Good evening. Is it cold? Sunday? Good evening. Let's all stand
together and we'll sing hymn number 51. Number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
him, who can tell how much we owe him. Gladly let us render
to him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He for conflict fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us. while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor guile can sever
those he loves from Him. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us cleaving
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving
promise joys with Thee. Then we shall be where we would
be Then we shall be what we should be. Things that are not now nor
could be soon shall be our own. Thank you. Be seated. Item number
128. 128. Wounded for me, wounded for me. There on the cross, he was wounded
for me. Gone my transgressions, and now
I am free. All because Jesus was wounded
for me. Dying for me. Dying for me. There on the cross, he was dying
for me. Now in his death my redemption
I see. All because Jesus was dying for
me. Risen for me, risen for me. Up from the grave he has risen
for me. Now evermore from death's sting
I am free. All because Jesus has risen for
me. living for me, living for me. Up in the skies he is living
for me. Daily he's pleading and praying
for me. All because Jesus is living for
me. Coming for me. Coming for me. One day to earth he is coming
for me. Then with what joy his dear face
I shall see, O how I praise him, he's coming for me. Romans 15. Romans chapter 15. Before I read, I guess everyone
knows what happened in an arbory last night. That wind, you know,
put a big tree on the house they was living in, tore the porch
off of it and moved the, tore his truck, you know, caved his
truck in. He's lost his truck. But I want
four things. about that tree falling, I want
to say something about it. First thing is, I'm very, very
thankful that no one was hurt. I'm so grateful no one was hurt. It could have well went the other
way, but God and His mercy, no one was hurt. The second thing
is, it was only property that was hurt that ever can be replaced. get another truck, they can fix
the house, they can do that. And the third thing I'm grateful
for, it happened to believers. Luck didn't have a thing to do
with it. It happened to people who knew the grace of God, knew
what it is to trust God, knew what it is to believe God. And
I'm glad it happened to them because they understood that
God's grace is sufficient They didn't blame it on anything other
than him. If it had been the fundamentalist,
they'd have said, well, God done that because he wasn't paying
his tithes. If it had been a legalist, they would have said, well, they
got some secret sin in their life, and God's chastising them.
Oh, my. And the third thing is, the fourth
thing is, I was so blessed, so blessed by their reaction to
it. by their reaction, Aubrey and
Houston's both, their reaction. They reacted so graciously, so
kindly, never got perturbed or upset. And I just, I got to thinking
about those things and, yeah, that's, All right, let me read a few
verses of scripture here in Romans 15. Let's start down here in
verse... No, excuse me, Romans 12. Why
did I say 15? I don't know. Romans 12. I guess I had that
other stuff on my mind, but... Well, Romans 12, where we was.
But now I want you to look at We'll read down from verse 12,
verse 9 to verse 13, deal with these tonight. Let love be without
dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good. Be kindly affection one to another
with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another. Not slothful
in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. rejoicing in
hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer,
distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Oh, our blessed Father. How holy
you are. And Lord, it is in our hearts,
in our very souls, to say thy will be done here on earth, even
as it is in heaven. And Lord, it's a joy and it's
a blessing to be able to see your will in your word, to have
your will worked out in our lives day to day, to have your will
manifested in such a way that brings glory to yourself. And
Lord, we're so grateful that the days are your days. We don't know what a day will
bring forth, but you do. And we're grateful, Lord, for
how you protect us and preserve us amid the needs of our hearts,
our homes, and our blessed brothers and sisters in Christ. And Lord,
bring glory to yourself tonight in this service. Enable me to
speak to the hearts of those that are here, the hearts of
those that are watching and listening. And Lord, I thank you for my
brothers and sister for Houston and Aubrey. Pray, Lord, that
we know you'll meet their needs. We know that you'll take care
of them. And you'll use means you use us and you'll use other
people to meet their needs. But oh, Lord, we're very grateful.
that you spared them. Lord, please meet with us tonight,
enable me to speak, and have mercy. Oh, God, have mercy on
our lost children, our lost sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Please, for Christ's sake, convince
them of their great need of Him. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Number 127. Man of sorrows, what
a name. For the Son of God who came Ruined
sinners to reclaim Hallelujah, what a Savior Bearing shame and
scoffing rude In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with
his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Lifted up was He to die. It is finished was his cry, now
in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah, what a Savior. When he comes, our glorious King,
all his ransomed home to bring. Then anew this song we'll sing. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Holy. All right, let's go back to Romans
12. I want to get my subject out of verse 9. Let love be without
dissimulation. We'll talk about love tonight.
Love tonight. Now, Paul started out this chapter talking about by the mercies
of God, I pray that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
He said that's just your reasonable service. That's just reasonable
due in light of God's mercies, in light of what Christ did for
us, in light of Him bearing our sins and being punished in our
room instead, in light of God's electing grace, in light of salvation
given to us through Christ and no condemnation in Him. And then
being a remnant according to the election of grace, he said,
you know, by the mercies of God, it's just your reasonable service.
And then he talked about humility down in verse three. He said,
I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is
among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think. And oh my, and that's humility. Humility is the right
estimation of ourselves. And when you look at God and
look at Christ, and, boy, I tell you what, we got nothing to offer.
Nothing to offer. And where humility is, love will
always follow. Humility always expresses itself
in its affections for those around it. And when I'm dealing with
these next five verses here, from 9 down to 13, I'm going
to deal with the place that you're supposed to deal with this love,
this exercise of love. And where it's at, it's among
the church of God, among the saints of God. This is the place
of brother love is what it's talking about. Brother love. You know, he said here, you know, in verse 10, be kindly
affection to one another with brotherly love. You know Philadelphia,
you know what Philadelphia means? You know, it's just Philadelphia,
the city supposed to be the city of love, but Philadelphia actually
means love of brother, a brother love. That's what it means. And
so we, when we talk about brother love and brotherly love, that's
what he's talking about. And you, it means, You know,
we love one another, the reason being that we're brethren. We're
brethren. We're brethren. And oh my, this
wonderful, wonderful grace of love is so prominent in the scriptures. So prominent in the scriptures.
Paul told the Thessalonians, you need not that I say anything
about the love of the brethren because you know God himself
has taught you that. And that's what he says, he that's
born of God is born of love. And look what our Lord Jesus,
you keep Romans, and look over here in John chapter 13. John chapter 13. Down in verse 34 and 35. This is what
our Lord says now. You know, he says, Peter says,
you know, You purify your souls with an unfeigned love for the
brethren. Now our Lord said, a new commandment
I give unto you. Why does he say it's a new commandment?
Because before, the Jews hated the Gentiles, and the Gentiles
hated the Jews. He says, now you're not that
way. You're not just supposed to love people like yourself.
He says, you love one, and you know, this is a new commandment.
It's newly revealed, and it's newly spoken. And I give unto
you, and this is this new commandment, that you love one another. And he going to take it a little
bit farther, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And by this shall all know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Did you see how many times he
said one to another there? Three times. He said, love one
to another, love one to another, love one to another. Three times
he said that. So not self-love, but love to
another, love to another. And oh, what did he mean? Oh,
he said, it's new. It lies in the object of the
love that we have for one another, for one another. Oh, love for
fellow believers. And that was an entirely new
thing. And based on a new tie, we are
brethren. We are brethren. And look what
he says. The first thing about love in
verse nine is this. The principle of love's laid
down for us. Let love be without dissimulation. Now what's that word dissimulation?
Let love be without dissimulation. Dissimulation means without hypocrisy. To dissemble means to play act. It means to pretend. Let love
be without hypocrisy, without play acting, without any pretending
that it doesn't. It's acting like you do something
with one motive when really there's another motive involved in it.
And that means to be unfeigned. It means not to be put on, put
on. And if it's hypocrisy, if it's
pretense, if it's unfeigned, if it's Play actin', if it's
any of these things, it's not love. Paul said, Peter said this,
purify, seeing you have purified your souls through the truth
unto an unfeigned, an unhypocritical, an unpretentious love for the
brethren. And what causes that? The gospel
causes that. And I tell ya, if a person's
got a love, that love's got to be sincere, it's got to be real.
And feigned love, pretend love, and pretentious love is the most
horrible thing in life. You know, when you pretend to
love somebody and love your brethren, first of all, it harms you because
you're pretending. And secondly, it harms the brother.
And thirdly, it makes you look bad before even the world. You
know, I tell you, to pretend, and oh my, and faith is, the
same thing said about faith. You know, Paul says, my, Timothy's grandmother, Lois,
she had an unfeigned faith. Her faith was so real, knowing
the unfeigned faith was in her, dwells in you. And faith, you
know, that's one thing, an unfeigned faith. We don't pretend to have
faith. We don't have a hypocritical
faith. We don't have a pretense of faith.
And that's what he's talking about. And that means Paul said,
prove the sincerity of your love. Now, if you don't have. If you
feign faith, pretend that you got faith. And pretend you got
love. If it's not real. It'll tell
on you sooner or later, sooner or later. You know, how do we
know God is love, and he that loves is born of God? That's
what John said, born of God. And so love's without dissimulation. Look the second thing about love.
Love is very sensitive. Look down in the same verse,
abhor that which is evil. Love is very sensitive. We don't
like evil. We don't like evil. We don't
partake of evil. We don't delight in evil. You
know, the believer is to hate and keep himself from what's
wrong. And what I mean by that is, is
that David said, I hate them with a perfect hatred that hate
you. And you think about people that
hate God, And you think about all the evil that goes on in
this world. You know, the power to hate is
something that only God can give. Now, let me give you an illustration. If a man starts preaching works
after you really believe grace, you hate that. If a man rejoices
in the sovereignty of God and delights in the sovereignty of
God, he cannot stand to hear a God that has no power, has
no ability, has no hands but your hands and no feet but your
feet, that he cannot do anything without you. And you know where
we hate evil more than any place else is within ourselves. An
evil thought, an evil act, Oh my, and I tell you what, when
you hate that which is evil, and when I talk about that, I
mean, people with all their hypocrisy and all their lying and all the
evil that's in this world, this world lies in wickedness. People
just so in love with John 3, 16, God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. But it also says over there,
that the whole world lies in wickedness. So both of those
things can't be true. Either the whole world lies in
wickedness, but what does it mean for God so loved his son,
that he gave his son? So that's what I'm talking about,
you know. We're not going to put up with lies. We're not going
to put up with people lying on God, lying on, you know, and
that's what he's talking about. The world is evil. You don't
have to be out there very long and knit to the language that
you hear. The language that you, you people have to work in the
world and be around people that's got religion coming up, got it
up to their neck and deep, neck deep in it. And you have to sit
there and it grieves you at times to see people act so religious
and use such foul language. You know, to use the Lord's name
in vain, to use the Lord's name as a byword and a word that,
use it for a curse word. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. Our Lord loved righteousness. and hated evil, God anointed
him, God anointed him that way. And I tell you what, were we opposed evil, for my
part, for my sake, I oppose evil in myself more than anybody else.
I don't even like to think a bad thought about somebody, but yet
it grieves me to do that. And wherever we see sin and things
around us, like a Pharisee, he doesn't hate evil in himself.
He only hates it in other people. And that's the way people are.
They only hate what's not with themselves, but what they see
in somebody else. Because they don't have any of
themselves. And then let me show you something else about love.
Love is pure. Look what it says in verse 9
again. Cleaves of that which is good. Ain't evil. Shun evil. Abhor that which is evil. Paul,
what was it, Job said, I abhor myself. He didn't say I abhor
those men. He didn't say I abhor my wife.
I didn't abhor my children. I abhor myself. That's the problem with us. We
go along with too much sometimes. But love is pure. Cleave to that
which is good. And that word cleave means to
be glued. Be glued. Cleave to the Lord. Be glued to the Lord. And they
said here, be glued to that which is good. Which is good. Oh, Isaaciah cleaved to the Lord. And oh, to be cleaved to good. Oh, to be, you know, to that
which is good. God is good. Grace is good. Mercy is good. Fellowship is
good. Love is good. Mercy is good. So many things are good. Cleave
to that which is good. And, oh, keep company with that
that is good. Hold by God's grace to the principles
of godliness. Walk with God by faith. Keep
company with people like yourselves, you know, and do things that
contribute to your own spiritual growth and the spiritual growth
of those around you. The scripture says evil communications
corrupt good manners. So what does that mean? Whenever
you start telling jokes and stuff all the time, acting like a fool
all the time, never serious about anything all the time, next thing
you know, it'll corrupt you and you'll do the same thing. You
don't have to say evil to have evil communications. I remember one time, A dear man
come in here, he's gone now, the Lord took him home. He come
in one time and he had had something done with one of his eyes and
he had on something there and he said, boy, I said, how you
doing? He said, oh, my eyes, my eyes
hurt, my eyes hurt. I said, how about that other
eye, is it good? He said, yeah. I said, you ought
to be grateful that one of them's still good. And he just laughed
and said, I never thought of that. I never thought of that. You know, we come in, we're complaining
about one eye because they've had some surgery done on it,
and we still got a good one, yeah. But that's what I'm talking
about, cleave to that which is good. It's easy to cleave to
that, you know. It's better to thank good of
somebody than cleave to the good. All right, let me move to the
next one. And there's the reality. Look
at the reality of love is pure, cleave to that which is good.
The reality of love, down in verse 10, be ye kindly affectioned
one to another. Oh my. Be kindly affectioned
one to another. You know what? Look over in Ephesians
chapter four with me in verse 32. I want you to see this. You
know, it says here, be kindly affectioned
one to another. Kindly. You think a person kindly, think
kindly Have affection for them. When you think of them, it warms
your heart. And do it with one another. But look what he said
here in Ephesians 3, 4, verse 32. And be you kind one to another,
tenderhearted. Oh, my. Oh, Lord, how tenderhearted. Forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven. So the reality of love,
be kind. Be affectionate. Show that affection.
Oh my. You know, here's a new relationship
that we all have. We're brethren. We're family. We really are family. That's
one thing that Shirley realized after she'd been down here for
a while. She said, I've never been in a church that felt so
much like a family. Like a family. I mean, and it's
really so, it's really true. You know, and we're called to
show it. We're called to show our family
relationship through thoroughness and in reality, in affection,
in affection. You know, this love is proof
of a real discipleship. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you know,
he told us, love one another. And the scriptures tells us,
you know, That he's born of God, I mean, he's born of love. And
I tell you the reality, be kindly affectionate. Affectionate. Affectionate. You think about being affectionate. Showing love, showing affection
to one another. And then look at the humility
of love. I don't want to take too long.
Look at the humility of love down there in verse 10. Be kindly
affection to one another with brotherly love. In the margin
it said, in the love of the brethren. In honor preferring one another. That's the humility of love. How many people in here I wonder
prefer the person found them more than they do
themselves. Oh my, in honor preferring one
another, what that means that every believer is to lead the
way in giving honor to his fellow believers, to his fellow brethren. Give an honor to them. Honor
them, prefer them before you prefer yourself. Say something
about them and not say anything about yourself. Point to what
they're doing, not what you're doing. Point to their love, not
your love. Point to their actions, not your
actions. Point to their faithfulness,
not your faithfulness. And that's what it means. Oh
my. And you know, lead the way in
doing this. Oh, you know, when you talk about
regarding others in preference to himself. Oh, what a true spirit
of love and humility. Look over in Philippians chapter
two with me. And every one of us ought to
do this. You know, get there here in a
minute. Philippians chapter 2, look in
verse 3. 2 and 3, look in verse 2. Fulfill
ye my joy. I want you fellas over here at
Philippi to fulfill my joy. You know where he ended up in
Philippi when he first got to Philippi? Put in jail. Got out of jail and he started
a congregation there. He's riding back and said, I
want you fellas to fulfill my joy. You want me to have full
of joy? That you be like-minded, having
the same love. You hear that? Having the same
love. Being of one accord of one mind. And when you have this love,
same love, and one accord, one mind, don't let nothing be done
through strife. Don't strive over things. Don't
argue over things. Don't try to figure out who's
the biggest, the best, and the brightest. Through strife or
vainglory. And that vainglory means that
anything that you do that does not bring glory to Christ is
vainglory. Vainglory. And oh, listen, but
in lowliness, lowliness, oh, lowliness of mind, don't think
highly than you ought to. In lowliness of mind, let each
esteem other better than themselves. I know a dear, dear preacher
brother, a couple of preacher brothers, and they say that all
the time, said, I can't tell you how highly I esteem, mention
somebody's name, I can't tell you how highly I esteem them.
I can't tell you how much I love them, how much, how I esteem
them, how I esteem them. And oh my, you know, to esteem
one another, you think about that too, hold up and do that
for one another. And oh my, how often do we see
a spirit of preference for others, a determination to sink in our
position and reputation to honor a brother, huh, in making others
happy, we find happiness. And giving, we receive. And promoting
somebody else's welfare and honor, we're honored. And a man's character,
listen to this, a man's character is not always revealed in what
others say about him, but what he says about others in private. What he says about other people
in private. And what you ought to say about
other people in private is you ought to be able to say it publicly,
publicly. And then look at the faithfulness
of love down in verse 11. The faithfulness is not slothful,
not slothful in business. Oh, my faithfulness. Business
doesn't here mean A business, like people have a business.
That's not what he's talking about. The meaning here is zeal,
eagerness, earnestness, urgency. That's the opposite of being
slothful. You know, zeal, eagerness, earnestness,
urgency. Busy-ness is what he's saying. Martin Luther said, be not lazy
as to what you ought to do. You know, I've noticed this about
people, and I don't mean to be ugly here. I don't want to be
ugly. People are not slothful in the things of the world. They're
not slothful in the things of the world. But, oh, they don't
have much zeal, earnestness for the things of Christ. They don't
have much zeal, much earnestness for the things of Christ. Is
there real love there? Is there? Is that real love? No, not slow for busy. Busyness. Be real. Be honest. Don't be
dragging around. Have a zeal and earnestness and
eagerness and urgency about the things of Christ and the gospel.
And then look at the earnestness of love. He says the next part of that
verse, fervent in spirit. Fervent in spirit. What does
that mean? It's an inward attitude, it's
just the opposite of slothful. Opposite of slothful. This is
the inward attitude, not the outward attitude, which is slothfulness.
You know, and what that fervent meant means to be hot, means
to be boiling. Now, as we get a little age on
us, we're not as boiling as we used to be. You know, but still
every once in a while the gospel will come along and it'll fire
us up It'll fire us up And all my I Lord I Lord rebuke deficit
for having lost his first love Urban in spirit you fellas got
so cold that you left your left your first love. He told the
slave of sins, I would that you were hot, I would that you were
cold, because if you're lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of
my mouth. And he said, because the iniquity of many would abound,
the love of God would wax cold. And that's what he's saying.
Don't be soulful, but you be fervent. Let your spirit be hot. Let it be real. Let it have a
reality towards Christ. And oh my, in light of how this
affects our lives, we should be fervent. Oh my, the spirit
in our heart ought to be fervent, especially for Christ and his
gospel. And then there's a genuineness
of love, down in verse 11 again. Serving the Lord, Serving the
Lord. In all the, you know, that word
ministry meant servant. I told you that last week. Ministry
means servant. And here he's talking about being
a bond slave, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in all
of our service of the Lord Jesus, there ought to be, in all of
our service of the Lord, our greatest thing that we ought
to be more concerned about than anything else is our relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our relationship to Him. That
everything else, I mean, you know, serving the Lord and our
relationship with Christ, that's got to be first. That's got to
be everything. That's got to be our reality. You know, what we do to others
will always, hopefully by God's grace, have Him for its glory.
for him first glory. And God help us to let not our
worship service and our degenerate into just a cold formality, cold
formality. And then look at love's confidence,
and I'll wind this up for you. Rejoicing in hope. Love, God,
comfort, rejoicing in hope. When you find that word hope,
it always has to do with the future. Always has to do with
the future. And you know, we have a good
hope. We have a purifying hope. We have a confident hope. And
in this matter of hope, it says rejoicing in hope. Rejoicing
in hope. You see, we have a hope that
this world absolutely knows nothing about, in hope of eternal life,
which God promised before the world began. We have this confidence
in the hope of seeing Christ one of these days. Oh, you know,
he that hath this hope in Christ, he purifies himself even as Christ
did. Now, I don't know what all that
means. I remember preaching on it years
ago, but I don't know what all that means to purify himself.
But I believe it means to take on the nature of Christ in some
way. to set yourself apart to Christ
in humility, in honesty, in love, in earnestness, in love for one
another, in all the things that I've already said. Oh, rejoicing in hope. And you know,
let me show you something. Rejoicing in hope is placed between
serving the Lord and being patient in trial. Ain't that what it
says now? patient in tribulation, rejoicing in hope, serving the
Lord, and patience in trial. Huh? Oh, my. I'm so great. We got what a hope we have. Nothing,
nothing tends to motivate a believer to serve and endure trials with
patience like the hope of being like Christ one of these days,
being Christ face to face, Oh, what a hope that gives us. A
fella told me today, he lives by himself, and he's gonna have
to have a shoulder replaced. And he told me today, he said,
I don't know what in the world I'm gonna do, live by myself,
and I can't hardly use my arm now. I don't know how I'm gonna
get around, how I'm gonna do things with just one arm. He said, boy, if I had my way,
he said, I'd just as soon depart and be with Christ. That's why
they say, you'll soon depart and be with Christ. When you
got that kind of hope, you can. And oh my, how many of our brothers,
our brothers and sisters we've seen when they've got the news,
you know, and they get bed fast and get down in the bed and they
ain't going to get back up and they can't get around. And yet
they got this blessed hope, this glorious hope, you know, that
when they close their eyes a final time, they get to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. I said, Ron Wood said today,
I don't know how many of y'all remember Ron Wood used to be
up at Don's. He lives in Florida now. But
Ron Wood was talking about people talking about their crowns and
their rewards. And this guy said, he said, I
tell you, the only reward the believer wants is to see Christ. They're not interested in streets
of gold. They're not interested in, uh,
Mansions and all that that they gonna live in they don't care
what heaven is self-like Christ is what they want to see And
that's what makes heaven heaven Christ being there Now I'll build
my mansion next door to Jesus oh We get to go see the Lord
one of these days And I love the thought about you know When somebody leaves this world,
they're seeing face-to-face with Christ, my Savior, face-to-face
with Christ, my Lord. Oh, my. Blessed be the tithe
that binds our hearts in Christian love. And oh, my. And then the endurance of love.
Not only we rejoice in spirit and hope, you know, rejoicing
in hope, patient, patient, and then patient in tribulation.
Love's devotion, it can, you know, love's the endurance of
love, patient in tribulation. This is the other side of the
experience of hope. The same hope that causes us
to rejoice is what causes us to be patient in trials. What
causes us to be patient in trials. And when he talks about patient
in trials, that means that you just take it. You don't murmur,
you don't complain, you don't find fault, you just, you just,
You just take it and you go on. You go on. You know, our master,
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame. And oh, he endured the cross
for us. You know, let brotherly love
continue, but patient in tribulation. You know, as long as God lets
us live in this world, we're going to have troubles. As long
as God lets us live in this world, we're going to have trouble.
Just like this thing with Houston. It just didn't affect Houston
and Aubrey. It affected his mom and daddy, them. It affected their neighbors.
It affects us. It affects all of us. You know why that is? Because he was in tribulation.
And we got to be patient with him. And he's going to be patient
while he goes through this thing. And patient in tribulation? Oh
my, you know, don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. You know,
when tribulation comes, they're coming. Oh my, we're gonna have
them right up to the time we die. Oh, one of these days, our
last tribulation will come. One of these days, our last trial
will come. One of these days, we'll have
our last, last heartache. Our last tear, one of these days,
there'll be nothing left to have a trial over. And I tell you,
one of these days, they're gonna stop. One of these days, and
everybody's done it. Everybody here has had tribulation
in their heart and in their lives. And I tell you, you're gonna
have some more. And I'll have some more. And sometimes this, sometime
pain, tribulation and the pain that goes with it, lasts a long,
long, long, long time. One of these days I'll be an
end to it. So just rejoice in hope and be patient in your tribulation. There's an old black lady one
time, they ask her, you know, his preacher is preaching and
at the end of the service she walked up, the preacher said,
You know, and it came to pass. He was preaching on it, it came
to pass. And she said, Preacher, I sure am glad it said it came
to pass. Why is that, sister? I'm glad
it said it came to pass, it didn't come to stay. I'm glad it didn't come to stay. And oh, look at love's devotion
here. Look at love devotion. Continuing
instant in prayer. continuing in prayer. Prayer
connects us with hope and tribulation. You know, it's prayer that gives
us, and when we have this hope and tribulation, prayer connects
us with God, enables us to rise above our circumstances, fix
our hope, and patiently wait for the coming glory. And this
matter of prayer means to be staunch, adhering to constantly
waiting. And oh my, and let me give you
a paraphrase. I'll tell you what, I thought
I was about done. Let me give you a little paraphrase. In so
far as we have cause to hope, let us be joyful. In so far as
we have cause of pain, let us hold out. In so far as the door
of prayer is open to us, let us use to continue. Continue
to use it. Oh my, love's devotion. Then
look at here quickly. Quickly. And loves unselfishness,
distributing to the necessity of saints. Distributing to the
necessity of saints. I don't know how else to deal
with it, but with scripture. Let me show you over in Acts
chapter four. Acts chapter four. Verse 34 and 35, you know, Paul said that he took up an
offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. But here it says
this, verse 34, neither was there any among them
that lacked, talking about believers. For as many as were possessors
of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the
things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet,
and distribution was made unto every man according as he had
need." According as he had need. Oh, let me show you another one. I'll read it to you. Acts 11,
27 says this, and there stood, in those days there came prophets
from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them
named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should
be a great dearth or a famine throughout all the world, which
came to pass in the days of Claudius. Then the disciples, every man
according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren
which dwelt in Judea. Which also they did, and they
sent it to the elders by the hands of Paul and Bartholomew."
Oh, my. Where grace comes, you know what
the first thing it does? It opens your heart. You know
what the second thing it does? Opens your hand. Opens your hand. Well, this is my last one. I hope I'm not wearing you out. I hope I do. And then look at
love's large heart, distributing to the necessity of the saints.
Now, you know, you notice it says necessity. Necessity. given to hospitality. Not only
does God open your heart when grace comes along and opens your
hands, but He also opens your home. You know, hospitality was
eminent characteristic of New Testament believers. Lydia, when
the Lord opened her heart, you know what the first thing she
said? If you count me worthy, come to my house. Come into my
house. The Philippian jailer, after
he wore us through, he said he brought all them fellas in, started
feeding them, started feeding them. And all he said, he said,
you know, men have entertained angels unaware. And what this
hospitality means, keeping open house, keeping open house, keeping
an open house, lovers of hospitality, lovers of hospitality. And I'll
tell you, the scriptures deals with us individually, every one
of us individually. And it also deals with us as
a body of believers. And that soul who is related
and united to Christ finds out very, very quickly that he is
associated with other people in a common life, common needs,
common privileges, And in a common hope, all of us have the same
thing. Oh, my, where in the world can
we get such love as this? He that's born of God, born of
love, for God is love. Our Father, thank you for being
with us tonight. Thank you for your precious word. And I pray that love, love, love,
all the things, charity. Charity is above all. Faith and
hope. Charity is the greatest. There'll
be a day we won't need faith. There'll be a day that we won't
need hope. But there'll never be a day without
love. Love for one another. Love for
Christ. Lord, we love you. because you first loved us. Lord,
we thank you that we're born of the Spirit of God. Lord, increase
the love in our hearts. Oh, increase it, increase it,
increase it. And do it for the glory of Christ.
God bless my dear brothers and sisters, wherever they are and
what they're doing. Keep them as they go out and
keep them as they come in. Keep them as they go down and
keep them as they arise. Lord, they're your children,
and you're the shepherd of the sheep, and we trust you to take
care of every one of your sheep for your glory and our eternal
salvation. We bless you and praise you.
Amen.