WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:29.980 Be Thou a Red, let us love one another, for love is of God. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:56.340 Who reigns upon, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and God is love. 00:00:56.340 --> 00:01:14.340 Hear this what manifested the love of God toward us, because there was it His only begotten Son into the world. 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:34.340 Let We Thou live, Let We Thou live, Let We Thou live through Him. 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:52.340 Be Loved, let us love one another, for love is of God, who reigns upon. 00:01:52.340 --> 00:02:11.340 Be Loved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and God is love. 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:21.340 For love is of God, and God is love. 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:33.340 For love is of God, and God is love. 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:39.340 For love is of God, and God is love. 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:43.340 For love is of God, and God is love. 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:47.340 I am continuously amazed at the balance that there is in this congregation. 00:02:47.340 --> 00:03:05.340 A little bit of formality in the world. 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:12.219 I am continuously amazed at the balance that there is in this congregation. 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:24.599 A little bit of formality in the mornings, and a lot of informality at night, and I think that's nice. 00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:37.599 Also, it's interesting to me, another kind of balance that they give the speaker in the morning the raspberries, and then for lunch they send them to the cauliflowers. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:48.599 I appreciate that, and I appreciate the hospitality that was shown to me this afternoon at that fine home. 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:58.599 You have probably heard the little expressions, the human race I love. 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:02.599 It's people that I can't stand. 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:13.599 Or perhaps this one, to live above with saints in love, that will be glory. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:20.600 But to live below with the saints I know, that's another story. 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:27.600 Now, of course, that could not be true here at the Maranatha Baptist Church, I presume. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:36.600 But in all too many places in the Lord's work, that kind of spirit is true. 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:48.600 I have found in the six years or so that the Lord has allowed me to be in the teaching ministry and then out into various churches and various places, 00:04:48.600 --> 00:05:00.600 that one of the greatest needs in pastorless churches, that is a church without a visible leader right there, 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:13.600 one of the greatest needs, one of the most teachable moments for it, is on this whole concept of loving one another. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:24.600 It seems as though when the pastor is gone, that it is during that time that the little petty differences, 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:34.600 which he may have been able to weld together or work around or in some way keep together or keep under at least the surface, 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:41.600 it seems as though that while the pastor is gone or during that interim time, those little differences and problems, 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:47.600 which otherwise may have been set aside, begin to crop up. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:52.600 They begin to come to the surface. 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:59.600 And it is too easy for a church group to begin to become unglued, 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:10.600 just simply because they do not realize the value, the importance of loving one another. 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:16.600 Before you go to sleep, catch this one thought from the Word of God and from this message. 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:29.600 Love is the glue that will bind your church into a working unit. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:36.600 That's how important it is that we love one another. 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:45.600 Now whenever I stand behind a pulpit and talk about the matter of believers loving one another, 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:50.600 I always feel a little bit defensive. 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:58.600 Because I know that in the experience of some believers, there is this essential thought. 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:05.600 To speak about love is to be a liberal. 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:08.600 Liberals talk about love. 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:12.600 And perhaps you have been saved out of liberalism. 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:17.600 Perhaps you have had it up to there with this matter of loving one another. 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.600 Perhaps you are saying in your heart, wait a minute, every time I went to that liberal church, 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:23.600 that's the only thing I heard. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:25.600 Love your neighbor, love this guy, love that fella. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:32.600 Kind of a pacifistic kind of a love that we just get sick of it. 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:39.600 And therefore, when you hear someone stand up in a fundamental church and say something about the love of the brethren, 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:44.600 immediately little red flags, you know, go up in our minds and the lights start banging. 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:48.600 You say, uh-oh, we got a liberal sneaking in here through the side door. 00:07:48.600 --> 00:08:02.600 If that is the case with you, then I would quickly remind you and warn you of the peril of the pendulum. 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:09.600 A pendulum has a problem in that it gets over on one side, and then when it's finally released from that side, 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:13.600 it swings all the way to the other extreme. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.600 So if you have been in that one part which says, oh, we just hear about love and we just talk about love, 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:22.600 and that's all we ever hear, and then all of a sudden you are saved and you come out of that thing, 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:28.600 the tendency is to swing to the other extreme and say, oh, I never want to hear anybody talk about love again. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:32.600 Beware of that. 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:42.600 There is a New Testament balance between truth and love. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:52.600 And you cannot read through the New Testament, the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, even the Book of the Revelation. 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:59.600 You cannot read through the New Testament without coming out with the notion, hey, we got to love one another. 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:06.600 We who know Christ really do need to love one another. 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:14.600 Sometimes to speak of love has the idea, it seems, of lowering the standards, lowering the requirements. 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.600 You know, we're not going to keep our high standards up. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:21.600 Now we're going to begin to get soft and lower things. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:27.600 Come with me for just a moment to Romans chapter 13. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:36.600 Paul gives us a thought about love, which frankly is just the opposite of that. 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:43.600 When I speak tonight of loving one another, I am not talking about lowering our spiritual standards in any way. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:50.600 Notice how Paul approaches the subject and the emphasis to which that he gives to it. 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:54.600 Romans 13 and verse 8 says, 00:09:54.600 --> 00:10:03.600 Oh, no man anything but to love one another. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:09.600 For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:13.600 You have not lowered the law. You have not changed the standard. 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:18.600 He says if you love one another, that really is the fulfillment of the law. 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:23.600 And then he explains that. Verse 9, for this. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:25.600 And he gives us the law. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:29.600 Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:33.600 Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:41.600 And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended or summarized in this saying, namely, 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:48.600 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:59.600 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:04.600 Boiled down to its simplest statement, Paul is simply saying this. 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:12.600 If I love you, I'm not going to lie about you. 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:17.600 If I love you, men, I am not going to steal your wife. 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:27.600 If I love you, I am not going to be upset and covetous over your house or your car or your gain. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:32.600 If I love you, I'm not going to lower the standards. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:47.600 As a matter of fact, love is the fulfilling of the law and causes me to relate with you on an even higher scale than what the law demanded. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:58.600 So do not think that because we're talking about love tonight, somehow we are trying to bring in through the back door some kind of liberalism. 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:05.600 And do not think that because we speak of love, we are talking about lowering standards. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:08.600 I am not. 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:23.600 Rather, we must take an objective look together at this whole matter of what the New Testament means when it says we must love one another. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:29.600 Now the home plate text tonight is found in John 13. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:38.600 John 13, verses 34 and 35. 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:44.600 Somehow I have a notion that you are already familiar with these verses. 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:52.600 You can tell that this is one of the Savior's final words to his men before he leaves them. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:56.600 Notice what he says to them. 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:58.600 John 13, 34. 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:05.600 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:10.600 As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:19.600 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:32.600 Now I do not really believe that we can come to serious grips with those words until we remind ourselves of the emotional setting. 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:38.600 The emotional tone, the entire evening on which they were spoken. 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:47.600 I think we tend to miss in Bible study something of the emotional tone of the words. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:51.600 We get so academic in our Bible study. 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:58.600 We get so intellectual in it, cutting the words apart and analyzing this meaning and that grammatical relationship, 00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:11.600 that somehow we don't seem to value or understand or appreciate the emotional content, the emotional tone around the words of Scripture. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:16.600 And yet I think there is so much to be learned from that. 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:26.600 These words were spoken, as you know, on the final night of Christ's earthly life. 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:37.600 And they were spoken at that final meeting and that final meal that he had arranged. 