Love The Stranger

Q: What does the Bible say about loving strangers?

The Bible commands us to love strangers as ourselves because we were once strangers to grace. In Leviticus 19:33-34, God instructs the Israelites to treat the stranger as one born among them and to love him as themselves, reminding them of their own past as strangers in Egypt. This command reflects the heart of God, who calls us to remember our own state before His grace intervened. The love we show to strangers is not merely a social nicety; it is a reflection of our gratitude for the grace we have received. By loving strangers to grace, we acknowledge that we too were once alienated and in need of mercy.

Q: Why is loving strangers important for Christians?

Loving strangers is essential for Christians as it mirrors God's love for us when we were distant from Him. Loving strangers holds great importance in the Christian faith as it embodies the very gospel we believe in. Just as God showed us mercy when we were strangers and in sin, we are called to extend that same mercy to others who are outside the faith. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 commands us to pray for all men, indicating that love must be active and demonstrated through prayer and action. Furthermore, Matthew 5:43-48 challenges us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, exemplifying the radical love that believers are called to extend beyond their immediate circles.

Q: How do we know God's grace is true?

God's grace is evidenced through our transformation and adoption as His children. The truth of God's grace is seen in the transformative work it accomplishes in the lives of believers. Galatians 4:4-7 speaks of our adoption as sons, showing that through faith in Christ, we receive not just a change in status but a deep, personal relationship with God as our Father. This grace is not based on our merit but is given freely, which is the essence of the gospel. Ephesians 2:4-5 further reaffirms this truth by reminding us that, even when we were dead in sins, God made us alive together with Christ, thereby manifesting His rich mercy and love.

Q: What does it mean to be strangers to grace?

Strangers to grace refers to those who have not yet experienced God's saving grace. Being strangers to grace means being alienated from God's saving mercy and living without the hope found in Christ. Ephesians 2:11-12 depicts this state as being without Christ and therefore without hope. It is a reminder for believers to remain humble and compassionate, recognizing that we too were once in that position. This understanding compels us to reach out to those still lost in their own systems of works and religion, offering them the same grace that transformed our lives.

Q: How should Christians respond to strangers to the gospel?

Christians should respond to strangers to the gospel with love, prayer, and sharing the good news. The appropriate response to those who are strangers to the gospel involves active love and compassion. As stated in 1 Timothy 2:1, we are exhorted to pray for all people, including those who are lost. Additionally, we are called to acknowledge that we were once lost ourselves and to share the gospel—the food and raiment found in Christ—with everyone. This response reflects God's heart towards strangers and demonstrates the love that should characterize every believer's life. By praying for them and inviting them to hear the gospel, we fulfill our calling as representatives of Christ.

Good evening. Let's turn to Leviticus
chapter 19. Leviticus 19. I'm just going
to read two verses. And the title of my message will
come out of these two verses. Leviticus 19 verse 33. We'll
read verse 33 and 34. And if a stranger sojourn with
thee in your land, ye shall not vex him or oppress or mistreat
him. But the stranger that dwelleth
with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou
shalt love him as thyself. For ye were strangers in the
land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." The
title of my message is Love the Stranger. And the giving of this law implies
that we didn't love strangers, and we don't, and we mistreat
them. And I'm talking about strangers to grace, strangers to the gospel,
people in natural religion. And the reason there's a problem
with us not loving them, and we should, is because that was
us before the grace of God saved us. We were strangers to grace. And even as believers, we've
all talked bad and talked down of those people in false religion
and feeling ourselves to be better than them, considering them to
be strangers to truth and strangers to the gospel, and they are,
but so were we. And we so soon forget that that
was our state not too long ago. And if not for the mercy of God
to put in someone's heart to pray for the salvation of our
souls, we would still be lost and strangers to grace. God always
uses the means of prayer to carry out His providence and His salvation.
Ezekiel 36. I want to look at one verse here. Ezekiel chapter 36. Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel. Ezekiel 36 verse 37. Thus saith
the Lord God, I will yet, for this, be inquired
of by the house of Israel." The house of Israel is going to pray
for this, to do it for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock. Everything over in verse 25 through 27, down
through there, a new heart, a new spirit. Everything the Lord is
going to give us and do for us, we're going to pray for it and
ask for it. And so, as we have been prayed for, somebody prayed
for us. to bring us under the sound of the Gospel. As we have
been prayed for and brought by the grace of God to be children
of God and no longer strangers to grace, may God give us grace
to pray earnestly for all the strangers around us, in our families,
in our neighborhoods, and at our jobs. In love for them, praying
the Lord would draw them under the sound of the Gospel just
like He did us. Let's turn back to Leviticus 19. The bulk of my message will be
on Deuteronomy chapter 10, but Leviticus 19, I just want to
look at that word stranger real quick. In verse 34, But the stranger
that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among
you, and thou shalt love him, for ye were strangers in the
land of Egypt. Stranger is someone that was
a foreigner, once a citizen of another land, now they've moved
into a new residence in a new land. And Israel was commanded
to leave portions of the harvest for him. Look over in verse 9
of Leviticus 19. And when ye reap the harvest
of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy
field, leave some crops in the corners. Neither shalt thou gather
the gleanings of thy harvest, leave the scraps on the ground,
and thou shalt not glean thy vineyard. Neither shalt thou
gather every grape of thy vineyard, thou shalt leave them for the
poor and stranger. I am the Lord your God. Israel
was commanded to leave a portion of their harvest and some of
their grapes for the poor and strangers. And that's how they
were to show their love for Him. But I want to show first of all
how God has shown His love for His people and that we are therefore
to show our love as He showed His love to us. And the majority
of my time will be in Deuteronomy chapter 10. Let's turn to Deuteronomy
chapter 10. Verses 17-19, but we'll set the
context by reading in verse 12. And now, Israel, what doth the
Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God,
to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep
the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command
thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven
of heavens is the Lord thy God, the earth also with all that
therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in
thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them,
even you above all people as it is this day. Circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked." And
I looked up that word stiff-necked, that's not a physical issue that
I have. I've got a couple herniated discs
and there's mornings when I get up and you've got to do this
stuff to turn and talk to people. It's not a physical problem.
This is a heart problem. It's pride. It's self-righteousness. It's standing there like this
looking down your nose at people. That's being stiff-necked. And
it's also so set in your ways that you will just walk this
way and you will not turn your neck around and look back to
your Savior and return to your first love. You're so set in
your ways. And that was their problem, that's our problem.
But, thank goodness we have a gracious God. Verse 17. For the Lord your
God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty
and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. It doesn't matter if you're some
poor smelly beggar or some rich Donald Trump that has no bearing
on whom he's going to save or show mercy to. He doth execute
the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger. in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger,
for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Before we go looking at loving
the stranger, I want to talk a little bit about the relationship
of God as a Father to His children, us believers. Let's turn to Galatians
chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. God is the Father of His special
people, the elect, that were chosen and adopted in Christ. And we read about this in Galatians
chapter 4, starting in verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are
sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. We're adopted children of God. I know a little bit about adoption.
I've got an adopted child, Riley. She now has a new name. She's
a do-for. She's got a new birth certificate,
new parents, and she shares in the do-for inheritance now. And
now every believer in this room has been adopted into Christ.
You've got a new name, the Lord Our Righteousness. For she shall
be called the Lord Our Righteousness. You've got an eternal inheritance
with God in heaven. So many blessings with adoption. But that word that caught my
eye was Abba, Abba, Father. I looked that up. Abba is, well
I'm going to read, I would mess it up if I tried to read it.
try to rehearse it. The word framed by the lips of
infants in complete unreasoning trust in their father. In other
words, Dada. Or in my case, Gaga. She can't
say grandfather, so she says Gaga. But it's an unreasoning
trust in the father. When that little kid walks up
and just puts their arms up like that and looks up at you, they
have no reason to fear, no reason to doubt. They completely put
their trust in their and their parent, and that's how we're
to be with our father, Abba, father, a dad, dada. Father is his name of authority,
Abba is his name of compassion and intimacy. Now that same relationship
that we have with him is spoken of in a different way back in
our text in Deuteronomy chapter 10. Turn back to Deuteronomy
chapter 10. Keep your finger in Deuteronomy. We'll be going
back and forth. He's also a protector to the
fatherless and to the widows. Psalm 68 verse 5 says, He's a
father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows, is God
in His holy habitation. Who's His fatherless and who's
His widows? That's me and you in natural religion. We're fatherless,
we're orphans, we don't have a heavenly Father, and we're
widows. We don't have Christ as our husband,
and yet He shows mercy on the fatherless and on the widows.
We're told this in Lamentations. Let's look up Lamentations. It's
a little book right after Isaiah and Jeremiah. It talks about
these fatherless and these widows, and it shows how it's us in our
natural religion, religion of works. Lamentations chapter 5. We'll look at the first six verses. Lamentations 5 verse 1. Remember,
O Lord, what has come upon us. Consider and behold our reproach.
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. We
have drunken our water for money. Our wood is sold unto us. Our
necks are under persecution. We labor and have no rest. We
labor under the law, we labor under works. We have given the
hand to the Egyptians, we return to our law keeping and to the
Assyrians the power of the flesh to be satisfied with bread. The
fatherless and the widows are people under natural works religion. Me and you, everybody in this
world as we're born into this world are spiritually fatherless
and spiritual widows and he is a father to the fatherless and
widows and we'll see how he carries that out back in Deuteronomy
10. Told you to leave your finger
there, we'll be back and forth. Here's how He carries out His
grace and mercy on the fatherless and widows. Deuteronomy 10 verse
18. He doth execute the judgment
of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger in giving
him food and raiment." Love gives. True love gives. There's many
times in Scripture when it talks about the love of Christ, and
lots of times like in Ephesians chapter 5 it says, Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. True love gives. does give. It just doesn't talk the game.
It walks the game. It just doesn't talk about it.
It walks about it. Walks about in love. Giving. And He gave food and raiment
to strangers. What is this food and raiment?
You that have been here long enough, you know exactly what
I'm going to say because we've got a pastor that preaches that
food and raiment every sermon. It's Christ. He's the bread of
our life. He's the raiment. He's our covering.
He's our righteousness. And He's everything to a believer.
We need physical food to fill these physical bodies. We need
the spiritual food and bread of Christ to fill our spiritual
bodies. And He's the bread. It's spoken of in John 6, many,
many verses. We're not going to look at them,
but John 6, where He is the bread of life, speaks of physical Israel,
ate the manna on the ground. And they're dead. Yet some of
those physical Israelites were spiritual Israelites. And they
ate that bread in faith, knowing that it was the broken body of
their Savior coming to save them. His broken body. And that was
their life and that was their hope. And they ate that in faith.
And so do we. And His raiment that He gives
these strangers is His perfect righteousness. Ezekiel chapter
16. Just like Pam was singing about
before the service, this perfect robe of righteousness is Ezekiel
chapter 16. We're starting in verse 13. Speaking of His people here.
Thus was thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was
a fine linen, and we know from revelations that fine linen is
a righteousness of saints. And silk embroidered work, thou
didst eat fine flour and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding
beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom, and thy renown
went forth among the heathen for thy beauty." It's considered
our beauty. He gives it to us. That thy is
a possessive pronoun. For it was perfect through my
comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." That's
such a... to think that He would take that
perfect righteousness of His and count it to us and give it
to us freely and to give us, as strangers to grace, the food
and raiment of Christ, the same way that He's loved us and give
to us, we're supposed to love and give to strangers to grace
by telling them of the food and raiment that's found in Christ.
He said in verse 19, we don't have to turn back to Deuteronomy
at this time, but he said in verse 19, Love ye therefore in
the same manner the stranger, for ye were strangers in the
land of Egypt, as Christ loved us even when we were strangers
to grace and dead in sins. Ephesians 2 verse 4 and 5. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us even when we were dead in sins, strangers to grace, hath
quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. What great
love! that even when we were children
of wrath, even as others, dead in sin, stiff-necked, proud,
greedy God-haters, that even then, for Christ's sakes, He
loved us, saved us, called us, and united us to Christ. What
love He's shown to strangers. And we're to love strangers the
same way that He loved us, with Christ being our food and raiment.
We're to tell strangers of the food and raiment found in Christ.
So in the same manner that Christ loved us and gave Himself for
us even when we were strangers and foreigners to grace and citizens
of this world's religion, we are to love strangers to grace
by praying for them and bringing them to hear of the food and
raiment of Christ in the gospel of God's free salvation by grace.
Let's read about that in 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter
2. We'll read the first four verses. 1 Timothy 2 verse 1, I exhort therefore that first
of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks
be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority.
that we may lead a quiet, peaceful life in all godliness and honesty."
In other words, what he's saying there, instead of protesting
our leaders, let's try praying for them. For this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all
men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. And
I'm guilty of this just as everybody in here, so instead of deriding,
mocking, making light of, putting down, ridiculing, taunting, insulting,
laughing at, and making fun of those thousands of people flocking
through the wide doors of all these false prophet churches,
we should be praying for them. For that was us, and still would
be us, if not for the grace of God intervening. We'd be right
there with them, worshiping Joel Osteen. We'd be right there with
them. And the Lord had mercy on us
as strangers to grace and we're to have mercy on strangers to
grace by praying for them and telling them of the food and
raiment found in Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, turn
back a couple books. Now, how did we get to be so
different? How did we get to be one of God's
children, adopted in Christ? By anything we did, or was it
all of His grace? Look in 1 Corinthians 4, verse
7. For who maketh thee to differ? And that word differ means to
be distinguished or to separate thoroughly. Who maketh thee to
differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Now we
are all different, physically, mentally, emotionally, we're
different. But a believer is a different bird altogether.
They're perfectly holy and beautiful to God through this food and
raiment that Christ has given them. And how did we get to be
that different? Was it anything we did, thought,
prayed, talked about? It was the grace of God coming
down in mercy while we was out I traveled through so many churches
before the Lord landed me here and I was a stranger to grace
and he had mercy on me. Just through one yellow page
ad I saw a word Todd's Road Grace Church and I said I don't know
why there's a word grace in that I'll go check it out and I've
been here ever since and everybody in here has a different story,
if you want to call it, how he's had mercy on strangers to grace.
In the same way that he's shown mercy to us, we should be that
compassionate and that merciful to all these people that are
strangers to grace outside of here. He commands us to do that. Too bad he's got to command us
to do that. Too bad we couldn't be that way on our own, but we've
got such hard hearts, it just doesn't happen naturally. Look
over in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11. Here's our state by nature before
the Lord saved us. Let's start in verse 11. Ephesians
2 verse 11, Wherefore remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which
is called the circumcision by the Jews in the flesh made by
hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." That's
a pretty bleak description of me and you before the Lord saved
us. without Christ, aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel. But aliens means a non-participant.
You got a basketball game, you got 5 on 5 and there's 11 kids
and that one kid sits out and he just does not, he's a non-participant. We were non-participants in grace.
We were foreigners to grace. We didn't understand the grace
language. We thought free still meant we had to bring something
or come up with something or work up something. We never understood
that free means free with Christ and salvation by grace. Buy physical
food, the price keeps going up and up every day, cost keeps
going up. The bread of Christ is free. No money, no price. It's free for the asking. And
may He give us grace to ask for that mercy. And may He give us
grace to ask for mercy for strangers to grace outside of here. Now that we know and we've heard
and we've seen how the Lord has been gracious to us, even when
we were dead in sins and children of wrath, even as others, and
we were strangers by salvation to grace, in the same manner,
therefore, in the same manner, therefore, that He had mercy
on us. As Christ loved us and gave His life for us, and giving
us the food and raiment of His broken body and His perfect righteousness,
in the same manner that He loved and gave to us, we're to love
and give to strangers, and telling them of the food and raiment
that's found in Christ. We're not to be mocking or jeering
or deriding or belittling them, but we're to bow in our heart
and have compassion on them, even as God, for Christ's sake,
has had compassion on us. Matthew chapter 5. This will
be the last verse we look at. Actually verses, but the last
chapter. Matthew 5 verse 43. Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love
you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more
than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, mature, even as your Father, which is
in heaven, is perfect. Show your love to enemies, even
as God has had mercy on us, while we were by nature enemies to
Him. Pray for them. Pray for these
strangers to grace. You can hand them a bulletin.
You can mail them a CD. You can tell them the name of
somebody to listen to on sermon audio. There's so many ways. You can email. You can text.
I know all these ways because I use them because I'm so timid
and awkward around people. I'll use whatever means I can
though. I set out a bulletin on the break table at work. There's
so many ways of communication nowadays and every one of those
ways of communication needs to be to bring people here to hear
the one way of communication. That's God speaking to us in
the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
Gospel that their soul may be saved and a stranger to grace
may become a lover of grace. That's how we're to treat these
people. And they still make ink pens.
You can still write letters. They still do. I saw one the
other day. But I do write letters every
now and then. And for somebody to think that
you took the time to sit down with them on your thoughts and
to handwrite out a letter carries a little more weight, I think,
than some other things. So, any means that you can use to communicate
with somebody, to these strangers to grace, in love to them, in
praying for them, to bring them under the sound of the gospel.
Therefore, as Christ has loved us and gave to us, we're to love
and give to these strangers to grace. Let's try.

Love The Stranger

What does the Bible say about loving strangers?

Why is loving strangers important for Christians?

How do we know God's grace is true?

What does it mean to be strangers to grace?

How should Christians respond to strangers to the gospel?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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Love The Stranger

What does the Bible say about loving strangers?

Why is loving strangers important for Christians?

How do we know God's grace is true?

What does it mean to be strangers to grace?

How should Christians respond to strangers to the gospel?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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