Love

entitled Love, L-O-V-E, Love. And I'm going to read a few verses
from 1 John 4 and then go to my text. Now in our Lord's great
house, in our Lord's kingdom, there are many sons and daughters,
and they are not all of the same nationality. The other night I finished preaching
over in California. Quite unusual, a young man walked
up to me, introduced himself, he said, my name's Bob Snyder,
this is my wife Linda. He said, I'm a full-blooded Jew,
100% Jewish, and my wife's a Gentile. He said, we married not so awful
long ago, and we both loved Christ and loved the gospel. And because
she married a Jew, her mother, who is quite wealthy, has cut
her out of the will completely and caused quite a division in the
home. Just a few minutes later, Doris
and I were sitting over here around a table, visiting with
some friends and a young man came by and handed me a piece
of paper with a article on it that he had written. He said,
I want you to read that and write to me and let me know what you
think about it. I just glanced at it and I said, this your name
down at the bottom? He said, yes. I said, your name's
Pollock. P-O-L-L-O-C-K. I said, we've
got a jewelry store in Iceland run by some polyps. He said,
are they Jew? And I said, I don't know, I guess.
He said, well, I am. He said, I'm a Jew. But I love
the gospel. Isn't that something? Just back
to back. But our Lord in His great house
has many sons and daughters, some Jews, some Gentiles, some
black, some white, some old, some young, some Very educated,
and some not so educated. Male, female. They're not all
with the same background, age, or personality. They're different.
But they all have three things in common. Every single one of them have
three things in common. The first one is this, found
in 1 John 4, verse 10. The first thing they have in
common is this, God loves them. God loves them. You can be sure
of that. If you're His child, and I'm
His child, He loves us. You know, this world uses that
so carelessly, so flippantly. Smile, God loves you. A preacher
will say on television, now God loves you and I love you. Let
me tell you something. If God loves you, and Christ
died for you, God will never cease to love you, and you'll
never perish. You have the guarantee of God
on that. His oath and His promise. You'll never perish if God loves
you. He loves His people. He loves men in Christ. That's
the only way a holy God can love you and me is in Christ. In 1 John 4, verse 10, says,
herein is love, not that we love God, but He loved us. And He sent His Son. He loved
us, He loved us with an everlasting love. That's what He said in
Jeremiah, I've loved you with an everlasting love, therefore
with a lovingkindness have I drawn you. And those whom He loved,
He sent His Son to be the propitiation, the mercy seat. The covering,
the atonement, reconciliation. If God loves you, you're reconciled
to God. Now, that's why we're preaching.
We're hunting the sheep and telling them, you be reconciled to God. He's reconciled to you. See, Christ reconciled us to
Him. Now, the Holy Spirit reconciles
Him to us, you know. Be ye reconciled to God. Lay
down your shotgun. Put up your sword. The war is
over. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
That's right. God loved you before He saved
you. Christ didn't come down here
to get God in the notion of loving you. He came because Christ did
love you. For God so loved the world that
He gave you something. His son didn't come in order
to make God love us. His son came because He did love
us. Every believer has this in common.
He's an object of infinite, unchangeable, everlasting love. God loves them. I promise you that. Secondly, they all love Him. Ever one of them, without exception.
Verse 19, look at this. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. But we love Him. We love Him.
Not a question about it. Old John Newton said this about
prayer. John Newton, talking about prayer,
said, Prayer is to the spiritual man what breath is to the natural
man. I'd as soon expect a natural
man to live without breathing as to expect a spiritual man
to live without praying. Impossible. Same thing can be
said of the love of God and our love for Him. It's shed abroad
in our heart by the Holy Spirit. And I'd as soon expect a natural
man to live without breathing as a spiritual man to live without
loving God. It's impossible. Impossible. Impossible. He cannot be saved and not love
God. I hear people say, well, Christians
ought to love the Lord. They do. Christians ought to
pray. They do. Every last one of them,
without exception. Christian ought to be forgiving
of others. They are. Christian ought to
worship God. They do. That's right. That's right. They love God.
Without exception. They love Christ. Christ loves
them. Christ loves them, they love Him thirdly. And they love
each other. 1 John 4, verse 20, Brother Cecil
read, if a man say, I love God and hates his brother, he's a
liar. And no argument about it. John
didn't say, I think he's a liar. He didn't say, he acts like a
liar. He said, he is one. He's not telling the truth. The
man say, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. He
that loveth not His brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen? This is his commandment that
we have from him, that we, he who loveth God, love his brother.
It's impossible to love God, not love those forgotten of God.
I had a fellow ask me last week this, he said, well, is it our
duty to love all men? I said, well, I don't I don't
look on it as a duty, but I believe a sensible, intelligent person
who knows God has every reason to love all men. Like Cecil said
a moment ago, we're all dug out of the same pit. If we're not
brothers in Christ, we're brothers in Adam. How could you not feel
pity and compassion for the blind people in the pit from which
God dug you? We're just like them. That's
right. They're all the same father,
same blood. Goes back to Adam. You know, we feel pity and compassion for
men. We may not love their ways. We
may not love their attitude. But how could we help? Not help,
but pity and feel compassion. If it weren't for God's grace,
we'd be just like them. But I tell you this, there's
coming a day when we have the... You say, well, does God love
them that way? No. There's coming a day... Turn to Revelation 19. Let me
show you something here now. See, there's coming a day when
I'm going to be like God. I'm not right now. And I'll use
this personal illustration. I have one brother, two years
older than I. He died. 26 years ago, 25 years
ago, 24 years ago, something like that. Heart attack. But I love my brother. We came
from the same mother, brought up the same home. We were just
21 months apart. We played together and fought
together and lived together. I love my brother, but we're
different. I love the gospel. He didn't love the gospel. As
far as I know. I have a lot of interest in the gospel. He'd
get up and leave the room if he started talking about Christ
or the gospel. And my hope is in the Savior.
Totally and completely. His is not. As far as I know. And one day we're going to be
at the judgment. And I'm in Christ and he's going
to say, enter ye blessed into the kingdom prepared for you
before the foundation of the world. It's a good possibility
he's going to say to my brother, depart from me into everlasting
condemnation. Now what's going to be my reaction?
You know what my reaction's going to be? Praise the Lord. Praise
the Lord. I couldn't do that now. You just
can't do it now. I don't like hell. I don't like
the thought of hell. I don't like the idea of anybody
going to hell. Because you see, I'm not like God. I don't have
that holy, perfect, immaculate, sinless nature that hates sin,
that despises sin so much, he nailed his son to the cross.
Will he send my brother to hell? He sent his son to hell for sin,
not even his own, but mine and yours. Huh? He spared not his
own son. Why? He hated sin. God hates
sin. God will punish sin. God will
cast rebellious sinners into hell. God is going to destroy
every enemy, whether his name is Mahan, Trabant, or Bartram. Isn't that right, Kim? Every
enemy. And every believer is going to say hallelujah when
God sends them to hell, no matter how close they are to you. Because
then, you're going to be like Him. You're going to have His
nature, His mind, His heart, His soul. And what's repulsive
to Him will be just as repulsive to you, no matter where you find
it, or in whom you find it. Revelation 19, listen now. Revelation
19-1, After these things I heard a great voice of much people
in heaven. What were they saying? Salvation,
hallelujah. Salvation, glory and honor and
power unto the Lord our God. but true and righteous are his
judgments. His what? His judgments. He hath judged
the great whore, that's the religious organization, which did corrupt
the earth with her fornication. He hath avenged the blood of
his servants at her hand. They hated his preachers, and
they persecuted his preachers, and harassed his preachers, and
shed the blood of his people. And God's going to judge them.
And again they said hallelujah. Who said that? All those people
in heaven, they said hallelujah, and her smoke arose up forever.
In other words, the saved shout hallelujah while God sends men
to hell. Now I told you I can't do that
now, and you can't either. You just can't do it. You're
not like God. But you will. You will. You're going to be like God.
Going to be like God. But as we are now, it's like
our Lord. Our Lord told us to love all
men. Pray for all men. Pray for them. Feel compassion for them. But
those three things are simple, but they're true. God loves us. We love Him. And we love each
other. Even the rebellious. Yes, even
the profane. Even those who don't love Him. There's a sense in which His
enemies, David said, are my enemies. But there's a sense in which
they are my brothers in the flesh. My sons and daughters and relatives
and friends. And I love them. Wish I loved
them more. But someday, I'm going to be
on God's side in this thing, 100%. Really and truly, 100%. And I'll have no regrets. Because if God let anything into
His kingdom that would work or make or lie, we'd have the same
mess all over again. If God let one thought, if God let one question or even
one doubt into that everlasting kingdom, that wasn't one enemy,
that wasn't totally in subjection to Christ, and could not say
unreservedly to Him be all the glory, we'd start all over again. Back in the mess we're in. I
want this mess over with. Once for all, don't you? Once
for all. Once for all. Now, let me show
you two or three other scriptures in reference to this business
of love. 1 Corinthians 16, 22. Turn over there a moment. 1 Corinthians
16, 22. Paul literally holds out no hope. No hope for a man who does not
love. No hope. In 1 Corinthians 16,
verse 22, says, if any man, any man, Love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be accursed. That word anathema means accursed. Maranatha means the Lord's coming. Let him be accursed when the
Lord comes. Now listen to me. We may lack courage. Peter did. We may lack courage. We may fall
as David. David fell. Great temptation. We may have differences, like
Paul and Barnabas. They fell out over John Mark.
You remember they had an argument, and Paul went that way, and Barnabas
went that way. We may have doubts, like Thomas. Poor old Thomas. They said, the
Lord's risen. He said, I don't believe it.
He wish he hadn't have said that a many times. They have doubts
like Thomas. But I tell you this, we do love
Christ. Peter said that. He said, Lord,
you know I love you. Not like I ought to. Not like
I want to. Not like I'm going to. But I
do love you. Don't you? I'm sure you do. I
know you. Turn to Ephesians 6. Listen to
this. These verses are so strong on this matter of love. And we'll
get to this thing right on through if you'll follow me. Ephesians
6, verse 24. Paul's signing off in this epistle
to the Ephesians, and he says in the last verse, grace be,
grace be with all them. Now, he didn't stop there. He's
saying God's speed, grace, God bless you, God's favor, rest
upon you, mercy unto all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ
in sincerity. John told us not to bid a man
Godspeed if he was contrary to Christ. So the Apostle Paul is
saying grace, mercy, peace be on all of you who love Christ
in sincerity. That's right. And then in 1 Corinthians
13, listen to this one. Oh, my. 1 Corinthians 12. got this big discussion about
the gifts, about the gifts, the gift of healing, the gift of
interpretation, the gift of tongues, and the gift of prophecy, and
the working of miracles, and all these things that were active
in the Church at that time before the completion of the Scriptures. And Paul says in verse 31 of
1 Corinthians 12, he said, "...covered earnestly the best gifts, Ain't
nothing wrong with that, to want to be used of God. Covet the
best gifts. But I'm going to show you something
better than gifts, better than tongues, something better than
faith. Or what? Yeah, something better
than faith. Something better than interpretation
or prophecies. For He says in verse 1, chapter
13, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have
not love, I'm become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
Nobody wants to hear me. And even if they did, it wouldn't
accomplish anything. It'd be just like ringing a tinkling
cymbal or a big gong. Verse 2, Though I have the gift
of prophecy, and understand the mysteries, I know the mysteries,
and I got the knowledge, and I have faith, so that I can really
get the job done, and have not love. Oh, Mr. Nothing from nowhere.
Oh, Mr. Nobody from nowhere. Just be
gone. Don't slam the door when you
leave. Don't go away mad, just go away. Nothing. That's right. Oh, verse three, though I bestow
my goods to feed the poor, I'm a philanthropist and a generous
person, and I help feed the children, all these things. Give my body
to be burned, you know, for my adoption. I'll die as a martyr
for particular redemption. I'll fight with you over it.
Die for it, and have not love. I ought to save that gas and
took a trip to Florida, you know, instead of dousing myself with
it, setting myself on fire, you know. Be better. Try it. Profit and end up. Boy, it's
powerful, isn't it? Our Lord set Peter down around
the fire after he fed the disciples. He's going to get some things
settled here now. John 21, you want to turn over there a minute?
Going to get this thing, all this thing settled. before he
sends Peter out to preach the gospel, he's going to get this
thing settled. And verse 15, in John 21, so when they died,
Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, John 21, 15, son of Jonah, are
you converted? No, that's not what he asked
him. Are you sorry you denied me? Peter was sorry, the Lord
knew that. Will you not do it again? Will
you be true and faithful from now on? Will you serve me? Will
you obey me?" Now listen, Peter, son of Jonah, do you love me
more than these? Now listen, he wasn't pointing
to the other disciples when he said that, more than these. No,
the Lord would never do that. He'd never do that. Jim, he'd
never said, you love me more than Ronnie? He wouldn't do that.
No, sir. Peter had already told him he
loved him more than the rest of them. He said, they may deny
you, I never will. And he found out he didn't. What our Lord
was doing was pointing to those nets and those boats and that's
it. That was Peter's life. He was
a fisherman. He didn't fish, like you do,
as a hobby. His dead serious business with
him is a livelihood. It was his vocation, it was his
profession, it was his life. Those nets, those boats, that
sea, those fish, you love me more than all these things. Because Peter had gone, he'd
quit the ministry and gone fishing. That's what he's doing out there
when the Lord called him. He told the other disciples,
said, I'm going back fishing. And they said, you just wait
and we'll go with you. And then our Lord brought him in, sat
him down and said, all right, there it is. You love me more than
those things? Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, you know I love you.
Then you go feed my lambs. That's all. That's the basis. Simple as it is, simple as it
is, plain as it is, easy as it is to understand, this is still
the foundation of our relationship with Him, what we are, what we
do, what we hope to be. If you love me, you'll keep my
commandments. If you love me, you'll feed my
sheep. If you love me, you're born of
God. If you love me, all things work
together for good to them who love me. That's it. That's where it is. Now turn
to Romans 15. Let me show you something over
here. Romans 15. This is so good for us to come
over this again and again and again because now about it, faith,
hope, and love, the greatest of these is love. Someday faith
will give way to sight. I won't need faith anymore. Someday hope will give way to
reality, and I won't hope anymore. That's right. Someday I'll be
without faith, because I'm going to see. And what you see, you
don't need faith. Someday I'm going to be without
hope. I won't need hope, because what does a man hope for if he
has it? Going to give way to reality. But I can never do without
love. That's it. Love Him. Love Him. All right. I was going to run
through this a little bit and show you some things here. Now,
we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the
weak and not to please ourselves. Now, no believer claims to be
strong in himself. There's not a person here that
is strong that wouldn't say, I'm not strong. Isn't that right? Not a person here who is mature
in the faith, in Christ, and plenty of you are. You've been
around a long time. And you're mature, and you're strong. But
not a one of you'd say, I'm strong. I'm mature. No, you wouldn't. What we're talking about here
is this. No believer's strong in himself. Not in himself. We're strong in Christ. We're
strong in faith. We believe. You do. You've proved
it through the years. You've stood up against those
even close to you who've attacked you over the gospel. You're strong.
You've proved it by perseverance. You've proved it by generosity.
You've proved it by conviction. You've proved it by years of
faithfulness. You've proved you're strong in
the gospel. You won't hear any other gospel. You're strong in
the faith of Christ. You're strong in the atonement.
You're strong in the righteousness of Christ. You're strong in the
liberty of Christ and won't let anybody take it away from you.
You're strong men. But we don't claim to be strong
in ourselves. We're weak in ourselves. But when we're weak in ourselves,
we're strong in Him. Because we lean more on Him than
Him. And that makes us strong. My
strength is His strength. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
am I strong. And what he's saying here is,
you people that are strong in Christ, and strong in the gospel,
and strong in faith, and strong in love, and strong in the truth,
bear the infirmities of the babes, and the weak, and the young,
and the folks that have just come along. We ought to understand
them. We've been there. We ought to
forgive them. We've been there. We ought to bear with their doubts,
and their differences, and their fears, and their failures, and
their weaknesses, and their infirmities. And if there's reconciliation
and forgiveness to be made, you do it. Because you're strong.
Don't wait for the weak to forgive you. You forgive Him. Don't wait
for the weak brother, the less mature brother, the young brother
to be reconciled to you. You be reconciled to Him. We
that are strong! I'll tell you a little story. I won't tell you which son it
was. I have three sons and three grandsons. Four grandsons, haven't
I? But all of them been in Little
League Baseball. Little League Baseball. It's
an experience. Little League Baseball is not
altogether for little leaguers, it's for parents and coaches
and umpires. That's who gets the charge out
of Little League Baseball. One of my sons had a coach, a
manager, that left a whole lot to be desired. He nearly ruined
Little League Baseball for this particular son. They had a little
problem. The son was 11, the manager was
51. Quite an age difference there.
Not really, maturity, but quite an age difference. Anyway, they
fell out, and the boy was ostracized, and I went to see him. And I
said, what's the problem? He said, well, we've had differences.
We've had words, and I'm waiting on him to apologize. I said,
how old are you? He said, 51. I said, a 51-year-old
man? is waiting on an 11-year-old
boy to be reconciled to him, I said, what's wrong with you?
You've got problems. And this is what this is saying
in very simple language. We that are strong in the faith,
in Christ, in the gospel, ought to bear, forbear, put up with,
overlook, forgive the infirmities, the weaknesses, the failures,
the doubts, the fears, the fallings, the stumbling of those that are
young, and babes, and weak, and not to please ourselves. What
this fellow was doing was pleasing himself. He had a position, he
had taken, he was going to hold on to it, no matter what it did
to that young fellow. No matter how it affected him.
Look at the next verse. Let every one of you please his
neighbor for he's good. Look for his good. for his edification. Now understand, no part of the
gospel is to be sacrificed. We're not talking about that.
I wouldn't compromise the gospel to please anybody. Paul said,
if I please men, I'm not the servant of Christ. He meant preaching
the gospel. Now, we don't compromise any
part of the gospel for peace. We don't sacrifice any part of
the truth for unity. No part of the revealed Word
of God is to be compromised to keep anybody happy. Not even
a weak brother. This wouldn't edify him, would
it? Look at what it says. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good to edification. If I compromised the gospel,
I wouldn't edify him, would I Cecil? That wouldn't edify the man.
Well, what are we talking about here? I'll tell you what we're
talking about. We're talking about matters of personality. Human failings. Wounded feelings. Neglect. Misunderstandings. The
thing for us to do if we're strong, if we're mature, is give in. Give in. Just go ahead and give
in. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another as God, for Christ's sake, forgave you. Ten million
times He's forgiven me. And that's the next verse says,
for even Christ, please, not Himself, But I've got my rights, I know,
let's surrender them. This whole country is being ruined
right now by rights, by people claiming their rights. That's
what's hurting the whole shooting match. Our Lord pleased not Himself. What does that mean? That means
this, His divine nature rose up against every failing of His
disciples. They fail so miserably all the
time. And you know how it must have
agitated him. Oh, listen to what he said. Oh,
ye of little faith, wherein did you doubt? He came back in and
said, Lord, wake up! You going to let us drown? Let's
see, he's taking over! Oh, he said, wherein did you
doubt? And then he came there and he'd
gone to pray there in the weight of Gethsemane. He told them,
he said, watch with me now, I'll be back. I'm going up here to
pray. The cross, the shadow of the cross is right across my
footsteps. You watch and pray now, lest
you enter into temptation." He went over and prayed, and he
came back, and they were all sound asleep. He said, ah, could you
not watch with me just an hour? Finally, when he came back the
second or third time, he said, well, just sleep on. He pleased
not himself. He said to Philip one time, you
don't know me? I've been so long time with you,
Philip, and you don't know me? Peter bragged about and said,
I'll never deny you. He said, Peter, before the cock
crows three times, you'll deny you even know me. Even Christ
pleased not himself. He still loved them. He still
comforted them. He still encouraged them. But
as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell
on me. What's this saying? I'll tell
you what it's saying. Our sins and our faults and our guilt
against God the Father fell on Christ. And his soul hated that
sin, but he bore it. He bore it. His body hated the
pain, but he bore it. His heart felt the hatred of
the multitude, but he bore it. All for our sake. And what this
is saying here, we that are strong, see the whole thing woven together,
we that are strong, bear the infirmities of the weak and don't
please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good, hold him, keep him, please him for his
good, gratification, because our Lord was patient with us
and long-suffering with us and pleased not himself. And the
reproaches of them that approached thee fell on me. And we may get
hurt and wounded now, but it'll be worth it. Years ago, a young man wrote
to me. He was married, had a family. And he said, I'd like to come
to Iceland and listen to you preach and learn something about
what you preach and what you believe, what you stand for,
what that church, want to fellowship with your church. I said, come
on. So take care of your business
and move on up here. A little lady wrote me and he
said, before I come, he said, I want to be, I want to level
with you. He said, I didn't, I wasn't totally honest with
you when I wrote the first time. He said, I've got a lot of problems.
I got a lot of problems in my background. A lot of trouble.
A lot of, a lot of things that, for which I've received a lot
of criticism. A lot of people know about it,
often other places. He said, well, you still have
me. I said, come on. Come on. I didn't even tell Doris about
it. I didn't tell any of you. I didn't want anybody in this
church to know anything about that man's background. I knew. And he knew. And God knew. And that's all that was necessary.
He got along fine. You loved him. You opened the
door. Some of you gave him work. He learned some things. Things
all right. I bore it silently. And I was
criticized heavily for it in other places. In fact, just this
last week over in California, a man called me an antinomian
because of my friendship with this man. That's all right. And I didn't explain anything
to him either. He didn't deserve an explanation. I don't have to explain to anybody
When you, you don't have to explain when you're showing compassion
to a friend. Don't you offer an explanation. You're doing
it for Christ's sake. As He forgave you, you've forgiven
them for Christ's sake. And that's good enough. Isn't
it? Good enough. And that's what this is teaching.
My Lord, the reproaches of them that reproached fell on Him.
He hated the sin, but He bore it silently as a sheep before
a shearer's dog. He didn't tell anybody. That's
right. And tell you verse 4, these things
you see are written before time were written for our learning.
That's right. How do you explain Lot, yet God
was so favorable to him? How do you explain Abraham and
Jacob? Come on, work up Jacob for me.
God was long-suffering and patient. But I'll tell you what those
things do for me. What sort of things were written
aforetime were written for my learning that we, through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. If He'll save
a Jacob, He'll save me. If He'll forgive Abraham or David,
He'll forgive me. Won't He? A lot? Righteous lot. Righteous where? In Christ. Boy,
that gives me courage. Now, verse 5. Now, the God of
patience, isn't He though? The God of comfort grant you
to be that way, grant you to be like-minded, like-minded one
toward another according to Christ Jesus. The God, here's what He's saying,
verse 5, the God of patience and comfort, the God who bore
our sins, who heard our confessions, who healed our hurt, who forgave
us ten billion times, who lifted us after every fall, who loved
us in spite of ourselves, that God grant you, give to you that
same compassion, patience, and comfort to be like-minded toward
one another according to Christ Jesus. Now watch this, that you
may with one mind, one mouth, one heart, one message, one song,
one body, do what? Glorify God. even as the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works, your love, your grace,
your kindness, and glorify your Father in heaven. How can I glorify
God? Well, let me tell you this, and
I'll close. Number one, God is glorified
when the perfections of His nature are recognized. He's God. Let God be God. Secondly, God
is glorified when the work of His hands, whether in creation
or providence or salvation, is praised. Praise God from whom
all blessings flow. Thirdly, God is glorified when
His people, I beg your pardon, God is glorified when His gospel
of grace in Christ is preached clearly, boldly. Preach the gospel. That glorifies God. It's called
the gospel of His glory. Fourthly, God is glorified when
His people approach Him through Christ in worship, praise, adoration,
thanksgiving, sacrifices of prayer and praise unto our God. That
glorifies God. Fifthly, God is glorified when
our lives and our conduct and our conversation are agreeable
to our calling. That's right. When we walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith we're called. That glorifies God. Let
your light so shine. And I know that a lot of people
say, that's the gospel. You wouldn't be where you were
without the gospel, but we're not talking there about the gospel.
We're talking about let your light so shine that they may
see your good works, your kindness, what God's done for you. You
see, he's not going to pass out to us a bunch of trophies. We
are the trophy. He says he's, in Ephesians, he
said he's going to gather together all things in Christ that the
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus might
be exalted. We are His trophies. And when
we act like it and show forth His praise and His love and His
mercy and adorn the doctrine of God our Savior with kindness
and good works and love and peace and joy and faith, then God is
glorified. Look over at chapter 14, verse
17. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us follow
therefore, let us therefore follow after the things which make for
peace and the things wherewith one may edify another. Now verse
7, chapter 15. Wherefore receive ye one another. Receive, welcome, embrace, take
in, love, forgive one another. as Christ also received us to
the glory of God.

Love

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