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:42.600 Regardless of what day of the week you think our Savior was crucified, 00:14:42.600 --> 00:14:50.600 this particular meal took place on the final night before his crucifixion. 00:14:50.600 --> 00:15:01.600 And my understanding of the Gospel accounts is that the Lord Jesus Christ rather carefully planned this night. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.600 It was Passover. 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.600 And it seemed as though they were never going to get ready for the Passover until two disciples said, 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:14.600 Lord, where are you going to have us prepare this Passover meal? 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:21.600 And he said to them, as you know, I want you too to go into the city of Jerusalem. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:24.600 And you will see a man bearing a pitcher of water. 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:25.600 Follow him. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:29.600 And when he gets to this particular house, you say to the master of the house, 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:33.600 where is the upper room where we may prepare for the master? 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.600 And that was precisely what they did. 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:46.600 Now that may not seem too significant to you until you realize that normally it was women who carried the water, not men. 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:57.600 And that our Savior was trying to keep this place of meeting a secret from Judas. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:04.600 Judas was looking for that opportune moment to nab him, to turn him over to the authorities. 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:07.600 And so he sends these two disciples on ahead. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.600 They didn't know where they were going. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:14.600 They walk into the city and there's a man bearing a water pot and they follow him and he comes to a house. 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:18.600 And they ask the question as they are instructed. 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:21.600 And so they go and prepare. 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:26.600 Jesus and the other ten of his disciples are out away from the city. 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:31.600 Judas and the others did not know where they were preparing. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:43.600 Until later, under the cover of darkness, they made their way into that city and to that upper room for the final meal. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:46.600 Our Savior said to his men that night, 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:52.600 It is with a great desire that I have desired to eat this meal with you. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:57.600 In other words, I have looked forward to it and I have laid the foundation for it. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:02.600 And I have some very important things I want to share with you. 00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:05.599 I think we need to remember something else. 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:14.599 Not only was this an essentially private meeting that our Savior had carved out and planned for. 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:21.599 We need also to remember that the city of Jerusalem was alive with tension. 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:32.599 After a three year public ministry, his name had gone all over the countryside and there was a quiet whispering all over the land of Palestine. 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:34.599 Could this be the Messiah? 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:39.599 Do you really think this is the prophet that was predicted in Deuteronomy? 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:44.599 And the rumors were flying and there was kind of an undertow all through that society. 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:51.599 And of course the religious leaders were getting more and more adamant, more and more hostile. 00:17:51.599 --> 00:18:02.599 Until when you come to this Passover meal, this Passover celebration, with all of those Jewish pilgrims glutted in that city, 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:07.599 they make the essential decree, we don't want to hear you mention that name. 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:11.599 And if we hear you talking about him, you're out of the synagogue. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:14.599 We're going to excommunicate you. You've had it. 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:21.599 And so the city was filled with tension. Will he come? 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:25.599 Do you think he'll perform some miracles? 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:39.599 It was into that tension-filled city, under the cover of darkness, that the Savior and his men had their final meeting. 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:42.599 That tells us something. 00:18:42.599 --> 00:18:48.599 Our Savior really wanted to communicate this to these men. 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:55.599 He wanted to have them in an uninterrupted, undisturbed place, 00:18:55.599 --> 00:19:00.599 where he could build into their thoughts in a final kind of way, 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:07.599 some very crucial final words. 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:17.599 Normally, final words of anybody are very important, aren't they? 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:26.599 And so if we will remember something of that setting, it will help us to pick up not only the tenderness of that scene, 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:39.599 but also the importance of these final instructions for them and for us. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:44.599 I invite you to look at those disciples with me tonight. 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:52.599 We have to ask the question, to whom did Jesus give this command? 00:19:52.599 --> 00:19:54.599 To whom was he speaking? 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:58.599 And the answer comes back automatically, almost without thinking, why? 00:19:58.599 --> 00:20:00.599 To his men. 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:10.599 Judas had departed by now to do his dirty work, and so was the Savior and his eleven true believers, those true men who loved him. 