1 John chapter 3 verse 14, we know that we have passed from death
unto life because we love the brethren. It's quite a statement,
isn't it? By this we know we've passed
from being dead in trespasses and sins to having the very life
of God in our soul. How? Because we love the brethren. Now this love to the brethren
is not found in any natural man. This is a supernatural love. It is the gift of God's grace
which those who are born of the Spirit possess. It's not found
in any natural man. An unsaved person can love their
spouse. An unsaved person can love their
children. An unsaved person can love their
friends and relatives. An unsaved person can love their
parents. An unsaved person can love their
country. And how we thank God for that
kind of love. What kind of place would this place be if we didn't
have that? But no natural man can love the
brethren. Turn to 1 John chapter 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for
God is love. Now, the people who possess this
love for the brethren are people who are actually born of God,
birthed by the Spirit of God. This is above the capability
of a natural man. Now, here's my question. First of all, who are the brethren? Who are the brethren? It's a
specific group. And I can know that I've passed
from death to life if I love the brethren. Now, who are these
brethren that the apostle is speaking of? Well, it's actually
very easy to answer that question. The brethren are all those that
God elected before time began to be saved. The brethren are
all those for whom Christ died, for whom Christ lived. for whom
Christ worked out a perfect righteousness for, and he put away their sins. The brethren are those who are
born of God, born of the Spirit, given a new nature, the nature
of a child. Now turn with me to Romans chapter
8 for just a moment. several scriptures I want you
to look at. Romans chapter 8 verse 29, For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now those are the brethren that
I'm to love. He is the firstborn among many
brethren. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for the which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Now these are the
brethren we're called upon to love. All those who are one with
him, who are sanctified, both he that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified are all of one for the which cause he's not
ashamed to call them brethren. Do you know the brethren have
the Lord Jesus Christ as their elder brother. He's my Savior. He's my elder brother. You know, I've thought before,
I don't have a natural brother. I've got three sisters. I don't
have a natural brother. I've always wondered what it
would be like to have a natural brother. But I got one much better
than that. The Lord Jesus Christ is my elder
brother. He is the friend that loveth
at all times and the brother that's born for adversity. Look
in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 17. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren. His brethren. Those who are united to him.
Those who are one with him. He calls them his brethren. And in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that
he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor
them that are tempted also." Now you think of the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ on Judgment Day. As a matter of fact, turn
over there. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. I
want you to see these for yourself. Matthew 25. Verse 31, When the Son of Man
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him,
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him
shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. For I was a hungred,
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked,
and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in
prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee, and hungered, and fed thee,
or thirsty, and gave thee to drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? When saw we thee
sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you've
done it to one of the least of these, who? My brethren, you've
done it to me. Then shall I also say unto them
on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungered,
and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and 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 also answer him, saying, Lord,
when saw we, being hungered, or thirst, or a stranger, or
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you
did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. When Saul is persecuting the
church, the Lord speaks from heaven and says, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Now Saul couldn't touch Christ.
Christ was in heaven. But if you persecute one of the
least of these, his brethren, You persecute him. And I think
it is so powerful when the Lord appears to Ananias and tells
him about Paul who three days before had been on his way to
murder Christians. He said, you go to Ananias. And
Ananias went and he said, brother Saul, receive thy sight. brother Saul. Now, the word brother
actually means from the same womb. Adelphos, from the same
womb. I was wondering, Delphus, if
that's where your name came from. I don't know. I was wondering.
From the same womb. That's what a brother is. From
the same womb. And all the brethren came out
of the same womb, the eternal counsels of God, being eternally
united to the Lord Jesus Christ, always known in Christ. And they
all have the same Father, the brethren. They all have the same
Father. God's their Father. They all
have the same elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. They all
have the same nature. partakers of the divine nature. They have the very nature of
God. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the divine nature. And you know, they all believe
the gospel. Everyone of them may believe the same thing. You
know, there are not divisions within the body of Christ. There
are different denominations and different groups and some people
that hold this and some people that hold that. Every believer
believes the same thing. All believe that Christ is all. They all believe they're nothing
but sin. They all believe the salvation's of the Lord. They
all believe the Bible is the Word of God. They all believe
that God is sovereign and in control of everything. There's
no difference in what they believe. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God who is Father over all and above all and in
you all. Every believer believes the precise
same thing. And they all have this in common.
They love the brethren. Our Lord said, by this shall
all men know you're my disciples. By your love one to another. Turn to 1 John chapter 5 verse
1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. You can't
help it. It is natural for your new nature
to love those who are begotten of God. Now the brethren are
special. They're beloved of God. Paul
said But we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord. Every one of these brethren are
beloved of the Lord. They're called by God. You see,
you're calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. They're
called by God. What's the scripture of the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called.
Called by God, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
When it pleased God, Paul said, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me. This is true of every one of
the brethren. Christ is in them. Christ in
you, the hope of glory. To fail to love any of the brethren
is to fail to love Christ. How can you say that? Because
the Lord said, both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are
all of one. For me to not love one of the
brethren is for me to not love the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 13, when he was warning
the Corinthians about eating meat sacrificed to idols that
would offend their weaker brother, he said this, he said, When you
sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
you sin against Christ. If I sin against the brethren,
I sin against Christ. Now that's how important this
is. We know we pass from death to
life because we love the brethren. Now this does not mean that we
don't recognize or acknowledge the sins of our brethren because
we know they're just like us. That's why I know from the scriptures
you're just like me. So I know a little bit about
you. I know a little bit about you. You're just like me. And so I acknowledge the flaws,
the weaknesses, the sinfulness of my brethren. I mean they're
just like me. One thing I would like to say
is never stop going to church because of the sinful conduct
of somebody else. Don't do that. That's never a
reason to leave because you don't like the way somebody's living.
Who do you think you are? Are you really that much better?
I mean, I'm not justifying anyone's conduct. I'm really not. If it's
wrong, it's wrong. But don't leave an assembly of
the gospel because you don't like the way somebody's living.
That's just a wrong attitude. Think of yourself where you would
be apart from the grace of God. Now, Paul acknowledged this. Look in 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 10. Or verse 11, I'm sorry. For it has
been declared unto me of you my brethren. What do you call
them? My brethren. By them which are
of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Look in chapter 3. And I brethren. He's speaking to his brethren.
He's talking about these people as being brothers in Christ.
That's who he's feeding. He doesn't say, you're all not
my brethren because of the way you're acting. He says, and our brethren
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ. My brethren are acting just like
unbelievers. If you'd look at them, that's
what you'd think they are. And that's what he says to these
people. So when we're talking about the brethren, this is not
talking about failing to recognize the sinfulness the sinful actions,
the flawed characters of our brethren because they're just
like us? Do you believe that? You know, my sin is my enemy. You know, I'm preaching out of
Psalm 23 next Sunday from the passage in Luke. I'm going to
say some things out of Psalm 23. But when he talks about, about prepares
the table before me in the presence of my enemies. You know who my
enemies are? My sins. My sins are my enemies. They grieve me. They grieve me.
I mourn over my sins. You know, that brother who's
struggling, he grieves over him, too. He hates him, too. He hates
himself for him, too. That's why there's to be a feeling
of compassion for the brethren, loving the brethren. Now, we
know we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren. They're Christ's brethren. And
he owns them as such. They all have God as their Father.
They all have been born of the Spirit. And the way love to Christ
is expressed is love to his brothers. The way I express love to Christ
is love to you. We know we pass from death to
life because we love the brethren. John said this, my little children,
Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in
truth. I love you. Those can be the most powerful
words or the most meaningless words there are, depending upon
the actions behind it. Have you ever had somebody tell
you they love you and you think, well, I'm glad you told me. I
would have never known it by the way you treat me. Thanks for the
information. Love is as love does. And he said, let us not love
in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth. Now what does this love to the
brethren look like? I'm going from the scriptures.
I'm going to show several scriptures, but first let's turn to the most
obvious scripture, 1 Corinthians 13. Read the first three verses without
making a comment. Don't really need to make a comment.
Paul says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though
I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have
not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long. If I love you, I'm going to be
long-suffering toward you. Charity is kind. It's not mean-spirited. It's
kind. Charity envieth not. You don't envy somebody you love.
If you love them, you don't envy them. Charity vaunteth not itself. It's not a bracket. It's not
trying to say great things about itself in order to impress you.
You know, one man said, I've made more friends in two days
being interested in them than in two years trying to get them
to be interested in me. A bracket. Charity doesn't brag. It's not puffed up. proud, arrogant,
and conceited. Verse 5, it doth not behave itself
unseemly, rudely, shamefully. It seeketh not her own. You see,
if I love you, I'm not going to use you. I'm not going to
manipulate you. That's what it is to seek your
own when you use somebody to further your own cause. Charity
seeketh not her own. It's not easily provoked. It's
not touchy and irritable and easily offended. It thinketh
no evil. It keeps no records of wrongs
is what that means. It doesn't account things from
the past. It thinketh no evil. It doesn't
hold a grudge. It rejoices not in iniquity. It doesn't rejoice in the fall
of others, but it rejoices in the truth. It bears all things. Now this word, you might want
to write this down. It doesn't mean it puts up with all things.
It means it covers with silence. all things. If you love somebody,
you don't want them exposed. You want to cover with silence
all things. It believes all things. It looks for the best. It believes the best. Now, when
somebody tells you something bad about me, don't believe them.
Believe the best about me. And I want to do the same with
you. That's what love does. And what it can't see, it hopes
for. And it endures all things. It never stops. It never stops. It hopes for, it endures all
things. Charity never fails. It's never
reduced to inactivity. Not real charity. This is a supernatural
thing. It's the gift of God. And look
what he says in chapter 14, verse 1. Follow. pursue after charity. Now do you want something to
pursue, something to make your aim and your goal? Charity. First John 3.23 says, And this
is his commandment, that we believe on the name of his Son, and love
one another, as he gave us commandment. If you want to obey the commandments
of God, believe on the name of his son, there's a commandment
you can obey by the grace of God. You can trust his name is
all that's needed to make you accepted. And you can love one
another as he gave commandment. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. The way I got these things is
the word reverend. Brethren, the word brethren is
in all these things. But look at Matthew chapter 7
verse 1. Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment
you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moth
that's in thy brother's eye? But considerest not the beam
that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam
is in thine eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou say clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Now I was listening
to one fellow preaching from this passage of scripture, And
he said, the reason most Christians have a hard time confronting
their brothers about their sin is because they have such beams
in their own eyes. And they feel disqualified to
do it. And I thought, oh, so you feel
qualified. I'm proud of you. Congratulations. I mean, that's
so, I'm glad you did. But here's the deal. Lord said,
do not touch one another. Romans chapter 14 verse 10, Paul
said, let's not judge one another anymore. But, no but, no but,
no but. You see, for me to judge you,
I don't have the information to
get an accurate judgment. I don't know what you're going
through. I don't know what's caused everything. I don't know. And
for me to judge you is to make a judgment when I do not have
the accurate information to make the judgment. Secondly, for me
to judge you is pure hypocrisy. Romans 2.1 says, Thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges, for you that judges doest
the same things. Now, how many different ways
are there to take that? You know, whenever you're judgmental
toward someone, you're going to make them so mad and they're
going to see every flaw, every fault you have. And if you're
not judgmental toward them, they're going to like you. It really
is that simple. With the same judgment you judge,
you shall be judged. You're hard on somebody, they're
going to be hard on you. So if you want to love your brethren,
don't judge them. Don't judge them. Secondly, while we're in Matthew
chapter 7, turn back to verse 23. Chapter 5, verse 23. Therefore if thou bring thy gift
to the altar, and thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against
thee, leave there thy gift before thy altar, and go thou that first
be reconciled to thy brother. You get that taken care of and
then come and offer thy gift. Now if you would love your brother,
if he has anything against you, you go and be reconciled to him. You go apologize, you go humble
yourself, you go ask what brought this on and I want to humble
myself. Now that's what the Lord says
to do to your brother. That's the way it is. In Matthew chapter
18 you remember when Peter said How often shall I forgive my
brother? Till seven times? What a magnanimous
man I am, if I can do it seven times, my goodness, I'm sure
that's the limit. And the Lord said, I'm saying
to you, not seven times, but 70 times seven. In other words, always. Always. There is never a time
when it's okay to not forgive your brother. If I would love
my brother, I'm going to forgive him. Now, this is life. Your
brother is going to wrong you. Your brother is going to sin
against you. Your brother is going to hurt your feelings. What do you do?
Forgive him. For Christ's sake, forgive them.
You know, it's easy to forgive when you remember your sin against
the Lord is infinitely greater than your brother's sin against
you. And he forgave you. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse
6 says, Defraud not thy brother in any matter. Now, if you want
to love your brother, don't defraud him. Don't use him. Don't manipulate
him. Don't rip him off. Treat him
with fairness. Treat him with honesty. James
4.11 says, Speak not evil of one another, brethren. Love is best expressed quite often
by what is not said. Speak not evil of one another,
brethren. Don't be harsh. Don't be critical. James chapter 5 verse 9 says,
grudge not against one another, brethren. Now, what is more ugly
than somebody holding a grudge? It's so ugly. Holding a grudge,
you won't speak to somebody, or you withhold yourself from
them in some way, I guess to punish them. Whenever you hold
a grudge, what that means is you haven't forgiven them. Grudge
not one against another, brethren. That's such an ugly way to treat
anybody. Grudge not one against another,
brethren. Don't withhold yourself. Now,
how significant is this? We know that we've passed from
death to life. because we love the brethren. Now, is my love as strong as
it should be? Of course not. Of course not. Somebody says, I can give you
all kinds of examples in your life where you haven't measured
up there. I know. But don't you want to
love the brethren? By this, we know that we passed
from death to life because we love the brethren. Brethren are
special, aren't they? They're special. They're special
because they're Christ's little brothers. You know, somebody
was telling me that when they were young, they had an older
brother that if somebody even looked cross-eyed at him, his
older brother would come and wear him out. Well, the Lord's
like that. He's protective of his little
brothers. He loves them. And remember this,
inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me. May we all be enabled to be zealous
to love our brethren. Make love your aim. And now we're going to baptize
Ryan Vincent, I'm rejoicing so much to do this. I'm just thankful
and we're going to remember this young man as he confesses Christ
and believers baptism. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask in Christ's
name that you would enable us by your spirit to love the brethren,
Lord, let us exhibit the love of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Lord, let us have a love that
never judges, that doesn't criticize, that doesn't hold a grudge, that
forgives. Lord, give us this kind of love. Lord, we pray for Ryan. We pray
for your grace and your hand upon him. How we thank you for
your saving mercies. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. One final comment.