I'll ask a question this morning, and I want each one of you to answer the question for your own selves. There are questions that are extremely important. People ask the question, will there be a nuclear war? That's on most people's minds. Will the United States be taken over by some evil nation in this world? Will we all live to get home safely today? That's a question. People ask all kinds of questions, but those questions have no relevance to eternity. I want to present to you the question this morning that will tell whether you and I will live forever in God's presence or whether we'll be separated from God and from all good forever in a place the Bible calls hell. A question. You answer it for yourself. John 21, John chapter 21, and then we'll read one scripture from 1 Corinthians 16, John 21, verse 15. Verse 15, So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And he saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith unto him, Feed my lambs. And he saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And he saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith unto him, Feed my sheep. And he saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved, because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee, and Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 22. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 22. If any man, or if any, of course, that includes the ladies and the children, if any person loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema baronetha, let him be cursed when the Lord comes. That's what he said. Let him be cursed when the Lord comes. Now, do you see the question? The question that I will present to you this morning is simply this. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? And in the midst today of so much decisionism and no-so-salvation, it'd be a good thing to stop and say, do I love the Lord Jesus Christ or do I not? Ask yourself that question, do you? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the test of eternal good or eternal misery. Forget what kind of profession you've made. I know that you've made a profession. Forget how faithful you've been. I know most of you folks here. In fact, I know all of you, I guess, and I know you're faithful. And what good doctrine you hold, you think about what good doctrine you hold and what you've sacrificed and all of those things. But Paul does not say, if any man does not profess or believe good doctrine or sacrifice or be faithful, he will be accursed. No, he didn't say that. He said, if any man love not, the Lord Jesus Christ, let him have God's curse on him. If you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the test. Right now in your heart, do your heart strings respond when you hear his name, the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the ever-blessed Son of God who became man for our sake, and as the God-man, he made atonement for our sin. And having died, he has risen from the dead, and he has gone into the Father's glory within the veil where he makes intercession for us. He is the Light of Heaven. He's the joy of everlasting bliss. He's the one that all the angels adore just to think that he's mine. He's mine, that all he is and all he has and all he ever will be is all mine. Truly, if a man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Just to hear his name causes the love to flow from my heart. I love to hear preachers talk about him. I could sit all day long and listen to a preacher talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. So I say to you, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Look in your heart right now. Do you love Him? Love is a committal. Because when you love the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you do? You trust all you are to Him. And you say with the Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I have committed unto him. It is a committal. When you love, you wash away your sins in the atoning blood. And when you wash away your sins in the atoning blood, you are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It is the blood of the God-man through which his righteousness flows. The blood reveals our Savior's love for us, and the blood reveals our love for him. The blood secures our forgiveness, our pardon, our justification, and our eternal glory. And if you love him, his blood is precious. And I cannot even say his precious blood without a depth that I cannot explain. His precious blood, all to be washed in the precious blood of the Son of God. Are you washed in His blood, my dear one? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb of God? Have you bathed in His blood? Has He washed away all your sins? And has He brought you to a place where you commit your all to Him, for that's what it is, to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Love to Christ is saving faith. You boys here, you remember when you were little boys, you trusted your father, didn't you? Your father would put you up on a high place and he would say to you, now you jump to me And you'd just turn loose and jump right out there. Why? You trusted Him. You trusted your Father. That's what it is. We have fallen into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has said, Believe on me, trust me, bathe in my blood. And we just fall into His arms. You remember the story in Luke 2 about old Simeon, an old man named Simeon, an old priest of God. He took the Lord Jesus Christ. He was just a baby then, just freshly born. He took the Lord Jesus up in his arms, and he said, Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace. And someone said, Simeon, have you nothing left to live for? And he said, no, what more can there be? I've seen the Lord's salvation. Oh, I've seen the Lord's salvation. But now see me, if you lived a little longer, you might be somebody important. Yes, I might, but what a burden that would be. This dear Savior is all there is, and if He is mine, I have all there is. I have all there is this morning. Do you realize that? Where I am down there, to move down there to a heathen land, but I have Him, and He's all there is. And if you do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, I beg of you, don't go to sleep tonight until you love Him. Ask Him, Lord let me love you. If you love Christ, heaven is yours. And if you do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, you're neither fit to live nor fit to die. There are multitudes who have religious feelings and do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see, salvation is a person. who he is and what he did and why he did what he did. John said we know that the Son of God has come and he has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ. And then he said this is the true God and eternal life. is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you'll know you're saved, you want to know you're saved, you'll know you're saved when you love Christ and not before. Oh, Simon, do you