Sermon 3/21/04 pm

Sermon, Let Brotherly Love Continue

We're winding up our study of the book of Hebrews. We've been going

through that book as the Hebrew tried to stem the tide of those who had

been converted to Christ, Jews, that is, and had been turning to back

to Judaism. We began by noting the theme of that book being summed up

in one word, word "better". The child of God under Christ has blessings

that those who lived and died under the law of Moses could only hope

for and look forward to one day when the Hope of Israel would come. We

noticed how the author began by pointing out that, "God, who at sundry

times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the

prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he

hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."

Heb. 1:1,2. We noticed how he proceeded to point out how that Christ

is superior to the angels, he is superior to Moses, his priesthood is

superior to that of the Levitical priesthood, and that the promises of

the new covenant were far superior to those under the law of Moses. We

then looked at the encouragement he gave them, that they might old fast

the profession of their faith and not go back into Judaism. He then,

there in chapter 11, gave us that great honour roll of faith, and

those men who demonstrated what faith involves, men like Noah being

warned of God and prepared an ark, men like Abraham who was called to

go out into a land which he should afterward receive for an inheritance,

obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went; by faith he

offered up Isaac; we looked at others, like the falling of the walls of

Jericho, how they fell WHEN the children of Israel had compassed them

about, and we looked at Rahab and others. Faith !!!! He encouraged

them to hold on to it. Last Sunday and this morning we look at some

sundry thoughts from the book of Hebrews, how the people were

encouraged to not drift away, how they were encouraged to run with

patience the race that was set before them.

Tonight we look at the 13th chapter, at verse 1, as we wind up this

study of the book of Hebrews. He began the chapter, "Let brotherly

love continue." I'm convinced that oftimes one of the biggest

hindrances the church has in the religious community of trying to get

them to believe we're serious about christianity is the failure to

display love toward one another. You know, most of the time when we

talk about unity and brotherly love, etc., I'm afraid a lot of times we

want to point that at the rest of the religious world. Do you realize,

however, that all that's said in the epistles of the New Testament with

respect to unity and brotherly love are all directed at the church?

They're not written to the world out there. The world is going to be

divided. It always has been - it always will be. But the Lord prayed

that HIS people, not the world, but HIS people being ONE. "Let

brotherly love continue." I'm also convinced that one of the reasons

we have a problem with that is that we don't really understand what

love is. We pick out some individual who doesn't act or live like we

think he should and we just can't get the idea that we can love that

person and at the same time not necessarily approve of what that person

is doing. Now you know, common sense ought to kick in somewhere along

the way. How many times have your children done things you didn't

approve of and you didn't like? Maybe sometimes you have to punish

them. Now you don't get any joy out of that, but you don't like what

they're doing, you don't like the way they're behaving. Oh, but you love

them. Husband and wives sometimes don't understand that concept too

well. Did you ever get frustraed with your mate? She ever do something

that sort of set you off, irritated you? I've heard a few fellows say

no, they never had a quarrel, never had an argument. I told them well

if they'd lie about that, they'd lie about anything, or perhaps they

hadn't been married but a few weeks. In so many other area of life we

understand that you can love somebody and not always like what they do,

not always agree with them, not always like the way they act. "Let

brotherly love continue."

We need to understand what love is. In the first place, love is not

some warm, mushy, gushy emotion. Young people especially, misunderstand

that concept. They get this warm, fuzzy feeling, or some sort of

feeling. It may be indigestion, I don't know. But anyhow, they're just

so in love they can't see or think. Well, that's not love. I'm not

sure what it is, but I know it isn't love. You see, about the only

real deep involved discussion we have on love is in the book of

I Corinthians, chapter 13. The only definition of love in the entire

Bible is 'God is love'. We don't grasp that !!! In I Corinthians 13,

as Paul talked about love, he began to say 'here's what love is'. He

didn't say 'here's the definition of love', but he said 'here is what

love does.' He began to list all these things, and sometimes we look

at that and 'man alive', listen to some of the things he said with

respect to love in I Corinthians 13. "..love suffers love, and is kind."

