The Key of David

RV41-02

Liberals and Conservatives

Our society has made the concept of fundamentalism the offensive title. Indeed, out in society in general, if you want to discredit somebody, just call them a fundamentalist. There's an emotional reaction. The truth of the matter is that the fundamentalist represents the Philadelphia church as the liberal represents the horrible church (which is our next study) of Laodicea. You have to develop these internal emotional feelings toward what is godly and toward what is ungodly.

At our Parent/Teachers Fellowship this past week, I was trying to explain this concept to our teachers, and I pointed out to them that when my children were little (particularly the older two boys), television would advertise smoking, tobacco, cigarettes, and beer. I had started the practice that whenever a TV cigarette ad or a beer ad came on, man, I would make a disgusting sound. And they would look at me, and pretty soon (it didn't take very long) when we would be sitting there watching a program, and all of a sudden the ads would come on and they would start advertising cigarettes, and everybody in the room would make a disgusting sound – all together at the same time. It was very embarrassing when guests were there. The guests would look around and wonder, "What's going on?"

Well, what happened was that they had just picked up an emotional reaction. They didn't know anything. We didn't even have all the reports about what we now know about the effects on the human body of the use of tobacco then. But there was the principal of the body as the temple of God, and there was the biblical principle that was explained to them of the destructive effects – far greater than we even imagined at the time. But without their knowing all the ins and outs, anytime they saw a cigarette ad, they had an emotional objection. Anytime they saw a beer or alcoholic ad, they had an emotional revulsion against it, without being able intellectually, at that time, to relate to it.

That's what you must get toward the word "liberal." You must teach your kids that. "Liberal" is a bad word. A Christian who understands the connection between the Word of God in the Philadelphia church, and the liberalism concepts in the Laodicean and church, and the fact that, to that church, you're going to find that God is doing the same thing. In fact, it just struck me that God's doing the same thing. That's where I learned it. Remember what He said to the Laodicean church? "I want to vomit you out of my mouth." (I knew that I picked that up someplace.) That's what God's attitude is toward liberalism and all that it connotes, because liberalism is anti-Scripture. Don't be caught up in the idea that this is for liberty and freedom. Liberalism, when it's put into effect, destroys human freedom.

So, this church in Philadelphia is all that is connoted by the fine qualities of fundamentalism in our day, and against all of the offensive anti-God and anti-Scripture qualities of liberalism, whether it's political; educational; economic; or, religious. These believers in Philadelphia were devoted to Christian service through the exercise of their spiritual gifts for the purpose of storing treasures in heaven, which is just as it should be.

In church history, we relate this to the period from 1750 on through the rapture of the church. This is the era where there was a great restoration of Bible study – a return to the study of the Word of God. Out of that came the great realization of all the prophetic truths that had been left uncovered by the reformers.

Jesus Christ is Holy and True

Many who claim allegiance to Jesus Christ actually lack both holiness and genuineness. And we indicated that one example of that was a famous personality which is currently on everybody's mind, John Lennon, who exemplifies the anti-Jesus Christ type, who served Satan. This man is neither in keeping with reality nor genuine. That is an easy example to see that this is repeated in one way or another in our society.

However, on the other hand, looking in a different direction, we mentioned Oral Roberts, who exemplifies the pro-Jesus Christ type, who claims to have power from God, but who in reality serves Satan. He, too, represents a quality which is neither holy nor genuine. I do want to clarify something from the last session relative to Oral Roberts' claim to have had a vision of a 900-foot tall Jesus Christ. I do not mean to suggest that he did not have that vision. I am more inclined to think that that is exactly what he saw up there in Tulsa, because this man has demonstrated that he has powers that deal in the spirit world – that deal in the demonic world. And Satan gives those whom he controls the experiences of miracles in order to delude themselves and to have a base for deluding others. This can happen to a Christian as well. The charismatic movement is filled with Christians who are shot-through with satanic influence and control. That is characteristic of the movement. I have no doubt whatsoever that Oral stood on his campus and he saw a 900-foot Jesus, and that he was telling us the truth as to what he saw. But those who understand what he stands for; what he teaches; and, what he has said would realize that what he saw was not from God, but was from his majesty the devil.

It is no wonder that so many Christians are cagey about this. So many Christians are very reticent to say that what Roberts, and what he represents in the charismatic movement, is a function of the devil – not of God. Preachers confuse their congregations because they do not alert them to the realities of what these men stand for and what they are doing. So, they listen to all this praising of Jesus; all this giving glory to Jesus; all this thanking the Lord; all this putting of their money (in vast sums) into the Lord's work; and, all this devotion to serving the Lord, and they can't believe that that indeed is a delusion of Satan. Don't ever forget what Matthew 7:22-23 tells us about the experience that these people will someday have.

However, it is no wonder, that people are confused about a circus sideshow conman like Oral Roberts, for the simple reason that he is dignified in what he does by people who themselves know better. It was Billy Graham who called on Oral Roberts to lead in prayer at one of Graham's evangelistic campaigns. Oral Roberts is on public record as crediting that event with giving him acceptability and prominence with Bible-type believers. Until that moment, Oral Roberts was suspect in the eyes of Bible-believing Christians. He was held in reserve. They understood that there was something offbeat, but when they saw him up on the platform, being introduced by Billy Graham to lead in prayer as one of the good Christian brethren, their reserve was broken down. And thousands of Christians are going to suffer for all eternity because they have been caught up into the charismatic movement on the recommendation of a prime leader through what Billy Graham did at that point in time.

It is Billy Graham who was the dedication speaker when Oral Roberts University was dedicated. So, again, a satanic deception represented by this leader in the charismatic movement was dignified and promoted because Graham was there dedicating this university to God. What does this university teach? This university stands for all the deception (that we have gone over in such detail from a biblical point of view) that is characterized by the charismatic movement. It is a movement which has upon it the foul breath of Satan, and which any believer who knows a smattering of doctrine recognizes to not be in keeping with the principles of the Word of God.

Well, it's confusing when Billy Graham gets up there and he speaks as a dedicatory speaker. Billy Graham told Oral Roberts that he had a great gift from God for praying for the healing of people. This, unfortunately, seems to be the problem with most evangelists. They know the gospel, and they don't know much else about the Word of God. Any elementary, junior-high, Sunday school kid knows that there is no such gift in the Scriptures. There are very definitive spiritual gifts, but there is no such thing as a gift for praying for the healing of people. That's a pure invention. Dr. Graham knows better, or he should know better.

You and I, as believers who are rightly related to God the Holy Spirit, have as much effectiveness in praying for the healing of people as anyone else. There is no special gift. What a deception to try to dignify this! You can just smell the political overtones of that remark – to dignify Oral Roberts in what he was doing in conning people.

What kind of things is he doing? Here is one example: When Billy Graham ran his great evangelistic conference at the Lausanne, Switzerland, he invited Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts was there as one of the speakers. At the meeting, he was asked by one of the participants whether it is true that he is in the habit of asking people who are watching him on television to put a glass of water on the television set; and, then, when he blesses the water, he tells people to drink it for healing. He said, "Yes, he does do that." Kurt Koch, who is an expert on the demonic world, has done tremendous studies and has written some very fine books, including things that will make your hair stand on end. You talk about The Exorcist, well, that is all brought from real life, but made up. But if you get the books of Kurt Koch, he goes right down, one example after another. I don't know how this man sleeps at night with the experiences that he's had and with the investigation he's made. But Koch was there, and he tried several times to get to Dr. Graham to warn him that what Oral Roberts was doing is not of the Spirit of God, but is the spirit of demons. Finally, he had to write Graham. And Graham's response at the next meeting was to stand up and introduce Oral Roberts before the group, and put his arm around him and say, "And I'm happy to call him my brother." And Mr. Koch had his answer.

