Love - the Heart of Christian Experience — Bill McLeod

Love Fulfills the Law

I want to take two verses in Romans 13, for text this morning, 8 and 10. Romans 13, 8 and 10. Verse 8 says, O no man anything but to love one another, for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. And then verse 10, love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

When Dwight L. Moody was close to the end of his earthly walk with God, he addressed a group of some hundreds of pastors, and among other things he said this, he said, Brethren, hold the churches to love.

This is where we have gone wrong. And he was right, and it's where we've gone wrong today. The churches need to be held to love. I personally think that love is the center, the very center, of the Christian life.

And without this our profession is meaningless. Absolutely meaningless. There are four great God is statements in the Bible. God is love, God is light, God is a spirit, and our God is a consuming fire.

Only one of them is given twice, 1 John 4, 8 and 16. That's the statement God is love. Supposing you went to visit a neighbor who had a, they just suffered a tragedy, three or four children killed in a car accident, something like this.

You waited until the funeral was over, your neighbor was not a Christian, and you felt it your duty to go there and try and console and help them, so you did finally. And after a bit you said, I just want you to understand that the Bible says that God is love.

And they might turn to you and say, well you sure can't prove it by my experience. What would you tell them then? Here's what you might tell them. God commends his love to us. He commends his love or offers as proof for his love.

This, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You might tell them that. Or you might say, hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us. Or you might say, in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

So to put it a little differently then, Calvary is the proof of God's love. And that raises this question, if Calvary is the proof of God's love, what is the proof of yours and mine? You know in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul used two interesting phrases.

The Proof of Christian Love

One is this, the proof of your love. The proof of your love. And another phrase, to prove the sincerity of your love. John said, rather the Holy Spirit said through John, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

With their mouth they show much love, Ezekiel said. With their mouth they show much love. But their heart goes after their covetousness. They were idolaters, because covetousness is idolatry, and the covetous man is an idolater.

So the Bible says, so with their mouth they show much love, but their heart lives in a different house. Alright, Calvary is the proof of God's love, what is the proof of yours? What is the proof of mine?

Here's something James said, If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not the things that are needful to the body, what does it profit?

Do you ever read the Peanuts comic strip? I read it all the time. Schultz the author is not a Christian, but he's quite a religious person, but extremely liberal in his theology. And in that comic strip, in case you didn't notice, he's constantly trying to get religious ideas across.

Now his theology is faulty, but even a stop clock is right twice a day. Right? So he's not always wrong. Ever see that cartoon of Snoopy, you know the dog with the long ears, and he's up on a tree, and there's a path down below, and there's a fellow walking on the path, and Snoopy the dog is just, he's just glowering down at that guy in the path.

Do you know what that stands for? Snoopy represents the evangelist. Schultz hates evangelists. He thinks they're trying to leap on people and scare them into the kingdom of God. He's got no use for that at all, you see.

But sometimes he's right. And one time he had a cartoon of Snoopy the dog, and he's out there in a heavy, wet snowstorm. He's shivering, one paw's lifted up, he's just shaking. He's wet, he's cold, he's hungry, he's cheerless, he's friendless.

And the little kids all come around, and they get around him, and they stick their hands on his head, and they say, Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled. And they walk away. And that's a takeoff on what we often do.

You know what happens, it's wintertime, there's a blizzard blowing, and you're in your house, you're nice and warm, and you hear a car out in front, and someone's stuck, you know, so you and your wife, you look out through the window, and it's your neighbor.

He's not a Christian, but he's stuck out there in the snowbang. So he's driving, and his wife is pushing, and then the two daughters come, and they're pushing, and you're standing behind the drapes, and you watch, and you say, I wonder how long it'll take them to get out.

That's what we're talking about. Then, you know, later on, you invite your neighbors to some special evangelistic deal in the church, and they're quite curt, and you can't understand why. The problem is this, they just happen to see you standing at the window watching.

And that kind of Christianity, they don't understand it. The world expects more of us, and they have a right to. They have a right to. You remember after the resurrection when Jesus talked with Peter at the Sea of Galilee?

