Please turn your Bibles to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2, beginning at verse 40 of Acts chapter 2. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. And those who gladly received his word were baptized. That day about 3,000 souls were added to them. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Well, let's again look to the Lord. Father, we are thankful that we can come to you confident that you are going to keep your promise, the promise of dwelling in the midst of your people. We are confident, Lord, that you will keep those promises of prayer you have said. Ask and we shall receive. Knock and the door shall be opened. Seek and we will find. And so, Lord, we take hold of those promises that you have given and even hold them up before you tonight and say, we trust with deep reverence, Lord, have you not said? Show us, Lord, that you indeed are the one who keeps his word. You cannot lie. And so we again make this our plea, that this would be a night in which we see more of your glory, have a better understanding of what your church should be, even what we should be as your church, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. This has not been an easy winter. ABC News reports that some hospitals in America have been overwhelmed with a number of people coming to the door, dehydrated from flu symptoms. There's been something of a health alarm across the country. And you can understand why people get scared. Some have even died. No one wants to be sick and end up in a hospital. But what about your spiritual health? That's important, too. When the Bible talks about the body, it doesn't just refer to the physical body and to physical health, but to a spiritual body, the Church of Jesus Christ. And there are several reasons why the apostle uses that image of the body. It really was his favorite image to speak of the church. But like the physical body, the church is vulnerable, susceptible to disease, sickness, and even death. That explains why Paul talked a lot about having a good spiritual diet. He would write to Timothy and speak of wholesome words or healthy words, 1 Timothy 6, verse 3. Again, in that second letter to Timothy, he says, make this a matter of concern, he says, hold fast the pattern of sound words or healthy doctrine. So certainly pastors, elders, church leaders are responsible to teach doctrine that is healthy, accurate, faithful, wholesome. That word that Paul uses that's often translated in our English Bible, sound doctrine, is a medical term. It could be translated healthy doctrine. And again, the church is likened to a body. and your body is to be strong and healthy. If it is to be strong and healthy, it needs to eat the right things. I should also say this, not only are leaders, pastors, elders responsible for the health of the church, but so are you. Everybody is. We're all responsible. Don't forget when Paul wrote to the churches, He reminded them that they were responsible. He tells the church as a whole to hold fast to the truth. When the Galatian church had begun to let go of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, he warns the whole church. I marvel, he says, that you, plural, are turning away from the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Oh, you foolish Galatians! Everyone's responsible for the gospel. We're responsible for each other. That's why you have all of those one another commandments in our Bible. You are your brother's keeper. So we need to ask the question, what is a healthy church? If we are all responsible to be healthy or have a healthy church, Then what is a healthy church? Well, we've been asking that question for several Lord's Days. We began by giving this answer. A healthy church will be biblically regulated or word-centered. God's word must govern our thinking, our feeling, our doing. The church will be committed to a healthy, balanced diet of preaching and teaching. Preach the word, as says Paul to Timothy. Second, we said this, a healthy church will be a gospel-centered, or it will have a Christ-centered climate. in a book by Dr. or Pastor Mark Dever. I'm sure some of you have been exposed to Mark Dever, but he has a book titled The Nine Marks of a Church. Well, he changed the title to A Healthy Church. And he says, in terms of one of the marks of a church, he says, a healthy church is a church in which every member, young and old, mature and immature, unites around the wonderful good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. A biblical understanding of the good news should inform every sermon, every act of baptism and communion, every song, every prayer, every conversation. More than anything else in the church, the members of a church long to know the gospel more deeply. So a healthy church will be gospel-centered. Thirdly, we said that a healthy church will be God-centered, theocentric. And we said that means we will covet the presence of God, we will continually conform to the character of God, and we will ultimately aim for the glory of God. The fourth mark of a healthy church, and again, you could preach a series, anybody could preach a series and have different marks, but these are some of the marks that I do think we could clearly argue from the word of God, but the fourth mark or fourth sign of a healthy church, we said, is commitment. And we use Acts chapter 2 to anchor that principle. Here you have the first snapshot of the early church. It's a living, breathing church with real people. And notice that the first description we have in verse 42 is that they continued steadfastly. Literally means to be strong towards, to be firm, to persevere. One translation has, they were continually devoted themselves, and even that word captures something of the emotional climate. There was a high level of enthusiasm and excitement in the church. But a healthy church is a devoted church, just like a good marriage or a healthy marriage has a devoted husband or a devoted wife. So a church will be marked or distinguished by devotion. But notice that when the apostle or when Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, gives greater definition as to what they will be devoted to, notice what he says. First of all, in verse 42, he says they will be devoted to the apostle's doctrine. not to a music program, not to a children's program. Apostles' doctrine, the teaching and preaching of the word. But notice, he goes on to say something else about their commitment or devotion. The members of the church were to devote themselves to fellowship. He says that in verse 44. They were to be together, verse 46, regularly having meals. What does that tell us? Well, it tells us that, this much does it not, that the relationship there in the early church, here in the book of Acts, was much more than a casual one, or a superficial one. But they were significantly involved in the lives of each other. And so tonight, here's what I want us to consider. This is the main point of the sermon. A healthy church is concerned and cares for its members. To put more simply, a healthy church loves. This probably is one of the easiest, simplest things to prove in the Bible, that a church loves. And yet I think we always need to be reminded of it because it's one of the easiest things to neglect. The huge subject And so really, you can't do it justice in one sermon. But here's how I want us to approach it tonight. First of all, using the terminology, love for the brethren. If we are a church that loves, love for the brethren, we have to recognize is foundational. Secondly, love for the brethren is spiritual. and then love for one another or for the brethren is functional. You could put the word practical. First of all, then, love for the brethren is foundational. And again, the subject, love, is a big, big subject. In fact, it's very difficult sometimes to grasp or to wrap your mind around because it is just that huge. It permeates everything. God is love. It gives us the doctrine of God. It helps us understand who God is. When we think of salvation, we think of love, for God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son. So it's a big, big doctrine, the doctrine of love, and one has a hard time to know exactly where to begin. It's interesting that John Newton, some of us I'm sure are familiar with him, he wrote that, him Amazing Grace, but he was a pastor for 27 years in a town called Olney. and before he even began his ministry, he studied his Bible to see what are the main things. What are the things that I need to preach over and over again? And John Newton came up with three great doctrines, three Mount Everest doctrines that he believed must be emphasized in his long-term ministry. What were they? was the gospel of Jesus Christ. That has to be emphasized. Secondly, he said, the doctrine of living a holy life. And thirdly, love for the brethren. I'm sure everybody would agree with number one, right? Gospel. Number two, well, yeah, the holy life, that's pretty big, but what about loving one another? I'm not sure if we would put that right up at the top, would we? Is that a Mount Everest doctrine? Well, let's do a little mountain climbing and see if we can see for ourselves. So turn, if you will, to Romans chapter 12. We're going to look at several passages tonight in a rather cursory fashion, I'm afraid. But turn to Romans 12, and you know that Romans 12 is sort of a big dividing point here in the gospel of Romans. The first 11 chapters are full of what is called gospel indicatives. Paul tells us what God has done for us. But when he moves to the back end of the epistle, and he does this in most of his epistles, Dr. Ferguson calls it the grammar, the gospel grammar of the New Testament. He begins with indicatives, telling us what God has done, but as he moves to the back end of those epistles, he tells us what we must do. And so they're full of imperatives. Command. But notice how he roots them in what God has done. Romans 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable servants. He's going to call these Christians to a holy life. And whenever the Apostle Paul calls the church to live a holy life, to live in light of the gospel, of Jesus Christ. He always, almost always, maybe he always does it. I say almost because I haven't checked through all the passages or all the New Testament epistles written by Paul, but it seems that almost always he talks about love. Love for the brethren. If you're going to live a holy life, you have to love the brethren. Notice verse 10 of Romans 12. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. It's that word where you get the city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. This is where the word that he uses here comes from. He also uses another word for love here. It's the Greek word storge, translated kindly affectionate, deeply devoted to one another. But he's talking here about a special distinctive kind of love, a Philadelphia love, a brotherly love. It's another way in which this love is emphasized in the New Testament is that you have the word Beloved. And Paul again often used that word, so did the Apostle Peter when Paul wrote Romans the first very first chapter, verse seven, to the saints in Rome, he says, beloved of God, you're loved of God, but he could also write to the Philippians, Philippians four, and say, therefore, my beloved, God loves you, you're his beloved, and I love you, my beloved. Have you ever thought of Brethren, as your beloved? If you've ever heard Pastor Gary Hendricks preach, some of you I'm sure have, he always uses the word beloved. It's a good word. Instead of saying brethren, my beloved. My beloved. Paul believed that the church was not only loved by God, but loved by Him, but they also loved one another. Certainly we see its foundation was in it to church life, and another way in which we see this is by all those one another commandments. I don't know exactly how many there are, there must be close to a hundred of them, but a lot of them are carved out with the word love. I'll simply rattle off some of them. We'll start with Jesus, in fact. Go back to John chapter 13, the Upper Room Discourse. Jesus uses the word love in that Upper Room Discourse 30 times. 30 times He talks about God's love for Him. He talks about His love for God. He talks about God's love for us, He talks about His love for His disciples, but He also talks about their love for one another. Jesus really sets the pattern, as you would expect, when it comes to love. No one loved like Jesus. And here in John 13, verse 34, a new commandment, I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. You turn over to chapter 15, verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. Pretty clear that Jesus wanted us to understand this duty or this mandate to love one another. And the apostles, it seems that they simply take the baton of love and they continue to run with it. And so you find in all of the epistles this one another commandment, but again carved out with this word love. You could turn to Romans 12 again, where he begins again mentioning this matter of brotherly love, but in verse 9 of Romans 12, he tells these Christians, let love be without hypocrisy. Some translations have love sincerely. In other words, be real. I don't want this to be a fake kind of love, a counterfeit kind of love. I want it to be the real thing. Now, you don't have one another love commandments in the book to the Corinthians, but you do have a lot of information or a delineation with respect to love. First Corinthians 13, I'm sure All of you have thought of that passage, you might turn there, because this gives us a better understanding of brotherly love, the very expensive treatment of the concept. And remember why it's here. It's not here because the Corinthians were doing such a great job. They weren't. They were doing a very poor job. It wasn't a very healthy church. And because they really did lack in love. The Corinthian church was hemorrhaging in a bad way. It was losing its very lifeblood. And it needed a transfusion of truth and love. And it's almost like 1 Corinthians 13 here is sort of like Paul hooking them up to an IV of love. He's hoping to pump some of the love back into their shriveled-up hearts and minds. And here he sets forth love, he begins by underscoring its superiority, then he gives some of the characteristics of love, and then in the very last part of this chapter he mentions the permanence of love. Notice how he begins, he underscores the importance of love in a sort of a shocking way. He compares love to a series of impressive performances or achievements. Verse 1, if I could speak with the tongues of men and angels, but if I have not love, I am what? Like sounding brass or clanging cymbal. He goes on to say, I could be a very gifted theologian. I could have a gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge. That sounds pretty impressive. But without love? I mean, you could be a John Kelvin. Without love? amounts of nothing. I could have a faith that I could move mountains without a love of nothing. I could engage in self-sacrificing charity to the poor, but again, if it's done without love, you might get a few handshakes, you might get your name in the newspaper, but as far as God is concerned, it doesn't count a nickel. impressive religious achievements and attainments, spectacular gifts, but totally useless, worthless, says Paul, without love. And then he goes on to give thirteen verbs to describe love. It tells us what it does not do and then what it does do. It has been called a Christian hymn. It's one of those hymns that we would do well to play over again and again in our minds, because it's easy to forget. And it has both high notes here and low notes. The low notes are minor key. It's a love that does not envy. It does not parade itself. It's not puffed up. It's a love that does not behave itself rudely or unseemly. It doesn't seek its own. It thinks no evil. It's a love that does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth. It's a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I wonder how many of the Corinthians were looking to hide under pews when the Apostle Paul read this, or when it was read in their hearing. It's sort of like Paul comes like the Good Samaritan to a church that's wounded, a lot of bleeding. And like the Good Samaritan, he comes with bandages and oil and wine of love. 1 Corinthians 13 is a great remedy for wounded and broken and crushed people. If you're going to minister to people and be like the Lord Jesus, this is a text of Scripture that we all need to get a hold of. And when we forget it, brethren, we're like sounding brass, clanging cymbals, a lot of noise, but without love. When you read 1 Corinthians 13, it almost makes you want to drop on your knees and begin to pray, Lord, have I ever loved like that? Lord, help me to love that. Help me to incarnate the love of Jesus more in my relationships with my brethren. But as you know, 1 Corinthians 13 isn't all that Paul says about love. He goes on to talk more about love. If you turn to Galatians, go to the back end of Galatians, he gets again into some very nitty-gritty issues of church life. We could say he sharpens the sword and cuts a swath for the Galatians. And remember that the Galatian church was also suffering from a lot of infighting. He mentions that in verse 15 of Galatians 5. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. Doesn't sound like a very friendly church, does it? What's happening? Well, again, they're not breathing in the pure oxygen of God's truth and the truth of the gospel in God's love. And so, again, he sets before them this whole matter of loving one another. Verse 13, at the very back end of that verse, but through love serve one another. And then verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Turn to the book of Ephesians. Again, we're simply showing that it's so foundational to church life and practice. When you come to Ephesians, again, the first few early chapters, he deals with God's love, Christ's love for us, but then he gets to the back end and he starts talking about our love for one another. Notice chapter 5, verse 2, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us. into the book of Philippians, the very next book of the Bible. Again, one of the healthiest churches. It wasn't a perfect church, but it was certainly a church that brought much joy to the heart of the Apostle Paul. But even with the Philippian church, Paul doesn't want them to relax or coast when it comes to this whole matter of love. No, he tells them, I want you to abound in love more and more. And in Philippians 2, verse 2, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord for one another. What about the church of Colossus? Turn over to Colossians. Is there any church where the mandate of love is not given some profile? No, I can't find any church. Colossians 3, verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Verse 14, But above all these things put on love. Above all things. On top of the all things. put on love. What about the Thessalonians? 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 9. Again, it seems that he's commending them here. Verse 9 of 1 Thessalonians 4. But concerning brotherly love, there's that word again, Philadelphia. You have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another from one perspective to doing a great job. But again, he presses them to go higher and higher if you look back at chapter 3, verse 12 of 1 Thessalonians. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all. What about the book of Hebrews? We don't know who wrote it, but it's obvious that he, too, understood the importance of love. Hebrews 10, verse 24, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You find the same emphasis in those other letters and epistles written by Peter, written by John, 1 Peter 4 aid, and above all things have fervent love for one another. John, who's often been called the Apostle of Love, uses the jackhammer of sorts for the job to impress this upon us. He uses the word love 40 times. Doesn't sound like it's a minor issue. He talks about God's love for us, our love for God, but 1 John 3.23, love one another. 1 John 4.7, love one another. 2 John 5, love one another. You get it? One of the, someone said, the three hours of learning, repeat, repeat, repeat. A lot of repetition. But John Newton was right, wasn't he? He was right. This is a dominant theme in the Word of God. It's essential, but it's also foundational to church life and practice. You really can't claim to be a Christian if you don't have love. It's a distinguishing mark of a Christian. as a distinguishing mark of a church. A church has to have love, some measure of love. Even the Corinthian church, as bad as they were, had some measure of love. But we should have more than just a little love. We should be abounding in love. A healthy church is loving. A church, if it's growing in the best sort of way, the church experts and the church growth experts today, they put a great emphasis on numerical growth. Well, Paul puts a great emphasis on growth, but it's Growing in love. Growing in love. We're considering this matter of love. We're looking at some of the mountain peaks. We've looked at the first one. Brotherly love is foundational. We find it permeates all of the epistles and letters. Secondly, brotherly love is spiritual. You would think that everybody would know what love is. After all, it's probably a word that we hear so often. It's a word that's frequently put on the airwaves. You hear people singing about love. Everybody seems to talk about love. We desire love. But the word love is sort of thrown around today like a cheap plastic Frisbee. Anybody can throw a Frisbee, I think. But not anybody can love. At least not in the way that we're talking about. This isn't the kind of love that you hear people say, well, I love that football team or I love that pepperoni pizza. This is a different kind of love. This is a deep kind of love. We can say this about the love we're talking about. It's a spiritual love. It's not your ordinary love. It's a spiritual love. It's not the kind of love that grows in a damaged soil. You don't see this love in the workplace. You don't see this love on the soccer field. You don't see this love in those families. Now, true, all love comes ultimately from God, because God is love. But when God saves a sinner, He gives the sinner a special love. A special love for God, and a special love for the family of God. Let me show you a text of Scripture that makes that abundantly clear. Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 where Paul discusses or begins to open up this whole matter of what God gives us in Christ in terms of the graces that he deposits in our lives. Here in Galatians chapter 5, he puts love, along with several other graces, under the image of fruit. Galatians 5 verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit. So he's talking here about fruit. Think of a fruit tree. Think of an apple. Think of an orange. It's not something you make. You buy it, perhaps, but you don't bring it into existence. No, that fruit comes into existence by powerful dynamics. It starts off as a small seed, but there's life and power in that seed that you have nothing to do with it. You simply plant the seed. You might water the seed, but you can't cause it to grow. That seed has life. God put life into that seed. Well, it's the same with the Christian. When God saves a child of God or saves a sinner, He deposits or He implants in his heart grace. And he plants the grace of faith, the grace of repentance, and the grace of love, and many other graces. It's sort of like the first man Adam. When God made Adam, he breathed life into him. When God makes a new man in Christ Jesus, he breathes into him life, spiritual life. But like fruit, we don't manufacture it. You can't, again, buy this. It can't be cultivated. I think that's another reason why he puts this image of fruit. Fruit can grow and love can grow. He wanted the Thessalonians' love to grow. He wanted the Philippians' love to grow. Dr. Warfield says this about Christian love. It has the power of expansion. When you're growing in love, you'll find yourself looking more and more outside of yourself to other people. The more we love, the more we reach out, the more involved we become in other people's lives. In the case of brotherly love, we will become more involved in the lives of our Christian brethren. Here's a kind of a reality check. Sometimes we need to stand back and ask the question, am I growing in grace? Let me ask you, are you growing in your love for people? Are there more people involved in your life today than ten years ago? Or less? Fair question. Fair question? If it's a growing love. It should be expanding. Your relationship should be getting deeper and there should be more people that you're reaching out to. This love grows. It's the fruit of the Spirit. Again, look at the text. But the fruit of the Spirit is in the very first grace that he Highlights here is love, something that Paul may have been looking at love sort of like the engine of a locomotive train, that love pulls all these other graces along, joy and peace and longsuffering and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. If you don't have love, if it's not growing, if it's not working, then all of these other graces aren't going to be working. This is spiritual love. We aren't capable of it. We can't love like this, apart from the grace of God. Again, our friend John Newton has written a number of letters. Maybe you have the book titled The Letters of John Newton. He makes a clear distinction between what he calls spiritual love and natural love. We can love our wives, or love our friends, or love our relatives. But he said, don't make the mistake of equating the two. This is a spiritual love. It's not natural affection. A healthy church loves. That's so clear, is it not? From our Bibles. Mountain Peak, number one. This love is foundational. Mountain Peak, number two. This love is spiritual. But now, thirdly and finally, This love is functional. It operates. And let me say right off here in the beginning that love is sort of a multitasking grace. I think all of those one another commandments really come under the canopy of love. They're expressions of love. Praying for one another. Why do you do that? Because you love them. hospitality, that's a manifestation of love. All of those one-another commandments are really a delineation or a practical working of the great commandment to love one another. But the first thing we can say about this love in terms of how it functions, we could say that it's an all-inclusive love, or it has universal application. We are to love the brethren. It doesn't say love some of the brethren, or a few of the brethren, or the brethren that really like me. No, we are to love all the brethren. When Jesus tells his disciples, love one another, there wasn't a church in existence. He was thinking of the broadest sense of the word, to love your brethren, to love all Christians. John Newton, again, was quite an example, I picked up that biography by John Piper again, read certain sections of it, but John Newton had a friendship that went beyond a small circle of friends. William Wilberforce was John Newton's friend. Charles Simeon was John Newton's friend. Henry Martin was John Newton's friend. William Carey, George Winfield, and John Wesley. Now, if you know Wesleyan Whitfield, you know they're pretty different in terms of a theological perspective and even personality, but Newton was friends with both of them. And Newton wasn't shallow in terms of his understanding of the Bible. He was a man who aligned himself with what is often called Calvinistic soteriology, but his love went beyond his Calvinistic friend. Dr. Piper describes Newton's Calvinism like sugar in his tea. I don't know if you've met some Calvinists who don't seem to have much sugar. They become more angular, opinionated, proud, censorious. Calvinism hasn't made them sweeter. Well, John Newton's Calvinism was like sugar in his tea. And again, you read the letters of John Newton and you see that, but he warns of what he calls a party spirit, where only we embrace those of the same sentiment, those who worship the same way or those who like the same minister. The Corinthians were like that, weren't they? I'm of Apollos, and I'm of Paul, and I'm of Peter. They had a party spirit. What Newton is saying, if we really understand what Jesus teaches and what we read in our Bibles about loving the brethren, we will have an expansive, an all-inclusive kind of love. We will love people that go beyond what we hold as dear, and we can hold them as dear, but we will go beyond what we believe in terms of the doctrines of grace. We will love people who don't even know anything about the 1689. We will love Pentecostal Christians. We will love Charismatic Christians. We will love Presbyterian Christians. We will love Methodist Christians. We will love Dispensational Christians. We will love Pale Baptist Christians. We will love all Christians. That's the kind of love that we are to have. But when Paul was speaking to these churches about love, he was really thinking more of local church situations, love within the particular family of God. And here again, we are to love all the brethren. That's implied when Paul says greet everyone with with a holy kiss. There shouldn't be anybody sitting on a church pew who has united themselves with Christ and united themselves to the church by way of covenant and baptism that you shouldn't love. It's an all-inclusive love. But secondly, and I do believe this is the most important thing we can say about love, brotherly love, Brotherly love is gracious. 1 Peter 4.8, I think, is the text that clearly sets this whole matter forth. 1 Peter 4.8, and above all things have fervent love for one another. So it's one of those one another commandments. For love will cover, look what he says, a multitude of sins. When he tells us here, Peter talks about love. He sort of tells us it ain't always going to be easy. One of the things that makes it very difficult to love is sin. We would love everybody if everybody was perfect like us. But that's not the case, right? We rub shoulders with sinners. We're all sinners. But how do you respond? Well, there's two ways to respond. And you can either respond in a very critical, censorious way. You can do what Jesus says in Matthew 7, where you go after the speck in your brother's eye. Or you can do what Peter says here. You can cover. You can cover. It's the language of forgiveness. And I do think Dr. MacArthur is right when he uses this text to argue there is both a conditional and an unconditional way of forgiveness. There are some sins that we simply just can't forgive, at least not until they are dealt with. That's why you have a Matthew 18 in your Bible. Some sins need to be confronted. But there are other sins that are not of that nature. And what do you do with them? Well, you don't take a magnifying glass and go hunting after them. Peter says you use a blanket, and you throw it on them. You cover them. Notice again, he doesn't say a few sins. It's the seventy times seven. He never forgot that. How many times do I have to forgive, Lord? Seven? Seventy times seven? Why, it's a multitude of sins. Let me say, if you're part of a church for any length of time, you better count on this. You're going to sin, and you're going to be sinned against. You're going to be sinned against. And when you're sinned against, you have a choice. You can pull out the magnifying glass, or you can make one of those blankets. Have you ever thought of your brother or sister's sin in this way? That when they sin against you, you have a wonderful opportunity to forgive, to show love. But again, you can have a scorecard and you can rehearse to them what they did to you in some great specificity. You said, you remember what you said to me? It was the day after my birthday. And we were sitting on that, no, it was the red sofa in our living room. And you said, you do not like my parents. And I've never forgotten that. I mean, we can do that, can't we? And we rehearse. First of all, we do it in our minds a hundred times over, and then we finally get the guts to go to them and say, well, this is what you did, and this is why I'm angry with them. But Peter says, that's not how I want you to operate. I want you to be covering sin. I want you to show that kind of love. Does that mean when that person says something mean or nasty and you throw a blanket on it, yeah? Does that mean when you've invited them over for hospitality ten times and they've never invited you, you throw a blanket over that if there's an element of insensitivity, yeah? Have you babysat their children five different times and they've never ever even said thank you? Love doesn't behave that way, that's unseen way. Well, yeah, cover it. And when you want to know why you cover it, you just simply point a finger at God and say, this is what he does for me. He covers all my sin. You don't know how many sins that God's covered. Do you think you've confessed every sin specifically? God's done an awful lot of covering with us, hasn't he? But brethren, the more we sin, and we will sin, we have opportunity to show love by covering a multitude of sins. Love, how does it function? Well, it's a universal kind of love. It's all-inclusive. It's gracious. It readily, eagerly applies gospel forgiveness. But something else we need to say about love The love for the brethren, it's a verbal love. The Bible says we are to love in word and in deed. Not just in word, but in deed. sort of take that and say, well, yeah, we've got to be loving in ways that everybody sees. James mentions that. If you have faith and it doesn't have words, if you see a brother or sister who's naked and destitute of food, and you say simply, depart in peace and be warm, that's not, that's really not loving them. You have to love in deed, not just in word, but doesn't mean you don't love in word. Some of us grew up, let's be honest, in homes where mom and dad didn't say love. I can't remember. I love my mom and dad, don't get me wrong, but they never told me. That's why you got so many problems. I never remember my dad saying, Gordon, I love you. No, I knew he loved me. I grew up in a great home. I really did. I think back and thank God for the home I grew up in. My mom and dad were great moms. My great mom and dad, they really were. A lot of common greats. I remember the one time I had enough guts to say to my mom, I love her. She was walking away from me at the airport, a Bible class. Mom, I love you. She didn't turn around. I said, she didn't hear me. Well, she wrote a letter later that week, got in the mail. I love you too. But it was hard for her to turn around and say to me, Gord, I love you. But we shouldn't be that reluctant to say that, should we? We should say to our children, we should say to our wives, our husbands, but what about the brethren? Can you say that to another man? I hope you can. I love you. We should be able to say that. to one another. We shouldn't have a silent kind of love. A love without words. God's a God of communication. God loves to speak. And He tells us, not only does Jesus die on a cross, but Jesus tells His disciples, I love you. And when Paul writes to those churches, he says, Beloved! Biblical love, brotherly love, will be verbal. universal, gracious, something else about love. I stole this idea from someone else, but it really makes sense. It has a visual dimension to it. Why do you want to go to heaven? Well, I hope the major reason you want to go to heaven is to see Jesus. Not just to hear Jesus, but to see him. I want to know what color hair he has. What does life look like? Wouldn't that be great? I thought they were blue. They are blue. I want to see his smile. You want to see him face to face. And the Bible says we will not only be like him, but we will see him. We will see him. Whether he'll have scars on his hands, I don't know, but we're going to see him. There's something about love that wants to see. I don't think it would be a very happy place, would it? If the only way in heaven you could communicate with Jesus was by phone, email, texting? You want to see Him face to face. There is something about being human, an image bearer, having bodies, that makes us not only want to use our ears, but our eyes. We want to see Jesus Christ, and when Paul wrote to the churches. He let them know, I want to see you. Look what he says in First Thessalonians, Chapter 2. Turn there because it's found in Chapter 2 and also Chapter 3 of First Thessalonians. Remember, he'd been taken away and under the threat of persecution. So he hasn't seen these Thessalonian believers. Notice what he says in Chapter 2 of First Thessalonians. Chapter 2 of First Thessalonians. But we, verse 17, but we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face. I'm not content simply communicating by way of letter. I want to see your face. Again, look at verse 10 of the next chapter. Chapter 3, verse 10, night and day, praying exceedingly that we may see your face. You see, that's brotherly love. I want to see you. I want to have a look in your eyes. I don't simply communicate, again, by way of letter. I want a more full human experience and fellowship, and it involves a face-to-face encounter. That's why listening to sermons on the internet or live streaming isn't good enough. Right? That's why internet church won't survive. It won't. It's got a death seat in it. It's a fad. Because if you're a Christian, you want more than listen. You want to see. And that's why when some of you say, You haven't been here for two or three weeks, and you say, I've been sick, Pastor, but I feel like I've been gone for months. And it wasn't that you wanted to come here, Pastor Cook. Please, I want to see people. I want to see them. That's brotherly love. And then we can say one more thing. This is going to make everybody feel uncomfortable. I'll say the best for the last. There's a physical dimension to love. Grieve one another with a holy kiss. Four times in the Bible, so it's not there by mistake. He uses it twice when he's writing to the Corinthians, and I'm sure he did it because the Corinthians were walking out the door on Sunday without even saying hi to each other. And Paul says, that's not okay behavior. I don't want you to ignore one another. I want you to affectionately greet one another. Apparently, Jim Sebastio, when he was over there in Zambia, mentioned this, that over there in Zambia, when the preacher finishes preaching, he goes to the back of the door, and the first person who greets him, I don't know if it's an actual kiss, maybe just a good warm handshake, but he has to stand next to the preacher. And then the next person comes out. And he greets the preacher, and he greets the next person. And then he stands there. And then the third person does the same. The fourth, the fifth, the sixth. Now if you have two, three hundred people, it's going to be a long line. But I think our African brethren have caught something that we've missed. Well, I'm not going to practice this next week, but there's something missing. And I know the arguments. I've given them myself. Well, that's cultural. Well, I'm sure there is a cultural dimension to that, but I do think an argument could be made that your greeting of your brethren should go beyond your greeting of a man on the streets. And you don't simply give him a limp handshake. There's something that you should communicate to your brethren that goes beyond what you do in normal interaction with people at work or whatever. There's something sacred. It's called a holy kiss. It goes beyond the ordinary physical handshake. It's an expression of love. You see, love isn't afraid to show itself in some very tangible, affectionate way. A healthy church loves. May God help us, brethren, to implement brotherly love more eagerly, more fervently. I'm not suggesting there's a problem here, but we can always grow. We can always grow more and more. But a church can't survive without it. And Jesus lets us know that when a church is practicing love, that it really does have an evangelistic thrust to it. They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another. I'm sure there are people who come to church buildings and sit in church pews and who sit there maybe for the first time and maybe hearing a sermon for the first time. They don't get anything out of the sermon and they leave. But something struck them. What was it? What was it? Anything the preacher said? But it was the people in the pew. They showed a care, a love, that went beyond anything I've ever seen before. May God help us, brethren, to love one another. And let me say this, it's a costly love. You can't look at this kind of love and not say it's not going to cost you in any which way. It's sacrificial. It's not going to be easy. That's why we're told to stir ourselves up. says in first Corinthians 13, it's a love that endures all things. And when you get tired of your brother, your sister, when they appear to be too demanding, when you tend to get irritated and not put a blanket over their sin, just remember the Lord Jesus Christ and his love for you. That's how Paul argues often. He's loved you. Love them like he's loved you. He paid a price to love us. Think of just the sins you committed last week. And when you go to the throne of grace and you confess them, What does he do? He doesn't have a scorecard. He forgives you. He forgives you. May God help us, brethren, to love one another as Jesus has loved us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we again bless you and thank you for your Word. Help us, Lord, to Take hold of Your Word's teaching. Help us to implement what we've heard even tonight in our interaction with one another. Help our love to grow. Help it to be a more and more love. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.