Christian Fellowship (2) Love, Brotherly Kindness

The Foundation of Christian Fellowship: Truth and Acceptance

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, October 3rd, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now will you follow as I read two portions of the Word of God, one that we have read on numerous occasions in recent weeks and months, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, verses 41 and 42. Acts 2, 41 and 42, speaking of the work of God in the enlargement of the Jerusalem church on the day of Pentecost, Luke, writing by the inspiration of the Spirit, records that they that received His Word were baptized.

0:57 That day, about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostleship. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, and in fellowship, and in the breaking of bread.

1:18 And now over to the epistle of 1 John, John chapter 1, verses 1 through 1 and verse 1. That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life, and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,

2:01 that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write. That our joy may be full.

2:26 Chapter 2, read in your hearing, makes it abundantly clear that whatever it meant for the members of the Jerusalem church to continue steadfastly in fellowship, that such distinctively Christian fellowship was experienced because they were continually bound together in their common adherence to the Apostles' teaching. That is, the truth of God revealed through the Apostles' instruction.

3:07 And what is described in the historical account of Luke concerning the relationship between truth and distinctive Christian fellowship is set before us by John in the opening words of his epistle. There he states that it is the facts concerning the incarnate Son of God which constitute the basis of fellowship between God and His people, and the fellowship that His people enjoy with one another.

3:45 And therefore, as we continue to open up the biblical teaching regarding the fact that there are no effective, substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace, and are presently focusing upon the second major corporate means of grace, namely, continuance in church fellowship, let us never conceive of that fellowship as possible outside the orbit of truth. We live in a day when, as the late Dr. Tozer said, everyone is seeking to join a togetherness

4:26 orgy, and there is an indifference to truth, to the truth of Scripture, to that truth stated in propositional form so that the truth can be seen in distinction from error. But the Bible knows of no distinctively Christian fellowship. That is not experienced within the orbit of revealed truth. And as we have addressed ourselves to this subject of fellowship, church fellowship, as a corporate means of grace, we have sought, first of all, to grasp the basic biblical

5:09 concept of fellowship, and the word most prominently used to express it, the word koinonia, comes from a Greek word, koinos, which means common. And so the basic biblical concept of fellowship is that which points to the things that we are and have in common because of our union with Christ and one another in the truth and by the Holy Spirit. And then we consider together the context of this. And so the Bible knows of no distinctively Christian fellowship, and noted that there

5:52 are at least four things that are true of all believers which form the subsoil out of which the experience of fellowship grows. All true believers have embraced one Lord and one Savior. All true believers have been placed into one body. All true believers have been made members.

6:18 Of one family. And all believers in the scriptures are found in local expressions of the body and the family of Christ. Well, having considered the basic concept of distinctively Christian fellowship, the context of that fellowship, we began last week to focus our attention upon the content of distinctively Christian fellowship. That is, what is the stuff of which this fellowship is made, thereby making it a means of grace.

6:59 And with Romans 15 and verse 7 as the primary focal point of our exposition and application, we saw that distinctively Christian fellowship begins with the unfeigned and unrestrained acceptance. Acceptance of one another on the basis of what God has made us in Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you to the glory of

7:38 And as Professor Murray has so perceptively commented on this verse, if Christ has received us, are we to refuse fellowship to the glory of God? If we place restraints upon our acceptance of believers, we are violating the example of that redemptive action upon which all fellowship in the church rests. Romans 14.3 states the fact that God has received the strong believer, and this is urged as the reason why the weak should also receive him.

8:21 Christ's reception of all without distinction is the ground upon which fellowship is to be unrestrained. So if we are to experience distinctively Christian fellowship as a corporate means of grace, it begins with the unfeigned and unrestrained acceptance of God. It begins with the unfeigned and unrestrained acceptance of God. When all fellowship is unfeigned, that's the time we have to assume the challenge of being unfeigned.

9:03 Not on the basis of common culture, not on the basis of common economic or social status, not on the basis of anything other than that which God has made us in Christ. And therefore since in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, but one new. And this is the time when all fellowship becomes unfeigned. man in Christ, so our reception of one another must reflect that unreserved reception that each of us found regardless of his ethnic, racial, religious, moral, social, economic

9:42 status when as guilty, hell-deserving sinners we threw ourselves into the arms of a welcoming Savior. He received us as we were. Receive one another. Received you for the glory of God. Insofar as we are enabled to do that and to continue to maintain that open-hearted,

10:12 unfeigned, unrestrained acceptance of one another to that extent alone, we will enjoy distinctively Christian fellowship. In this place, as we further develop this matter of the content of distinctive Christian fellowship, it is not enough to understand that it begins with this unfeigned and unrestrained acceptance of one another. We must go on to seek to understand particularly at this point what are those graces which comprise the native air.