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:13.599 It was to those men that he said, 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:16.599 you must love one another. 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:25.599 And that may not seem too significant to you, but look at them again. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:31.599 Among those eleven men were some very real differences. 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:36.599 On the one hand, you had Peter, a leader. 00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:40.599 Peter, who never had an unexpressed thought. 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:45.599 Some have said, and perhaps a little too callously, he had hoof and mouth disease. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.599 The time he opened his mouth, he stuck his hoof in it. 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:50.599 Something along that line. 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:55.599 We would label Peter, and I think rightly so, an extrovert. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:00.599 He was a man who, when he had a thought, he had an opinion, he had a feeling, he said it. 00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:03.599 Everybody knew where Peter stood. 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:10.599 But in that same group, on another side of that table, sat a Nathaniel. 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:17.599 And about all we ever know or see of Nathaniel was that we see him sitting under a tree reading a book. 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:23.599 Kind of a quiet, intellectual type. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.599 I guess we could call him an introvert. 00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:35.599 There were very real personality differences in that little band of men. 00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:40.599 There was the extrovert on the one hand and the introvert on the other. 00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:47.599 And sometimes those personality types tend to rub each other the wrong way. 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:51.599 The introvert can say, oh, you know, he's always got an opinion. 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:53.599 He's always talking. 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.599 I get so tired of hearing his opinions. 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:01.599 And the extrovert can turn right around and say, you know, I wish he'd say something. 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:04.599 I'd like to know if he has an opinion. 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:09.599 Instead of being a spineless weakling, why not say something? 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:25.599 It was to that kind of a group, a group composed of personality differences, that the Savior said, you must love one another. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:29.599 I look again at those men sitting around that table. 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:35.599 Perhaps I should say more accurately reclining around that table because that's what they did. 00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:40.599 And I see that there were some very real social differences. 00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:44.599 Some of those men owned their own business. 00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:55.599 John's family was apparently a very well-to-do family, not only a partnership in a fishing business, but also a home up in the northern part of the country. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:02.599 And when we get later into the Gospels, we find that John and his family have their own home in Jerusalem. 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:07.599 They own their own business and have two homes. 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:11.599 Obviously, not all of those disciples had that kind of wealth. 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:18.599 Is it not interesting that the Savior turned to a group in which there were social differences? 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:20.599 There were the haves and the have-nots. 00:23:20.599 --> 00:23:26.599 Those who had all kinds of money and stocks and bonds and wealth and had never to worry about money. 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:28.599 And those who had very little. 00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:39.599 And he said, now listen, that thing which will overcome those social, cultural differences between you is love. 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:49.599 I look again at those disciples and I realize there were sectional or geographical differences between them. 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:56.599 You cannot read through the Gospels and understand them until you begin to realize that there was a group of Jews up in the north, 00:23:56.599 --> 00:24:00.599 the Galilean Jews, who cooperated with the Romans. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:03.599 The Roman army was stationed there and their headquarters were there. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:08.599 And those Jews cooperated and made money off of those Romans. 00:24:08.599 --> 00:24:18.599 Whereas down in the south, around Jerusalem, there were those who couldn't stand the Romans, 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:22.599 who didn't have-and had nothing to do with the Galilean Jews. 00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:25.599 The Judean Jews were the Orthodox. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:32.599 That's where the Pharisee, that's where those who clung tenaciously to the law, they had nothing to do. 00:24:32.599 --> 00:24:37.599 They had no use for those folks in the north. 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:42.599 It was as though there was a spiritual Mason-Dixon line. 00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:44.599 There were the northerners. 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:47.599 And there were the southerners. 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:52.599 The Lord Jesus said to that kind of a group, 00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:57.599 it's love that will help you to cross that border. 00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:02.599 I look again at that group. 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:15.599 And although I didn't read it tonight, we know from Luke 22, that they just plainly had a problem with carnality. 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:24.599 For on this very night, the night that our Savior had planned out and He was just ready to share some important truths with them, 00:25:24.599 --> 00:25:27.599 do you know what was going on among that group? 00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:33.599 There was an undercurrent going on between them, a little running argument. 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:38.599 It had started way back in the early days of their association with each other, 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:42.599 and somehow they had never quite resolved it. 00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:49.599 Luke 22 tells us that they were vying to see which of them could be the greatest. 00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:51.599 Who was going to have the crown? 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:53.599 Who was going to be the leader? 00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:56.599 Who would have the limelight? 00:25:56.599 --> 00:26:05.599 On the very night that the Savior was about to be betrayed. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:07.599 Carnality. 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:10.599 A desire for glory. 00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:14.599 A desire for prominence. 00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:25.599 A carnal struggling to be in people's view and to be appreciated for all that you are or think you are. 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:32.599 It was to that carnal group the Lord Jesus said, 00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:44.599 Now look, that element which will glue and bind you together is love. 00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:49.599 You must love one another. 00:26:49.599 --> 00:27:00.599 Sometimes we look at those disciples and we think of them as some kind of super saint, superhuman men who had no flaws, they had no weaknesses, they had nothing like we do. 00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:07.599 And so we write off our own excuses, you know, and say, well, it doesn't really matter, they were way up there and we'll never attain. 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:09.599 No, no. 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:18.599 Our Savior saw in that group all of the seeds of division. 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:30.599 And my beloved friends, there is in every one of our churches that same kind of seed bed. 00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:34.599 That same kind of potential. 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:45.599 Those personality differences, those cultural differences, and all of the other things that I've mentioned, they are in every one of our churches. 00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:56.599 And apart from the glue of a common love, Jesus speaking. 00:27:56.599 --> 00:28:02.599 And in the final analysis, we have to say, He was speaking to us. 00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:07.599 He was speaking to us. 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:14.599 The second question, which may seem to be a little easier, I hope so. 00:28:14.599 --> 00:28:17.599 What did He say? 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:21.599 Or, what did He mean? 00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:25.599 Now, if I read the verses again, He says, 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:31.599 that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:33.599 And at the end of verse 35, 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:38.599 by this all men shall know you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:43.599 You can say, well, He was saying that we ought to love one another. 00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:45.599 That's what He said, and that's what He meant. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:47.599 We ought to love one another. 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:48.599 And you're right. 00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:51.599 But what does that mean? 00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:58.599 What does it mean to love one another? 00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:04.599 That's a very difficult word to define. 00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:11.599 Now, if you're in junior high school, seventh grade, eighth grade or so, 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:17.599 you already know what love is. 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:22.599 The parents and other adults have forgotten. 00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:24.599 But you know. 00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:30.599 To the junior high school person, and perhaps to many others, 00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:36.599 love is an ishy, guishy, ooey, gooey feeling that overtakes you. 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:42.599 Essentially all emotional gush. 00:29:42.599 --> 00:29:45.599 Now, they would never admit that. 00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:53.599 There comes a time in life where the young man comes to his dad and says, 00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:56.599 Daddy, how do you tie a tie? 00:29:58.599 --> 00:30:00.599 And is my hair straight? 00:30:02.599 --> 00:30:05.599 And my shoes need to be polished. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:07.599 And his dad says, 00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:08.599 Uh-oh. 00:30:08.599 --> 00:30:11.599 Did the right boy come home? 00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:13.599 Et cetera. 00:30:16.599 --> 00:30:20.599 And that junior high boy slicks himself up and he just looks like the cat's meow, 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:22.599 and he comes to church. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:25.599 And out of the corner of his eye, 00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:28.599 he watches the door. 00:30:28.599 --> 00:30:32.599 Now, he would never want you to know that he's watching the door. 00:30:32.599 --> 00:30:36.599 It is a very sophisticated, sly look. 00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:40.599 Just a little, furtive little glance over there. 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:43.599 And the door swings open and somebody walks in. 00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:44.599 It's not the right person. 