Love Demonstrated Through Service

He said, Peter, do you love me more than these? He said, yes, Lord. Look after the lambs. Do you love me? Yes. Look after the sheep. The third time, Peter, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he asked him the third time, but then he had denied him three times.

Yes, Lord. I love you. You know I love you. Feed the sheep. You love God? Are you looking after the lambs? Feeding the sheep? Are you involved in the work of God in any way? I only gave half of 1 John 3, 16 a while ago.

I want to give it all now. Hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Are you knocking yourself out for God? Are you involved?

I knew a fellow named Burt Dartnell in Winnipeg many years ago. You know, I've been a Christian over 40 years now, and the people that have influenced me most for God have been the people who have shown the most love of God.

And Burt Dartnell was one. I was a very young Christian when I met him, and I thanked God for him. He was with the Plymouth Brethren in Winnipeg. He ran the Union Gospel Mission for years. He went to an early grave because he wore himself out on behalf of those down-and-outers that he ministered to in the Union Gospel Mission years ago.

You know, he loved those men with all his heart. And at that time he found it very difficult to get other churches in the city involved, and he tried to get it done on a basis so that every night of the week a different church was involved.

But he said a lot of the time they don't even bother showing up. I've got to be there every night of the week because they never know who's coming and who isn't coming. They don't let me know if they're not coming.

And Burt just wore himself out. Because he had a full-time job, he had a business he had to run as well. Hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us, and we are to lay down our lives for the brethren.

How involved are you? Your involvement is the measure of your real love. That's the measure of it. And if you're not involved, what right have you got to say that you know something about the love of God?

He got involved unto death on the cross. And how involved are you and I? Now, if you find anything mentioned more than once in the Bible, it's because it's important. Some things are mentioned twice, three times, in the four Gospels.

Some things are mentioned four times. I know something, and as far as I know, it's the only thing. I know something that's mentioned in the Bible ten times. Three times in the Old Testament, seven times in the New.

Loving Others as Oneself

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. You and I are to love others the way we love ourselves. To put it differently, the Bible says this. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Let no man seek his own, but every man another's welfare. Now, that's love. What is love? Is love a nice feeling in the heart, a benign feeling towards other people? That's what some Christians think.

Is love the absence of hatred? That's what some Christians think. Is love a right reaction on my part to bad circumstances? That's what some Christians think. What is love? Love is the absence of self.

Let's put it as simply as I know how. It's the absence of self, the absence of all self-seeking. It's living for others. It's God poured out through my life. That's costly, very costly. We talk about a fully committed life.

A fully committed life is a life that's owned by God completely, through whom God can pour himself in loving others. Now, that's love. Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.

Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. That's where the rubber meets the road in the Christian life. All right? Let me ask you a question. How do you know you're saved?

I presume you are. You may not be, but perhaps you are. All right? How do you know you're saved? Now, if I was to ask you to write a little essay on it, I'd get all kinds of answers. You know, my mother led me to Christ, my Sunday school teacher led me to Christ, I went before an evangelistic meeting, I heard Billy Graham on TV, I read a gospel track, or I was reading the Bible, and so on.

We get all these kind of answers. So say, I know because it happened in my life this way. But do you know what the Bible says? The Bible says we know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

If you were to get to heaven strictly on that basis, would you make it? Would you make it? Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God.

Do you believe that? If you have to get to heaven on that basis, would you make it? He that loves not knows not God. Beloved, I repeat it again. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God.

He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. How can he love God, or say he loves God, if he doesn't love men? It's easy to love something that's as intangible as God, but it's harder to love real people in a real world, in real circumstances that are maybe not the way I'd like them to be.

Love as the Evidence of New Birth

We know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. That's what Peter said in 1 Peter 1 also. He put it differently, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto, and that word there means motion toward, unto unfeigned, non-hypocritical, genuine love of the brethren.

See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again. And in 1 Peter 4 .8, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover the multitude of sins. He that covers a matter seeks love.

How does the world know you're a Christian? Well, people say, well, they see me trotting off to church. I go to church every Sunday. I carry my Bible. My neighbors see me carrying my Bible. They must know I'm a Christian.

No, they don't. They think you're a nut. You go to church every Sunday. That's crazy, man, going to church every Sunday. So down at the beer party, he talks to his friends. I've got this stupid religious neighbor.

He goes to church every Sunday. Not only Sunday morning, but Sunday evening. And, you know, Wednesday night, they see him trotting off to church with his Bible in his hand. He's crazy, man. That's what they think.

It doesn't tell them anything except that you're religious. What do they look for? What Christ told us in John 13. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.

That they can read, that they can understand. They're trotting off to church with a Bible they don't understand. You know, in 1 John 5, there's only five chapters in the book. There are twelve places where love is made the acid test of reality in the Christian life.

Twelve places. Don't you think that's significant? He that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. And John raises that interesting question. If you don't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you say I love God whom you have not seen?

And many of us, although we may be Christians, we've never faced up to this. We don't really live this way. We don't even think about it. Because we live so selfishly. And that's accepted so widely in evangelical circles today.

Holiness, Love, and the Purpose of Salvation

Why did God save us? I get this answer in Ephesians 1. According as he has chosen us in him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame, before him in love.

In love. Are you a loving person? A holy person? Are you living without blemish? But that's why God chose you. That's why God chose me. And this should always be our ideal, the goal towards which we're moving, for the glory of God.

But remember, we don't live in a vacuum. You live in a world full of people. So your love is going to be tested every day you live, and sometimes by people who live very close to you. Your love. Just as your faith will be tried every day you live, the trial of your faith.

We don't like that. We wish somehow we could just sail along on a serene, untroubled sea, where nobody ever says or does anything that ruffles my feathers. But that's not the way life is. It just isn't that way.

God's love was challenged. Listen, if God's love was challenged, don't you think yours is going to be? They tried to drown God in an ocean of hatred, and He transformed that ocean into an ocean of love by the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

Those remarkable words. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They didn't know what they were doing. It was love they were trying to put out. But the Bible says that love is a fire, and it adds this.

Many waters cannot quench love. They couldn't put that fire out. Because God is love. He isn't trying to be like we try sometimes to love the unlovely. But God's not like that. God is love. And His acts of love are just an extension of His nature in His very being.

And that God lives in your heart if you're born again. And that God desperately is trying and wants to communicate Himself, His love, to other people. That's why so many people come across our path. And how is our score?

Scripture, Purity, and Love

How does it look? Let me ask you this question. Why do you read the Bible? Well, you'll have to answer that yourself. We'll all have different answers. Maybe some will be similar. Why do I read the Bible?

Let's ask another question. Why should we read the Bible? Well, what does the Bible say? 1 Timothy 1 .5 says, Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart. One translation says, Now the goal of our instruction.

So we might paraphrase and put it this way. Now the reason for which God gave us the Bible is that He might produce in us love out of a pure heart. And secondly, a good conscience. And last of all, a genuine faith.

Love out of a pure heart. How do you score against that? Do you have the pure heart? Oh, we live in a wicked world, don't we? Yes. A world full of evil and lust. Yes. How can I have a pure heart? Well, of course, you're going to have to say no to the TV set and a lot of other things to have a pure heart.

Because the Bible says the things that are pure, think on these things. And you can't. Watching the average program today, they're so salacious, they're full of so much evil. Apart from that entirely.

We don't even have to think about that. Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You can have a pure heart. Basically, a pure heart is a purified heart. I can have that by being absolutely honest with God.

Giving God the key to every room in my life and saying, God, you can search every part of my life. You can go back 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. You can do anything you want in my heart. I want to be clean.

And God will do it. And then out of that pure heart comes the love of God. You can't have the love of God without a pure heart. Remember? Love out of a pure heart. Seeing you have purified your souls unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

First comes the purification of the heart. Then comes the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given unto us. I met a remarkable fellow in Minneapolis. He led song service for me in a weekend men's retreat we had.

His name was Justin Thyme. Strange name. He had it legally changed to Justin Thyme. That wasn't his right name. I didn't even know what his right name was. He told me a beautiful story. He almost died.

