Alright, let's go back now to
1 John. Now, faith in Christ and love
to brethren, love of brethren. This is in every sinner that's
born of God. Faith in Christ and love of brethren
is in every sinner that's born of God. And here's how we know. Look at verse 5. It says, Whoso
keepeth his word, that is, who believes in Christ and loves
his brethren, whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love
of God perfected. That word perfected means God's
love for his child has brought him to its end goal. God's love for the child has
brought that child to its end goal so that he has faith in
Christ and love to his brethren. That's what perfected means.
The end goal of the law is to bring us guilty to Christ. That's the end goal of the law.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. That word end is the same word
from which perfected is translated. Same exact word. Same word. End is the goal, the end goal. Galatians 3.24 says the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be
justified by faith. The end of the law, the end purpose
of the law was to drive us guilty to Christ that we might be justified
through faith in Christ. But after that faith is come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. Because the end goal of the law
has been achieved. We've been brought to Christ.
So we're no longer under the law anymore. We're not under
that schoolmaster. We've been brought to faith.
That was the goal. That was the end goal of the
law. So Christ is the Christ for righteousness. And that's
really how Romans 10 ought to be read. Instead of Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness, it ought to read Christ for righteousness
is the end of the law to everyone that believes. Because it's Christ
who we go to for righteousness. Christ for righteousness, going
to Him for righteousness. That's the end goal of the law. That was God's purpose for the
law. The end goal of God's sanctifying work of holiness that He works
in His child is to separate us out of darkness into His light. That's the end goal. So we read
in 2 Corinthians 7, God had said, light and darkness have no communion. and have no communion. So he
said, come out from the darkness into my light and I'll be a father
to you and you'll be a son to me. And he said in 2 Corinthians
7, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God. That word perfecting is the same
word that's in our text. Same word that end of the law
was translated from. When God sanctified His child
and separated us out of darkness into His marvelous light, the
end goal of God's work of sanctifying us in holiness is accomplished. It's done. If you're out of darkness,
you're not in darkness. If you're out of darkness and
you're in light, you're in light. It's done. And so we thank God
our Father, as Colossians 1.12 says, who has made us, He hath
made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints,
of those that are sanctified in light. Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. It's done. It's perfected. It's reached its end. It's come
to the goal, purpose for which it was intended. So our text
here is declaring that whosoever keeps his word, whoever believes
on Christ and loves his brethren, verily, in him, verily, that
means of assurity, in him is the love of God come to its end
goal. The love of God has brought him
there. The love of God's purpose from eternity has brought him
to that end, to believe Christ and love his brethren. That's
why what brother Greg just read, by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. God gives
faith. He gives it. It's not of works
lest any man should boast. And John tells us later in chapter
4 and verse 7 that love is of God. So if we believe on Christ,
we have faith to believe on Christ, and we have love for Christ and
for our brethren, it came from God. The love of God gave it
to us and brought us to that end. And since His love is irresistible,
We can't, those that He is going to exercise His love within,
they can't resist it. We can't resist His love, it's
irresistible. And so, because that's the case,
He says to us now, if you believe on Christ, is there anybody here
that believes on Christ? Do you love your brethren? If
we believe on Christ, and those that believe on Christ always
love their brethren, it's a certainty. It's a sure thing. Guaranteed. If we love God, we believe Christ,
we're going to love our brethren. And He says, if you do, hereby
do we know that we're in Him. This is so sure that He gives
this to everybody that He loves. He works this in everyone He
loves. So if we've been born of God,
it's such a surety that we're going to have faith and love
that He says, if you believe and you love your brethren, if
you abide in Him, hereby you know you're in Him. You've been
born of Him. If you keep His commandment,
if you keep His Word, love your brethren and believe on Him,
hereby we do know that we are in Him. You think about this. Some people,
I think, get a little bit afraid when they hear about loving their
brethren. But let's listen to this now. When you were dead in your sins,
we did not believe on Christ and we did not love our brethren.
Our carnal heart was enmity against God and enmity against everybody
born of God. We didn't love God and we didn't
love His people either when we were dead in our sins. Has God
done anything for us? Has He worked anything in us?
If He's given us faith, He's given us love. That's just sure. That's just certain. If He's
given us faith, He's given us love. And this is how we know
that we're in Him, brethren. And for the same reason though,
because it's a certainty that where we've been born of God,
where we've been brought to believe on Christ and love our brethren,
It's because God's love brought us there. And by that same reason,
for that same reason, if a man says he abides in Christ, he
believes on Christ, and he hates his brethren, he's in darkness
still. Because Christ, what He's saying
to us is God doesn't leave His people in darkness. Christ said
that. He said, I am the light and he
that follows me shall not abide in darkness. He shall have the
light of life. And He gives it. And He gives
it successfully. And we have it. I want to talk
to you about the subject of brotherly love or brotherly hate. Brotherly
love or brotherly hate. When God creates love in His
child, God produces love for brethren. and we're constrained
by the love of Christ for us to love our brethren. Now first,
if we profess to believe Christ, John says we ought to walk even
as He walked. Look here in verse 6. He that
saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even
as He walked. And we saw last time that word
alt means as a debtor, as a debtor to Christ, out of gratitude. Our constraint is Christ's love
for us. When he gets on down to verse
12, he starts telling us why he's been writing this to us,
why he's been telling us all this. This is good news. And
He says, I write unto you little children because your sins are
forgiven you for His namesake. That's our constraint. That's
what motivates our heart and moves us to love one another. It's for Christ's sake. The difference
between legal works, will works religion, and works which are
of God's grace, produced by God, by His grace and by His love.
The difference is, brethren, is God giving us this pure motive
of love by giving us free redemption accomplished by Christ, constraining
us by Christ. The difference is that pure motive
that He puts in the heart of those He's made new. Now, this
commandment to walk as he walked, to love our brethren, it's not
a new commandment. Look here, verse 7. Brethren,
I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which
ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word
which you've heard from the beginning. We had it from the beginning
and we heard it from the beginning. What does he mean by that? Brotherly
love is the word that Christ preached to us beginning when
He first planted that word in our hearts and gave us ears to
hear this gospel. Brotherly love is the first message
you ever heard with spiritual ears whereby you were brought
to faith in Christ. You say, well, how does brotherly
love, how did that bring me to Christ, the message of brotherly
love? Because we heard the message that said, Him that loved us,
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins, that's who
we heard. From everlasting, from eternity
past, God said whom He foreknew, He did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son that Christ might be the firstborn
among many brethren. And so Christ, our elder brother,
loved His people from the very beginning. Back when nothing
was but God. He loved us from then. And then
when He came, the first message He made us hear was the message
of that brotherly love, Him that loved us. And when He made us
hear that message and He gave us that word in our heart so
that we had that word in our heart. We heard it and we had
it planted in our heart. And He said to us, walk in love
Now you walk in love as Christ hath loved us and given Himself
for us an offering and a sweet-smelling savor unto God. Now you've beheld
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Now you walk in love as Christ
loved us and gave Himself for us. And that's the message we
heard from the beginning. Go to 1 John 3.11. Same language here, look. For
this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another. See, it's a message. When He
talked about a commandment, He called it the Word. Here He called
it a message. It's a message. Look at 2 John
1 and look at verse 5. Now I beseech thee, lady, not
as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we
had from the beginning, that we love one another. That we
love one another. So, the first we heard it, it's
old because when we first heard it, we heard about Him that loved
us from eternity. It's as old as the love of Christ
our elder brother, Christ our Redeemer. That's how old this
commandment is. God the Father said to him, go
forth and love them. And He came forth and loved us
and gave Himself for us and washed us in His own blood. And then
it's old because it was the first word you and I ever heard when
we heard the Gospel preached. And He planted this word in our
heart. So it's an old commandment. But this same commandment is
new. Look here back in 1 John 2.8. This same commandment is
new. We're not talking about a new
commandment, we're talking about the same commandment. But He says
again, a new commandment I write unto you. Which thing is true
in Him, in Christ, is true in Christ, and is true in you. Here's why it's true in us, because
the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. Go over
to John 13. John chapter 13. Why is this new? Why is this
command? It's old because it's not a new
doctrine. It's not a new message. It's
the same old gospel we've heard. It's as old as Christ our beloved. It's old as He is. And as we've
been hearing it since day one, since He called us by His grace.
But it's new as well. And here's why it's new. It's
new because Christ Himself, our Lord and our Savior, gave us
this command. He gave us this word, He gave
us this message. Look at John 13, 34, a new commandment,
I give unto you. As opposed to Moses who gave
the law at Sinai, Christ gave this. He came and He worked it
out. He came and worked it out for
us so that He would be our example and also so that He would save
us thereby. And then He came to us and put
this word in our heart and taught us what He had done for us and
He constrains us by His love for us. This is a commandment
given by Him. And look at this, it's new because
it's only one command. It's Christ's like and easy to...
Look at John 13, 34, look at the next phrase. Here it is,
that you love one another. That's it. It's just one commandment. That's it. One commandment. That's
a light and easy yoke. As opposed to that ministration
of death, which at Sinai was given and had over 600 laws in
it, this is just one commandment. Love one another. And look here,
it's new because this commandment is true in Christ. He says there
next, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. See,
it's true in Christ. Christ loved us this way. He's
not asking us to do anything that He hadn't done. He's telling
us to do what He's already done for us perfectly. And when He
says for us to love as He loved us, He's not saying you're going
to do this in the same quality that He did it. That's not what
He's saying. He's saying He's giving you a pattern to follow. But it's true in Christ. Our
text says this is true in Christ. The light now shines. The light
of Christ now shines. And it's taken away the darkness.
And it showed us how to love by the same way that He loved
us. And it's true in us, brethren, by His irresistible grace working
in us. It's true in Him and it's true
in us. You see, that law at Sinai required love. But it never showed
us how to love and it never worked love in our heart. It required
love, but it never showed us love. It never showed us how
to love. That's why this commandment is
new. And it never worked love in our heart, this commandment
does. And then it's new because now
it's the love of brethren that distinguishes us as Christ's
disciples, as His students. Look at this, verse 35, By this
shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love
one to another. That's never been the case where
God's people were distinguished as His people by love for one
another. As opposed to fleshly circumcision. This is circumcision that's taken
place in the heart that's brought us now to love one another. That's
how it's new. It's a new commandment. So now
let me ask this question. Go with me to Philippians 2.
Let's ask this question. How did Christ love us? How did
he love us? He says, love one another as
I've loved you. He that says he is in Christ
ought to walk as He walked. Well, how did He walk? How did
He love us? When He says walk as He walked,
He's talking about love as He loved. That's what He's talking
about. How did He do it? How did He love us? He loved
us by being of one mind with the Father. Philippians 2.1,
if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bows and mercies,
he is saying just what John said. If we say we are in Christ, then
we ought to walk as he walked. And he says here, If this is
the case, fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." That's how Christ
walked. Christ was like-minded with God
our Father to redeem and save all God's elect. They were of
one mind on the purpose for which Christ came into this world.
One mind. And they were both of the same
love. It was the same love by which
God the Father sent His only begotten Son to make satisfaction
for our sins. And it was the same love that
made the Son come forth and go to the cross and make that satisfaction
for our sins. They were of one mind and of
one love, of one accord in the everlasting covenant. And He
makes us like-minded. He makes us like-minded in Him. When we are born of Him and He
plants this Word in our hearts, He makes us like-minded with
Him and with our brethren because we are all born of one Spirit. We are born of one Spirit. Have
you ever thought about this? You sitting here are born of
the same Holy Spirit that Abraham was born of. Same Spirit. The same mind that was in Abraham
is in you that's sitting here right now. We have the mind of
Christ, Paul said. The same spirit. That's why we're
of one mind, of one accord, of one love, loving as one family. So, if we say we abide in Him,
then as brothers and sisters born of the same spirit, let
us love one another as Christ loved us, being of one mind.
of one accord, of one love, being one, being one. And then look
at this, Christ loved us by esteeming His brethren better than Himself.
He loved us by esteeming worms like us better than Himself. It says there in verse 3, Let
nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness
of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Christ
never did strive with His people. He never did strive. He never
fought with His people. They never got in an argument,
fought, had it out. Never. And He never sought vain
exultation over His brethren. He didn't seek to strive with
them to exalt Himself over them. He didn't do that. Why didn't
He do that? Because He had lowliness of mind. Meaning He esteemed His brethren
better than Himself. He esteemed God His Father and
His will better than Himself and His will. He esteemed the
good of His brethren better than Himself. That's why He laid down
His life. That's why He went to the cross
and bled and died for God and for His people. He esteemed us
better than Himself. You know, if we have ill thoughts
of a brother, we're walking in darkness. If we have ill thoughts
of a brother, we're walking in darkness and we're stumbling
around when it's like that. That's what we're doing because
we're striving with one for whom Christ died. and we're exalting
ourselves trying to get vain glory over one that Christ has
made a king and a prince unto God. King and a priest unto God. We're high-minded and we're steaming
ourselves better than our brethren. That's darkness. That's the darkness
He saved us out of. And anytime you and I do any
of these things that He's talking about right here, we're going
back into darkness. And we're stumbling and we're
fumbling around. We're in the dark. We're in the
dark. So let us love one another as
Christ loved us by being kindly affectioned one to another with
brotherly love and honor preferring one another. Preferring Christ's
honor and preferring the honor of our brethren over our honor. You know when that's the case,
there won't be any hurt feelings. There won't be any hurt feelings. We give hurt feelings as a sugar
coating it. You know, oh they disappointed
me. All these different words we
give it. And what we are saying is, I thank God to be exalted. I thank God to be honored. Christ loved us by serving His
brethren. Look at verse 4. Look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Here's how what he says next applies to everything before
this and everything after this. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. That's why I've been saying this
is how Christ walked. Because all this is the mind
of Christ. He said, ìWho being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men.î Our Lord Jesus never
did one selfish thing in this earth. He never did one selfish
thing when He was walking this earth. He served us. He took the form of a servant.
It required him to go out of his way to do this. How much
out of his way? From glory to the likeness of
men. That's out of the way. He had
reason for reputation. He had reason to be held in high
regard, but he made himself of no reputation. He didn't do it
to be seen of men. He didn't do it to make Himself
to be seen of men while He was walking this earth and serving
us. He is telling us, don't do anything to be seen of men. Don't
do anything to make a reputation for yourself. And He served God,
this One who is sovereign over all. He is sovereign God over
all. He took the form of a servant. to minister to His brethren,
to serve His brethren and to serve God His Father. How can
I not serve my brethren? How can I not serve Christ? When
I consider that and consider what He did for me, how can I
not serve my brethren? Even unnoticed Never getting
any thanks, nothing, not for that, just to serve Him. How
can I not? When I see how He served for
His people. I'm talking about serving with
my time, serving with my labor, serving with my money, serving
with everything He's ever given me. How can I not? If we say
we're Christ, let us love as Christ loved, serving rather
than desiring to be served. And then look at this, he loved
us by denying himself in obedience to the Father. Philippians 2.8,
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. In total
self-denial, humbling himself. Remember, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
humbling himself, denying himself. Not as I will, but as Thou will. He was obedient. This was his
spirit all through his ministry. He said, I must need to go through
Samaria. awful Samaria was to them. And
he said, I must go to Samaria. That wasn't just in the way either.
That was out of the way. Why must he go to Samaria? He
had sheep there. That's why. To serve. That's
why he had to go. Remember when he was getting
ready to go to Mary and Martha and Bethany? They said, Master,
they tried to kill you in Bethany. He said, I must go. I must go. I got sheep there. They are mourning.
They are mourning over Lazarus' death. I got to go there. I got
to comfort them. I got to teach them. I got to serve them. But
he said, if a man walks in obedience to the Father, he walks in the
light, he don't ever have to fear stumbling. You obey the
Lord no matter how you have to deny yourself, no matter what
you have to do to serve the Lord, obey the Lord, you don't have
to worry about stumbling. You don't have to worry about
them killing you. There was humble obedience to
the death of the cross. You know, when we love one another
and we serve one another, we're going to have plenty of obstacles
in the way. One, we're going to have the
obstacle of our flesh. Our flesh is always the one that's coming
up with those reasons why we ought not go out of our way to
help somebody. That's our flesh talking to us.
But on top of that, Christ sets obstacles in our way. You know
why? Because God put a great big obstacle
in His way called the cross. But it was that obstacle, facing
that obstacle through which He actually showed His great love
for us and redeemed us. And He showed His faith in the
Father going through that obstacle, trusting the Father so much that
He was willing to lay down His life and trust the Father would
raise Him when the work is finished according to His covenant. And
He sets before us obstacles a lot of times so that He teaches you
and me to run the race set before us looking to the author and
finish of our faith. Why? Why look to Christ? Because
for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising
the shame. And so for the joy that is set
before us, the joy of serving Christ by serving our brethren,
endure whatever it is that we have to deny ourselves to do
to serve Him. Whatever obstacle it is whereby
we have to deny ourselves, endure it. Because there is joy on the
other side of that. The joy is to serve your brethren. And in so doing, serve Christ. Christ gave us an illustration
that sums it all up. Go to John 13. I am going to
have to hurry. John 13. It says there in John
13, verse 1, it says, having loved His own which were in the
world, He loved them to the end. That's how He loved us. He never
forsakes those He loves. He never forsakes His people.
He loves us to the end and that's how we're to love. Remember the
disciples said, to whom shall we go? Wherever Christ has set
up His gospel and assembled His brethren, Christ is there. He's
there. He is there. I can't forsake
Him and I can't forsake my brethren. You know when brother Don preached
my ordination service, and I know he had already told you all this,
he said if we could find a place to go and hear the gospel preached
anywhere around here, don't start a work. Do you remember that?
Don't start another work. And I have been ten years listening
in this whole tri-state area and I have not found one person
that I could sit under who is preaching the gospel. Not one. I don't mean to be mean to whoever,
if they hear this, but I couldn't find one. Well, I take that back. I found one and the church had
kicked him out the day before I called him. What I am saying is, if the Lord
ended this work here, I would have to pack up and move. to
where the gospel is preached, to where my brethren are. I've been one with the same brethren
for 30 years. And I'm not going to forsake
them if the Lord will keep me. And if this work was stopped
here, I would have to move and go where I could hear the gospel
and be with brethren because love does not forsake brethren.
He just doesn't. I wouldn't just stay here just
for the sake of a house and land and whatever else reason and
say, well I'll just be a maverick and live here on my own. No,
I'm going to have to go where love makes me go, where brethren
are. He loved to the end. Look here,
he washed his people clean. He rose from supper, verse 4,
laid aside His garments, took a towel, girded Himself, and
after that He poureth water into a basin, began to wash the disciples'
feet, and wiped them with the towel wherewith He was girded.
That's a picture. He washed their feet as a picture
of what He did for us. He set aside His glory and He
girded Himself with flesh and He poured out His blood and His
water on the cross and He washed His people clean and then He
girded us in His righteousness. That's what He did for us. Pictured
it there when He was washing their feet. I want to love my
brethren that way. I want to cover their sin instead
of exposing their sin to others. I want to love them by bearing
their burden and bearing their sin instead of being puffed up
and thinking I'm something when I'm not. Paul called that in
Galatians fulfilling the law of Christ. It's the law of love
we're looking at right here. I want to love my brethren that
way. Christ loves us by being patient with us. Look at this
in verse 6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter,
Aren't you thankful for Peter? We learn a lot from Peter. Peter
said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? And Jesus answered
and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou
shalt know hereafter. And he went on objecting. Peter
went on objecting. No, you can't wash me. Christ
is patient with our ignorance. He is so patient with our ignorance.
And listen, He doesn't grow all His people in understanding at
the same pace. You have children in your home
and you know they don't all grow in knowledge at the same pace.
And He doesn't grow His children in knowledge at the same pace.
That means we're going to have to be patient with our brethren
who don't know as they shall know when He teaches them. And
that's how He loved us, being patient with our brethren. That
goes for pastor and spouse and parent and siblings who are brothers
and sisters in Christ. A pastor and a spouse and a parent
and siblings who are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have
to be patient with our brethren. He showed us how to love by washing
Judah's feet. Look here in verse 11. For He
knew who should betray Him, therefore said He, You're not all clean.
He knew Judas was there and he washed Judas' feet knowing Judas
had already been put into his heart to betray him. Loving as
Christ loved us is to serve all who profess Christ the same without
doubting them. If Christ washed Judas' feet
knowing he was a betrayer, then you and I not knowing who he
is, We ought to treat all our brethren and serve all our brethren
the same, never doubting whether any brother is a believer or
not. Well, we don't know who's a believer and who's not. He
said, don't try to separate the weak from the tares. He knew
this man was a betrayer and he didn't even let on. He just washed
his feet with the rest of them. He served him with the rest of
them. Now, we don't know. So we ought
to serve all our brethren the same, trusting that there He
is. Now here's where John got the
word ought, when he said we ought to walk as He walked. Look at
verse 14, John 13, 14. John was here that night, and
Christ said, If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed
your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. from a debt
of gratitude, you ought to do what I've done. You ought to
love as I've loved you. For I've given you an example
that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the servant's not greater than his Lord, neither
he that sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these
things, happy are ye if you do them. And that's John's message
to us. We ought to walk as Christ walked,
loving our brethren as Christ loved us, and if we do these
things, we're going to be happy. That's what he said. John said,
you abide in light and there's no occasion of stumbling, no
occasion of scandal to bring reproach on Christ. And that's
happiness, to walk in the light of Christ and have no occasion
of scandal, no occasion of bringing any scandalous reproach on the
gospel or on the church or on Christ or on any of our brethren.
I don't want anybody ever, ever bringing reproach on the gospel.
I don't want to bring... I think I told you, brother,
When Brother Cody died, one of the first things she said to
me, she goes, I was just talking to Cody the other day and he
said, one thing I'm so thankful for is we've never brought reproach
on the gospel. That's a believer's number one
concern. And that's what that word, no
occasion of stumbling, it means no occasion of scandal. No occasion
of scandal. So turn back to 1 John. I'm going
to just end with this. I'm just going to read this.
And I'll make a very brief comment, but look here. Since this is
the sure end to which God brings those that He gives life, then
this is certain right here. Verse 9. He that saith he is
in the light, he that saith he is in the light, he professes
he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness even
until now. And he that loveth his brother
abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in
him. Happy is he. He does what Christ
told him to do. He's happy. He's happy. But he
that hateth his brothers in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and
knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded
his eyes. Because we're sinners still in
our flesh, we know what it's like to go into seasons of darkness.
You know what this is like. When you're striving with somebody
and you're angry about somebody and you get so puffed up, we
get puffed up and we can't see. We can't see straight. And we
can't hear right. Because we're defending ourselves. And we're not caring about the
gospel at that point. We're not caring about Christ
or His brethren or anything. All we care about is having our
way. And that's darkness. That's darkness. Thankfully, Christ won't leave
His people there. But if you're in darkness, there's
no happiness in that. There's no happiness in it and
it doesn't accomplish anything but to make us look like reprobates. I pray the Lord keep His people
from professing to abide in Christ if we don't possess faith and
love that only He can give. And that's not being mean, brethren.
I'm sincere. I pray the Lord would use this
message. If there's anybody who professes
they know Him, but they don't love their brethren, I pray God
would make them to know. Right now it's time to be honest
and realize I'm saying something I don't really possess. I'm claiming
I've experienced something I've not really experienced. I've
not experienced this grace of God. It's better to come clean
and be honest. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. It's much better. Brotherly hate. God doesn't have
to teach anybody to hate. You know, we come from our womb
knowing how to do that. You watch a little infant walk
over and he'll snatch a lollipop out of another kid's hand or
pacifier or whatever. You don't have to teach him to
do that. We come in knowing how to hate. Brotherly hate, hating
a brother in Christ, is of our flesh. But brotherly love, that's
all of God. That's all of God. And He works
it in His people. He does. It's so certain hereby
know we that we're in Him. I pray, brethren, that God make
us obey Christ, to love our brethren as Christ's love does. I want
to love. Paul told them, increase in this,
abound in love. That's what he kept telling the
Thessalonians, abound in it. See that you abound in this grace.
I want to grow in love. I want to grow in love. Alright,
let's stand together. Brethren, we thank you. I keep
saying brethren, we thank you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. Thank you for this grace that
you've given us and faith and love. Our love is nothing. Our love is just nothing. But Lord, we didn't have anything,
anything like love before. We hated You. We hated anybody
who mentioned You. And Lord, that's not the case
now. You've given us faith in Christ. You've given us a love
that was not there before. And how we do thank You. We wouldn't have it if it wasn't
for Your grace. Lord, make us to walk in love. Increase us
in love. Make us to desire to love stronger
and deeper and wider and higher and more and more and more. Make
us love our brethren. Forgive us, Lord, of the darkness
we walk in. Forgive us of those seasons of
darkness. We are thankful, Lord, that You
won't let us stay there. Won't let sin have dominion over
us. Lord, help those that are in the season of darkness. Help
them and instruct them, Lord, and humble them and bring them
to Christ. We thank you, Father, in Christ's
name. Amen.