00:30:44.599 --> 00:30:46.599 And another family comes in, you know. 00:30:46.599 --> 00:30:48.599 And he's just very nonchalant about the whole thing. 00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:52.599 And then all of a sudden, in she walks. 00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:56.599 And right here. 00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:00.599 Right there. 00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:01.599 And his heart kind of goes, 00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:06.599 And he skips a beat and he takes a hard swallow. 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:09.599 I must be in love. 00:31:12.599 --> 00:31:14.599 Do not misunderstand me. 00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:18.599 I think there is a time for that kind of love. 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:22.599 There is a time to be ishy, guishy, and ooey gooey. 00:31:24.599 --> 00:31:29.599 But that is not what the Savior is referring to here. 00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:36.599 To love one another boiled down to its simplest definition. 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:40.599 A definition that did not originate with me, 00:31:40.599 --> 00:31:41.599 therefore I can say it's a good one, 00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:43.599 is this. 00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:46.599 To love one another simply means 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:49.599 to deliberately seek 00:31:50.599 --> 00:31:52.599 the highest good 00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:56.599 of the other person. 00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:00.599 To seek deliberately 00:32:02.599 --> 00:32:03.599 the highest good 00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:07.599 of the other person. 00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:12.599 Now that's what the Savior referred to when he said, 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:14.599 You are to love one another 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:18.599 just as I have loved you. 00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:21.599 How did he love me? 00:32:22.599 --> 00:32:24.599 He sought my highest good. 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:29.599 Not because of my beauty or what he saw in me. 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:33.599 Not because of some potential service that he might get out of me. 00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:36.599 Not because of anything he might get back. 00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:40.599 But he sought my highest good. 00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:42.599 Period. 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:46.599 And he did it at great personal cost. 00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:51.599 We spoke of that love this morning. 00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:52.599 In the same way, 00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:53.599 after that same pattern, 00:32:54.599 --> 00:32:57.599 you and I are to love one another. 00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:03.599 We are to seek the highest good of other persons. 00:33:03.599 --> 00:33:07.599 Even at great personal cost to ourselves. 00:33:08.599 --> 00:33:11.599 Our Savior laid aside his rights. 00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:15.599 He laid aside his prerogatives. 00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:18.599 He laid aside his own wishes. 00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:20.599 And at great pain and at great cost, 00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:23.599 with a deliberateness to it all, 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:28.599 He sought my and your highest good. 00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:29.599 00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:32.599 you turn right around and you love like that. 00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:34.599 That's what he meant. 00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:40.599 Now it does help me to understand that 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:43.599 with a couple of illustrations. 00:33:44.599 --> 00:33:48.599 We are told to love the Lord. 00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:53.599 We are told that the husband is to love his wife. 00:33:54.599 --> 00:33:58.599 We are told in the Bible that we are to love one another. 00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:02.599 We are told that we are to love our neighbor. 00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:05.599 And we are told that we are to love our enemies. 00:34:06.599 --> 00:34:07.599 I noticed on your church paper, 00:34:08.599 --> 00:34:09.599 love your enemies. 00:34:10.599 --> 00:34:12.599 Five different objects of that love. 00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:17.599 But all the same word in the original text. 00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:18.599 Love God, etc. 00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:20.599 Even our enemies. 00:34:21.599 --> 00:34:22.599 Seek their highest good. 00:34:23.599 --> 00:34:27.599 So I'm going to draw an illustration from one of those five areas 00:34:28.599 --> 00:34:29.599 because we are talking about the same kind of love. 00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:32.599 The husband and his wife. 00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:35.599 00:34:36.599 --> 00:34:40.599 we are to love our wives 00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:43.599 seeking their highest good 00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:47.599 as Christ loved us. 00:34:48.599 --> 00:34:50.599 You have a good imagination. 00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:52.599 Pretend with me. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:56.599 This is not a church auditorium now and it's not Sunday. 00:34:57.599 --> 00:34:59.599 It is Monday night. 00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:05.599 It is five to nine. 00:35:06.599 --> 00:35:13.599 The National Football League strike is over. 00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:18.599 And the husband who has waited for weeks 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:22.599 for this thing to get back going again 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:26.599 is fine tuning his TV. 00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:29.599 The color is just right. 