Still looking here at the first
letter of Paul to Timothy. We've been looking at this for
a couple of weeks, but there was something here that I wanted
to think on as the Lord gives us grace at any time if we are
able help the brethren at all, it will be because He enables
us to do it. In verse 5 of chapter 1, it says, Now the end of the commandment,
or you could put the purpose for the word end, the end of
the commandment is charity or love out of a pure heart and
of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which some,
having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring
to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm. But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully." And then he goes on to speak about
the fact that the law is not made for a righteous man, but
that the law was made for the disobedient. And certainly the
Lord does reveal His natural law to men, and they cannot escape
it even if they have never heard the Ten Commandments. And we
are no different. The Lord does indeed write those
laws in our heart. And they cannot be escaped. But
he says here the purpose of the commandment is love out of a
pure heart. And it doesn't make a difference
what we might stand for or say or teach other men to do. If
we do not come back to the place of speaking and emphasizing what
it is that he is speaking about here, then we have missed the
whole purpose of the teaching of the gospel. Now, the Lord
Jesus was asked by the Pharisees as they sought to trip Him up
and to undermine His teaching, they said, well, what is the
great commandment? What is the thing that the Lord
told us to do? And He boiled it down to two
things. He said, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and body. And He said,
the second, commandment is likened to it. Now if you miss the first
one, then the second one is not going to do you a bit of good.
Because the first commandment is, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.
And it is upon that that hinges what we understand about what
the Scripture speaks about love. Now you will hear a lot in our
society about love loving one another and loving all men as
Brother Al has set forth here before us today. There is that
mindset that is supposed to make us be ashamed that says, ìOh,
well, you donít love everybody.î Well, one must first come to
the Scriptures to understand what it is that the Lord says
about love. The Scripture says God is love.
And you can't have any understanding of what true love is apart from
some understanding of who God is and what God demonstrates
as what love is. Now, one thing that is made extremely
plain in the Scriptures is that the love of God is His love. It's not some force that He is
coerced to do. Now, some people view God as
though He is more or less a victim of His character. They say, well,
God can't do this because of His character. Well, listen,
God is His character. God can do anything that He wills
to do. He is not hindered nor hampered
nor in any way surrounded by any force that would cause him
to be forced into some way. He's free. He said to Moses,
I am that I am. He just is. If you don't like
it, that's tough. It doesn't make any difference.
Nebuchadnezzar found that out, didn't he? But he says, I found
out that the Most High ruleth in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and there is none that can stay
his hand. But this is the most important
thing. See, he didn't just say there's nobody that can do anything
about God. Now, most everybody believes
that God is all-powerful. Most everybody doesn't believe
they can do anything to stay the hand of God. But what Nebuchadnezzar
said next is the most vital important thing. He said, Nor question
thy doing. No man can say thy hand, nor
question thy doing. Now you see, here is the place
where the rebellion of men comes to play. It is not in not believing
God is strong enough to do anything He wants to do, but it is in
rebelling against His right to do with His own as He sees fit. Now who made the world? He did. So whose world is it? His. And everything in it is
His to do exactly as He sees fit to do with it. And what can
anybody say about it? And that is exactly what Paul
says in the book of Romans. He says, and who art thou that
replies against God? What if God? It doesn't make
you put anything you want to put in there. What if God? Now, think of something that
what if God that could bring forth a proper response of then
you could say, aha, he shouldn't have done that. Nothing. You can't come up with nothing.
And that's what Paul's getting at. What if God, willing to make
His power known, created men unto destruction to demonstrate
the glory of His grace and the redemption of a people out of
the wickedness of sin? What if He did that? What could
we say? Nothing. And so the Lord reveals
that His love is His love. Nothing coerces God to love. God doesn't have to love. God
does love. God is love. He manifests love. See, we didn't have to ever know
anything about it. If God had created us and destroyed
us in a moment, it wouldn't have affected the love of God. Now,
a lot of people think God is love because He does these things,
and that's how we can define what God's love is. No. God is
love. But God does show us in the Scripture
something about Himself and about His love. And He is the one who
we are commanded to love. You don't have a choice in the
matter. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, soul, and mind. You shall do it. Now what does man say? No, he
won't. No, he won't. But you see, that
doesn't change anything. What men do, that's like going
out into a hurricane with an electric fan and turning it into
the hurricane and saying, I'm going to blow the hurricane back
the way it came. What is it going to do? Nothing.
