half that I would like to be our entire text for this time, and then the times that I’ll have following sometime. We are not sure when that will be.
Turn to the first chapter of Revelation, by John the Apostle, the second part of verse 5. These are verses we have considered before.
To Him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His blood,
and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father;
to Him be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Let me read that once again.
To Him who loves us—
and has washed us from our sins in His own blood—
and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—
to Him be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Let us pray.
Lord, we know for certainty that Your words are spirit and life. You said so Yourself. We know also that when Peter responded, he had the Holy Spirit when he said, “Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life.” We know that is true.
So therefore, Lord, we come. We empty our thoughts, we take captive every imagination, and we put aside all of our ideas about what this small portion of Scripture has to say to us. We ask the One who has the words of life, the One whose words are spirit and life, the One whose words penetrate deeper than anything we could say, to do that peculiar work in us today.
For we come to You in utter dependence. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, some of you may already know that these verses have been a favorite of mine for some time. I would like us to take a very narrow focus on the book of Revelation. We are not going to talk about the whole book of Revelation. This one-and-a-half verses is our text.
I told Mary Ann yesterday—I gave her the title already. I have been surprised, actually, at some of the titles of the ministries I have given in the past. I was not sure it was what I spoke on. So I took the opportunity to give her a title.
I want to focus us very clearly on one thing: the essential revelation of God.
Now, I want us to think about it in three ways. You remember when I read this verse and a half, and I did a stop, stop, and stop? It is the essential revelation of God: His ways, His work, and His will.
If we are to know anything about God, if we are to have this essential revelation about God, we need to know simply three things. We need to know His ways, because if we know His ways, we know what He is like. If we see His ways, we see who He is. He is not different from His ways.
Likewise, we need to see His work. We need to see what He has done. Not only who He is, but what we need, as far as the essential revelation of God is concerned, is to see what He has done—His work.
So many Christians, so many believers you talk to, are laboring still today under a heavy cloud because they have not adequately seen His finished work, His complete work. But brothers and sisters, if we see His complete work, if we see His finished work, that is the essential revelation of God.
And then finally, we need to see His will—or let me put it another way, we need to see His purpose. Not only is it the who, not only is it the what, but there is the why. We need to see who He is. We need to see what He has done. And we need to see why He does it.
All those are the essential revelation of God. Without an understanding of who He is, we can go nowhere as believers. Without a complete understanding of what He does, we can never walk in the Christian life. Without an understanding of why He does it—His will—everything will revolve around our experience, our life, and who we are.
It will be a distorted view of Christianity if you believe you are the center of the universe and all that God does is just for you. Brothers and sisters, I would dare say you have a distorted view of Christianity.
I will never forget: one day I was riding down the road, and I saw a lady with a bumper sticker—I think I told you before—and it said, “I am the center of the universe.” I could not believe it. It is one thing to think it; it is another thing to put it on your car.
Sometimes, as believers, I think we think all that God does is just for us. Now, you know me well enough. I do not want to get defensive up here; I do not have time to get defensive. You know I believe He does so much for us.
We are here like that man who was in Bethesda. We were broken. We were without hope. We were lame. We could not walk. There was no one to help us. But then the Lord Jesus, in His mercy and in His glory, appeared to us, and He transformed us.
But that is not the end of the story. It is not just that. It is not just what He does for me. Do not ever think you are the center of the universe. We need to see His ways, we need to see His work, and we need to see His will. That is the essential revelation of God.
Now, you might want to argue with me. Some people do, by the way, and that is okay. I do not see everything that clearly. But you might argue that the book of Revelation deals with many revelations. In one sense, I will agree.
There are many revelations. There is a revelation of the letters to the seven churches. There is the revelation of the great conflict. There is a revelation of the worship that is in heaven. There is the revelation of the marriage supper of the Lamb. There is the revelation of the coming King and the coming kingdom. There is the revelation of the vials, bowls, and seals. There is the revelation of the false one, the antichrist, the beast.
There are many revelations, but that is not the essential revelation. Sometimes I think we as Christians get hung up in things and miss the heart.
John made it very clear. This book is not called The Revelations of John. When you open the book, it says:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him.
—Revelation 1:1
That is the revelation. It is the essential revelation of God. It is the essential revelation of who He is—His ways. It is the essential revelation of what He does—His work. It is the essential revelation of His purpose that He concludes and brings in—His will.
This is the essential revelation. Brothers and sisters, before we can really be used of God, I think we need this revelation. May the Lord help us.
You may think we speak too much about revelation. I am not talking about the book, but about the issue. This is the most significant, the most important subject in all of the Christian life: to see who He is, to see what He does, and to see what He purposes.
So this is my burden. I was actually going to fill in this weekend. All the brothers left and went on the retreat. They could not find anyone to speak, so I am filling in.
There is so much in this little verse. I am not sure how far we will get today. I would like for us to address the ways of God.
There is so much in this little verse. Just think of it: in a verse and a half, the Holy Spirit seems to capture this whole thought:
Unto Him who loves us,
and has washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and has made us a kingdom, priests unto God, His God and Father;
to Him be the glory forever unto the ages. Amen.
The Holy Spirit seems to capture so much in just this one-and-a-half verses. To me—and some of you may be bored of my illustrations, I do not know—this is like molecular Christianity.
I do not know if you know what a molecule is, but a molecule is the absolute smallest substance, smallest element, smallest unit of anything that reveals its true nature. In other words, like it or not, theoretically speaking, you could be boiled down to a molecule. That nature, that inherent nature of who you are, is there.
Like H2O. You may be bored by chemistry. People are going to sleep already; I can see it. But a single molecule of water, of H2O, has all the necessary ingredients of water. The nature is still there.
It is molecular. This is molecular Christianity. A verse and a half—yet the whole thing is there. The whole thought of God is there: His ways, His will, and His work. All there.
So, am I clear enough? Do you understand? Are you aware of where I am headed? Is this title going to get right? You reckon? I reckon.
Well, the first thing, dear saints, we need to do is know His ways. This is what we need. We need to know His way. Knowing His ways is essential, not out of curiosity, but because if we know His ways, then we know who He is.
Now, you might want to turn with me to Deuteronomy 10. I was surprised. I looked up—thank the Lord for helps; if He did not have helps, what would you do?—I looked up the word ways, the word way.
I was astounded at how many times the word way or ways occurs. I was equally astounded in the Old Testament, because I had not ever quite noticed it, at how many times the phrase is, “walking in His way.”
You look it up sometime. This is homework. Everybody hates homework, but this is homework. In the Word of God, particularly in the Old Testament, God had an issue when He first called His people. God was after something in His people, and He repeats this phrase again and again when He is talking to His people: “You are to walk in My way.”
It occurs over and over. We do not have time, but consider Deuteronomy 10:12-13:
And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee,
but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways,
and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
—Deuteronomy 10:12
Listen to the importance of that verse. “And now, O Israel, what does God require of thee?” Do you not think that is the kind of verse we ought to take notice of? This was to His people, Israel: to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in His way.
He was after this, brothers and sisters, from the very beginning: that they would know His ways. Because in knowing His ways, they would know what He was like. This is the whole point. It is not merely that they would somehow see what He is like, but that they would know what He is like.
Turn to Deuteronomy 8:6. There are many of these instances, and I do not want to spend too much time, but I want to make a few points.
And thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God,
to walk in His ways, and to fear Him.
—Deuteronomy 8:6
This was the issue. This was the issue when you begin reading at the giving of the law, when the people of God were brought together, right through to the end of the book. The issue is knowing His ways. That is what He is after. That is the essential revelation.
Over and over, this term, “walking in His ways,” is in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, the kings of Israel were judged by this standard. When you read Chronicles, when you read Kings, you will begin to discover that this was the standard of judgment for the kings of Israel: Did they do what was right in the Lord’s eyes? Did they walk in His way? Did they know His ways?
This was the issue. This is the issue for us.
David said in 2 Samuel 22:22 an astounding thing:
For I have kept the ways of the Lord.
—2 Samuel 22:22
What a testimony. We have already been hearing about David. David was not perfect. David was by no means perfect. As a matter of fact, if you did the things David did, you would be spending all of your vacation and the rest of your spare time in the big house.
But he could say this: “For I have kept the way of the Lord.” What a testimony. No wonder God spoke of this man and said, “Here is a man after My own heart.”
Well, I think maybe you are getting the point. To Solomon, you remember, when Solomon asked for wisdom, God said, “Because you have asked this to lead My people, and not selfishly, not for yourself,” He gave it to him, and He gave him much more.
And He said to him:
And if thou wilt walk in My ways…
—1 Kings 3:14
Brothers and sisters, I do not want to beat this point up, but if you miss this point, you miss all of what the whole Old Testament history was about. The whole of the instruction was to learn who He was, and in the end, to know His ways and to walk in His ways. That is the whole revelation. That is the essential revelation.
David said in Psalm 25:4—what a prayer. I think this ought to be our prayer:
Make me to know Thy ways, O Lord;
teach me Thy paths.
—Psalm 25:4
This is a prayer we ought to be praying.
And then, in Psalm 95:10, the whole indictment of the children of Israel was over this one singular issue:
Forty years long was I grieved with that generation,
and said, It is a people that do err in their heart,
and they have not known My ways.
—Psalm 95:10
That was the case God the Judge made. That was the issue He raised in the court of justice before His people. He said, “You do always err in your heart.” What is the reason? Because you do not know My way. You do not know what I am really like.
Knowing His ways—how marvelous, how big an issue this is. This is the essential thing.
There is a wonderful promise. I do not want to leave you too heavy, saints, but I do not want to miss making this point. In Micah 4:2, listen to this wonderful promise:
And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths.
—Micah 4:2
That is the promise. That is the glorious promise. When He comes to the house of God, looking forward to when the Savior comes, the people shall come, and He shall teach them His ways, and they shall walk in His paths.
I think of Moses. You remember the story of Moses. This is a prayer that we used to pray all the time, a statement that we turned into prayer. Psalm 103:7 says:
He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel.
—Psalm 103:7
Now, I think this uncovers a problem. Many of the people of God only see outward things. They see only the outward—His acts. His acts are wonderful. Praise the Lord for His acts. We do not demean His acts.
But the issue that differed Moses from all the people was that He made known to Moses His ways, and unto the children of Israel His acts.
Well, this is the burden. The Christian life, dear saint, never starts with doing. It always starts with seeing. It never begins with action. It always begins with revelation of who He is.
You can never do what God calls you to do. I think it is an amazing thing in the Old Testament when God said, “Keep all of My commandments to do them, and to walk in My way.” He put before them the impossible.
Without seeing who He is, we can never rise to that level. Without His life being manifested in us, we can never do the first thing. It all begins with seeing. We should know His way.
This is really the thought that the Lord seems to have laid on my heart concerning the first part. Now, if you turn back to Revelation—you thought we had left the text, I am sure—we will get back to the text.
There is something in these brief few words that reveals His supreme way. Above everything else, it reveals His supreme way. It says in the first phrase that I read to you in Revelation 1:5:
To Him who loves us.
That one phrase, that singular phrase, captures all of His ways. If you want to sum up all of God’s ways, all that He is, all that He is like, it is in one word: it is in His love.
That is the simplest, the most rudimentary, the most fundamental, the most essential definition of the ways of God: “Unto Him who loves us.”
And not only is it the most rudimentary, elementary, essential revelation of God, this is what we need to see: it reveals everything. The reason behind everything that He does is because of His love. There is no other explanation. There is no other reason than His love. It is the whole reason.
Now, I do not want to belittle the King James Version—you see, I am mellowing in my old age. Have you all noticed what I just said? I will repeat it; you probably did not. I do not want to belittle the King James Version. Since 1611, how God has used that magnificent revelation of His Word to bring so many into the kingdom.
But there is a problem here with the King James Version. It says, “Unto Him that loved us.” That is what it says—past tense. As a matter of fact, in all of my seven or eight versions, it is the only version that says that.
What it should be translated—and, as a matter of fact, of these three elements, it is the only one that is present tense; the other two are past tense—it literally means, “Unto Him who loves us.”
Now, you may think that is straining it, but it is not. It is not that God one day loved you, long ago He loved you, and when you messed up, He no longer loves you. It is not that He loved you in history and now He stops loving you. Do you understand?
It is unto Him who loves us. That is revelation. He continues to love us. He never stops loving us. He always loves us. Even when we turn away, when we stop loving, He continues to love. Unto Him who loves us.
I think this is a very important point. It is His continuing way.
Now, I remember years ago—I do not want to embarrass, oh well, I will do that—you remember, but I do not want to embarrass Carolyn Bowles. She used to always read to us the Amplified Version. I used to love that in the meetings. We would be praying, and Carolyn would break out the Amplified Version and read a few verses, and you would really catch the essence of what God is saying.
In the Amplified Version, it literally says, “To Him that ever loves us.” Never stops. He did not just begin and quit. He did not just start with you and say, “You are a hopeless case. The church is a hopeless case. I will give up. No more love.”
Unto Him who loves us. This is His way. This is His supreme way.
I will tell you a scary fact: every divorce began with two people loving each other. Every divorce. You talk to people, and they say, “Yeah, we loved each other once.” Something happened. They no longer love each other.
Can you thank God that He is not like that? No divorce with Him—with us. I deserve to be divorced. I deserve for the Lord to leave me. But He will not. He never will, because this is His way.
Unto Him who loves us. Brothers and sisters, this is the revelation of His ways. You will never understand God. You will never understand His ways unless you boil it down to this single supreme way.
Yesterday, Jessica does not know this, but she was watching a little bit of A Beautiful Mind. It is a movie. I have not seen the whole movie, so I cannot say much about it. But she did not know it—I was upstairs, and I turned it on too.
I do not know if you know anything about this. I do not want to make too much about it other than the point that I think is valid. Here was this brilliant mathematician whose understanding, logic, and reasoning affected global economics, global issues, how nations deal with their economy, even biological things. His work was so far-reaching that it affected many things.
He was a nutcase. He was a schizophrenic, I suppose. If you saw the movie, you will have to tell me. He saw things that were not there. Not only did he see things that were not there, he saw people that were not there and talked to them. I do not know if you do that, but that is a sure sign there is some trouble.
This brilliant man was given the Nobel Prize. This is a true story. I am not making this up for the sake of drama. He was given the Nobel Prize, and when he was given the Nobel Prize, he made this one statement:
It is only in the mysterious equations of love
that any logic or reason can be found.
Is that not powerful? Here, this—forgive me—damaged man saw something. His great equations changed world thinking, but his conclusion was this: “It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reason can be found.”
Now, he was talking about his wife. His wife stood by him. But we know it means more than that. This is His way.
Brothers and sisters, do we know His ways? Do we see His supreme way? Do we see He will never change? Do we see, like it says in John 13, about His own disciples:
Having loved His own that were in the world,
He loved them unto the end.
—John 13:1
That is what our God is like. That is who He is. That is the essential revelation of His ways.
It is incomparable. Everyone here knows John 3:16. That is the explanation of all that God is:
For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish,
but have eternal life.
—John 3:16
That is the equation. That is the understanding.
G. Campbell Morgan is a man that I have the greatest respect for, and I discovered he made a profound statement. I would never have guessed it. He said he had never preached on John 3:16. Can you imagine that?
This man was called the prince of the expositors. He said he preached all around it, but never preached on John 3:16. He said the reason is because it is too big. It is the center of everything. When you see it, you do not need to explain it.
It is all that God is, unveiled and revealed. It is one explanation, and it encompasses all that He does and all of His purpose: “For God so loved the world.” It is the whole explanation.
There is another brother. His name was Henry Morehouse. Henry Morehouse began to speak when he was sixteen years old—began to preach. This was astounding to me as well: from then until he died, and he died young in his manhood, every time he preached, he had one text. It was John 3:16.
Every time he preached, he brought out the same text. Can you imagine if every time someone stood up here, they began, “Open your Bibles to John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”? I suspect you might get tired of it.
But this man saw something. He had the essential revelation. Oh, His love never stops.
Not only that, His love is an inexhaustible resource. Do you think you can wear God down in His love? Do you think you can be bad enough, testing enough, rebellious enough, or difficult enough that God will say, “I give up. That guy is a case. I give up”?
Do you think God will ever do that? It is an inexhaustible resource.
I have shared this little illustration before, but I know people say it differently, okay? So forgive my Southern way. Do you say economics or economics? People say, “I do not say it that way.” What do you say? Economics, that is it. Neither is right, I do not know.
But in the study of economics—that is the way I say it; some say tomato, some say tomato—it is the study of scarcity. It is the study of limited resources. It is the firm belief that nothing is inexhaustible.
It is the study, the science, that takes limited resources and tells nations how they are to handle those limited resources so that the nation may prosper. That is all it is. Economics 101, okay? Macro, right? Anybody agree? An engineer speaking on economics—how crazy.
You get the point. It is all about what is exhaustible. But when you come to God’s love, when you come to His ways, when you come to His supreme way, it is an inexhaustible resource.
Now, the world knows no such thing. I do not care if it is fossil fuel. You know, the Arabs are happy now; they are sitting on the gold mine. The Russians are happy; they have a lot. We have a lot in Alaska, but the caribou are happy.
Sorry. My politics should not enter into this.
It is all about limited resources. But God’s resources are unlimited. There is no limitation. You will not ever go, like we did in the gas shortage of 1972, to the pump and say, “Sorry, we are out of gas.”
It will never happen. You can go, and you can go, and you can go again, but it will always be: the tank is full. He is full of mercy. He is full of lovingkindness. He is full of compassion. This is His supreme way.
May the Lord help us to see it.
Furthermore, His love is inexpressible in its magnitude. Now, I have told you this before. Again, I am boring some of you, I know—testing you to the limit today. Please forgive me.
But all I have done in all of my career is measure things. You think that is pretty boring. That is all I have done. How big is this? How great is that? How much force is that? How strong is that wind? How great is that earthquake? How great is that load that is on this thing? How great is that pressure? How great is that stress? How great is that movement? That is all I have ever done. I am too old to change my career.
It says in Ephesians—Jim has been sharing with us—turn to Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3:17:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
—Ephesians 3:17-19
Listen to this: “In order that.” That is the part you need to underline. There is a reason: in order that you may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
Now, brothers and sisters, these are the largest measures of man. Height, breadth, width, depth—these are the greatest measurements men know. But it says, “To know the love of Christ which surpasses.”
Thank God. Brothers and sisters, when you think about His ways, thank God that His love is inexpressible in magnitude. You cannot quantify His love. You can begin to sense His love. You may know some of His love, but it is inexpressible in magnitude.
There is no height. There is no depth. There is no breadth that can describe His love. This is His supreme way.
Furthermore, Christ exceeds His own definition of greatest love. Now, I have told you this, but really, this is a burden I want to get out.
You remember when the Lord Jesus was with His own and He said:
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
—John 15:13
You remember that? I do not know about you—maybe it is just the way I am wired and think—but this seems to me to be a definition. This seems to me to describe the greatest love.
Then, if you go on to read in Romans 5, there are some wonderful points. It says He died for us while we were yet sinners. It says He died for us while we were His enemies. Christ died for us in Romans 5.
And to me, the Lord Jesus exceeded His own definition of the greatest love. How wonderful. The greatest love is this, but this is what I will do. The greatest love is that men should lay down their lives for their friends. That is a huge sacrifice.
But I will do this—not for friends, but for enemies, sinners, ungodly. Now tell me: which is the greatest love? This is His way. May the Lord help us to see His ways.
Finally, let us consider one more point. Not only are we to know His ways, and not only are we to know that that supreme way is love, we are to walk in His way.
I do not want to go back and read those Scriptures again, but you remember almost every one in the Old Testament that I read said we are called to walk in His way. So we are called to do.
Not only are we to know what He is like, not only are we to have some revelation of what His character is, but that character is to get into us, and that character is to be manifested out from us.
Now notice: do not start at the wrong end. I think that is what is wrong with much Christianity. We start at the wrong end. First of all, it is His way. It is not your way. It is His strength. It is not your strength. It is His love. It is not your love.
And it first begins with seeing. When we are conformed to His image, then His ways begin to be manifest. The law begins to be written in our hearts. That character of the Lord Jesus begins to be in us, formed in us by the resident Holy Spirit.
And then we can walk in His ways because He is in us. That is the difference. That is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. We are to walk in His way.
The Lord said in Isaiah 55:8-9:
For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
It is not our way. Thank God it is not our way. Brothers and sisters, you can test my love real quick. You will see the short fuse. You will see the exhaustible resource. You will see the limitation. You will know it. But His is inexhaustible. Thank God for His ways.
Now, brothers and sisters, not only that, His way is to define us as a people. Look with me at John 13. You remember when the Lord was with His own at the table, at the end, and He washed their feet. In John 13:34, this is what He said.
Remember, the Lord could have said anything at this moment. But when He was with them in His last meeting with His own—keep that in context—His closing word with His own was this:
A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another;
even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
—John 13:34
This was His last word to His own. And look at verse 35:
By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples,
if ye have love one to another.
—John 13:35
This is the distinguishing mark. This is the thing by which people know. The Lord did not say, “You will heal all the sick, and therefore everybody will know.” Now, do not go away from here saying Kenny is against healing. I am not against healing. May the Lord heal everybody of everything. I will get charismatical on you.
But listen to me, brothers and sisters. The Lord had one thing to say. And that one thing He wanted to say to them was that by this singular way you will be known as My people. Nothing else will define you. The identifying mark: when people see you, they will say, “That is it. They are God’s people.”
Now, when I was back in high school—that was a long time ago, by the way—the Vietnam War was going on. We all got draft cards. And I remember they asked me, “You got any identifying marks?”
I said, “I do not know.” They said, “We are going to put identifying marks on your draft card.” So I thought about it. “Oh, I have got a birthmark right here. I am not going to show it to you.” That birthmark right there, so that was my identifying mark, I guess.
If they pulled me out of Vietnam, they would look for that little birthmark and say, “There is his identifying mark.” But as the people of God, there is to be one identifying mark: do we have love for one another?
It was His last word. It was the thing He said would define us. Oh, how we need to see this.
I think it is easy to love people when you are not around them. I am an expert at it. I call you up on the phone every once in a while and say, “I love you. I love you to pieces.”
Put me with you. Put me in the same room. Not for an hour—I can hold out for an hour. I have perfected that skill. But you put me there for weeks, days, and you put me in the church where I am built with the saints.
It says, “Love one another.” All kinds of Christians are experts because they are alone; they can love everybody. “Sure, I love all the saints.” The Lord wanted His disciples to stay together, and in that context He said, “This is the one thing: Do you love one another?” This is His way.
In 1 Corinthians 12, there is the description of the body of Christ. I think you all know this. In 1 Corinthians 14, there is the demonstration, or the expression, of the body of Christ.
But you know what happens between 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14? I think all of you know this, except if you are new. What is there? What is the one thing that is in between 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14?
It is that great chapter on love. It is the secret from going from theory to practice.
You can talk about the body of Christ all day long. As a matter of fact, I think there has been great teaching on the body of Christ. But are you dwelling among the saints? Is the expression of the edification of the church, and bearing with one another, and forbearing one another, and living together, and waiting on one another, and each having a psalm, and each having a hymn, and each having his part of Christ coming out—is that expression among you?
If that expression is among you, there has to be 1 Corinthians 13.
One thing I did for my kids—I think I overdid it. Oh, they do not think I overdid anything, but I think I overdid it. I used to always tell them, “Do not forget your oil in your car.”
I did that all the time. I made Justin neurotic. The other day he wanted to come home from Washington. He said, “Dad, the oil in my car…” and he is changing it. I thought, I must have overdone it.
But in all of that heat, in all of that combustion, in all of that terrific rubbing together, if you do not have oil, you do not have an engine. Test me on this one—no, please do not test this. Go out, empty your drain plug, pull your oil pan off, and take a trip.
No oil, no engine. That little bit of oil makes the difference.
Do you know an internal-combustion engine is nothing but a bunch of explosions? Do you know that? Your engine is exploding all the time. I do not know how many—you have to help me with this. I am really getting on the feathery edge, you can tell—but your engine is exploding all the time.
It is wonderful, because in the church there are explosions all the time. But if this coats everything, if it is on all the parts, if it is going throughout the engine, then you will see the body of Christ function.
What is more important: to know about the body of Christ, or to see it living?
By this shall all men know that ye are disciples of Mine.
—John 13:35
Walk in His ways. This is what we are to do.
Sorry about that. That is a little explosion of mine.
You know, John the Apostle was consumed with this issue. When you read 1 John, it is one of the smallest epistles. The word love occurs thirty-two times, and that is just the word love. The other variations are there.
That is more than any book in the whole of the Bible—more than the Psalms, more than the book that is second, the Song of Solomon, more than those great huge books like Deuteronomy or Isaiah. He was obsessed with this.
He said in 1 John 3:11:
For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another.
He said, “How can you say you love God if you hate your brother?” Listen to this. You write this down. First John 3:14:
He that loveth not abideth in death.
Strong words. Everyone that hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
You know what the definition of a serial killer is? Somebody who kills more than one person—multiple victims. John said, if you hate your brother, you are a murderer. That is pretty strong language.
We need to be careful what we say. We need to be careful what we do. May the Lord help us to see His ways.
Beloved, he said this. John saw that essential revelation in 1 John 4:7-8:
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God;
for God is love.
This is the essential revelation of God.
First, we need to know His ways. We need to see, above all, that there is a supreme way that affects everything He does, even His discipline.
Well, that is something that has come under some attack these days—discipline. “You cannot have discipline in love.” Read the book of Hebrews. Everyone that I love, I discipline.
All of His discipline is in love. All of His judgments are in love. And we need to walk in His love. I believe if we do these things, it will be said of us what was said in Psalm 128:1:
Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord,
that walketh in His ways.
—Psalm 128:1
Let us pray.
Lord, we take to You these thoughts and leave them at Your throne. We tell You, Lord, that we ask Your Holy Spirit to breathe life into what needs to be left with us.
Lord, we want to be a people who know You. We want to be a people who know Your ways. We want to be a people that do not just have theory, but that walk in Your ways.
We know we cannot do it unless we have that essential revelation of who You are. Unveil to us, as You unveiled to John on Patmos, who You are—Your way.
And then we will conclude like John did: Your glory, Your glory. To You be the glory for the ages of ages. Amen.