This part wasn't beautiful. He almost died of an overdose of drugs on the Sunset Strip in California. The following day he met a Christian girl who led him to Christ, whom he later married. And they and some other Christians got together and they got a little rescue place going, had a little building on the Sunset Strip or close to the Sunset Strip, and they were successful.

They began to win dopeheads to Christ. They won many of them. And one day they led a fellow to Christ and they didn't know he was a member of a very notorious and evil gang in the area and they didn't like it.

And the following day they came down to the mission and they caught Justin Thyme alone. Now he was a big fellow, six foot four, and I suppose he could have mixed it up with him, but he didn't. He told me what happened.

Love That Endures Persecution

They said, Mr., we don't like what you did to our pal and we're going to teach you something you'll never forget as long as you live. And one of the fellows smashed him in the face and knocked him flat on the floor.

He said, Bill, my heart was so filled with love for those guys, I jumped to my feet and I just said, Jesus loves you and I love you. And Paul, he got it again. He wiped the blood off and got to his feet and said, Jesus loves you and I...

And he got it again three times in a row. They knocked him flat on his back. His face was a bloody pulp. And he jumped to his feet the third time and said, Jesus loves you and I love you. And the boss said, let's get out of here.

So off they went down the street. And he wiped the blood off his face. He chased them down the street. He tapped the leader in the shoulder. And the guy whirled around. He said, I just want you to hear it once again.

Jesus loves you and I love you. And the guy says, oh no. And away they went. And then Justin told him something beautiful. He said, when I got back to the mission, I hadn't noticed that one of his gang had stayed behind.

And when I walked in, he walked up and he said, Mr., you've got it and I want it. I don't know what it is. I don't understand it. But you've got something I want and I need. He said, you know, I don't live for sex.

I don't live for drugs. I live for violence. I like to put a knife to a person's throat and look into their eyes and watch the fear. But when we threatened you, I never saw fear in your eyes. I saw something, man, I don't understand it.

Please tell me what it is. And he led him to Christ. He led him to Christ. Jesus loves you and I love you. Could you have done that? If you're filled with God's love, you could do that, yes. You know, Christ said that all the teaching of the Old Testament, and there are 3 .2 times as many words in the Old Testament as in the New, all the teaching of the Old Testament can be summarized under two thoughts.

Love as the Summary of the Law

Christ said in Matthew 22. He said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength in mind and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Well, someone tells us that there are 500 commandments in the Bible. I've never counted, so I don't know. But those are reduced to 10 by Moses and Mount Sinai. Christ reduced the 10 to 2. And then Paul reduced the 2 to 1.

Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. He reduced it to 2, didn't he?

To 1, the 2 to 1. It's not as complicated as sometimes we think. It's a very simple thing reduced to absolute zero. He that loves another has fulfilled the law. I mean, now that's what God is saying. You know, faith, do you want a stronger faith?

How do we get it? Well, people say Romans 10 .17 says, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Yes. How many here know Galatians 5 .6? Galatians 5 .6, what does it say? It says, Faith works by love.

Ever notice that verse? We struggle to get more faith when really what we need is love. If you've got the love, you'll have the faith, because love believes all things. Love believes all things. So love is what we need, not faith.

Faith will be there automatically. My heart is filled with the love of God. How can I doubt Him? We have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.

Filled with the love of God, then faith is just a natural thing. Do you know there are 33 places in the New Testament where faith and love are linked together? Take a concordance sometime and look it up.

It's a beautiful study. Eight times in 1 and 2 Timothy. You find it everywhere you turn, it seems. Faith and love. When Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in the first chapter, among other things he said, We heard of your faith.

I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints. Faith in Christ, love to the saints. Writing to the church at Colossae, he said almost identical words. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints.

When he wrote to the church at Thessalonica, among other things he said, Your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all towards each other abounds. You want to serve God's people? What does it say in Galatians 5?

By love serve one another. What does it say in 1 Corinthians 16? Let all your things be done with love. What does it say in Galatians 5? Walk in love. It's a way of life, people. It's not something you put on on Sunday, or not something you put on for a special occasion.

It's a way of life where it's nothing at all. It's a way of life where it's totally hypocrisy. It's a way of life where it's useless. Life is useless. What does it mean? What does my Christian profession mean if I'm not filled with the love of God?

People, it doesn't mean anything. I'm a walking denial of Jesus Christ. I may claim to be born again, but unless I'm possessed and filled with the love of God, I'm a walking denial of Jesus Christ. What does my Christian profession mean if I'm not filled with the love of God?

People, it doesn't mean anything. I'm a walking denial of Jesus Christ. I may claim to be born again, but unless I'm possessed and filled with the love of God, I'm a walking denial of Jesus Christ. I mean, that's what the Bible's telling us.

And I say sometimes, when will we see it? When will we seek for it? When will we do it to the glory of God? How long will we continue to grieve the Spirit of God by our unloving actions and attitudes and all the rest of it?

Putting Others Before Self

How long will we continue to live selfishly the way that we do? It's the basis, the reason for all our problems. It's because we're trying to feed self and putting self first instead of others. Do you know what Paul said in Philippians 2 .21?

He said, All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. Who is he talking about? The world? No. Christians, yes. The context shows it's Christians. I have no man like-minded that will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ.

So there's a problem then, too. Love one another. He that loves another has fulfilled the law. And dear people, listen. When your heart is filled with the love of God, all the tension goes out of life.

If you know this, you know what I'm talking about. All the tension goes out of life. You find you can love anybody and everybody. And the more they hate you, the more you love them. It's automatic. It's the way God is.

It's the way God's people should be, by love. Serve one another. Did you ever wonder what Christ taught his disciples for three years or three and a half years? Ever think about that? Well, I mean, the Sermon on the Mount was spoken to his disciples.

When he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Bless it, you know? All right. Is it summarized anywhere? Yes, it is, in John 17. When Christ was concluding, we call it the high priestly prayer, he was addressing his father, and he says, I have declared unto them, the twelve apostles, I have declared unto them your name.

The name stands for the faithfulness, the person, the being, the essence of God. I have declared unto them your name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

That was the focal point of all his teaching. Do you think it's any different today? Apparently, many Christians do. It's not. It's the same today. The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart.

It's the same today. Paul, in Ephesians chapter 3, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to his riches and glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may abide in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in doctrine, know that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, that means to understand and lay a hold of, in this context, to comprehend with all sense what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, in order that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

We've never had a time in the history of the Church when more Christians were praying for the fullness of the Spirit of God. And perhaps never a time when so few were finding it. Because we're reading it wrong.

The fullness of God, according to the context there in Ephesians chapter 3, is the love of God. And you can't have the one without the other. Moody had a dynamic experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

What did he say about it? He said, I was so filled with the love of God, I felt I could take the whole world into my heart. J .B. Earle, author of Bringing in the Sheaves, had a remarkable experience of being filled with the Spirit, and following that, God used him in the salvation of 150 ,000 people.

What did he call that experience? The fullness of Christ's love. Sidney had a most dramatic, more dramatic than any of these men, dramatic, dynamic experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. What did he say about it?

He said, I felt as if I were being fanned with gigantic wings of love. That's what these men said. And that's the element that's missing today. When people are talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit, they don't know what they're talking about sometimes.

They don't know what they're asking. Spurgeon said, the love of God will consume, utterly consume, self. And if you want to be filled with the Spirit, you're asking to be filled with the love of God, and the love of God will utterly consume self.

You and I, it will consume us. Builds up. 1 Corinthians 8. Ever notice that? Love is as strong as death. Nobody in this room has ever seen anybody climb out of a coffin and walk down the aisle. You haven't seen that.

I haven't. If we happen to be living when Christ comes back and we're attending a funeral, we may see it happen then. We've never seen it happen. Love is as strong as death. Death is so final, so powerful.

Nobody can get out of its clutches. And love is as strong as death. God's love. But dear friend of mine, listen. God wants to pour that love into your heart. I have no doubt that some are sitting here saying, Brother Bill, you don't know my circumstances.

Forgiveness Through the Love of Christ

I don't have to know your circumstances. I'll give you one example before I close. I was in a small church up in the bush. And the way we're doing the counseling, the pastor would bring the people one by one to me, and I was sitting in a tiny room.