Well, what if the other person isn't loveable? What if the other person

is like a preacher-friend I had a few years ago used to say, is hard to

love? It doesn't matter. You see, one of the things we have to learn to

understand is this, you love NOT because of who the other person is,

or what the other person is, but because of who you are. If you don't

believe that, look at the definition in the Bible. 'God is love.' He

sure didn't love us because of who we are, or what we are. He loved

us because of who HE IS. Love is kind, it suffers long. It envies not,

it doesn't life itself up, isn't puffed up, doesn't behave itself

unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked. Then he said

it rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things,

believes all things, endures all things, hopes all things. Love doesn't

fail. Well, no wonder !!! You see, that's how we're supposed to act.

One of the real problems christians have and nearly everybody else I've

ever met is that we seem to try to justify our actions toward other

people based on what they do or don't do, rather than on who we are and

what we are. "Let brotherly love continue." Now if Paul be the author

of Hebrews, and I believe he is, that's interesting. Do you remember

when Paul and Barnabas went on their first missionary journey? They

took a young man with them named John Mark, but he didn't complete the

journey. He went back home. When it came time to make their next

journey, Barnabas, true to his nature, wanted to carry him again. Paul,

however, thought it not good to take with them John Mark, who went not

with them to the work, and that's exactly the way the scriptures express

it. Well, Paul must have been pretty angry with Barnabas. NO !!!!!

He just did not feel going to do the work they had to do at that

particular point in time, it would be wise to take John Mark with them.

But later Paul would write to Timothy and say, "...Take Mark, and bring

him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry." II Ti.4:11.

You see, it wasn't that Paul did not love John Mark, it was that at

that particular point in time he did not feel it best to carry him into

the field where they were going. You see, a lot of folks, in the first

place, would think Paul was just all angry with John Mark. No, he

wasn't. Paul's primary concern was the work he was doing. But there

would come a time when he would call for John Mark to be brought to him,

because of his profitableness. Now I believe one of the reason for that

was the work that Barnabas continued to do with John Mark, because you

remember, Paul chose Silas because he and Barnabas were at odds with

each other over taking John Mark. Paul chose Silas and Barnabas took

Mark and made another journey. Then you remember Barnabas and Paul

would have a little disagreement over that thing of circumcision. OH,

brethren are going to disagree, but even in that, we need to understand

that brotherly love should continue, in other words, continue to treat

each other as brothers, continue to act toward them the way a brother

is supposed to act as described in I Corinthians 13. "Let brotherly

love continue."

Now why do you suppose the Hebrew author would bring this up? After

all, he's trying to stem the tide of Jews going back into Judaism and

leaving christianity. Well, have you ever seen how members of the

church sometimes act toward those who fall away? "Well, good ridance."

No, that's not the way we should do it. You see, the author was

fearful. These were still brethren, even though they were turning back

toward Judaism. They were still brethren, and they needed to be

treated like brethren. They needed to be shown, maybe at that

particular point in their life more than any other time, that the

brethren really cared for them and that the brethren really did love

them. Therefore he said, "Let brotherly love continue." You know, the

whole idea there suggests that something has occurred, something that

is taking place that might cause that love to be fractured. "Let

brotherly love continue." Even in the face of the fact that some of

these brothers are leaving? Yes, they're still brothers - erring

brothers, yes, but still brothers. Therefore, we need to treat them

that way. I'm aware of many of the problems the brotherhood is facing

today, many of them doctrinal, some of them induced by preaching

brethren whom I, at one time, had great respect for their teaching.

I don't have that respect for that teaching anymore, I still love them

as brothers and I hope one day, and pray, that they will do an about

face and come back. If, however, I act toward them like the world

acts toward those it doesn't get along with, I don't stand much of a

chance at helping bring them back, but may push them a little further

off. I'm afraid sometimes that's what is happening. That doesn't mean

we condone the doctrine they teach. It's that old thing of hating the

sin, but loving the sinner. That's hard to learn. I think another

thing that would be quite evident when we begin to look at trying to

apply that principle is this - God didn't say christianity would be

the easiest thing in the world to practice. It demands of us that we

remold our lives, sometimes change the way we look at things, change

our attitude. That's not easy. Sometimes it's difficult, but at the

same time, it pays dividends. We call John the apostle of love, but

I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but you remember his

nickname, when the Lord called him to be an apostle. He didn't call

him an apostle of love then. He was nicknamed one of the sons of

thunder. Remember when he wanted the Lord to just call down fire from

heaven like Elijah did? He's the apostle we learned to call the apostle

of love. What happened? Well, the Lord reshaped his thinking. The

Lord reshaped his attitudes. Therefore, we find the apostle John

writing probably more about love than anybody else. I I John chapter

4, beginning about verse 20 he said, "If a man say, I love God, and

hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother

whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hah not seen? And this

commandment we have from him, That he who loveth God love his brother

also." I Jno. 4:20,21. Now that pretty strong language. That's

not NEAR ABOUT IT, that's IT. "Let brotherly love continue." It

involves what I like to call the maturing of a christian. I'm afraid

that sometimes we fail to realize with our brethren the same thing

that sometimes we fail to realize with our children. You know,

sometimes children have a hard time growing up. It takes them a while.

Just look at it. They come here, they're helpless, they can't do a

thing for themselves, you have to do everything for them, all they can

do is cry and make a mess and eat, and you have to help them to part of

that. Eventually, however, they begin to mature. But now, contrary to

what a lot of young people think about the time they hit fifteen or

sixteen years of age, they don't know it all yet. There are few

things they haven't picked up. I never will forget when I was in

college, just out of high school, I sometimes wondered how my father

could have made it as far as he did, not knowing any more than I thought

he knew. But I'll tell you something. After I got out of college,

got out on my own and had been married a few years, I don't know how

he got so smart and he didn't go back go school, either. I think some

things began to become evident. I was maturing a little bit. I was

learning maturity, both from a physical standpoint and an emotional

standpoint and a mental standpoint takes time, but it also takes time

for a christian. Christians have to grow and they must have time to

grow and they must have proper food, proper exercise and they must

have time to grow. I remember a congregation I was preaching in one

time. We had converted a man out of the denominational world and the

first things they wanted to do was put him up to teach the adult class.

Well, that's suicide for most of the members who have been there for

years. Usually they go into the auditorium class when they don't want

to go into any other class, because they don't want to study. Then

you going to throw this fellow up there who has just come out of the

denominational world and is just a babe in Christ and subject him to

all that???? NO, give him time to grow. As brother Cleon Lyles used

to say, "My brethren have as much sense as anybody else; they should,

they don't use it too much." We ought to have plenty in reserve.

But that's the point Paul was making. "Let brotherly love continue."

Love is doing what's right and what's best for the other person. It's

wiling his welfare and then acting in harmony with that. I'm convinced

that if that one verse were to be put into practice, it would have as

much to do with stemming the tide of those departing from the faith

as any other thing he had to say. They would learn who really was

concerned about their welfare. You see, one of the things that

happened in the early church, because of the circumstances in the world,

was this. So many times, when a person obeyed the gospel, particularly

out of Judaism, he was cut off from his family. He could't go back to

them because they treated him as though he were dead. I remember a

young lady we baptized when I was in college. Her family dis-inherited

her, told her they did not want her to ever come home again, they would

not have anything to do with her. See, most of the time today it

doesn't happen that way, at least in our part of the world. It does

in some other parts of the world, with some religions, but he doesn't

happen to us that way. We get so many attachments spread that, well

if this group doesn't like me I can go to this place, or that place.

That's not the way it's supposed to be. "Let brotherly love continue."

Powerful charge, powerful encouragement for those Hebrews. "Let

brotherly love continue." I'm convinced that we need that encouragement

today just as much as they did, because we need to grow, we need to

reach out to each other. You know, with the way the world's population

is going and with the trends that have developed in the church, we're

becoming smaller and smaller in an expanding world, numerically

speaking. We've got the best tools we've ever had to reach out to the

world and to each other, but the sad truth of the matter is, we're not

using them very effectively. "Let brotherly love continue." And let

me tell you something else. That needs to begin with "ME". Now I

might be able to look around and say "That person needs to hear that."

NO, I need to hear that; that's where it needs to start. If I would

act out of love toward those of my brothers and sisters that might go

a long way to having a positive influence on not only them, but on

those who see that. Remember this, you love because of who you are

and what you are. Christianity is as Paul explained in the Hebrew

letter, "better". There's no comparison to that old system, because

God promised 'their sins and iniquities I'll remember no more.' So

a better covenant established on better promises, sanctified by the

blood of Christ poured out on the cross offers redemption to mankind.

But there's something else it does. It not only cleanses one from past

sins when he obeys the gospel, but it also keeps on cleansing him.

John said "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have

fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son

cleanseth us (The King James Vesion says that's present tense. Present

tense in the Greek and English most of the time is a past action with

present and continuing benefits, so you could well translate it

"keeps on cleansing us from all sins.")