Well, it's good to be with you
again. It's always good to be here. I've been looking forward
to this. I want you to turn with me to John
15. John chapter 15. This is the night that our Lord
has been betrayed. He's been speaking to His apostles
on some of the most important words our Lord ever spoke. These
are some of the last words He spoke to His apostles and He
is going to the cross and He's speaking some very important
words. And this is what He says to those
that have been born of Him, to His saints. This is what He says
to us. John 15 verse 9, As the Father
hath loved me, So have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And he tells us how we do that. Very simple. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love. Keep his commandments. Even as I have kept my father's
commandments, and abide in His love and He shall see to it His
people shall do this. When He gives you a command,
the Lord by His Spirit is going to make His people willing to
obey Him. He will see to it His people will obey Him. We will
abide in His love and He will keep us abiding in His love,
believing Him and obeying Him, trusting Him. Now look at verse
11. These things have I spoken unto
you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. If you want to be filled with
His joy, and it is Christ's joy that He puts in the heart, obey
Him. Believe Him. This is His commandment. Believe Him. Trust Him for all
your salvation. Look not anywhere but to Christ
only. Trust Him. Believe Him. And that
means trust your brethren to Him. Provide for your brethren, and
keep your brethren, and keep them standing. Pray for one another,
but believe Him, trust Him, and love one another. Love one another. And that's, He'll keep His joy
in your heart. He'll keep His joy in your heart.
Now watch this. This is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Now, if
we're going to hear this Word, first thing, we're going to have
to get some things in our heart and get some things settled.
If we're going to hear what our Lord's saying here, the first
thing is this. Each believer, each one of you
that's born of Him, each believer here, must hear this word as
the Lord speaking to you. I must hear this as the Lord
commanding me, speaking to me. You must hear this as the Lord
speaking to you. The devil's delight is for God's
people to hear the word of the Lord preached and apply it to
somebody else. Well, this is how they ought
to be loving me. This is how that other one ought
to be treating that one, or what have you. The devil delights
in that. The only one that's hurt by that
is you. When the Lord speaks to His children,
He's not telling me how others are to love me. That's not what
He's telling me. He's telling me how I am to love
others. That's so for you. The Lord is
not commanding you how others are to love you. He never tells
you how others are to treat you. That's not His words ever. He's telling you how you are
to love others. So we have to get that first.
And then secondly, let this be settled in our hearts too. There's not one of His people,
not one of us, who have loved our brethren as we ought to. Just get that settled in your
heart. You have it and I have it. Not one of us can go before
the Lord and expect to be accepted of Him based on how we have loved
one another. That's not what our Lord is teaching
here. Not what He's teaching. Our acceptance
with God is Christ. He's our righteousness only.
Him. Him. None of us can boast in
our love or think we've loved as we ought, and if we really
know Him, we will confess we hadn't loved Him as we would
love one another. Not Him or one another. That's
so. God's people will say that. Well,
I haven't loved my brethren as I want to love my brethren. Can't you say that? And I want to say that one reason
our Lord is saying this at this time, and think about this now.
The apostles were so full of unbelief. They didn't really
think the Lord was going to the cross. They thought he was going
to restore the kingdom like it was in David's time. They didn't
think he really was going to the cross. He had told them.
And our Lord told them. He said, you're going to deny
me tonight. The sheep are going to be scattered.
It's written in the Word of God. And Peter said, Lord, I will
not deny you. These might, but I won't. And they all said that. They
all said that. These others might, but I won't.
And you know what they were saying? Each of them was saying, I love
you more than these love you. And I won't deny you. And when
our Lord let Peter see what Peter would do. Peter denied him three
times, just like the Lord said he would, and they all did. But
the reason Peter's faith didn't fail is the Lord prayed for him,
and when the Lord came to him and restored him, he said to
him, Simon Peter, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
And that time, after having seen how little he really loved. Peter
deferred to the Lord, and he didn't boast this time about
loving more than these. He said, Lord, thou knowest. You know all things. You know
I love you. He just left it at that. Get
what I'm saying? The Lord showed Peter, and he's
showing me in you, we haven't loved as we ought. We can't make
a boast in our love at all. at all. And here's the third
thing and be sure to get this. The Lord's commandment for you
to love your brother is not only when they're loving you. That's
easy. It's when they're not loving
you. Even when they've sinned and
when they're acting like They don't even know the Lord. There's a thing the Lord gives,
the fruit of the Spirit, that's called long-suffering. Think
about that word. Long-suffering. That's the fruit
of the Spirit, long-suffering. Why do we need to be long-suffering? Because when brethren are not
loving you, it causes you to suffer. And sometimes you have
to suffer a long time. And it's during those times that
we really begin to realize that our love for one another is of
God. It's kept in our hearts of God.
And we really don't love as we would. And if it wasn't for his
preserving and keeping love in our heart, we wouldn't love. And it's during those times when
you have to suffer long that you find that out. You really
begin to glorify God for shedding His love abroad in your heart
and keeping you loving one another. That's when you know it's really
of Him. That's when you know. Now, the Lord tells each one
that He sanctified. You that's been born of Him,
He tells us how we're to love one another. He tells us exactly
how, right here in verse 12. This is my commandment. that
you love one another as I have loved you. Now that's how, that's
how. This is why he called this a
new commandment. The old covenant law didn't tell
you how to do it like this. One, he's the one that gave this
commandment and he has to write this commandment on the heart.
That makes it new. And the motive is entirely new.
As I have loved you. So we're going to have to know
him and know how he's loved us if we're going to love as he's
loved us, right? We're going to have to know him
and his love for his people. And he declares how he loves
his own. Look back at verse 9. This is
amazing right here. Now watch this. Verse 9. This
is how he loves his own. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you." That's how he loves you, Cass,
as the Father loves him. I can't begin to tell you what
that is. This is that love that Paul spoke
about. He said, I'm speaking a mystery. This is how he loves us. as the
Father loved him. So he says, continue ye in my
love. And then not only this, but God
the Father also loves his own like he loves his son. Look at
John 17, just a few pages over. Look at verse 23. He's talking
about the glory he gives you when he gives you faith. And
he said, I've given them this glory. And he said in verse 23,
John 7, 23, he says, I in them praying to the Father, I in them,
and thou in me, Father, that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world, that's his elect, scattered all over the
world, that they may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. So Christ loves his people as
the Father loves him, and the Father loves his people as he
loves Christ. And so our Lord tells me and
you, love one another as I have loved you. Now that's a lot,
isn't it? That's a lot. Now, this is why
we understand what John was saying when he took these words our
Lord spoke and made us to remember, love is of God. Now we're not
talking about this sentimental thing the world calls love. We're
talking about love that is of God that's in every born-again
child of God. No doubt about it. And it's by
the grace of God and it's by the power of God. It's produced
by God in us and it's kept in you by God. This is why one of
the characteristics of this God-produced love is this. This is one of
the characteristics of it. charity vaulteth not itself and
is not puffed up." If the true love of God's in us, we're not
going to go around boasting about it because we know it's not of
us. It's of Him. It's of Him. Listen
to this. 1 John 4, 7 says, Beloved, let
us love one another because love is of God. And everyone that
loveth is born of God, born again, born from above, and they know
God. It's impossible to be born again
and not know God, and it's impossible to be born again and not love. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. You hear men say, God's a God
of love. That's not what it says. God
is love. And if we love one another, verse
12 says, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love
is perfected in us. Verse 13 at the end says it's
because He's given us of His Spirit. So look at 1 John 5.1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. If you believe on Christ, there's
only one reason, you've been born of God. and everyone that
loveth him that begat." Now catch that. He equates faith in Christ
and love for Christ. Did you get that? He said, whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that
loveth him. You see, faith and love are Siamese
twins. If you're born of God, you believe
Christ and you love Christ. They're one and the same. You
can't have one without the other. And also, you love those born
of God. Look at the next word. Look at
the next word. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is forgotten of him. So we're
talking here about love that is of God. We're talking about
love that is produced in the heart in the new man when you're
born of God, born of the Spirit of God, so that you believe Christ
and you love Christ and you also love those that are born again
of God. This is of God. We're talking
about a love that's of God. So when our Lord is saying here,
love one another as I've loved you, there is not even the remote
possibility that any of his children are going to fail to do this.
You're going to do this because the Spirit of God is going to
keep this love in your heart and keep your love in one another.
It's just so. Those that are not born of God
will not do this and can't make themselves do this. But you that
are born of God, you will love one another. You will. You will. And He'll get the glory and we'll
give Him the glory. We'll give Him the glory. Now,
so how are some ways God the Father loves Christ and how does
Christ love His people? He said, as the Father loved
me, so I've loved you. Now He tells us to love one another
as He loves us. So I want to know, how does the
Father love Him? How does He love us? They're
one and the same. And I want to know that, don't
you? This is how we're going to love one another. All right. First of all, God the Father
loves and Christ loves His people with an everlasting love. Everlasting love. It's hard for
us to comprehend. It means without a beginning,
without an end. It means without any change.
It means without any variableness. It's a constant, unchanging,
unchangeable love that knows no beginning and no end. Now,
you and I are creatures of time and so that just blew us out
of the water trying to figure out how could God love without
a beginning and without an end. Well, He's eternal. He don't
dwell in time like we do. There's never been a moment,
now listen, there's never been a moment when God the Father
did not love His people. There's not a moment He didn't
love Christ, His Son, and there's not a moment His Son didn't love
the Father, and there's not a moment He didn't love His people in
His Son. Not a moment. It's always been,
and always will be. God doesn't love today and stop
loving tomorrow. Those God loves, He loves everlastingly. Everlastingly. Even before we
had a being, we didn't even have a being yet, and God loved His
people. How could that be? Listen to
this. Psalm 139, 16. Listen to this. Thine eyes, speaking
of God, thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect,
and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Just take the
first phrase and the last phrase. Thine eyes did see my substance,
when as yet There was none of them. God loved His people before we
ever were conceived in our mother's womb. God loved His people. Now, since the love of God is
everlasting, since it's everlasting, here's another characteristic
of God-given love. Charity never faileth. Charity never faileth. The love
of God that He puts in the hearts of His people and the love of
God that He has for Christ and Christ has for His people never
fails. Ever. Never. When we no longer
need faith, and you won't need faith in glory, you're going
to see Him as He is. And when we no longer need hope,
we're hoping right now, our hope enters into the veil where Christ
sits. But we're not going to need hope one day. We're going
to see him as he is. And when we don't need faith
and we don't need hope, we're still going to love. Charity's
never going to fail. It's never going to end. Love's
never going to cease. Now, so that means we're to love one
another without end. Without end. And here's the thing, if we're
His, we shall. If we're His, we shall. We'll
love one another without end. Now, here let me just put this
in something you and I can deal with right here amongst one another. Get this and don't ever forget
this. Nothing, absolutely nothing is
worth separating over. so that you can have the gospel.
Nothing. Nothing. I don't care if somebody
walks up and kicks you in your behind. It ain't worth separating
over so you can hear the gospel. Nothing. The only thing that
you would separate from somebody over would be a denial of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. But let me say something
about that. Even if a brother appears to
draw back Remember Israel and remember
Peter and remember these other apostles because they all denied
the Lord and went back to their fishing boats and looked like
they were gone. But the Lord restored them. He
came to where they were and He restored them. And so when that
appears to happen, that a brother is departing, love trusts that
brother to Christ and prays for him and with every opportunity
you have tries to speak the gospel of Christ to him and waits on
the Lord to work his will and restore him. Don't just jump
to the conclusion, well they went out from us, they're not
of us. They might just went out and went somewhere else so they
can hear the gospel preached. Wait on the Lord. Even if they
go out and don't go somewhere, wait on the Lord, trust them
to the Lord, and anytime you have opportunity to love them
and show them how much you love them and speak of Christ to them,
do it. Do it. We're sinners. You and me are
sinners. And believers sometimes fall
out with one another over fleshly things. You take Abraham and
Lot. They parted ways because the
herdsmen got to argument over the land and grazing the cattle.
You take Paul and Barnabas. They got into it and they parted
because one of them wanted to take John Mark. Barnabas wanted
to take his nephew John Mark. Paul didn't want to take him
with him on the second mission because Mark got tired on the
first one and went home to Mama. Paul didn't want to take him
on the second one. They parted ways. They parted ways. Even these apostles left the
Lord and went back to their fishing boats. But Christ shall restore
His people. He just will. He's not going
to lose His people. He's not going to lose you, child
of God. If you're His, He's going to keep you. And He's going to
restore the love in your heart that He put in your heart in
the beginning. He's going to keep it there for Him and for
one another. you trying to go away and Him
restoring you, He'll increase that love in your heart and make
you see He's keeping you and make you believe Him more than
you did and make you love your brethren more than you did and
love one another better. Turn over to Jeremiah 31. I want
you to see this. You're familiar with this scripture,
but I don't want to just read it. I want you to get the context
of this. The Lord had let Israel, they
rebelled and He turned them over to the enemy nations. And it
looked like they were gone. It looked like they were gone.
And the Lord is saying, He's going to pour out His wrath on
the wicked and He will. But this is what He said concerning
His love for Israel, Jeremiah 31. At the same time, and He's
talking about, I'm going to pour out my wrath on the enemy, Jeremiah
31 at the same time said, the Lord will I be the God of all
the families of Israel and they shall be my people. That's talking
about God's elect spiritual Israel made up of Jew and Gentile. They're
going to be His people. They're going to be His people.
No doubt about it. Thus saith the Lord, the people
which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness,
even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest." He's using Israel
as the example and he says, look, when it looked like they weren't
going to find any grace and I had cast him off, I showed them grace
and I caused them to rest. That's what he's going to do
to his people. Look at the next word. Why will he do this? 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. Again, I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel. Thou shalt again be
adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances
of them that make merry. Now you apply that to yourself,
child of God. And you apply that to any brother
or sister that might appear to go back. If a brother falls or
he appears to depart, those that love the Lord are
going to continue to hope in the Lord. We're going to continue
to pray for one another, we're going to continue to trust one
another to the Lord, and we're going to speak the gospel, this
sure promise of Christ to one another, because our God shall
restore all that are His. He's not going to fail to save
His people. He has loved His people everlastingly, and He
shall save His people from our sins. His name is Jesus. for
He shall save His people from their sin." Christ don't fail.
He's God. He don't fail. He's going to
save His people. And He's loved His people everlastingly
and He won't let that love fail. And so don't forget that. Don't
forget that. Charity never faileth because
as surely as the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the
Father, so He loves them that are His and shall keep us abiding
in His love. Don't forget it. So that's the
first thing, that's how Christ has loved us everlastingly. Here's
a simple application, don't stop loving one another. Don't stop
loving one another. All right, secondly, the Lord
loves his people simply because he does. The cause is in himself. God says to his spiritual Israel,
Remember this from Deuteronomy 7-7, and you know this is talking
about God's elect people. He 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. Now let me give you the alternative
to that. Anybody that's sitting there and says, well, I want
there to be a cause in me why God loved me. No, you don't.
No, you don't. Because if there had to be a
cause in you for God to love you, he'd have never loved you.
Me either. And if there's a cause in you
that makes God keep loving you, there could always be a possibility
that he'd stop loving you. But when the cause is all in
him, And He loves you because He loved you. You don't have
to ever worry about Him stopping loving you. If it starts with
grace, it's going to end with grace. That's good news. That's good news. That's why
God chose His people in Christ. Not because of anything in us.
The cause was in the Lord because the Lord loved you. That's it. God the Father chose His people
for this purpose. He chose us in Christ for this
purpose, to glorify His Son who He loved. Go to Romans 8. I know
you're familiar with this, but I want to show it to you. Romans
8. You know the Scripture that says
this. Romans 8 verse 28, We know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. Well, keep on reading and you
will see the purpose. For whom He did foreknow, whom
He did forelove, who He loved beforehand, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son. that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. That's why God loved His people
and trusted us to Christ, for the sake of His Son. He's going
to glorify His Son. His Son's going to be the firstborn
among many brethren. And He trusted His Son to do
all this work. This is His purpose. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. And what shall we then say to
these things? God be for us, who can be against
us. That is the truth, brethren.
If God is for you, nobody can be against you. Now look down
at the end there, verse 39. Because this is so, nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. You see that? Nothing. He lists a lot of things there.
None of them is going to separate us from the love of God in Christ.
So the cause of our love for one another, now listen to me,
what's the cause of our love for one another? Now don't think
about somebody else's love to you and all the wonderful reasons
why they ought to love you. No, stop for a minute. You take
the weakest brother, the most offensive brother, you think
of that brother just for a minute. What's your cause for loving
him? Christ, that's your cause. Christ. Because God loves him, and because
Christ loved him, that ought to be cause enough to love him.
Cause enough to love him. For the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Even as the Father loved us for
Christ's sake, so love one another for Christ's sake. There may
be times, and there will be, when you can't find one cause
in your brother to love him. There will be. And let me tell
you something, there are going to be a lot of times when your
brethren can't find one cause in you to love you either. Just
so. It's just the nature of being
a believing sinner. What if God looked for a cause
in you and me? What if God looked for a cause
in us? We find all our cause in God
our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. If He loves my brethren
and Christ loves my brethren, that's all the cause I need to
love my brethren. So let's love one another for
His sake. Look at Ephesians 4 and listen to this. Ephesians 4 verse
31. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. You know what evil speaking is? Now look, I'm not one to talk
and spread rumors, so I'm just going to say this one time. And then we talk about our brother,
sister. That's evil speaking. It's evil
speaking. And it's malice. It's malice. Put that away, and be ye kind
one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children. and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor." You see where
it says there, forgive one another? It says forgiving one another. That means ongoing, forgiving,
keep forgiving. Even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you. You know why it says forgiving
one another? Because all those things Paul
tells us not to do in Ephesians here, where it says, don't let
it once be named among you. You're going to fail at that.
And I'm going to fail at that. And we're going to have to forgive
each other. How can we do that? Because God, for Christ's sake,
hath already completely, totally freely, forever, forgiving his
people of every transgression. That's how. For his sake. That's the third thing Christ
says in our text. First of all, don't stop loving
one another. Secondly, do it for Christ's
sake. That's all the cause we need. Thirdly, Christ says in John
15, 12, This is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. Now He's going to tell us how
to do that. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Christ
loved those, you, that the Father chose and gave to Him. He loved
us by laying down His life for us. That's the ultimate. You can't get greater than that.
He gave His life. He poured out His blood unto
death under the wrath of God in the room instead of His people.
His life for our life. He said, pour out your wrath
on me, pour out justice on me, satisfy the sword of eternal
justice in me so my people can go free. That's love, isn't it? That's love. But my brother's
not loving me. If I've heard it once, I've heard
it a thousand times. But my brother's just not loving
me as he ought. Find me one place in this book
that says there's a certain way your brother ought to love you.
You ain't gonna find it. This book don't tell you that.
This book tells you how to love your brother. Remember, Christ is not telling
me how my brother is to love me. He's telling me how to love
my brother as Christ loved me. How's that? Here it is. Now listen,
you think about this, think about yourself being a child of God.
This is how Christ loved you. If you know him and believe him
and born of him, this is how he loved you right here. Here
in his love, not that we love God, That ends this notion of my brother's
not loving me. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son, the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
that word so means after this manner. If God after this manner
loved us, when we didn't love Him, He sent His only begotten
Son for some people that did not love Him, and Christ laid
down His life for people that did not love Him? If He loved
us after this manner, He says, brethren, we ought also after
this manner love one another. But my brother has sinned. My
brother has sinned. All right, go to Romans 5. How
has Christ loved us? He said, love one another as
I've loved you. How did He love you when you
had sinned? Romans 5, 6. When we were yet without strength
and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die, yet perventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Christ said, Love one another
as I have loved you. How did He love you, child of
God, when you were an enemy, when you were ungodly? when you're
a sinner. How does He keep loving you?
You're going to be saved by His life because He's reconciled
you. He's justified you and you'll be saved by Him. So He says now
to us, love one another as I've loved you. But my brother has
walked disorderly. And you know Scripture says,
don't have any company with him that he might be ashamed. That's
what scripture does say. If a brother's walking disorderly,
don't have any company with him so that he'll be ashamed for
the way he's walking. And there may be a time when
that's needful. But you know, I know there's going to be some
that's going to take that scripture and they'll run to those kinds
of scriptures when a brother falls or whatever, and they'll
justify themselves. And the Lord said, and they'll
think they're doing God's service. But you know that same passage
right after that also says in 2 Thessalonians 3.15 it also
says, Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a
brother. That's how Christ loves you.
That's how He loves me. walk disorderly, he rebukes us
in our heart and chastens us and sometimes chastens us very
strongly and it's painful and it's meant to be. But if that's going on with your
brother and he's been brought to be ashamed and he's mourning
his sin and he's ashamed by the grace of God, speak the gospel to him, remind
him of these great things Christ has done for us, and restore
him. You know what that is? That's
loving him as Christ has loved you. Isn't that what Christ keeps
doing to you? Don't he keep restoring you?
Don't He keep making you to know that He's loved you with an everlasting
love? Don't He keep making you know
that He's paid all the debts you owe and He's loaded you down
with His unsearchable riches and He's blotted out all the
handwriting of ordinances against you and He's taken it out of
the way and nailed it to His cross? And now when you open
God's book, God says, I don't find any sin, past, present,
or future. They've all been blotted out
by the blood of Christ. And He takes that message and
He applies it into your heart and the Spirit of God makes the
love of Christ just overflow in your heart. And you know,
bless God, I'm His. Despite me, I'm His. He loves
me. He says, if you love me, love
your brethren that way. Remind them of the same thing. What did he do for you when you
were cast out and no eye pitied you? You know, that's what's
going on. People that take a scripture
like that and they encourage their brethren, just leave your
brother alone. And so he's cast out, no eye
pities him. How did the Lord love you when
you were cast out and polluted and no eye pitied you? The Lord
said, I passed by you and I saw you polluted in your blood. And
I said to you, live. Yea, I said unto you, live. And when I passed by you and
looked upon you, behold, thy time was the time of love. And you know what he did? I spread
my skirt over you and I covered your nakedness. I didn't expose
it. I didn't hold it up to make a
public example of you. I didn't make you climb up in
front of everybody and confess everything that you'd ever done.
I put my skirt over you and I covered your nakedness and you became mine. I entered
covenant with you and you became mine and I truly washed you with
water. That's what he's saying. Love
one another as I've loved you. And I'll tell you this, If you've
ever been loved by Christ like that, and you've been the one
cast out and that none eye pitted, and you have Christ do that for
you, you'll love that way. And a man that's never experienced
it can't make himself do it. Can't make himself do it. The
Pharisee says, stand over there, don't come near me, I'm holier
than you are. And God said, that man stinks
in my nose like a trash dump. God's in the business of saving
sinners. Have you sinned since Christ
drew you to Him? And how did He draw you at first?
And how has He continued to draw you? We just read it. He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
I've drawn you. Not once and done, I have drawn
you. I keep drawing you. I keep drawing
you to myself in love. Those you love, brethren, don't
you just keep drawing them to yourself? Them little babies
right there, you just keep drawing them to yourself, don't you?
And when they do something, you tell them that too. Do they stop
being your children? You just keep drawing them to
you. That's what you do when you love somebody. How is it that we're more than
conquerors, though we're weak and defenseless sheep, counted
for the slaughter through Him that loved us? That's the love of Christ. And
this love constrains us. Now listen, this love constrains
us. When we're offended by brethren,
let's make you lay down your will, lay down your rights, and
continue loving your brother. The love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge. This is our discernment He's
given us. If He died for all His people, then all His people
are dead. That means He put away your old
dead body of sin when He died on the cross. He's dead. He's
dead. And so those that live now should
not henceforth live to themselves but unto him that died for them
and rose again. And so because this is the case,
now listen to this, henceforth we don't know any man after the
flesh. Let me tell you what that means.
When your brother sins and he's being unloving, if you don't
know him after the flesh anymore, this is your heart. That's not
my brother. That's that old man of sin that's
in him. That's not my brother. And that old man died way back
there on the cross with Christ. My brother is in there somewhere. He's the new man born of his
spirit. I need to speak this bread of life that's going to
strengthen that new man and put down that old man and restore
him. If you saw somebody starving
to death on the side of the road and they're just about to die,
wouldn't you give them some bread to help them? When you see your
brother sin and you see his old man of flesh, he's starving. The best thing you can do for
him is give him Christ the bread. Give him the gospel. Give him
the gospel. That's what's going to strengthen
his inner man. That's what the Spirit's going to bless to put
down that old man of flesh and renew him inwardly. And Paul
said, even though we knew Christ after the flesh, we don't know
Him that way anymore either. Think about it. We circumcise,
we worship God in the Spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
we don't have any confidence in the flesh. Men will say, well,
if I could have just seen Christ in the flesh, I'd believed on
Him. No, you wouldn't have. A lot of people saw Him in the
flesh and didn't believe on Him. Nobody ever believed on Him because
they saw Him in the flesh. We believe on Him because we're
born of the Spirit of God, and we believe and worship Him in
spirit. We come here in these bodies,
but if you come in here in this body, that don't mean you worshiped
Him. Only God makes you worship, and He makes you worship in the
heart, in spirit. And we rejoice in Christ only,
and we don't have any confidence in His flesh. I don't thank any
more of you because you came here tonight. I'm glad you're
here, and I encourage you, don't miss coming to hear this gospel
preached, but just because you came in here doesn't mean anything.
You've got to be worshiping the Lord, and that's only by the
Spirit. He's the only one that can do that. So if any man's
in Christ, he's a new creature. That's what Paul said. All these
old things are passed away. All things have become new. That
old legal way of dealing with people, that's gone. That old
legal way of judging after the flesh and, oh, he can't be a
child of God because he did that, that's passed away. And that
old way of using the law to whip and force and try to make somebody
do what you want them to do, that's gone when the Spirit of
God bursts you again and you find out the power of God and
His gospel. Now you use the one weapon we
got. That's the gospel of Christ's
name crucified. And you know this, all these
things are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and he's given us this ministry of what? Reconciliation. So, let me end by putting it
all together. Our Lord's pleased to save through
the preaching of the gospel of Christ in whom He was crucified.
Not just one time, not just in the beginning, from the beginning
to the end, this is how He's going to save, through this Word.
through this word. This gospel is the words of eternal
life. It's not just your pastor who
has the ability to preach this gospel. You do too. He's preaching
this to you so that this is what we speak to one another to feed
one another and restore one another and encourage one another. It's
Christ. We talk about what God has done
for us in Christ. This is the strength. This is
the bread. This is what He's going to bless. Now, He fitly
framed you all together right here. Christ did this. He did
this. And He fitly framed you together
as believing sinners. Now get that. That's a good term.
Believing sinners. Because that's what you are.
We've got an old man and a new man. You're believing sinners.
You are sinners who are being saved by the grace of God. That's
what you are. And as long as we're in this
body, we ain't getting past that. We're sinners being saved by
the grace of God. Now, you've been thinking of
yourself as the one doing the loving. That's what I wanted
you to do. I want you to think about how He's telling you to
love your brethren. You've been thinking of it that
way. Now, let's say you're the one who has sinned or said or
done something that's hurtful to your brethren. Just say you've been murmuring
against God with all our pretty complaints that we have about
why our day's gone bad and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And all
that is is murmuring against God. That's just saying, I don't
like the providence God's put in my lap. That's all that is.
It's no different than cussing God, really. It isn't. Murmuring. And you're the one who needs
to be reconciled to Christ and reconciled to your brethren.
You need to have all that put away out of your heart and you
need to be turned back to Christ so you can see what really matters.
Since all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself
by Christ Jesus, since all things are of God who has reconciled
us to himself by Christ Jesus, When you're in that place, He
will always provide you brethren right here who He has freshly
made to experience this grace and love of God so that they
can speak this message in your heart. He'll do that. You're going to find that's going
to be the case. And He'll bless that to settle you in faith and
settle you in love for Christ. That's what He'll do. And He's
going to keep Those brethren mindful that God's reconciled
them to himself by Christ and given us this ministry of reconciliation. Now listen, our goal here is
not to try to un-reconcile somebody and separate each other. Our
message is the gospel of reconciliation. That means God's made us one
in Christ. How'd he do that? Not imputing
our trespasses to us. He didn't charge us with them.
We gonna charge them to one another? He didn't charge us with them.
What did he do? He made him who knew no sin,
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God. Christ
laid down his life for us. So what are we going to do for
one another? We're going to lay down our life for one another.
How? Not by using our old means and
methods, but by using his gospel and speaking peace to one another. will keep us knowing each other
after the Spirit rather than after the flesh. He's going to
keep your brethren knowing, that's not my brother. That's that old
man. My brother's in there somewhere.
He needs to hear the gospel. That's how he's going to be strengthened.
And so they'll speak the gospel to you. And here's what's going
to happen. When he makes you experience
this and he works this in your heart through the trial, And
you see how you've sinned, and how you've fallen, and how your
brother loved you, and they spoke Christ to you, and they didn't
treat you any differently, though by all accounts, everybody in
false religion would have cast you out on your ear. And yet,
they were gracious to you and loved you. And when the Lord
blesses that message to your heart, I'll tell you what it'll
do with that. That's how He grows you in faith and love. Exactly. Because you see, I didn't deserve
anything they just did for me. And Christ did that for me. He
used this brother to do that for me. And so, in a little while,
that brother that Christ used to do that for you, he'll be
the one that's fallen and offended you. and you'll be the one that the
Lord has given grace to at that time and strengthened in faith
and love. And He'll use you to go speak this message to that
brother and treat them like they treated you. And He just keeps
working this and working this and working this. And thus, speaking
the truth in love, we grow up into Him in all things which
is the head, even Christ, from whom this whole body's been fitly
joined together and compacted by that which that joint supplies,
and that joint supplies, and that joint supplies, and that
joint supplies, and that joint supplies. How do you as a joint
supply anything to each other? According to Christ effectually
working in each joint, in each of you, so that it makes an increase
of this body edifying itself in love. That's how God works
in love. And when Christ is saying to
you, now you love one another as I've loved you, if you're his, you're gonna do
just what I just said, because he's gonna make you do it. And
that's how he's gonna grow you. So next time you have opportunity,
you see somebody that's fallen, one of your brethren, or complaining,
or acting ugly, or whatever, remember, if they're offending
you, Christ hadn't taught you how they ought to be loving you,
what you ought to be doing to them. Don't stop loving them. He loves you everlastingly. Love them by pointing them to
Christ. And you do this laying down your
life. Well, I'm a bit offended. So
what? You offended God today. Love them. Teach him. Speak this gospel to him. He
gonna keep growing you that way. He will. Amen.