back to index2021-09-21 Holy Response to God's Calling Pt1
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13 and we're going to be reading from 00:00:20.100 |
Our main focus this morning is going to be on the first verse. 00:00:23.560 |
Hebrews chapter 13 verses 1 through 6 reading out of the NASB. 00:00:32.440 |
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this some have entertained angels without 00:00:38.760 |
Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill treated since 00:00:46.200 |
Marriage is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for 00:00:54.080 |
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money being content with what 00:00:57.560 |
you have for he himself has said I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you so 00:01:02.840 |
that we confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not be afraid. 00:01:11.560 |
Christian loving father we pray that you would anoint this time that your word and your word 00:01:16.560 |
alone Lord God would be heard and that our hearts may be softened and that our lives 00:01:24.880 |
Encourage us strengthen us rebuke us this morning by your word in Jesus name we pray 00:01:29.840 |
Let me start off this morning by asking a rhetorical question so don't answer it okay 00:01:35.400 |
don't even remember it because I don't want you to say something wrong okay so the question 00:01:42.680 |
is if you had a choice between what kind of church you want to belong to you want to go 00:01:49.280 |
to a church where they are known for their grace or do you want to go to a church that's 00:01:58.840 |
Let me ask you again what church would you want to belong to a church that is known for 00:02:05.120 |
their grace or a church that's known for their holiness? 00:02:11.760 |
I don't want you to answer that question because generally speaking I already know the answer 00:02:19.640 |
because I've had so many conversations in the past where even with other pastors that 00:02:24.720 |
they have said that I'd rather err on the side of grace than to err on the side of being 00:02:34.940 |
It sounds godly on the surface because who wouldn't want to be at a church where they're 00:02:40.600 |
known to be gracious because when you say I go to a church where they're known for their 00:02:45.480 |
holiness automatically we think of judgment right everybody is like examining one another 00:02:52.520 |
and you got to jump through hoops to belong to that group and so it sounds godly it almost 00:02:57.560 |
sounds biblical to say I'd rather err on the side of grace but the biblical truth is to 00:03:06.240 |
err on the side of grace is error and that's why I said I would rather err no error is 00:03:13.200 |
error and the problem is if you look at the Old Testament false prophets the primary rebuke 00:03:20.600 |
to the false prophets was they kept on telling them peace peace when there is no peace he 00:03:27.520 |
was teaching grace God loves you unconditionally he forgives your sins and he kept on saying 00:03:32.320 |
peace peace while the true prophets were coming and warning them if you do not turn from your 00:03:36.600 |
sin God was going to bring judgment let me make this very clear there is never a time 00:03:43.760 |
where God does something where he chooses to rather be gracious and to be than to be 00:03:51.400 |
holy God who cannot lie cannot change his mind will never do anything that contradicts 00:03:59.880 |
his nature God is holy holy holy and he is love he is love nothing that he does will 00:04:08.880 |
contradict either side and that's the whole point of the cross the whole point of the 00:04:14.280 |
cross is where God's justice and his mercy and love came in to union a perfect union 00:04:21.760 |
without contradicting one or the other we have a tendency to think that holiness and 00:04:27.080 |
love is on the opposite side and we need to somehow balance this sometimes we emphasize 00:04:32.120 |
holiness sometimes we emphasize love and then sometimes we get it wrong sometimes we get 00:04:35.840 |
it right but the accurate biblical understanding of God's justice and his love they always 00:04:44.160 |
go hand in hand the cross if you err on the side of grace you don't need the cross because 00:04:52.480 |
all God has to say is okay I'm just going to forget it I know you guys been sinning 00:04:56.280 |
but this time I'm going to pretend like I didn't see it just sweep it under the rug 00:04:59.900 |
right if we err on the side of grace we would allow all kinds of sin and say well because 00:05:04.400 |
I'm being gracious because we're being gentle and merciful we're just going to pretend like 00:05:09.240 |
it never happened just kind of sweep it under the rug if we err on the side of just justice 00:05:15.360 |
we don't need the cross either because as soon as somebody sins they get what they deserve 00:05:20.160 |
and they get punished and the end so the cross is the perfect union of God's justice and 00:05:27.160 |
his mercy that came together that God's justice was satisfied to magnify his grace so to be 00:05:36.080 |
gospel centered is not simply to be gracious to be gospel centered is to have the perfect 00:05:43.080 |
union that we see at the cross where God's holiness and his love is in perfect display 00:05:51.960 |
and so we have to make sure that we don't embrace one or the other simply because of 00:05:56.360 |
our own personal prejudice that whatever it is that we practice in our personal lives 00:06:00.800 |
and in the life of the church is a clear reflection of who God is and what he displayed on the 00:06:07.840 |
cross this morning we're going to be looking at one verse it's in it's the first verse 00:06:13.400 |
of many verses that are coming in in chapter 13 we have 13 imperatives here in light of 00:06:19.440 |
all that we have been taught about who Jesus is he says this is how you ought to live and 00:06:25.520 |
so in the first line alone I think there are several things that I want to highlight here 00:06:29.800 |
because because it is so important in application right we have 13 chapters in the book of Hebrews 00:06:36.240 |
12 chapters of telling us why we shouldn't drift it was giving us motivation because 00:06:42.040 |
I know some of us who are impatient with theology just kind of you know just just tell us you 00:06:48.080 |
know just briefly what it means and then tell us what we ought to do because we're practical 00:06:51.480 |
people we're type a personality and so we want to get things done so some of us are 00:06:56.520 |
a little bit impatient when we start to get dig too deep into theology say that's for 00:07:00.440 |
pastors and theologians but for the rest of us just tell us what I'm supposed to do on 00:07:04.040 |
Monday right and you probably hated the book of Hebrews because it's 12 chapters of telling 00:07:09.640 |
us why we shouldn't drift because they were neglecting such a great salvation he was re-explaining 00:07:17.000 |
in 12 chapters of this great salvation that if you drift this is what you're drifting 00:07:22.380 |
from and then now that he concluded that therefore this is how you ought to live and so for the 00:07:29.800 |
next few weeks maybe a few months we're going to be in this chapter describing the application 00:07:35.260 |
of this grace in our lives but the most important of these is in the first one let love of the 00:07:42.400 |
brethren continue so there's about five things I want to highlight about love in this text 00:07:47.440 |
first of all love is what sets us apart from the world do you remember we talked about 00:07:52.520 |
last week the word holy the root basic understanding of the word holy is what to be set apart from 00:07:59.520 |
set apart to distinguish from what is common that whether it was an animal whether it 00:08:05.280 |
was an article once it was taken from the common area and then placed at the temple 00:08:11.000 |
for God's use it became holy so clothing became holy bowls became holy animals became holy 00:08:18.840 |
because it was set apart what causes us to be holy to be set apart the greatest that 00:08:25.800 |
sets us apart from the rest of the world he says is love John chapter 13 34 to 35 Jesus 00:08:33.320 |
says to his disciples a new commandment I give to you right a new commandment I give 00:08:39.200 |
to you that in and of itself is strange because do you see this commandment in the Old Testament 00:08:45.160 |
where he says to love your neighbor yes all throughout the Old Testament Old Testament 00:08:51.760 |
God tells his people to love his neighbor in Leviticus 19 18 it says you shall love 00:08:58.400 |
you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of the people but 00:09:03.200 |
you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord right and I could I could give 00:09:09.120 |
you you know dozens of passages where Jesus or God repeats the same thing to love your 00:09:14.240 |
neighbor so why does Jesus say to his disciples a new commandment I gave to you clearly it's 00:09:20.640 |
not new this is what was taught but you have to read the rest of what he says a new commandment 00:09:26.000 |
I give to you that you love one another even as what I have loved you you love one another 00:09:33.840 |
that's the new commandment the new commandment isn't simply to love one another because God's 00:09:38.040 |
been telling his people to love the aliens love the strangers love your neighbors but 00:09:42.320 |
Jesus is saying the love that I practice with you but this is the distinguishing mark so 00:09:49.760 |
it's not simply love that distinguishes us from the world it's the quality of this love 00:09:54.720 |
that distinguishes us from the world because the world practices love yes or no yeah of 00:10:02.480 |
course they do your co-workers they practice love your non-christian friends Christian 00:10:08.520 |
or not they practice love you you didn't have non-christian friends that loved you non-christian 00:10:14.760 |
mother and fathers they don't love their children the world practices love but he wasn't saying 00:10:21.400 |
just any love he says as I have loved you the quality of this love is what distinguishes 00:10:28.760 |
you and the world will know you are my disciples if you practice this love well what's the 00:10:33.400 |
distinction naturally we all tend to in our flesh love those who are lovable love those 00:10:41.680 |
who are close to us love those who can benefit us love those who don't hurt us but the Bible 00:10:47.600 |
says in Romans 5 8 God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners 00:10:54.000 |
Christ loved us he loved us when we didn't deserve it he loved us when we were in rebellion 00:11:01.600 |
he loved us when we had nothing to give while we were still blaspheming and resisting he 00:11:08.840 |
said he his love he laid down for sinners who did not deserve and he said if you practice 00:11:14.320 |
that love see if we practice the love that the world practices we're no different some 00:11:20.400 |
of us are better at it than others but the kind of love that distinguishes us from the 00:11:27.400 |
rest of the world the world will not understand why would you make an effort to love that 00:11:32.320 |
guy that guy's slandering you that guy hurt you what benefit do you have from doing that 00:11:41.440 |
and so it's the kind of love that the world cannot understand and when they see us practicing 00:11:45.880 |
that love he they will look at us and say oh it's because Jesus did it they're doing 00:11:51.800 |
what Jesus did for them see first John 2 10 it says the one who loves his brother abides 00:11:58.660 |
in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him the greatest identifier of a Christian 00:12:05.360 |
is the one who practices this love you know don't be fooled just because you love your 00:12:11.560 |
mom and your dad or your children or your good friends it's like okay I'm practicing 00:12:16.000 |
love no he said the love he's asking us to practice love that identifies that's different 00:12:22.120 |
than any other love it's to love people that are hard to love love people that you would 00:12:28.520 |
not normally love if you weren't affected by the love of Christ he said that is evidence 00:12:35.320 |
that you have met Christ in if you remember John right John before he met the resurrected 00:12:45.200 |
Christ do you remember what John and James was known for they were called sons of thunder 00:12:52.320 |
and they weren't sons of thunder because they were big guys you know every time they walked 00:12:56.200 |
around the earth shook that wasn't why they were sons of thunder sons of thunder because 00:13:00.000 |
they had a bad temper remember as they were going through Samaria and the Samaritans wouldn't 00:13:04.960 |
help right and he got angry and he said Lord do you want me to pray to kill all these people 00:13:14.020 |
right this guy was would have been a mass murderer but in the New Testament what is 00:13:19.640 |
Apostle John known for Apostle of love he writes more about love than any other Apostle 00:13:29.400 |
in the Gospel of John first and second John right he writes more about love than any other 00:13:35.000 |
Apostle so he's known as the Apostle if you want to learn about love you got to go to 00:13:38.720 |
the Gospel of John because he exposit love in his writings how did the sons of thunder 00:13:46.400 |
a potential mass murderer and all they did was they just didn't want to help they should 00:13:52.520 |
I kill all these people it's because he met the resurrected Christ a Christ even after 00:14:00.680 |
he was crucified and mocked even after his disciples all took off even after one of his 00:14:06.120 |
disciples betrayed him Jesus resurrects and this was all part of his agape love to save 00:14:12.480 |
the world and you could tell John you know the lights going off it's not just John right 00:14:19.760 |
Apostle Peter all the lights are going off because they could not understand why would 00:14:25.760 |
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords lay down his life for us they could not fathom it until 00:14:33.540 |
he actually did it and so his disciples began to understand that oh that's what he meant 00:14:39.560 |
when he got on his knees to serve if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of God who 00:14:44.760 |
could use the greatest in the kingdom of God but Jesus himself and he got on his knees 00:14:48.240 |
and he served and so Jesus said if you want to follow me you pick up the cross and you 00:14:52.240 |
do the same you remember Apostle Paul another mass murderer right he says I'm the worst 00:15:01.080 |
of sinners and he literally was because he was responsible for the first martyr in the 00:15:07.360 |
book of Acts if that wasn't enough he was so angry he got a bunch of soldiers to go 00:15:11.840 |
collect all these Christians he hated Christians he hated the Gentiles until he encounters 00:15:18.680 |
the resurrected Christ and the very people that he tried so hard to extinguish he becomes 00:15:25.840 |
the apostle to the Gentiles as a witness to the world that he wanted to be just wanted 00:15:33.480 |
to destroy now he became the main mouthpiece to spread God's love to them and so there 00:15:39.560 |
was evidence that must that man must have met Christ in fact the greatest witness in 00:15:45.840 |
the early church was the church itself in Tertullian one of the early church fathers 00:15:55.640 |
this is what he says about how the church was viewed and he was quoting a pagan authority 00:16:00.640 |
this is what it says it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a 00:16:06.320 |
brand upon us see how they love one another they say how they are ready even to die for 00:16:12.040 |
one another they say for they themselves will sooner be put to death he says he's just describing 00:16:19.440 |
their reputation outside of the church in the early church the greatest evidence of 00:16:23.400 |
the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the makeup of the church itself do you know how much 00:16:30.280 |
the Pharisees hated tax collectors because they were the ones who betrayed their country 00:16:36.440 |
they were collecting money from their countrymen and Matthew the tax collector and you had 00:16:43.000 |
these fishermen who are walking around calling each other's brothers in Christ I mean in 00:16:48.360 |
a typical setting they would have killed each other in the early church you had the tax 00:16:54.200 |
collectors teaching because he was an apostle he was teaching converted Pharisees the experts 00:16:59.800 |
of the law about the new covenant in Christ you had runaway slaves and slave owners in 00:17:07.640 |
the same congregation you had the rich and poor they didn't have rich on one side of 00:17:11.880 |
the one side of the you know neighborhood and then poor on the other side because clearly 00:17:17.120 |
they're not going to be the fellowship because you if we have home groups you're going to 00:17:21.040 |
one one day go to the mansion another day go to a hut so that's practically that's not 00:17:25.280 |
going to work but the greatest evidence in the early church was all of them were together 00:17:30.400 |
and they loved one another and so you can look at that and say well what happened right 00:17:38.200 |
my their early leaders must have been fantastic leaders right they they tapped into the organization 00:17:45.160 |
they were able to get people to put away their ego and and they learned a system where everybody 00:17:50.760 |
can get along are you kidding me that's not what happened see the secular world can't 00:17:58.120 |
explain the church and if you've ever read anything from the secular world how they describe 00:18:04.920 |
why Christianity blew up so much they'll say oh because it was the poor people and there 00:18:09.800 |
was a desperateness and Jesus described where they started to help each other and that's 00:18:14.360 |
why the poor people came in droves that's because they don't they didn't study the early 00:18:19.800 |
church the early church was filled with poor people rich people slave owners and slave 00:18:25.120 |
Pharisees Sadducees tax collectors all in the same church and so the only logical explanation 00:18:34.840 |
was the resurrection of Jesus Christ that's no different than if we fell asleep one day 00:18:40.400 |
and the Republicans Democrats you know are they love each other what was so powerful 00:18:47.280 |
that they came together right something people who hated they wouldn't even walk into their 00:18:54.640 |
town because they hated each other and yet they call each other brothers and sisters 00:18:59.920 |
in Christ because they met the resurrected Christ that's what distinguished them from 00:19:08.080 |
rest of the world that's why it's so hard to understand how that happened in the early 00:19:12.520 |
church so the greatest mark of holiness that sets us apart from the world is love second 00:19:21.420 |
love is the greatest application of this community there's a reason why love is at the top of 00:19:26.680 |
this list and if you I can sit here and go through passage after passage after passage 00:19:30.720 |
after passage of the various lists of the characteristic of a Christian and almost always 00:19:36.240 |
love is at the top of that list in first Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13 said but now faith hope 00:19:45.720 |
love abide these things but the greatest of these is love right I know if you've been 00:19:51.360 |
raising the church you memorize this first you might have a plaque on this at your home 00:19:55.200 |
somewhere your children who probably may have memorized this in Sunday school but have you 00:20:01.840 |
considered the gravity of this verse we're saved by faith we persevere through all kinds 00:20:10.760 |
of trial because of hope and yet he says above faith above hope love is the greatest wow 00:20:22.920 |
I mean that that really should cause us to take a step back and think about this because 00:20:27.600 |
the greatest application of God's holy calling is love even though my relationship with God 00:20:35.160 |
is reconciled because of faith and it is because of this hope that I'm able to be sanctified 00:20:41.200 |
and yet the greatest application of our calling he says is love in second Peter 1 5 through 00:20:48.000 |
8 Apostle Peter goes through the list of Christian disciplines that we ought to strive for and 00:20:53.280 |
this is what he says now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith 00:20:57.080 |
supply moral excellence in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control 00:21:02.200 |
in your self-control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness and in your godliness 00:21:07.000 |
brotherly kindness in your brotherly kindness love you notice here on this list that in 00:21:14.920 |
descending order that these are the things that Christians who are trying to be sanctified 00:21:21.520 |
should apply themselves increasing manner to grow in and he says moral excellence knowledge 00:21:27.820 |
self-control perseverance godliness brotherly kindness and ultimately love the reason why 00:21:34.640 |
love is at the bottom of this list is because all this striving is to ultimately get to 00:21:39.320 |
love that the reason why we discipline is to get to love the reason why we knowledge 00:21:46.920 |
is to get to love all the things that we are doing ultimately is to get us to practice 00:21:52.880 |
the love that Christ practiced with us and that's what it means in first Timothy 1 5 00:21:57.440 |
when Paul sends Timothy to go to war in the city of Ephesus because the Judaizers were 00:22:03.200 |
coming and beginning to spread the false gospel and he's telling this young man do not be 00:22:08.320 |
timid I give you the authority and the word command here is a military command where a 00:22:14.800 |
commanding officer is telling the subordinate I'm commanding you to go and command these 00:22:19.880 |
men to stop teaching false doctrines and I give you the authority as an apostle of Jesus 00:22:26.200 |
Christ to go and fight and this Timothy you know he's concerned he's timid he has some 00:22:33.060 |
ailments and you know people are falling out and and so Paul is trying to strengthen him 00:22:37.660 |
up to go fight but as he goes to fight he says but remember the goal of our instruction 00:22:45.880 |
is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith the reason why I need 00:22:52.520 |
you to fight is so that you can establish love the reason why doctrine needs to be pure 00:22:58.720 |
is so that we can have love the reason why you need to you need to make your stand clear 00:23:04.400 |
is so that you can ultimately have greater love see in our generation because of the 00:23:10.280 |
way that the gospel has been watered down that we somehow think that doctrinal purity 00:23:16.380 |
and love somehow cannot coexist but the very reason why God calls us to purity in the church 00:23:23.120 |
is so that we can have greater love these things are not two opposite sides you cannot 00:23:30.180 |
have one without the other third we are called to love as we love ourselves the word here 00:23:38.960 |
for love is Philadelphia Philadelphia has two words philo love Adelphia is brother but 00:23:45.320 |
literally the word in Greek means of the same womb so the Greeks use this word Philadelphia 00:23:52.000 |
to only refer to blood brothers that you actually had a physical brother so the Christians adapted 00:24:00.000 |
this to apply to all their true believers so this was a even though the word existed 00:24:06.360 |
the way it was applied in the New Testament to New Covenant people is uniquely Christian 00:24:11.200 |
and the reason why it was uniquely Christian is because that idea of family was applied 00:24:18.340 |
to all true believers because we were all born by the same spirit so the Greeks used 00:24:24.280 |
it to refer to people who are born of the same womb and the New Testament believers 00:24:29.000 |
use it to all who are genuinely born again by the spirit and Jesus himself said when 00:24:33.880 |
he was hanging on the cross and he was looking at his mother he looked at his the disciples 00:24:38.240 |
and he said to the mother woman behold your son then he said to the disciples behold your 00:24:42.240 |
mother from that hour the disciples took her into his own household so now you are true 00:24:48.880 |
brothers that's your mother that's your father and so that our community is is actually our 00:24:55.600 |
