Morning, brothers and sisters. Let’s have another word of prayer. Good to see you back.
Lord, we do come with very worshipful hearts. When we think that the very King of the universe has invited us into His presence—not just for a temporary visit, but to live there eternally, to dwell there—we bless You.
Lord, You have brought us into a oneness in Your presence. We thank You that, as the loving King of kings and Lord of lords, You continue to speak to us. Today we bow our knees and bow our hearts before You, with hearts willing to hear Your Word, hearts hungry to seek You, and hearts satisfied with You alone.
We commit our time into Your hands, in Your precious name. Amen.
I’d like for us to turn this morning to 1 John 3. I’d like to read verses 16 through 18.
These verses came to me recently as a matter of personal conviction. The Lord speaks things to us, and as He speaks to us, we take them back to Him so that He can teach us.
We’ll be touching this morning on loving not only in word, but in deed. Whenever we touch the love of God, our initial response is to sit down, because who can touch it?
I’ve been considering this because I see how much I need this verse to become real within my own life. So some of this morning is more of a personal testimony and a desire within my own heart: that I would not only know about the Lord and express it in word, but that the very love of Christ would capture my heart in such a way that I would love not only in word, but in deed.
I really believe that is probably the prayer of all our hearts. We find ourselves in this day with many things pulling upon us. We find ourselves so easily drawn away from the practice of the presence of the King.
It is wonderful to be in the presence of the King, but there is also a practice and a response to His life as we are there. May we not merely be hearers, but doers of the Word. May the Lord really open all our hearts to hear this morning.
We read in 1 John 3:16-18:
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
As I was meditating upon these verses, a corresponding verse in Hebrews 10 came to my heart: how, as we are together, the Lord encourages us in a very specific way to stimulate one another.
Hebrews 10:24 says:
Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
Let us consider how to truly stimulate one another. One of the precious things we have within the body of Christ, into which we have been born, is relationships. We have one another.
Quite often, as we walk through this life alone, we have a tendency to just plod on, not really go anywhere, and fall into doldrums. But praise God, we have been brought into the body. We have been brought into His house. We have been brought into relationships.
We are encouraged here to learn how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Again, it is not merely to love, but that love would be expressed in our lives through good deeds.
This morning, I would like for us to fellowship together on this matter: What does it mean? What is this matter of love and good deeds? How do we really enter into that? We can see examples from Scripture, and next week, Lord willing, we can consider some of the keys to doing those good deeds.
Once the Lord has captured our hearts, once we are entering into this, how does it become expressed practically within our lives?
As we look back at 1 John 3:16, I want to clarify one thing when we are talking about this matter of love. Love is the very character and nature of God. We cannot define love, but we can describe it.
I have noticed that we tend to fall into two categories in our understanding of love, based upon our own temperaments and personalities. Some will immediately go to 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love endures all things. Love does not brag. Love does not fail. Love hopes all things.”
Praise God for that aspect of love. But love is such a multifaceted thing because it is God’s character; it is His very nature.
Do we also realize that Philippians 1 speaks of love growing in real knowledge and discernment? This love, this character of Christ, can discern between those things that are of Him and those that are not of Him.
Hebrews 12 tells us that love disciplines. When we think of love, is discipline at the top of our category? We would rather go back to love being kind and patient. Yet if we see the multifaceted fullness of God’s love, why does He discipline us? It is to train us as children and bring us into His very character and nature.
In John’s writings, he speaks much of love. In love there is truth. In love there is righteousness. In love there is holiness, because it all reflects Who He is.
The greatest display of this love was at Calvary, where our Lord demonstrated His love. We remembered it this morning at the table: we who were afar off have been brought near by the blood of the Lamb.
Brothers and sisters, it is as this Calvary work operates within our lives—as the cross works within our lives—that the love of God is manifested. As we lay down our lives for one another, as we say no to self and yes to Him, there is a great display of the love of Christ.
The love of Christ cannot be displayed in our lives without the working of the cross. Our natural love and natural affection can be displayed all day long, but that will fail.