love me? Oh yes, Lord, I love you. And he says to Jack, Jack, do you love me? And I say to my blessed Savior, yes, Lord Jesus, I love thee. And he asked me again, and I was like Peter, and I said, yes, Lord, I love Thee. And the third time, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know all things. You know the love of Christ is in my heart. You're in my heart. Yes, I love Thee. Who cares about the past or the future? I don't care anything about it. I care about today, right now, today. How are you today? How am I today? Do I love the Lord Jesus today? It's the present, my position in Christ. O Christ Jesus, my Lord, let me see Thee. O light of mine eyes, come to me. O thou joy of my spirit, let me behold thee. O gladness of my heart, let me love thee. O life of my soul, appear unto me. O my great delight, my sweet comfort, O my God, my life, and the whole glory of my soul, let me love thee. O desire of my heart, let me hold thee, O love of my soul. Every morning I have something that I do. There's a hill not far from where we live, and that hill goes up to the water. You crest the top of that hill, you see the Gulf of Mexico, just nothing but water. And I walk up that hill, and there's a sign up there, and it has a good place to sit. It has a foundation. I sit on the foundation of that sign, and I have a conversation with my blessed Savior. I do that every morning, and He and I meet there. And I said one morning, Oh, desire of my heart, Lord, I want to I want to see thee." And you know, I almost did. I almost did. I almost saw him, not with these eyes yet. I saw him in my heart and in my soul. And I said, Lord, show me Thyself right here in this place in front of all of Your creation. You created all of this water and that sun that's coming up over there is Yours, and all creation is Yours. Let me see Thee. And it seemed like I just almost did see Him, almost. Ah, you say, well, that's Harris. I didn't see him. I said, almost did. I saw him with my eyes of faith. And I cried, and I said, oh, Lord Jesus, what a wonderful, what a wonderful Savior you are. I wonder why it is we boast of our persons, and our positions, and our possessions, and our gifts, and our talents, and we call attention to all of these things when we could be talking about the Christ of God. Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among you but a hated, despised redeemer who died on a cross." And he said, Christ is my message, and if he ever ceases to be my message, I'll quit preaching. And he said he was determined, he determined every time he opened his mouth to tell someone of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed son of the living God. And I'll tell you this, why did he do it? Because he loved the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm more determined than ever myself to tell people of Him. Everywhere I go to tell someone of Him. I never found anything more important to talk about than Him. Have you ever? I can't find anything more delightful than the love of Christ, and I can't find any place where that love is expressed more fully than at Calvary. At Calvary, preaching Christ. Do you know anything better to talk about? And someone said, well, doctrine is better, but now listen. Listen to the natural men and women unsaved, unregenerate professors of religion sometimes become excited and zealous about Christ and the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in him. And in a sense, they often get just as excited about the doctrines of grace as true believers do, and maybe even more so, at least for a while. But then, and I've seen it over and over and over, After a while, the luster and beauty of grace begins to dim in their eyes, and they cease to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. And they find they want something new. I don't have anything new. They want something more profound. I don't have anything more profound. People want something mysterious. I don't have anything like that. And they're like the children of Israel in the wilderness. The natural man has no real taste and reddish in his soul for the manna from heaven. Although he will listen for a while, but he soon begins to long for the leeks and onions of Egypt. And there are preachers that'll give them to him. And they can go anywhere, and they can hear about everything but the Lord Jesus Christ. You can find a preacher to give you anything you want to hear. We saw a billboard of one that does that every Sunday. His name is Joel Osteen, and it said on that sign, Something about a new you. Make a new you. Oh, what did it say, Shirley? She didn't remember either. We're getting old, you see, both of us. We don't remember what it said. But it wasn't worth reading. And did you know about 20,000, 30,000 people crowd down there to hear him every Sunday? People, natural men and women, long for a preacher like that. Give me that preacher! What's wrong with people like that? They don't love the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm talking to every one of you now. Do you love Him? You love the Lord Jesus, do you? Do you love Him? If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, the curse of God is on him. Brother Mahan told me a man came to him after the service up there at 13th Street and said to him, you preach the same old thing every time. And Brother Henry said that's the greatest compliment he ever had. Thank God he preached the same old thing every time, is Christ. What shall be our theme? The doctrine of election? No. No, you don't hear me preach on the doctrine of election very much. I do mention it in some messages, but I don't just take the doctrine of election and expose that. I just don't do that. No, no. I preach the Christ of election. the Christ of election. Whose banner shall we march under? Christ is my banner. Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my banner. Christ is my shepherd. Christ is my peace. Christ is my provider. Christ is my shield and my buckler. Christ is my reward. I have found him whom my soul loveth. Thank God. Thank God. Love to Christ is Christianity. Do you love Him? How do we know whether we love our wives and our children and our husbands and so forth? Well, there are certain evidences of affection that are manifest if they truly exist. Let's take this test now. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? All right, here are the proofs of that. Now, test yourself with these. Number one, if we love someone, we like to think about him. In your everyday life, do you think about him? We don't need to be reminded of the one we love. We don't forget his name. We don't forget his position or anything else. And though far distant sometimes, he's often present in our thoughts. The Scripture says Christ dwells in our heart. Let me read that to you. Ephesians chapter 3. This is such wonderful Scripture. Ephesians 3 verse 17. 317, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and the length, and the depth, and the height. Now look at this, and to know the love of Christ. which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." Oh, what scripture that is! The true Christian has thoughts of Christ simply because he loves Him, that Christ may dwell in your heart and to know the love of Christ. Oh, I trust. that everyone here thinks about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's one of the proofs. And then, secondly, we like to hear about Him. You like to come to church, do you? Oh yeah, man, I don't ever miss church. Why did you come? Did you come to hear about Christ? We like to hear about Him. We find pleasure in listening to those who speak about Him. What will a preacher preach on this, son? He's going to preach on Christ. I'll be there. If he preaches on Christ, I'll be there. I told you about that old Welsh believer several times, and I'll tell you again. She went to hear an English-speaking preacher, and she couldn't speak a lick of English. She walked for four miles to hear him. And her family finally said, Well, Mama, why do you want to hear him? You can't understand what he says. And she said, Ah, but he speaks the name of Christ so often that he blesses my heart. She could understand Christ. She went to hear the Name. And when you come here, come to hear the Name, to hear Him. And then we like to read about Him. If you love Christ, you like to read about Him. What a pleasure a letter from an absent loved one brings. Back in our early days, Shirley went to Baylor, and I was still here somewhere, and she was up in Waco, and she'd write me a letter, and boo, I just devoured those letters. I loved to read her letters. Why? Because I loved her. And I love the Lord Jesus. I love to read His letter. This is His letter to us. And I love to read His letter. The Scriptures tell of the one we love. Is the Bible just dead print, or do you love to read it? You see Christ in it. You love to see Christ. The next thing is, if we love someone, we like to please that person. We act upon what he says, we do the things which he approves, and we deny ourselves to meet his desires, and we abstain from things he dislikes. Why? Because to his children, Christ's burden is light, because we love him, his burden is light. Ah, we love the Lord Jesus Christ. And then next, if we love someone, we like his friends. We like his friends. And I tell you folks this, I like you. I like you because you're friends of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm your friend because you're His friend. And I like you. And I'm at home with you. I feel at home this morning. I feel strange when I go to the synagogues down there, because I'm not at home with God's people. And then if we love the Lord Jesus, we like to talk to Him, don't we? You like to talk to Him. And we tell Him all our thoughts. We pour out our hearts to Him. We find it easy to talk to a much-loved friend. Why? Simply because we love Him. I love to talk with you. I came in and talked with some of you in here, talked with the men back in the men's room, and I enjoyed that. Why? Because we love the Lord Jesus. the Lord Jesus. We like to talk to Him simply because we love Him. And then we like to always be with Him. I remember when I was lost and I wasn't with Him, I was like little Billy. I heard little Billy years and years ago. A boy named Benny went out in the woods and walked a long way and didn't realize he'd gone so far. And he said, I better go home. And he took off walking in that direction and he didn't see that house where he lived. It's not in that direction. Well, I've got three more ways to go. He went that way and no house. And this way. He tried that way and he didn't find. He was lost. Little Billy's lost! And he went out in the middle of a clearing and sat down and just began to cry. And then he heard a voice. Billy! Billy! That was his father's voice. And he yelled as loud as he could, Here I am! Father, come get me." And pretty soon his father came out in the clear and went over and hugged little Biddy to his bosom. He had been lost, but now he's found. Someone that loves him has come to get him. And I'll tell you this, when we really love someone, we long to be always in their company. He wanted to be with his father and his family. And I'll tell all of you this, I long for that day when I'll see my Master face to face. I long for that day when I'll live in His actual presence. Why do I long for that? Because I love Him. I love Him. Lord Jesus, come and find me. I'm lost. That's what I did back yonder and He came and found me and took me to Himself. And so after all of this, can you honestly say that you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Forget about everything else, because if you don't love Him, You're in deadly danger, deadly danger. I feel as someone here in deadly danger this morning because you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you really know anything of love towards Christ, you have good evidence about the state of your soul. Love is evidence of grace. love, you don't have any grace. Oh, and though you sometimes doubt, you have good grounds for hope if you can testify in truth that you love the Lord Jesus Christ. An old Indian loved the Lord Jesus. He's always talking about Him. And a man said, well, man, why are you always talking about that Christ? What has He done for you? And the Indian knelt down and got some grass and made a circle and set that circle of grass afire. And he took a little worm and dropped that worm right down in the middle of that circle of fire. And that little worm wiggled this way and that way, and there was no way out. And finally he just stopped wiggling altogether. And the man reached down and took him, took that little worm, and set him out from the middle of that fire. Now that's what Christ has done for me. He's brought me out of the fires of hell and sent me out here in His grace Not love Him? How could I not love Him? Oh, how could I not love Him? With all I am, I love Him, because He's my Savior. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? I hope everyone here can say, yes, I do. I love Him. I love. the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you what, the love of God is in my heart for you, and I hope everyone here does love the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow for a word of prayer, please. Our Father, I feel, Lord, that I do love the Lord Jesus Christ, because I long to be with Him, and I long to hear about Him. I long to be in His presence. And so I thank You, Lord, that I do love the Lord Jesus. I pray for everyone here, if there's anyone here that does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray, Lord, you'll open their understanding, open their heart, and show them the lovely Savior. And we'll thank you for your grace, and thank you for your love to sinners. God bless this message to all of our hearts, that we might truly Love the Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for Him. In His name we do pray. Amen.