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What Manner of Spirit Are You Of?
Introduction: 1. Love is the Assurance and Sure Evidence of a Saved Soul. 1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." 1 John 4:12-13, "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." 2. Love is the First Demonstration of the Saved Soul. Gal. 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith," 1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us." 3. Love is the very Foundation and Bond of Christian Character and Union. Eph. 3:17, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," Col. 2:2, "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love," 4. Love is the Path in which all True Christians Walk. Eph. 5:2, "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." --- V. 23, "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words:" 2 Cor. 5:14, "For the love of Christ constraineth us;" 5. Love is the Christian's Protection in Spiritual Warfare. 1 Thess. 5:8, "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." 6. Love is the Fulfillment of the Law. Rom. 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." --- V. 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Gal. 5:14, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Phil. 2:2, "Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." 7. Love is the Fullness and Completeness of our Christian Character --- by which we Become Like Our Heavenly Father 1 John 4:8. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John 4:17-19, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us." I. Love Is of Special Importance And Essential To The Christian Life. A. "Charity" or "Love" is more insisted on than any other virtue in the Christian life --- without it All Else Is Vain. 1. Speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 2. Have the gift of prophecy, 3. Understand all mysteries, 4, All knowledge; 5. Have all faith, 6. Bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 7. Give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. B. Love is that which Distinguishes True Christians From Others. 1. There is Nothing at all that avails anything Without love. 2. Let a man Have what he will, and Do what he will, it signifies Nothing without love --- it is Empty And Vain. 3. All Christian Virtues Are Summed Up In Christian Love. C. All performances or seeming virtues that are Without Love, are Unsound and Hypocritical --- Mere Entertainment. 1. There is No True Respect For God or Man in their actions. 2. Religion is Nothing Without Proper Respect For God --- all is in Vain. 3. Any Faith Without Love is as Dead as the body is without the soul --- All Service And Activities Must Be Forced. II. What Is The Nature of True Christian Love? A. All true Christian love is One And The Same in Principle and Motive. 1. The World may love from different principles and motives depending upon the object loved. 2. Truly Christian Love is Different from this. 3. Christian Love is Always from the Same Principle and Motive, no matter Where or to Whom it is directed. B. All Christian love is From The Spirit of God influencing our hearts. 1. Christian love come from the Same Spirit whether it is directed toward God or toward Man. 2. Christians are partakers of the Divine Nature and Christian Love is called the "Love of The Spirit." (Rom. 15:30; Col. 1:8) 3. It is the Spirit that Infuses God's Love To Us: Rom. 5:5, "... the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." 1 John 3:23-24, "... love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24 ... And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit (of love)which he hath given us." 1 John 4:12-13, "... If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit (of love)." C. Christian love, both to God and Man, is wrought in the heart by the Same Work of The Spirit. 1. There are Not Two Works of the Spirit of God: a. One to infuse a spirit of Love To God, b. Another to infuse a different spirit of Love To Man. 2. We should allow the Holy Spirit To Renew Our Heart by giving it a Divine Temperament. Eph. 4:23, "... be renewed in the spirit of your mind;" 3. Love To God Is The Foundation of Gracious Love To Men. D. True Christian Love will Grant Proper Respect to Both God and Man. 1. True Christians Need No Other Incentive, than Love, to show Respect To All Men. 2. Love for God will Lead a person to: a. Honor Him --- Acknowledge His greatness and glory and dominion, b. Worship and Adore Him, Exalt Him above all, c. Acts of obedience in Obeying Him, d. Show Gratitude to Him --- Praise Him for His mercies we received, e. Be Submission to His will --- Acknowledge God's right to govern and walk Humbly before Him. 3. Love for God will Also Lead us to: a. Show Gratitude for any kindness we receive from our fellow man, b. Fulfill all our Duties Towards Our Neighbor. Rom. 13:10. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour:" c. Always Demonstrate Truth toward our neighbors --- never lying, fraud, or deceit. d. No one exercises fraud and treachery Toward Those They Love. e. You can Destroy Your Enemy By Loving and making a Friend out of him. 4. We will have Meekness and Gentleness toward our neighbors --- Calmness and Kindness. 5. True Christian Love will restrain everything like a bitter spirit --- Love Has No Bitterness In It. Gentle and Sweet Disposition. 6. We will practice Acts of Mercy to our neighbors. 7. Proverbs 10:12. "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." E. True Christian Love will cause us to Walk Humbly before Men, have High Thoughts of Others, and to Honor one another. 1. 