It is no wonder that this kind of confusion exists among Christians. But as Matthew 7 tells us, there are an awful lot of people who, down the line, are going to say to Jesus, "Lord, Lord." But Jesus is going to say, "Depart from me, your destiny is hell." They're going to scream out, "Lord," and then they're going to recite the litany of their credentials: "We perform miracles." Jesus will say, "Yes, you did, but not by My power. You were doing it by Satan's power. They will say, "We cast out demons." Jesus will say, "Yes, you did, but not by My power. You did that by Satan's power. They will say, "We prophesied. We predicted the future." Jesus will say, "Yes, you did, but not by my power. You did it by Satan's power. So, be careful, folks. Do not be deceived by the glittering front; all the glamor; all that public media exposure gives; and, all of the foolish national leaders (whom we respect and whom we know believe a true gospel, and preach a true gospel, and stand in the New Testament Christian tradition) that foolishly give their approval to these who are neither holy nor genuine.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is making clear here in the letter to Philadelphia that he deals with his churches on the basis of reality and on the basis of genuineness in relationship to His truth. And yet, these are the people who blaspheme the name of Christ, and who use Him for personal gain by their own holiness and by their non-genuineness. Only those of you with a strong frame of reference of Bible doctrine in your souls are going to be able to resist the emotional appeals of these satanic voices in our society, whether they come from the one side of the spectrum of a John Lennon type, or the other side of the spectrum of the Oral Roberts type. Only those of you with the frame of reference of Bible doctrine are going to be able to resist the emotional appeal. You're going to be able to look at it with the search light of God's thinking, and you will never play the fool. This is the only way to escape the influences of Satan's philosophy of humanism, because it is permeating our society, and the Bible tells us that it's going to be the primary philosophy in the closing days. It's going to gain momentum. It's not going to recede. The only way to resist it is by feeding upon the doctrines of the Word of God.

We'll put the Scriptures together to emphasize that more, because some of you did not bother cracking a Bible once this week. Some of you did not bother sitting down and praying once this week. Some of you did not bother spending any time in thinking about the Word of God in any way at all even once this week. Some of you never bothered listening to even a portion of an audio recording to feed your soul once this week. And I want you to know that you're up against the strong condemnation of the living God because of that.

Let's put it together. Matthew 4:4: "Jesus answered and said, 'It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Some of you have lived all this week as if the only thing that was important was making a little more money to put a little bread in your kitchen and in your bank accounts. You thought that that was going to make it for you.

Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart." That is not just a Bible story. This is the living and powerful Word of God that comes from God Himself, so that it is a two-edged sword that just slices you down to what you really are, and exposes you to where you really stand with God. And notice that we do not get this from the paraphrased Living Bible. It is the powerful and living Word of God. It is not the paraphrased Living Bible, which should be called the dead Bible. It's a paraphrase of man's opinion. Don't fall into that trap.

2 Timothy 3:16 adds another thought to this: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (therefore, it is inerrant), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." If you want to be producing divine good for storing treasures in heaven, then it is the Word of God that enables you to do it. Some of you haven't given any consideration whatsoever this week to producing good works in heaven. You didn't give any consideration whatsoever to storing treasures in heaven. You didn't do that because you didn't give any consideration to feeding your souls on the Word of God. Therefore, you are indifferent.

Titus 1:9-11: "Holding fast the faithful Word as you have been taught, that you may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to confuse the opposers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake." And you know that's the old English. Filthy lucre means money. You don't have to go beyond the city of Tulsa to see how that has been done in a superb way.

Titus 2:1: "But speak the things which become sound doctrine." But you're never going to do that if you don't know the sound doctrine to begin with. We are to be feeding daily upon the word of truth. This nation of ours may come to the kind of crisis that may yet be ahead for us, that other nations of the world have suffered. We never have really had a turmoil right here on our property; terror in our streets; or, a foreign enemy threatening our shores. The only people that are going to make it are those whose souls are steeped in Bible doctrine. The rest of you are going to break down. The rest of you are going to come apart. The rest of you are never going to know how to take it when a gun is pointed at your brain, and a terrorist is threatening to blow it out. You're not going to be able to stand up cool, calm, and collected. You're going to crumble right there on the spot. Only the Word of God makes a man, a man; and, a woman, a woman.

So, I commend to you that you get into the Word, and you give some consideration to feeding your souls on a daily basis. Stop starving yourself, so that you can come to the place where holiness becomes a way of life; and, where genuineness, relative to the truth of the Word of God, becomes a way of life. So, you're not down here at Berean Church saying, "I believe this," and subscribing to this and supporting this, and then when it gets out here to your life, you don't mind compromising and undercutting, in one way or another, the very thing that you've been taught in the assembly of the believers.

We have all kinds of audio recordings, and I encourage you to use them. I've been listening to and editing some of these series, and I must confess that I've been impressed with what I've heard. And I would suggest that you get in on it, because you're really missing something. You don't have to listen to an entire audio recording at one time. One of our men said that he and his wife have the practice (I think he said at breakfast time) where they start an audio recording, and they listen to maybe 10 minutes' worth; they read the Scripture; and, they're set for the day. Their minds are permeated (soaked) with God's viewpoint. That's how you make it. And doing this on a regular basis is a little intake. How much time do you waste listening to the radio as you drive your car? There are all kinds of things that you can listen to, when you could listen to an audio recording and get 10 or 15 minutes' worth of listening, and come out way ahead. Only when you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ are you going to realize how you, 20th century believers, had the opportunity of all history, because of our technological developments, to be able to have access to the Word of God as no other people in the past have had. How can you fail to take advantage of it?

You should practice the technique of prayer. You can't make it without that technique. That is the tactic of the Christian's warfare. And prayer meeting time is a great time to practice it together. It solidifies marriage partners when they are together in prayer meeting. It solidifies family groups when they are together in prayer meeting. It orients your children and yourself toward divine viewpoint thinking. It is a worthy investment of your life. It is a worthy interruption of your week. You just make time for it.

Develop a walk with the Holy Spirit for personal guidance. Some of you have not thought about Him once this week. You've made all kinds of decisions, but you never turned to think, "God the Holy Spirit, who dwells me to be my leader – what does he think? What is he saying to me? What Scriptures is He using to direct me to make the decisions that I have to make, and to meet the problems that I have to meet?" You didn't look to Him. You looked to all the things, and all the people, and all the sources around you that you thought were the structures. Learn to think and to act with full confidence in the divine viewpoint that characterized the Philadelphia church, and which characterizes biblical fundamentalism. It is occupation with Jesus Christ.

The Key of David

The thing that he has is called a "key." It looks like this in your Greek Bible: "kleis." This is a noun for an instrument to open a lock. The word implies "control over something," and thus, "authority." The idea is "sovereignty" here. He has a certain kind of sovereignty because He possesses a certain important key. The key is identified as the key of "Dauid:" the key of David. This is referring, of course, to the David of the Old Testament Scripture, the King of Israel.

What could that mean? He has the key of David. Then the words which follow say, "He that opens, no man shuts; and shuts, that no man opens." Well, in order to find a clue to what this means, we have to go back to the prophet Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah 22:15 for a moment. In this chapter, the prophet is speaking about a period in the history of the southern kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah, when Hezekiah was the king. There was a man in the official bureaucracy of King Hezekiah: Shebna. Shebna was the treasurer of the king. In Isaiah 22:15, we have a description (a discussion) concerning Shebna. Shebna, as the steward (or the treasurer) stood in a very high position in the kingdom. He was literally second in authority only to the king. It was a comparable position to that which Joseph held in Egypt relative to the pharaoh. Joseph was in the position of the steward, second only to the authority of the king.

So, we read about this man in Isaiah 22:15: "Thus says the Lord God of hosts, 'Go to this steward (this treasurer), to Shebna, who is over the house (that is, over the royal house of Hezekiah), and say, 'What right do you have here, and whom do you have here, that you have hewn out a tomb for yourself here, you who hew a tomb on the height, you who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?'"

