So in looking at John 15, I mean,
as we read, this is talking about God's love for His people. And
the verse I'm going to focus on is verse 13. It says, greater
love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his
friends. And the words he's talking here is He was speaking to the
apostles the night He was crucified. So this is what He's saying to
them as He's getting ready to go to the cross, and they still
really didn't understand what He was saying. But when you talk
about God's love, it's one of those things that's really not
easy to preach on. Number one, because I don't understand
it. Number two, because when I looked at my own love, I realized
I have none. And so I just want to look at a few of these things
with just a couple comments. But in verse nine, he says, As
the father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye
in my love. And he tells us how to do this,
how to continue in his love. He says, If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments
and abide in his love. And you know, he's going to see
to it that his people are going to keep his commandments because
we can't do it. When God gives a commandment, He gives us a
spirit to make us willing to put some love in our heart to
do this, because we don't have any. So He says, these things
have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and
that your joy might be full. And the only time we truly have
joy in our hearts, number one, is when He puts it in there.
And as we completely trust Him, obey Him, is when we look to
Him and we see Christ as everything God demands of us is found in
Him. That's the only time we have joy. He said, this is my
commandment that you love one another as I've loved you. And
you're gonna do this. I mean, if it's his commandment,
you're gonna do it. Greater love hath no man than this, than a
man lay down his life for his friends. So everything, everything
we read in John chapter 15 is that we, his people, his elect,
that we who believe on him, who are called by his grace, should
be assured of his love for us. Every word, every phrase, every
illustration that we see in this chapter is intended to assure
us of His love for us and that we continue in that and live
in the assurance of His love for us. And that reason, that
reason, the cause for His love towards us is not in me, but
in Christ. So if you look at verse 16, he
says this, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. and
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your fruit should remain. He's saying it's gonna remain,
because I'm gonna do it. That whatsoever ye shall ask
of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. And this
is ordained and written down. And I pray that he continues
to cause us to know this, because this is one of those things,
before I get up here and talk about this, I've told myself
this a thousand times, because I'm gonna look right in my own.
And that's not where it's at. And by God's grace, he gives
us a preacher in John Chapman who comes out here every week.
And this is what he preaches on. He preaches on the love of
God. And not only that, it's in weddings, at funerals. I mean, go back, some of y'all
that got married recently, and listen to what he said about
God's love. Even at my dad's funeral, that's what he preached.
At Ed's funeral, that's what he preached. That's what John
preaches. It's not the easiest thing to
preach on because I don't really understand it. I don't really
understand it. But it is the gospel. His love
is the gospel, and it's the greatest gift of God. It has grace, mercy,
hope, joy. Everything is in love. Without
love, we have none of that. God can be merciful and give
grace to people that aren't His. He does it every day by letting
them live. But if God loves somebody, everything is tied up in that. And it's all of Him. So talking
about God's love, we don't understand it. Paul said it's a mystery. He said it's a mystery, and that's
why we can relate to Peter when he was grieved when God asked
him three times, love us, thou me. He didn't boast in his own
love. He realized that was God's love
for him, not bragging as he did earlier. But Christ loves us
because He would. That's it. and He continues to
grow us in His love for Him each and every day throughout our
lives by showing us He loved us when there was absolutely
nothing in us to love. Yet He did. Not that we loved
Him, but that He loved us. So sometimes you might ask, and
you might have asked yourself, why would God love me? Have you
ever asked yourself that? It's one question I don't think
we can reconcile on this side of heaven. I really don't. It is a mystery. Why would He
love me? But with the mystery, He gives
us full assurance. And if you would, turn to Colossians
2 and verse 2. It was one of my dad's favorite
verses. And I honestly don't know if
I've ever really looked at it for what it meant, because we
all want to see it in this emotional love that we have for each other.
And that's not what we're talking about today. Colossians 2 and
verse 2. And it says, that our hearts
might be comforted, being knit together in love. And this is
unselfish, not emotional love, this is love with Christ. And
unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding. The full assurance
of understanding is of this love, of His comfort and love for us,
and the joy of salvation. And watch what it says, it says,
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. And the Father,
that is Christ and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge." So even though love is a mystery,
and when he's sitting there and says right here, to the acknowledgment
that's facts and mystery, he gives us full assurance and understanding
because our hearts are knit together in love. That's what he's talking
about. Christ is our wisdom and knowledge.
Herein is love. As the Father loved me, so have
I loved you. So why would He love me? Why
does God love us if there's absolutely nothing in us? So if you would
turn to Deuteronomy 7 and verse 7. Deuteronomy is like back in
the Old Testament, kind of close to the end. And this is why would God love
me? said the Lord did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number
than any people, for you were the fewest of all people, but
because the Lord loved you. It's that simple. And because
he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers,
hath the Lord brought you out on a mighty hand and redeemed
you out of the house of bondsmen from the hand of Pharaoh the
king of Egypt. He loved us because he would.
It pleased Him. And it's that simple. I still
don't understand it, but that's what it says. And that's sovereign
love, y'all. That's sovereign love. Nothing
in us to love. And here's the reason why I think
it's hard for us to really understand what God's love for us is. And
I heard Clay in a sermon, he said it way better than I could.
And this is the way I think, but what it is, is grace and
mercy. We don't understand God's love.
Grace and mercy, they're all unmerited. Everything God does
for us is undeserved. And the reason I think we have
such a hard time comprehending His love for us is there's nothing
in us that explains it. There's absolutely nothing in
us that His love relates to at all. And here's what I mean. God's mercy. We know God's mercy. John talked about it last week.
God's mercy is Him not giving us what we do deserve. That's
His mercy. But God's mercy relates to our misery. That's what it
relates to. His mercy is God holding back
the judgment we do deserve to ease our misery and comfort us.
God's grace relates to our complete unworthiness. You know, God's
grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. God's compassion,
it reflects our total unworthiness. Our total unworthiness. His compassion
looks at our desperate need. He's our High Priest. He said,
I was tempted in all things that you were, but without sin. So
He knows what we go through. And He has compassion on us.
And that compassion is related to our need. His pity for us
is tied to our helplessness and our complete inability to do
anything because we can't do anything. Our utter weakness. His patience and long-suffering,
they're related to our stubbornness and rebellion. But when it comes
to God's love, it's completely different. It absolutely has
nothing to do with anything in me. It's strictly of Himself,
purely of who He is. And that's what makes it so amazing.
That's what makes it so amazing. You know, God is love. The scriptures
we read, you know, it says herein is love. Not that we love God,
but He loves us. We didn't love Him. We had no
thought of Him. We hated Him, yet He loved us.
And why? Because He would. It's because
He would. That's it. And John talks about
this often. He saved a people, a great multitude,
which no man can number, of all nations and kindreds, and people
and tongues, because He would. And that's amazing. It's like
the song we just sang. I think about amazing love, and
can it be that Thou, my God, would die for me? Have you ever
thought that? You ever thought that? Died He for me who causes
pain." And it goes on to say, "...to me who Him to death pursued."
He pursued death. You ever thought about that? And on the cross, emphasize,
He said, "...emptying Himself of all but love." And I don't
know if I ever really thought about it like this either. On the cross,
He became a worm and no man. And He became less than us. He
became a worm and no man. God the Father forsook God the
Son, buried the sword of justice in Him, turned out the lights,
turned His back on Him. He made His judgment to rest
in His Son for our light. But He never stopped loving Him.
God the Father never stopped loving God the Son on the cross.
His love cannot change. And Christ, who loves the Father
as He loves us, will never change towards us. It's immutable. He
said, I'm the Lord. One of the most comforting verses
I know of is, I'm the Lord Jesus Christ. I change not. Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Y'all, that's good news. So when
we talk about and we hope in God's love, there's a few things
we need to see and understand if we really want to see what
God's saying today. And this is talking about me,
and when I'm talking to you, it's talking about you. And these
are things I've told myself a thousand times before today. The first
thing is, when God's talking about His love, this is God talking
to me. It's God talking to you. God's
love to His elect is not talking about how other believers love
you or treat you, but how you love them. How you lay down your
life, that's what he's talking about. That's the golden rule,
we've read that. It says, therefore all things
whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even
so to them. He's not telling me how others
are to love me, he's not. He's telling me how I'm to love
others. And that's the same for you. He never tells us how other
people are supposed to love us. And here's His words. If you
would turn to 1 John 4.10. We've already mentioned this
verse, but here's what He's talking about. He says here in His love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sin. And look here, He said, Beloved,
if God so loved us, and what that means, if He loved us in
this manner, that's what it means. If He loved us in this manner,
When there's nothing in us to love, we ought also to love one
another. That's what he's saying. No man
has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells
in us and His love is perfected in us. He'll make you to do it. So the second thing is, we're
never going to love Him like we should. We're never going
to love Christ like we should. We'll never love each other like
we should, and we'll never be accepted in how we love God. We'll never be accepted in that.
Not that we loved Him, but He loved us. Our acceptance with
Christ is in God alone. That's it. That night the apostles
said, and y'all remember this, the same night, He's saying this
to the apostles, this is what they all said. All of them said,
Lord, I love you more than the rest of them. They all said that.
Peter said it out loud. The rest of them said it in their
heart. They said, I won't deny you. And every one of them denied
Christ. I mean, like Peter said it out loud, but all the apostles
denied Christ. Others might not, but I won't.
That was their boast in their own love. That's what they saw.
But when Christ opens our eyes to see how little we truly love
Him and how empty and weak we are, and yet he still loved us,
then we stop boasting in ourselves. So that's the second thing. We'll
never love him like we should. The third thing, and he tells
us this in verse 12, he said, this is my commandment, that
you love one another as I've loved you, and I've loved you
with an everlasting love, and that's everlasting love at all
times. He does not tell us to love only when others are easy
to love. He commands us to love each other
when your brother or sister, the brethren, the elect believers
are offensive, when they seem like they hardly even know Christ,
when they speak against you, they talk about you, when they
don't love you in return. In those times, that's when the
Lord is teaching us and showing us that the love we have for
each other is not ours. It's of God. And if He didn't
keep it and preserve it in our hearts and our souls, we wouldn't
love at all. And that's when we really begin
to glorify God. And this is how He grows us in
love in our life, through adversity and trials, by showing us there's
no causing us to love. Yet He loved us. So how does God love us? If you
look at verse nine, He says, as the Father loved me, so have
I loved you. Continue ye in my love. Now look,
just look over a couple pages at John chapter 17. John 17, 23, he says, continue
ye in my love. as the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you." So in 1723, he says, I in them, and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. That's what He says. So
how does God love us? Here's how He loves us. Christ
loves His people. He loves us as the Father loves
Him. God the Father loves His people
as He does Christ before the foundation of the world. And
He tells us to love one another just like that. Now that's a
lot. That's a lot. I can't do that. This isn't this emotional, sentimental
love of the world that we look to. This love is of God, produced
by God, and is kept in you and me by God. It's of Him. In 1 John 4, verse 7, he says,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. And he that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. So it is absolutely
impossible. If you're one of His, if you're
one of the elect, He's giving you grace and mercy. It's impossible
to be saved by grace and not know God and not love. It's impossible. You love Him because He first
loved you. That's it. There's no other reason.
With no cause in you to love. You can't help it. I know John
on several occasions, he'll say, do you know how you're saved?
Is if you love God. Because when you stand before
Him, just like he did with Peter, and we understand why Peter was
grieved. Because if he said, do you love me? You know you
have to say you do because you'd be a liar if you said you didn't.
Because you can't help it. You can't help it because the
Spirit of God dwells in you. And that's why Paul could say,
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. And that's why you'll love Him
eternally because He loved you from the beginning before the
foundation of the world. And he says in verse 12, Christ
says, this is my commandment. that you love one another as
I have loved you. And he tells us how to do that. How do you
love one another as I have loved you? Because I don't know. And
if you look at chapter 13, greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends. That verse is right
up there with Psalms 23 as being one of the most misused, mischaracterized
verses in the Bible that I know of, especially coming from law
enforcement. Every time somebody dies, this is the first thing
they throw out. And that's not what he's talking about. He's
not talking about somebody dying for somebody else. He's not. If you're in Christ, your life
was killed with Him before the foundation of the world. And
we see this in Romans. This is not what he's talking
about, somebody laying down their life and not somebody dying for
somebody else. That's what the world thinks.
Here's what he says in Romans 5, 7. He says, for scarcely for
a righteous man would one die. I don't even want to die for
a righteous man. That's what he's saying. Yet perventure for
a good man, some would even die. Here's what he's talking about.
But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. None of us can do that. None
of us can do that. Christ loved all that God gave
and chosen him. And He loved us by laying down
His life, became sin, became a worm and no man, gave His life,
poured out His blood under the wrath of God in our place. That's what He did. He satisfied
eternal justice. And this is a substitutionary,
redeeming, finished work of Christ in His love. This is the gospel. Greater love hath no man than
this. And that's how He tells us to love. So if He commands
us to love in this manner, how do you lay down your life? Because
it's not just us dying. And John recently put this in
his article. He says, what is our life? And John wrote this
in one article. He wrote, our life has a name. Our life has a name, and that
name is Jesus Christ. The same night, he said this
to his disciples. He said these words. He said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, and the life. He that has life has
Christ. That's what he said. Christ is
our life. It's not this vessel. It's not. That's not what it is. Christ
is the absolute best thing we have, y'all. The best thing we
have. Not a physical. We count all other things but
loss outside of Christ. He even said, to live is Christ,
to die is gain. That's what he said. So Christ
is our life. And if Christ is our life and He commands us to
love one another by laying down our life, how do we do that?
Well, He tells us that too. So if you would, turn a couple
pages over to John 21. And this is him talking to Peter.
And remember, y'all, Peter denied Him three times this very night.
But Christ restored Peter after Peter said that He loved Him
more than anybody denied Him, would never leave Him, turn around
and deny Him. That's what He did. And He sought Peter out,
and this is what He said to him. So John 21, verse 15, He said,
So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son
of Jonas, and if you see right here, he doesn't call him Peter.
He calls him Simon, son of Jonas. Y'all, that's the old man name.
And the reason he does this is so Peter will know. Anything
he has, any love he has for Christ is all in Christ. It's not in
him. He does this on purpose. He said, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? You know, Peter didn't say, oh
yeah, Lord, I do. I love you more than anybody.
That's not what he says. He saith unto him, yeah, Lord, thou knowest
that I love thee. And what does Christ say to him?
He said unto him, feed my lands. In verse 16, he saith again the
second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said unto
him, Yea, Lord, ye knowest that I love thee. He said unto him
again, Feed my sheep. He said unto him a third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved, because
he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And not bragging,
he said, Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest I love you."
And Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep. He didn't ask Peter,
do you believe me? Do you accept me as your personal
Savior? Do you believe the doctrine? He said, loveest thou me? He
said, if you love me, feed my sheep. And if Christ is the best
thing we have, if he's our life, and he saves his people through
the word, this gospel, the preaching of the gospel is laying down
our life. And that's what it is. Speaking peace to one another,
comforting each other, exalting Christ. And you might say, well,
I'm not a preacher, y'all. I ain't either. Not like John
and Rupert and Clay. I'm not. I'm not. But I can stand here on occasion,
hopefully it's a rare one, and tell you what God's done for
my soul. And I can tell you that He loved me when I was a dead
sinner, and there was nothing in me about it. Nothing. And
this is what John preaches every single week to you and me. It's
what God preaches to us every week. So we can speak in comfort
to each other, to feed one another and encourage one another when
you see a struggling believer. Because when a brother or sister
is struggling in need, and you see that old man of flesh, and
that person is starving, And you preach the gospel to Him.
You don't have to stand in the pulpit to do that. You don't.
That's our life laid down. That's greater love. And when
He says, this is my commandment, you're going to do it. You're
going to do it. He's going to put it in your
heart, and He's going to abide in your heart, and He's going
to keep that love in your heart, keep you loving. That's what
He's going to do. Not that we loved Him, but He loved us. And
y'all, this is true for all. For all who God saves, this is
true. We didn't love Him first. He loved us first. And Peter
learned this. Peter learned it. The cause of
our love is not in us. It's in Christ. And the only
reason, because Peter left. I mean, Peter left and went back
to fishing. I mean, he was done. You remember that. The only reason,
even after he denied Him, that Peter continued to abide in Christ.
Y'all remember what Christ said? Christ prayed that his faith
fail not. That's the only reason. Because Christ preserved and
kept abiding in him. And when a believing sinner comes
to understand this about yourself, this truth, you see it's the
same for all your brothers and sisters. It's the same. And this
is how he loves all his people. And this love's eternal and it's
invincible. We cannot separate. We can never
be separated from Him. You know what Romans says. It
says, Who is He that condemneth? Is it Christ that died? Yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also makes intercessions for us? Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? And y'all know this verse. Shall
tribulation or distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, or peril,
nothing's going to separate us. You know, he goes on the list
a lot of other stuff. We can't be separated from the love of
God because His love is not in us but Christ. That's just that
simple. So what does that mean for us loving other people? Don't
leave them. Don't separate from them. Don't
separate from your brothers and sisters even if they're offensive
to you. Even when it appears they depart. Even when it appears
that they don't have a whole lot to do with Christ. The only
reason to separate from a brother or sister is that they deny Christ
and the gospel. And even then, even then, if
they appear to withdraw, remember Peter and all the apostles, that's
exactly what they did. So it appeared. It appeared that
they departed. And they all just went back.
And it looked like they were gone. That's what it did. But
Christ came to where they were. He said, I must needs go. And
He restored their souls. That's what Christ did for them.
Love faileth not, and nothing can separate us. And there's
several instances of this in the Bible. I mean, y'all remember
Lot and Abraham. Man, they parted ways over cows. Over cows and property. Paul
and Barnabas did the same thing. Paul left Barnabas, and the Scriptures
never say Paul was right. Barnabas was wrong, and Dutton.
I think Barnabas wanted Mark to go with him on their trip,
and Paul didn't. And after that, Paul preached
on God's love for us and how there's nothing in us to love,
and yet he loved us in a way, knowing he parted ways with Barnabas.
So you might say, my brother is offensive. They keep talking
about you. You know, they don't love me
as they ought to. They just keep doing things that
makes it hard to love. They never do anything for me.
Have we said that? Yeah, we all have. We all have. So if he commands us to love
one another as he does, what's your cause to love one another?
What's your cause to love one another? And don't think about
how others are loving you, or treating you, or all the good
things in you there is to love, because I can tell you there's
not. And I'm speaking for myself. What's the cause? And you think
about this. Take the absolute worst, weakest, most offensive
believer. Think of that person, and what's
your reason for loving them? Christ is your reason. Just as
He loves you for no cause in you, so it is with every believer.
And y'all remember, we're believing sinners. And I listen to Clay,
and that's a term he uses, but we're believing sinners. Y'all,
we never get over that. We never get over that. And there's
going to be times when it's hard, when it's hard to love each other.
It is. But let me tell you, there's going to be times when it's hard
to love you too, when it's hard to love me. And some might point
to the Scriptures and say, and y'all know this, some of the
Scriptures we talk about, it says don't associate with them
when they're acting that way, when they act like that. In 2
Thessalonians it says, it says, now we command you brethren,
and we know, we've heard this Scripture before, In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself and keep
away from every brother or sister that walks disorderly or leads
an undisciplined life, and not after the tradition which he
has received of us. And if any man in the church
obey not our word by this epistle, by the letter, note that man
and have no company or associate with him, that they may be ashamed
and repent." And a lot of people stop right there. They'll stop
right there. And they'll go on, and many will
go to these scriptures and say, when they see a brother or sister
that's fallen, they're struggling to justify themselves and leave
them alone. But if you look, the very next verse, what does
it say? It says, in 2 Thessalonians, yet count them not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother, a friend, a believing sinner.
I'm glad Christ didn't leave me alone. I'm glad He didn't
depart from me. That's how Christ loves you.
That's how Christ loves you. That's how He loves me. He laid
down His life for you, for His friends and brothers. And it
says, lays down your life for His friends. And in Proverbs
17, 17, this is what He says about friends. He says, a friend
loveth at all times, the good and bad, the good and bad. And a brother is born for adversity. And He says, you love them the
same way I loved you. And when you see that they're
in that place where Christ brings them to make them ashamed of
themselves so that He can repent, lay down your life for them.
Now, how do you do that? You speak the gospel to them.
Preach the gospel. Tell them of all the things He's
done for your soul. Tell them when you were in that
place, He continued loving you even though you didn't love Him
in return. Tell them He changes not. Tell them about the unsearchable
riches of His grace and mercy. He's that friend and brother
made for adversity. He says, if you love me, if you
love me, love your brothers and sisters the same way. And remind
them of the same thing. And some will say, just leave
them alone. Cast out. Y'all remember Gomer, the slave
on the slave block? Everybody just walked by her.
Nobody wanted nothing to do with her. Y'all remember what happened?
Christ sent one in there. He said, I'll buy her. I'll love
her." When they were cast out, when
no one pitied you or loved you, so how did God love you when
you were cast out? And this is everybody. If y'all
would turn to Ezekiel 16.5. And this is how God loves. This
is every one of us. So Ezekiel 16, 5, it says, None
I pity thee to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion
upon thee, but thou wast cast out in an open field to the loathing
of thy person in the day that thou wast born. That's where
we were. And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in
thine own blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thine
own blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thine own blood, live." And here's how Christ loves us.
Look at verse 8. He said, Now when I passed by
thee and looked upon thee, what does he say? Behold, thy time
was a time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered
thy nakedness. Yet I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou became
mine." That's how God loved us. When we were in our own blood
and polluted, this was me and you. He didn't expose us, hold
us up as an example, talk about us. He washed us with water,
anointed our head with oil, clothed us, fed us. Our cup runs over. Not for anything in you and me,
but because He would. That's it. And y'all remember
this girl he's talking about right here went on to be a prostitute. Read on. She was a prostitute. And this is who God loves. Nothing
in us. Nothing in us. If you've ever been loved by
God like that, if you've ever been loved by Christ like that,
when you were cast out and nobody thought anything of you, nobody
pitied you, and Christ came and spread His skirt over you and
fed you, you're going to love the same way. And He's going
to make you do it. And He'll keep us seeing that
when you see a struggling believer, a brother, a sister, you're going
to say, that's not my brother there, that's that old man. That's
that old man. Y'all, we don't know each other
after the flesh anymore. We know each other after the
Spirit. That's the old man in there. The new man's in there
somewhere. He's in there. He needs to hear
the gospel and be comforted. That's how he's strengthened.
That's how we love each other. And that's a brother born for
adversity. That's who we are. And that's how he grows us in
love by showing us this. And you can continue to love
your brothers and sisters by laying down your life or preaching
the gospel. So we can close, and if you would,
look at Jeremiah 31.3. Jeremiah 31.3, he says, The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. So if a believer appears to depart, or is being offensive
to you, or saying things you don't like, or not loving you
like he ought to, see yourself in this way. If God loved you
and me when everything about us was ungodly and offensive,
we were far from Him, yet He didn't turn away and loved us
anyway. And in loving kindness, He drew us to Himself. Remember
this when you see somebody else stumble or seem to depart. Remember it. Keep praying that
Christ takes care of them, knowing just as He works all things in
you, He works all things for our brothers and sisters, even
when we fall, when we're offensive, or act like we don't even know
Him, because we do. And He shows you that His love
never fails, that He's going to keep on loving you because
He would, and there's nothing in you to love. And He's going
to do that, the very same work in your brothers and sisters.
your friends, and wait on the Lord. Because
y'all remember, he said, I'm the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I shall save my people from their sins. That's what he says. And
the simple thing here is, the simple application is, don't
stop loving. Don't stop. Don't stop laying down your life
in weakness, failure, or wandering, because that's how Christ loved
me and you. Because at some point, At some point, you're going to
be the offensive one. I'm going to be the offensive one. I'm
going to be the one that's wandering. That old man's going to come
out. He is. I'm going to be the hard one
to love. Even today, I think, how many times have you offended
God today? Since I've been standing here,
I try not to even think about it. And when you're that one
that needs to be restored and reconciled, if you ever found
yourself as the cause for your own adversity, When you're in
that place, He raises up other believers who have gone through
the same thing. Brothers who were born from adversity. That's
what He's talking about here. And He calls to experience His
grace and love and calls them to see that God loved them when
they were a sinner and there was nothing in them to love.
And they can come, come and speak comfort in the gospel to you.
when nobody else pities you, when nobody has anything to do
with you, because they will. That's a brother born from adversity.
He's going to make you see through all your adversity and all your
sin that Christ's love for you, towards you, never changes. It's
the exact same. He will never change. So this
is how God grows us in love through our whole life. In trials and
affliction, greater love hath no man than this. He laid down
His life for us, so we're going to lay down our life for one
another. And He's going to see to it. This is His commandment.
He's going to keep that love in our heart and keep us doing
that. Don't stop loving Him. Don't stop pointing to Christ.
Don't stop preaching the gospel to Him. Like I said, you don't
have to stand here to do that. In fact, I've got as much from
brothers as I have preachers. When I needed it, I didn't go
to the preacher. I went to somebody I knew that was a believer. That's
what we're going to do. When you are offended or you
offend, and you're going to do both, you're going to do both,
remember how He loves you and He's never going to stop. And
go and love Him the same way. This is His commandment, and
you will do it. And this is how He grows us in love, and this
is how His love is made known, and how we lay down our life
for our friends.