And today we want to think about a
word that many people use, love, but which
most people don't understand.
True love is unselfish.
The love which many people think of is
actually selfish lust.
And we want to consider what it means
to really love, as seen in the life
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
When we speak about holiness, many people think
of holiness as dry, starchy religion, repulsive, hard,
strict.
But that's not the holiness Jesus manifested.
God is holy, absolutely holy.
But the Bible says God is love.
True holiness is perfect love.
I want to say that again.
Did you hear it?
True holiness is perfect love.
If you have holiness without love, it's not
the holiness of Jesus Christ.
It's the so-called holiness of the Pharisees.
It is self-righteousness.
It's maybe a disciplined life, and maybe you
pay your taxes, you pray, read the Bible,
and tithe, and do so many things.
But you're like a skeleton, and you can't
draw people.
People are not attracted to a skeleton.
Supposing you're walking down a dark street one
night, and you see a skeleton walking towards
you.
Just a skeleton, a skull and bones, walking
towards you from the other direction.
What would you do?
Would you feel like embracing that one, running
forward to meet that?
Or would you feel like turning around and
running away?
That is how the Pharisees were.
People felt like running away from them.
And unfortunately, that is how many self-righteous
Christians are.
Even many Christians who say we are in
the separated assemblies.
We are not like the dead denominations.
We are separated from all that.
We are holy.
But they're like skeletons.
People run away from them.
They're like the Pharisees.
But Jesus was not like that.
Yes, we need to be holy.
We need to have truth.
But the Bible says that the glory of
God, John 1.14, was seen in Jesus
full of grace and truth.
There's a balance.
See, in your body, do we need bones
or not?
If you didn't have bones, you wouldn't be
able to stand up.
You wouldn't be able to sit down.
You'll collapse like a jellyfish that has got
no bones in it.
And spiritually speaking, some people are like that.
You know, there are certain disadvantages in having
bones.
For example, you cannot squeeze through a very
narrow opening.
But a jellyfish can squeeze through anything.
It just becomes thin because it's got no
bones and slides through it.
It's like a sponge.
You can squeeze a sponge through any opening,
any shape, any size.
But we can't go through because we've got
bones.
And some people spiritually are like jellyfish.
They compromise.
They have no convictions.
They don't stand for the truth.
They don't stand for holiness.
They're like people without any bones.
That's certainly not God's will.
But on the other hand, if we are
only bones, like I said, you'll be like
a skeleton.
You'll scare people away.
But God has made this body so beautiful.
What is it that makes our body attractive?
The bones are covered over with flesh.
When you say somebody is handsome or a
girl is pretty, what do you mean?
It's not their skeleton.
I mean, if you pull off their flesh,
their skeletons look the same as the ugliest
people in the world.
It's the flesh on top of that skeleton,
beautifully featured, that makes somebody attractive.
Now, apply this to the Christian life.
It's not just truth.
It's grace on top of the truth that
makes the words attractive.
It's love and holiness.
God is light and God is love.
The two are inseparable.
True holiness is full of love.
And true love is perfectly pure.
So, in a sense, they are not different.
And people say they have a great love
for everybody.
But if they don't live in purity and
righteousness, that's just not divine love.
That's just wishy-washy sentimentality.
But those who claim to have great holiness
but don't have compassion and love for people,
they are just Pharisees.
So, how is it with Jesus?
He was not a skeleton and He was
not a jellyfish.
He had all the truth.
He stood for everything that the law of
God stood for, more than the Pharisees did.
But He was not just bones.
The bones were covered over with flesh, as
God intended human beings to be.
And this is the balance of the divine
glory that the Holy Spirit has come to
communicate to you and me.
Not to make you like a skeleton, a
Christian who drives other people away.
Neither does God want us to be like
wishy-washy jellyfish, just compromising and able to
fit into any type of opening.
No, God doesn't want that either.
We read that Jesus spoke the truth, but
He spoke it in love.
His words had authority, but they were also
gracious.
When it says that God is love, it
doesn't mean just that He acts lovingly.
Now, a person can act lovingly without being
loving in his heart.
It may be just an external action, which
is just done to impress others.
Jesus did not just go around doing acts
of love.
Now, we can imitate somebody and do acts
of love, you know, help the poor and
do good.
No, Jesus' love came from deep within His
heart, just like holiness and humility.
It can be put on on the outside,
but that's just a garment that a person
can take off or put on.
But the Bible says, Jesus said, He who
believes in Him from his innermost being, rivers
of living water will flow.
The spirit-filled man is a man from
whose innermost being humility, holiness, love flow out.
Our thoughts and our attitudes become holy and
loving.
Not just the words and our actions, that
can be just diplomacy.
You know, when we do something or say
something, our thoughts and attitudes towards that other
person or towards those people give a certain
odor or smell to our life.
And others can easily detect it.
Words and actions of love count for nothing
if our thoughts and attitudes towards others are
still critical and selfish.
The Bible says in Psalm 51, verse 6,
David said that after he had sinned, God
desires truth in the innermost being.
He wants love to flow from our hearts.
That's how it was with Jesus.
And so as we look at the life
of Jesus, we can see what the Holy
Spirit wants to make in our own life.
Let me say first of all, that if
you love a person, you will value him.
You see, Jesus placed a very high value
on all human beings.
It didn't matter whether they were cultured or
intelligent or clever or smart or rich.
You know, it's very easy to place a
great value on cultured, intelligent, rich people.
But a godly man would value all people,
whether he's dressed in a suit and a
tie or whether he's a beggar.
If you can't value a beggar as one
of God's creation, as one who is made
in the image of God, do you know
that the Bible says in James chapter 3
that all human beings are made in the
image of God?
Yeah, you read that.
In James and chapter 3 where it speaks
about our use of our tongue, it says
in verse 9, men have been made in
the likeness of God.
What about that beggar with his ragged clothes
and lack of culture and illiterate?
Is he made in the image of God?
If so, you will respect him.
Jesus respected all people.
He did not make any difference between the
rich and the poor, educated, the uneducated, the
cultured, the uncultured, or even between the righteous
and the sinner.
He valued everyone because everyone was made by
God.
Everyone was loved by God.
He came to die for everyone.
We can think that when we start loving
our fellow believers in our local church, that
itself is something wonderful.
It certainly is.
But Jesus loved all men.
Do you think he healed only the sick
who believed in him for salvation from sin?
No.
He healed so many sick people who were
not interested in receiving anything further from him.
That was how his goodness was.
Jesus never despised anyone because they were poor
or ignorant or ugly.
No.
Jesus once said that the whole world was
not as valuable as one human soul.
That's how he valued men.
You know, just like you value your treasures,
your stocks and shares, your house and land
and bank account and gold bars and whatever
else you have, your car.
Put it all together.
For Jesus, one human soul was worth more
than all that and much more than that.
He said it was worth more than the
whole world.
And that's why he delighted in men.
He valued them.
He delighted in them.
He saw those men as people who had
been bound by Satan, deceived.
And he longed to bring them to the
light and to set them free.
And his love for man was so great
that he was willing even to pay the
ultimate price of death in order to free
men from sin's grip over their lives.
And it's because he was willing to die
for men to save them from their sins
that he had the right to preach against
sin so forcefully.
You know, Jesus turned around to the Pharisees
and said, You generation of vipers, do you
think you and I can say that to
religious people even if they are as bad
as the Pharisees?
Well, you can say that if you love
them enough to die for them.
Otherwise you can't.
It's very easy to get up and say
it.
Any fool can get up and say such
words.
But to say it in the spirit of
Christ is quite another thing.
Remember, he was willing to die to save
them from their sin.
And that's why he had the right to
use such strong words.
We have no right to preach against sin
if we are not willing to do anything
to save people from their sin.
This is what it means to speak the
truth in love.
To speak the truth is easy.
Anybody can do that.
Some people think, I'm a great prophet.
I'm going to speak the truth.
But to be like Jesus, we got to
do it in love.
And so let's look at the life of
Jesus more carefully.
And see how this love came from his
heart.
And ask the Holy Spirit to fill your
heart with that same love.