If we really want to enter into expressing the love of Christ, there is no way His love can be expressed through our lives unless we are saying no to ourselves and yes to Him, and are willing to allow the cross to work within us to release that love.
Many of y’all remember Rob Saunders. Whoever met Rob could forget him? One of his sayings was, “There’s a life within us that is just yearning to burst forth.”
There is. There is a life of Christ within us that is yearning to burst forth and express itself. The key to unlocking that life, the key for that life to come forth, is the cross.
That is where we run into the problem: not being willing to say, “Not I, but Christ.”
The Lord, through the Apostle Paul, wants this love to be very practical. Look at Ephesians 5:1-2:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.
God the Father withheld not His own Son. Our Lord Jesus withheld nothing, but was completely offered up. If we are to walk in this love He calls us to walk in—to display that love in good deeds—we too are to be poured-out offerings.
Again, it brings us back to the foot of the cross for His life to really be expressed through us.
Now, as we are sharing today on walking in love not only in word but in good deeds, He does not say that words are unimportant. We are to show our love in words. Yes, words of love and encouragement should continue. The problem is not the words; the problem is when there are no corresponding good deeds.
The verse speaks of loving in deed and truth. I may not always use the word truth, but I want everyone to understand that love is truth. Love is Him. When we speak of walking and displaying the Lord’s love in word and deed, this is His very character and nature.
Since Jim introduced us to A. W. Tozer the last couple of weeks, I have a quote from Tozer. I keep wanting to say “Tozer,” like a good Southern boy, but I have been practicing saying “Tozer.”
In The Root of the Righteous, Tozer says:
There is an evil I have seen which in its effect upon the Christian may be more destructive than communism, humanism, and liberalism combined. It is the glaring disparity between truth and practice among professing Christians.
This was written fifty years ago. The glaring disparity is between the truth we believe, the truth we even speak with our mouths, and the practice of that truth within our lives.
This disunity of what was designed to be a unity does more damage to Christianity than anything else we can see coming against it.
We have to ask ourselves the question: We know that we are to be the testimony of our Lord and display His life, but when others see us individually or together, who do they see?
I have had to ask myself that question. Who do they see? Do they see the Lord, or do they see Mac? That is where the personal conviction comes in, because so often what is seen is Mac.
I have a desire in this day, as the days draw near, that more of Christ would be expressed, and that we could really enter into walking in love and in the worthy manner to which He has called us.
Let us first look at examples of how God demonstrated His love in word and deed. We will look at God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul, and then ask, “How about us?”
Romans 5:8 says:
But God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He did not ask us to straighten up first and then demonstrate His love. How often, when dealing with brothers and sisters, do we say, “Once they straighten out, then I’ll love them. Once they get a little better, once they improve, then I will be able to love them.”
Praise God, the love of God did not wait for us to straighten ourselves out—which is impossible anyway, even though we try so hard. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, what a precious love.
God the Father demonstrates His love. He does not merely issue a letter or proclamation saying, “I love you.” He demonstrates it. He sends the One most precious to His heart, His beloved Son, and allows Him to die for us.
We also read in 1 John 4:9:
Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
Again: word and deed. God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
There is one thing about our wonderful Lord: when He asks us to do something—when He calls us to love in word and deed—He never asks us to do something He has not already fully equipped us to do, and which He has not already done Himself.
God the Father has already done this, and He has equipped us in a marvelous way. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
We are created with a purpose. Yes, it is an eternal purpose, and that eternal purpose is worked out in reality through the daily activity of good works in our lives—daily responding to the love of Christ.
Even as we heard this morning about the bride making herself ready, how does the bride make herself ready? Through responding and doing those good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
He has this plan for us. He has this call upon us. He says, “I have done this, I have equipped you, and I want you to enter in and walk into the fullness.”
In case we have any doubt about His equipping, He reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:8. This is a verse we should all memorize. For some of us who are a little older, that is a challenge. But we should know this verse:
And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work.
