They That Love the Lord Shall Be as the Sun — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Manifestation of Jesus Through Love

Christ is the most wonderful subject to dwell on, to think about, to meditate on. Do I love him? If I don't love him, it's because I haven't believed in him sufficiently. I haven't walked with him far enough.

Oh, the love of Jesus, what it is none but his loved ones know. But the Bible, the New Testament says such marvelous things about the love of Jesus. Some time ago the Lord gave a message, something to this effect.

He said, Beloved, the time is coming when Jesus Christ must be manifested in our meetings far more wonderfully than we have yet known. And when that happens, it'll be because the saints of God have drunk of that fountain, have been set on fire with his love.

It will be those who love him. That's what the Bible says. They that love the Lord shall be like the sun when he ariseth in his strength. Now we know what that means. The righteous shall shine forth like the sun.

What else does God refer to but the manifestation of Jesus? He's got to come by his saints after all. And when we come into a Holy Ghost meeting like we do this morning, and our hearts are all burning with the love of God, what is it but Jesus, Jesus manifesting himself?

And who do you suppose enjoys the meeting better, you or he? He is the one that gave his life. He purchased the church with his own blood that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such a thing.

Christ and the Church as a Great Mystery

And the Apostle Paul says, I'm talking about a great mystery. He uses that illustration of husbands loving their wives as their own flesh, their own bodies. But he says, this is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the church.

No, Jesus cannot manifest himself in a heart that doesn't love him. You may produce all kinds of righteousness in your own estimation and zeal and all that. Didn't Peter do that when he said, I'll go with you into prison and into death?

And somehow the Lord just brushed him aside. He knew that that wouldn't stand in the hour of testing. But after Peter had learned his lesson, Jesus, instead of rebuking him, said, Simon Peter, lovest thou me?

Now we're found the foundation. Do you love me? Now feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Now I can make an apostle out of you. And that's the question this morning. Do I love you, Jesus? Has the Holy Ghost been able to reveal to me the love of God?

Has he been able to set my heart on fire with the love of God? That's what God wants to do in our meetings. And that's why Jesus says that where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst.

The Bridegroom and His Church

And what are you in the midst for? Why do you come? Why don't you send your angel? Oh, why nothing can satisfy the heart of Jesus but the love of those for whom he died. Nothing. Nothing. A man might come to his own wedding, and if his bride isn't there, nothing will amount to anything.

Why, it's the bride that is the central attraction in a wedding. He leads his bride, and they too shall be one flesh. And here my Lord Jesus Christ was not satisfied with all the glittering, blazing glories of heaven.

He emptied himself. He became obedient unto death. He gave himself. He loved his own unto the very end. Oh, Jesus, love what it is none but his loved ones know. And when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, he comes as the spirit of love, the love of God.

Oh, that's the true manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, when your heart is set on fire with the love of Jesus Christ. I referred some time ago to a tract I read, seven years of fellowship, I think it was entitled, Mrs. Flower, telling of her experience of the baptism in the Holy Ghost, how it meant to her, Jesus, union with the Son of God.

Oh, Jesus, they that love the Lord. Do you love the Lord? Have you entered into that lovership? We often hear about obedience. We're convicted over our disobediences, over our laziness, over our slowness, and so on.

And Jesus brushes all that aside. He says, he that loveth me will keep my words. Oh, love is such a tremendous power. The world says love makes the world go round. I remember a man coming to one of our jewelry shops in Chicago before Christmas and wanted a diamond necklace made and it had to cost one million dollars.

Now, you can imagine what, the boss was a Jew, you can imagine, that man didn't care whether it was a hundred thousand dollars worth, more or less, but he had to tell his love that that thing cost him a million dollars, and she believed it, of course.

That's human love. Just think what human love will do. And you know yourself how when you love a person, how that your whole heart is emptied. You see these serenaders with their plunk, plunk, with their guitars and their mandolins.

Somewhere the sun is shining, somewhere a little rain, and they can stand there in the rain and they can stand there in the heat of the sun and plunk, plunk, plunk. I've seen them. I've watched them. But you know, when the love of Jesus fills you, you sing these songs differently.

Worship as an Expression of Love

Son of my soul, my Savior dear, how many times lies are expressed behind the songbook. But our singing must be different. It must be when the Lord had baptized me with the Holy Ghost, I was longing to get into a German Pentecostal meeting because I knew so many German hymns, and we used to rattle them off.

In our Baptist church, they very seldom sang all the stanzas. They'd say, let us open to 132, we'll sing the first and the last stanza. To sing three stanzas was too monotonous, took too long. But now I never had enough stanzas.

And in my shop, I sang all day long, but it was the cry of my heart to meet Jesus. And it was the best way to pray without ceasing and to be kept moment by moment in his love, just to take a song like that and sing.

Son of my soul, thou Savior dear. I used to transpose songs. If they weren't personal, I'd make them personal. So I like that song, Oh, Sweet Wonder. And I see people sing it wrong. They sing, how I love him.

It doesn't say that. It says, how I love thee. I'm in thy presence. I am serenading the lover of my soul. Does he know the difference? Oh, yes. And he doesn't care for cultured voices. You may have a cracked voice, but when it comes from the heart and you sing a song like that, it rings the bells in heaven.

And that wonderful bright groom, he'll brush aside the choirs of angels. He'll listen to, let me hear your voice, my beloved, my dove, my undefiled. And now he comes to visit you at night and comes to visit you in the daytime.

Oh, how Jesus longs for hearts that love him. He's got plenty of people on this earth that love to advertise their zeal and their faith and whatnot, how we love to advertise our spirituality. But the bride isn't like that.

All she cares is that he knows. And she loves to be hidden and to perform her work in a way that her left hand doesn't know what the right hand does, because he knows. How different is that service? If any man loved me, Jesus knows.

Christ knows those who love him, not by what they say in the meeting, but how they live outside the meeting, how they steal away from the crowd and from the gabbing rag-chewers to be alone with God. Jesus knows.

Oh, he finds them quickly and he knows them today. And, beloved, those who give themselves like that to Christ will find that he desires, his heart is yearning, is burning to give himself to them. That's going to make the difference when Jesus comes.

First Love and the Love of Christ

That's the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That's why the apostle says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. That's why he prays for the Ephesians. And isn't it strange that to the church of the Ephesians, Jesus says, you've left your first love.

I see you adorned with all the dazzling gifts of the Holy Ghost and with powers from on high, but there's something missing. The main thing is missing. Oh, beloved, let's pay attention to the main thing, just the love of Jesus.

Then let heaven and earth fade and flee. If I but have you, Jesus, let others shout and make a great big ado over their attainments and their fruitfulness and the success of their labors and all that.

Jesus knows all about that. But, oh, the love of Christ, he says, passeth knowledge that you might know the love of Christ. Oh, that you might know the love of Christ. How different is this lovership from everything else?

There's nothing at all to be compared to a lovership with Jesus, a personal lovership with Jesus Christ. And so he says, the love of Christ passeth knowledge. It's the highest form of scientific attainment.

They that love the Lord shall be like the sun. Why? How? Why? Because the sun of righteousness is risen within them and shines through them. They have sold out. Their name is gone. They've been married to him that is risen from the dead, that they might bring forth fruit unto God.

Paul's Single-Minded Pursuit of Christ

Like the apostle Paul, they do but one thing. They count everything but refuse. For what? For an apostleship, for gifts, for powers, for fruitfulness? No. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.

Look at the apostle Paul. He strove for nothing in the world. He didn't strive for apostleship. In fact, people derided him and cast him out. The very people he had led to Jesus and got them saved, they cast him out and they substituted false apostles.

They shone. They were eloquent. They were doctors of divinity. They were powerful. They were wise. They were strong. They had authority. And the apostle Paul's presence, his bodily presence, is weak and feeble.

And who in the world can listen to those monosyllables constantly talking about getting down? Constantly harping on one thing, these simple sentences of the apostle Paul. Go through his epistles and see how little eloquence there is.

Little fragments of instructions, apostolic instructions. No, there's nothing there to attract the conceited pride of learning. And so he sought nothing. He said, I die daily. I bear daily in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

Oh, that cry, that striving after the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It was to be united to him, to be one with him, to do his will, to please him. He says, we labor, whether present or absent, that we may be accepted of him.

Moses, Humility, and the Victory of Intercession

And what was the result? The mightiest victory in the kingdom of God. The result was the same as it was with Moses, when all of Israel had backslidden and defeated Moses and defeated almighty God, so that God's sentence was to destroy them all.

The love of Moses for God won the fight. He said, Lord, show me now thy glory. How shall it be known that I found grace in thy sight, except thou go with me? Oh, listen, you can bind Jesus to yourself.

He can't get away from you. You can bind him to yourself. You can eat his flesh and drink his blood, and then the life of God will flow. You will live no more. The life of God will flow and you'll never think of yourself anymore.

It will be Christ and not yourself. You will shine like the sun. Oh, they that love the Lord. And that wonderful prayer he prays for the Ephesians, that God, according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus, oh, this bows my soul today to think that Jesus loves me.

If I were the only sinner in all the universe, in all of God's creation, that ever sinned against him, he would yet leave the millions of righteous that need no repentance and go after the one lost sheep because of love.

That's how he loves me. And oh, to know that love. Beloved, that's our lack. We occupy ourselves like Peter with so many things. We like to reflect credit on ourselves. We labor and we fuss to become spiritual.

And oh, if we would labor and fuss to love Jesus, how simplified our lives would be. We would be just as happy as Brother Lawrence says, just to pick a straw from the ground for the love of Jesus, as to raise all the dead in all the Jewish cemeteries in Brooklyn.

What would you do with them anyway, if you raised them? But the least service, we would watch our step. We would watch our lips. Oh, just does Jesus know what I'm talking about? There's not a word in my tongue, but lo, oh Lord, thou knowest it all together.

The Holy Spirit, Obedience, and Inner Love

That's how minutely he watches his bride. How sensitive his heart is. There never was a heart of love like the heart of Jesus. And that love is mine. And does he care what I talk about or how I talk? The very twang of my voice will either bless him or grieve him.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Why? He's the spirit of love. He's the love of Christ, the burning flame, which all the waters in all the oceans cannot quench. Oh, this love of Jesus, what it is, but it's toward me.

It's for me. Thou hast left thy first love. Oh, that first love is inexpressible. It's the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. But the wonderful thing is that God is ever striving to bless his lovers and to make them love Jesus more day by day.

That you might understand or comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of this great salvation and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. It passeth knowledge.

That means it's the highest science in existence. The love of Christ. I ought to make a study of it. And to study that love of Jesus Christ will bend and bow my soul, my thoughts, every thought brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Does Jesus care what I think about? Oh, beloved, it makes all the difference in the world. That's how he sizes me up. That's why he says to the foolish virgins, I don't know you. They never gave him a chance.

But the Lord knows them that are his. If any man love me, my father will love him. That's not the end of it either. We know that. Jesus, you look through this meeting this morning. What do you see in our hearts?

Exteriorly, we all look very spiritual. But what does Jesus see in our hearts? It'll show itself this day a thousand times. If any man love me, he will keep my words. It'll make my Bible study to be very different.

I will study this Bible with a view of finding out how I can please Jesus. How can I please my Lord? Human lovership. He talks about a young man that's in love with the girl of his choice and how he is inventing ways and means of pleasing her.

Some of you have been there. But how much deeper, how much more powerfully arresting must the love of Jesus Christ affect me when it has entered my heart, when it has possessed me, when it has gripped me?

Forgetting the Past and Pursuing Christ

And beloved, that's what Paul means when he says he has apprehended me. Jesus, have I given you a chance to apprehend me like that? Or have I never given you time enough to speak to me lovingly? The voice of my beloved that knocketh.

At night, when everything is asleep, when the whole city is bathed in silence and in darkness, there's the voice of my beloved. He says, my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night.

