I got thinking about some stuff. Just. The world the way it is and. Children, kids, young adults. Everybody is concerned about. Stuff things the baseball team, the this is the that's the the money in the accounts, the world situation and the kids are aware of this and they're making kids aware of stuff in school and the mental, you know, all the mental issues and this and that.

But I'm thinking nobody, very few parents ask, you know, the kids to check their soul. What do you think of Christ? Where are you going to end up when you die? These questions, and it has to do with death, and maybe the death of my mother prompted these things, but people do not want to think about death. They don't want to look at it. They don't want to talk about it, for sure.

And the situation that my mom's, you know, a guy jumps off the pulpit, down from the pulpit, and let's have a celebration of life. Well, sorry. And I know that's a eulogy, and you talk about those things, but to me, it's poor. A poor testimony. It's the person's gone. They're gone. You're never going to see him again. It's over. You don't move on. People grieve different. I'm not saying that and we everybody needs to grieve however they do that. But what about the truth?

That that person who's passed on their their face in God face to face. You know, it used to be required reading before my time, and they quit it before my time. I don't know about Bruce, and I don't know about Doug, but Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards. Make people think about eternity.

And I've said this before, Scott Richardson said, if we rehearsed our death, maybe we would start to live. And we go on our day like we're going to have the next day, the next day, the next day. Maybe not. Maybe not. So that's something that I've, it's hit me and I thought about, and that makes this lesson tonight.

Let us have the mind of Christ in Philippians two, turn to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. And verse 2, Ephesians 5 verse 2, verse 1, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and had given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Sweet-smelling Savior.

The love of Christ, how did that manifest itself? By His death. He had to die in order to redeem those whom were His people. So tonight's lesson is Christ, let this mind of Christ be in us, it was also in Christ Jesus, the love to the brethren. Love to the brethren. Now, I gotta say some things, not to excuse myself by any means, but I must confess this virtue, this virtue of love to Christ and love for the brethren, which Christ so totally manifested to his dear children, is so little displayed in me. I called David Pledger. He's the oldest. He's 86, 87. He's the oldest grace preacher that I know of and that we know of.

And he didn't help me at all. I asked him, I said, well, what do you do about that? And, you know, I mentioned it. He didn't say, he didn't help me at all. And he just said, it's a struggle. It's a struggle because we're in the flesh so often. that it's just a very difficult thing. We talked about it, but the more we talked about it, the more we realized how unqualified we were.

So this is one of these passages that I'm not teaching as though I know, I'm not teaching as though, but I am teaching as though I have learned. I am learning, whatever state I am, to be content. And that would be the contentment with loving Christ over and above, and loving the brethren. over and above everything that the scripture says. I shrink back in rebuke at my lack of this grace, which is so often on display. I just shrink back in rebuke.

2 Corinthians 4.7, 2 Corinthians 4.7.

We have this treasure, the gospel, the grace of God, the face of Jesus Christ, as he's saying in verse six, verse five, we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord. We have this treasure, the preaching of the gospel, but we have this new nature, which is like Christ. In earthen vessels, we have this treasure, This example, the love to the brethren, the love of Christ to his father, the love that he had for his people in earthen vessels, in clay jars, or as one man said a long time ago, we have this treasure in trash. That's pretty accurate, this treasure in trash. To see it, to know Christ's love for me and us puts ours to shame. Puts ours to shame. We rejoice to see some sparks that he gives to love him more and therefore to love the brethren more as well. Where would we be? And this question is the main question. Where would we be if selfishness guided Christ's walk and life among sinners like we are? Where would we be Well, we would be on the outside looking in. But the fact that he took upon himself the form of a servant.

Why? To honor his father and the love for his father. He always did his will, but love of the sheep. Love of the sheep. Let's look at this example, Christ's example and his actions. Love was the element in which he moved and walked. Even amongst those who weren't, who were goats, he sends rain on the just and the unjust, or as Joe used to say, he sends rain on the just. Four, he sends them, he sends it. He gives them their, every hand, every mouth gets food from his hand. Everybody are his creations. This was, this is his commandment.

Turn to John chapter 13. John chapter 13. And verse 34. A new commandment says Christ, I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men shall know that you're my disciples, if you have love for one another. This, he makes as a badge of discipleship.

There is no option. If they're a believer, if you believe Christ died for them, love them, if they believe the same gospel, if they worship, all these different, if we worship together, he makes it a badge. It's not an option. It's not an option. As Christ have loved us. Oh, what is this? It reaches the lowest of the low and it exceeds far above all we can realize. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25, verse starting in verse 40.

And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, apart from me you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil. for his angels, for I was hungered and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you took me not in, naked and you clothed me not, sick and in prison and you visited me not. Then shall they answer him saying, when saw we thee hungered, thirst, stranger, naked, sick, or in prison? and did not minister unto thee. Then he said unto them, I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least, the least, that's us right there, that's us, of these, you did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. We don't work for the love of Christ. We love him, the scripture says, because he first loved us. Everything is initiated by grace. We don't initiate it. He initiates it.

But it's part and parcel of the believer's walk. Let us poor, helpless, vile sinners in need of eternal salvation and compassion, may we do this as our Redeemer did, in need of love from one another. from one another because you may have good friends and they, you know, they're not believers, they talk the talk and walk the walk. And as Henry did say one time, I heard him, I don't know if we discussed it, but he said, there are people who are unbelievers who are more gracious than believers. And that shouldn't be, but that's the case. And you may have friends that way, but you start talking about the gospel and we'll see what happens.

See what happens. Oh, how he's our elder brother, Christ is. He has shown us such pity and grace and kindness. Shall we not, his younger brethren, be of the same mind? Same mind. How sad it is that these, that this is so, we are so much unlike our Lord among professing Christians.

There's just so much argument going on. Even those who say they believe the same, the gospel, the grace of God. There's just too many. Why? Because the lack of love. Oh, these centrist words, these tongues which tear and break down instead of what the Bible calls exhortation.

That's to build one another up in love and the grace of God. Now, what about us? That's Christ. Let us try. to see the image of God, and this is, I'll just say, let us try to see the image of God in Christ in our brothers and sisters. How do you do that? I'm not, I don't, I'm not gonna give you an ABC.

How long have we been gathering together? I hope you're here doing it because you believe the truth and you're not, this is, Religious, you know, people can be religious and then come because that's what they're supposed to do. But all of us here have been coming to hear this truth for a while. Belief of the truth. Wouldn't that be like the image of Christ? Pray for one another. We try to worship together. When we come in, there's no talking about politics. That's the world. Other churches do all this. I've seen them. I've been there. I've gone to services. There's not a lot of talking about Christ. So you can have a big hug fest, somebody who likes wrestling. Maybe you like wrestling, collegiate wrestling. You can talk about that all day. But we're talking about the mind, having the mind of Christ.

And it doesn't mean we're brainwashed, because we're all independent, and we're all in different places in our walk in grace. But if he's leading us, he's leading, he's the image, he's the one that we give all glory to. Let us therefore love at least. this image in each other, no matter how flawed the copy is.

If there is but a bruise read or a smoking flax, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to blow on it or not bend it or break it? But let us gently and consistently fan that smoking flax to start a spark. and enlarge the flame in each of us. And how do you do that? You don't do it by talking about things of the world. And I know we can, we do that, talk about things of the world, but let this mind of Christ be in you. You can show me in the scriptures where Christ talked about anything in this world.

The only thing when he got, as far as politics, when they were challenging him with Caesar, go get some money out of this fish's mouth. Pay unto Caesar what's rendered to Caesar. That's, his conversation was very narrow. Why? Because he loved his people. Now we can't die for one another's sins, but we sure can have a word in due season.

And the scripture says how sweet it is. You think about sweetness, you think about the honeycomb, you think about what the scripture says about the honey and the honeycomb. I could go to 1 Corinthians 13, and when I'd said that, David just laughed. David Pledger just laughed. He just, I said, first Corinthians, it suffers long. It doesn't try to get even, it thinks the best. And he just chuckled. He just said, you know, guilty. We're all guilty.

That's why we constantly come back in the message, in study, we come back to the blood of a righteous redeemer who shed his blood for our sins Because in and of ourselves, like the scripture says, we can do nothing. I mean, literally. I preached a message several weeks ago on Hebrews. We boldly go to the throne of grace. Why? Because in his covenantal agreement, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, he made way. He sprinkled the blood on the altar of God to make way for us. So we go to him to find grace and help, mercy and grace to find help in time of need.

And I thought about that in time of need. Everybody skipped over that. If we really understood how sinful we are, our need is every day, every minute. There's nothing too small to go to the Lord about. Jeremy said back there this Sunday, he said, we have a tendency to categorize sins. Isn't that what he said? We have a tendency to categorize sins, this one's worse than that one, and they're all against God. They're all going to be judged.

We should love the blemished copy for the sake of the divine original. That's not mine, that's John McDuff's quote, but I liked it. Loving the image of Christ in one another, we should love the blemished copy, that's us, for the sake of the divine original. So closing, let us seek to love Christ more, who lived and died for us, then we will love his people more.

May we look and read and study the Apostle John in his writings, in the epistles. First, second, third John, turn to second John chapter one. I wondered why, I don't know about you, but I wondered why reading the epistles 1st and 2nd and 3rd John really, it always made me squirm. Well, it's made me squirm because he's talking about love. And I struggle with this. 2nd John, chapter 1, there's only one chapter, and verse 6. Second John one six, this is love that we walk after his commandments. And this is the commandment that you have heard from the beginning. You should walk in it. And he's speaking about love.

I remember when we met Henry Mahan years ago, providentially, he said, you could have all this. Talking with Henry Mahan, and we were talking about should we continue or not. We were all tore up. We didn't have a pastor. Should we continue? And you can have doctrine, you can have all these things. And he said, but you need, and he wrote the word L-O-V-E up in the air. You can have all these things if you don't have love, like he says in 1 Corinthians 13, the greatest of these is charity. Faith's gonna give away the sight, hope also.

So let us seek to love him more, and we will love one another more. Let us look, read, and study the Apostle John and his writings in his epistles. May we walk in love. May our road to heaven be paved in it. It's so easy to be curt, quick, cut people off. They differ in opinions for us. It's so easy to do that. But let us, as one writer said, let our road to heaven be paved in it. And then faith will give way to sight. And what a marvelous sight it will be. Safe in the everlasting arms and the ever-loving arms of Christ our Lord. May this mind be in us, that is also in Christ Jesus. Nathan, would you close us please?