Responsibilities One to Another, Part 1

Introduction: Context and Purpose of the Sermon Series

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 22nd, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now will you follow, please, in your Bibles as I read two portions of the Word of God, to which reference will be made in the unfolding of the exposition this morning. The first is found in John chapter 13, this very tender, profound discourse of our Lord in the upper room, just prior to the final hours of His suffering and death, and speaking to the inner circle of His own. In John chapter 13 and verse 31 we read, When therefore He was gone out, that is, Judas, Jesus saith, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And God shall glorify Him in Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek Me.

1:29 And as I said unto the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come. So now I say unto you, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another. And then, and the second passage is in Romans chapter 13, Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 13, verses 8 through 10. No man anything, that is, have no standing bad debts. This text is not forbidding the incurrence by way of loan of a legitimate debt. Because Jesus said, Give to him who asks of you, and from him that would borrow of you do not turn away.

2:44 If borrowing were sin, then Jesus was encouraging sin. What it means is, incur and sustain no bad debts.

2:55 No man anything, save to love one another. For he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is summed up, in this word, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

3:25 Love works no ill to his neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

3:36 Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer and ask the Lord's help as we again turn to the subject of our responsibilities and privileges as members of Christ. Church, let us pray.

3:54 Father, we again thank you for your presence with us in our worship this morning. For the joy of being able to sing praises to you, confess our love to the Lord Jesus, our love to his kingdom and to one another. And now we pause to confess our love for your word. And we pray that the Spirit will come and enable us to understand, to understand its teaching and then incline our hearts to obey it.

4:29 Send your Spirit, O God, and so speak in this hour that our congregational life will experience a demonstrable, visible, and undeniable measure of increased mutual love. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

4:55 Now those of you who attend upon this ministry regularly know that I have taken a relatively brief break in the expositions of the Gospel of Mark in order to take up the subject of the major privileges and responsibilities of church membership. And we have done that at this time for the simple reason that we have gone through and are presently in a season of more than ordinary increase in our membership and we have gone through We felt it would be wise to help those newly committing themselves to us to have some major aspects of their commitment spelled out in the public preaching. And since this has not been done in the public preaching in general, it is one of those areas of truth concerning which, in the language of Peter, we need periodically to have our pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance. Now, in our first five studies, we have examined who was admitted to the apostolic church, what happened after they were admitted, Acts 2, 41 and 42, and then we began to consider what are the major, this is not exhaustive, but what are the major responsibilities and privileges of church membership.

6:19 And I suggested, as a broad category of organizing, the massive amount of biblical materials that we can think of those responsibilities and privileges in three directions. Those that terminate directly upon God, the arrow upward, those that terminate upon one another, the arrows inward, and those that terminate upon the world, the arrows outward. So if you can draw arrows in three directions, you understand the basic outline of this. This brief series of studies, the upward, inward, and the outward direction of the responsibilities of church membership.

The Nature of Our Responsibilities to One Another

7:04 We dealt with only two of those that gather around the upward arrow, our responsibility to God in terms of being present at the stated gatherings of His assembly, and secondly, of being present with appropriate, preparation, and engagement of heart. Now today, we move to the arrows that point inward. We begin to take up the second major category of the privileges and responsibilities of church membership, namely, those which pertain to our responsibilities one to another. Now as we saw with reference to our responsibilities to God, we saw with reference to our responsibilities to God within the church, and in the framework of the church, the responsibilities or the nature of those responsibilities grow out of the nature of the church. It's because the church is what it is that our duties to God as church members are what they are. Now that same principle is true when we start looking at the arrows pointing inward. The nature of our responsibilities to one another, are what they are because the relationship we have to one another is what it is.

8:35 Because church membership has brought us into certain relationships to one another, our duties grow out of that relationship constituted by God. Now let me just turn briefly to four texts which illustrate this. This is merely interesting. This is introductory to set the field in a biblical context.

9:00 For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 12,

9:07 Paul is dealing with a very delicate and vexed subject, the subject of Christian liberty. What are church members to do when they discover that certain church members have a conscience that condemns them for certain activities that other church members don't? Church members don't find trouble then. The thing's not clearly addressed in God's law.

9:34 And there are differing views as to the rightness or wrongness of certain activities and practices. Well, in the midst of dealing with this very vexed and delicate subject, Paul brings home an argument with tremendous force when addressing those who could do a certain thing with a good conscience, to thank God for what they did and walk away from it, singing praises to God and in communion with God. But they did so at the expense of causing grief and pain and maybe even stumbling to the brother whose conscience in the passage is called a weak conscience. And Paul is trying to get this brother with the strong conscience to recognize he has obligations to the brother who has a weak conscience. And notice how he does it in verse 12. 1 Corinthians 8, 12, And thus, sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against...

10:41 You see what he does? In order to arrest this brother whose activity he can engage in with no compunctions of conscience before God. But he does know when he engages in it, he violates and wounds the conscience of his weaker brother and even causes him to go in a path that's against his conscience. He said, look, if you're not prepared to stop out of the concern of causing grief to your brother and causing him to stumble, maybe this will catch you.

11:16 When you sin against your brother, the relationship you sustain to your brother is of such a nature that you can't sin against him without sinning against Christ himself. Now that's what the passage says. You see, the duty of accommodating to a weaker brother grows out of the nature of my relationship to that brother. He is so intimately joined to Christ and I with him in that faith union and the context of church fellowship that to sin against my brother is to sin against me.

11:59 The Lord himself. Now notice how this emphasis comes through in Matthew chapter 25. Here the setting is entirely different. It's the day of judgment.

12:09 And the Lord is dealing with the sheep and with the goats. And this is what he says. Matthew chapter 25. Speaking to the blessed, the sheep, verse 34, he says to them, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world.

12:38 For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me.

12:52 I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or athirst and give you drink?

13:09 And when did we see you a stranger and take you in? Or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come unto you? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these my brethren, even the least, you did it unto me.

13:48 The nature of the relationship of believers to Christ is such that our treatment of our brethren is regarded by Christ as our treatment. Now that is a loftiness of the vindication of the reality of the truth. But it is in this context of the day. This is not just a poetic image. A lofty, noble detachment. In current jargon, dear friends, this is where it is at for real. Then Ephesians 4.25.

14:57 Only trying to illustrate in our introduction this simple but basic principle. Our duties to one another grow out of the nature of our relationship to one another in church fellowship. Ephesians 4.25.

15:15 Here the apostle is giving a series of exhortations to the Ephesians that their lifestyle, no longer in any way reflect the past when they were in spiritual darkness and hardness of heart. And in the midst of that exhortation he says in verse 25, Wherefore, putting away falsehoods, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for, here is my reason, we are members one of another. Now notice he doesn't say we are members of the same church. If word ever gets out that there is lying in the church that will bring reproach to the church.

15:58 Now that's true, but that isn't what he says. He says, Don't lie, speak truth, for we are bound together in a spiritually organic relationship to one another. And if you lie to your brother there is a sense in which you lie to yourself and worse, you lie to the living head of whom you and your brother are parts in his body, the church. We are members one of another.

16:31 And then one final passage, Romans 12 and verse 5. We could turn to many, but hopefully these four witnesses will sufficiently convince the judgment of any believing child of God if the four don't, more wouldn't. Romans chapter 12 and verse 5. In the section in which he is urging people to sober self-assessment of their various gifts, he says, verse 4, For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office, so we who are many are one body in Christ and severally members, notice now, one of another. We are not only joined to Jesus Christ as though that faith union had only a vertical dimension, but in being united to Christ we become organically, spiritually, vitally united one to another. And again, that's not just poetic imagery or a lofty idealistic metaphor. That's reality.

Organizing the Duties: The Supreme Duty of Love

17:52 That's reality. Now, in attempting to sort out into a workable category the whole catalogue of responsibilities and privileges we sustain one to another as church members, and whole chapters are given over to this, there are various approaches one can take. Driving home from the retreat yesterday, I compared the categories that Pastor Nichols used on the recent retreat when he was speaking on love. And his categories and approach were different from mine.

18:26 I'm sure he thinks his is better or best. I make no judgment about mine except to say it's mine and I feel comfortable with it. And you can ask him what his was and make a judgment about whose was better or best. I rather think maybe the judgment will be they both were equal possibilities and for some, one will click better than the other.

18:47 So I claim no inspiration for this, but I hope it does help you to think through the whole matter of the arrows inward. What are my major privileges and responsibilities as a church member now not thinking so much of those that terminate directly upon God, but that terminate upon my relationships to my brothers and sisters? Well, in answer to that question, I will first of all assert that there is one supreme fundamental overarching all-embracing duty and privilege we have one to another. One supreme duty we have one to another. That duty obviously is to love one another. And then secondly, we'll look at the manifold ways in which this duty is to be fulfilled. The Bible does not simply say love one another and whatever that means to you, do it.

19:47 Love is not a self-interpreting code of ethics. Never has been. Never will be. So the same Bible that teaches that there is one supreme fundamental all-encompassing duty we have one to another, namely to love one another, then tells us the manifold ways in which this duty of love is to be fulfilled.

20:15 And the way I've tried to organize them is into these three categories. Number one, respect to general duties to all the brethren in ordinary circumstances. There are duties of love that are addressed to all of the brethren in ordinary circumstances. They are general duties of church membership.

20:44 But then there's another whole set of duties that I'm describing this way. Duties in respect to specific responsibilities to brethren in special or extraordinary circumstances. A brother is in a place of unusual financial need. He's in an extraordinary circumstance.

21:06 Well, there are specific duties we are to perform to him that we don't perform to all of the brethren who are in more ordinary circumstances. And then thirdly, there is a whole category of duties with respect to specific categories of brethren with respect to their position, their age, and their sexual identity. Those that are over you in the Lord, those that are older than you, those that are of the opposite sex from you. And I have found those three categories to be helpful.

21:42 I say they're not infallible. They are not exhaustive. You can't put every single duty of church membership into those categories. But remember, this is a broad, selective overview, nothing more than that.

21:56 All right? So that you have some idea where we'll be going, God willing, this morning and then next week, let us then take up the one supreme and all-encompassing duty we have to each other. And that duty, of course, is to love one another. And I want us to consider, very quickly, without any great detail, five major passages.

Biblical Pillars for the Supremacy of Love (Part 1)

22:20 One of them, I read in the Bible, and you're hearing John 13. When I state that with respect to the arrows pointing inward, the duties and privileges of church membership with respect to our fellow church members, that love is that one supreme and all-encompassing duty, on what basis do I make such an assertion? Well, let's look at the five pillars on which that assertion rests. John chapter 13, verse 31 and following.

22:56 As our Lord is about to leave His own, the betrayer has made his exit from the room, and our Lord now speaks in language that surely arrested the attention of His own, having spoken of the glorifying of God and of Himself that will accrue from His impending suffering and death and resurrection. He says, as His parting word, as it were, of ethical directive to His own, a new commandment, verse 34, a new commandment I give unto you. Now, it was not new in the sense that God had never commanded His people to love one another. The Old Testament teaches that the sum of the duty of the law is to love God and to love one's neighbor. That's not some great discovery that comes in the New Testament. But our Lord, our Lord nonetheless calls the articulation of this duty in this context and in particular in conjunction with the supreme manifestation of love in His own self-giving death upon the cross, He calls it a new commandment, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another. This shall all men know that you are My disciples

24:25 if you have loved one to another. Now, notice the three simple things that just stand out on the surface of the text, the unique place of this duty. It is so unique, so all-encompassing, so dominant that it's called a new commandment, as though the whole of their duty was bound up in this commandment to love one another, the unique place of this duty. Secondly, notice the astounding standard for this duty, 34b, that you love one another even as I have loved you. And think what that meant to these disciples, what it would mean to them when they see the Lord Jesus bound by cords of love to His own, of whom it is said, having loved His own, He loved them even unto the end, loved them enough to go into the throes of Gethsemane, loved them enough to undergo the pain and the shame of open trial, being stripped and beaten and the crown of thorns, loved them enough to go into total nakedness

25:48 and hang upon a cross, and be spat upon and mocked and jeered, to be sunk into blackness and to feel the horrors of forsakenness and abandonment. What an amazing standard for this duty. Love one another even as I have loved you. Your love to one another is to take its outlines from my love to you.

26:21 And then notice thirdly the profound impact of this duty when obeyed. Verse 35, By this, by what? By the community of my own people dwelling together in love which in some way, however imperfectly and poorly but really, reflects my love to you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another.

26:58 So there's the unique place of the duty, new commandment, the astounding standard of the duty as I have loved you and the profound impact of the duty. It's the validation of our identity with Jesus Christ as his disciples. That's what the text says. All right, Romans 13, second text we read.

Biblical Pillars for the Supremacy of Love (Part 2)

27:20 Remember now, what we're trying to do is establish that the one supreme, all-encompassing duty we have to one another is to love one another. Romans 13, eight and following. Incare and sustain no bad debts to anyone, owe no man anything, except there is a debt you can never fully resolve. You are under constant indebtedness as a recipient of grace to love one another.

27:55 That is your duty. You see, divine duties or divinely imposed duties are looked upon as debts to be discharged. It's something we owe to God. You owe to God to love one another for he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

28:18 He has in his conduct filled to the full what the law requires. It doesn't say he's canceled the law, he's suspended the law. No, it says he has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, if different commandments are expressed, are all summed up, not canceled, not negated, suspended, jettisoned, but summed up in this word, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

28:46 Insofar as you keep the specific precepts in the manner in which you are commanded, you are fulfilling them. You are fulfilling the law of God which finds its summary statement in these words, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

29:08 As those who recognize that when it comes to the great question, on what grounds can I, a guilty lawbreaker, find acceptance before God, the whole lawgiver, in that theater of concern? We say, we will allow nothing of our works to enter, not one millionth of a gram. We are not justified by the works of the law in any sense whatsoever. When I feel and own and acknowledge my guiltiness before the perfect standard of divine law, I can only come to true rest of conscience and acceptance with God when I utterly repudiate any efforts I have made to keep the law in the past, utterly repudiate all of my failures to keep the law. I have nothing to do with anything that touches my performance, and I am prepared to rest the full weight of my soul upon the perfect lawkeeping of Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. Upon that lawkeeping, in which He effected the virtue of His perfect life, in which He took upon Himself all the liabilities of my breaches of the law, and died under the curse of God

30:35 for that broken law, so that when the question of acceptance with God comes into view, my lawkeeping, whether out of the purest motives or the vain, doesn't aim to the picture. We are justified by something else, no dashes waiting for something else, no colons anticipating a list of something else. Justified by faith, I can see the genius of the gospel and the glory of the Savior and to embrace Him by faith. It's in the believing heart, a love to the Savior, to the God who sent Him, and that love wants to obey Him. And it wants to obey Him in terms of the revelation of His will, which is His law. So that's why Paul, who takes eight whole chapters to establish what I've just said over here,

31:55 lawkeeping doesn't enter into the question of our acceptance with God as to grounds. In chapter 13, he talks about lawkeeping, about fulfilling the law. This, in the framework of the old Heidelberg Catechism, is that wonderful framework of gratitude for redemption, for salvation received, moves us to want to keep the law, so that every true believer wants to keep the law. He wants to please God.

32:24 And here we are told that as a man experiences in the concrete realities of interaction with his brethren a love that is not working ill to his neighbor, that love is the fulfillment of the law. It is filling up the requirements and the demands of the law, not as the basis of his salvation. For when he loves most passionately and purely, he never loves perfectly, and there is enough sin in his most lovable act to damn him. So that never becomes a fabric that God lifts up and weaves, a thread that God lifts up and weaves into the fabric of Christ's righteousness. No. May I say it reverently? When our holy deeds in heaven will never be made by God, threads to be woven into the fabric of the perfect righteousness of Christ.

33:26 So here we have in Romans 13, not the answer to the question, what must I do to be saved? That is, the answer of God to that is, turn from all hopes of being saved in yourself, saved by your own performances, before or after conversion. Be saved by trusting solely in the performance of another. But when I ask the question, confident I'm saved by the doing and the dying of another, how can I please God?

Biblical Pillars for the Supremacy of Love (Part 3)

33:55 God says, love one another, for love is the fulfillment of the law. Then, 1 Corinthians 13, all I'll say about it is this. The chapter opens with underscoring so clearly. In a context in which Paul is treating the subject of spiritual gifts, Paul begins by saying, that love alone validates grace.

34:28 Gifts and knowledge are not the validation of grace. See how he puts it? In that famous poem on love, couched right between two extensive chapters on spiritual gifts, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, I have tremendous grace as gifts of uttering the mind of God, but have not love, and become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, I can utter the very words of God and know all mysteries and knowledge.

35:11 And if I have all faith, a miraculous faith, that can even remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I go to the depths of the benevolence that disposes of all my goods and is willing even to give up my body to be born, but have not love, it profits me nothing. He's saying that the grace of love alone validates the presence of saving grace. Not gifts, not knowledge, not benevolence, not even martyrdom.

35:45 And here we see then the supremacy of love, the culminating statement in verse 13, but now abide faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest of these is love. And it's very interesting when Paul gets down to the nitty-gritty of describing what love is. He gives us no philosophical, formal definition.

36:05 He describes love in terms of what it doesn't do primarily and then what it does do. And most of it is what it does and doesn't do in the presence of difficult people and difficult circumstances. You want to know if you love? Read 1 Corinthians 13.

36:23 And if you want to know if you're reading it rightly, think of the people that really grind your socks. Think of the people and the situations that really irritate you and ask how you relate. Love does not behave itself unseemly, is not rude. Love does not promote itself.

36:41 Love is patient. Love is kind, believes all things, hopes all things. You see, there's nothing in here about great acts of heroism. And this passage teaches us that the one supreme, all-encompassing, all-encompassing duty we have to one another is to love one another.

37:01 Yes, we are to exercise gifts in the assembly. We are to increase in knowledge in the assembly. Yes, but above gifts and knowledge and acts of benevolence and even martyrdom, we are to love. And then, of course, there is the clear statement of a passage such as Ephesians 5.

37:21 Paul has been giving many directives to the people of God, particularly focusing on church unity. Then this wonderful summary statement in Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, Be therefore imitators of God as beloved children. And what attribute or quality of God does he single out and walk in love? Even as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.

37:56 But then turn over, please, to the book of 1 John. And again, I am not intending to expound in any detail, but just to show how dominant this emphasis is upon love as being the supreme, all-encompassing responsibility we have one to another. In chapter 2, verses 7 to 11, he speaks more in a negative cast that if there is no love, we are yet in spiritual darkness. Then in chapter 3, verses 10 through 23, he deals with the fact that the presence of love is the indication that grace is in our hearts.

38:41 Verse 14, we know we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. He goes on to show that we can know that we love not by putting a philometer somewhere upon our hearts, but by what we do in the presence of the need of our brethren. He that sees his brother in need and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth.

39:12 And then in chapter 4, verses 7 through 21, he deals again with this whole subject, but I want to focus just on two texts that epitomize the argument on this whole matter of the place of love as the evidence that we are in a state of grace. First of all, in chapter 3 and verse 18, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. Hereby we shall know we are of the truth when we are truly loving, not in word or in tongue, and we might add, some kind of gushy feeling, but in deed and in truth. When we know that we love by the loving deeds that we do, we can assure our hearts that saving truth has taken residence within us. Then chapter 4, beloved, verse 7, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is begotten of God and knows God. He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love.

40:31 Herein was the love of God manifest in us, or in our case, 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 ought to love one another. Another?

40:58 He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. There can be no true saving acquaintance with God that leaves a man or a woman devoid of the principle of love in relationship to His brethren. Well, surely then, when I state that when we look at the arrows that turn inward and ask the question amidst all of the chapters and parts of chapters and all the imperatives and all the implied duties we have to one another, when I say that the one supreme, all-encompassing duty we have is to love one another, I am not imposing the mind of Albert N. Martin upon the Bible.

41:40 I am simply expressing the mind of the Bible in the language of Albert N. Martin. All right? So then, as you sit here this morning, a member of this church, and ask yourself, what is my fundamental, my supreme, my great overarching duty with respect to all of my brothers and sisters?

42:01 The answer of your conscience ought to come back loud and clear. It is to love them. It is to love them with a love that takes its mark, its measure, its shape, its quality from the very character of God, from the very person and work of Jesus Christ. A love that is my duty, as evangelical law-keeping, a love without which, no matter how correct I may appear to walk, I am not filling up the demands of the law if what I do, I do not do out of love, and if I say I love, I do not do what the law demands.

Manifesting Love: The General Duty to Receive One Another

42:42 Now then, what are the specific categories in which that love will be manifested? What are the categories of walking in brotherly love? And I am going to take up just one under that first heading. I told you we would break it down into three headings now from here on in.

43:04 At least that is the way I see it this morning. That is where the brain tried from an intensive elder's retreat. With a little mental rest, I may see it a little differently throughout the week. But this is how I propose to handle it.

43:17 Love acting in respect to the general duties to all the brethren in ordinary circumstances. What are the major responsibilities of love? If you were one by one, suppose I was to start with some of the members here and just say, come on up here, Bruce. Why don't you stand on the second step and look out over the congregation.

43:37 And as far as you know, all of the brethren who are in ordinary circumstances, no peculiar trial, no particular physical or spiritual crisis or calamity or emotional crisis, what is your duty to all of those brethren in their ordinary circumstances? Well, we're going to look at several, but this morning we've only got time to look at one. And it's going to be so simple when I say it. You're going to say, Pastor, you must have just done that for filler.

44:09 No, I didn't do it for filler. Honest. And it's this, to receive one another. Receive one another.

44:19 Turn to Romans chapter 15. And we'll have to get on our horse and move quickly because I want to expound the text briefly and then show what it means in the specifics. In Romans chapter 15, context in which Paul is showing that under the Gospel, Jesus Christ is gathering into His spiritual temple as the true Israel of God, both Jew and Gentile. He says in verse 5 of Romans 15, Now the God of patience and comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another, according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, if this glorious purpose of the God of patience and comfort, who by sovereign grace has called you into fellowship with Himself through the Gospel and into the one church, if His purpose that you be of the same mind and with one accord glorify this God and His Son Jesus Christ, if that's to be realized, then what follows must be our experience. Wherefore,

45:48 in the light of this great and glorious goal, receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you to the glory of God. Receive one another even as Christ received you. We are to receive one another with a reception that takes its clue from the manner in which our Savior has received us. Now if you're a Christian, let me ask you a few questions.

46:32 Has Jesus Christ received you with reservations? Has He received you with a hidden agenda? Has He received you with hypocrisy or what the old authorized calls dissimulation? How has He received you?

46:57 He has received you from the heart. He's received you for who and what you are and where you are with all of the glorious purposes of His grace very clearly before Him, and He has admitted that when He's done one of the many brethren of which He is the elder brother in the family and you'll all share His likeness, we all will share it. But Christ has received us. If ever there is a place, a proper place for the term unconditional love, receiving is here. ...demanded by God

47:45 to receive us with no hidden agenda, with no reservations, with no qualifications, with no hypocrisy, receive one another. Now what's that mean in the concrete? Well, in the 15 minutes remaining I want to tell you three simple things. I prayed that I could get it down to terms where you could give yourself a little test every time you see one another.

48:11 It means that we take one another into our hearts, take one another into our arms, and I'll qualify that, and take one another into our homes. Now that's not too hard to remember, is it? You kids remember that? Heart, hands, home.

48:30 Now you've got three H's that way, don't we? So let's cancel arms and call it hands, alright? ...and home.

48:40 You kids got that? Go home and tell your folks the outline if they fall asleep. You say, did you get what Pastor said? Receive one another means reception into heart or arms and home.

Receiving One Another into Our Hearts

48:56 Alright? What does that mean? To take one another into our hearts? Well, one picture's worth a thousand words.

49:02 Turn to 2 Corinthians 7. Here's a picture of a man who's desperately longing to take a people into his heart, but in a sense they won't let him, but he still does it anyway. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 2. He says to the Corinthians, Open your hearts to us.

49:24 Make room for us in your hearts. At one time, Paul was a loving guest in the living room of the hearts of the Corinthians until these false apostles came around and the first thing they did was to make sure he got kicked out back somewhere into the corner of the backyard where they stored the compost. And he says, Oh, Corinthians, make some room in your hearts for me again. You pushed me out.

49:54 Open your hearts to us. We wronged no man. We corrupted no man. We took advantage of no man.

50:01 Why have you pushed us out of your hearts? Did we do anything? Let your conscience act. Bring forth the facts.

50:08 If I did anything to give you grounds to push me out of your hearts, tell me. But if not, make room in your heart for me again. It's pathetic, isn't it? You feel something of the pathos in the passage.

50:24 I say this not to condemn you, for I have said, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. What a beautiful picture. He said, As long as the heart of the apostle Paul beats with life, if you peek in, you'll see right there in the living room the Corinthians sit in my heart. And when I die and go into my grave, I'll take you with me.

50:58 To die together, to die together. And even though they had pushed Paul, he did not push them out of his heart. What's it mean to receive one another? It means to take one another into our hearts in such a way that we're prepared for the vulnerability of heart reception of less than perfect people into your heart, and they may break your heart.

51:38 They broke Paul's heart, but he didn't push them out. The only way to live and never have a broken heart is to have a barred heart into which nobody is allowed to enter. And you can live in the icy island of insulation from any heart relationship to people. And the world is full of people like that, and I'm afraid the church has got altogether too many.

52:08 Receive one another What does it mean? It means we take one another into our hearts, into the seat of our affections and concerns so that our lives become bound up with the lives of others. And no little failure, no little mistreatment, no little shortcoming is going to cause us to push them out. We're prepared to live and die together with them in our hearts.

52:43 Receive one another That's the first thing it means. Take one another into our hearts. You mean, Pastor, I'm to leave myself vulnerable to all of my brothers and sisters so to seek to embrace them in love that every one of them can grieve me by being insensitive? Grieve me by saying nasty things?

53:12 Let them get close enough to hate me? Precisely. Because isn't that how Christ received you? Isn't that how Christ received you?

53:26 He's received us into such a relationship that we do grieve Him. We do cause Him pain. We do cause Him the twinges as well as the whole upheaval of grief and a broken heart. But He's received us.

53:50 And we're to take one another into our hearts. Another example of it is Philippians 1 in verse 7. I'll just touch on it quickly. Philippians 1 in verse 7.

54:00 Paul speaks of that church that was peculiarly precious to him. Being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work will perfect it until the day of Christ even as it's right for me to be thus minded on behalf of you because I have you in my heart. Isn't that a beautiful statement? I have you in my heart.

54:25 You're not just one group of people part of my professional apostolic missionary church planting career. And occasionally because I want to keep a good conscience about praying for all the fruits of my labors I turn you up on Tuesday on my prayer list. He says I have you in my heart. And when you've got somebody in your heart it means you can never program when your heart may feel the effects of their presence.

Receiving One Another into Our Hands/Arms

54:56 That's what it means to receive one another. To take each other into our hearts. But it means a second thing. It means to take one another into our hands or into our arms.

55:08 It's very interesting. There are no fewer than five injunctions in the epistles spreading all the way from Romans to Peter that make it imperative for the saints to manifest their love in some way that is physical. That is not solely internal or quote, platonic. I'm just going to read the text so you feel the cumulative weight.

55:39 We start in Romans 16, 16. Romans 16 and verse 16. Salute Philologus and Julia Nereus and his sister and Olympus and all the saints that are with them. Salute or greet one another with a warm smile thirty feet away.

56:04 And in what my Bible says, salute one another with a holy kiss. And someone says, ah yes, but in the culture the common greeting as in many places in the Middle East was the embrace and the kiss on the cheek granted. Now he says take that which is an existing physical expression of good will and open face and throw over the mantle of God's grace so there will never be anything lecherous, anything deceptive like a Judas kiss. How could it be a holy kiss if it was a kiss of betrayal, a kiss of duplicity, a kiss of a lie?

56:49 Oh no. You see if I know I've got to greet all of my brethren with an expression of affection, it's got to be real. And I've got something against my brother. I've got to do one of two things.

56:59 I've either got to avoid him and not greet him or get right with him. Isn't that right? You husbands and wives know this. You've had a little spat, huh?

57:07 And you normally hold hands when you pray. You go to take your hand and you don't feel right doing it, do you? Huh? I see the husband is nodding.

57:18 Why? Because taking your wife's hand is a tangible expression. Dear, as we pray together we're of one heart. We're of one mind.

57:29 There's no unresolved tension between us. And even if it's the littlest thing, you go to take your hand and it feels dirty. Can't do it. How can I pray with my lips and my mouth and supposedly with my heart when with my hand I'm speaking a lie in the presence of God?

57:51 That's why just the determination to hold hands when you pray between a husband and wife can often be a very low-key but powerful call to fess up and get through things right. That's why couples that have a lot of touching and physical affection between husband and wife and children are much more likely to keep short accounts on matters of tension. Salute one another with a holy kiss. 1 Corinthians 16, 20.

58:24 At the end of this epistle. Now imagine what this meant. Here are these people all going around. I'm of Paul.

58:31 I'm of Apollos. I doubt they were doing too much kissing in those days. Fussing, fighting, ending up in their little group over here. And then Paul puts the coup de grace on all of his exhortation.

58:43 He says in verse 19, The churches of Asia salute you or greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you much in the Lord. Do you see what he's saying? Oh, they really have their hearts going out to you with the church that is in their house.

58:56 All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. How can it be a holy kiss if you've got a party spirit against your brother? You see what this would force them to do?

59:08 If they believed that it was just as much a commandment to greet with a holy kiss as no longer to fornicate, it would force them to get right with one another. How could they take their brother by the shoulder and say, Brother, in obedience to the Apostle's letter, I now embrace you and kiss you on the cheek with a kiss of love. And it's a holy kiss when in your heart you had ill will to that brother. It would be a deceitful, unholy, defiled kiss.

59:39 You see, the call to the holy kiss is a lot more than just a little social greeting sprinkled with a little bit of Christian influence. There's a profound principle in it. Twice is not enough. He writes the next letter.

59:56 2 Corinthians 13. Oh my, time is going quickly. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 12. Finally, brethren, farewell.

60:07 Be perfected, be comforted. Now notice, be of the same mind. Oh yeah, we're all of one mind. We subscribe to the same confession of faith.

60:16 We, we agree to the same constitution. Live in peace. Oh yeah, I'm living in peace with everyone. And the God of peace be with you.

60:25 All right, he says, salute one another. Greet one another with a holy kiss. You mean I got to go over and embrace that character? Yeah, but, oh, but wait a minute.

60:38 You just told me that you were of one mind with all the brethren. Okay, then it'll be no big deal for you, any brother that crosses your path, to say, peace brother, I'm of one mind with you. Right? You see the conjunction?

60:54 See the context? It's not there by accident. We say we believe in plenary verbal inspiration. Go over to 1 Thessalonians 5, 26.

61:09 Very interesting. After the tremendous picture of the saints being totally sanctified at the coming of the Lord, then the appeal in verse 25, brethren, 26, greet all the brethren. It doesn't say greet the brethren with whom you have natural social ease with a holy kiss. Greet the brethren of similar ethnic and cultural background with a holy kiss.

61:45 Greet the brethren of your social and economic standing. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Why? Because it will be your delight to express that that reality is indeed your present experience.

62:02 And then the last text, I won't ask you to turn to it. 1 Peter 5, 14. Greet one another with the kiss of love. There it's not called the holy kiss, but the kiss of love.

62:16 Not the kiss of betrayal. Not the kiss of mere social formality. Not the kiss of face-saving love. Brethren, if we receive one another, we'll not only take one another into our hearts, angels can do that.

62:32 We're not disembodied spirits. We better take one another into our hands. And for many of you, the closest you'll get to a holy kiss is a good hearty handshake. Now that's all right, I think, in our culture.

62:49 But because I'm not quite sure, I don't stop there. I'm a hugger. I came out of a home where my own father, I can't remember him hugging me since I was a little kid until just two years ago, and he'll be 80 his next birthday. I've got a cousin, nephew here who can validate when I say I didn't come out of a hugging home.

63:12 So I'm not naturally a hugger. But I saw this in Scripture, and I said, Lord, why? You said it five times. Why?

63:24 Because God doesn't want us playing with the hand. Skirt this one, skirt that one. Come up and grab him by the hand and look him in the eyeballs and be able to say that's a holy handshake. With that grip of my five fingers goes my heart.

63:43 Brother, you're in my heart. And there's a sense I'm linking up and making contact heart to heart by means of our hands. That's what it's talking about. You see that?

63:59 As far as I'm concerned, if you feel comfortable being hugged by a man, it's an expression of holy love and it's a holy kiss. And if you come and tell me, well, I'm so psychologically made as a woman that I only feel comfortable being hugged by men, especially the nicest looking ones, and you fellows say, well, I don't feel comfortable hugging men, but I kind of just feel very well, then you better watch out. And if you ain't watching out, some of us will be. Sure, it's been abused.

64:36 Texts have been abused, but I'm not about to become celibate. Can we expect to have a climate in which receiving one another is not only a matter of the heart, but of the hands and of the arms? If we're Biblical, we will. And then finally, I'll just give you the text.

Receiving One Another into Our Homes

64:59 We're to take one another into our homes. Romans 12, 13. Same word used for persecute, follow after, holiness without which no man will see the Lord. Romans 12, 13 says of all believers, we are to follow after.

65:16 We are to track down. We are to pursue with intensity hospitality one to another. Romans 12 and verse 13. Given to hospitality.

65:26 Pursuing, tracking down hospitality. And this is not so much speaking of hospitality to strangers after the order of Hebrews 13, but the opening, not so much of our table, but the opening of our house, in our fancy furniture, in our beautiful rugs, but showing by the open door that indeed what we've said with our hands in the casual and more limited contacts of our common meeting place is indeed a reality. We're saying, I can't get enough of you, my brother, my sister. I don't get enough of you just seeing you in the church if you want more of me. To share our concerns, our burdens, our joys, to edify one another by godly conversation. Dear people, what is our responsibility to one another? It's to receive one another.

66:29 And to receive one another means to take one another into our hearts, into our hands and into our homes. And to do this according to Romans 12, 9, Without hypocrisy, without play-acting.

Challenges and Implications of Receiving One Another

66:47 And I've already given you a hint as to how this will put tremendous pressures on us. That's another reason why I plant myself at those doors.

66:56 Because I can often tell when someone's heart's drawing back, it first of all starts with studious avoidance of me. It starts with the eyes. Then it goes further to the feet. And then to their bodily presence.

67:13 You see, when someone's in your heart, you want to see them with your eyes. Because there's affinity always in love.

67:24 The love of delight always has affinity.

67:28 Dear people, do we love one another? You see what it will force you to do? Let's be honest. Suppose you had all of these misconceptions that Yugoslavians...

67:36 I don't think we have a Yugoslavian, so I can say this. You say, all Yugoslavians have bad breath and body odor. Now, I'm not saying...

67:44 But suppose you've been brought up in a home where you were told that. And lo and behold, we've received someone in the membership, had a name, so Yugoslavian, you couldn't miss it. All right?

67:53 And the Bible says, Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. And you say, if I go to greet that brother, I'm sure it's going to fend my nose. But I've got to do this! So what do you do?

68:06 You go up and say, brother, if I seem a little tentative, I've got to be honest with you. I was brought up in a home where people told me all Yugos...

68:12 You say, what are you saying? You say, that's ridiculous. No, it isn't. Some of you were brought up in a home.

68:17 You've got problems receiving certain ethnic groups. Thank God we have very little here. But I'd be very surprised if someone...

68:25 Some of you still don't feel a little uneasy around some of our black brethren. Some of you black brethren, do you feel a little uneasy around some of us honkies?

68:35 Yeah, you do. Sure you do. That's all right. There's nothing wrong with that.

68:46 Until two and three has tried them, became a monument of the gospel. That's what this church is about. And that's what we want it to continue to be. And if I know I've got to greet you, I can't do it without being a hypocrite.

69:05 I say, brother, I want to embrace you. But you know what? Help me. And you get it talked out.

69:10 And you laugh together. And then you have a good hug. And it's dealt with.

69:15 You say, it's just that simple. Most of it. But it all starts when you say, I'm going to do it. I'm going to receive my brethren into my heart.

69:28 I'm going to open my home to them.

69:33 You say, pastor, a Bible school student could preach that sermon. Probably could have. But I tell you, doing it is quite enough. May the Lord help us that by God's grace, we'll show that we can do it.

69:49 But we love one another in the path marked out by the word of God. Let's pray.

Prayer for Grace to Obey

70:01 Oh, our Father, we marvel at your wisdom.

70:07 We confess that when your word finds us and exposes us,

70:14 we're humbled.

70:16 All of our rationalizations, all of our dodging,

70:24 are laid bare by the light of your word. We confess the many times we've not taken one another into our hearts because we feared the hurt that would come on us. We fear the hurt that would come on us. We've pushed each other out of our hearts because of the hurt that was there.

70:40 We thank you that you've not dealt that way with us. Help us to be more like you, to take one another into our hearts and to live and to die with each other in our hearts. Give us grace to take one another into our hands. Take away all of our kinks and all of our hang-ups and all of our reserve.

71:02 And above all, Lord, take away the sins that would make the holy kiss of our sins. May we determine not to allow hypocrisy to gain a foothold among us and teach us how to take one another into our homes, to find joy in opening our homes one to another. Blessedly indifferent about the threadbare furniture, the poor fare that we may place upon the table, Lord, give us ease in finding joy in that which money cannot buy, which can never be brought to us, by the local furniture shop, the love and the fellowship of the saints. Write this word upon our hearts and give us grace to obey it. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.