The fan is going to get blown out of your hand. It's not going
to do anything. And even less is the ability
of men to somehow or other counteract the decree of Almighty God. And
so the purpose of the commandment is love out of a pure heart. Now how on earth can that ever
occur? But that is the requirement and
that is the purpose. See, the purpose of preaching
is so that we might see men brought unto a place where they fall
down and worship before Almighty God. That is why we are preaching,
hoping, because of this reason. The underlying and the major
purpose of the preaching of the gospel is as all things are to
bring glory to God. And God is going to have glory
whether men do anything or not. Now you see, this is the amazing
thing is that God, who is rich in mercy, needing nothing. See,
some people think, well, God was lonely. I've heard this back
when I was a kid. They said, well, why did God
create lonely? Well, He was lonely, and He wanted somebody, you know,
to worship Him. Now, how ridiculous is that?
I mean, how ridiculous is that? God doesn't do things out of
need. Why? Because he doesn't need
anything. He said to Job, if I was hungry,
would I tell you? What could God need? He doesn't
need anything. Most certainly he doesn't need
anything that men can bring to him. How foolish is that? And yet how much is it wrought
into the mind of men and in his sinful way to think that he can
somehow or other aid God? or help God, or bring something
to God that God would be pleased with. Well, we came up with that. Was that not what came? Why did
he get mad in the beginning and slew his brother? Because the
Scripture says that the Lord had regard unto Abel's offering. And he didn't unto Cain. And
Cain said, well, that's not right. That's not fair. Why should God
do this? I'll kill Abel. I'll get him
out of the way. then maybe God will receive me. But you see, that's the folly
of man's thought. So the end of the commandment,
the purpose of preaching is love out of a pure heart. But until
a man has some understanding of what the love of God is, there's
no way on earth that he can begin to understand what it is for
him to love God or for him to love his brother. And so the
first thing, though, that if a man is going to have any understanding
of the things of God is to be brought to a place where he loves
God. Now, the Scripture makes it plain
that we are at enmity with God by nature. We were born hating
God. Now you might say, oh, I've never
hated God. Well, of course you have, because
every time you've loved yourself, you've hated God. Every time
you've sought your own way, rather than submitting unto that which
He has put before you, you have hated God. You hate God by nature. That's just the way that you
are. And unless God, who is rich in mercy, changes your heart,
and your mind to love His way, you won't love His way. Now,
you can be taught religion, and you can be taught to religiously
think that maybe you love God, because after all, you like to
read His Word, or this, that, or the other, and this, but the
love of God is a gift of grace. And only the man who is wrought
upon by the Spirit of God and made alive in Christ Jesus can
have any understanding of what it is to love God. Now, how can
you love God if you don't know Him? I mean, you can't love something
that you don't know, but you can't be made to know Him apart
from the grace of God to show Himself to you. How could you
have ever known who God was? The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to manifest who God is. He walked among His disciples,
and they didn't know who He was. Philip said, Well, Lord, show
us The Father. He said, Philip, have I walked
so long among you and you don't even know who I am? See, they
couldn't even see Him. They didn't know who He was.
How much folly is it for men to think that they can have some
knowledge of God apart from seeing Jesus Christ? Now, the world's religions tell
us, oh, well, it doesn't matter. We don't want to bring Jesus
into it. I mean, you can talk about God. In God we trust. Because, I mean,
that will make the Muslims happy, and that will make all these
different ones happy, because we just all love God. We just
trust in God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by me. Well, wait a minute. You're limiting
that down. I mean, what about all these
people out here that's worshipping God? If they're not worshipping
Jesus Christ, they're not worshipping God. They are worshipping a God
of their own imagination because the God with whom we have to
deal with has revealed Himself unto us in the person of Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is not a lesser
God or He is not some lesser form of God. He is God. He is the way. That is the crux
of the message of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ
that causes it to be at odds with the world and the way men
think about it, even in this instance as Brother Al spoke
about this morning. It is not the conduct that men
hate. It's the God who says He hates
the conduct. So they say, well, wait a minute.
We'll change it. We'll make it to be what we want
it to be. But you see, the charity love
out of a pure heart is that that says, What Christ has said is
absolutely true whether I agree with it or not, whether I like
it or not. See, you don't have to like everything
that's in the Scriptures. And you tell them the story if
you say you do like everything that's in the Scriptures because
you don't. There's some things in there you wish wasn't in there
because it's kind of like a, it cuts down to your heart, doesn't
it? I mean, little pet things that
you like that you know is not right, because... I mean, you
know, it's always good, isn't it? Revenge is a sweet thing,
is it not? Now, who can honestly say that
they don't get some real satisfaction out of seeing somebody get their
comeuppance? Huh? And especially if you had
a hand in causing it to come past. I mean, that's just like
icing on the cake. to see that happen. But what
did the Lord say? He said, vengeance is mine. He said, it's not yours. You need to get away from that.
Well, wait, Lord, that's just not quite. We'd like to have
a little bit of satisfaction in it. No, you can't have any
satisfaction in it. See, even when our enemies are
destroyed, we can't have satisfaction in it. except as we see it performed
by the hand of God unto His glory, and knowing that apart from the
grace of God we'd be destroyed too. See, it's not of us. Wasn't that the thing the Lord
kept showing the nation of Israel as they would think that they
had some power to overcome these people and He would cause them
to get beaten in a battle? When they finally fell on their
faces before Him and said, Lord, we can't do it, He'd deliver
them. Because, you see, the Lord will
show His people who He is. And so love out of a pure heart
must begin with an understanding of who God is, and loving who
God is. And you can't do that. You can't
love the way of God. You can't love the things of
God. You can't in your heart embrace the things of God apart
from the grace of God to impart the love into your heart. The law won't do it. I mean,
I can tell you don't do something all day long, but that's not
going to make you love it. But when the Spirit of God comes
and works in a man's heart, then he causes him to love the author
of the law. And when a man loves the author
of the law, then the law appears to be a good thing. even when
he doesn't understand it, or he doesn't necessarily agree
with it, or even when he finds within himself an evil heart
of unbelief to depart away from it, and he finds within himself
that nature that fights against it, yet he says, Lord, Thy law
is perfect. Even when he sees his own sinful
heart, and he knows that he ought to be destroyed, he says with
Job, though he slay me, Yet will I trust in Him." Because why? Because he made to love God.
You see, that's the purpose. That's what Paul says. If that's
not the message we're preaching, we're missing it. Love out of
a pure heart must begin with an understanding of who God is. The Lord said, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and body.
And the second commandment is likened to that. What did he
say? Thou shalt love thy neighbor. Now that's not hard, is it? Well,
hold on a minute. Yeah, that's the part. That right
there is where the hard part comes in. Loving your neighbor.
See, everyone, oh, you should love your neighbor. I agree with
that, don't you? I mean, everyone else would say,
well, sure, we ought to love one another. I mean, isn't that
what society is telling us? Love one another? But oh, like
John pointed out, he said, now here, this is where the rub comes
in. It's not just loving your neighbor,
but it's loving your neighbor as yourself. Now there, dear
brethren, is where the flag really rises up. We don't mind loving
people, but hold on, loving people like we love ourselves, you've
got to be kidding. Because you see, that's totally
contrary to our thought process. Now, what did he go on to say? He said, Behold, it has been said that
you hate your enemies. He said, I tell you, love your
enemies. Do good to them that despitefully
use you. Pray for them. Now see, that's
contrary to the natural mind, isn't it? I mean, we love people
as long as they're upstanding, fine people and they're not mistreating
us in any way. We don't have any problem. You
don't have any problem loving the people that love you, do
you? But what about when somebody doesn't love you? See, that doesn't
change love out of a pure heart. Love out of a pure heart is that
which is mindful that love transcends the actions of other people. It transcends our feelings. It is that which is wrought by
the Spirit of God. Now how can you love your neighbor
as yourself? I'm going to say that you can't.
You can't do it. I guarantee you can't do it.
Try doing it. You can't do it. Now, occasionally, you might
let them have the bigger piece of cake. And you might think
about it, you know, later and say, well, you know, I really
showed my love for them because I let them have the biggest piece
of cake. I loved them as myself. But be honest, you can't really
ever like the fact that you did that because you really wanted
the bigger piece of cake. So just to show you that you
are not quite there yet, you are always reminded by that old
wicked flesh that is within you that you really wanted to bear
a piece of cake. And you a lot of times make a
big deal out of the fact that you did good things to somebody,
when in reality, love out of a pure heart has no regard. The
Lord said when you give, He said don't let your Right hand know
what your left hand is doing. And what did he mean by that?
He meant just do it. You are not planning it out.
See, love out of a pure heart is not planned. It is just natural,
is it not? I mean, if we love somebody,
you are a child. You do not have to think about,
well, I think I am going to love them. Why? See, that's natural love. You
just love your child. And so the things that you are
moved to do are motivated by that love. And that's what love
out of a pure heart is spiritually. And that's what he's talking
about here. Now, natural love, the love of a man for a woman
or whatever, there can be spiritual love involved there, That's not
love in the purest sense because even that love is generally mindful
of something to be gained by that. I mean, men pursue women. They say they love them, and
surely they do. I'm not diminishing that there
is a true love in a natural sense. There is at the same time a mutual
benefit that is derived and the mind is considering that mutual
benefit, is it not? And not just the purity of the
love. And so what he is talking about
here transcends that kind of love as strong as it might be. It transcends even the love of
a mother for her child. And I don't think on the earth
there exists a greater bond of love naturally than that, than
that a mother would naturally have for her child. But yet this
love is greater than that, because David said, when my mother has
cast me off, he said, then will the Lord take me up. Now you see, David understood
that there were limitations even upon a mother's love. But this
love here is an impossible love. But it is the love we speak about
because it is that love which Jesus Christ demonstrated. He
did not have thought unto Himself. He did not undertake the things
that He did day by day with any thought to Himself. Every step that he took on the
roads that he traveled was not for his own self. Think about that. Jesus Christ
came into the world for a purpose. To demonstrate the love that
he had for his people. And every action that he ever
incurred along the way was for his people. that He loved with
an everlasting love. Now that's pure love, dear brethren. No thought to Himself. When He was on Calvary's cross,
He had no thought to Himself. Never entertained one notion. That's pure love. Now when you get to thinking
that you might be knocking on the door Pure love, then you
need to stop and think, well, what is pure love? It's what
Christ demonstrated. What is the love that is accepted
by God, that kind of love? Pure love. So what is the purpose
of our teaching one another to love one another? Is it that we expect that somehow
or other we're going to arrive at some place here where we're
all just in pure love? No, I don't expect we'll ever
see it in our lifetime. In fact, I know we won't among
ourselves, but it is, dear brethren, that which we exhort one another
unto. And it is that if we love God and if we love one another,
that type of love that we cannot be satisfied except that we see. See, I can't come to a place
where I say, well, I love my brethren enough. I know it's
not what it should be, but it's enough. Is it? Do you love the brethren
enough? If you do, I'm telling you, you've
missed the mark. If you think you do, because what did he tell us to
do? He said, esteem one another what? Above yourselves. That's a lofty goal, is it not? It's not just lofty, it's impossible
in the flesh. But because something is impossible
does not mean that God's people are not exhorted to do it. How
do I know that? The Lord said, Be ye holy, as
I the Lord your God am holy. Now some people think they can
achieve that. In fact, I have heard men say,
Well, if it could not be achieved, the Lord would not have told
us to do it. What folly! Men miss the point. The Lord said, Be ye holy, because
that is the standard of holiness that He alone accepts. And if
you're going to have a holiness that is acceptable in His sight,
it's going to have to be a holiness that is identical to the holiness
of Jesus Christ. And so what holiness is that
going to be? Is it going to be yours? Some little pit-ups of
imitation of true holiness? Not at all. It's going to be
the righteousness of Christ. Because you see, He is. pure
righteousness. And if He is not our righteousness,
we are done for. If He is not the epitome of all
that we have and are, then we are done for. But you see, the
exhortation is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
and faith unfeigned. We are not satisfied with a reasonable
facsimile. We cannot check our card off
because we have performed certain acts of love toward the brethren. It is only as we are imitators
of Christ in all things that this can be said to be purely
and truly accomplished in the people of God. But we don't expect that it shall
be except as it is already done
in Jesus Christ as our substitute, as our righteousness before Almighty
God. Now the world says, oh, well,
so if he is... I mean, this is how the religious
world thinks about grace. They think this is how it works.
Okay, well, Christ is our righteousness, so that gets us off the hook.
Well, we can just go on and do anything now. No, you see, that's
not love out of pure heart and faith unfeigned, is it? Because
you see, the love of Christ what? Constraineth us! You see, the
work of God in His people is a constraining work. And it keeps
constraining us. And we cannot be satisfied with
a mere penance. We cannot say, well, you know,
that is enough love for one day. I mean, that is good enough. I mean, what do they expect? Love out of a pure heart. Faith
unfeigned. You see, it is that which has
no imitation. It is that which has no substitute. It is that
which is not partial. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind and heart to love one another with a pure heart fervently. Now in the Scriptures, I believe
that there are several things that we are exhorted to do as
we love one another. One is, of course, esteeming
one another above ourselves. The other is bearing one another's
burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ. Bearing one another's burdens.
Well, how can you do that? Well, you cannot do it If you
don't love them, that's for sure, can you? I mean, hey, everybody's
got their own problems. Isn't that how we think? Well,
I ain't got time to be worried about his problems. I've got
too many problems of my own. That's how we think, isn't it?
Most of the time. But that's not how Christ thought,
is it? Can you imagine? The burdens
that were upon Jesus Christ day by day as He bore our sin, as
He looked around Him and He saw the unbelief of even those whom
He loved with an everlasting love and He walked among them. They didn't even know who He
was. They didn't pay attention to what He said. They didn't
understand the things that He said. Don't you understand what
a grief it was? But He loved them. Did he not know exactly what
was in Peter's heart when he said, Peter, this very
night thou shalt deny me three times? But he said, Peter, I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not. Because you see, he wasn't thinking
about himself. He was thinking about Peter. I mean, wouldn't it be natural
to think, well, here I am in the greatest trial of my life,
and here's somebody that's my trusted follower, and he's going
to deny that he even knows me? But Christ, He cared not for
His own self, but He cared for His people. And He prayed for
peace. He prayed for Peter. He said,
Father, I pray for them that Thou hast given me out of the
world. Thine they were and Thou hast given them me. He prayed
for Peter while Peter was asleep, while
James and John were asleep. And he prayed for them and he
went back and he looked And he saw them asleep and he went back
and he prayed for them. He loved them. You see, that's
what it is to love somebody with a pure heart. So don't get to
thinking that you've arrived there yet. Nor can you be satisfied
with that which is partial if the Spirit of God has taught
you who God is. and the love that He has demonstrated
and the love that He requires of His people one to the other. My little children, John said,
these things I write unto you that ye love one another. The Lord Jesus said, By this
shall all men know that ye are My disciples. Did he say because you traverse
land and sea to seek out converts and you go here and there and
you preach and you feed the poor and the hungry and you do all
these different things to help people out because you're a stalwart
in doctrine and truth? No, he said, "...by this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, why, because ye have love one
to the other." John said, here's how we know that we belong to
the Lord if we love the brethren. So you see, the specific love
that the Lord would manifest in the lives of His people is,
number one, a love towards Him whom we have not seen. But He
said, how can you love Him whom you have not seen if you do not
love Him whom you have seen? Now, dear brethren, if we are
brethren in Christ, He said, even as I have loved
you, so ought ye to love one another. Now that's a, I don't
know about you, but that withers me down pretty quick. That brings us down to a point
where we realize how, what little we know about anything. Because
here is the place to which we are called, dear brethren, is
to love one another with a pure heart fervently, esteeming one
another above ourselves, bearing one another's burdens, desiring to see one another strengthened
and helped along the way, praying for one another as the Lord prayed for us. May He give us a mind and a heart to know what love is, to see
what it is demonstrated, and to be delivered from ever thinking
that we have achieved it, even in the slightest thing. Because, dear brethren, this
must remain ever as the goal that we are striving to. Paul
said, I count not myself to have apprehended. Now, he's speaking
about unto a manifested hope in Christ. He says, I haven't
arrived yet, but it is the place where all of us, by the grace
of God, are. He said, but this one thing I
do, forgetting those things that are behind, I press to the mark
for the prize of the high calling. of Jesus Christ. Now you see,
I believe this is a true thing. If the Spirit of God works in
a man, He'll give him a love for God, for the truth of God,
for who God is, not who he thinks God is. See, a lot of people
love who they think God is. But if you start telling them
who God is, they start falling out of love with Him. Well, I
wouldn't serve a God like that. Well, dear Brandon, I'm going
to tell you this. I won't serve God however He is, however He
wants to be. Because, you see, He's God. And
if He wants to do something, I'm for it. I hope I am. I'm saying I am. I'm confessing
that I am. And to love one another. as ourselves. Now that is love
out of a pure heart, fervently. May the Lord teach us and help
us to be such a people that we might manifest that, that we
might manifest an understanding that we can't achieve that in
the flesh, but that He has achieved it in our behalf and that He
has in concert wrought in His people a desire to be found faithful
in that to which we are called. May He give us grace to do so
this day.