Loving the brethern in deed..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, brothers and sisters. As I said, I want to call your attention to the first letter of the Apostle John.

Last time that I had the opportunity to speak to you, I addressed verses 4 to verse 14. Today, I want us to address from verse 15 to verse 18. I want to speak to you about loving the brethren indeed and in truth. Loving the brethren in deed and in truth. And the reason why I want to do that is because that is the main idea of the Apostle John.

And I'm taking the title to my sermon from verse 18. If you pay attention, the Apostle says, Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And hence, I want to speak to you, my dear soul, about loving the brethren Indeed and in truth. And we are going to be addressing v. 15, 16, 17, and 18.

But I'm going to call your attention for us to carefully read, paying careful attention from v. 11. The Apostle is going to give us the context of that exhortation that is found there from v. 15 through v. 18.

So, brother and sister, I'm going to invite you to come to the Scriptures with reverence. With faith. If the Lord does not help us, if the Spirit does not lead us, not even our reading is going to be profitable. So I'm going to ask you that with humility before the Lord, by faith, let us read together, brothers and sisters, the words that we have from verse eleven in chapter three. May the Lord speak to us even just in the reading of his word.

This is the word of God. Verse eleven. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, that the world hates you. We know. We know that we have passed. out of death, into life, because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone, verse 15, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. Amen. This is the reading of God's Word. And brother and sister, I want to call your attention there to verse 14. And please read it carefully with me in verse 14.

It says, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. Once again, the apostle says, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through John, he says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. And it's by God's grace, my dear brother and sister, that in alignment with the truth that we have there in verse 14, that I ask you, do you know that you have passed out of death into life because you love the brethren? Do you know, individually there where you are seated, do you know that you have passed out from death into life? And you know that because you love the brethren.

I'm not saying, do you think that you have passed out from death into life because you love the brethren? I'm not saying it's possible that you have passed out of death into life because you know the brethren, but rather, using the same word that the apostle uses in verse 14, a word of certainty and a word of assurance, I ask you, do you know, are you certain that you have passed out of death into life because you know the brethren? Does your conscience testify within you, in the secret place of your thoughts and in the secret place of your soul, that you have been translated from the realm of death into the kingdom of life because you love the brethren? Every time that you are reading the scriptures and going through passages that describe the love that Christians have one for the other, does the spirit of God testify to your spirit that you are a child of God and in being a child of God, you love the brethren? If I was going to call all the Christians that you have met, or if God was going to call all the Christians that you have met throughout the years, some of you have been going from a church to another church and have met many Christians.

If I was going to bring, or the Lord was going to bring all of those Christians, and if they were asked, have this person loved you as a brother or sister, what would be the testimony of all of those people? Do you know? that ye have passed out of death into life because you know the brethren. And my dear brother, my dear sister, my dear friend, I'm not asking you this question to bother you or to bring this uncomfortable sensation upon your shoulders. I'm not asking you this question just simply to bring guilt upon your shoulders, but the reason why I'm asking you this question in alignment with verse 14 is because it's a very important question for the Christian life.

the genuine Christian, the one who has been saved by grace through faith, the one whose heart has been changed from stone into flesh, is one who loves the brethren. The genuine believer, the one who has been adopted into the family of God, the one who has received the Spirit of God to repent and live and has been justified by imputed righteousness of Christ, is one who loves the brothers and sisters. The one who has received the promise of glory is going to enter into the promise of the Lord because the life of that person has been characterized because that person loves the brothers and the sisters. So once again, I ask you, do you know that you have passed out of death into life because you know the brethren? Do you know with certainty and assurance that you can say and unite your voice to the voice of the Apostle John and to the early church and say, yes, I do know that I have passed from death into life because I love my brothers and sisters.

It is so important, the theology of love for one another, that the Apostle John is going to emphasize the love for one another, not only in 1 John, but in 2 John, in 3 John, in his gospel and in the apocalypse. What is it called? Revelation. It is so important, core to the message of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the genuine believer will love his brothers and sisters. It is so important that he uses this word past.

That is a word that means that someone has been translated from one place to another, and that person does not belong to that place any longer. That has been translated from death into life. that has been changed from the realm of the kingdom of death into the realm of life. It is so important to this apostle that continually he will call us to examine sin if we love the brothers and sisters. He was sowing to the love of his Savior.

The church history says that when John, who was very old and was in Ephesus with the brothers and sisters, when he was about to die, the brothers and sisters will come to Ephesus and the church on Sunday, on the Lord's Day, and they wanted to ask the apostle to receive a word of doctrine or a word of knowledge or a lofty comment from the apostle who is the only one that is alive. And they will come and say, Apostle John, We're coming to you to see what you have to tell us." And these old men, Church History says, that the only thing that these old men who could not move much and who did not have much energy to utter many words, the only thing that he will say is, little children, love one another. Every time that the Christians will come and ask him, please tell us something about doctrine. Perhaps you're going to tell us something very lofty, like what the Apostle Paul taught or the other apostles explained.

Please tell us something. Little children love one another. Church history says that a group of people in the Church of Ephesus got so tired of receiving the same response from these old men that always will tell them, little children love one another, that someone was brave enough to come and ask the Apostle John. Why do you always give us the same answer, Apostle? Why every time that we come to your feet, you always tell us little children love one another.

Church history says that Apostle John says this, it is the commandment of my Savior. And if you love one another, you have done enough. It is the commandment of the one whom I loved. And if you love one another, you have done sufficient. You have done enough.

That is the humility of days, and that is the depths of knowledge. Because indeed, every single commandment is focused on this, that love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself, and love the brethren. Do you know, my dear brother and sister, that you have passed from death into life because you love the brethren? Have you seen the love of the Lord Jesus Christ so clearly portrayed upon the cross for your soul that this is moving you to love the brothers and the sisters? Have you been transformed in such a way by the Spirit of Jesus Christ that now you know that you have passed from death into life because you love the brethren?

This is the message of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, my dear brother and sister. And it's not my purpose to bring any burden upon your shoulders. It is not my purpose to bring any condemnation upon your soul. My only desire is that in urgent times, in urgent times for the people within the sounds of my voice, that we will learn to love one another more. Within the sound of my voice there are Christians.

And I know that the Lord has started at work within us, and He is the one that is going to bring it to completion. And He does that through the preaching of the word, through the prayers of the saints, and through the communion of Jesus Christ among them. It is my desire that as we examine these scriptures, we as brothers and sisters will learn to love one another just as the Lord Jesus Christ has loved us. that when we see these scriptures, yes, you're going to be confronted. And yes, I'm going to say many difficult things.

And yes, perhaps there's going to be burdens of guilt. But my dear brother and sister, as I say these things, I want you to look to Christ and I want you to place your eyes upon the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, because in the end of the day, He's the only one that can move us to love one another as we are to love one another. There's no effort, there's no words, there's no illustration, there's nothing that I can do from this pulpit that is going to move your heart to love one another. The only thing that I have is the Scriptures, and my mission is to bring the Scriptures to you and to point it to Christ so that Christ will have mercy upon us. and will lead our hearts to love one another as we ought to love one another.

And let me give you a warning, my dear brother and sister, because perhaps I'm going to say many things that are difficult. And perhaps because of my countenance and my accent, you might take this in a difficult way. But my dear brother and sister, do not be tempted to examine any other person from this sermon than yourself. Please do not be tempted to examine anyone else in this room other than yourself. Please do not be tempted to judge me or to examine me with the words that I'm saying.

While I appreciate that very much, I ask you that this time you take the words that I'm saying, Aviv, they are according to the Scriptures, examine yourself. Once again, I ask that you may not be tempted to examine any other than your soul. Do not examine the church, brother and sister. While I appreciate that very much, please do not examine Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Examine your heart.

Because remember that you are a part of the church, and you are Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. And if you examine yourself and in your heart, that is the starting place to examine the church. And at the same time, my dear brother and sister, I say, please, avoid the temptation. Avoid the temptation to examine that brother or that sister that has said or done something against you that now is bothering you so much in your heart and in your mind. Avoid that temptation, but take this time, as if no one else was present in this room, to examine yourself before the Lord.

To consider your ways before the Lord. To answer yourself the question individually that if you know that you have passed out of death into life because you know the brethren. Because I don't know who said that today. Perhaps it was someone from this room. But that person said, we die alone.

There might be people when we die that are around our bed and they come to see us die. But we are born and we die alone. And when we face the Lord Jesus Christ, we face the Lord Jesus Christ and we give an account alone. We may have families, and we may have a church, and we may have people around us that love us and care for us, but when you die, you give an account on your own. So do not be tempted to examine anyone else other than you.

And if the Lord allows us, by His grace, that we will be focused on our relationship to Christ, and if the Lord grants us the grace for us to see the Scriptures, perhaps we will learn to love one another more, and that will be a victory in the kingdom of light. And that is my desire. So my dear brother and sister, I want to speak to you, as I said, about loving one another in deed and in truth. And the Apostle John is going to present this topic comparing on one side hate and on the other side love. And it's my desire to present this message to you as clear as possible from the text.

Not only because I think that is the duty of the one who preaches to communicate to you the message of the Bible as it is plainly stated there on the pages, but secondly and more importantly, I want to present it exactly as it is from the text because I want you to have an encounter with God and not with me. I don't want you to have an excuse to say, I don't agree with what he says because that's what he says. I'm trying to present what is here as plain as it is written in these verses so that you will have a confrontation with God in the positive sense of that word. And my desire is that your soul will be encouraged to love the brethren more. I'm pretty sure that the Lord is making a work and the work that He has started, He will bring it to completion.

And I'm hoping and I'm praying that through the preaching of His message, we will learn to love one another more. I want to do three things from verses 15 through verse 18. My desire, once again, is that we will learn to love the brethren in deed and in truth. I want first of all to present to you the warning against hate that is found in verse 15. There is a warning against hate that is presented in verse 15.

Once we have considered this warning against hate, I want us to answer then the question, how do we know this biblical love that we are to have for the brethren? The apostle says in verse 16, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. First, verse 15, I want to present this warning against hate. Second, verse 16, I want to present the answer to the question, how do we this biblical love that we are to have for the brethren. And then verses 17 and 18, I want to present to you how or what practical love looks like.

What biblical love looks like. Warning against hate. Then how do we know biblical love? And then in verse 17 and 18, what practical love looks like in verse 17 and 18 says, But if anyone has the world goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart, against him, how does God's love abide in him? Now, brothers, I don't know if the air conditioners are set at a low temperature.

I don't know if this one, brother, because otherwise this sweat is going to play in my head and I want to be focused. Sorry to other. So brothers and sisters, if you have your attention once, sorry that I'm doing that. It's just that I don't want to be mindful that I'm very... Thank you.

Thank you, brother. As I said, verse 17 of verse 15. This warning against hate. Your minds with me, my dear brothers and sisters. This warning against hate.

Then this answer to this question. How do we know biblical love? And then the important part, the application of it if you want. What does practical love look like? Now, let us now focus our attention on this warning against hate.

And I want you to feel, brethren. I want you to hear the severity and the weight of this warning. My dear soul, not with the words of the preacher, but with the words that are written in your Bible. Hear and feel the severity and the weight of this warning that we have in verse 15. It says, everyone who hates His brother is a murderer.

And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. The Spirit of God through the Lord Jesus Christ in His Church and the Apostle John has left no room for any possibility of justifiable hate that I can experience in my heart against my brother and sister. There's absolutely nothing that your brother or sister can do in which you find hate as a reasonable response. There's no deed, there's no work, either of omission or commission, that your brother or sister does not do, which justifies that you will experience hate in your heart. Because the one who hates his brother is a murderer.

And the murderer does not have eternal life. The one who hates his brother and sister is not a Christian. The one who hates his brother and sister does not have the life of Jesus Christ in him or in her. And everyone who hates, everyone who has this feeling towards his brother or sister falls into that category. But if that weight, that severity of that statement was not enough, I want you to pay attention to what hate in the heart means to God.

Hate in the heart to God means murder. If you pay attention to what murder means in society, you will realize that the person that is a murderer or the person that kills usually is going to be ashamed or is going to be shame will be upon their shoulders. They will not want that society will know that they are murderers. They will not want people to know that they have killed or taken the life of anyone. If people knew that this person has taken the life of someone, then perhaps society is going to remove them because they will deem or consider that person to be a dangerous person that is to be removed from the context of that society.

However, there are people within the context of the early church and there are people within the context of the church throughout the ages that even though they have not committed external murder, they have hate in their heart and in the eyes of God, they walk as those who have committed murder. They are so prideful sometimes that not knowing that what they have in their heart puts them in the same category of the shameful sin of the one who has murdered something in society. Yet they are coming into the context of the church with their heads up and looking and smiling to the brothers and sisters whom they hate in their heart, not knowing. that even though they manage to convince their brothers and sisters that they love them, there's someone who knows the depths of their hearts and there's someone who knows all things and knows that in the depths of their heart there are haters. This is what hate means to God.

But if that was not enough, my dear brother and sister, this God who is able to see the heart of this professing Christian is the same God that is going to judge them. And He has already given a legal verdict because you pay attention to what He says in the verse, everyone who hates will be a murderer. Well, everyone who hates his brother will be a murderer, brethren. No. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

God has already given a legal verdict. The one who stores hate in his heart or her heart is in the eyes of God a murderer. And because this murderer receives judgment, he will receive the eternal judgment, which is eternal condemnation. Because the text that we have in front of us, brothers and sisters, that no murderer has eternal life abiding in Him. If there's anyone who has hate in his heart and does not repent of that sin, there's going to be one day.

There's going to be one day in which they are going to have to give an account to God. And the final judgment is going to come upon them. They are not going to have eternal life, but they are going to have eternal death. And my dear brother and sister, you're mine with me, please. My dear brother and sister, if that was not enough, if everything that I have said so far was not enough, thank you so much, brother.

If that was not enough, my dear brother and sister, the fact that God considers hate murder, and the fact that God is going to be the one that is going to judge the one who has hate in his heart, Murder is, or hate in the heart, is murder against a child of God. Because we have in the text that the one who hates his brother or sister is a murderer of that professing brother or sister. So God is not only going to have an encounter with a hater in heart as one who is a sinner. God is not only going to have an encounter with that person who has stored bitterness and hatred in his heart as a sinner, but God is going to have an encounter with the one who hates his beloved children. Who are you to despise the one for whom I care?

Who are you to hate the one whom I love? He will say on that day. Who are you to murder the one for whom I have given my son so that he will have eternal life? Who are you? What do you think that you are?

What do you think that you have inside of you that is so precious to compare yourself with my son or my daughter and hate them? When I am the one who is working in them, when I am the one that has given them grace, when I am the one who rescued them, when I am the one that is keeping them in my hands, when I am the one who sent my son to die for them, who are you to hate my son and my daughter? Oh, my dear brother and sister, while society and even ourselves, we diminish the weight of hate, that as we see these scriptures, my dear brother and sisters, that we will not make that mistake. Because the one who hates in their heart is a murderer in the eyes of God. And if you do not repent of your hate, there will be one day in which God is going to undo His sword of judgment and justice.

And He's going to bring it upon you with all the judgment that you deserve because the hatred that you have kept in your heart against the children of God. Is that you, my dear soul? Is that your case? Is your heart filled with anger and wrath for your brothers and sisters? Are you so quick to speak and slow to wrath?

Don't you know that the wrath of men does not righteousness of God? Is your heart so filled with anger and wrath every time that you think about a brother and sister? I implore you and I say right now, please come to Christ while there is time. While there is time that this God can extend grace upon you to forgive that sin of hatred in your heart, come to Him because that is the only way that you can be saved. Otherwise, you are going to have to face this God who is going to be your judge and is going to give you what you deserve, eternal death.

Is your heart filled with envy and self-seeking? Every time that you see a brother or sister that is advancing in grace or that is progressing in the ways of the Lord, is your heart filled with envy and self-seeking? Don't you not know that that type of wisdom is earthly, demonic, and does not come from above? Don't you not know that a heart that is filled with envy and self-seeking produces confusion and all evil deeds? James 3.

If that is your case, my dear brother, sister, or friend, I implore you that you do not listen to anything else, but just come to Christ. He's the only one that can rescue you. He's the only one that can give you forgiveness. He's the only one that can cleanse your heart. He's the only one that can fix that problem.

Are you so filled with covetousness and lust and passions for the things of this world that you're causing strife and quarrels among the brethren? James chapter 4. That you lust and you don't receive? That you covet and murder and you don't obtain a daughter? Don't you not know that if in your heart you have this type of strife, then you are destined to this weight of judgment?

Are you filling your mouth with evil speak against your brother and sister? Do you dare to judge your brother and sister? Don't you not know that the scripture says, James 4, verse 11, that if you judge a brother, you judge the law. And who are you to take the place of the lawgiver who is the judge of all? If that is your case, my dear soul, I'm inviting you and imploring and begging today that you will come to Christ.

Religion is not going to save you. This church certainly is not going to help you. The only person that can help you is the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to His feet because He's the only one that can rescue you from the condemnation in which you are walking. If your heart is filled with hate, you are not in Christ and you need to come to Him.

Is that your heart? Please come to Christ. That is the severity of the warning that the Apostle gives us in verse 15. That everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And no murderer has eternal life.

But then, how are we going to run away from that city of destruction? How are we going to escape the judgment that comes upon the person who hates his brother and sister? Where are we going to find refuge? Where are we going to go so that we will not receive The judgment of God upon the hater of the child of God. The answer is given to us in verse 16.

Christ Jesus. By these we know love. That he Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. How do we know this love? that is so foreign to human nature?

Where are we going to find this biblical love that I'm supposed to have for your soul? What is that place in which you are going to find this love and experience this love that you are supposed to have for your brothers and sisters? The answer is Christ. It's not inside of your mind. It's not inside of your preferences.

It's not inside of your experiences. It's not inside of your morals and your ethics. It's not inside of the things that you know. Do not look to yourself. Look to Christ.

You're not going to find that love in the church, even though Christians are supposed to emulate the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, among us, there's going to be sin. So you're not to look to Christ. You're not to look to the church. You're to look to Christ.

As long as you look to the church, you're going to find many Christ-like things in the brothers and sisters, but ultimately, brother and sister, you are to look to Christ. And certainly, you're not going to find this love in the world. The world that is filled with hate. The world that is filled with unrighteousness. You need to look to the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please pay careful attention to the word the Apostle uses in verse 16. He says, by this we know. Please pay attention to that word. By this we know love. What is the Apostle speaking about?

Is the Apostle speaking about an intellectual understanding of love? that by paying attention to the atoning sacrifice of Christ, a person is able to discern intellectually and with the mind what love is meant to be? No, my dear brother and sister. Every time that the apostle uses this word or a form of this word, he refers to an experience of love, to an experience of God. Those who have been born of God love because they know God.

This knowledge of which the apostle is speaking in verse 16 is an experiential knowledge, because no human being is able to comprehend with the mind, and more important, with the heart, the love that God has had for us in any other place than in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, when that is applied to the heart of that person by the Spirit of God. The only way that we can know genuine love is when the Spirit of God transforms us and changes in our heart. And this is not something that happens only upon our conversion. For us to continue to grow in the understanding of the love of Christ that He had upon the cross, we are to continually come to God by faith. to comprehend and to understand that God demonstrated His love towards me, that while I was still a sinner, Christ Jesus died for me.

And that is meant to be applied also to your soul, my dear brother and sister. Every day, do you want to be able to comprehend the love that you need to have for your brothers and sisters? You need to come to the feet of Christ by faith and to daily know that He died for your soul when you did not deserve. How much of your mind is taken over by the thoughts of your brothers and sisters, and the criticism of their ways and their thoughts, rather than the thought of Christ Jesus dying for you upon the cross? how much of your effort and your emotions and your stamina and your energy and your self is given to criticize others and to point fingers at others rather than to think and to meditate and to consider and to contemplate the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.

The reason why we are not powerful is not because we don't have a powerful Savior, but the reason why we are not powerful is because we choose not to spend at the feet of the Savior, but rather in our own ways. The more that we have of Him, the less that we have of us. And the more that we have of Him, the more powerful that we walk in this Christian life. That is the testimony of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that we know love only this way. When we put our eyes upon the cross that He died.

And He did not die for you only. He died for us. The prize was given for the church. So when I look to my brother and my sister, I'm not only seeing a person who has chosen to congregate in the same church to which I belong, but I'm seeing a person for whom God has bestowed His love in such a way that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for that brother and that sister. And it's by virtue of this common connection, this link that we have upon the cross, that we can call each other brother and sister.

And while there are many things that we can think and that we can say about the cross, I think that the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 2 points us to the pinnacle, if you want, of the reason why we are to love one another in light of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you come with me please to Philippians chapter 2, brother. Some pray that in his prayer. If you come please to Philippians 2 of the many things that we could say, brother and sister, my dear friend, my dear soul, of the multiple books that have been written about the depths of knowledge that is found upon the cross, upon the many things that men had invested their time and their efforts writing about to describe the cross, This one that we have here is perhaps one of the greatest things that helps us understand the nature of love. The Apostle Paul is going to exhort us to love one another.

The Apostle is going to exhort us to look after each other based on what Christ has done for us. Philippians chapter 2, let us read together from verse 3. Now, brethren, read this by faith. You've read this many times. But please read this by faith and only the reading of the Word will teach us, please.

Verse 3, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren. Read that, please. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who thought he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but empty himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form. By becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. When people bring their minds and their intellects to try to see what is the greatest thing that the Lord has done so that we will emulate that in our love one for the other, people say that love is meant to be sacrificial. That sacrifice is the key characteristic of the love of God demonstrated to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And because He was sacrificial in His giving, we are also to be sacrificial in our giving of each other to our brothers and sisters, and that is very true.

That is actually what the Apostle John has in mind when he says, By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That is precisely what the Apostle has in mind. That we are to be sacrificial. That just as He was sacrificial, giving Himself when He was God, we are also to be sacrificial. But brothers and sisters, there's something that precedes sacrifice.

There's something that precedes this glorious truth of the death upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is found in v. 8. There's something very important that needs to take place before one is willing to sacrifice himself. And that is found in verse 8.

Pay attention. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient, and then comes the cross, to the point of death, even the death on a cross. Love for one another is to be understood in the context of humility. Because without humility, nobody is going to be able or willing to sacrifice themselves.

If you think yourself to be so exalted and above everyone else, if you're not humble enough to look to the interests of others, but rather in your mind, you are the one that takes priority, then sacrifice is never going to happen. The death on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested primarily in His willingness in eternity past to accept the task that the Father has given Him, this promise of eternal life granted or given to the Son by the Father, when He became like one of us, took on our own nature, He submitted to the law of God, He fulfilled everything that was required, and He went to the cross, obedient even to the point of death. Humility is that what is required in our hearts for us to be able to love one another. Humility is that which is required in our hearts so that we will lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. So that means that if there's pride among us, pride is not going to allow us to love one another.

My dear, beloved soul, If we have pride in our hearts, we naturally tend to see ourselves as more superior or better than others. And the offense that others cause to me is going to be so big and so great that I will bring judgment upon that person. I will just simply walk away. We need humility in our hearts, just like the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that if we are going to love one another, we put our eyes on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and we say, I did not deserve to be saved, yet He came. I did not deserve to receive this grace, yet He sent His Son.

I know what I have inside of my heart and my mind, yet He loved me to such a point that He sent His Son to die upon the cross. I still know that there are things in my head and in my soul that are not worth interceding for at the right hand of the Father, yet He continues to intercede for me. I know that I have something in me that is not worth to do everything that God has done in Jesus Christ, but yet He has done it. When we look to Christ in such a way, my dear brother and sister, the heart of the genuine Christian and the one who has genuinely seen that is going to be impacted with humility. What is my life compared to everything that he has done?

Who am I? Who am I? What do I have that is of such great value that I'm going to hold, that I'm going to keep to myself, that I'm not going to give, that I'm not going to relinquish, that I'm not going to lay down? What are my days? What is my future?

What are my resources? What is my life compared to these great things that God has done for me? The way that we now love, the love that we are to have for one another, is when we look to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that way, I return to my text, if you come with me please, to address the final thing. What does practical love look like?

What does practical love? We have now spoken how do we know this love? And that is to look into the cross. Look into Christ Jesus. He is the one that teaches us, communicates, imparts the love that is needed for us to have one for the other.

But what is this love, practically speaking? Verse 17 and 18, the apostle says, But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word and talk, but in deed and in truth. Biblical love to the brethren is this active commitment that cares and provides for the brethren. My dear soul, this love that we are reading here in verses 17 and 18 is this active commitment that cares and provides for the brethren.

It's an active commitment that cares and provides for the brethren. It is active commitment because it's beyond words. The apostle says in verse 18, little children let us not love in words and talk, but in deed and in truth. It's an active commitment because genuine love goes beyond words. Genuine love closes the gap between speaking about love and doing actions of love.

When there is a chasm between the things that you say about love and the actions that you take, that is called hypocrisy. People who speak about love and people who speak about loving things and are very good at describing love and pointing others to love one another and send each other hearts when they do not love in action, that is called hypocrisy. We need to close the gap between the things that we know and say and the things that we do because genuine biblical love is not words, but it's truth and it's deed. Love is action. It's an active commitment.

But how do I know if my actions, if my actions of love are biblical and genuine? Because the scripture tells us about many Pharisees who did not only speak about loving things and also did loving things. You remember there were some people that gave to the poor and people who will go and pray in the corner and people who will go into the temple. How do I know if the active commitment in my love is not producing works but are fleshly works? Well, Biblical love is one that is active commitment that cares for the brethren, when your heart cares for the brethren, when you are not indifferent to the brethren, but when you care for the brethren and the things that you not only say, but the things that you do are with the purpose of caring genuinely for the brothers and sisters.

We have there in the text the person that is indifferent to the brothers and sisters. Verse 17. But anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him. Closes his heart against him. This person was indifferent.

This person did not care for their brother and sister. This person only cared for themselves. Biblical love is this active commitment that cares for the brothers and sisters and provides for the needs of the brothers and sisters. We have here in verse 17 a clear example of provision to the needs of brothers and sisters, physical needs. We have there once again in verse 17, the person that has the world or the world's goods, the apostle says, and sees, is aware of the need of a brother and sister.

If that person does not provide for that physical need, but rather that person is indifferent, that person does not care for the need of that brother and sister, how does that person say that the love of God abides in him or her? It does not. because biblical love is this active commitment that cares and provides for the needs of the brothers and sisters. My dear brother, my dear sister, of course the example that we have in verse 17 is an example that pertains to the physical matters and to the material matters and by no means the Apostle John is reducing down biblical love or only to provide for the physical needs of the brothers and sisters. Providing for the physical needs of the brothers and sisters is one of the manifestations of active commitment that care and provides for the brothers and sisters, but the brothers and sisters have much many more needs than the physical needs.

The point of the Apostle is not to tell you give to the poor or give to the one that is in need. Only, he wants to point us to the fact that we as brothers and sisters, as we manifest our love, we are to provide for the needs of the brothers and sisters. And while in the example, yes, we have the example of the one who has the world's goods, We also know that because of the spirit that has been bestowed, given to us, all Christians also have the heavenly goods. Christians might have a small world goods or many small world goods. Some of them will be poor.

Some of them will be rich. According to how the Lord has prospered them, they are to give to the needs of the brothers and sisters. But God has bestowed upon us heavenly goods. that we are to use to provide for the needs of one another. The key principle that Apostle John is using there in verse 17 is not one of focusing only on the physical need, but rather to focus on the need of my brother and sister.

We are to provide for the need of my brother and sister. And while we may not have all money to provide for each other, we do have spiritual gifts or spiritual things that have been bestowed upon us that we can provide with one another. There are many things that could say about this, but let me just point you to three spiritual goods that we are called to provide to one another in process of fulfilling each other's needs. Come with me please to Galatians chapter 5. Let me just show you this, if the grace of the Lord allows in giving me clarity.

Galatians chapter 5. And as you will see from here, we have in Galatians chapter 5, I want to point to you, my dear brother and sister, to heavenly goods that we all Christians have, that we can actively commit to care and to provide to our brothers and sisters. Galatians chapter 5. Are you asking yourself the question of how can I be loving to my brother and sister and what can I provide to them? While you may not have money or resources to provide for a particular need, there are things that are in you by virtue of the presence of the Spirit that we are to provide to one another.

The first one is service. Come to Galatians chapter 5 and pay attention to verse 13. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another. The Apostle John says in 1 John chapter 3 that it is through love that we are to lay down our lives one for the other, that we are to actively commit to provide for the needs of the brethren in 1 John chapter 3.

Here we have that it is through love that we serve one another. Verse 14, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. My dear brother and sister, if you give yourself to the things of this world, if you give yourself to be busy in serving the things of this world and you are careless in using that which the Spirit has given to you as a gift to serve the brothers and sisters, you are going to find yourself that you are not providing the service that your brothers and sisters need from each other. The Spirit of God has bestowed upon us of Himself so that in fulfilling the law of Christ, which is love, we will serve one another.

And we are in need of serving one another. Church is not only coming to Sunday or coming on Wednesday or doing evangelism on Friday. Church is that we, as a community, will serve one another in such a way that we are all growing in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is something that the Spirit of God has deposited in each one of the Christians of the congregation that is meant to be used for the service of the congregation, of the brethren, and everyone, the rest of us, have need of what the Lord has deposited in you. So in fulfillment of this love, we are to serve one another.

But it's not only that we are to serve one another, we are to spiritually care for one another. Pay attention to chapter 6, verse 1. Chapter 6, verse 1 of Galatians. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watching yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Pay attention to verse 2. on their one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? Love one another. bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

As brothers and sisters in the context of the church, we have a responsibility to each other to bear each other's burdens. Yes, we have been given the Spirit of God and everything that is necessary for our life, for our godliness, for our salvation is given to us by the presence of the Spirit. But in giving us all of these gifts, God has also given us the church. so that we, by serving one another, we will help with each other's burdens. And there is a need of each other that we will help to carry these burdens.

What is a manifestation of practical love? This active commitment to care for my brother and sister and to provide for their needs. They require to be served by me. They require that I help them to carry their burdens. All of us require of each other so that we will be walking in conformity to Jesus Christ.

And if that was not enough, in Galatians we have many of these type of verses. If you go to verse 9, we also have the need of each other good works. We owe to each other good works, verse 9. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith, verse 9.

Let us not grow weary of doing good. The good that you do to your brother and sister is not contingent upon your brother and sister repaying or doing something for you. The good that you do for your brothers and sisters is not contingent upon a smile or a thank you or whatever they do to you. They should do that. But the good that we do to our brothers and sisters depends upon the love that comes upon me because he died for me.

The motor, the engine that should move us into good works is not how much good works I'm receiving from my brothers and sisters. It's not how many good faces or smiles I'm getting from my brothers and sisters. The flesh is tempted to that, let me tell you. But it's about what he has done for me, so that now my life is for my brothers and sisters. Do not grow weary of doing good.

Do good to everyone, especially to those of the household of faith. Do not grow weary. Do not grow tired of doing what you are called to do. Because love is this active commitment. Active commitment that cares for your brother and sister and provides what they need.

They do not only need physical things. They also need spiritual things. They need encouragement. They need words. They need support.

They need help. They need spiritual care. They need that we help one another. We are needy people. We are not strong.

So we need one another. And that is the practical manifestation of love. And we are not to grow weary in doing that. We are not to give up. We are not to give up in that because we have One who has promised that the work that He's doing in the midst of the church is not our work.

It's the work of God and He will bring to completion the work that He has started. And it's in that promise that we take refuge. And it's in that promise that is Christ the One that builds the church in the one in which we get strength. and in which we are empowered and strengthened to speak in a language that is not our own, to run with feet that we don't have, to push with a strength that we lack. It is in Christ Jesus, the one that we find the strength that we do not have to love one another.

So I ask, do you know that ye have passed out of death into life because you love the brethren? Do you know that you have been translated from death into life because you love the brethren? Is your heart taken captive by the love of Jesus Christ so you are moved to actively care for your brothers and provide for them both in the physical and in the spiritual? Do you care for your brothers and sisters? Do you know that you have been taken from the realm of Satan into the realm of Jesus Christ.

And sadly, some of you within the sound of my voice are not in Christ Jesus. And because you are not in Christ Jesus, you will never be able to love the brothers and sisters as you are supposed to, because love is a manifestation of a heart that has been changed. The bitterness, the anger, the wrath that you may have in your heart, the frustration that you may have in your heart is not because of the other. It's because your heart has not been transformed by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one that is in Christ cannot love.

The one that is not in Christ cannot receive the graces from God and transfer them to others. That's why I implore and I call to you, if you know that you are not in Christ, when you're seated in this church, you know that you are not in Christ. Today is the day of your salvation. Don't be hatred in your heart. You're not going to be able to love as the Lord has commanded us to love.

If you do not come to the Lord Jesus Christ, only in Him we find freedom from ourselves. Only in the cross we find the refuge that is going to empower and strengthen us to love one another. And to you, my dear brother and my dear sister, to you, my dear soul, I say this. Do not let this opportunity pass. Do not let this opportunity pass.

Do not let the opportunity to please your Lord pass. What do you think, that your Lord is going to be pleased more by you loving those who are lovable, or by you loving those who are unlovable? Look around you, and you will see the many faces, the many people, and the many backgrounds, and the many things that we've done, that we have not done, the many things that we should have done, that we have not done, and you will find every reason not to love one another. What do you think that the Lord is going to bless you and is going to be more glorified by you loving the ones that agree with you 100% or by you loving the ones who are unlovable? Do you think that the Lord is going to be more glorified by loving the one that deserves to be loved or is worthy to receive my emotions and my love or loving the one that is not lovable?

Do not let this opportunity pass of climbing the highest mountain instead of taking the easy path. Do not let this opportunity pass to glorify your Lord by doing what He did. You think that there's anything lovable in us, that He will come and die upon the cross because we are so worthy? The example that He gave us is that He loved us in such a way that when we were sinners, He died for us. And that is the love that we are called to have for one another.

Many things I have said from this pulpit that I should have not said. Many things I have said to you in the private place that I should have not said. Many things will I say perhaps from this pulpit that I should not say. But brother and sister, we are called to love one another not by virtue of the things that we are, we are not, say or do not say. We are to love one another because he loved us and he gave himself for us.

We love because He first loved us. If the Spirit of God is going to do something among us, that that might be seen in the fact that we love one another. My dear brother, my dear sister, do not allow flesh to take over anger, wrath, envy, self-seeking, all of these things in your heart, but rather come to Christ. And if you need to ask for forgiveness, Come to Him that He's just and faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If there's a brother or sister that you need to go and ask for forgiveness because you have thought or said or done something that you should have not, do not be slow and prideful.

Come to this brother and sister and ask for forgiveness. Do not lean on your flesh. Do not give space for your flesh. This is the moment in which Christ through His Spirit says, If you come to me, if you're weary, heavy laden, I will give you rest. Come to Christ.

He will strengthen you and empower you to do everything that we have commanded to do. And perhaps one day, if the Lord gives us grace, and we are still advancing many days, and you come to me and ask, please tell us something about doctrine or tell us something about the Bible, I hope that in that day I will have the spirit of the Apostle John to tell you little ones, love one another. May the Lord give us the grace that is needed for us to fulfill this commandment and not to look to self. Okay, brethren? Amen.

Let's pray.