family Ephesians 4 4 to 5 there is one body one spirit just as you also called in one 00:25:01.800 |
hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism and God and Father of all who is over 00:25:06.920 |
all and through all and in all right now like the application of all this sound great but 00:25:15.880 |
what is the application of all of this he says we are to love one another as we would 00:25:21.520 |
love our own family members that's basically what it says right love the Lord you got with 00:25:25.760 |
all your heart soul mind and straight love your neighbor as yourself when we talk about 00:25:31.520 |
the practice of holiness or practice of grace we somehow detach these these two things and 00:25:37.520 |
and I've had a friend tell me years ago that he believes that the greatest problem in our 00:25:42.160 |
generation is that we don't practice church discipline that's the problem that we need 00:25:47.280 |
to weed out sin we need to call out people who are in error and so we need to keep the 00:25:50.760 |
church pure now I know what he was saying I know what he was getting in but I don't 00:25:57.560 |
know if I would phrase it that way because I don't think it's accurate I think the way 00:26:02.160 |
we should we should understand is the greatest problem our generation is that we don't practice 00:26:06.480 |
true love because the kind of love that we practice sometimes is no more than indifference 00:26:15.420 |
we have different degrees of how we practice love we have people that we really care about 00:26:20.640 |
and we love them we rejoice with them and we suffer with them and so we have that group 00:26:25.920 |
of people and then we have some groups of people we don't neither hate them or love 00:26:29.440 |
them they're just kind of acquaintances so when they when good things happen we high 00:26:33.720 |
five right and then when they suffer a sad face on Facebook but that's about the engagement 00:26:40.560 |
that we have and then we have people that annoys us they're acquaintances so when they 00:26:45.280 |
suffer we rejoice inwardly quietly because we're Christian and then when they celebrate 00:26:52.640 |
we're kind of like how they don't deserve that so we have different degrees of love 00:26:57.480 |
that we we practice but the people that we really love we're engaged no mother or father 00:27:08.120 |
who sees a child deliberately choosing a path that they know is going to hurt them and sits 00:27:13.360 |
there and say well I want to practice grace and mercy I'm just gonna let you do whatever 00:27:19.520 |
you want to do because I rather err on the side of grace no one would look at that and 00:27:25.880 |
say what a great mom what a great dad if your child is staying up till 4 in the morning 00:27:30.960 |
playing video games 14 hours and and ruining their life and hanging out with the wrong 00:27:35.600 |
crowd and and they're making decisions that ultimately gonna hurt them no loving mother 00:27:40.960 |
no loving father is gonna sit there and watch it and say well I rather err on the side of 00:27:45.120 |
grace you'd get involved if that was your brother if that was your sister if that was 00:27:51.440 |
your mother or father because we love them we would we would be more concerned about 00:27:58.120 |
the damage that they're doing to their life than how they would view us so sometimes our 00:28:04.760 |
idea of practicing grace is being indifferent because we're afraid how they will react to 00:28:10.880 |
what we will say but we don't do that to people we really love people that we really love 00:28:18.840 |
we will say something despite how you may perceive me I will say something to you because 00:28:26.000 |
I know and I'm convinced that if you keep going down that path that there is destruction 00:28:30.840 |
there's no good waiting for you because we love them we will speak so the kind of grace 00:28:37.920 |
that's that's supposedly being practiced in our generation is not grace at all it's just 00:28:44.520 |
indifference and we're not doing it for them even though in the back of our mind we know 00:28:49.240 |
where oh you go around he's gonna point out what's wrong you know so the problem in our 00:28:55.880 |
generation is not that we don't practice church discipline we don't truly practice agape love 00:29:06.040 |
because God's love and his grace cannot be separated if you practice one without the 00:29:14.560 |
other it isn't from God if you practice justice without love you'll get vengeance if you practice 00:29:23.680 |
grace without justice you have indifference just kind of ignore it let them be they're 00:29:28.880 |
gonna do drugs let them do drugs they're gonna run down this path and at the end of it there's 00:29:32.400 |
a cliff I don't want to bother them let them go you see God's justice and his mercy and 00:29:39.000 |
his grace can never be separated and that's the community that he calls us to where the 00:29:45.880 |
gospel of Jesus where the cross is at the center when cross is at the center his holiness 00:29:52.240 |
and his love will never be compromised third sorry fourth love is not in us love is given 00:30:03.880 |
to us you notice here he says to continue in my love he doesn't say practice love he 00:30:10.640 |
says continue in my love the word for continue is a very theologically rich term and it's 00:30:16.880 |
the word meno so if you've been at our church I've given several sermons on this on John 00:30:20.820 |
chapter 15 when Jesus says if you want to if you want to bear fruit you need to remain 00:30:26.160 |
in me right remain me continue in that word meno is used over 11 times in that passage 00:30:33.480 |
and Jesus is telling his disciples as he is going to the cross that where I go you cannot 00:30:37.760 |
come but if you want to bear fruit you need to meno in me the word meno is one of those 00:30:44.200 |
words that can't be translated with one word so some of your translations it would say 00:30:48.760 |
remain some of your translation it says to abide some of your translations it says to 00:30:53.780 |
dwell some of your translations it says to live but basically that word means to be connected 00:31:00.840 |
