As many as I love…
Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous (boiling hot) therefore, and repent.”
Jesus Christ loves us,…..therefore He will not let us go on and drown in self-will, or be deceived by sin, without throwing us the lifeline, administered by His Holy Spirit: of His Word, messages, and testimonies.
All given to help us hear Him, and repent (turn around).
When we get to heaven, the Lord’s Word will judge us: He will bless the works we have done out of love to Him.
John 12:48 “He that rejecteth Me, and recieveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
(Remember: “..If a man love me, he will keep my words: “John 14:23)
Paul tells us plainly, it is not how much we do for Christ, but of what sort it is.
1 Corinthians 3:13 “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.”
Only those works which were done by the Holy Spirit through you, will count for eternity.
And only those acts done for the love of Jesus, will stand the fire of the Word of God.
1 Corinthians 3:14-15 “If any man’s work abide which he hath built there upon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
Saved. In Heaven. Yet so as by fire.
The works that we do are of two sorts (for they are all imperfect):
those that are done according to God’s Will by yielding to the Holy Spirit, out of love to the Lord Jesus.
And those that we do because we feel me must, or from our own self motives (appreciation, applause, or status).
1 Corinthians 3:11-12 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;”
You can see how the fire of God’s Word will devour up the wood, hay and stubble, of self will.
But the fire will just refine the gold and the silver more. And will not touch the precious stones.
These are those acts which we have let the Holy Spirit work through us.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we allow to come through us into the circumstances of our lives.
They reveal themselves in kindness, forgiveness, and peace and faithfulness to God in adversity.
These are the things that the world is searching for. That can reach a hungry soul for Christ. And (amazingly) God uses us!
To have my Christ-life, I must deny my self-life: both cannot rule my life. We choose one or the other.
It is through the fires of my everyday trials, I am brought to see the true value of “Christ in me, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
Paul says:
Colossians 1:29 “Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.”
Does the Holy Spirit work in you mightily?
Well, He is waiting to give you what you need, “above all that ye ask or think”.
But it is according to the power of the Holy Spirit that works within you.
Ephesians 3:20 “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
Let this power work in us, that it might work by us and through us, to a hungry world, for Christ Jesus our Lord.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 