In the third chapter of Colossians,
verse 1, Paul says, if you be risen with Christ. So this chapter
is definitely a word to believers, a word to those who know Christ. And the apostle deals with some
mighty important themes in this chapter for the believer. It's
written to believe. If you then be risen with Christ. Well, let me give you several
of them and then get to the heart of the message. First of all,
he says, if you are risen with Christ, if you are a believer,
then seek those things which are above. In other words, seek
the heavenly country. Seek Christ and His righteousness. Seek spiritual blessings such
as peace and life and joy and everlasting glory. Seek those
things. And then he says in verse 2,
and set your affections or set your hearts and minds not on
the things of this world, on materialism and those things,
set your affections on things above. Set your affections on
spiritual things. They that walk in the Spirit
do mind, or they are concerned about the things of the Spirit.
They that walk in the flesh do mind, or they are concerned about
the things of the flesh. So he says, if you are risen
with Christ, then set your hearts and minds on spiritual things. And then in verse 5, he says,
mortify or put to death. these sinful desires and practices
which remain in your flesh. Just put them to death. Mortify
them. Crucify them. And then he says
down in verse 8, put off all these. And he begins with the heart.
Three things that are marks of a bad attitude and spirit that
deal with the heart. Anger, wrath, and malice. And
then he deals with three things that have to do with the tongue,
blasphemy, vulgarity, and lying. And then he says, put on the
new man, down here in verse 12, put on as the elect of God, holy
and beloved, vows of mercy and kindness and humility and meekness
and longsuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another,
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you and the peace of God reign
in your hearts and let all things be done for the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then right in the middle
of this, he goes on in the rest of the chapter talking about
the peace of God reigning and the Word of God dwelling and
how wives and husbands and children and fathers and servants and
masters ought to conduct themselves. But right in the middle of all
of these things, As Paul talks to the believers, he said, if
you're risen with Christ, if you're a child of God, and he
deals with these mighty things, but right in the middle of it,
verse 14, he says, above all these things, above even setting
your heart on spiritual things and seeking the heavenly country
and mortifying the flesh, putting off the old man, putting on the
new man, letting the peace of God rule in your heart, letting
the Word of God dwell in you and richness and wives and husbands
and children, making a happy and spiritual home. Above all these things, look
at verse 14, above all these things, put on love. Put on love. Put on love, which he says holds
everything else together. That's what he said, which is
the bond of perfectness. Love which binds everything together
in unity and harmony. Put on love. Now, this verse
doesn't stand alone. I looked at the verse there and
I thought, my, my, here's Paul dealing with these heavy and
great and mighty themes. about seeking the heavenly country,
and seeking spiritual things, and setting our hearts on them,
and crucifying the flesh daily, and putting on the new man. And
then right in the middle of all that, he says, above all this,
above all this, all these things, put on love. Does this verse
stand alone? Well, let's see. Turn to 1 Peter
4. If this was the only verse in
the Scripture, emphasizing the priority of love, then we might,
it would be true, no question about that, but we might not
lean as heavily upon it as we do in view of the fact there's
so many more. Now listen to this in 1 Peter
4 verse 8, and above all things, and above all things, have fervent,
and the word fervent there is is strong, unfailing, and one,
the translation, white hot, love, charity among yourselves. For love shall cover, love shall
overlook, love shall bear up under all sins or multitude of
sins. So there is above all things.
So in Colossians 3, Paul listing these such important things and
teachings, but he says above all these things put on love,
which is the cement or the tie that binds everything together,
holds it together. And then in this verse he says
above all things have fervent charity among yourselves. For
that kind of love, that fervent love, that strong love, that
white hot love, that That love which is unfailing will overlook
infirmities and failures and afflictions and sins and all
these things. But let's see some more. Let's
go back to Matthew and start at the beginning of the New Testament.
And what I'm emphasizing now is this, that the Word of God
is teaching above all things, put on love, above everything
else. And Paul wrote, he said, I may
speak with the tongues of men and of angels. In the church
at Corinth there were people who were speaking in tongues.
They had the gift of tongues, a marvelous gift to speak the
gospel in language that they had never learned. But Paul said,
I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have
not love from a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And then
there were people who had who had, in the early church, were
wealthy people. And they had sold their land
and brought the money to be distributed among the brethren. And he said,
though I give my goods to feed the poor, and there were some
who had been burned at the stake, and my body to be burned and
have not loved, it profiteth me nothing. And then there were
some who had great faith, you know, the faith to move mountains. and they understood the prophecies
and they could interpret the scriptures and he said, though
I understand all mysteries and have all knowledge and have not
love, I am nothing. Boy, I tell you, we're on a subject,
you know, you'd think with this kind of emphasis in the scripture
on this subject of the grace of love that it would be the
primary theme of every pastor who preaches to a congregation,
especially a congregation of believers. I know we must preach
the gospel of substitution and grace and redemption and righteousness
of Christ to unbelievers, but to the believer. It looks like
this would be the primary theme. And it looks like it would be
the subject of discussion among believers with our Lord putting
this kind of emphasis on it. And it would seem that this would
be sought, that we would seek this gift, this grace, People
run around wanting folks to lay hands on them so they can speak
in tongues. It looks like that they had rather have this grace
of love than that. Paul said he had. Folks are wanting to do things,
do this, do that, do the other, be this, be that, be the other.
Looks like they'd want the grace of love. It looks like they would
seek that above everything else. If I had that, I wouldn't need
anything else. Because he says, above all things.
And it looks like, it looks like, that the absence of this grace
would scare you to death. It does, doesn't it? It looks
like the absence of this grace of love. I was shocked. I haven't said
anything about it, didn't intend to, but I'm going to anyway.
But I was shocked when I thought about reading that letter from
Chuck different reasons folks were given for the reason Chuck
left here. I couldn't believe what I heard.
I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe that it's
one of the only times in a long time that I've been ashamed of
this church. Not this church, but one or two
folks that I talk too much. But we make up, love doesn't
make up things. Love doesn't even tell the truth
if it hurts. Do you know that? Love covers
error. Love unites friends, doesn't
divide them. Love does not bring accusations.
Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. Love is not glad when others
go wrong. Love rejoices, not in iniquity.
Love does not puff up itself. It doesn't do it. And it looks
like that when we see this is absent, when we see the fruits
and evidences of love are not in our lives and in our tongues
and in our minds and in our hearts, it looks like it scares us to
death. Especially when our Lord says, I may have these other
things and have not love, I'm nothing. It profiteth me nothing. Matthew, look at this in Matthew
22 verse 36. Which is the greatest law? Which
is the greatest commandment in the law? Matthew 22, 36. And Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and great commandment. This is the first and great commandment
and the second is likened to it. I shall love thy neighbors
as thyself, and on these two hang the whole Barnard said shooting
match." Hanging on those two things. Love. L-O-V-E. The whole thing. Oh, that turned
to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. Above all things. 1 Corinthians 13. And I've quoted some of it, but
let's look at the last verse. 1 Corinthians 13, and now, abideth,
or continuing. He's talked about whether they
be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether it be tongues, they shall
cease. Verse 8, whether it be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
We just know in part, prophesy in part. But now abideth. These three things continue.
They abide. They do not pass away. Faith,
hope and love. And the greatest of these is
love. And the greatest. That puts it
number one. Nothing even comes close to it.
Nothing challenges it. All this prophecy and tongues
and understanding and faith and all these things don't even come
close. L-O-V-E. L-O-V-E. Then turn to John 13, 34, 35. John 13, 34 and 35. Listen, he
says in verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one
another as I have loved you, that you also love one another
by this, by this. Not by your intellect, not by
your doctrinal orthodoxy, not by your creeds and and enthusiasm,
but by this shall all men know you my disciples." This is the
evidence, this is the characteristic, that you love one another. That's
the master's faith, that you love one another. And then when
the fruit of the Holy Spirit, in Galatians 5, 22 is given,
when the great apostle Paul wrote of the fruit of the Holy Spirit,
the first section or characteristic or attribute he was pleased to
mention was love. Galatians 5.22, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love. And then in 1 John, let's look
at 1 John a moment. In 1 John chapter 4, he says
in 1 John 4 verse 7, 1 John 4 verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and every
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. And he that
loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. I'm talking
about a love for Christ, a love for His person, a love for His
glory. A sincere affection, an unfailing,
undying affection for his gospel and his glory and all things
that pertain to him. I'm talking about, Paul is talking
about in the writers of Holy Scripture, talking about a love
for believers. I spoke in Michigan the other
night on the importance of the local church to every believer. And I started this message back
in Genesis, chapter 2, where God made a man and a woman and
brought them together. And He made a family. And as
a first, I don't know the right word to use here, but I use the
word institution, the family. As a first institution on this
earth was a family. When it wasn't two people, it
was a family. And God told that family that they were to be together. They were to leave, for this
cause a man would leave his mother and father and his wife, be joined
to his wife and there'd be one flesh. That's love. He would be united in a harmony
and a love. And husbands all the way through
the scriptures, the scriptures love your wives. Be not bitter
against them. Treat them with honor. Love them. Wives love your husbands. And
older women teach young women to love their husbands. And the
family unit, God ordained the family unit, and there's no reason
for any believers, family units ever being broken up for any
reason, not believers. And if a husband dies, he says
a woman can marry again, but the scripture says only in the
Lord. She cannot marry an unsaved man.
And if a man's wife dies and he marries an unsaved woman,
he's sinning against God and against himself and against Everything
he believes, it says, only in the Lord. That's what Scripture
says. But that's a family unit, and it meets my need. God ordained
the family for the happiness and holiness of the human race.
And the second institution God founded was a church. The church. And those two are the only two
I know. And I know that sometimes families
are broken up and other institutions and organizations and state and
welfare and all this try to do the work of a family. It can't
be done. They might function, provide children with shelter
and food and a place to sleep, you know, and some companionship. But there is no institution known
to man who can take the place that can take the place of a
family. That's the way God ordained it, a family, mother, father,
and children. God ordained it that way. Sin messed the thing
up, you know. But that's the way God ordained
it. And it meets every need. And no other organization outside
the family can meet that need. And woe unto folks that break
up those families and send children out yonder on the mercies of
the public when mothers and daddies ought to be raising them. But
the second institution God ordained was a church. And that church
meets the spiritual needs of his family. God's family is brought
together in a church. And the church has a pastor and
the church has other responsibilities and other people that function
in different places of need and authority and obligations and
all of these different things. And no organization outside the
church. I know folks that have got organizations
all over the country, call them religious organizations, but
they're not found in the Word of God. It's a church. as the
church is set forth in the scripture. Now then, and I presented something
that you'll have to think about a little while, and don't arrive
at a conclusion until you think about it a little while, but
between those two institutions, and every believer here will
know what I'm talking about immediately, some of the rest of you won't
catch on very quick, but after a while, God may be pleased to
show it to you, but of those two, Which is the most important? Now you be careful. Which is
of the greatest importance? Church. That's right. The church
relationship, the church family. Because, and here's the reason.
One day our Lord, the reason I say that, one day our Lord
was preaching to a group of people. His mother and his brothers and
his sisters stood outside and said, we want to see you. And
they came and told the Lord. His mother, brothers and sisters
were outside. And you know what he replied?
Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters?
These who do the will of God. That's right. And then a young
man came to him one day and he said, Master, I'll follow you
whether so ever you go. But let me first go bury my father. My father's an old man and he's
sick and I'm supposed to take care of him. I've got to go wait
until he dies and bury him. Christ said, Let the dead bury
the dead. you take up your cross and follow me." He refused to
let him go home. Another one came and he said,
well, I'll follow you, but let me go and bid them farewell,
which at home any man puts his hand to the plow and looks back,
he's not fit for the kingdom of God. That's what our Lord said. And
then he said this, he said, if any man come to me, let him hate
Mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, yea, his own life
also, or he cannot be my disciple. This is the eternal relationship.
It's like this thing of love. There are some relationships
that you have on this earth that shall not abide. This husband
and wife and mother and father and brother and sister relationship
will last for 70 years and that's it. But this family of God is
forever. The family of God's forever.
That's what we're talking about. A man's enemies may be those
of his own household. That's what the scripture says.
But between the two, there's the family which God instituted
and ordained and established. There's the church. And you know
one of the things God hates? He says, I hate pride, and I
hate he that soweth discord among brethren. I hate them, he said. So this church family, my, my,
my how important it is. This thing of loving one another,
bond that cements us together, that unites our hearts together.
The church is going to be persecuted. The church is going to be hated.
The church is going to be, go through tribulations and trials.
But that love will bind them together in unity and harmony,
that family. That family. Let me ask two or
three questions in quick. Where does this love come from?
Where does this unfeigned, this perfect, this strong love, this
love that's stronger than blood, this love that unites hearts
of believers in an inseparable unity, where does it come from?
Well, our depravity doesn't produce it. Our depravity does not produce
love for God or men. Where does it come from? Turn
to Romans 5. Let's see where it comes from.
And as I said, this can only be understood by those who know
something about it. Those who know something about
it. And I'm talking foreign language, I know, to a lot of people. This
is not a message you can preach to the world. because they couldn't
understand this type of talk. But when you come to know Christ,
and when you come to love His people, love Him and His people,
love Him that begot and those that are begotten, it's a stronger
love than you have for any blood relative living on this earth.
Christ is my mother, my brother, my sister. These believers in
the family of God, they are my mother, brother, sister. How
wonderful it is when we can have that believer's love also for
other members of the family, those who are related to us who
love Christ. But if they do not love Christ,
they're in second place. Because those who do love Christ
are in first place. Romans 5, 5, And hope make not
ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. God put it that way. That's
where that love comes from. Depravity doesn't produce that
kind of love. In fact, I'll be honest with
you. Depravity can only produce a self-love. Only a self-love. We love those
who are related to us because they're related to us. We love
for a time those who are married to us because they're married
to us until they cross us. So it's really a self-love. It's
my family, my children, my friends, my home, my job, my this, my
that, my the other. But this God love, this love
of God is His family, His people. In 1 John 4, let's look at that
again. We'll get a clue here where this
love, whence cometh this love? It comes from God. It comes from
God. In 1 John 4, it says here, in
1 John 4, 7, Love us, love one another. Love is of God. That's where it came from. Everyone
that loveth is born of God. Everyone that loveth is born
of God. Everyone that knows anything
about true love is born of God and knoweth God and knoweth God. Look at verse 10. Here is love.
Not that we loved God. You see that? Not that we loved.
We didn't love Him. Not that we loved anybody but
ourselves. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but He loved us. He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, verse 11. Now
here's the one I want to get to before I close. If God so
loved us, we ought also to love one another. Our love for one
another, this believer's love, this God-given love, that I believe
we're talking about above all things, put on this love above
all things, have fervent love, for love covereth the multitude
of sin. This is the first fruit. This is the first and great commandment. This is other things will fade
away, this endures forever, this love. What is it? Our love for one another is and
will be the love of God flowing into us and out of us. That's
what it is. Christ stood one day and said,
if any man thirsts, let him come to me. And he that cometh to
me out of his belly, and that word belly is innermost being,
bowels of mercy, shall flow, shall flow, shall flow rivers
of living water. I like to go down to Cincinnati
and sit out there by the fountain. I did something fascinating about
looking into a fireplace, and there's something fascinating
about looking at water. And I sit there and I watch that
fountain, and the water is in the fountain, and it flows up,
and then it goes back down into the fountain, and then it flows
up again. The water's in there, and it comes out as it's pushed
out. And I thought about this as I thought about this thing
of our love. It's not produced by our human
natures. Our human natures don't produce
anything good or righteous or holy. But this love which we
have for one another is the love of God which has been flowing
into us, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, created by
God, given us by God. And it being in us, it's pushed
out. It's lived out. It flows out. It's spontaneous. We love men for the same reason
God loves them. Because God is love. You see
what I'm saying? The nature of God is love. And that's the reason we love
them. We love them for the same reason God loves them. Because God's
nature, God is love. And if a person has been made
the object of grace, I don't mean he's made a decision or
decided to go to heaven or got religion or turned over a new
leaf or adopted a doctrinal system, but he's been born of God. He
that loveth has been born of God. And in that birth, God gave
him a nature. God gave him a nature in that
birth. He gave him a divine nature, a holy nature, a nature of love.
And it's there. It may be there in degrees, and
it grows. We'll see that in just a moment.
It grows. But secondly, we love men like
God loves them, because God, the same reason God loves, because
God is love. Secondly, we love them not in
word, but in deed. God so loved that He gave. That
was proof of His love. We love, we'll give. We won't
love in word only, but in deed. God's love demanded reconciliation. It had to have reconciliation.
And God Almighty, in His mercy and grace, reconciled His enemies
unto Himself because He loved them. And if you and I love people,
we'll reconcile, we'll forgive, we'll be merciful to them. Look
at verse 12 of 1 John 4. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells
in us. Now, the Bible doesn't say this,
but I judge this to be true. If we don't love one another,
then God doesn't dwell in us. Wouldn't that be so, John? Evidently,
that's so. It says if we love one another,
God dwells in us. If we don't, God doesn't. And
His love, and here's what I want to say, and His love is perfected. The word perfected there is a
maturity. Look it up for yourself. It's
a growth. The Amplified Version says this,
this is the way it reads. No man has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, God
lives in us and remains in us, and His love is brought to a
full maturity in us. Love is a grace that grows. It
grows. And I wouldn't discourage the
young believer, the babe in Christ here, by saying that I expect
you to produce the degree of love that I expect from some
of the other folks and from myself. Because love is a grace that
grows. And I would not have you grow discouraged because the
tree is not loaded down with fruit the first year. I put out,
when we moved into Parsonage 10 years ago, when you all built
the home over there for us, and I planted a pear tree and a June
apple tree and a wine sap apple tree. And boy, I tell you, the
first two or three years, we didn't get no apples. And I was
a little bit concerned about them, you know. I thought, boy,
the first year, go out there and pick some apples. But it
doesn't work that way. A little old nubs and things
like that, you know. And, but boy, we had a crop this
year. Bob and Dick came over and sprayed them for us. Kept
the bugs out. You have to take care of them, you know. But when
you, if you don't expect the first year, the second year,
the third year, to have a tree loaded with fruit, love, and
faith, and joy, and peace, and meekness, and humility. We're
not born teachers, contrary to what some folks think. It takes
a while. We're not born full grown. We have to grow. And don't be
discouraged. But now I'd say this, if that
tree's been out there a long time, and you go out and there's
nothing but leaves, What did the man say to the Lord? He said,
let me dig around it one more time and dung it. And Lord, if
there's nothing on there next year, we'll cut her down. And
that's pretty good advice there, you know. If the tree's been
there a long time and it's not bearing any fruit, good possibility
that it never will. Above all things, above all things,
First and foremost, have fervent, intense, unfailing, strong love
among yourselves, the church family. For love forgives, overlooks,
disregards, covers, forbears and forgives a multitude of sins. Lord, teach me to love.