The Three Preeminent Graces for Flourishing Fellowship

10:56 Within which that fellowship will flourish. If it begins with this acceptance of one another, then such fellowship is only maintained, deepened, and expanded in a climate where certain specific graces create the relationships within the body and the family of Christ. And what are those graces? My answer is,

11:27 But according to my present light and understanding, among the whole mountain range of graces described as contributing to the maintenance of distinctive Christian fellowship, there are three that rise above all others. Now, in the course of my further study, my judgment may be altered. This is one of the problems of topical preaching. One must try to survey the whole mass of biblical data, evaluate it and sort it out and put it in its proper categories and elements of judgment enter.

12:03 But according to my present light, it appears to me that among the whole mountain range of graces essential to the experience of distinctively Christian fellowship, there are three graces that stand like the matter. There are three graces that stand like the matter, like Mount Hood and Mount McKinley that shoot up above the mountain ranges in which they are found. And those three graces are these, mutual love and brotherly affection, secondly, mutual submission and deference, and thirdly, mutual forgiveness and forbearance.

12:48 Those three graces of the air, the climate. Within which distinctively Christian fellowship flourishes and the absence of any of these and to some degree, there will be a crippling, there will be a waning, there will be a lessening of the reality of distinctively Christian fellowship. And this morning, I have no reservation in saying that among these graces.

13:26 The grace of mutual love and brotherly affection stands in a category all its own. Of that I am absolutely certain. And all I will do this morning is simply to direct your attention to the abundant witness concerning the necessity for this grace of mutual brotherly love and. sorry, of mutual love and brotherly affection.

14:01 Using the two terms, mutual love and brotherly affection, because in the scriptures you have two Greek verbs and two Greek nouns, and while there is a distinction in certain context, I will demonstrate, I trust, to the conviction of your conscience, that that distinction is not so ironclad as some people conveniently try to make the three Greek words, two of which are found in the New Testament, one is not in our biblical literature. You have phileo, agapao, or agape, the noun, and eros, and they try to put those all in neat little categories,

14:43 but as we shall see, the Bible commends mutual love and brotherly affection, if not as synonyms. As synonymous, as conjoint graces that are the glue and the stuff of distinctively Christian fellowship. Now what we did last week is we parked on one text, Romans 15, 7, and we dug into that text, and we rooted around in that text, and to change the imagery, we grazed on the field of that text, and I trust left with our souls filled. This morning, we're not going to do that.

15:24 What we're going to do is strap on our seatbelts, and we're going to get in one form of an aircraft or another, and we're going to fly over many portions of the Word of God. Perhaps we should have a helicopter to do that, so that as we fly from one to another, we'll pause for a little bit, look down upon that particular witness, and then move ahead to another, trusting that as a result, when we say the final amen this morning, your heart will feel the cumulative pressure of this overarching emphasis of the New Testament

16:05 with respect to the crucial place of mutual love and brotherly affection as forming the content of distinctively Christian fellowship. So then we take up. The abundant witness concerning the necessity of this grace. We strap ourselves into our homiletical helicopter, and as we take off, the first place where we hover is in John chapter 13.

Witness 1: John 13 – The New Commandment and Disciple Validation

16:40 John chapter 13. I begin the reading in verse 31. John chapter 13 and verse 31. He was.

16:57 When? Therefore, he was. Gone out, that is, Judas. Jesus saith, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

17:09 And God shall glorify him in himself, and straightway shall he glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come. So now I say unto you, A new commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

17:43 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Now in this particular section of the word of God, often designated the farewell, or upper room discourse of our Lord Jesus, Judas has just left the inner circle of the twelve. Now our Lord is about to take the eleven into some of the deepest secrets of his heart. You will notice in chapter 15 and verse 15, he says, No longer do I call you bondservants,

18:26 for the bondservant does not know what his Lord is doing. But I have. I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you. He is taking the eleven into the deeper secrets of his heart.

18:46 He is entering a new dimension of self-disclosure, both with regard to the purposes of God and to the privileges that will be theirs after he leaves and the Comforter, comes. Conscious then of his soon departure, he brings together these various concerns of his heart and central to them is depositing with them that which he calls in verse 34, a new commandment. A new commandment I give unto you. And what is that new commandment?

19:29 That new commandment is, that they exercise mutual love one to another, a love that has as its standard the manifested love of Christ to his own. That's what makes it a new commandment. That the people of God should love one another is not a new commandment. The very essence of the Old Testament law, according to Jesus, is that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.

20:11 What makes it new is that on the threshold of the Lord Jesus, about to lay down his life for his friends, as he says in chapter 15, greater love has no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. He's already told them in chapter 10 that as the good shepherd, he will lay down his life, for the sheep. There is a new manifested concrete standard of love. And it is that standard joined to the precept of loving one another that constitutes the new commandment.

20:50 I give unto you this new commandment that you love one another even as I have loved you. That your love be a reflection of that, that selfless, self-giving love that I have manifested to you throughout all of my earthly intercourse with you, but supremely, that will now be manifested when I lay down my life, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, when love finds its most supreme expression ever known upon the face of the earth. The Lord Jesus said, this is the new commandment that, I leave with you

21:33 that you love one another even as I have loved you that you love one another. That's the substance of the new command. And then the consequence of obedience to that new command is given by our Lord in verse 35 by this, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another. And in the context, you see, that's not just love of any kind or any quality or measured by any standard, but by this, shall all men know that you are my disciples.

22:16 You belong to me, that I joyfully am identified with you when you manifest to one another the same kind of love that I have manifested to you. So the substance of the new commandment, the command is that you love one another. The consequences of obedience to that command, it will validate the identity of the new covenant community joined together by the kind of love that in the case of our Lord Jesus was sacrificial and redemptive love. And in the case of His people

22:59 will be a love that goes far beyond the love that is known in natural human affection, known in the various cultural and ethnic and racial groupings among men, a love that will lead us unreservedly and unfeignedly to receive one another for what God has made us in Christ. A love that breaks down the barriers that set men against men and every man at the throat of his brotherhood, this shall validate that you are truly my disciples when you manifest this love

Witness 2: John 15 – Sacrificial Love as a Gospel Duty

23:42 one to another. Then we push forward the stick on our helicopter and we fly over to John 15 and we see the second major witness concerning the necessity of this grace of mutual love as the bond of distinctive Christian fellowship. John 15, verses 12 to 14. This is my commandment that ye love one another even as I have loved you.

24:20 Greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things which I command you. Verse 17. These things I command you that ye may love.

24:44 Now we live in a day when the very concept of love being commanded jars against the prevailing mindset. If it's commanded, it can't be loved. If it doesn't just automatically and spontaneously gush in one direction or toward this or that, that object, then it can't be loved. Well, that's not the mindset of the Bible.

25:10 Christ makes it plain that loving one another is a gospel duty. This is my commandment that ye love one another and to love one another by that standard of the new commandment even as I have loved you and how that love will manifest itself. Our Lord alludes to that in verse 13. Verse 13.

25:35 Greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. In other words, you're to love one another with a love so selfless, so set upon the good of your brothers and your sisters that if necessary, if necessary, if securing their good demands the giving of your own life, you're prepared to give your life because you're loving as I have loved you. It was necessary, of the designs of my love that my life be forfeited that you, my people, might be forgiven, that you might have righteous pardon and just acceptance.

Witness 3: Romans 12 – Genuine, Tender Affection

26:18 And if you are loving one another as I have loved, in principle, you have already given up your life for your brethren. And he says, this is a command. Well, our seat bolts and we move forward quickly over into the book of Acts. The book of Romans as we look at the third of these abundant witnesses concerning the necessity of this grace of mutual love and brotherly affection.

26:50 Romans chapter 12. Here in this chapter, the apostle, having dealt with the subjects of gifts in verses 3 through 8, follows a very similar pattern to that of Corinthians. He deals with the subject of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and then he addresses the all-important, more excellent way of love in chapter 13. Well, having addressed the subject of gifts in Romans 12, 3 through 8, he now turns to the subject of love.

27:24 Verse 9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good.

27:34 In love the brethren be tenderly affectionate one towards Here we have a highlighting of both agape then Philadelphia. Why is the city of Philadelphia called the city of brotherly love? Because it is taken from the Greek word Philadelphia which means love of the brethren. And so here he says as regards brotherly love or family, affection, we are to experience

28:18 this matter of love that is without hypocrisy. There is to be this tender affection one toward another. And another Greek word is used, philostorgoi, as regards brotherly love, family affection. We as the people of God in the midst of all of our diversity, diversity, of giftedness are to cultivate this kind of love without hypocrisy.

28:50 It's not to be feigned. It is to be more than just the forced smile and the forced handshake. It is to be the outflowing of the state of the heart. It is to be without hypocrisy.

Witness 4: Galatians 5 – Freedom to Serve in Love

29:06 And then I pass over the reference to love in chapter 13 verses 8 to 10 because that has reference to our love to those who are without. Chapter 13 deals with our duty to the state and then our duty to all men regardless of their relationship to Christ and the gospel. And we pick up again in the book of Galatians the fourth major witness concerning the necessity of this grace of mutual love and brotherly affection. You remember the great theme of the book of Galatians is Paul's effort to defend the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ and to pound away

29:48 at the errors of the Judaizers that had influenced the Galatians. And he brings his clarion call to liberty in Christ in chapter 5 in verse 1 for freedom did Christ set us free. Stand fast therefore and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. But then in verse 13 for ye brethren, were called for freedom.

30:16 Only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh but through love be bond slaves one to another. Better rendered, through love perform the service of bond slaves one to another. You have an imperative in which we are called upon not only to be bond slaves but only to stand in our blood-bought liberties in Christ that free us from all of the trappings of the ceremonial law from all of the trappings of the Judaizers

30:59 and their theology we are free men and women in Christ free to do what? Not to live the life of a libertine indifferent to the standards of God's moral law and indifferent to the standards of God's moral law. Not to live the life of a libertine indifferent to the claims of our brethren. No.

31:18 We are free from that galling, oppressive, gnawing bondage of trying to keep days and feasts and ceremonies. That yoke which Peter says neither we nor our fathers could bear. That yoke from which Jesus said He offered liberty. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

31:38 Bow down with all the legalistic trappings of your Judaizing teachers. There is liberty in Christ but liberty to do what? To free us up. To make ourselves bond slaves one to another.

31:53 So that with a conscience that no longer galls and accuses me that the more I try to please God the less I'm able to please Him and the more guilty I feel. No. I see one has perfectly kept the law in my room instead. Has totally fulfilled all the types and shadows therefore taking every trapping of the Levitical law.

32:15 Into his tomb with him there to leave it forever and in union with Christ I have risen to newness of life free from the condemning power of the law. Free from the ceremonies of the law. Free from all of the Judaizing influence. Free to do what?

32:36 Free now to have a heart that out of love to Christ is determined in love to my brethren to take the posture of their servant for Christ's sake through love perform the function of servants one to another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself indicating that we are not freed from the demands of the moral law. Anyone who uses the book of Galatians to teach it runs square into this contradiction then in the apostle Paul he says we're

Witness 5: Ephesians 5 – Imitating God by Walking in Love

33:19 free. Free now to fulfill the demands of the moral law with evangelical motives and in the power of the Holy Spirit the very essence of that law in the second table demanding that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Then in Ephesians chapter 5 Ephesians chapter 5 remember what we're seeking to do is just look at the abundant witness concerning the necessity of the grace of mutual love and brotherly affection Ephesians 5 verses 1 and 2 the apostle has asserted

34:03 in verse 24 of the fourth chapter that in Christ we have put on the new man that after God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth that the new man is patterned after God is the restored image is the great reality of our experience in Christ. Be ye therefore chapter 5 verse 1 imitators of God as beloved children God is your father you are to imitate him as beloved children who've been adopted into his family in whom the restored image has begun in the initial work

34:47 of God's grace be imitators of God as beloved children 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 as children of God we're to imitate our father which means we are to walk in love and the standard of that love is set by the elder brother even our Lord Jesus Christ we are not left in the dark as to what it means in a concrete expression of imitative

35:31 pattern to imitate God we are told that we are to be imitators of God with reference to walking in love and the standard is even as Christ gave himself for us so we have as it were echoed in the epistles the new commandment the new commandment I give unto you that you love one another even as I have loved you and now the apostle says be imitators of God beloved children walk in love and so the people of God say but what kind of love he says even as even as Christ loved you and

Witness 6: Colossians 3 – Love as the Bond of Perfectness

36:15 gave himself up for us witness number six we fly over to the book of Colossians skipping over Philippians and we come to Colossians chapter three already highlighted the presence of this grace in the Colossians in his opening greetings he said in verse three of chapter one we give thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have toward all the saints we heard of your faith and then we heard of its inevitable

36:59 accompaniment your love to all the saints but here in chapter three he has called them to a course of mortification in verses five through eleven put to death therefore in the light of your position raised with Christ seated with Christ you are to put to death therefore and then he enumerates these specific sins which are to be radically and continually put to death in the lives of the people of God then he turns to the positive put on verse twelve and the word for put on is the standard verb one would use

37:43 when he speaks about putting on his jacket clothe yourself with something put on therefore as God's elect holy and beloved a heart of compassion kindness lowliness meekness long suffering forbearing one another and forgiving each other any man have a complaint against any even as the Lord forgave you so also do ye now look at verse fourteen and above all these things and you'll notice the put on in the old American standard is in italics just to remind us that the verb from verse twelve has its force here in verse

38:26 fourteen and above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfectness or perfectness you see having enumerated these other graces heart of compassion kindness lowliness he gives to love a unique place of prominence and some commentators suggest that what he is saying above all these things as the last piece of the garment put on love which binds all of the others together or he could be saying above all in a place of greater prominence of greatest importance

39:11 or love which is the bond the very band of it is the binding grace that brings about completeness to fellowship listen to Hendrickson comments on that phrase now this love is called the bond of perfection this has been interpreted to mean that love is the grace that binds all others together that binds all these other graces together. Though this may be correct and a sensible connotation is thereby ascribed to the expression, it's probably better to interpret it in the light of what Paul himself says in this very epistle. Namely, they themselves being welded together in love.

39:56 Chapter 2 and verse 2. Love then is the bond of perfection in the sense that it is that which unites believers. Causing them to move together towards the goal of perfection. This interpretation is also in line with the Apostle's purpose in writing the letter.

40:17 It is as if he were saying not knowledge or philosophy, the kind of knowledge and philosophy of which the false teachers boast, or obedience to human regulations, but love for one another. The spontaneous response of God's love for you. It is that which will strengthen and unify, unite you and lead you toward the attainment of your spiritual ideal. Love, which is the bond.

Witness 7: 1 Thessalonians 4 – Abounding in God-Taught Love

40:47 See the emphasis that is given. And this must be the conscious endeavor of the people of God to clothe themselves above all these things with love, which is the bond of perfectness. Then over to 1 Thessalonians. As we make our flyover into Paul's epistle to this young church, and it's an amazing thing that this exhortation comes in this setting.

41:17 He writes to this young church, and because of their pagan background in which moral standards had so eroded, he had to write in his letter specific, explicit directives to Christians that fornication was out of bounds for believers. And he does that in the opening verses of chapter 4. Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you received of us how you ought to walk and please God even as you do walk that you abound more and more for you know what charge we gave you through the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God.

41:54 Even your sanctification that you abstain from fornication. That each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor. And then goes on treating this subject of moral chastity. But now, when he comes to verse 9 in Love of the Brethren, note what he says.

42:14 In spite of their pagan background, in spite of all of the baggage they brought with them into the Christian faith and into the Christian church, but concerning love of the brethren, you have no need that one write unto you. For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed you do it to all the brethren that are in all the world. All Macedonia.

42:42 But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more. Concerning love of the brethren, he said, we have no need to write to you. Concerning this Philadelphia, we have no need to write anything to you. For you yourselves are taught of God to agapao, to love one another.

43:11 That's why I say, making any hard, fast distinction between phileo and agapao is very, very tenuous biblically. Love of the brethren, you have no need that one write to you. Why? Because you are taught of God to love agapao one another.

43:32 He exhorts them to abound yet more and more. And this was the very thing that was in his heart when he prayed for them in verse 12 of chapter 3. Verse 12 of chapter 3. Verse 12 of chapter 3.

43:44 Verse 12 of chapter 3. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another. Do you see the predominance of this emphasis upon the grace of mutual love and brotherly affection? Then when we come to the epistle to the Hebrews, we come to Hebrews chapter 10.

Witness 8: Hebrews 10 & 13 – Provoking and Continuing in Love

44:07 The writer has been expounding distinctive blessings of believers in the new covenant. And he's about to issue one of his own of his sober warnings in the light of those great privileges, warnings against apostasy.

44:22 And as he makes the transition into those warnings, Hebrews chapter 10, we read in verse 24, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works, not forsaking our own assembling together. Let us consider one another to provoke, unto love and unto good works. No crass individualism will do as we seek to press on in persevering faith and in persevering obedience in the light of new covenant privileges and blessings. But there must be this sense

45:06 of our need one for another. Therefore, we ought not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. But in that assembly is not enough that we sit in the same place and receive the same ministry and express the same praise. We must consider one another to provoke unto love.

45:26 We're to seek to provoke one another unto greater measures of mutual love. And then in chapter 13 and verse 1, the same emphasis, the present imperative verb again, Let love of the brethren be continually continuing. Let love of the brethren continue. It is not enough that you provoke unto love whatever measure is there.

45:54 Let it continue. Let it abide. Let it remain among you. Well, is this just a peculiar emphasis of the Apostle Paul and of the author to Hebrews?

Witness 9: 1 Peter 1, 2, & 4 – Fervent, Unfeigned Brotherly Love

46:06 Well, when we come to Peter's letter, we say no. It is a dominant emphasis in 1 Peter as well. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. Here first, Peter tells us in this chapter that love of the brethren and the command to love one another is sandwiched between the obedience of faith and the new birth.

46:33 Look at verse 22. Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren,

46:48 love one another from the heart fervently. And here you have Philadelphia and Agapao joined again in the one text. Seeing you've purified your souls in your obedience to the truth and what did it result in? Not only love to Christ and desire to obey Christ, but unfeigned, real, genuine love of the brethren.

47:12 Now, Agapao, love one another from the heart fervently. Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides. Here you have a reference to their obedience to the truth, a reference to their having been begotten of God and in between, he says the fruit of that work of God is love for the brethren and now it lays upon you this added responsibility to grow in the grace of God. Of love.

47:52 Then in chapter 2 and verse 17 where he's giving a litany of various responsibilities to believers that they might have behavior that commends the gospel to the Gentiles even though they are being persecuted. Verse 12 indicates that that's the context. He then gives them this litany of various responsibilities that should shut them out of those who speak against the people of God. And in verse 12, verse 17 he says honor all men love the brotherhood.

48:27 Another present imperative be ye continually loving the brotherhood that is the family of God. And then in chapter 4 and verse 8 as he's drawing his epistle to a conclusion and he senses the urgency he says above all things above all similar use of that prepositional phrase in James 5.12 he says be fervent in your love one to another. First Peter 4.8

49:05 above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves. And he thinks of love particularly in its acting here. Love covereth a multitude of sins. And then the tenth witness I just remind you of.

Witness 10: 1 John 3 – Love as a Mark of New Life

49:23 Our studies in the book of 1 John. How again and again John brings forward as an indispensable mark of having passed from death unto life that one loves the brethren. Chapter 3 and verse 14 the duty to love one another. He that loveth is begotten of God.

49:43 He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. Now dear people we don't often do what I've done this morning. And I wrestled in my preparation Lord should I do it? All the writers in homiletics would say no.

49:56 But I'm in this for the long haul. And I thank God that God moved the heart of one of the young men to call me this morning when I was at my desk. And he said I'm just constrained to tell you something Pastor. I'm getting to the place now where I can begin to appreciate what it is to have had the benefit of the line by line precept by precept ministry.

50:18 And I just want to read a portion of the word of God to you and encourage you. And he read a very appropriate portion of the word of God. And he read a very appropriate portion of the word of God. A portion of the word of God that nerved me to go ahead and do what I don't often do.

50:28 We've just looked at one passage after another after another after another. We've brought forward ten witnesses. And this has only been a sampling dear people. We say before that sampling as we land our helicopter we've come back from hovering over passages from Romans on into Ephesians and Colossians and Thessalonians and Hebrews and Peter and 1 John what are we to say?

Conclusion: The Indispensable Grace of Love and the Gospel's Transforming Power

50:57 Well we must come to this conclusion that whatever distinctively Christian fellowship is it is not possible without an unfeigned unrestrained acceptance of one another yes but it can never be maintained increased and expanded unless the grace of genuine love and brotherly affection permeates our relationships one to another. And all I've sought to do this morning is to convince you that as surely as there is no biblical Christianity without a supernatural Savior

51:41 who is both God and man joined in the one person in two distinct natures forever as surely as there is no true biblical Christianity without a suffering lamb who dies under the curse of God a resurrected Savior who ascends to the right hand of the majesty on high who sends forth his Holy Spirit as surely as there is no biblical saving Christianity without those realities so there is no true distinctively Christian fellowship in the institution founded by Christ his church without the presence and grace

52:26 of God. Of love and brotherly affection unfeigned love unfeigned brotherly affection and it is this which Jesus said validates our identity as the new humanity by this shall all men know that you are my disciples not if you have the measure of love that worldlings have they love those who love them Jesus said they respond graciously to those that are like them those who are those who hold their standards in all things those with whom they are culturally compatible those with whom they have so much in common after the flesh but when you see a group of people

53:11 who from the human side have so little in common after the flesh who as a body of people have so much that could set them one against another and yet wonder of wonders they are bound together in such ties of love that they are willing to spare blood for one another it is this that causes people to stand back and say what in the world whatever semblance of love and good will there may be the true state of man to man is clearly described by Paul in Titus 3 and I want you to look at this

53:55 passage in closing this morning Titus chapter 3 writing son or comrade in the work of the gospel now laboring in the aisle of Crete Paul says to Titus put them in mind to be in subjection to rulers to authorities to be obedient ready unto every good work speak evil of no man do not be contentious but gentle showing meekness to all men for now notice we also were once foolish disobedient deceived serving all kinds of lusts

54:40 and pleasures living in malice and envy

54:48 and hating one another through condition in the days of our flesh with reference to horizontal human relationships faithfulness hating one another that's what marked us I have my turf you have your food upon mine that's the disposition that obtains in the world and in spite of all of the well-meant intentions of politicians and sociologists and everyone who thinks he has an answer to the problem not enough

55:33 money exists in this whole universe to throw at that problem gospel of the grace of God which alone can be thrown into those bitter waters and turn them into the sweet waters of genuine acceptance genuine love and brotherly affection I may be speaking to someone who's sitting here today and your whole life has been marked by these things malice and hatefulness my friend your great need is to experience what Peter says obedience to the gospel you need to be born from above

56:17 and in that experience of God's gracious work taking out your heart of stone giving you a heart of flesh enabling you to embrace the offered savior you too will find what Peter describes having obeyed he said the gospel unto unfamed love of the brethren see that you love one another from the heart fervently that's the answer to your heart full of hate that heart full of suspicion you won't trust you live with a thousand walls around you you won't let anyone get near to the real you you've been burnt you've been hurt you've been betrayed and you said never again and you live

57:01 in the loneliness the haunting loneliness of real isolation from any meaningful interpersonal relationship that's true of even some people who live under the same roof and shared wedding rings is that you my friend if it is the gospel is the answer for that state of heart it is only as you come to a welcoming Christ and know what it is to be received with all of the vile flesh of your hatefulness and your envy and your bitterness and have it all cleansed away by a welcoming savior that then

57:46 as he received you you will now be enabled to receive your brothers and sisters and again be willing to be vulnerable again be willing to be open again to know what it is by the grace and power of God to enter a community which has as its primary grace the grace of mutual love and brotherly affection and dear people of God in the light of the emphasis of the scriptures that we have seen this morning how can we be serious about growing in grace and not cry to God for increased measures of genuine love and brotherly affection

58:30 unfamed love and brotherly affection it is that grace without which there is no true distinctive Christian fellowship it cannot exist without it and may God grant that we will cry to him for that which Paul himself calls the greatest of all graces now abideth faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love distinctive Christian fellowship made for whatever it is it starts when unreservedly unrestrainedly we receive one another for what God has made us in Christ

59:15 but it can't it can flourish only in a climate where the grace of mutual love and brotherly affection may God grant that we'll be so convinced of that that we will seek God for increased and copious measures of it that as we love one another as Christ has loved us all men will know that we are his disciples let us pray our Father thank you for your holy word that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway

59:59 and we pray that the Holy Spirit who has given us that word in scripture would even now seal to our hearts that part of it that we have meditated upon this morning oh God we plead with you that wherever there is any disposition contrary to love and to brotherly affection you would enable us to be to face it to repent of it to deal with it for those our Father who cannot love because their hearts are full of hate who have never come to a welcoming and a loving Christ may they this morning

60:42 despairing of their own state and of any possibility of changing it themselves may they flee to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith and not to be to know what it is to have their hate filled hearts transformed by his power seal your word then we plead and may it bear holy and loving fruit in all of our lives we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen