Love Never Faileth — George Warnock

Truth in the Inward Parts and the Need for Vision

I remember it's become somewhat of a, one of our theme songs, and I remember how the Lord seemed to give us various theme songs at different times, one about the Finder's Fire, how we sang it so faithfully for several months, and it seemed somehow that we lost the zeal for that when the Lord began to, well, answer our prayers.

And I remember we sang the one about, Search this world, search me, search me through and through, and many of these songs became a prayer, I think, that we prayed in our ignorance, and it doesn't mind that, because I think from our hearts we've met it, and God deals first of all with the heart, and it begins to penetrate our minds then, of course, and we get the understanding of it, and we understand it as God sees it, but he deals with the heart first.

With the heart, men believe in unrighteousness, and we don't understand it. But in time to come, with our minds, we appreciate what God has done with not only our hearts, but with our minds. And so it seems that the Lord very recently began to impress upon us that he desires truth in the inward part, and through the years I think the Lord has been faithful in leading us into truth, causing truth to become very real to us, and we rejoiced in it.

And it has been truth with a vision. There's no vision that people perish, and if we do not have a vision, what are we going to pursue? If we don't have a vision, we'll just become like any of the other groups or churches, rejoicing in what God has done for us, but having no hope for anything more.

We should always rejoice in what God has done for us, but Paul says we're saved by hope, and unless there's a living hope for more, for God to complete the work that he started, there's really nothing to encourage us to go on.

And so I believe the Lord has given us a little knowledge, but as we've often mentioned, unless the knowledge God gives us is that which will encourage us to go on with him, that knowledge can be very detrimental to us, it hinders us.

It has become something that we rejoice in in our minds, but something that doesn't penetrate the heart, the innermost parts of our being, then it can become detrimental to us. And so we pray that God will continue to balance any knowledge of truth that he gives us with the outworking of that truth in our lives.

Knowledge That Puffs Up and Love That Builds Up

Because if we do not allow the Lord to do that, that knowledge is going to puff up without edifying. And the original Greek, if you translate it literally, it would give us the meaning a little clearer.

Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up. And so, you know, we've got puffed rice and puffed wheat, and it's just a kernel that's been enlarged seven or eight or nine times. Nothing more there. Nothing at it.

Just full of air. And so knowledge will do that. It won't change you. But love will build up, line upon line, stone upon stone, until there's something substantial. I thoroughly believe that we've come to the day in our life when God has required that truth become established in human minds.

I don't believe he's going to let us go along as we have in the past, rejoicing every Sunday morning in a little nugget of truth to rejoice our minds and warm our hearts with no thought of it changing us.

And we're at that time, we're at that day. If it's the day of harvest, then the time comes, the day of harvest, when all the blessings of the past, all the rain, all the sunshine must come forth and bring forth the full corn in the ear, or everything that has transpired before that is lost.

Eric was mentioning the tragedy as he beheld the crops up north there, weighted down with rain and moisture, and they can't harvest. Just to think that the hopes of the gardener for all these months as he saw it growing, and the hope he had of bringing forth a harvest lies in the ground.

And somehow our husband is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, has had long patience for it until it received the early and the latter rain, that in the time of harvest he would have a good crop.

And he's going to do it. He's going to have a precious fruit of the earth. It's not going to fail. He's going to have the precious fruit of the earth. Many, many years I've longed to be associated with a people who, because of God's dealings and His grace in their lives, would come forth in that image of Christ.

I want to be associated with that people. I want to be a part of that company. So having been dealt with as a Lord, come forth in that image and in that likeness. It's my hope. If it was just a case of having a lot of people come together and build up a church and have something to show, you know, for your efforts, well, I wouldn't be here.

And you people wouldn't be here. Because our hearts have longed for reality, God has brought us together, desiring to work in our hearts and lives. Such grace that in the fullness of His dealings in our lives, God himself might come forth, that the Lord Jesus might come down and rejoice in the harvest that has come forth in this people.

And so the final aspect of all this knowledge, not that it's that great, but you and I it seems great, all the knowledge that he's given us, the final outcome of it all is that it might be wrought within us.

David's Prayer for Cleansing and a Contrite Heart

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And he goes on to say, O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

But all that, that true praise that God wants to bring forth, perhaps we do lack in that vocal praise here. It doesn't worry me. I'm not too concerned. I'm not interested in trying to pump up a beautiful praise service so that people can say, well, they sure know how to praise God there.

I want to see that people come forth with truth in the inward parts, whose mouths will be closed in the awesome presence of God, until God has dealt with them, cleansed them, purged them. And then they're going to have to pray with David, Lord, open my lips, and my mouth might show forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, are broken, and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not describe.

That's the sacrifices that God wants. And that's the sacrifices of praise that God wants. I wish people would understand the quote of Scripture, God wants the sacrifice of your praise. I wish they'd understand that it's this kind of a sacrifice.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, are broken, and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not describe. The contrite heart is the bruised, the crushed heart. That's the meaning of the word contrite.

Broken, yes, but contrite, bruised. Many people have been bruised. Many of our fellows have been bruised and crushed. And so we go on singing, thou desirest truth in the inward heart. And God does it, and there's a bruising, there's hurts, there's crushings, and we're all in the mills of God, and so we all feel it, and we don't realize that God is doing it.

That God is doing it because he wants a bruise, a broken, and a crushing. In order that he might receive from his people the sacrifices of a broken spirit, God wants truth in the inward heart. And the final revelation of truth, the final revelation of truth, the love of God is within us.

That's final. I mean, we can know this and know that, and know that this is right and that's wrong. We do not come to that finality of it all, where love is recognized and manifested as something beyond our way of worship, beyond our praise, beyond our musical instruments, beyond gifts of miracles and healings, and beyond knowledge and wisdom.

We haven't arrived. We're a long ways from it. And so Paul says, I've shown you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, all secrets, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. Any man who could come to this city or any other city with a mighty gift of prophecy and have understanding in all mysteries and knowledge and have tremendous faith so that he could move mountains, whether they're literal or spiritual mountains, you know that he could build up a church.

There wouldn't be a building in town to house the people. And yet if he doesn't have love, God says he's nothing. Life is falling short. Nothing. Because God does all that externally. And that man can be carnal and unloving and do all those things.

And it's nothing because God wants truth in the inward part. That would be hard for any Christian in this town to receive. It would be hard for us to receive anything if we beheld such a mighty thing happening.

Gifts and miracles and wisdom and knowledge and prophecies, genuine prophecies, and love laughing. God says, it's all nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, that had not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love's Long-Suffering and Unchanging Character

So we have to love one another. And so we quote the scripture, Beloved, let us love one another. Rightly so. And it goes in one ear and out the other. Because we all love, yes, you know, that nice, soft, sentimental thing that you just, you know.

So Paul has to come forth and describe what it's like. Otherwise we'd read it and say, oh yes, I know, I've got to have more love. Paul has to go into a little detail and show us what he means. This sentimental thing, you know.

Come on, everybody get up and go and hug one another. Well, I think love will prompt you to do that, you know. And if God prompts you to do that in this meeting, do it. But you can't manufacture love by doing it.

It's got to be there. Charity, love is long-suffering. Love will suffer long. Don't give up. Don't give up on your brother because you see some unlovable treasure, so you give up on him. Love doesn't do that.

Love is unchanging. Love doesn't change with circumstances. Well, I love him because, well, he's been good to us. He'll go out of his way to help us. He seems to be a very neat person, humble person. And we share truth together and so we love one another.

And so there's a going forth of love from our hearts because we find compatibility and we find that they love and so we love. I love them, they love me. And so there's a response to our love because there's incentives there.

Kind, helpful, and so we respond. Suddenly something happens and they're not as kind as they used to be. A little more difficult to get along with. Seem a little harder. They seem to be walking in disobedience.

They seem to be proud. Oh, I don't know, you name it. And so our love stops flowing. The love isn't being returned and so our love stops flowing. And so we say they lack love. Well, has our love ceased to flow when they changed?

Well, then the problem's in me. I don't know. Oh, I'm not saying I have problems there. But the real problem's in me if my love is altered because they have changed. Love doesn't change because your brother changes.

It should not change for the better if he changes for the better. Nor should our love change for the worse if he changes for the worse. Oh, Lord, now what's wrong? I used to love this one so much. Well, Lord, he's changed.

Has my love changed? Did Jesus' love change for Peter when Peter cursed and swore and said, I don't know the man. Did Jesus' love change? No. It continued to flow. But it just flowed in a different channel.

Love will always find a channel in which it can flow. As far as the quality of love is concerned, it never changes. The channels through which it will flow, they can be innumerable. They can be innumerable.

And so there's no problem in a one-man-to-man relationship, you know, if there's compatibility. And I do him favors, he does me favors. And I share a truth, he shares a truth, and we get along. But he changes, so my love stops.

I don't realize the problems in my heart. He has problems? Well, maybe, but let the Lord deal with that. But what about my love? Why did my love suddenly change? Because it wasn't pure. We hadn't tapped the source of unchangeable love.

It was a love that depended upon that individual whom we loved returning that love. If he didn't return it, my love stopped. Very short on long-suffering. Very short on long-suffering. And the fact of the matter is that God's love will continue to flow if we let it.

Suffering, Humility, and the Work of Grace

It will take a working of God. I know that. It will take a deeper working of his Spirit in our lives. But you and I all know that God will not work a deeper work of grace in our lives until we come to recognize our need for it.

And when we truly recognize our need for that deeper work of grace, our hearts are exposed to him, and he will do it. Let's not always prolong the working of God and saying, God's going to do this great work, and I can't do anything about it.

God wants to be doing it little by little, here a little, there a little, line upon line. And every time there's a bruising and a crushing, the Lord allows it. But because of the bruising and the crushing, there might come forth this hurt.

I never heard that illustration of the hurt fruit tree. Never knew there was such a thing. Brother Avon there mentioned it. Some fruit trees, they do everything for it, and nothing happens until they take an ax and they chisel, they know how to do it, chisel out the bark in a certain place, and they call it hurting the tree.

They still don't know why it happens, but it starts to bring forth fruit. There's a lot of hurts amongst us, crushings, bruising. We blame our fellow because we're all on the same millstone. And the millstones of God are crushing us all, and so we look at our brother and blame him.

God grants that we might quickly come to that spirit of Jesus. But he was able in the final moments of God's dealing with his brethren to be so crushed, so broken, so humbled before God, that he turned to his brethren who had sold him into slavery and said, Now listen, boys, don't condemn yourself anymore.

You met a free will, but God intended it for you. That he might work a great deliverance in you. You're hurt, you're bruised, you're crushed, don't blame anyone. Say, God, you're a lot of people. You saw this iniquity of my heart.

You discern the iniquity of your servant. I wasn't responsible for that thing he accused me of. Maybe not, but I was responsible for many other things that they did not even mention. And those things were might compared to what God saw.

And when I used to chastise my children, sometimes I'd make a mistake. You know, wrong information. I didn't go around bemoaning the fact. I tried to apologize, but they knew that they got away with things a hundred times without being chastised.

And so, well, I guess that sort of helped. I did that wrong, but you missed it a hundred times, so I'm not going to worry about it. God's been so merciful to us. Overlooked and overlooked and overlooked a hundred times.

And so if you're unjustly accused or unjustly treated here and there along the way, just take it. Well, God had to do that to break you, crush you, to cause you to know what it's like to suffer for no cause of your own.

Be misunderstood. You don't like to be misunderstood. I mean, that's devastating to be misunderstood. If you didn't, and you were caught, fine. But to be misunderstood, to suffer for something you weren't responsible for doing, that's devastating.

That's crushing, that's bruising. It causes contrition of mind. The Lord hath broken and hath conquered. Try part thou not to strive. Joseph never deserved the misunderstanding that came his way that caused him to suffer in prison.

But it wrought a contrite heart within him. So much so that in the days to come, when his brethren were in a similar situation, he knew that God was working great grace in their hearts when they were suffering for something they were not responsible for.

The family of Jacob was completely devastated. But as you pursue the pathway of priestly compassion and priestly contrition of heart and priestly mercy, I think that other goal will almost fade away. Almost forget it.

Lord, I just want to have a heart after the heart of God. I want to partake of your suffering. Because I know that if I do not, then I'll never be like you. If you don't hurt this fruit tree, fruit will not grow.

So prove me. Take away everything that you know to be extraneous. And if necessary, bruise me for no cause that I can utter, if so be that the fruit of the Spirit might come forth. For Paul tells us that every high priest taken from among men is ordained for a man in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Priestly Compassion and True Righteousness

And then he mentions the qualities of a priest who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And so a priest has got to have compassion on the ignorant and on them who are erring in their way.

A priest has got to have compassion. You want to be a priest? A priest has got to have compassion on the ignorant and the erring. A priest has got to come to that place where love will continue to flow when the man is responding in love and kindness or when he's going in his ignorant ways and erring in the pathway of the Lord.

A priest's love cannot change. The channel might be different. Instead of flowing forward in beautiful communion and fellowship, that channel might not be open. But there'll be a channel. And there'll be a channel of suffering, compassion, which will produce a burden for that one, prayer, intercession.

Love will continue to flow. You can't stop it if it's God's love. It might not be, oh, I love you because you love me. It might be, I love you because I see that you're missing out on God. I'm afraid you're erring from the pathway.

I'm afraid that you're slipping. Oh, we can see that. We can quickly tell them. Chances are they could well be further along in their walk with God than you are because you're so right and they're so wrong.

But in being so right, you're lacking compassion, love, mercy, truth in the inward parts. And right as you are, you're perhaps more wrong than you're right. Because righteousness in the sight of God is not that hard, cold thing where everything is legally correct.

True righteousness in the sight of God is being able to show love and mercy and truth and forgiveness. That's true righteousness in the sight of God. So what if I'm right and you're wrong? If I'm right and unforgiving and cold and harsh and you're wrong and tender and broken, you're more right than I am because those are the true attributes of righteousness is to see what true righteousness is.

Do you know that Jesus Christ became the very incarnation of righteousness when He hung on the cross and took the blame for the sins of the world? When the reproaches of those who reproached God fell upon Jesus and He bore, that became His righteousness in the sight of God.

Let's come to appreciate and understand what true righteousness is. Not measuring up to some legal standard, but measuring up to the character of Him who is God's righteousness. Let's nurture that truth until truly in our hearts we'll know that righteousness in God's sight, because of redemption, is not measuring up to a list of thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that.

But true righteousness in the sight of God is that which measures up to the standard of the cross of Christ. You could bear the reproach of others. You could bear the hate of others. You could show forth the long-suffering of God.

You could cry out, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That was true righteousness. And so Paul, in all his writings, admonishes the Christians. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor be put away from you with all malice.

Rather, he says, let forgiveness flow, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven him. You say there's a just cause for this. No, there's no just cause for enmity, pride, hatred, ill feeling, resentment, bitterness.

There's no just cause for it. There's a logical cause for it. Because as long as we give way to the carnal nature, the logical thing is, if they hurt me, I'll hurt them. If they misuse me, I'll have tinges of bitterness toward them.

That's the logical thing. There's no just cause for it. What am I saying? I'm saying this. If there is this feeling of superiority, if there is a feeling of unforgiveness, I mean from the heart. Here's the problem.

Forget about those problems out there for the moment. Because you're not going to be able to minister mercy and truth and righteousness and love to others until it's wrought within your heart. You can go and tell them what they ought to do.

But you're not going to be able to minister true righteousness, peace, mercy, kindness. You're not going to be able to impart it to them until it's within. I don't believe it's all that difficult. I know we've got a long ways to go.

But I believe we're in the final round where God is saying, I desire truth in the inner parts. Not enough to say, well, yes, we've had differences between us. And you forgive me? Yes, I forgive you. You forgive me?

Yes, I forgive you. Shake on it. I don't say you don't do that. You've got to declare it. But you've got to seek God earnestly until you feel it. You've got to seek God earnestly until you really mean it.

Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and the Lord's Prayer

Peter, you know, thought, he had this, I don't know if one of the disciples or someone that had wronged him, I guess, seven times. And he felt pretty good about it. And he thought he'd get a little pat on the back in front of the Lord.

He says, if a man sins against me seven times and I forgive him, is that what you require? Oh, good old Peter. You mean, Peter, you've got that kind of grace? Jesus deflated him. Seventy times seven. And he didn't mean by that that once you've done it 490 times, he was just showing him, Peter, it's not one, two, three, four, five, six, seven times.

It's got to be something that's flowing there. It's there all the time. Because that's the only way you and I are going to be free from guilt and condemnation is when we let forgiveness flow. We received forgiveness from the Lord.

It wasn't a blessed day when you knew you were forgiven. I'll never forget it. I had received forgiveness. But for you and I to retain that beautiful sense of forgiveness and just to know the efficacy of that cleansing blood and the forgiveness of his grace, for you and I to retain that, we can no longer be recipients of his mercy.

We've got to be channels of it. Until forgiveness is something within us longing to come forth, just bursting to be revealed. And that's how God forgave us. He didn't wait until I come to him and said, I'm sorry, Lord, will you forgive me?

It was there all the time, but I had cut myself off from it. I didn't partake of it. It was there. Don't say, well, he hasn't come around yet. I'll forgive him if he comes around. Let it just be. Oh, and in the meantime, how are you going to promote that?

Reconciliation. That love of communication, that love of fellowship, that love of joy and pleasure in your brethren, you know, a wall's come there. If you've got God's love, it will continue to open up other channels.

The flow, you can't stifle it. If you really have it, it will open up a channel of prayer, intercession, concern, godly concern. Searching your own heart. Why, Lord, if you have given me a priestly ministry of mercy, why doesn't it become effective?

Why can't it flow and break down these walls, these barriers? You seek God. Lord, what's wrong with my life? What's wrong if you made me to be a priest? Why can't I show compassion in a way that will break the stubborn will and stubborn heart?

I want to forgive, Lord. How can I let it flow? I've forgiven, Lord, but there's still a wall. He hasn't received it. Do you realize that if you do not forgive, you're holding your brother in the bondage of guilt and condemnation?

You're holding him in that bondage. I saw the Corinthian church. There was a wrong, a very grievous wrong. And Paul wrote them, deal with this wrong. You've got to deal with it. It's a horrible thing.

But they didn't have the love of God. And they dealt with them in cruelty, in harshness. And Paul had to write back and say, well, you dealt with it, but where's the love? He says, be sure that you don't let Satan gain an advantage over you by not being able to forgive.

And he says, when you Corinthians are able to forgive him, then I can forgive. I can go along with you. Lest Satan gain an advantage over us. And I never saw that connection until some months ago. If unforgiveness remained in the Corinthian church, Paul says, Satan might be able to gain an advantage over them.

Don't be suspicious when someone says, will you forgive me? Well, yeah, I forgive. But I want to see the fruit of it before love will flow again. Grasp any opportunity that there is to let love be released.

If you're convinced that it's word of mouth only, don't let love be stifled. Let love continue. Define these channels of patience and long-suffering and mercy and compassion. Because nothing is stronger than love.

And you can break down those walls. If you have love, instead of standing back, well, when he changes, let love penetrate. Let love break down the wall. Let love flow. That will break down. We pray a very serious prayer.

We pray the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us our trespasses, even as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Do we really overlook and forgive the trespasses of our brethren? Or do we say with word of mouth, I forgive you, but I don't forget? I forgive you, but I hope you'll change so that we're not really forgiving.

We are praying in that prayer, Lord, forgive me as I forgive those others that sin against me. Do you know that you're praying, Lord, you forgive me even as I'm forgiving my brother? How do you want God to forgive you?

I'll forgive you, but I'm going to put you on probation. I'm really going to keep an eye on you. I'm really going to watch you. I'm really going to make sure that it's sincere before, you know, there's total forgiveness.

No, he freely forgave us all trespasses. For his own name's sake. And then having forgiven us freely. Oh, he'll just manifest all manner of grace and virtue to change us. But it doesn't nullify his forgiveness for us.

He forgives us freely. And then he'll do what he can. In virtue of his great high priestly intercessory work, he'll do what he can to change us. In mercy, in love, in compassion, in patience. He'll do what he can to change us.

So we pray, Lord, forgive me even as I forgive my brother. As you forgive your brother from your heart, you are inviting the Lord to hold nothing back by way of forgiving you. But Jesus said, if you forgive not every man his trespasses from your heart, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.

Well, hasn't he already forgiven me? I know. I believe he's speaking about that ever-present forgiveness that flows through us. And we'll discover, if there isn't a forgiving spirit, you're going to discover feelings of guilt, condemnation, always accusing yourself, always condemning yourself.

God would grant the grace, you and I, to say, Lord, I'm going to forgive and forget. I'm not going to let love be stifled because I see some unlovely thing in my brother. We discover that instead of guilt and condemnation, we find the cleansing of his blood, the cleansing of his spirit.

We discover it would be there. And God forgives, and when God forgives, he forgets, he justifies, he declares you righteous. Do you know that God looks upon you and I when he forgives us? He goes a step farther and he justifies us.

They're not the same. Justification, that's stronger than forgiveness. Forgiveness is negative. I don't hold anything against you. Justification is that work that God does where he looks down and he says, your sins are so forgiven and so washed away and so put away from my mind that I see you as one having never sinned.

I see you righteous in my sight. I know that we haven't, and I know that it's difficult enough for you and I to forgive and forget. I'm talking about forgiveness from the heart. I don't find it particularly difficult.

I'm sorry for this, George. Oh, that's all right. But the thing that bothers me is I'll remember that. Keep on remembering. And I'd really like to come to that place where I could really forget what the offense was.

I think I have in some situations. Someone's come along and, you know, sort of, oh, I'm sorry, you know. Oh, I'm sorry. Goodness, I forgot all about it. I did, but it's probably some very little thing.

The Cross, Cleansing, and the Forgetting of Sin

Some real offense and to forgive and for the Lord to so wash your mind. I don't know about it. I never forget. Brother was over in one of the Iron Curtain countries. God was moving in the meeting. And they were coming for prayer and repentance and contrition of heart and telling him all the horrible things that they'd done.

And he'd pray for them and love was flowing and forgiveness was flowing. But afterwards, he said he felt sort of unclean because of everybody unloading their cares. And he said, Lord, cleanse my heart and my mind from all this.

And a few minutes later, without anticipating an immediate answer to prayer, he said he looked around, he couldn't remember one thing that those people had confessed. What was it? Cleansing of the spirit and the blood.

The water and the blood and the spirit flowing. The people were cleansed and the priest himself was cleansed. Oh, what a day of cleansing is coming. There's such an openness of heart, such a contrition of heart, such a breaking of heart.

The spirit of God will flow in our midst and the blood of Christ will be so effective that not only are sins cleansed, but they're forgotten and wiped from our minds. And if perchance someone happens to recall, it'll be so far in the past, they'll have to laugh about the pettiness that caused such a major change in your affection for your brother.

Some little thing that may have come from a deep-rooted aspect of carnality in your life. Maybe so. But in view of the cross of Christ, so insignificant. We need to have that revelation of the cross.

We need to read the story of the crucifixion and meditate upon it and ask the spirit of God to unfold the true meaning of the cross to our lives. That we won't only look at Jesus crucified and say, He did that for my sins.

He did that to forgive me. But we'll really realize that I deserve everything that He suffered there. I deserved it. When they beat Him on the head, when they put a crown of thorns on His head, when they beat Him on the back.

The cat-of-nine-tails until the blood flowed from His flesh until He was, as it were, pulp. You see, I saw Him in vision and He said, His visage is so marred than any man. Another translator says that His visage, His appearance was so marred that He did not resemble a son of man.

Such a gruesome appearance as He was offered as our sin offering. How we love Him because He did it for me. But, oh, that that love will penetrate our hearts until we say, I deserved all that. And coming to the realization that I deserved all that.

How can I hold any little thing against Him? I deserved all that that He suffered. Continue to cherish that working of His Spirit in the inner place. Until love will flow unfettered, unhindered, no matter what happens.

And in closing, let you and I recognize that if love is hampered and love does not continue to flow from our lives to our brother, no matter what he has done, the problem is in me. There may be a problem in him, let God deal with him.

But if love ceases to flow with that same intensity that we knew when we experienced first love, the problem is in me. That's where the problem is. May the Lord continue this work of humbling, of contrition, of breaking, until the same love that was in Jesus.