At the Cross is the Love of God

Well, there’s no way for me to convey to you how much my heart is wrapped up in this message this morning. I’d give anything if it could have been some other way than this. This is just a plain old vanilla Thursday morning, and no one was expecting anything particular. I don’t know if you remember when I stopped speaking on the Lord’s passion for us, but it was about the time that we discovered the sisterhood of Mary. I would have given anything on this earth if you and I could have gone to Phoenix, Arizona, and met those women, and we didn’t get to go.

There is something about the conduct of those women that I would like the brothers and sisters to see, though I myself have never seen them. Not that I would like for that conduct to be emulated in any way, but to see that there are people who have a certain conduct toward the Lord outside of the normal institutional way of conducting themselves toward the Lord. You and I do not realize it, but we are greatly affected by present-day Christianity and by our own national way of expressing ourselves.

There’s a great paradox in America. We are a hybrid people. We are a people who will bow down before a cross in a Roman Catholic church or an Episcopal church or even in a Baptist church very quietly and reverently, and go out that same afternoon and scream our heads off and beat one another over a piece of cowhide being kicked from one end of the pasture to the other. That isn’t proper. You ought to be able to scream and holler and beat one another over the Lord Jesus, too.

There’s a conduct missing in Christians, and you and I are going to have to remedy it. There’s a physical attitude toward Jesus Christ that needs to change. I’ll lay that aside; that’s not the purpose of this message. Very rarely would I ever say what my next sentence is. A year ago, I could not have brought the message I’m going to bring this morning if the Lord allows me to bring it. Now, that’s probably been untrue of virtually anything else I’ve ever said here. I have only in the last year come to some understanding of what I’m going to speak to you about this morning. I might have brought the message, but I sure couldn’t have matched it with experience. I hope that what is said this morning will alter every life here. It’s like the admonition of what Paul said, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things and came up to something much higher.”

If you ever see me not living up to what I’m going to talk about this morning, will you stop me? I won’t be put out by you. You know, I used to sit under a brother, and he just really provoked me sometimes. We were walking down the street in New York City one day. Oh, it was in a residential area. It was about 10:00 at night, and he was complaining about the Plymouth Brethren, and he was just criticizing the Plymouth Brethren. I had never met a Plymouth Brethren. As far as I was concerned, the Plymouth Brethren were something that died out a hundred years ago. I still feel the same way, by the way. It was so real to him. I just stopped and turned to him, and I said, “Brother, those are old battles fought long, long, long ago. That’s not what I want to hear.” I don’t know if it stopped him that night or not. I’ll tell you this, it didn’t stop him. I hope it stops me. If you ever catch me breaking with what I say today, you remind me of what I said this morning, would you? Because on it hangs all the law and the prophets. This will radically alter your conduct if you allow it. It will change you completely. I hope when you’re an old man or an old woman, you can speak of it to young brothers and sisters and then witness it in your life.

I think I’d better change my ways here and read the verses that I had planned to. Would you turn to the book of James? Can anybody tell me now why I’m reading from the book of James? Can anybody make it a little clearer? Okay, well, and then explain it this way: it’s the next logical book to read after finishing the life of Christ, and when you get out of the Lord’s life, you’re going to have to go either to Acts or James, you don’t have any choice, because those two books record…now listen to my words very carefully…they record the early conduct of the bride of Jesus Christ. I’m going to repeat that. They are the first books to record the conduct of the Lord’s bride.

It is James 1:12. It was written to a group of people who were being persecuted. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved…that is, once he has passed the test…he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who persevere under trial. Read that again. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of… once he has passed the test, you’ll receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who persevere under trial. Is that correct? Alright, I want to read that again. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life which was promised to those who love Him.

Now, I am only asking you one question, and please don’t answer it. I ask you, “What is the test?” What is the test? A parallel verse. James 2:5. Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who were poor. Listen, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith, a richness which He gave to those who were poor? Did not God choose the poor of this world to be heirs of the kingdom which He had promised to those who were poor? I’m going to read it again. Did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith? The faith He promised to those who love them. Did not God choose the poor of this world to be heirs of the kingdom? The kingdom He promised to those who love them. Those are my verses. And for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame.

Father, if I have any prayer this morning, it is this: that you will cataclysmically alter our lives. Cataclysmically alter the church in Isla Vista. God be my help, and in the coming days give a profound impression to Your people. We’re so small in number. I often wonder Your ways, Lord. But Lord, here we are, poor in number. Make us so rich with experience. My brothers and sisters are quite young, but Lord, that should not prevent them from having a testimony to You, that is so incredible and so stunning. I ask You to alter the way of my sisters. Alter the way of my brothers.  Lord, alter me just as You altered my Lord and the early disciples. I ask You to raise the standard this morning in all our lives. Have mercy on us. We’re very awkward people, and we have a very difficult time handling Your truth. But by Your patience, Lord, and by our hearts, if You’ll keep loving us and having mercy on us and giving us grace we don’t deserve, perhaps we’ll make it. God, do bless us this morning.

When the Lord came up out of the baptizing waters, He was truly the Son of God. He had known the Father in eternity, which, of course, was a great help to Him. He had not yet been declared the Son of God. He had not yet finished His sojourn on this earth in perfect order. He came up out of that water under several obligations and with several intentions. His obligation to the Father was perfect obedience to the Father’s will and to the Father’s word at every moment.

I repeat that. His obligation to the Father was perfect obedience at all times to the Father’s will and to the Father’s word. But He was also God, and He was also man, and He was looking for a wife. What kind of a wife was He looking for? He was looking for a wife just like Himself.