And she is so taken up with her own adornments. Well, how can I get up? I'll soil my feet. But he looks through the lattice. He knocks again. Has he gripped you? Has the love of Jesus Christ arrested your attention?

Have you awakened? Have you opened your eyes and looked upon Jesus until your heart has been set on fire? You can't escape it. Oh, if you just give him a chance. And if you're the worst sinner in all the world, I tell you, that love of Jesus will grip you.

It gripped the apostle Paul, even though he says he was the chief of sinners. And what did he do? One thing I do. And he calls upon all those who pride themselves with being perfect to do as he does. Forget the things that are behind.

The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus lies before you. It's to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. How little we know of that. I tell you, this bridegroom will not bestow his beauty and his jewels and his wealth until I make that exchange.

He says, gold fried in the fire. He talks about coming to dwell with me and sup with me and I with him. And I'm finding out. And it's taken me a long time that every Tom, Dick and Harry doesn't get there.

The apostle Paul says, not as if I had already obtained, either were already perfect. Do you know why? Jesus Christ is going to have a church, which is his body, is his bride. And it's going to be exactly like him.

The Church as Christ's Body and Bride

In fact, he is going to be admired in his church. It's his temple. It's his body. It's the body in which almighty God has found members through which he can manifest his eternal wisdom and Godhead. He has revealed himself to mankind through the powers of creation.

But all this is going to be folded up and cast aside. And someday Jesus Christ will proclaim to all of creation and to all of God's glorious beings in heaven, in eternity, what he died for. He died for one thing, to have a body.

He died that the sons of God might come forth in the same righteousness and holiness and beauty in which he glorified the father. Father, I will that they also now has given me be with me where I am. These things are so unspeakably great, beloved, that I speak very hesitatingly about that.

And I think we ought to be very, very careful how we talk about the glory that shall be revealed in us. It is much healthier to talk about our present condition and the present call of God. And it is much, much better at this time to be occupied with the yoke of Jesus, if we be dead with him.

Humility, the Yoke of Jesus, and Simple Obedience

But what fellowship? What fellowship? If any man loved me, he'll keep my words. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. And how simple are these commands? That's why we cast them aside. We're like Adam.

We've been vaccinated with the pride of Lucifer and we want to be like God. And that's why we write books about the glories of heaven and how we're going to flutter around with the angels and rain and do all these mighty things.

But, beloved, when we've been transformed by the renewing of our mind, there will be a cry in our souls to humble ourselves, to take his yoke. We'll find no fellowship with Jesus. You don't find Jesus upon this earth unless you get down.

You find him in the valley of humility. You find him on the cross. Even so, he that eateth me shall live by me. Here is the lamb that was sacrificed and he calls upon me to present my body a living sacrifice, not to be a boss, not to be great, but to come down, to learn of him meekness, lowliness of heart.

How wonderful that God doesn't ask great things of us, but quite the opposite. Come down. But, oh, how very precious that Jesus Christ does not ask me now to judge angels. And he doesn't ask me now to do great things, but he asked me to obey his commands.

How simple. That opens to me the door into fellowship with the Father and with the Son. Oh, God, let me strive for this lovership of Jesus. You don't ask me to bring to you great gifts and great powers and great attainments and great capacity, but a loving heart, just loving Jesus, is the highest attainment of science.

They that love the Lord shall be as the sun when he ariseth in his strength. Loving Christ exceedeth all knowledge and ye shall be filled with all the fullness of God. Do I love you, Jesus? And it doesn't always mean that I have a very burning, ardent unction of love in my soul.

That love of Jesus simply spells obedience. And when you don't feel like it, how often his great heart of love will put you and me to the test. And he'll let you have a real test of obedience. Oh, it would be so easy to obey if at the same time we had the mighty power of the Holy Ghost clubbing us into obedience and driving us into obedience.

How easy it is to pray when you feel the unction for prayer, but to pray when you feel like going to sleep, when everything's against you. It's as your father sees in secret, he'll reward you openly.