What that verse is referring to is that this man, Shebna, who held this high office second only to the king, was indulging himself in self-centeredness and in a love for luxury. The kingdom of Judah was a theocracy, and as such, God was the ruler. Therefore, it was to be ruled in keeping with the principles of holiness, and of genuineness that is compatible with the truth. These are the very qualities that we're reading about in Revelation to the church at Philadelphia. Shebna is rebuked here by Isaiah in verse 16 because he has built for himself a luxurious tomb. That's what it's talking about here. He's getting a place for himself to be buried in. He's building a tomb in Jerusalem, but it is a tomb of the type that was authorized only for royalty. That's what it means: "a tomb on the height."

Isaiah is simply saying, "What's going on here? You're in authority over the money; you control the direction of the funds; and, you're responsible for what happens here in the kingdom. And what are you doing? You're running a little program of your own on the side here, establishing yourself in a position of honor, so that when you die, you're going to be buried in the same way as Hezekiah the king will be buried?" Only the king was God's representative on earth in a theocracy, and only he was to be treated as royalty, both in life and death. What was Shebna doing? He's up to that old human game of promoting himself – promoting himself contrary to the plan of God's theocracy, showing that he had a concern for his own interests rather than a concern for the nation that he was supposed to be caring for and serving.

Well, God declares what He's going to do this to this man. Verse 17 says, "Behold, the Lord will carry you away to mighty captivity, and will surely cover you." The Lord says, "I'm going to take you out of here. I'm going to send you into captivity. You won't even be in Jerusalem when you die. You're not going to enjoy this place of exaltation that you've built for yourself. You've been promoting yourself? I'm going to get rid of you. You're going out of this city. You're going into captivity." The Lord says, "I'll cover you, alright. I'll cover you with six feet of dirt someplace out in the desert, but you're not going to be in that exalted position that you've been creating for yourself."

"He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country, and there you shall die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your Lord's house." God says, "The picture is that I'm just going to take you up and throw you out into an open desert place, like a person would throw a ball out into a place where nothing would stop it, and it just bounces and goes."

"I will drive you from your station and from your state, and from your state shall pull you down." So, Shebna has been arrogant and acted presumptuously, and placed his ambitions against concern for God's people. He has abused God's authority which was entrusted to him by the king. He is going to be cut off from divine blessings. He is going to be banished from his place a service. That's one side. A man has had an opportunity to act with divine holiness and with divine integrity, and to act with genuineness by functioning with integrity relative to the truth instead of hypocrisy relative to the truth.

Shebna, therefore, is going to be replaced. Verse 20 turns to another man: a man named Eliakim: "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hands, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. The Lord said, "I'm going to get rid of you, Shebna. I'm going to get rid of you who have arrogantly and presumptuously exalted yourself. You've been promoting yourself, and in your place I'm going to put another man – a man who is compatible with holiness, and who is compatible with divine genuineness, and that man is Eliakim. Eliakim is to receive all the symbols of the office of the king's steward: his robes; and, so on, and the governmental authority that they represent. And he is to receive these with the concept that he is to act toward the nation as a father toward his children." What does a father do? He takes care of his kids. He seeks to preserve them from injury. He seeks to teach them aright. He seeks to move them in the right direction. He seeks to deal with them when they are acting in an evil way. He seeks to encourage them when they act with righteousness. He acts as a father.

Then verse 22 is what is reflected in our passage in Revelation 3:7: "And the key of the House of David (the identical statement) will I lay upon his shoulder. So, he shall open, and none shall shut; and, he shall shut, and none shall open." Eliakim is to receive the key of the House of David from heaven. This key was the sign of royal authority of the Davidic line. Eliakim is made responsible for the welfare of the theocracy which is represented by the Davidic line. That's what it means that this key is placed upon his shoulder. Perhaps it literally meant he wore a sash on which this key, the emblem of authority, was slung over his shoulder, as they had has scepters and various implements that represented their authority. In any case, with the authority that this key represented, Eliakim would now be in a position to open and close doors of access to the king and to his favor, because since he was second to the king, nobody got to talk to the king unless Eliakim opened the door and said, "You can come in and talk to him." Nobody had access to finances unless Eliakim opened the door and said, "You have access to be funded for this thing and that thing." It was a place of extreme authority.

This key was placed, interestingly enough, upon Eliakim's shoulder – not in his hand. I think that is perhaps symbolic, because the key was only in the hand of the king who alone represented God. Eliakim simply bore the burden of responsibility of acting in behalf of the king's authority, and not his own.

We are told that Jesus Christ possesses the key of representing divine authority over His people today. In Matthew 28:18, that very principle is taught us: "And Jesus came and spoke unto them saying, "All authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." What's he talking about? He's talking about the authority represented by the key of David, because the ultimate expression of this authority will be when He rules in the line of David as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in the Millennial Kingdom.

Eliakim is described further here in Isaiah as a solid peg on a wall: "So, they who seek glory and blessing hold onto him." Verse 23: "And I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his fathers: the offspring, and the issue; all vessels of small quantity from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons." Naturally, a person that bears authority is a person that stands in the position of some honor and some influence. And it is very tempting, therefore, to think that that person is your access to divine blessing. You may think that that person is the way for you to get to where God is going to bless you. People often think that if they have certain ventures, and if they include their preacher, that somehow he's a good luck charm, and things are going to go well for them. So, they do nice things for him. They take him out to eat. ... So, they think that they are prospered and blessed in the process of having him along. That's kind of a natural reaction.

It's interesting that Isaiah says, "Yes, he's going to be like a solid peg. Anybody that goes around like Eliakim, exercising the king's authority with that kind of integrity and that kind of dependability, is going to be trusted by people. They will look at him, and they'll depend upon him. When they want God's blessing, they're going to look to be the channel to it.

But, in verse 25, God the Holy Spirit (through Isaiah) says, "Watch out folks:" "'In that day,' said the Lord of Hosts, (when everybody is hung on Eliakim, a responsible man, and they think they've got it made), the nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed, and be cut down, and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.'" If you're going to hang on to a human element for your blessing to God, and for your personal prosperity and promotion, you're asking for trouble, and you're going to fall. You will be like something that has just suddenly come loose.

Have you ever been in a room where something suddenly came loose? When I was in Dallas Seminary, Mrs. Danish and I shared an apartment with another couple. It was one of those things the seminary had where cut it down the middle, but both people shared the bathroom. One day, the other seminary student just left the bathroom, and the sink fell down. Wouldn't that have been something if he was in there at the time? What a shock! What a terrible place to have the roof cave in on you, so to speak. That's what happens when the nails let loose. It just all comes down.

Mrs. Danish was walking out of our house one time. As you go out, there's a light with one of those round glass fixtures right above you. She was hurrying to go out someplace, and the light suddenly just came loose. It came down and hit her right on the head. ... When the screws let loose, it goes.

Authority

Occupation with Christ

James 2:23 says, "And the Scripture was fulfilled which said, 'Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." Occupation with Christ through positive volition toward His Word, and toward being ready and willing to take the trouble to take the Word into your heart, and to be receptive toward it, puts you in a position where you are called the friend of God. Occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ is a very fantastic area of truth. Our time is up now. I don't want to get into that now, but next time we're going to take up this principle of occupation with Christ. It is at the heart of everything that God has for you.

People wonder, "Why aren't things going well for me? Why is everything offbeat in my life? Why can't I get it together?" Well, I can tell you right off the bat that the first step to getting it together is to be in a position where you are occupied with Jesus Christ. To put that into reality is the problem. It isn't just sitting and saying, "Well, I'm going to think about the Lord." The charismatics think that they're occupied with Christ. They think that they are very much involved with the Lord because of their emotional orgies in which they're indulging themselves in order to bring glory to the Lord. They're not occupied with the Lord at all. There are a lot of people who think they love the Lord. Occupation with Christ is the only basis by which you can come to the position where you can love the Lord.

Most Christians do not love Jesus Christ. You better recognize that. You might be in the terrible position of being in that category. Most Christians do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't just do this. You can't just decide, "I'm going to love the Lord." You can't just tell yourself that you're going to love the Lord. It is more than some kind of an emotional response. Loving the Lord can only be achieved by taking certain steps, and we're going to look at those next time. We will see how occupation with Christ provides all the fabulous consequences that that means now in your life, as well as in eternity.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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