1 Peter 2:17, "Honour all men." 2. Phil. 2:3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 3. Love will cause us to Give To The Poor --- Bear One Another's Burdens. 1 John 3:17, "But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Gal. 6:2-3, "Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." Prov. 19:17, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." Prov. 28:27, "He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse." F. Love will cause us to be Content Where God Has Placed Us, without Coveting or Envying. 1. Love will cause a Woman, not only to be content, but to be Excited About Being A Woman rather than Coveting Manhood. Many Women Are Bitter Against God ..... 2. Love will cause Citizens to be in subjection to those in authority over them. 3. Love will cause Those In Authority to rule justly, seriously, and faithfully, seeking the good of those under their authority. 4. Love will cause Children to be obedient to their parents and their parents not to neglect their children. 5. Love will cause Employees to be obedient to their employers and their Employers to exercise gentleness and goodness toward their employees. G. True Christian Love is the Sum Total of All the Laws and all the Duties and Virtue required in God's Word. Rom. 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." --- V. 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." 1 Tim. 1:5, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:" Matt.22:37-40, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." III. True Faith Is That Which Produces Good Works --- Which Are Produced By Love. A. True Love is the most Essential and Distinguishing ingredient in a True And Living Faith. 1. Love is the very Life and the Active Working Spirit of a true Faith. 2. Faith Works By Love --- (Gal. 5:6) B. 1 Cor. 13:13, "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Cor. 13:7, "(Love) ... believeth all things, hopeth all things, ..." Love is the Foundation of Faith --- and Hope 1 Thess. 5:8, "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." Now notice what Paul says in: Eph. 6:14, "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;" 1. Why does 1 Thess. 5:8 refer to the Breastplate as "Faith" and "Love" but in Eph. 6:14 it is referred to as "Righteousness"? 2. Remember we are commanded to "Walk In Love" but then Christ says, "If a man love me, he will keep my words:" 3. "Faith" and "Love" are Action Words which results in Righteous Works. 1 Thess. 1:3, "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope " 4. Faith Without Works is no better than the Faith of Devils. Believing while they Tremble ..... C. All Christian Activities of the heart and life are From Love. 1. All Christian Holiness begins with faith in Jesus Christ. 2. All Christian Obedience is called the obedience of faith. Rom. 16:25, "... my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, ..... 26 ... is ... made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:" Back in 15:18, "... to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed," Gal. 2:20, "... the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, ..." IV. Let's Examine Ourselves, And See If We Have The Spirit of Christ --- Love. A. From love to God Springs Love To Man. 1 John 5:1, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 1 John 3:14-19, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him." 1 John 4:20-21, "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 hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." B. God's Kingdom is one of Love and Peace --- Not A Revengeful Spirit. Luke 9:54-55, "And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." John 17:20-21, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." C. Love is the Sum and Substance of the True Christian Experience. 1. Divine Knowledge and divine Love go together. 2. A spiritual view of divine things always Excites Love In The Soul. 3. Christians do not rejoice in themselves, but it is God Who Is Their Exceeding Rich Joy. 4. There is the Spirit of Christ --- the Pleasantness of a Christian life. D. Christianity And Contention Cannot Live Together. 1. James 3:16, "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." 2. When Contention comes into a place, it seems to Prevent God's blessings and all good things. 3. Christianity Cannot Flourish In A Time of Strife And Contention Among Its People. E. Christians should keep a watch and guard against Envy and Malice, and every kind of Bitterness of Spirit. 1. These things are the very Reverse of The Real Essence of Christianity. 2. We should: a. Suppress the first beginnings of ill-will and bitterness and envy. b. Watch strictly against all occasions of such a spirit. c. Strive and Fight to the utmost against such a temper. d. Avoid, as much as possible, all temptations that may lead to it. e. Keep A Strong Guard against everything that tends to overthrow or corrupt or undermine a spirit of love. 3. That Which Hinders Love To Men, Will Hinder The Exercise of Love To God. 4. An envious, malicious, cold and hard-hearted Christian, is The Greatest Absurdity And Contradiction. F. Christianity strongly requires us to Love Our Enemies, Even The Worst of Them. Matthew 5:44, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" G. Those who profess to be Christians should Live In The Spirit of Love, and Abound In The Works of Love. 1. What Deeds of Love Have You Done Lately? 2. The Principle of Love is the main Principle in the heart of a real Christian. 3. The Labor of Love is the main Business of the Christian life. 1 John 3:18-19, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him."
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