Now, we talked about Judas has
now left the group. Our Lord dismisses him. And as
quickly as he leaves, the master then immediately, he sets before
these men two primary truths that they needed to hear. He reserved these until the enemy
was gone. This one who had a devil, he
is not with them anymore. They won't see him until in the
garden he leads a band of soldiers, enemies of Christ, he leads them
to the Savior and then betrays the Master with a kiss on the
cheek. These men have watched him leave,
not knowing really the reason for his departure, though John
does, because the Savior told John that the one that he dipped
the sop with that was the one who would betray him. But after
Judas is gone, the Savior now reveals these two truths to his
disciples. Here's the first one, and I've
already mentioned this. We talked about this a little
bit last week, but I don't feel like we ought to go into the
rest of this passage of Scripture until we We once again repeat
this. He speaks to them about his glorification
and the glorification of the Father. He speaks of his death.
This is verses 31 through 33. He talks about going. He says, therefore, when he was
gone out, when Judas was gone out, chapter 13, verse 31, Jesus
said, now is the Son of Man glorified. and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify
him. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. Ye shall seek me. And as I said
unto the Jews, whether I go You cannot come, so now I say to
you." Our Lord is speaking here of his death, but he doesn't
speak of it as a martyrdom, and he doesn't speak of it as being
a disgraceful event. The religious leaders of the
day, as they thought about the death of Jesus of Nazareth, putting
him to death as the deal with Judas is kind of signed, sealed,
and delivered. As they thought about his death,
they thought it to be a wonderful thing. We're going to get rid
of this one who is a blasphemer. As Pontius Pilate, as he thought
about the death of Jesus of Nazareth, He said, I'm putting to death
an innocent man. The followers of the Lord Jesus,
they saw His death to be an event of the greatest sorrow. But our
Lord sees things differently than we do. He sees things differently than
the world sees. John in this passage gives us
the divine viewpoint of our Lord's death. And as the Master thinks
about what's going to happen, and He knows, He knows exactly
what's going to happen because He ordained these things. He
knows that in just a few hours He's going to be arrested. He
knows all the things that will befall Him But as he thinks of
these things, as he thinks of the fact that he's going to be
the sacrifice unto God for all the sins of his people, as he
thinks about the fact that he's going to be that one time offering
for sin that will once and forever put away all of the guilt of
his people, as he thought about his death, that would save us
and bring in everlasting righteousness. As He contemplated these things,
He viewed it as that time when He would be glorified. And the
Father would be glorified. He doesn't view this in a negative
way as His disciples did. His disciples, they didn't want
Him to go to Jerusalem anyway. And when our Lord, earlier in
His ministry, He spoke of going to Jerusalem, it was Simon Peter
who pulled Him aside and said, this can't happen. Not so, Lord. We're not going to let you go.
We don't want them, we don't want the enemy to kill you. And
our Lord said, get thee behind Me, Satan, you don't appreciate
the things of God. And as these men, we're going
to certainly go into this a little bit next week, when He says to
them, let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also
in Me. One of the things that their
hearts were broken over was the fact that He said, I'm going
away. I'm going away. And to them that was a sad thing.
It was a thing that broke their hearts. This was the one they
had walked with, talked with, listened to, observed all the
miracles that He did for almost three years. And now He's talking
about leaving them. And that which to them was a
great sorrow, and that which was to the world a time of joy,
was for him the time when God would be glorified and God would
glorify him. Now, how was this his time of
being glorified? Well, he was going to perform
the greatest work that's ever been performed. The work of redemption. And we've said before, all of
eternity past pointed to this hour when He would die. And from
that point on, all of the saints of God have rejoiced in that
which happened upon the tree when the Lord Jesus died in the
stead of His people. All of the Old Testament saints
look forward to this. And all of us New Testament saints,
we look back upon this and we say, thank God He died for us. Thank God we had a sin offering. Thank God there was a sacrifice
that fully finally put away our sins. Because all the blood of
bulls and goats could never wash any sins away, but the blood
of this man, the Lord Jesus, it did remove our sins. And in
doing this, He glorified God, and God in return glorified Him. You see this work of our Savior
upon the cross of Calvary, certainly this is the basis of our salvation,
but it's also the brightest manifestation of the glory of God. Because
in the death of the Lord Jesus, all of the attributes of God
are magnified. And here's a man, A man, he's
the God-man, but he's really man. And he's going to glorify
God like no man ever glorified Him before. Do you ever read
any of the old catechisms? There are several good catechisms. In fact, I wrote a catechism
for the kids in our church. several years ago, and almost
every catechism that's any good. Now, obviously I'm not talking
about the Roman Catholic catechism and stuff like that. I'm talking
about catechisms, books of instruction, questions and answers that are
based upon the scriptures. But in all of them that are any
good, here's the very first one. What is the chief end of man? Well, what's the answer to that?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's the first end
of man. It's the chief end of man. And
never was God glorified like He was glorified at the cross. Because our Lord Jesus honored
every attribute of God. Power, holiness, justice, love,
grace, and go through all of the attributes. Our Lord Jesus
honored them all in His death, and thereby He glorified the
Father. And when He glorified the Father,
the Father then glorified Him. and His glorification? Well,
it consisted of His resurrection. His resurrection. Here's a man
who died in the stead of God's children. Those that God gave
Him before the covenant of grace. And God said, I'm well pleased
with this one And I'm pleased with his death, which satisfied
my justice and my law, therefore I glorify him by raising him
from the dead. Forty days later, he glorified
him by taking him home, welcoming him home to heaven. God glorified him in giving to
this man, Christ Jesus, universal dominion. Our Lord Jesus said,
all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Therefore,
he told his disciples, go ye and preach the gospel. And there is one who is executing
the purpose of God tonight. It's the Lord Jesus. This is
part of His exaltation. It's part of His glory. The Father
has glorified Him. And then His glory consists in
universal judgment and universal adoration. The day is going to
come when all of the angels and all of mankind, the righteous
and the wicked, the righteous willingly, the wicked being forced
to bow to Him and honor Him, and all the demons of hell, everyone
will bend the knee to King Jesus. The Father said, you glorified
Me, I glorify you. But what's interesting is the
Savior didn't go into this until Judas was gone. Because Judas
can't comprehend this. This is not for Judas. This is
for men who believe Him, men who love Him, men who trust Him.
And here they are and they need to be taught. They need to be
instructed and they're like students. They're students before the Master. And He's teaching them that in
His death, the Father is going to be glorified and the Father
will glorify Him. That's the first subject He dealt
with. Here's the second subject. the love that his people are
to have for each other. Have you ever heard the name
of, he's an old Scottish preacher, Samuel Rutherford. You ever heard
of him? Samuel Rutherford. Well, he lived,
he was born in 1600. He lived 61 years. He was a preacher, Presbyterian
preacher, in fact. He was a lover of Christ. I have one of his volumes. It's
a volume of his letters. They're so sweet. In fact, one
writer said of the letters of Rutherford, that next to the
scriptures, He enjoyed reading the letters of Rutherford because
they're full of his love for Christ and how he pointed people
to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we sang, didn't we sing
Sunday the Sands of Time are Sinking? Okay, that song, he
didn't write the song, but that song was actually taken several
of the lines in the stanzas were taken from his letters. Which
by the way, Joe, you'll find this in the rest of the world.
There are 19 stanzas to that song. And it's good, we only
have four in the song book. But if you look under, under
the sands of time are sinking, in number 509, you'll find this
name, Rutherford. Rutherford. That's because the
person who wrote that song read his letters and then took extracts
from a bunch of these letters and put them in the song. As
I say, it was 19 verses. He was a man of short stature,
but he said he stood very, very tall for the truth. and he would
not bow to any man. He ministered in a time when
preachers were martyred for the cause of Christ. In fact, though
they didn't know about it, Parliament met and voted to have him killed. But little did they know he was
on his deathbed. and he died of sickness before
they could arrest him and burn him at the stake. But he was,
and I don't want to get too involved in the man's life, but he was
a man given to hospitality. And people knew they could stop
by the house of Samuel Rutherford and his second wife. His first
wife died when she was very young. They'd been married just a short
time, and then after a reasonable time, he was remarried and had
several children. And he was known for being a
man given to hospitality, and he would welcome anybody into
their home. And so there was a preacher who,
he wanted to meet Rutherford. And he wanted to find out if
what he had heard about him being full of kindness and hospitality,
if that was the truth. And so he dressed up in some
old clothes and he went on Saturday night, knocked on the door and
Mr. Rutherford, Pastor Rutherford
went to the door and said, may I help you? And the man said,
I'm hungry. and I need a warm bed. Can you
help me?" And he said, yes, come in. He said, in fact, we were
just getting ready to sit down for a bowl of oatmeal. And he
said, you're welcome to share some oatmeal with us. So he went
in, he had several kids, and there was his wife, Rutherford's
wife was there, and so they sat down, had some oatmeal, and then
he told this man who was visiting with him, and he didn't know
the man was a preacher. He told him, he said, Always after we
eat, I teach the children of some scripture. He said, and
tonight we're studying the commandments of God. And so he asked the children,
he said, how many commandments are there of God? And they all
said ten. And he looked at the man who
was visiting and he said, Is that right?" And the man said,
no, there are eleven. And Mrs. Rutherford said to him,
what a sad thing that a man your age, with your hair getting gray,
that you don't know that there are ten commandments. All of
the children at this table, they've learned there are only ten. And the man just kind of hung
his head, and he took the rebuke graciously. And then Pastor Rutherford
began to teach about the Ten Commandments. Well, the next
morning, they went to bed the next morning. Rutherford always
got up early for his devotions, and he would take a walk in the
garden. And this visiting preacher, he heard the stirring in the
house, And he looked through and he saw that Rutherford was
taking a walk. And so he went out and joined
him. And then he told him, he said, I'm also a minister of
the gospel. And he said, I just wanted to
come and visit with you and I didn't want to introduce myself, but
I was also a preacher. I wanted to spend time with you
and just see, and what I've heard is true, you're very hospitable
people. You're very kind. You took me
in and you gave me something to eat and you gave me a warm
bed. And Rutherford, being a kind man, he said, and having learned
that the man believed the gospel, he said, well, would you preach
for us this morning? And he said, I'd be honored.
He said, but I don't have a nice coat. And Rutherford said, I'll
give you my coat, which was a little short for the man, because the
man was a little taller than Rutherford. But anyway, he got
up to preach. And he said, turn to John chapter
13. And he said, my text is verses
34 and 35. And here's my message, the 11th
commandment. And this is where he gets it
from, verse 34. A new commandment, a new commandment
I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved
you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Our subject tonight is the 11th
commandment. And I'll just get, it breaks
down real simply, this scripture does, into a three-point outline.
A new commandment, that's the first thing. The example by which
the Lord issued this new commandment, as I have loved you. And here's
the result of the commandment. By this shall all know that you're
my disciples if you have love one to another. So let's go first,
a new commandment. Where you say, loving one another,
that is included in the Ten Commandments. Just hold your place here and
look at Luke chapter 10. Let's see. Luke chapter 10. Let's see if this is the same.
Luke chapter 10, and I don't have time to read the entire
context, forgive me for not being able to get into this, but I'll
read just about three or four verses here. Verse 25, Luke 10. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and he tempted Christ, putting Him to the test, trying
to trip Him up, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord Jesus said unto
him, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, and what
he does, he gives a kind of a summary of the moral law of God. And he answering said, thou shall
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor,
that is, love thy neighbor as thyself." The Lord Jesus said
unto him, thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt
live. And just briefly, because we're
going to be getting into this in Sun School lesson, In Matthew, but just briefly,
I'll say this. The man drew near to the Lord
Jesus on a legal basis. Our Lord made him on the grounds
that he came. If you want to do something,
you want to do something, here's what you've got to do. Keep the
law. But if you want to earn, if you
want to merit God's favor, here's what's involved. If you want
to be saved by something you do, be perfect. Thing of it is, you can't just
start now. It had to start from the beginning. So this is an
impossibility. But here's the part that I want
you to see as this man summarizes the law. The law says, love God
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor
as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Now go back to John chapter 13. Our Lord says a new commandment
I give to you. Now watch it. That she love one
another. But He doesn't say love one another
as you love yourself. That's what the law says, and
that's our duty to all men. Love all men as we love ourselves. But here's the new commandment,
that you love one another not as you love yourself, but as
I have loved you. Oh, this takes it to a way another
level. Oh, this is a much deeper love. This is a much greater love.
You see, I am bound, being a man of the human race, I am bound
to love everyone as I love myself. But all of the race of mankind
are not the family of God. Within all of the population
of the world, there's another group, there's another race,
a redeemed race. A people regenerated by God. A people who are the Lord's family.
And those I must love, not as I love myself, but I must love
them as the Lord Jesus loves them. This is a nobler kind of
love. This is a deeper love. You see,
we have a responsibility to all men by nature. We have the tie
of nature. But there is that what I would
call the tie of grace. Which our Lord Jesus says, this
is the new commandment. Don't love your brethren as you
love yourself. That's the way to love the world.
And indeed we should love all men that way. But the way we're
to love each other, and we're brothers and sisters in the Lord
Jesus, everybody who loves the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace, we're family. And we're to love one another
with a love that's much deeper, and much more abiding, and much
more fervent, than the love that we have for the world in general. You see, if you are of God, you
must love those who are also of God. There's no room for hatred. There's no room for resentment. Not in the family of God. Now,
admittedly, some people aren't as lovable. Some people aren't
as easy to love as others are. But that doesn't make any difference.
We're to love the brethren. Hear these eleven disciples. And the Lord Jesus says, this
is the new commandment I give you. That you love one another
as I have loved you. Now remember, these men remembering
some of the things we've been studying from Matthew, and this
is also brought out in Mark and Luke as well. Remember, these
men were vying for the top spot in the kingdom. Who's going to
be the greatest, they said? Who's going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of God? Matthew chapter 18 verse 1. That's
how that chapter began. And these men were arguing over
that, and our Lord Jesus says, listen, I'm giving you a new
commandment. You love one another as I have
loved you. That is a tall order, folks. You see, we're to love one another
because we're a band of brothers and sisters. You know, the Lord
Jesus said, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves. Listen sheep, the wolves, they
hate us. The wolves despise the gospel. We must therefore kind of close
the ranks. Let's embrace one another. Let's
be careful how we treat each other. And isn't it a shame? Sometimes you can't tell whether
a person is really a sheep or a wolf because they try to gnaw
on another sheep. We ought not do that. We ought
not do that. We're sheep if we love the Savior. We've been born of the Spirit
of God. We should love as the Lord Jesus
loved us. Listen, in Christ Jesus there's
neither Greek nor Jew. Circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in
all. And He's all to each of us. We
love Him. Because He first loved us and
He put us in His family and He says, now listen, love one another
like I have loved you. You see, we're like a small group
of soldiers. in the country of a massive enemy. Let's stick together. I think one of the things, and
I'll be honest with you, I always try to be honest with you, one
of the things that bothers me is the divisions among sovereign
grace people. It hurts me. It hurts my heart. It used to be the world was the
enemy. Do you remember those days? Do
you remember the days when those who preach free willism, those
who preach baptismal regeneration, those who preach salvation by
works, do you remember the days when they were the enemy? Now
the lines aren't quite so clear, it would seem. And it troubles
me. It troubles me that I don't see
more love in my own heart for the brethren. Whether they like
me or don't like me, that has no bearing on this passage of
scripture. It has a bearing for them, but
it doesn't have any bearing for me, because I know what I'm supposed
to do, and you do too. A new commandment I give you,
that you love one another as I have loved you. And I ask God
today, and I've been looking at this passage of scripture
two or three days, I ask God to forgive me for having
a bad attitude towards some of his preachers, towards some of
his people. And I ask God to help me just
to focus on preaching the gospel and leave it to God to settle
all these other issues. I tell you, I'm for peace. I'm
for peace. And you say, well, I'm not going
to agree with Brother so-and-so because he doesn't dot every
i and cross every t the way I believe. Well, you're going to have to
deal with this passage of Scripture. I'll tell you that. And the passage
that our brother read to us. Because if we don't love one
another, There's something wrong. If a man says he loves God, and
he doesn't love his brother, Scripture says he's a liar. It might be quiet, isn't it?
I tell you, this hits home for all of us. And I want to have
a right attitude. And I'll tell you, to me, this
is what's happened. You say, well yeah, but so and
so said this, and they did that, and this happened. And I know
all that kind of stuff happens. But that doesn't do away with
this passage. Of us loving one another. See, here's what the
Scripture says. Love covers a multitude of transgressions. And you know what we tend to
do? Air them out. We tend to hang them up on the
clothesline for everybody to see. And here's what happens. It brings reproach to the name
of Christ Jesus. And I never want to do anything
that would bring reproach upon my Savior or upon His people.
So I ask God today, Lord, let me keep my big mouth shut when
it comes to, well, did you hear what so-and-so said? Did you
read what so-and-so wrote? Let me just keep my mouth shut. If they're preaching the gospel, that's between them and God.
And whatever it is that they say, it's between them and God.
We can get so wrapped up in trying to correct everybody and I'm
fussing with this one and fussing with that one, when we're not
even called to do those things. You know what we're called to
do? Preach the gospel. And I just feel like, and once
again being brutally honest with you, I feel like the devil just
kind of warms his hand and says, thank you for doing my work.
You're dividing among yourselves. Watch this. This new commandment is given
to them because this is a preview of the way it's going to be in
glory. You know what? In heaven we'll
truly love each other as Christ loved us. I want a tender heart. I pray
today, Lord, do whatever it is, whatever is necessary, to break
my cold heart and bring me low before you to love those who
may have had some bad things to say about me. I had a preacher friend of mine
who told me, he said he sat down with another preacher, he said,
he said, I never thought I'd sit down with him, but he said,
I sat down with him and we talked and we had lunch together. And
he said, we still have some differences. But he said, here's what we concluded.
We have more in common of what we believe than we have differences. And he said, brother, I'll pray
for you. And he said, would you pray for
me? Don't you want that attitude?
That's the kind of attitude I want. I'm not talking about compromising
the gospel. Surely you know me better than
that. I'm not talking about compromising the gospel. Well, we'll just
cave in for the sake of peace and unity. No, we're not talking
about that. We're talking about when people
love Christ, and they believe salvation is by grace alone,
revealed in the Scriptures alone, salvation by Christ crucified
alone, and salvation received by faith alone. That's my brother. That's my sister. We may not
see eye to eye on some other things, and maybe we just have
to agree to disagree on some things. I talked to a man one
time, And I love him. He's with the Lord now, but he's
Presbyterian. In fact, when I was driving for
the United Parcels Service, I worked in Lexington, North Carolina.
And Brother Swyce could. And we got to know each other.
And sometimes I'd take a little bit of my lunch there. He believed in sprinkling. I
said, Brother, how can you believe in sprinkling? And we talked
about it. I said, don't you believe salvation
is of grace? And we went right down the line
and said, yes, yes, yes, yes. I said, well, how can you sprinkle?
He said, well, I know it doesn't save them. But he said, in some
way, our church believes it helps. And we just finally had to come
to this agreement. That was a subject we couldn't
talk about anymore. But he said, I'll tell you this,
Brother Jim. I believe in God's sovereign grace, and I believe
that sinners are saved because Christ died for them. He said,
we believe the same gospel. And I said, well, that's good
enough for me. And when my dad died, Nancy called furniture
makers in Lexington, North Carolina. And Vern Swicegood, who's with
the Lord now, was the one who, when I went in to make a delivery,
he said, Brother Jim, come here a minute. He said, just got a
call from your wife, your dad's gone home to be with the Lord.
And he cried and I cried and we hugged and I said, I'm glad
you's the one to tell me. Love one another. Here's the
example Christ sets before us in this new commandment. Love
one another as I have loved you. I thought, Lord, that's an impossibility. I can't do that. But that is
the standard. He sets the bar very high. How
does Christ love us? Unselfishly. How does He love
us? Patiently. Need to learn to be
patient with people. How does He love us? Sacrificially. How does He love us? Forgivingly. He's forgiven all of our sins
and will never bring one of them up against us. And you know what we do? I know
how you are because I'm the same way. I remember what so-and-so
did. I can't forget it. Can't get
over it. I'm thankful God's gotten over what I did to Him. And He's
forgiven me of all my sins. But here's the last thing. the
result of this commandment. Look at verse 34, or verse 35,
by this, by what? By you loving one another as
I loved you. By this, all, men is in italics. By this, everybody
will know that you're my disciples if you have love, one for another.
I'll give you three things and I'll quit. This is one of the ways we know
we're the children of God. That's how we know we're the
children of God. Listen to the Scriptures. 1 John
3.14. We know that we have passed from
death into life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. 1 John 4, 20 and 21. If a man say, I love God and
hates his brother, he's a liar. He that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
1 John 5. And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. That's one of the ways we know
we're redeemed. We love one another. The world
is filled with hate. The world is filled with envy
and jealousy. But the fruit of the Spirit,
when you read about the fruit of the Spirit, do you know what
the very first one is? Love. Love. That's what God gives to us. Secondly, by this, fellow believers
will know that you're the Lord's disciple. Let me always show
the grace of charity. When it comes to the people of
God, people who are loved by Christ, may God enable us to
genuinely care about them and love them. I'm looking for areas where we
can agree. And the area is the gospel. And if
you love this gospel of God's sovereign grace, I want to love
you like the Savior loved me. And I don't want to... The worst
thing we do is talk. And that's easy to do, isn't
it? We get to chewing on somebody. Kind of like a wolf chewing on
a lamb. Let's just chew on them a while. God help us. God forgive us.
It's a good thing salvation is by grace, isn't it? It's a good thing it's for sinners.
That's what we are. But here's the last thing. So
by this we know we're His people. By this, other believers know
that we're the Lord's disciple. And by this, the outside world
will know it. Now, I wrote this down today
because I don't want to be misunderstood. I don't say that we should live
our lives according to the dictates of the world. The world who's
watching us, we have a much higher standard than their opinion.
The love of Christ constrains us. But I will say this, we should
always conduct ourselves in here and out there as people who love
Christ and people who never want to speak a word or do anything
that would bring a reproach on His name. I sure don't want to
do that. Tell you something, there's a
cause that's greater than you and greater than me. It's the
cause of God. It's the cause of Christ. That's
what David said when he went to his brothers and took them
some food. And there's Goliath over there. He's popping off
at the mouth about the Israelites. And his brothers, as Tom, Matt,
and David said, isn't there a cause? Isn't there something bigger
than you guys? Something bigger than me? It's the cause of God.
And that's the way we've got to look at this. There's a cause infinitely greater
than me. And I truly, I don't know about
you, and I hope you receive this in the love in which it's given.
But I weep over some of the things that I've done. Some of the words
that I've spoken, unkind, needless, in an effort to stand my ground.
And I think about it, wasn't necessary. Made me feel better
at the time, but I don't feel so good about it now. There is an attitude and a love
and a kindness that I owe all my brethren. And I'm obliged
to my Savior to love all my brethren the way the Lord loves me. And I won't ever achieve that,
but I want to. And I just ask you to pray for
me. Just pray for me that I'd love like I ought to love. And
I'm going to pray for y'all. That you'd love like you ought
to love. And I can't do anything about anybody else. Can't do
anything about any other church. But that's my goal. To love Christ
and love one another. Exalt Him in preaching the gospel.
Tell you what, let's pray before we We sing His last song. Our Father, the Savior gave us,
He gave His disciples a great commandment, a new commandment.
And we find this commandment staggering. Because it's impossible
that we can keep it. And yet, by Your grace, we can
make some efforts toward it. And Lord, you've got to overcome
our nature. And you've got to give us a spirit
of love and graciousness, forgiveness, committal to the gospel. And Lord, as for me, I pray that
you'd give me a good attitude toward all your people. Whether
those people receive me, receive my ministry or not, that's between
them and you. I can't do a thing about anybody
else. But maybe, by your grace, I can do something about my attitude.
Help me to love as you love me. I'm so absolutely overwhelmed,
Lord, with your love for a rotten sinner like me. Surely if you
could love the likes of me, I can love others who are just like
me. So give us grace and forgive us for Christ's sake. Amen.