to continue what God has started that's what that word means so if you notice here he says 00:31:05.380 |
let love of the brethren remain to continue in other words the love of Christ has given 00:31:14.180 |
to all genuine believers all genuine believers because that was the greatest evidence of 00:31:21.380 |
separation from the world in first Thessalonians 4 9 through 10 it said now as to love of the 00:31:26.380 |
brethren you have no need for anyone to write to you for you yourselves are taught by God 00:31:30.740 |
to love one another for if indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia 00:31:37.100 |
but we urge you brethren to excel still more in other words the apostle Paul saying I don't 00:31:41.540 |
need to teach you this because God already taught you this now what does he mean by that 00:31:46.380 |
that God audibly open up heaven and say love so when apostle Paul showed up it's like oh 00:31:51.660 |
I don't need to teach you because you heard that from heaven is that what he means well 00:31:55.540 |
that's not what he means he means that the practice of this love is so fundamental to 00:32:00.500 |
the gospel that as Christ loved us you would naturally love if God was generous to you 00:32:07.820 |
you would be generous and that's what it means I don't need to teach you because at the root 00:32:11.940 |
of the gospel at the root of redemptive history is God loving sinners it was given to us and 00:32:20.380 |
it was given to us to do by the power of the Holy Spirit in first John 4 19 it says we 00:32:26.220 |
love because he first loved us we love because he first loved us you know one of the first 00:32:34.300 |
things that happens when you begin to stray away from God or begin to drift away from 00:32:39.580 |
God you start to get annoyed with people that's the first thing because this is impossible 00:32:47.620 |
to practice this is impossible to practice in the Old Testament God says eye for an eye 00:32:53.940 |
tooth for tooth right what is eye for an eye tooth for tooth there's different degrees 00:32:59.980 |
of relationships that we practice we practice vengeance justice mercy and grace eye for 00:33:06.260 |
an eye tooth for tooth is what it's not mercy it's not grace it's justice right they took 00:33:14.900 |
an eye you take an eye right they punch you in the mouth you punch them in the mouth that's 00:33:19.380 |
justice the reason why God even has to tell us to practice justice is because our natural 00:33:26.380 |
inclination isn't to practice justice what is our natural inclination to practice vengeance 00:33:35.620 |
so as much as people are marching and saying no justice no peace they're not looking for 00:33:40.100 |
justice they're not looking for justice they're looking for vengeance you hurt me I want to 00:33:48.620 |
hurt you you punch me I'm gonna punch your family you slash my tire I'm gonna burn your 00:33:55.900 |
car you rob from me I'm gonna take your whole bank account that's our natural in our flesh 00:34:01.220 |
our desire is not to practice justice you have to be a righteous man a self-controlled 00:34:08.980 |
disciplined man to practice justice that somebody hurts you and you only hurt them as much as 00:34:15.620 |
they hurt you that's not our sinful state our sinful state is you hurt me I kill you 00:34:22.540 |
right make sure make sure you never even entertain messing with me that's our tendency so imagine 00:34:33.540 |
if that's our flesh that not only does he tells us to practice justice have self-control 00:34:39.980 |
practice justice to go beyond that practice mercy it's like not take vengeance and not 00:34:46.540 |
even justice just just hold it within yourself how hard is that when somebody deliberately 00:34:52.420 |
tries to hurt you and you say yeah whatever right you must be emotionally dead or something 00:35:00.260 |
is you are in so much fear that's not that's not how we think if somebody hurt us we don't 00:35:06.980 |
practice mercy to grace and then go beyond that and then to love them to do what's best 00:35:15.260 |
for them so tell somebody who may may or may not be satisfied with vengeance and then command 00:35:24.140 |
them to practice the love that he could he gave to us while we were yet sinners to love 00:35:31.140 |
them give to them take care of them and he said by that love the world will know you 00:35:37.180 |
are my disciples because that's not something you can do in your flesh and that's why he 00:35:43.940 |
says to remain in this love this love I gave you so the moment we begin to stray from Christ 00:35:52.060 |
it is humanly impossible to even imagine to practice this love see God's holiness that 00:36:02.740 |
sets us apart from this world is that love that he called us to that's why he says we 00:36:08.620 |
love because he first loved us and then second Corinthians 5 14 to 15 he says for the love 00:36:12.500 |
of Christ controls us Apostle Paul is talking about himself and his disciples now understand 00:36:19.020 |
the context of why he's saying this do you remember Apostle Paul he was writing and he 00:36:24.700 |
begged the Lord three times to take away the thorn on his side and if you read the commentaries 00:36:30.500 |
people have done a lot of work to try to figure out what is that thorn is that he begged the 00:36:35.100 |
Lord to take it away it was so painful for him some people say that maybe he was sick 00:36:40.700 |
there's no mention of that anywhere in the Bible so I'm not sure if that's the best interpretation 00:36:44.700 |
because if he was sick that would have been the only problem some jokingly said maybe 00:36:49.100 |
it was his wife his wife just just couldn't stand that he's not making enough money you 00:36:53.580 |
know he's always away from home it's as a joke and I don't think Paul is pretty clear 00:36:58.060 |
he says he's not married but if you read the context of first Corinthians Paul when he 00:37:03.820 |
showed up to the city he was trembling in fear he was getting beat up jailed whooped 00:37:10.020 |
almost died shipwrecked so when he comes into the city he was in fear he was burnt out he 00:37:16.420 |
was tired and he was looked like he was going to quit that's how he described himself and 00:37:21.420 |
the Lord Jesus spoke to him and said I want you to continue your work because I have many 00:37:25.940 |
who follow me in this city so Paul spent a lot of time in this city sharing the gospel 00:37:32.940 |
bringing people to Christ and establishing this church so he had a special affection 00:37:37.580 |
for this church because he spent a lot of time at this church and it is that church 00:37:43.620 |
that was falling apart so if you've ever studied the New Testament you know the first and second 00:37:46.940 |
Corinthians are its harshest letter to this to these churches because some people were 00:37:53.140 |
questioning because they didn't like what he had to say that guy's an apostle how can 00:37:56.700 |
he be an apostle I follow Peter I follow Paulus you know who is this guy and he was writing 00:38:04.700 |
letters to change them to correct them they said this guy's letters are weighty but his 00:38:11.140 |
presence is weak you know he writes with such authority but when he comes he's just a tiny 00:38:17.180 |
little guy bald-headed guy according to church tradition I don't know about you but my inclination 00:38:26.820 |
would have been well you got Peter okay then go to Peter Peter's problem you want Peter 00:38:33.620 |
go to Peter Apollos is the better speaker go no sweat off my back I got all these other 00:38:41.320 |
churches I got to attend to if you if you just take off and leave you know no sweat 00:38:46.020 |
off of my back I mean his anguishing letter that he writes first Corinthians second Corinthians 00:38:51.500 |
questioning his apostleship begging them to repent and still them questioning him who 00:38:56.340 |
is this guy I don't like his sermons and so he begged I think him begging the Lord 00:39:03.540 |
because his opposition who are constantly attacking him and he says in Philippians there 00:39:08.860 |
are some people preaching the gospel just to make it harder for him to preach the gospel 00:39:13.740 |
he was not only being attacked by the Judaizers but within the church who hated him when he 00:39:19.780 |
was calling them out I mean he Galatians starts out am I a servant of man or servant of God 00:39:24.340 |
and he was calling out even Apostle Peter and Barnabas his mentors because he was afraid 00:39:30.780 |
that their actions were going to pervert the gospel and so because he was bold in preaching 00:39:37.340 |
the gospel he had opposition even within the church and I believe when he said he begged 00:39:41.940 |
the Lord to take away the thorn he was having a hard time with those who were criticizing 00:39:46.740 |
him it is in that context he writes because it's so tempting to just let it go it's so 00:39:57.540 |
tempting to shake off the dust and say good riddance I'm here risking my life almost died 00:40:03.660 |
so that you can have the gospel and this is the way you're going to treat me good gone 00:40:07.780 |
but he perseveres he agonizes he pleads it is in that context he says for the love of 00:40:18.740 |
Christ controls us it was because of the love of Christ I endure having concluded this that 00:40:25.780 |
one died for all there for all died and he died for all so that they would live they 00:40:31.140 |
they who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their 00:40:35.260 |
behalf I believe when he was writing this this was his personal testimony I'm persevering 00:40:40.640 |
because I'm no longer living for myself it's not about me it's not about my pain it's not 00:40:46.220 |
about my sacrifice but Christ crucified because the love of Christ was compelling him to endure 00:40:55.060 |
and to love fifth and finally love is the ultimate goal it is the fulfillment of this 00:41:01.940 |
holy law Romans 13 8 through 10 says owe nothing to anyone except the love of one another for 00:41:08.060 |
he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law for this you shall not commit adultery 00:41:13.900 |
you shall not murder you should not steal you should not covet and he basically gives 00:41:18.080 |
a brief list of the Ten Commandments and he says all of this is summarized therefore love 00:41:22.860 |
is the fulfillment of the law so if you look at the Ten Commandments first four commandments 00:41:27.940 |
is about loving God should have no worship any other God no graven images not take the 00:41:35.180 |
Lord's name in vain to keep the Sabbath holy and then the next six is about the relationship 00:41:39.340 |
that we have with one another and he said but the purpose of of holy living to obey 00:41:43.600 |
these commandments is ultimately practice of love he's giving us a description of how 00:41:49.700 |
to love God and how to love one another and that's exactly what he says in Matthew 22 00:41:55.340 |
37 to 40 and he said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul 00:41:59.300 |
mind and strength this is the great and foremost commandment the second like it you shall love 00:42:04.780 |
your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend the whole law on the prophets so when 00:42:11.780 |
we think of the law we automatically that goes into the context of holiness and when 00:42:18.220 |
we think of mercy we think of God's forgiveness and and his what he did at the cross but here 00:42:24.500 |
he says the commandment the holy commandment the fulfillment of that is love so these are 00:42:32.740 |
not separate things so if you err in love if you err in love you err in the law if you 00:42:38.420 |
err in the law you err in grace you cannot practice one without the other love is the 00:42:47.140 |
fulfillment of the law 1st John 4 16 to 17 we have come to know and have believed the 00:42:52.880 |
love of God which has for us God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God God 00:42:57.460 |
abides in him by this love is perfected with us what does that even mean there's another 00:43:03.420 |
word that's important in the New Testament the word perfected is teleos and remember 00:43:08.220 |
the word teleos doesn't mean that you yourself are morally perfect that's not what that word 00:43:11.740 |
means perfected means that whatever was intended for that is finding fulfillment so if a child 00:43:19.180 |
enters into school when is he perfected when he gets perfect grades no when he graduates 00:43:28.540 |
right I mean he's not saying when you get straight A's all the time you never get anything 00:43:33.220 |
wrong then you are perfected that's not this word this word basically means what God had 00:43:37.740 |
intended he's bringing to fulfillment so what does this mean Christ was crucified and he 00:43:45.660 |
gave his love for us and is perfected in us when we are affected and love one another 00:43:52.520 |
so his love is perfected in us when it when we begin to reflect that love in the way that 00:44:00.060 |
we live let me let me end with this you know years ago I would go to retreats you know 00:44:12.300 |
and usually four out of five times is usually somebody I know that asked me to come and 00:44:17.100 |
speak and I would speak and a lot of these churches are not doing well and so I would 00:44:22.660 |
come and give a message and one of the most common questions that I was getting at churches 00:44:27.340 |
at retreats was Pastor Peter when is the right time to leave a church this is my friend's 00:44:34.940 |
church right and he's talking about that church and so I would get these questions eventually 00:44:40.980 |
like you know I said well this is this is the most one of the most common questions 00:44:44.700 |
because people are frustrated and so one I can't how am I I'm at my friend's church yeah 00:44:50.780 |
get out of here my friend came to speak so that you guys can benefit and then I said 00:44:56.860 |
get out of here it's like so I'm thinking so I would give them the you know that what 00:45:00.780 |
you should give right well how much of this is your problem right are you the troublemaker 00:45:07.340 |
what kind of view that you have that do you have a high view of the church where you just 00:45:10.300 |
going to hop around church to church so I would give him not knowing the context not 00:45:14.260 |
knowing what the problem is I and I'm more concerned about this is I can't I can't tell 00:45:19.740 |
him to leave I don't even want to know what the problem is because even if I wanted to 00:45:24.820 |
tell you to leave I can't because I'm at my friend's church but years would go by now 00:45:29.700 |
would be the most common question that they would ask and I'm just wrestling with this 00:45:35.140 |
and so I'm wrestling with this idea of practicing love love as yourself and I'm just meditating 00:45:41.020 |
thinking about this and it's a thought came to me what's the right way to answer this 00:45:46.220 |
question and I thought how would I answer if my son asked me this question he went to 00:45:53.300 |
college and he's struggling it's not growing there's stuff happening in the church and 00:45:59.420 |
how would I answer this question because for my son I wouldn't be as concerned about what 00:46:06.540 |
they would think of me because I'd be more concerned about him I wouldn't be so concerned 00:46:11.460 |
about my reputation because I would be more concerned about him so I resolved that I'm 00:46:18.340 |
going to be honest and answer you exactly the way I would answer my son and so that's 00:46:24.500 |
the mindset that I have even inside the church if you ask me a question I'm going to answer 00:46:29.300 |
you like I would answer my own son sometimes you may not like it but that's what I actually 00:46:35.260 |
believe I'm not going to dress it up so that you won't hate me you might hate me but that's 00:46:42.740 |
exactly what I would say to my own son so even if we have to discipline somebody at 00:46:46.540 |
church I'd ask my question would I do this to my own son because I have to believe that 00:46:51.940 |
this is what's best for him not because I'm annoyed not because I'm angered or not because 00:46:57.780 |
I'm offended because I would never approach my children that way even if I'm angered I 00:47:02.500 |
would make sure that whatever I say and do is for their own good and so that didn't solve 00:47:09.500 |
all the problems but it made things much more simpler to practice this love that I need 00:47:16.820 |
to practice this love as I would love myself to love my children to love my wife to love 00:47:23.020 |
people that I genuinely love so when a church practices true biblical love accountability 00:47:32.420 |
happens we don't just simply look at that and say oh what are they going to think if 00:47:36.780 |
I say something and then sweep it under the rug you would never do that for your child 00:47:43.460 |
you would speak up you would say something I'm not saying be jerks right we're not saying 00:47:49.180 |
we're going to create an environment and I see everybody is wrong because you wouldn't 00:47:52.500 |
do that with your kids either you wouldn't be so quick to point out every false things 00:47:57.260 |
because you know that's not good for your kids either but true biblical love never separates 00:48:06.660 |
holiness and mercy they go hand in hand so in practice and I know our natural inclination 00:48:17.460 |
is I'd rather I'd rather err on the side of grace right our goal is to not error period 00:48:26.060 |
we want to know who God is we want to know what the gospel is and we want to truly be 00:48:31.720 |
gospel centered not what I want the gospel to be but what the gospel actually is let's 00:48:37.780 |
pray again as our worship team comes let's take some time to reflect if there's any areas 00:48:48.100 |
in our life where we superficially applied love but in reality was indifference where 00:48:55.780 |
maybe we were overly harsh because we really didn't love we said you know we're going to 00:48:59.460 |
speak the truth in love but it was more truth than love how are we practicing this in our 00:49:04.660 |
lives to ask the Lord to show us search us and know us see if there's any hurtful ways 00:49:10.220 |
in us so that our church would truly be identified by the love of Christ that the world would 00:49:16.700 |
know that we are his disciples so let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads