Good evening, Merry Christmas. Here we are on our Christmas Eve service via live stream, and we're going to begin reading a couple of verses out of the Gospel of Luke, and then we're going to hear from J.C. Ryle, and he's always excellent. Let's pray and we will begin. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ that we think of particularly in this Christmas season. We remember the indescribable gift that you've given to us in the person of your son as he was born into this world to take on humanity and yet remain without sin, become the God-man. And we thank you that we have a great savior. We pray that this evening as we hear from your word, that you would use your word and the power of your spirit to enable us to more accurately and fully understand just how wonderful an event this was when the Lord Jesus came into the world. And so we ask your blessing upon us this evening and pray that our time here would glorify you. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. While you remember the old words here, I'm gonna put my microphone on. Hopefully that was working pretty well anyway. And I just, I thought as I would read the account of the angels appearing to the shepherds, that I would read it from the King James Version. Do we have sound? No sound. Is this thing on? Yeah? All right, it was working. It's on. Stand by, you can hear. Testing, can you hear anything? Do we have sound? Okay, I don't know if anybody can hear it, but we're gonna start over again. All right, hopefully we're back. Do we have sound now, Verla? Okay, here we go. This is the account from the Gospel of Luke of the angels appearing to the shepherds, and it's in the King James Version. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, The angel of the Lord came upon them. The glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. The angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. That's probably one of the most amazing scenes. You know, if you were gonna pick something, some account in the Bible that would see which event would I, have liked to have been at, that would probably rate right up there. I just wanted to mention that, I don't know if you've heard of Richard Sibbes before, but he was a Puritan pastor and preacher. back in the 1500s. And he, I just was looking earlier today in his works, and he has a very good sermon on those verses that we just read. And reminding us, he begins by reminding us that The heavens are not opened unless God has some great event to communicate to us, and that was one of them. And so someday I'll have to read this sermon to you. And I hope that this evening, as we hear from J.C. Ryle here, that the Lord will help us all to Grasp I guess would be the word to say grasp and understand comprehend more Just what happened that night when the Lord Jesus the Son of God came into the world announced by Heavenly hosts myriads and myriads of angels I mean, that's what happened here to these shepherds that night and Heaven was opened and here are these choirs of angels and no wonder it says, as it is in the King James, and they were sore afraid, right? Well, this sermon is one, actually it was an article that he wrote, written by J.C. Ryle. He was a pastor in the Church of England. He was actually a bishop of the town of Liverpool, which was a pretty large metropolis at the time. And he wrote, this is in his book collection, Holiness here, an excellent book to have. It's the 15th chapter in this. And the text that he's using here, You might not connect it with Christmas as such, but it really does apply. It's just this simple verse, Jesus speaking to Peter. Do you love me? John 21, 16. And so we don't fully appreciate what happened that night when Christ came into the world unless we've been born again and we love him. And so let's see what J.C. Ryle had to say here. The question which is at the top of this paper I'm writing was addressed by Christ to the Apostle Peter. A more important question could not be asked. 1900 years, now 2000, have passed away since those words were spoken, but to this very day the inquiry is most searching and useful. A disposition, a tendency to love someone, is one of the commonest feelings which God has implanted in human nature. Too often, unhappily, people set their affections on unworthy objects. I want today to claim a place for him who alone is worthy of all our heart's best feelings. I want people to give some of their love to that divine person who has loved us and gave himself for us. In all their loving, I would have them not forget to love Christ first of all. Permit me to press this mighty subject upon the attention of every reader of this paper. This is no matter for mere enthusiasts and fanatics. It deserves the consideration of every reasonable Christian who believes the Bible. Our very salvation is bound up with it, life or death, heaven or hell, depend upon our ability to answer this one simple question, do you love Christ? There's two points which I wish to bring forward in opening up this subject to you. First of all, Let me show the peculiar feeling of a true Christian towards Christ. He loves him. A true Christian is not a mere baptized man or woman. He's something more. He's not a person who only goes as a matter of form to a church or chapel on Sundays and lives all the rest of the week as if there were no God. Formality, outward form, is not Christianity. Ignorant lip worship is not true religion. The scripture speaks plainly. They are not all Israel, which are of Israel. The practical lesson of those words is clear and plain. All people are not true Christians who happen to be members of the visible Church of Christ. The true Christian is one whose religion is in his heart and life. It's felt by himself in his heart. It's seen by others in his conduct and life. He feels his sinfulness, guilt, and badness, and he repents. He sees Jesus Christ to be that divine savior whom his soul needs and commits himself to him. He puts off the old man with his corrupt and carnal habits and puts on the new man. He lives a new and holy life, fighting habitually against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Christ himself is the cornerstone of the true Christian's Christianity. Ask him and what he trusts for the forgiveness of his many sins and he'll tell you in the death of Christ. Ask him in what righteousness he hopes to stand innocent at the judgment day, and he'll tell you it is the righteousness of Christ. Ask him by what pattern he tries to pattern his life, and he'll tell you that it's the example of Christ. But besides all this, there's one thing in a true Christian which is eminently peculiar to him. That thing is love to Christ. Knowledge, faith, hope, reverence, and obedience are all marked features in a true Christian's character, but his picture would be very imperfect if you omitted his love to the Divine Master. He not only knows, trusts, and obeys, he goes further than this. He loves. This peculiar mark of a true Christian is one which we find mentioned several times in the Bible. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is an expression in which many Christians are familiar with, but let it never be forgotten that love is mentioned by the Holy Spirit in almost as strong terms as faith. Great as the danger is of him that believes not, The danger of the person that loves not is equally great. Not believing and not loving are both steps to everlasting ruin. Hear what Paul says to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 16. If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Paul allows no way of escape to the man who does not love Christ. He leaves him no loophole or excuse. A man may lack clear head knowledge and still be saved. He may fail in courage at times and be overcome by the fear of man like Peter. He may fall tremendously like David. and yet rise again. But if a man does not love Christ, he's not in the way of life. The curse is yet upon him. He's on that broad road that leads to destruction. Hear what Paul says to the Ephesians. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. The Apostle is here sending his good wishes and declaring his good will to all Christians, many of them no doubt he'd never seen. Many of them in the early churches, we may be very sure, were weak in faith and weak in knowledge and self-denial. How then shall he describe them in sending his message? What words can he use which will not discourage the weaker brethren? He chooses a sweeping expression which exactly describes all true Christians under one common name. All had not attained to the same degree, whether in doctrine or practice, but all loved Christ in sincerity. Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says to the Jews, If God were your Father, you would love me," John chapter 8. He saw his misguided enemies satisfied with their spiritual condition on one single ground, that they were children of Abraham. He saw them like many ignorant Christians of our own day, claiming to be God's children for no better reason than this, that they were circumcised and belonged to the Jewish church. He lays down the broad principle that no man is a child of God who does not love God and does not love his only begotten Son. No man has a right to call God Father who does not love Christ. Well would it be for many Christians if they were to remember that this mighty principle applies to them as well as to the Jews. No love to Christ, then no Sonship to God. Hear once more what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Apostle Peter after he rose from the dead. Three times he asked him the question, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me? The occasion was remarkable. He meant gently to remind his erring disciple of his thrice repeated fall. Christ desired to call forth from Peter a new confession of faith before publicly restoring him to his commission to feed the church. And what was the question that he asked him? He might have said, do you believe, Peter? Are you converted? Are you ready to confess me? Will you obey me? But he didn't use any of those expressions. He simply says, do you love me? This is the point, and he would have us know it, on which a man's Christianity hinges. Simple as the question sounded, it was most searching, plain and easy to be understood by the most unlearned poor man. It contains matter which tests the reality of the most advanced Christian. If a man truly loves Christ, everything is right. If not, everything is wrong. Would you know the secret of this peculiar feeling towards Christ which distinguishes the true Christian? You have it in the words of John. We love him because he first loved us. That text, no doubt, applies specially to God the Father, but it's no less true of God the Son. A true Christian loves Christ for all that Christ has done for him. Christ has suffered in his place and died for him on the cross. He's redeemed the Christian from the guilt, the power, and the consequences of sin by his blood. He's called him by his spirit to self-knowledge, repentance, faith, hope, and holiness. He's forgiven all his many sins, blotted them out. He's freed him from the captivity of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He's taken him from the brink of hell, placed him on that narrow way, and set his face toward heaven. Christ has given him light instead of darkness, peace of conscience instead of uneasiness, hope instead of uncertainty, life instead of death. So is it any wonder that the true Christian loves Christ? And he loves him besides that for all that Christ is still doing. The Christian feels that Christ is daily washing away his many shortcomings and infirmities, pleading his soul's cause before God. Christ is supplying all the needs of the Christian soul and providing him with an hourly provision of mercy and grace. He's daily leading him by his spirit to a city of habitation. bearing with him when he is weak and ignorant, raising him up when he stumbles and falls, protecting him against his many enemies, preparing an eternal home for him in heaven. Is it any wonder the true Christian loves Christ? Does the debtor in jail love the friend who unexpectedly and undeservedly pays all his debts, supplies him with fresh capital, and takes him into partnership with himself? Does the prisoner in war love the man who, at the risk of his own life, breaks through the enemy's lines, rescues him, and sets him free? Does the drowning sailor love the man who plunges into the sea, dives after him, catches him by the hair of his head, and by a mighty effort saves him from that watery grave? Even a child can answer those questions. Just in the same way and upon the same principles, a true Christian loves Jesus Christ. This love to Christ is as inseparable of a companion of saving faith, a faith of devils, mere intellectual faith. A man may have these without love, but not that faith that saves. Love cannot assert the office of faith. It can't justify. It does not join the soul to Christ. It cannot bring peace to the conscience. Where there is real justifying faith in Christ, there will always be heart love to Christ. He that's really forgiven is the man who will really love. If a man has no love for Christ, you may be sure he has no faith. And love for Christ is the mainspring of our work for Christ. There is little done for his cause on earth from a mere sense of duty or from knowledge of what's right or proper. The heart must be interested before the hands will move and continue moving. Excitement may galvanize the Christian's hands into a fitful and spasmodic activity, but there will be no patient continuance in well-doing. No unwearied labor and missionary work at home or abroad unless there is love for Christ. The nurse in a hospital may do her duty properly and well, may give the sick man his medicine at the right time. She may feed him, minister to him, and attend to all of his needs. But there's a vast difference between that nurse and a wife tending the sickbed of a beloved husband or a mother watching over a dying child. The one acts from a sense of duty, the other from affection and love. The one does her duty because she's paid for it. The other is what she is because of her heart. It is just the same in the manner of the service of Christ. The great workers of the church, the men who have led forlorn hopes in the mission field, and turned the world upside down, have all been eminently lovers of Christ. Examine, for example, the characters of John Owen, or of Baxter, Rutherford, George Herbert, of Leighton and Hervey, or George Whitfield, John Wesley, Henry Martin, Judson, Bickerseth, some of these I don't know, and Simeon. Hewitson, McShane, Stowell, and McNeill. These men have left a mark on the world. And what was the common feature of their characters? They all loved Christ. They not only held a creed, they loved a person, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Love to Christ is the point which we ought especially to dwell upon in teaching religion to children. election, imputed righteousness, original sin, justification, sanctification, and even faith itself are doctrines which sometimes puzzle a child of the youngest years. But love to Jesus seems far more within reach of their understanding. that he loved them even to his death, and that they ought to love him in return, is a creed which meets the span of their minds. How true it is that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise, Matthew 21. There are myriads of Christians who know every article of the Athanasian Creed and the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, And yet, they know less of real Christianity than a little child who just knows that he loves Christ. Love to Christ is the common meeting point of believers of every branch and denomination of Christ's true church on earth. whether Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Independent, Calvinist, Arminian, Methodist, Moravian, Lutheran, or Reformed, established, or free, here at least we are all agreed. About forms and ceremonies, church government, and modes of worship, we often differ widely. But on one point, at any rate, we are united. They have all one common feeling towards Him on whom they build their hope of salvation. They love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Many of them perhaps are ignorant of systematic theology and could argue but feebly in defense of their creed, but they all know what they feel toward Him who died for their sins. I cannot speak much for Christ, sir, said an old, uneducated Christian to Dr. Chalmers, but if I can't speak for him, I would die for him. And love to Christ will be the distinguishing mark of all saved souls in heaven. The multitude, which no man can number, will all be of one mind. Old differences will be merged in one common feeling. Old doctrinal peculiarities, fiercely wrangled for upon earth, will be covered over by one common sense of debt to Christ. Luther and Zwingli will no longer debate. Wesley and Toplady will no longer waste time in controversy. Churchmen and dissenters will no longer bite and devour one another. All will find themselves joining with one heart and voice in that hymn of praise unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sin in His own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The words which John Bunyan puts in the mouth of Mr. Standfast as he stood in the river of death are very beautiful. He said, this river has been a terror to many. Yes, the thoughts of it also have frightened me. But now I think I stand easy. My foot is fixed upon that on which the priests that bear the arcs to it while Israel went over the Jordan. The waters indeed are to the palate bitter and to the stomach cold, yet the thoughts of what I'm going to, and of the convoy that waits for me on the other side, lie as a glowing coal in my heart. I see myself now at the end of my journey. My toilsome days are ended. I'm going to see that head which was crowned with thorns and that face which was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearing and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and be with him in whose company I delight myself. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of, and wherever I have seen the print of his shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot too. His name has been to me a civet box, yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet, and His countenance I have more desired than they that have desired the light of the sun. Happy are they that know something of this experience. He that would be in tune for heaven must know something of love to Christ. He that dies ignorant of that love, well, it would be better that he'd never been born. Let me show you in the second place the peculiar marks by which love to Christ makes itself known. The point is one of vast importance. If there is no salvation without love for Christ, if he that does not love Christ is in peril of eternal condemnation, then it becomes us all to find out very distinctly what we know about this matter. Christ is in heaven and we are upon earth. In what way shall the man be discerned that truly loves him? Happily, the point is one in which it's not very hard to settle. How do we know whether we love any person here upon earth? In what way and manner does love show itself between people in this world, between husband and wife, between parent and child, or brother and sister, friend and friend? Let these questions be answered by common sense and observations, and I will ask no more. Let these questions be honestly answered, and the knot before us is untied. How does love show itself among people? Well, first, if we love a person, we like to think about them. We don't need to be reminded of him. We don't forget his name, or his appearance, or his character, or his opinions, tastes, or position, or occupation. He comes up before our mind's eye many times in the day. Though perhaps far distant, he's often present in our thoughts. Well, it's just so between the true Christian and Christ. Christ dwells in his heart and is thought of more or less every day. The true Christian does not need to be reminded that he has a crucified master. He often thinks of him. He never forgets that he has a day, a cause, and a people. and that of his people he is one. Affection is the real secret of a good memory in religion. No worldly man can think much about Christ unless Christ is pressed upon his attention because he doesn't have any love for him. The true Christian has thoughts about Christ every day that he lives for this one simple reason. He loves him. And then if we love a person, we like to hear about that person. We find a pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. We feel an interest in any report which others make of him. We're all attention when others talk about him and describe his ways and his sayings and doings and plans. Some may hear him mentioned with utter indifference, but our own hearts abound within us at the very sound of his name. Well, it's just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian delights to hear something about his master. He likes those sermons best which are full of Christ. He enjoys that company most in which people talk of the things which are Christ. I've read of an old Welsh believer who used to walk several miles every Sunday to hear an English clergyman preach, though he didn't understand a word of English. She was asked why she did so. She replied that this clergyman named the name of Christ so often in his sermons that it did her good. She loved even the name of her Savior. And then, if we love a person, we like to read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother. Others may see little notice in the letter. They can scarcely take the trouble to read it through. But those who love the writer see something in the letter which no one else can. They carry it about with them as a treasure. They read it over and over again. Well, it's just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian delights to read the scriptures because they tell him about his beloved Savior. It's no wearisome task with him to read them. He rarely needs reminding to take his Bible with him when he goes on a journey. He can't be happy without it. Why is all this? It's because the scriptures testify of him whom his soul loves, and that is Christ. And then, if we love a person, we like to please him. We're glad to consult his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice and do the things which he approves. We even deny ourselves to meet his wishes, abstain from things which we know he dislikes, and learn things to do which we're not naturally inclined to because we think it will give him pleasure. Well, it's just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian studies to please him by being holy both in body and spirit, show him anything in his daily practice that Christ dislikes and he will give it up. Show him anything that Christ delights in and he'll follow after it. He doesn't murmur at Christ's requirements as being too strict and severe as children of the world do. To him, Christ's commandments are not grievous, and Christ's burden is light. And why is all this? Well, it's because he loves Christ. If we love a person, we also like his friends. We're favorably inclined to them, even before we know them. We're drawn to them by the common tie of common love to Christ, to the same person. When we meet them, we don't feel that we're altogether strangers. There's a bond of union between us. They love the person that we love, and that alone is an introduction. Well, it's just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian regards all of Christ's friends as his friends, members of the same body, children of the same family, soldiers in the same army, travelers to the same destination. When he meets them, he feels as if he'd known them for a long time. He's more at home with them in a few minutes than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of many years. And what's the secret of all this? It's simply affection for the same Savior and love to the same Lord. If we love a person, we're jealous about his name and honor. We don't like to hear him spoken against without speaking up for him and defending him. We feel bound to maintain his interest and reputation. We regard the person who treats him ill with almost as much disfavor as if he had ill-treated us. Well, it's just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian regards with a godly jealousy all efforts to disparage Christ's word, or His name, or His church, or the day of the Lord. He will confess Him before princes, if need be, and be sensitive of the least dishonor put upon Christ. He will not hold his peace and permit his master's cause to be put to shame without testifying against it. Why? Because he loves Christ. If we love a person, we like to talk to him. Tell him all our thoughts and pour out all our hearts to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation. However silent and reserved we may be with others, we find it easy to talk to a much-loved friend. However often we may meet, we're never at a loss for subjects to talk about. We have always much to say, much to ask about, much to describe, and much to communicate. Well, it's just this way between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian finds no difficulty in speaking to his Savior. Every day he has something to tell him. And he's not happy unless he tells it. He speaks to him in prayer every morning and night. He tells him his wants and desires, his feelings and his fears. He asks counsel of him in difficulty. He asks comfort from him in trouble. He can't help it. He must converse with his Savior continually or he would faint by the way. And why is all of this? It's because he loves Christ. And finally, If we love a person, we like to always be with them. Thinking and hearing, reading and occasionally talking are all well in their way, but when we really love people, we want something more. We long to be always in their company. We wish to be continually in their society and to hold communion with them without interruption or farewell. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The heart of a true Christian longs for that blessed day when he will see his master face to face and go out no more. He longs to have done with sinning and repenting and believing and to begin that endless life when he shall see as he has been seen and sin no more. He's found it sweet to live by faith and he feels it will be sweeter still to live by sight. He's found it pleasant to hear of Christ and talk of Christ and read of Christ. But how much more pleasant will it be to see Christ with his own eyes and never to leave him evermore. Better he feels is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desires. And why is all this? It's because he loves Christ. These are the marks by which love may be discovered. They're all plain, simple, and easy to understand. There's nothing dark, obtruse, and mysterious about them. Use them honestly, handle them fairly, and you cannot fail to get some light on the subject before us. Perhaps you had a beloved son in the army at the time of the Great War. Perhaps he was actively engaged in that war and in the very midst of the struggle. Cannot you remember how strong and deep and anxious your feelings were about that son? That was love. Perhaps you've known what it is to have a beloved husband in the Navy, often called from home by duty and separated from you for many months, sometimes even years. Can't you recollect your sorrowful feelings at the time of separation? That was love. Or perhaps you have at this moment a beloved brother in London launched for the first time amidst the temptations of a great city in order to make his way in business. How will he turn out? How will he get on? Will you ever see him again? Do you not know that you often think about that brother? That is love. Perhaps you're engaged to be married to a person every way suited to you, but prudence makes it necessary to defer the marriage to a distant period, and duty makes it necessary to be at a distance from the one you've promised to make your wife. Must you not admit that she's often in your thoughts? Must you not confess that you like to hear of her and hear from her and that you long to see her? That's love. I speak of things that are familiar to everyone. I need not dwell upon them any further. They're as old as the hills and understood over the world. hardly a branch of Adam's family that doesn't know something of affection and love, then let it never be said that we cannot find out whether a Christian really loves Christ and thus is really a Christian. It can be known. It may be discovered. The proofs are already to your hand. You've heard them in this very day. Love to the Lord Jesus Christ is no hidden, secret, impalpable thing. It's like the light. It will be seen. It's like the sound. It will be heard. It's like heat. It will be felt. Where it exists, It can't be hid where it cannot be seen. You may be sure there is none. It's time for me now to draw this paper to a conclusion, but I cannot end without an effort to press its subject home to the individual conscience of each into whose hands this paper falls. I do it in all love and affection. My heart's desire and prayer to God in writing this paper is to do good for your soul. First, let me ask you for one thing, to look at the question in the face which Christ asked of Peter, and try to answer it for yourself. Look at it seriously, examine it carefully and honestly, weigh it well. After reading all that I've said about it, can you honestly say that you love Christ? It's no answer to tell me that you believe the truth of Christianity and hold the articles of the Christian faith. Such religion as this will never save your soul. The devils believe in a certain way and tremble. True, saving Christianity is not the mere believing a certain set of opinions and holding a certain set of notions. Its essence is knowing, trusting, and loving a certain living person who died for us, even Christ the Lord. The early Christians, like Phoebe and Persis, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Gaius, and Philemon, knew little, probably, of dogmatic theology, doctrine, but they all had this grand leading feature in their religion. They loved Christ. And it's no answer to respond to me that you disapprove of a religion of feelings. If you mean by that that you dislike a religion consisting of nothing but feelings, well, I agree with you entirely. But if you mean to shut out feelings altogether, you can know little of true Christianity. The Bible teaches us plainly that a man may have good feelings without any true religion, but it teaches us no less plainly that there can be no true religion without love towards Christ. It's vain to conceal that if you do not love Christ, your soul is in great danger. You can have no saving faith now while you live. You're unfit for heaven if you die. He that lives without love for Christ can be sensible of no obligation to him. He that dies without love to Christ could never be happy in that heaven where Christ is all in all. Awake to know the peril of your position. Open your eyes. Consider your ways and be wise. I can only warn you as a friend, but I do it with all my heart and soul. May God grant that this warning may not be taken by you in vain. In the next place, if you do not love Christ, let me tell you plainly why. What is the reason? You have no sense of debt to him. You have no feeling of obligation to him. You have no abiding recollection of having gotten anything from him. This being the case, it's not likely, it's probable. Is it not probable that you should love him? Is it not reasonable? that you should love him. There's but one remedy for this state of things. That remedy is self-knowledge, the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The eyes of your understanding must be opened. You must find out what you are by nature. You must discover that grand secret, your guilt and emptiness in God's sight. Perhaps you never read your Bible at all, or you only read an occasional chapter as a mere matter of form without interest, understanding, or self-application. Take my advice this day and change your plan. Begin to read the Bible like a man in earnest and never rest until you become familiar with it. Read what the law of God requires, as expounded by the Lord Jesus in the fifth chapter of Matthew. Read how Paul describes human nature in the first two chapters of his letter to the church at Rome. Study those passages like these with prayer for the Spirit's teaching and then say whether you are not a debtor to God and a debtor in mighty need of a friend like Christ. Perhaps you are a person who's never known anything of real, hearty, business-like prayer. You've been used to regard religion as an affair of churches, chapels, outward forms, services, and Sundays, but not as a thing requiring the serious, heartfelt attention of the inward man. Take my advice this day and change your plan. Begin the habit of real earnest pleading with God about your soul. Ask Him for light, teaching, and knowledge of yourself. Beseech Him to show you anything you need to know for the saving of your soul. Do this with all your heart and mind, and I have no doubt that before long you will feel your real need of Christ. The advice I offer may seem simple and old-fashioned, but don't despise it on that account. It is the good old way in which millions have walked already and found peace for their souls. Not to love Christ is to be in imminent danger of eternal ruin. To see your need of Christ and your amazing debt to Christ is the first step towards loving Him. To know yourself and find out your real condition before God is the only way to see your need. To search God's book and ask God for light in prayer is the right course by which to attain saving knowledge. Do not be above taking the advice I offer. Take it and be saved. In the last place, if you really know anything of love towards Christ, accept two parting words of comfort and counsel. The Lord grant that they may do you good. For one thing, if you love Christ in deed and truth, Then rejoice in the thought that you have good evidence about the state of your soul. Love, I tell you, this day is an evidence of grace. Even though you're sometimes perplexed with doubts and fears, What though you find it hard to say whether your faith is genuine and your grace is real? And what if your eyes are often so dimmed with tears that you can't clearly see your calling and election of God? Still, there's ground for hope and strong consolation if your heart can testify that you love Christ. Where there's true love, there is faith and grace. You would not find him if he had not done something for you, and you would not love him. Your very love is a token for good. And then for another thing, if you love Christ, don't ever be ashamed to let others see it and know it. Speak for Him. Witness for Him. Live for Him. Work for Him. If He's loved you and washed you from your sins in His own blood, you need never shrink from letting others know that you feel it and love Him in return. Man, said a thoughtless, ungodly English traveler to a North American Indian convert, man, what's the reason that you make so much of Christ and talk so much about him? What's this Christ done for you that you should make so much ado about him? The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on the fire. The flame soon rose and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle as if about to die in despair. At that moment, the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently, and placed it outside. Stranger, he said to the Englishman, do you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless, and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth his arm and his power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of his grace and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me, a poor sinful worm, near the heart of his love. Stranger, that's the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ and make much of him. I'm not ashamed of it because I love him. If we know anything of love to Christ, may we have the mind of this North American Indian. May we never think that we can love Christ too much. Live for him too thoroughly. Confess him too boldly. Lay ourselves out for him too heartily. of all the things that will surprise us in the resurrection morning, this, I believe, will surprise us most, that we did not love Christ more before we died." And there it is, and you see how that certainly applies to Christmas as we consider God sending forth his son into the world to save us worms from the fire. Father, we thank you for these truths from your word. We pray that our love for you would increase, that you would open our eyes more to your light and glory. And Father, we pray this evening for anyone that might be listening or might listen in the future who isn't saved. Maybe they think they're saved, but their religion is just an outward form. Their heart is still unconverted. Father, we pray that you would, by your Spirit, show them their perilous, perilous condition. and show them this great Savior that these angels announced to those lowly shepherds that night. And so, Father, that they might be converted and not only believe in Christ, but believe in Him because they love Him. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen.