Hebrews 13, verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. Much of what is said here has to do with brotherly love. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers. Verse 3, remember them that are
in bonds. Verse 4, marriage is honorable
in all and the bed undefiled. Verse 5, let your conversation
be without covetousness. It's impossible to love someone
and at the same time covet. what they have or the peace they
have or what have you. But I want this morning to look
just at this first verse, let brotherly love continue. Throughout
this Hebrew letter, the Holy Spirit has warned us about turning
from Christ to the Old Covenant, to Mount Sinai. The moment we
do so, we begin to flatter ourselves. with our own self-righteousness.
And we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to
think of ourselves. And the ones who always suffer
the most at the end of our self-righteous whip is our brethren. So having urged the brethren
throughout this letter to continue on by faith in Christ, it's appropriate
To include this word of instruction, let brotherly love continue. Now, first of all, if we would
continue in brotherly love, then we must continue in the faith. In order to understand something
of brotherly love, we must look to the firstborn among many brethren. We must look to Christ Jesus
the Lord. He accomplished the redemption
of those given him by doing two things simultaneously. He loved
his father and at the same time he loved his brethren. He loved
his father by loving the brethren with whom the father entrusted
him. And he loved his brethren by
honoring the father. If no matter what great thing
your brother or your sister has done for you, no matter how great
a thing they did for you, how nice an act they performed for
you or whatever they did for you, if they turn around then
and treat your father with everything but love and
dishonor him and disrespect him. It's almost impossible for you
to look upon what they did to you as an act of love. How could you love? Consider
that your brother, your sister was doing something for you in
love when they treated your father disrespectfully. Didn't trust
him, didn't obey him. How do you honor your Heavenly
Father? How do you honor your Heavenly
Father? How did Christ do it? God the Father purposed to save
a multitude. God the Son entered into covenant
agreement to accomplish their redemption. And He did that. We couldn't accomplish it, but
God accomplished it in the person of His Son who was a son who
was faithful as a son over his own house. He had to be faithful. He had to be perfectly faithful
because we couldn't be. We'll look a little bit more
at that in our, well a lot more at that in our message today. But he had to be perfectly faithful
because even when he gives us faith to trust him, sins mixed
with everything we do. Our faith is sanctified. Our
faith is made holy by Him because of what He accomplished. Well,
I can't love like that. I can't believe God the way He
did. I can't honor God the way He
did. I can't obey the law, and I can't answer to the law's penalty. But God the Father, to honor
God the Father, He doesn't command you and I to do that. He commands
you and I to trust His Son, who did it for His brethren. So if
we're gonna honor the Father, we have to honor the Son. And
honoring the Son, trusting Him, believing on Him, we honor the
Father. And we have to continue in faith, trusting Christ alone,
if we're gonna show any brotherly love whatsoever. no matter what
we do for our brethren. It's not love if we don't honor
their heavenly father by faith in his son. Anything less than
that is not brotherly love. It's just not. Now, secondly,
if we would continue in brotherly love, then we must take the oversight
of our brethren. How did Christ care for his brethren? He obeyed God and he served the
brethren. He came down to where we are.
He humbled himself. He took the place of his brethren. He bore the pain of their sin. He comforted them with his righteousness. And he gave the unspeakable gift
to his brethren. He gave his life for his brethren. Look over at Philippians chapter
2. Philippians chapter 2. Verse 4. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. That's
not saying go around wishing you had what others had. It means
take the oversight of your brethren. Take care of your brethren. Now
listen, verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus. 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 and And being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Those in whom Christ not dwells,
those in whom the spirit of Christ dwells are constrained by his
love for us. You notice here, he doesn't say,
let brotherly love begin. He says, let brotherly love continue,
because he's speaking to those who've been born of the Spirit
of God, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. They love one
another. It's not that they don't love
one another. The believer loves his brethren,
and he loves the Lord. Wishes he loved them more without
sin, but he loves them by the Spirit of grace working in his
heart. But this one who had every right to make himself a reputation
because he is God This one made himself of no reputation humbled
himself to serve his brethren So we who have no right to make
ourselves of any reputation We who have no place to make ourselves
of any reputation ever at all Are we not to to humble ourselves
and to serve our brethren as he did. He honored the father. Honoring the father and loving
our brethren are inseparable. You can't separate those two.
You cannot have one without having the other. It's an impossibility
to have a love for God without a love for the brethren. Because
those who are born of God, born of His Spirit, it's going to
be there. And if you see somebody who talks
about the doctrine, they may wrestle with you tooth and nail
over doctrine. And yet, they'd kill you if they
could. They're so hateful about it. If push comes to shove, they'll
leave you. They'll leave you, they'll leave
the brethren, or they'll kick you out, or whatever they have
to do if you don't line up with their doctrine. But they show
no love at all. None. The man or woman born of God,
he loves God and he loves his brethren. The two can't be separated. And where there's a love for
God, there always is a love for brethren. And notice, He took
the oversight for us before we asked Him to take the oversight
for us. He took the oversight of His
brethren without His brethren having to say, would you take
the oversight for me? Look over at 1 John chapter 4. And you bear in mind too, brethren,
that He was offended. The offense that He came to put
away was the result of our sin. It was the result of us offending
Him. So everything that He did in
serving us, He was the offended party. And yet He came and served
and provided Himself a sacrifice to take away the sin that He
was offended by. Now look here at verse 10. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He took the oversight. We wouldn't have asked Him to,
and He took it upon Himself to care for His brethren. Beloved,
if God so loved us, if this is how He loved us, freely, without
us asking, when He was the offended party, if God so loved us, we
ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, you know
how you've heard me say the closest thing that those who hate God,
the closest thing they have to killing Christ all over again
are the believers, those whom Christ has saved. What he's saying
to us right here is the closest thing you have to seeing God
in this life is one in whom His Spirit dwells. Listen, no man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us and His love is perfected in us. And hereby know we that
we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His
Spirit. That means we're going to love
Him. And we're going to love our brethren. And we see how
to love. The only way we know how to love
is by how He loved us. How does a husband know how to
love his bride? By looking at how Christ loved
His bride. How does a father know how to
love his children? By looking at how God the Father
loved his children, his son, Christ the Lord. How do we know
how to serve our masters, our employers, and work before our
employers? We look at the master and see
how he served the father. And we don't know how to do anything
unless we look at Him and discover, how do I love somebody? How do
I serve Him? How do I love my brethren? We
love our brethren like He did. Now, Scott made a point a few
weeks ago in the back, I think, was where we were. And look at
Colossians 3, verse 23. Colossians 3, 23. It says, Whatsoever ye do. That encompasses what? Whatsoever ye do. Whatsoever
ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Now, the truth of that statement
is, Scott brought this out, is that whatever men do, and truthfully,
whatever all men do, it's done to the Lord. Not as if it was done unto the
Lord, it's done to the Lord. And I can say that about the
believer and about all men for this reason. Everything that
every man does, whether we know Christ, trust Him, or we don't
trust Him, everything that every man does is either done for the
Lord's people or it's done against the Lord's people. There's no
middle ground on that. It's cut and dry. It's either
done for the Lord's people or it's done against them. And this
is what the Lord said, The king shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. So, if the Lord was here, if He was
here, would you wash His feet? with your tears and dry His feet
with your hair? Would you bow down before Him
and thank Him and love Him and cherish Him and honor Him? Well,
He says, as much as you've done it unto one of these, the least
of My brethren, you have done it unto Me. What motivation for a believer
to know that our brethren are so one with the Lord, and our
Lord so one with our brethren, that what we do for them, we
do for Him. Isn't that amazing? First off, brotherly love means
we have to continue in the faith honoring the Father. Because
we can't honor our brethren, we can't love our brethren if
we don't honor their Father, the one they love. And then secondly,
brotherly love means taking the oversight, the care of our brethren. Now, looking at those two things,
I want to give you something to think about here. These brethren
were enduring trials within the church because of pressure from
those who would turn them back to the law, to the flesh, to
the strength of their own hand. It would be no love at all, it
would be no love at all towards their brethren for one to do
that and leave his brethren. or urge them to do the same thing. It wouldn't be showing them love
whatsoever. It wouldn't be love because it ceases to honor God,
it ceases to honor Christ our Lord, and it's not showing true
love to our brethren either. But this is the word to us brethren. Now make sure we understand how
we understand this word, let brotherly love continue. Make
sure you understand how to receive this. The reason we're urged
to continue in brotherly love is because we have that old evil
nature, self-righteous nature within us still. Those who are exhorted to continue
loving have that old sinful nature within them. Who would want you
to be self-righteous towards somebody when they do something
to offend you? But the exhortation is to you
who are treated spitefully by a brother who's being self-righteous
towards you. Listen now. The problem in with
the Hebrew brethren, the main problem that they're being exhorted
and encouraged with throughout this book is to look to Christ.
And don't look back to the flesh. But knowing that old evil nature
is within the brethren in the church, they're going to struggle
with this thing. They're struggling with it. And
there's going to be brethren who may say, well, I believe
we can only eat certain things. I believe we need to abstain
from certain things. And the word is, when the brother
is like that, and he's, or maybe he's coming to you with the law
and, and trying to yoke you with the law and, and scold you with
the law. The word is, don't let that change
your attitude towards him whatsoever. He's a brother. Love him and
encourage him. And it's a whole different ballgame.
We're not talking about like those at the Church of Galatia
who were saying this is a necessity that you're going to have to
go back to the law and mix law and grace. We're talking about
those who truly profess Christ to be their all, but they still
have those old grave clothes of the law and they have not,
there's stuff they haven't let go of. That's the ones we're
talking about here. We're not talking about that
other. But who is it? Who is it that the Holy Spirit
calls on, always calls on, in Scripture to help a fellow brother
who has fallen into that sort of problem? Look at Galatians
6 with me. Galatians 6. Do you think they had this problem
in the church at Galatia? They did. In fact, I just quoted
to you from Colossians, were they having this problem in the
church at Colossae? As long as we're in this flesh
brethren, right here in this group right here, we're going
to have this problem. We're going to have it, because
by nature, we want to come to God some other way than in Christ. And we want to exalt ourselves
over somebody, and we'll use whatever means it takes to do
it, even God's word. To crawl up on their backs and
stand on the top of our brother's shoulders and try to exalt ourselves
over them, we'll use God's own law and his own word to do it.
And he says, when somebody does that, listen, verse 1, Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, who's called on here? Ye which
are spiritual. Ye which are spiritual. Restore
such a one. Restore him where? Restore him
to what? Restore him to whom? Restore
him back to Christ. In love, look, in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, guarding against thyself, guarding
against that old legalistic nature within you, lest thou also be
tempted. He's saying, you don't take a
verse like, let brotherly love continue and break that out on
a man who's trying to scold you. You don't turn around then and
break that out on him and say, now this is what Scripture says,
you need to be loving your brethren. If you were really a brother,
you'd be loving him. No, he says, this works to you when the man
does that to you. Don't stop loving Him. Don't
stop loving Him. Restore Him in the spirit of
meekness. And remember, you'll be the one
doing it next. You'll be the one doing it next
time. And restore Him in the spirit of meekness. And He says
here, bear ye one another's burdens. That man that's doing that, the
brother that's saying that, or the sister that's saying something
like that, they're under a heavy burden. They've come back under
the burden of that law, that heavy yoke, that bondage. And
they have a burden. And he said, help them bear it.
Help them bear it. How do you help them bear it?
Restore them back to Christ. Tell them some more about Christ. Just try to find an opportunity
to turn the subject to Christ. Try to find an opportunity to
share with them what you've been studying about Christ. And whatever
you do, abstain from any appearance of evil. Try your best not to
talk anything at all about what they ought to be doing. Just
show them what Christ did. heavy burden that they're under
begin to come off of them. They'll begin to see, they'll
have that light and easy yoke on them again. And he says, and
by doing this, brethren, in so doing, he says, you fulfill the
law of Christ. This is what Christ did. This
is what Christ did for us. This is loving our brethren.
For if a man think himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceives himself. That brother's deceived if he
thinks he's something by the law. And we're deceived if we
think we're something and able to correct him, to bring out
our sort of legalism and do battle with his sort of legalism. It
won't work. We've got one sword, and the
Word of God is Christ our Lord, and we just restore him with
Him. And I'll show you one more place. Romans 14. Now, I said to you that Christ
was offended by our sin. What we did offended the offense. He was the offended party. That's
what I'm saying. He was the offended party. These
things, brethren, what the Hebrew writer is teaching us here, this
is offensive. It's offensive to us whenever
A brother or a sister does something legalistic, whether it's to us
or anybody else. It's offensive because it's offensive
to our Father, our Heavenly Father, and it's offensive to our Lord,
and therefore it's offensive to us. So this is not an easy
thing to let brotherly love continue. This is some difficulty here
because our first impulse is to say, well, I'll just fix you. I'll fix you. And then we're
just right there in the same shoes with them. But look here,
verse 14. So who is it that's called on
always here? Who's this word? Let love, brotherly
love continue. Look at Romans 14. Him that's
weak in the faith. Receive ye. And don't doubt him. Don't receive him and start doubting
him. Just receive him. For one believeth that he may
eat all things. Who's the weak or who's the strong
here? Another who is weak, he only
eats herbs. Let not him that eateth... That's
the man who can eat all things. He knows he has liberty in Christ. He's not bound to these dietary
laws anymore. But let him that eateth despise... Don't let him despise him that
eateth not. And let not him which eateth
not judge him that eateth. For God hath received him. Who
art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master
he standeth or followeth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God's able to make him stand. You see, what we're really saying,
when we don't let love continue, when we don't let grace continue,
when we don't let long suffering continue, what we're really saying
is, I don't think you're able to stand, Michelle, unless I
help you stand. That's taking a whole lot on
us, isn't it? That's putting ourselves in God's
seat. That's putting ourselves in the
master's position. He said, receive him. Don't doubt
him. Love him. Be gracious to him. Be long-suffering to him. Be
a brother to him. That's what he said. Look down at verse 13, and I'll
stop. Let us not therefore judge one
another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know
and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean
of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him
it is unclean. So if your brother is grieved
with your meat, Now walkest thou not charitably? In other words,
if he's grieved for what you're free to eat and eat to him, that's
sin for you to eat it. When you're with him, don't eat
it. If he don't think you can have a glass of wine, when you're
with him, don't drink wine. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
Because he's going to be sitting there the whole time thinking,
oh, I shouldn't even be here with him. Be gracious to him. Don't put an occasion for him
to stumble in his way. And let not, verse 16, let not
then your good be evil spoken of. There it is. There it is.
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not what
you're able to do or not able to do, but righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore
follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith
one may edify another. That's it. That's it. So, let
me just review. Brotherly love comes down to
this. Trust God our Savior with all that we have and are, continuing
by faith in Christ, not going back to legalism, not using that
yoke and that will on one another. And if somebody uses it on us,
know his master is able to make him stand. And it means giving
ourselves to provide and to encourage and to edify one another regardless
of what it costs us. If it's painful to us, if we've
been offended by them, however we express our love for one another,
let it be to lead each other to the author and finisher of
faith. If we can get to Him, We'll soon
realize that none of us has ever been faithful like he is. And
we're gonna stand in him, in him alone.