When God does something, He does not do it partially or minimally. There is an abundance that comes forth from the life of Christ. He has equipped us. He is able to make all grace abound to us.
How do we enter into allowing that grace to be released? We come back to the cross again, saying, “Not my will; Thy will be done.”
His equipping is what we have been considering these last couple of months: Christ in us, and us in Christ. That is the equipping. Being in Christ and Christ in us. How precious that our God has equipped us to enter into this calling.
Next, if we look at the testimony of our Lord Jesus upon this earth, it is amazing and incredible to look through the Gospels. It is wonderful to read through the Gospels and see our Lord moving upon this earth, loving not only in word but in deed.
Everywhere He went, we see the power of His life going forth. We see His love being expressed. At the end of John 21, it says that if all the deeds He had done were written, all the books in the world could not contain everything He had done.
That is an amazing statement for a three-year public ministry. We know there was much more done throughout those hidden years.
As Jim said last week, Christ in us is not passive. Christ in us is very active. This life we have been brought into, and the life placed within us, desires to express itself. There is an activity about it.
Sometimes we can become so spiritually minded that, when we think about activity, we see it as a negative. We think of deeds and say, “Ooh, that’s the works of the flesh.” No. What we are speaking about is the life of Christ being expressed.
That is why Scripture speaks of good deeds. These are deeds that come from His heart and are expressed from His very heart and life within us.
Sometimes the greatest testimony of one’s life is not what they say about themselves. Even in the case of our Lord, there is a precious testimony of Who He was and what He did.
In Luke 24:19, after our Lord had risen, He came alongside disciples on the road to Emmaus. They said:
The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.
Mighty in deed and word. This was another testimony of what they saw in His life. They did not see Him merely as a giver of the Word, though He was that. Praise God. They also saw His life poured out.
What He believed, He lived, and He let it be expressed. In our Lord, as He walked upon this earth, we see the fullness of all that the Father had upon His heart coming forth.
When you read through the Gospels, you see that our Lord saw things and heard things. He was watching. He was looking. He knew what the Father was saying to Him.
It is precious to see the humanity of our Lord as He walked upon this earth, expressing that life. That is the same life we have within us.
In many ways, we do not believe that. We think, “Well, that was the Lord Jesus, but we do not really have His life within us.” Brothers and sisters, we really do. We really do have His life within us.
That is what we have been trying to share these last few months. That life wants to be expressed through us in a wonderful way.
We have examples in the New Testament, including the example of Paul’s life. As we look at Paul’s ministry, we see one who allowed the Lord to come in, touch him, and transform him so that Paul could testify, “For me to live is Christ.”
Paul was so able within himself, but he allowed all of that to go through the cross so that the Lord could use him and the other aspects of his life to bring forth the gospel throughout Asia and everywhere he went.
Paul understood that teaching and life were united. Word and deed went together. When the word was given, there was an assumed response, an assumed prompting to do and to be about our Father’s business.
Romans 15:18 says:
For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed.
Paul allowed the word to be worked within him. What he shared came out of life and experience. He knew the faithfulness of God. He knew the reality of the Word of God.
What he shared was not theory. It was not merely a poetic or beautiful little picture to encourage someone. It came out of his experience in life, with God dealing with him.
Even in Paul’s failures, God was able to come in. Paul could learn from that, go on, and testify of the wonderful Lord.
Paul also writes in Colossians 3:17:
And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
That is not just uttering the name. It is allowing the very name and authority of Who Christ is to capture our hearts, so that what comes forth is Christ’s life. We are under His authority, and that life is expressed in whatever we do in word or deed.
Finally, in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, Paul prays:
Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and stablish them in every good work and word.
In every good work and word into which we enter, God is there. He is there to strengthen us. He is there to comfort us.
Oftentimes, when we step out in faith to do something, we need strengthening. Then, after we have done it, we need comforting because we think, “I just made a fool of myself. Why did I do that? They totally rejected me.”
But did the rejection of Jesus’ love by the people He came to affect His ministry at all? No. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But did that impact His love for them?
When our love is rejected, when we reach out and someone slaps us in the face, calls us a fool, or we think we have done more harm than good, Paul’s prayer comes in: His love never fails.
We are called to be faithful. We are called to display this love in word and deed. God is there to comfort us and strengthen us so that we can go on in Him—not merely somehow, but triumphantly in Him.
At times, we make some pretty good mistakes. Maybe the source is not the Lord but ourselves. Yet we can learn from that. The only bad thing about a mistake is when we do not learn from it.
As we learn what is of the Lord and what is of ourselves, we are in the school of Christ. We are always learning. The school of Christ puts us in circumstances and situations that expose things in us.
Sometimes we can become paralyzed: “I’m not going to do anything. Maybe that is the natural man. Maybe that is self. I’m just going to sit here. God has to move. I’m afraid of doing something that might be of the flesh. I’m afraid that this is not God.”
Sometimes, hear what I am saying: I almost wish there had never been teaching on the dividing of soul and spirit, because in some ways it paralyzes people so much. Now, it is an essential truth, and we need it. It is simply when it is used the wrong way.
We can allow ourselves to become paralyzed because our eyes are looking in the wrong place. We are looking at ourselves: “Is this me? Is this me? Am I going to do this?” Instead of fixing our eyes upon the King.
When we fix our eyes upon the King, there is liberty and freedom in Him to go ahead. God gives us great liberty to make mistakes.
He knows our hearts far more than we know our hearts. He knows when our heart is to do good. Sometimes our hearts are to do evil, but that is another story and another sermon.
He knows when we are trying to do good and serve the brethren. It may come out all wrong, but we can learn. He is a loving heavenly Father who instructs us.
Do not be afraid, particularly, of making mistakes. Let us go forth and serve Him.
Now, do not take that to the extreme of neglecting all restraint or merely doing whatever you want to do. It must come out of a heart that desires to truly serve the brethren in a way that brings glory to Him.
We see this in Paul’s own testimony. Paul went from city to city and spent time with the brethren. It is precious how he conducted himself.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul says:
But we were gentle in the midst of you, as when a nurse cherisheth her own children.
That is a good verse for us brothers to learn. Paul was one of the greatest mothers in the New Testament. He displayed the tenderness of a mother’s heart.
Us brothers need to learn of Christ in order to display that tenderness and loving care. Paul had a tremendous mother’s heart for the brethren.
Then, in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, he says:
Even so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye had become very dear to us.
What a precious testimony. Paul was not merely going around preaching the gospel, though he was doing that. What reinforced the declaration of the gospel was that he gave his life to the brethren.
He was with the brethren. In Ephesus, he went publicly and from house to house, encouraging them. Paul was very given to the brethren. He was not a standoffish fellow.
He says in 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12:
For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe:
As ye know how we exhorted, and encouraged, and charged each one of you, as a father doth his own children,
To the end that ye should walk worthily of God, Who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory.
Paul loved those dear ones in Thessalonica not only in word but in deed. He allowed his life to be poured out.
When Paul called the elders from Ephesus together at Miletus before departing from them, he reminded them that he had declared the whole counsel of God. But what else did he give them? He gave his life.
He labored. He entered in with a servant heart, loving those in Ephesus, Colossae, Thessalonica, and the other places not only in word but in deed.
Then we come to the question: How about us? It is easy to look at the examples of others, but how do we enter into loving in word and deed?
First, we have to recognize what we read in 1 John 4:19:
We love, because He first loved us.
We need to recognize that it is from Him, not from us. We can only love because He first loved us.
Secondly, we need to recognize that we cannot love one another in ourselves. No matter how wonderful and smiley Herb is, and however much natural affection Herb and I have for one another, natural affection will wear out at some point.
It is only the love of Christ that keeps us going. We cannot love one another in ourselves, and there has to be a reality in facing that.
We often confuse natural affection for certain brethren with the love of Christ. We say, “Oh, look at that love.” No. There is a love of Christ that wants to be expressed through us.
That is what the Lord is after in this hour. This is one of the main lessons we learn in the school of Christ. He wants to teach us and show us the wonderful nature of this love.
He has placed us in this school, and each one of us has a personally designed curriculum. He is our personal trainer, working within us so that His love may be expressed and certain things may be dealt with.
Titus 3:14 says:
And let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.
Read through the book of Titus. There is great encouragement there concerning how we have been called to enter in and be zealous for good works. We are saved with a purpose, and this life is to be expressed.
We have to learn these things. There is a learning in the school of Christ concerning His character, His nature, and His way, which are totally contrary to our way.
Matthew 11:29 tells us:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
There is a learning. Every day we are upon this earth, we are in the school of Christ.
Our dear sister Anne Williams, in the battle of life she now has, is still in the school of Christ, learning Christ every day. We thank the Lord for that testimony.
One of my favorite books is Proverbs. In one way, you could overly simplify it by saying there are two characters in Proverbs: the fool and the wise man.
The difference between them is that the wise man is teachable. The fool refuses to learn. When he is chastised or reproved, he refuses to learn. The wise man, when he is chastised or reproved, learns something.
Would we be learners in the school of Christ, learning, “Not I, but Christ”? He will teach us. He will train us.
If we look back at 1 John 3:17, one of the verses we read at the beginning, He will train us and arrange our lives in such a way.
The verse begins, “Whoever has the world’s goods.” Again, He is not going to ask us to do something or give something we do not have. This is one who has something and has a way of meeting a particular need.
The verse continues: “and beholds his brother in need.” This word beholds is beyond merely seeing. It means to look carefully, to look with interest and purpose, to make a careful observation.
As we are with brothers and sisters, are we just glancing at one another when we have our meal after the meeting? Or are we looking at one another with a purpose, asking, “How can the love of Christ be shared with these ones?”
Are we having ears to hear as they express things they are going through in life? Are we having ears to hear and eyes to see what is going on? This is beholding.
There is a precious testimony in Acts 9:36 concerning Dorcas:
Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.
Dorcas means gazelle, or the eyes of the gazelle. Her testimony was that she was a disciple abounding with good deeds of kindness and charity, which she did.
Dorcas could notice when someone was hurting. She could notice when someone had a particular need. Maybe that person had not even said anything, but she observed because there was a knowing.
She not only observed it, but she did it. She was full of good deeds, kindness, and charity. I love that little phrase, “which she did.” There is almost a redundancy there, just to make the point clear to some of us who are hard of learning. She was not merely full of these things; she actually did them.
The Lord is calling us to enter into this. How we need to pray that the eyes of our hearts and our ears would be opened.
In a bondservant, the pierced ear meant that he had a hearing ear. May we also have eyes to see and ears to hear.
As people go through various crises and situations, often the Lord allows us to see certain things because He is calling us to respond. We can see someone who is hurting or in despair and say, “Oh, that is too bad. May the Lord send someone to really meet them.”
Well, maybe the Lord brought it to your heart because He wants you to be that vessel to show forth love not only in words, but in good deeds toward these dear brethren.
In Matthew 25:35-36, the Lord says:
For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in;
Naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.
These are very practical matters. There was companionship. There was a coming alongside in practical, real ways.
There are obviously spiritual aspects to these things—providing Christ and bringing Him in through the Word—but there was also the deed of coming alongside.
We see someone showing interest in another person for no apparent reason. Often, you may do something for someone without an apparent reason, but the love of Christ is drawing you.
The contrast is found in James 2:15-16:
If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food,
And one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?
That is loving in word but not in deed. Yes, we need to pray for people. But there is an assumption here that you have provision for caring for that person. God does not ask us to do something for which He has not already made provision.
There are many basic needs in life. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that people need food. People need their grass cut. People need errands run. People need their houses cleaned.
People go through crises, and life goes on. Would we have eyes to see and ears to hear—observing our brothers and sisters, beholding them, and then being available to the Lord?
I am not talking about running around helter-skelter trying to meet every need. The Lord says we will have the poor with us always. There is no way we can meet every need.
But the specific things God places before our hearts, the things He places in our hands—He is simply calling us to be faithful in those things.
We cannot meet every need out there, but there may be one need, one specific deed, to which God is calling us. Are we willing and open to doing that?
Another basic question we can ask ourselves is: How much do I do?
John mentioned that he was a CPA, and I am a CPA also. We actually used to work together. That is where I first met John. We were working at Peat Marwick.
The Lord brought us together about thirty-four years ago. We invited John and Sharon over for dinner one night after finding out they were Christians. That night, when they got there, the U-strap in the kitchen sink had just blown out.
They walked into our house, and the whole kitchen was covered with yuck. That was the start of a wonderful relationship.
But we are all accountants, consciously or unconsciously. We have a built-in calculator. We begin serving and think, “Okay, I have done enough service for today. Now I can go do something else.”
There is a built-in calculator with a little monitor tied to our conscience. Once we have done enough, our conscience becomes eased. We feel like we are good people now: “I have done enough. Look at all I have served. Look at all I have done. I need a little rest now.”
When you read about our Lord’s life in the Gospels, it says He became tired. It even says He was going somewhere to get some rest. But what happened? He was interrupted. He was inconvenienced, and He went in and cared for people.
Are we willing to be inconvenienced in this day and time for our brothers and sisters, so that His love can really be expressed?
Love, when it is expressed, does not calculate. Love does not count. At times, we are even unconscious of it.
Think back to Matthew 25. The Lord commended certain ones, saying, “You did this to Me, this to Me, this to Me.” And they said, “When? When did we do this to You?”
Their response was the response of love, and they were totally unconscious of it. Often, when the love of Christ is being expressed through us, there is an unconsciousness of self. Because we are unconscious of ourselves, there is greater freedom for His life to come forth.
Paul writes to the Thessalonians and commends them for their good works and labor of love. In 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, he says:
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.
What a commendation: their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Their labor of love cost them something. There was effort. They were pouring themselves out, and Paul commended them for it.
How does Paul follow up that commendation? In 1 Thessalonians 3:11-12, he prays:
Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way unto you:
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you.
He commended them for their labor of love, but his prayer was that it would increase and abound. Yes, love was being expressed, but do not settle there. Let love abound even more.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, he says:
Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more.
They were walking and pleasing God. But what did he say? That they would excel still more.
There is so much more of Christ for us to lay hold of. There is so much more of Christ’s love and life to be expressed. We can become satisfied with so little.
He recognizes what we have done, and He is thankful for it. But He says, “Continue on. Excel still more. Abound even more.”
Then in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, we read:
But concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another;
For indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more.
They had been taught by God and were practicing love toward all the brethren in Macedonia. Their love was not constrained to their local assembly; it was going out throughout the region.
Yet Paul said, “Excel still more.” We need this encouragement, because there is something in our natural self that says, “We have done enough.”
One reason we fall into that trap is because we measure love and service horizontally. We think, “I am doing more than that person. I am doing pretty good.”
But Who is our standard? Who is the plumb line? Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whenever we think we have done enough, whenever we think we do not need to excel still more, may our eyes be brought back to Him. When we see how He was constantly pouring Himself out, we recognize there is more.
As we get older and more tired, we have a tendency to settle down. We can look back upon our history, and praise God for the history and His faithfulness, but there is still much more.
That is a wonderful testimony and encouragement from Joshua. They entered the land, but in the end there was still much more land to be possessed. They never fully entered into all that they had.
They were in the Promised Land. They enjoyed the riches of a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet there was still much more that they never entered into.
There is much more today, brothers and sisters, that we are being called to enter into. In my own life, I get satisfied with so little. That is why I have been personally convicted about this matter.
How do we respond? The dear ones in Thessalonica responded. In 2 Thessalonians 1:3, Paul says:
We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, even as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth.
Paul encouraged them to excel still more, and praise God, they were teachable. They allowed God to teach them, because their love was growing greater and greater.
That is what He is looking for in us. How do we allow this love to increase? It always brings us back to the cross, allowing the truth we know to become reality within us—saying, “Not I, but Christ,” and, “Not my will, but Thy will.”
Tozer has another quote from The Root of the Righteous:
It appears that too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right, but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of being right. They profess great and undying love for the truth, but they will not let their love cost them anything.
We talk about our love for this and our love for that, but this is where the cross comes in. It brings us back to that point: Are we willing to lay down our lives? Are we willing not to love our lives unto death?
The cost of the cross is the greatest hindrance to allowing truth to become reality within us and to be expressed in love and good deeds.
May the Lord encourage us. He brings us to moments of the cross. As we have said, it will be inconvenient. It will cost us something.
For most of us, the most precious thing we have in the days in which we live is our time. It will cost us our time. It will cost us something, perhaps not monetarily.
Are we willing to go that way for the sake of the One Who first loved us and died for us, so that His life can really come forth and be expressed?
We know that in these last days there is a great danger of falling away and falling back. That is why, in Revelation 2, in the letter to the church in Ephesus, the Lord says, “I know thy works.”
The Lord saw all their deeds. He saw what was going on outwardly. But the deeds were no longer coming from a heart of first love.
What does He tell them to do? “Return, and do the first works.” Return and do what you did at first, when the Lord first captured your heart.
If you have time, look back at Acts 19 and see what happened when the word went out among those in Ephesus. They did not merely acquire the word; the word acquired them. It changed their lives.
They responded to the Word of God, and their lives were totally changed. They had been going in one direction, worshiping other gods and practicing divination.
They were willing to pay the cost. There was a great financial cost for those in Ephesus. They had all these books, and they burned them.
I imagine they could testify, just as Paul did, that they counted all those things as nothing for the surpassing greatness of knowing Him.
If you had talked to those in Ephesus in that first generation and said, “Wow, that was a great cost you paid,” they would have said, “What cost? It was nothing for Christ. Look at the cost He has made. Look at the price He has paid.”
They simply responded to His life, and their lives were changed.
The problem in Ephesus was that they were carrying on outwardly with their words, but their deeds were no longer coming from a heart of first love. Christ was no longer being seen.
He calls them back: “Do the first works.” Allow the love of God to capture you in such a way.
Would we be brought back in this hour to doing those deeds? When we think about our Christian lives, there was a point in time when we made a decision, turned, and went another way.
There have been different points in our lives when the Word of God and something concerning the Lord Jesus were revealed to us, and decisions in our lives were based upon that.
When was the last time that occurred in our lives? It is wonderful to testify that it happened thirty years ago, but has it happened today?
Have we made decisions in our lives today based upon the love of Christ constraining us and His desire for us?
That is where I find a very personal challenge and conviction. I want the Lord to work within me in that way.
In the end, we see the precious testimony in Revelation 12:11:
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
One of the key words in that verse is the little conjunction and. They are all related.
They overcame because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and because they did not love their lives even unto death. It is integrated. There is a oneness there.
There is a testimony of loving the Lord, of having our lives captured and displayed, so that we go through this life not only in word but in deed.
Too often, we can look at a verse like this and put “either/or” into it: “Well, I got two out of three. That is pretty good.” No. These things are joined together in a oneness.
Would the Lord work within us so that we may truly be students in the school of Christ, learning to love in word and deed?
As we think of next week, may we learn to stimulate one another to love and good works. May we recognize, as Peter testified, that His divine power has given us everything pertaining to life.
He has given us everything, and He simply calls us to respond, so that His life can burst forth from us and we can show forth His excellencies.
I would like for us to close with that hymn we sang at the beginning. It may have been a little new to some of us. In light of what we have been sharing, I would like for us to sing it again.
It is a precious hymn written by a dear brother. We can see how the love expressed there was lived out in word and deed.