00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:30.599 The sound is just right. 00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:32.599 The children are in bed. 00:35:32.599 --> 00:35:39.599 He has a glass of coke on one side and he has got his potato chips over here. 00:35:40.599 --> 00:35:45.599 The chair is just perfectly positioned, you know, and his heart is kind of going... 00:35:46.599 --> 00:35:50.599 I can hardly wait to hear Cosell's voice again. 00:35:51.599 --> 00:35:53.599 Some other such thing. 00:35:54.599 --> 00:35:59.599 And the nine o'clock strikes, you know, and there's that familiar music. 00:36:00.599 --> 00:36:04.599 And you see the guy kick the football and all this introduction business, you know. 00:36:04.599 --> 00:36:13.599 And they're introducing the teams and you can hear the crowd and see them at 80, 90,000 people anxiously waiting for that kickoff. 00:36:14.599 --> 00:36:17.599 And just about the time they're all ready to go. 00:36:18.599 --> 00:36:20.599 In walks his wife. 00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:23.599 And she says, 00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:25.599 Honey, 00:36:26.599 --> 00:36:29.599 I was in the middle of making brownies. 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:35.599 And I realize that I'm out of margarine. 00:36:36.599 --> 00:36:42.599 Would you run up to the store at the corner and get some margarine? 00:36:43.599 --> 00:36:46.599 And the husband says, 00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:52.599 Well, I run up to the corner to get margarine at this moment. 00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:55.599 Now you say, that's an extreme example. 00:36:56.599 --> 00:37:00.599 No life in her right mind would ever do that. 00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:05.599 Or some such response. 00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:11.599 But the question is not, what should that husband do? 00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:17.599 The question is, what would love do? 00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:21.599 You say, that's a pretty big personal cost. 00:37:22.599 --> 00:37:24.599 I might miss five minutes. 00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:35.599 But we are to seek her highest good at great personal cost. 00:37:36.599 --> 00:37:39.599 Or a similar thing in the same area. 00:37:39.599 --> 00:37:47.599 What do you do, men, when your wife comes to you late in the afternoon or early evening and she says to you, 00:37:48.599 --> 00:37:50.599 Honey, let's go shopping. 00:37:51.599 --> 00:37:52.599 You say to her, 00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:55.599 Shopping! Alright, let's go shopping! 00:37:56.599 --> 00:37:57.599 Is that what you do? 00:37:57.599 --> 00:37:59.599 I'll get the car. I'll get my coat. You get the kids, you know. 00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:02.599 I'll back it up. Be ready. We're gonna go shopping. 00:38:03.599 --> 00:38:04.599 Don't forget the checkbook, etc. 00:38:04.599 --> 00:38:10.599 Is that your response when she says, let's go shopping? 00:38:14.599 --> 00:38:15.599 Mine neither. 00:38:18.599 --> 00:38:19.599 Shopping. Where are you gonna go shopping? 00:38:20.599 --> 00:38:21.599 Oh, we're gonna go to the mall. 00:38:22.599 --> 00:38:22.599 00:38:23.599 --> 00:38:25.599 Funny thing about shopping at the mall. 00:38:25.599 --> 00:38:27.599 I walk in the door. 00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:29.599 And I'm tired. 00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:32.599 Instantly tired. 00:38:32.599 --> 00:38:34.599 My legs, my knees, lower back. 00:38:35.599 --> 00:38:36.599 I kind of go around like this, you know. 00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:40.599 Oh, how long? How many more stores are there? 00:38:41.599 --> 00:38:41.599 00:38:44.599 --> 00:38:47.599 Best part about shopping at the mall are those benches in the middle. 00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:48.599 Those are for the men. 00:38:49.599 --> 00:38:50.599 All shopping. 00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:56.599 I don't say this in a careless way. 00:38:56.599 --> 00:38:58.599 I don't say this to fault anyone. 00:38:59.599 --> 00:39:00.599 But I do believe it is true. 00:39:01.599 --> 00:39:04.599 I believe that women shop differently than men. 00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:06.599 I think they do. 00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:09.599 And I'm not gonna say which one is right or wrong, 00:39:10.599 --> 00:39:12.599 but maybe there's a happy balance somewhere. 00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:15.599 There's a difference between the way I shop and the way my wife shops. 00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:17.599 She can go into a store, 00:39:18.599 --> 00:39:20.599 look at all the little knick-knacks and things, 00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:24.599 and look at them and check the price and all the color. 00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:26.599 Wouldn't Aunt Susie really like that? 00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:28.599 That would make a wonderful gift. 00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:31.599 And after whether there are five or ten minutes of looking and thinking 00:39:32.599 --> 00:39:36.599 and evaluating all of the wonderful things about that article, 00:39:37.599 --> 00:39:40.599 she can set it down and walk away and say, 00:39:40.599 --> 00:39:41.599 Aren't you gonna get... 00:39:41.599 --> 00:39:42.599 No, I had no intention of getting it. 00:39:42.599 --> 00:39:47.599 When I shop, I pull up to the store, 00:39:48.599 --> 00:39:50.599 get out of my car, shut the door, 00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:52.599 walk into the store and say, 00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:53.599 Where is it? 00:39:54.599 --> 00:39:57.599 I go, I get it, I take it to the cash register, 00:39:58.599 --> 00:39:59.599 how much is it? 00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:00.599 I pay for it, I put it in the bag, 00:40:01.599 --> 00:40:03.599 I walk out, I go to my car, I shut the door, 00:40:03.599 --> 00:40:04.599 and I have shopped. 00:40:04.599 --> 00:40:05.599 And that's it. 00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:09.599 You say, you're nuts, you're crazy, you're a nutty man, etc. 00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:10.599 I may be. 00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:12.599 But here's the point of all this. 00:40:12.599 --> 00:40:13.599 There is a point. 00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:26.599 If I love my wife, there will be times when I lay aside my own desires, 00:40:26.599 --> 00:40:31.599 and I do what she wants. 00:40:31.599 --> 00:40:46.599 And if we love one another, there will be times when we lay aside in a deliberate fashion what we want, our preferences, 00:40:46.599 --> 00:40:56.599 for the good of the group, for the good of one another. 00:40:56.599 --> 00:41:01.599 That's what Jesus meant. 00:41:01.599 --> 00:41:02.599 Why? 00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:06.599 Why did Jesus say this? 00:41:06.599 --> 00:41:09.599 Why select love? 00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:15.599 Out of all the character traits and all of the possible things He could have said, 00:41:16.599 --> 00:41:17.599 why love? 00:41:19.599 --> 00:41:21.599 He answers that in verse 35. 00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:25.599 Incidentally, and this is really an incidentally, 00:41:26.599 --> 00:41:28.599 you check out the commands of the New Testament, 00:41:28.599 --> 00:41:33.599 and more times than not, they are given with some kind of a rationale. 00:41:34.599 --> 00:41:36.599 Some kind of a reason. 00:41:36.599 --> 00:41:41.599 Not just a blind command given that we are just simply mindlessly to obey. 00:41:42.599 --> 00:41:43.599 But there is a reason given. 00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:45.599 There's a reason here. 00:41:46.599 --> 00:41:47.599 Why, Lord? 00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:49.599 Why are you making such a big thing of this? 00:41:50.599 --> 00:41:51.599 Verse 35. 00:41:51.599 --> 00:41:59.599 By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, 00:42:00.599 --> 00:42:04.599 if you have love one to another. 00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:10.599 By this character trait, by this quality in your group, 00:42:11.599 --> 00:42:15.599 here is the badge of true Christianity. 00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:24.599 Here is that identifying mark by which the average person on the street can walk into this church 00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:30.599 and sense these people really are disciples of Christ. 00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:37.599 Regardless of the tag, the denominational tag on the door or on the church sign or wherever it may be. 00:42:37.599 --> 00:42:38.599 By this. 00:42:38.599 --> 00:42:39.599 By this. 00:42:40.599 --> 00:42:43.599 And in the honesty of my heart I ask, why? 00:42:44.599 --> 00:42:45.599 Why love? 00:42:46.599 --> 00:42:48.599 Why didn't the Lord say clothing? 00:42:49.599 --> 00:42:51.599 By the way you dress. 00:42:52.599 --> 00:42:54.599 Oh, you dress one way or the other, brightly or plainly, 00:42:55.599 --> 00:42:56.599 longly or shortly. 00:42:57.599 --> 00:43:00.599 Why not some kind of an external clothing standard? 00:43:01.599 --> 00:43:02.599 By this shall all men know. 00:43:02.599 --> 00:43:03.599 Why didn't he say doctrine? 00:43:04.599 --> 00:43:06.599 Why didn't he say doctrine? 00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:12.599 Get all of your theological T's just right and your I's dotted just so. 00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:17.599 Get that statement or standard of belief, get it just right. 00:43:18.599 --> 00:43:21.599 By this shall all men know. 00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:23.599 Why didn't he say that? 00:43:24.599 --> 00:43:25.599 Isn't doctrine important? 00:43:28.599 --> 00:43:29.599 Obviously it is. 00:43:29.599 --> 00:43:36.599 But he cut through any external and any intellectual thing 00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:40.599 and he got right down literally to the heart of the matter 00:43:41.599 --> 00:43:45.599 and he said, hey, here's the thing that will set you apart in this world. 00:43:46.599 --> 00:43:48.599 Love one another. 00:43:50.599 --> 00:43:52.599 It's that testimony. 00:43:52.599 --> 00:43:55.599 It's the way the folks in Columbus, 00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:59.599 it's the way the people on your streets who know of the Maranatha Baptist Church, 00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:01.599 it is that, 00:44:02.599 --> 00:44:09.599 that will be the clinching argument for all of your doctrine and all of your practice. 00:44:10.599 --> 00:44:11.599 By this they'll know. 00:44:12.599 --> 00:44:15.599 Let's remember too, it's a cold, mean world out there. 00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:21.599 You go out into the shops and into the offices and you find people like dogs, 00:44:22.599 --> 00:44:26.599 dog eating dog, climbing and clambering over one another to make the top, 00:44:27.599 --> 00:44:28.599 not caring who they hurt. 00:44:28.599 --> 00:44:35.599 But it should not be so in the local church. 00:44:36.599 --> 00:44:49.599 Because people as they come into your services can sense these people are really Christ's. 00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:52.599 I guess the little song says it pretty well. 00:44:53.599 --> 00:45:00.599 They will know we are Christians by our love. 00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:07.599 God help us to love one another. 00:45:08.599 --> 00:45:10.599 Father, we thank you for your word. 00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:25.599 May this principle of love become as important in our minds as it was in the mind of our Savior, 00:45:26.599 --> 00:45:29.599 as he gave it on that occasion. 00:45:29.599 --> 00:45:41.599 And may there be in this group a heartfelt affection for one another. 00:45:43.599 --> 00:45:46.599 We thank you for the challenge of your word. 00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:51.599 May we rise to that ideal. 00:45:52.599 --> 00:45:54.599 We ask it in Jesus name. 00:45:55.599 --> 00:45:56.599 Amen. 00:45:56.599 --> 00:45:58.599 Hymn number 328. 00:46:01.599 --> 00:46:06.599 I was interested in the song leader's comment about trying to find songs in the hymnal 00:46:07.599 --> 00:46:08.599 that talk about love between brethren. 00:46:08.599 --> 00:46:09.599 And that is true. 00:46:09.599 --> 00:46:11.599 It's very difficult to find that kind of a song. 00:46:13.599 --> 00:46:18.599 But I think you will agree with me that hymn 328 comes close. 00:46:20.599 --> 00:46:21.599 It's a familiar hymn. 00:46:22.599 --> 00:46:24.599 It gives us a high ideal. 00:46:24.599 --> 00:46:28.599 I hope these words are true between you. 00:46:29.599 --> 00:46:34.599 We're going to sing all four short verses and then we shall be dismissed. 00:46:35.599 --> 00:46:45.599 Make them a verse of challenge and prayer that your lives will live up to and match the ideal given us here. 00:46:45.599 --> 00:46:48.599 Let's stand please. 00:46:51.599 --> 00:46:55.599 Watch those words now singing all four verses. 00:46:55.599 --> 00:46:57.599 A