For our Scripture reading this morning, let's read
in Ephesians chapter 4, commencing at verse 1.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
to which you are called, with all lowliness
and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one another
in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace.
I'd like to read just a few verses
in 1 John chapter 4.
Let's read from 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.
And this was manifested, the love of God
toward us, that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live
through him here in his love.
Not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we are
also to love one another.
No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in
us, and his love is perfected in us.
By this know we that we dwell in
him, and he in us, because he hath
given us of his Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that
the Father sent the Son to be the
Savior of the world, whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth
in him, and he in God.
And we have known and believed the love
that God hath to us.
God is love.
He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God,
and God in him.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we
may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in
this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect
love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in
love.
We love him because he first loved us.
If a man says, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom
he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, that
he who loveth God love his brother also."
I'd like for us to think in these
moments together about the love of God and
what it has done in your life as
a Christian.
Because if it hasn't done what it's supposed
to do in your life as a Christian,
then you are a flop as a Christian.
You are a failure.
Sometimes we can become so involved in things
that we think are very important in the
Christian life that we find that we've overlooked
some things that are so important.
In fact, they're so basic that if there
is a departure from this course, then we're
completely out of touch with God's will for
our lives.
I think of what we read when we
read about the seven churches in the book
of Revelation, and we read about the church
at Ephesus, that they left their first love.
And note, I didn't say they lost their
first love, they left it.
And that's what can happen so often in
Christian circles.
They leave it.
You take up something else.
Something else becomes more important.
But I know that you cannot, for a
moment, alienate love for the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ from individual responsibility to love
each other as members of the body of
Christ.
The two are one.
We are one in Him, and I think
you read that note, that letter to the
church at Ephesus, and they left their first
love.
I think it was just a gradual process.
It wasn't something that they did deliberately and
said, We're just going to leave off all
of this preeminence that we're giving to the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's not going to be the center of
all that we do and say.
And in so doing, they gradually began to
neglect their love for each other.
I don't think it happened like that at
all.
It was a very subtle thing, very gradual.
But when we read in the word of
God, they left their first love.
That's exactly what they did.
And there's so much that has been written
about priorities for the church in the world
today that reminds us that Christ must be
first.
He is the head of the church.
He deserves that preeminent place, and that's exactly
what the word of God gives to Him.
I think as we read in the scriptures,
we are aware that the church, indeed, has
a call to love.
And, of course, that love for our Lord
Jesus and the love for God's people are
synonymous.
They are one.
A new commandment I give unto you, that
you love one another even as I have
loved you.
Other men will know that you are my
disciples if you love one another.
I heard a story about a couple that
were married.
Most of us that have had that experience
of being married to someone you love, you
are shocked one day when you realize that
maybe you're not saying it like you used
to say it.
You remember when you were courting your wife,
and you couldn't say, I love you too
often.
In fact, you were always cozying up to
her and, honey, I love you.
But after the newness wore off, and you
kind of got adjusted to being married to
each other, if it's like it happened to
me, now she has to tell me.
Why don't you tell me you love me?
Well, you know I love you.
I told you one time I loved you.
I still love you.
We like to hear it.
And in this story, that's exactly what happened.
The young bride noted after a while that
things weren't like they'd been in the past,
and her husband told her in a very
emphatic way, the honeymoon is over.
The honeymoon is over.
We've got to get down to living, and
that doesn't include all of this I love
you every day.
Well, that's a sad commentary on any marriage.
It's certainly a sad commentary on the church
in the world today that if we forget
to love each other, there should be in
my life and in your life a provable
evidence that we really love each other.
I'd like to read J.
B.
Phillips' translation of those three verses that we
read in Ephesians 4.
He says, As God's prisoner, I beg you
to live lives that are worthy of your
high calling.
Accept life with humility and patience, making allowances
for each other because you love each other.
Make it your aim to be at one
in the Spirit, and you will inevitably be
at peace with one another.
What he has to say about making allowances
for each other, it makes a concession in
that it acknowledges that we're not perfect.
And you know, you thought she was perfect
when you married her.
Maybe she thought you were too.
It didn't take long to find out that
we have our misgivings, we have our shortcomings,
and love is the only thing that will
keep that union glued together.
Love is that thing that when you discover
that that person is not perfect, you know,
love is going to help you to overlook
those things.
And that should be true among believers in
Jesus Christ.
I'm not perfect, and you are not perfect,
and we know it.
And I'd like to remind you of this.
When the Lord Jesus Christ loved you and
died for you, you weren't perfect then.
In fact, I would have to say most
of us would say I was very unlovable.
In fact, I was a rebel sinner.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us.
While we were in that state of rebellion,
resisting those divine overtures of love and grace,
but divine love and grace are greater than
all of this.
He loved us while we were yet sinners,
and we indeed are to show our love
for each other.
Love each other the same way that he
has loved us.
This is what you discover sometimes in church
fellowship.
People come to Christ individually.
It's an individual encounter with God in the
matter of salvation.
And once we enter in through the door,
the narrow way, and we discover indeed, oh,
this is wonderful to know that my sins
are forgiven, the precious shed blood of the
Lord Jesus.
It is the price of redemption has been
paid.
We begin to revel and rejoice in all
that is ours as new creatures in Christ
Jesus.
That's an individual matter, very personal matter.
But you know, once we get inside the
door by faith, there's a discovery that we
make.
We are surrounded by others that have done
the same thing.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, a divine union
has been established.
We read about, when you read one of
the rare occasions that you find in Scripture,
the use of that word propitiation.
It very simply means, and I'm not trying
to oversimplify that wonderful, wonderful doctrine in the
word of God of propitiation, but it simply
means this.
Before there was anything about us that was
desirable to God, something was done that caused
Him to favor us.
Without what Christ did for us, God could
never favor us.
He could never look upon us in grace
and love and mercy.
Something had to be done, and Christ did
it.
He is that propitiation.
He is that which satisfies God so perfectly
that now He can look upon me in
love and grace.
Without the sacrifice that Christ made, that would
never be possible.
That's wonderful.
You think about it, every individual that is
a part of the body of Jesus Christ,
that wonderful divine union has been established through
faith in the Son of God as one
Savior.
We are linked together as one, brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Freelancing, rugged individualism, as far as the Church
is concerned, is something that is foreign to
the Scriptures.
We are one in Him.
We don't lose our individual personalities and that
sort of thing if we're under the control
of the Spirit of God.
He uses us, and what we have in
the way of natural talent and spiritual gift,
God uses it for His glory and honor.
We are distinctly different, but we are one
in Christ.
That sounds a little mysterious, and it's hard
to explain, but that's just the way it
is.
We're one in Christ.
He is the head.
We are the members of His body, and
the thing that is so important in this
divine relationship is that work of the Spirit
of God in producing the fruit of the
Spirit in our lives is happening every day.
The fruit of the Spirit is what?
Love, joy, peace, but love so prominent.
If you don't think things like this happen,
you just have to sometimes talk to someone
that has had an experience like this, but
it does happen.
A lady that told me that she moved
to a city, and there she identified herself
with a local church.
She was a member there for some five
years, and not one person in that church
ever visited her in her home.
She said, I really never got on a
basis with anybody there that I would say
they were a close friend to me.
Now, that may be the exception.
I hope it is, but it just shows
you you can come through the door.
You can get into this meeting room here.
You can identify yourself with these Christians that
gather here, but can you get into their
hearts?
Can you sense that they really love you?
Because you're a member of the body of
Jesus Christ.
You're one with them.
Do they demonstrate that love toward you?
You see, sometimes the world that we live
in, they say those Christians are a bunch
of hypocrites.
Well, they say they love each other, but
I haven't seen any of it.
They talk about each other.
They murmur, and sometimes they even talk about
the preacher, and they talk about the Sunday
school teacher, and they talk about the leaders.
They devour each other.
Well, that's carnality.
That's just the flesh.
You're doing the work of Satan when you
begin to murmur and backbite against your brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
Don't become an accomplice with Satan as far
as doing his work.
He's very capable of doing it.
Don't you accommodate him by being a part
of it.
The wonderful, divine, sovereign work of the Spirit
of God is to produce spiritual fruit in
the lives of God's people, and love is
so important.
It keeps everything glued together, and it keeps
us functioning in the way that our Lord
Jesus Christ wants us to function as members
of his body.
When you read in Galatians chapter 6 and
verse 10, I think this spells out this
very special priority that we are looking at
this morning.
It says, Therefore, as we have opportunity, let
us do good to all people, or all
men, but especially to those who belong to
the family of God, believers.
Now, you may have thought that the first
priority for the church today is to go
out and to proclaim the gospel to every
creature that lives upon the face of the
earth.
No, that's not the first priority of the
church today in this world in which we
live.
The first priority, of course, is to put
Christ first, the preeminent place, and the second
priority is to love your fellow believers.
The Lord Jesus said in the New Commandment,
I give unto you that you love one
another the same way I've loved you, and
here we're brought face to face with that
opportunity of doing good to all people.
Christian testimony demands it.
But he says, especially in a very special
way, do you look upon your fellow believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you look upon those that you identify
in this fellowship as being very special?
They are.
If you would look at them the same
way the Lord Jesus looks at them, man,
they do become very special.
They're very special people.
While you're looking at something that the Lord
Jesus redeemed with His own precious shed blood,
this is what Christ purchased when He died
upon Calvary's cross.
This is a member of His body.
That person is very special.
There's not one that doesn't matter to Him,
and the same thing should apply to us.
We are very special in the sight of
God.
I think most of us would agree that
the things we're talking about, most of us
could stand them in proof.
If you never take inventory, and if you're
never interested in updating your Christian experience, more
than likely you're going to drift into a
condition of such complacency and coldness that your
testimony and your witness for Jesus Christ, it
won't make much impact upon the world in
which we're living.
Because I don't personally believe you can have
much of a testimony for God and for
the person of the Lord Jesus unless you
are obeying what the Lord Jesus tells us
to do.
The Lord Jesus says, if you love me,
you obey my commandments.
It matters not how you want to get
around that, but if you don't love me,
if you're not keeping my commandments, you really
don't love me the way that you should.
The commandments are clear.
We need to read and reread the life
of our Lord Jesus, the words that he
spoke, the things that he instructed us to
do.
You may call that a secret, a secret
of that divine unity.
God wants us to really love each other.
Love is the chief mark of that love
that we have.
It says it's authentic, it's real, and that's
exactly what we want it to be.
And we don't want to keep it a
private matter, either.
We don't hide it.
We let it be known that we really
love each other.
You do that by the way you react
to other people, their needs, and there are
many, many needs in the world today.
Think of all of the church congregations today
assembled, and perhaps there are many, many lonely
people, unloved people that are sitting in those
congregations, and they truly believe.
Nobody loves me, nobody cares anything about me,
and just waiting for someone to respond and
show them a little love.
And you know the Lord Jesus is dependent
upon you and me to show his love
toward others that are in this world, and
most especially the family of God.
If the love of Christ is to reach
me, more than likely the true evidence of
it will be through your life touching my
life.
And then I give credit and glory to
God in that I say the love of
Jesus Christ has reached me through another member
of the body.
That makes the body something that is living,
something that is viable, something that is real,
and not just something we talk about.
I'd like to read a statement.
It supports, I think Schaeffer, Francis Schaeffer, must
have read John 1335 when he wrote this
statement, but this is what he had to
say.
He said, In the midst of the world
our Lord is giving a right to the
world.
Now, you listen to this.
Upon his authority he gives the world the
right to judge whether we are real believers
on the basis of our observable love toward
other believers.
He is giving a right to this world.
He's giving the authority to the world in
which we're living to make a judgment about
whether we are real or not.
If he does not see in your life
and in my life observable love for each
other, then he has every right to say
that person is not a believer in Jesus
Christ.
Other men will know that you are my
disciples if you love one another.
Brother, I'm not talking about lip service.
I'm not talking about saying, brother, I love
you.
They're just words.
I'm talking about observable evidence.
Is there that kindred spirit in your love
and your care for your fellow believer?
Would you give your life for another member
of the body of Jesus Christ?
Would you?
He says, A new commandment I give unto
you that you love one another the same
way I love you.
He died for us.
Would you die for your fellow believer?
Well, he didn't ask us to do that,
really.
But day by day, every time that I
give a part of my life, some of
my time, to another believer, I'm giving of
my life.
I'm giving of myself for that person.
It may be someone that is having great
difficulty in this life.
It may be of a financial nature.
It may be health reasons.
It may be all sorts of things that
happen in the lives of believers.
And I respond to that need, and I
demonstrate that the love of Jesus Christ is
real.
Is it observable?
So, the Lord is saying to the world
on the basis of His authority, I'm giving
you the right, world, to make a judgment
whether or not an individual is a Christian
on the basis of the love He shows
to all other Christians.
That's a strong statement, but I believe it's
absolutely true.
We can work on this business of loving
each other, I'm telling you.
So often, there's a coldness.
There's an aloofness.
So often, Christians isolate themselves from other Christians.
They act as if they don't even really
enjoy being with each other.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that shouldn't be.
That's a poor witness to the world in
which we live.
After all, we're going to spend eternity together,
whether you like me or not.
And we're going to be in God's presence.
We're going to be around the throne of
God, and I'm going to be there, and
you're going to be there.
That song that we hear sung, I don't
know, I've heard it sung, I haven't heard
it sung from the platform, but about the
wonderful experience of being one of the people
of God, being one of God's children.
It's wonderful.
It should be wonderful, and it shouldn't be
something we just talk about.
It should be an experience in this life
that speaks loudly to the world in which
we live.
Of course, if we get a little angry
when someone reminds us of this, it doesn't
bother me if you get angry at me.
You can do that.
It's all right.
You'll be reminded of this.
You can be angry with me, but don't
let the sun go down on your anger.
It's perfectly scriptural to be angry, but don't
let the sun go down on it.
So you forget it by tonight, and you
take to heart what I'm saying.
You get down on your knees, and you
ask God to make you a little more
lovable to your fellow believer, and you pray
that the fruit of the Spirit of God's
love will be more observable in your life.
That's the way to get over your anger.
If you find out that you're being derelict
in your responsibilities as a Christian, the way
to get over it is get down on
your knees and tell it to the Lord.
Tell the Lord all about how you feel
about this, and ask him to enlighten you
from the Word of God as to where
you've gone astray, and where you have been
just a little bit careless in your relationship
with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Lord Jesus, in John 17, makes an
appeal in this prayer that he makes, that
all of them may be one Father, just
as you are in me, and I in
you.
May they also be in us, perfect bond
of love, so that the world may believe
that you have sent me.
So that the world may believe that you
have sent me.
I know that the world, indeed, has a
lot of critical things to say about the
church, and, you know, that doesn't really bother
me because I know that the God of
this world that blinds the minds of those
that do not believe, I know that the
natural man, he has to say something, more
than likely, that is a discredit to what
we believe as Christians.
And when they say it, and it's not
justifiable, that doesn't bother me.
But when the world makes charges against us,
and those charges are true, that hurts.
That hurts.
And to tell me, and it's been often
told to me, that person that goes where
you fellowship, I don't think they're a Christian.
I don't see any evidence in their lives
of them being Christian.
You talk about love, you talk about mercy,
you talk about kindness, you talk about long
-suffering, I've never seen any of that in
their lives, and you have to bow your
head and you say, neither have I.
That's sad, that's very sad.
Listen, the word of God tells us if
any man be in Christ Jesus, he becomes
a new creation.
Old things pass away, behold, all things become
new.
And we need to get down to this
business of letting others see that we are
really new creatures in Christ Jesus, and we're
different.
We're different from those people in this world
that the love of God has never touched
their lives nor their hearts.
If we're going to have a testimony and
a witness for God that is meaningful, brothers
and sisters in Christ, it must be so.
God's not impressed with all of the shows
of grandeur buildings, those that do so many
things that, indeed, you have to have superlatives
to describe the things that they're doing.
That was marvelous, that's wonderful.
It may relate to service, it may relate
to so many things that are being done
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is not impressed with those things when
so often there is a life, there's a
heart that's barren as far as the love
of God and the love of Jesus Christ
is concerned.
No observable evidence that we're really loving each
other the way that he loved us.
You know, God is expecting something out of
us.
You think about it, sometimes the Lord saved
us and he could have taken us to
heaven the very moment that he saved us
and said, well, that's it, it's good enough.
I don't have anything for you to do,
but he does have something for us to
do.
You know the Lord Jesus, he is at
God's right hand this very moment.
He intercedes on our behalf.
Gloriously, wonderfully, mysteriously, where two or three are
gathered together in his name, there he is
in the midst.
But you know, in this world in which
we're living today, you and I are to
be witnesses, empowered witnesses by the Spirit of
God.
These are the last words that he spoke
upon this earth before he ascended up into
heaven.
You will receive power after that the Holy
Spirit has come upon you.
You will be witnesses unto me in this
world.
He's depending upon us to be a witness
to this world.
And you know the impressions that they gain
concerning the person of Christ, they gain those
impressions by looking at you and me.
I'm a Christian.
Oh, you're a Christian.
You're one that belongs to Jesus Christ.
Yes.
You're a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Yes.
So that's what he looks like, huh?
That's the way he behaves.
And then they say, if that's true, I
don't want any part of it.
Listen, that responsibility that we have as Christians,
as representatives, I am an ambassador for the
Lord Jesus.
I represent him in this world.
That's awesome responsibility.
And one day, each one of us that
professes to know the Lord Jesus Christ as
our Savior, we will stand in his presence
and give an account of what we've done
with our lives and how we have represented
him.
And we will receive reward, or we will
suffer loss when we stand at the beam,
the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus.
Listen, brothers and sisters in Christ, this business
of being a Christian is serious business.
It's being taken too lightly in this world
in which we live today.
And one reason men and women aren't listening
to us when we proclaim the gospel to
them is that we don't have a life
to back it up.
The reality of our Christian experience doesn't support
what we say with our lips.
That's not to the shame of God or
our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's to our shame.
I'm telling you that with God's help, I
can really love the same way God loves.
I can't do it.
I can no more love you like God
wants me to in my own strength than
I could save myself.
You see, if I am going to truly
love you the way the Lord Jesus wants
me to love you, then it has to
be a divine, sovereign work of the Spirit
of God in producing that spiritual fruit in
my life.
You see, not one thing that we do
for God can we do in the energy
of the flesh, motivated by a carnal motivation,
and do it for the glory of God.
God sovereignly does it through us.
As we yield, as we become submissive, then
He does what He wants to do in
our lives.
I can love people that are quite unlovable.
That's a challenge in itself.
Don't pick out someone that you say, oh,
I like that person.
They really appeal to me.
We have so much in common.
Pick out somebody that you really don't like
them, and you get out on your knees
and you say, oh God, help me.
I won't accept a challenge.
I want to do something that I can
see that divine work that you're able to
do in my heart and life.
Help me to love that person.
Help me to win that person.
I want to win them to myself and
to you by proving that you're really working
in my life.
So fulfilled, as James puts it, the royal
law of Christ.
When Jude writes in that little book of
Jude, he says, keep yourselves in the love
of God.
I believe that is so important if we
are ever to demonstrate our love one for
another the way God wants us to.
When Jude says, keep yourselves in the love
of God, it's like being in a room
that is completely dark, and there's just one
light, just one shaft of light that comes
down, and if you want to really see
or examine anything, and to experience the benefits
of that light, you have to be in
that one place, in that room.
The rest of the room is dark.
Well, this world that we live in is
just engulfed in spiritual darkness, but God's love,
like a shaft of light from heaven, when
my soul is receptive, when my soul is
just longing to be bathed in the warmth
of that wonderful love, you can believe it
will reach my heart, it will reach my
soul.
But I, first and foremost, must be receptive
to the love of God.
Keep yourselves in the love of God.
Keep yourself in a position in this life
so that God can shower upon you His
love.
Don't go off and hide in a corner.
Don't isolate yourself from the Lord and say
you're going to freelance it and do it
on your own.
Don't think that you can ever live without
it for the glory of God.
There's no special breed of Christian that can
possibly survive in this world in which we
live unless God is sovereignly showering His love
and His grace upon us.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, a
full awareness of how great that love really
is.
And when His love, you've just bathed your
soul, you're just filled with His love, it'll
be evidenced by the way you treat your
fellow believer.
You read in the scriptures that people took
note of the fact that others had been
with the Lord Jesus.
Others will be able to observe that man,
that woman, they have a real contact with
God.
I sense when I'm in their presence the
love of God has flooded their soul.
They're so gracious.
I feel the presence of the Lord Jesus
when I am in the presence of that
person.
Listen, nothing higher could be said of a
Christian that when I see that brother, that
sister, and the way they live their lives,
I sense the presence of Jesus Christ in
that life.
Paul says, Christ lives in me.
And brothers and sisters, I believe you could
tell that Jesus Christ really lived in the
life of Paul.
Love is one of those things that's mentioned
in the word of God that has an
endurable quality.
Love never fails.
All other things may pass away.
Faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest
of these is love.
You want a spiritual gift?
It's one that God wants every one of
His children to have, and that is of
love.
Our mission as believers in Jesus Christ in
the world today is to first show our
love for each other.
And we give the world, just as our
Lord gave authority to the world to make
a judgment about our Christian testimony.
Is that love observable in your life today
as a Christian?
If it isn't, there's something wrong.
That doesn't mean that you're going to throw
up your hands and say, it's no use.
I failed.
No.
You purpose before God that there'll be some
changes, and with His help, you will claim
as a promise from the Lord Jesus, a
promise that He has made to us that
we can indeed love each other the same
way He loved us.
That requires sacrifice.
That requires purpose.
That requires that we be persuaded in our
own hearts and lives that's the only way
to go in this world in which we're
living today.
May it be so for the glory and
honor of the Lord Jesus.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we bow in Thy
presence this morning.
We thank Thee for the privilege of assembly.
We thank Thee for all that we enjoy
in this world in which we're living today.
Lord, You've delivered us out of the kingdom
of darkness and brought us into the wonderful
kingdom of light.
O God, we thank Thee today for everything
that You've ever enlightened our hearts and souls
to concerning Thyself and the beauty and wonderful
of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray, O God, that this day that
what we've read and what we've considered in
these moments together will have a divine impact
upon our lives.