Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Thessalonians chapter four. 1 Thessalonians chapter four. And let's read the verses that
we'll be looking at for the Bible study. Verses 9 through 12. But as touching brotherly love,
you need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. And indeed you do it toward all
the brethren which are in Macedonia, But we beseech you, brethren,
that you increase more and more, and that you study to be quiet,
and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands
as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them
that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing." Everything
that he exhorted there in verses 11 and 12, Those are all the results of
verses nine and 10. It all is the result of love. It's all the result of love. Love is a vital component of
a believer's life. Love is a critical, vital component. Love is what started the work
of salvation. The song says, oh, the love that
drew salvation's blueprint. Love started it all. His love,
his own love is what held Christ on the tree, love. His love is what calls sinners
to himself. Love calls sinners to Christ. His love is what keeps a sinner
near him, in him, his love. And love is a fruit or a result,
an evidence, of God's Spirit living inside a believer. Love
is literally second nature to a believer. Love is literally
second nature, and I want to impress, second nature. If you do something so much to
the point that you don't even have to think about it, you know,
we say, well, he can do that with his eyes closed. What we're
meaning by that is that's second nature to him. That is second
nature. Well, to a child of God, love
is second nature. It's second nature. But not just
any love. This is not just any love. Love for self is not included
in that. People say all the time, here's
the problem. I had somebody tell me this not
too long ago. Well, here's the problem. I have to learn to love
myself. The problem is you have to love
yourself. If you don't love yourself first, do you know that's not a problem
for anybody but a believer? That's not a problem for anybody
but a believer. That is not second nature love
for a believer. First nature, yes. The nature
of the flesh, yes, but not second nature, not the nature of the
Spirit. The child of God says, oh, I hate what I see in myself. That's what the child of God
says. I hate the sin. We sing a song and one of the
lines in it is, I hate the sin that made thee mourn. Oh, I hate
the sin. I hate how this flesh is constantly
trying to glorify itself. I hate it. So it's not just any love that
he's talking about. Not just worldly love. We're about to see that this
is the evidencing love of a believer. Love for God and everything that
pertains to God. Love for His glory. Love for
His word. Love for His message. Love for
God. And I mean God. The God. And love for his people. Love
for his people. Verse nine says, but as touching
brotherly love. Brotherly. Christ our elder brother
and every brother and sister in him. But as touching brotherly
love, you need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are
taught of God to love one another. That's something that God personally
teaches the heart of every one of his children. He teaches them
and they learn through his spirit and his word. They see it in
the word and his spirit convicts the heart. This is what's right
and they learn it. Godly brotherly love and Paul
said in verse 10 first Thessalonians 4 verse 10 I in and indeed You
do it toward all the brethren which are in Macedonia But we
beseech you brethren that you increase more and more Now don't
turn, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the Apostle Paul gave us
three evidences of being a true child of God. In that chapter,
he gave us three evidences of being a true child of God. He
said, this is what abides in the heart of a true child of
God, faith, hope, And he said, the greatest of
those three is love. It's love. Faith is the look.
Hope is the confidence. Love is the foundation of it
all. Everything is upheld and confirmed by love. Love is the
beginning of faith. And love is the end of hope. Love for God. and love for his
people. It's a crucial component. It's
a critical, crucial component in the life of a believer. So
crucial, this is a bold statement. So crucial, we cannot be a believer
without it. You cannot separate faith toward
God and love toward God. yet they cannot be separated.
So crucial we can't be a believer without it. Let me show you that
in John 13. John 13 verse 34 says, a new commandment I give unto
you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you
also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples if you have love one to another. He said that's the greatest evidence.
By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, if you have
love one to another. You know, a child of God may
only have faith as the grain of a mustard seed. He may. A child of God may be so weak
in the faith, he may just have a grain of mustard seed. But
once that child sees what Christ did for him, once that child
realizes how God chose him out of all these people, and Christ
died for him, the love that that sinner will have toward God and
toward his people will pour out of him. It'll pour out of him. He may have faith as a grain
of a mustard seed, but that love will pour out of him. And that
love will be toward the same sinners who received the same
grace he did. Love for God and love for his
people. Turn with me over to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3 verse 23 says, And this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth
his commandments, believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another. He that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. He said it all
comes down to love for God, the true and living God. and love
for his people. On those two things hang all
the law and the commandments. Look at the next chapter, 1 John
4, verse 7 says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, But that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. This is love. This is love. That God would send His only
begotten Son to be a bloody sacrifice for us. That's love. We don't
know love until we know that love. Verse 11 says, Beloved,
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, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world,
including us Gentiles over here. He's the Savior of a people out
of every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue on this earth. Verse
15 says, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
and this is important, not just God's Son, Well, He's God's Son, not just
God's Son. Whosoever shall confess that
He is the Son of God, the equal member of the Trinity of God,
God Himself, God manifest in the flesh, the fullness of the
Father and the Spirit manifest in Him, God, the Son of God. Verse 15 says, Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love. Let me repeat that 1,017 more
times. There is no fear in love. When a sinner who fears God,
oh my goodness, fears God, when he sees Christ on the cross,
when he fears God, he fears something of this God, when he sees Christ
on the cross, when he sees how Christ removed the blow of punishment
for him by taking it upon himself, When he sees that, it casts out
all fear. And the same thing applies in
our relationships down here. Where true love is, there is
no fear. Where true love is, there is
no fear. Now the opposite is true too.
Where fear is, there is no love. Now I'm not talking about the
fear in the sense of reverence and respect. I fear my father
in the sense that I reverence his word. I feared disobeying
him. Respect, I still respect, I fear
and reverence him. And we fear and reverence God.
And I'm talking about fear. I'm talking about fear. Where
fear is, there's no love. Our Lord Jesus Christ through
His cross has removed all fear. We approach His throne boldly,
happily. We come running. We bear our
hearts to Him. We can tell Him anything. Do
you fear His rebuttal to you through telling Him anything?
I better not be that honest with Him. No, we can bear our hearts
to Him because love is there. Verse 18 says, There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. He doesn't have true love. We
love him because he first loved us. We love him because he first
loved us. That's what it all comes down
to. We love him because he first loved us. And this next verse
is just the truth of the matter. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? In this commandment have we from
him that he who loveth God love his brother also. Love is a critical
component in a believer's life. It's a critical component. But
look back at our text. Go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse 9 says, but as touching
brotherly love, You need not that I write unto you, for you
yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed, you do it toward
all the brethren which are in Macedonia. But we beseech you,
brethren, that you increase more and more." Increase more and
more. He said, you don't need me to
write these things to you. You're taught of God and you
do it. He said you do it to all the
brethren in Macedonia. But he said my exhortation is
to increase more and more. And here are some ways we can
do that. These are ways that we can increase
in love toward each other. Verse 11 says study to be quiet. And that you study to be quiet.
Study means research. Studying is the act of making
an effort to learn. He said, I encourage you and
exhort you to make an effort to learn. He said, study to be
quiet. He's not talking about volume.
He's talking about manner and conduct of life. Let me read something to you
out of one of the commentaries, straight out of the commentary.
I read this to myself as I read it to you. Make it your ambition
and goal to live peaceably in your homes, peaceably in your
church, and peaceably in your business, to cause no disturbance
and turmoil by tail-bearing, gossiping, and unkind words or
accusations. Let's make that our ambition
and goal for love's sake. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? If not, Lord,
teach me. Let me study. Let me study and
teach me to be quiet, not just in words and actions, peaceful. gentle. That's what love does.
Love is peaceful. Love is gentle. Love is kind. Love is patient. Love is meek. I cannot imagine a bolder man
in the Word of God, mortal man. I cannot imagine a bolder mortal
man on this earth than Moses. You think about the fact that
Moses walked straight up to the throne of Pharaoh and said, I'm
taking all your slaves with me. The scripture says Moses was
the meekest man on earth. No man was as meek and quiet
and temperate as Moses. So let's not confuse meekness
with weakness. Verse 11 says that you study
to be quiet and to do your own business. Again, let me just
read straight out of the commentary to you. Mind your own affairs. Do not concern yourself with
the business and private lives of others except when you are
asked to do so. Take care of your own calling
and ministry. Use your gifts as God enables
you and pray for others to be used in theirs. Verse 11 says
that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to
work with your own hands as we commanded you. Now that really
is an evidence of love. Love gets involved. Work with
your own hands. Love wants to take part. I want
to give you an example. I want to exhort all the men
in this room to do something. All of the men in this room,
when you see a big pile of dirty pots and pans in the sink, wash them. Wash them. Love cooked in those pots and
pans for us. When you see a big basket of
laundry that needs to be folded, men, fold them. Love washed those
clothes for us. Wait a minute now, that's a woman's
job. I don't like washing dishes and
folding clothes. Neither does she. Love in a man's heart will make
him say, he'll look at those pots and pans and this is what
he'll say, if I don't get involved and use my own two hands, then
she'll have to come back and use her own two hands. Isn't
this right? Isn't this love? Well, yeah, but I've been working
all day. So has she. We men couldn't handle
a woman's job. We couldn't. Try it. We could
not handle a woman's job. Love understands that and love
says, honey, what can I do to take some of the load off of
you? What can I do to help you? Christ took the load off of us. Christ did his own business. He said, don't you know, I must
be about my father's business. What is it? I'm going to buy
my own self with my own two hands. There, there, below. I'm going to take it off of them.
I see the pile of dirty pots and pans, and I'm going to wash
them. I'm going to clean them with these two hands. He bore
our griefs. He carried our sorrows. for us
his bride. He did it for his wife. He did
it for his wife. Remember that, fellas, next time
you see some dirty pots and pans. Wash them for love's sake. He
did it for love's sake. As he has loved and done for
us, let's love and do for each other. Let it just flow. Let
it pour. Verse 12 says that you may walk honestly toward them
that are without and that you may have lack of nothing. Love for God and His people creates
a desire in the heart. It creates a desire in the heart
to not bring reproach on God, any of His people, or any of
His gospel in any way. We do not want to be a hindrance
to any person, any unbeliever in the world from coming and
hearing the gospel. Love says, let me conduct myself
in an honorable, honest way to not be a hindrance to the word
of the Lord. Paul said, that's what I'm exhorting
you to do. But he said, I don't need to
exhort you to do that. You don't have to twist the child of God's
arm to make him want to do that. He said, God's already written
that on your heart. I'm just acknowledging what God has already
put on your heart. So as we are taught, Lord, cause
us to learn it, cause us to do it. Let me close with this. Go
with me to 2 Corinthians 13. Second Corinthians 13, everything
we're about to read is in Christ, in Christ. Second Corinthians
13 verse 11 says, finally brethren, farewell, be perfect, be of good
comfort, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love
and peace shall be with you. Live in peace, live in love and
peace. And the God of love and peace shall be with you all.
All right, may the Lord bless it. You're dismissed.