First Corinthians, thank you. First Corinthians chapter three again. There are many things in this chapter that we won't be able to touch on, but there's one more that we ought to think about, and that's a term which is given to the people in the local church. We have seen a number of things, and there are many more. This one is the That's the very beginning of the chapter. And I, brethren, brethren. This is a term which has been jostled around, misused and abused, claimed by people who don't have any right to claim it, and refused by people who ought to claim it. Much misunderstood term, but one that the Bible is replete with. It is often used, and especially in the New Testament, is used of those who are true believers. It is a term which is used in the Acts of the Apostles connected with the word men, sometimes printed men and brethren, but all revised versions give it as a compound name, men brethren. And this was and is a common term among the Jewish people. they still address each other as men brethren. That is, they are brothers in the Jewish faith, in the Jewish fold, in the Jewish synagogue. They are fellow believers in the faith of Judaism. But this, being addressed to the saints at Corinth, as we see in the very first of this chapter, first of this book, is addressed to believers in a local assembly and they're called brethren. Now it's a generic term, much as the name man. Most of the time when we read in the Bible about men, he is referring to both men and women. There is a term for males, and that of course is exclusive of men. I will therefore that the men, and that is that term, the males, pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without fear and doubting. Some things are restricted to the man, not because they're any better or any smarter, but simply because God has a certain order. But this is a generic term, and it means brethren and sisters. I used to tell about a man in my youth who wasn't quite sure about these terms, and so he called them brethren and sisters. Well, that's not too bad. Sistering in my days anyway, my boyhood days was a container, a storage house, and certainly our sisters are storehouses of a great deal, affection and kindness and wisdom and so on. And you can very well be there. But the term here is used in general of those who are in the same family. In the Bible, it's used in the Old Testament, those who were brothers and sisters in the same family because they had the same parents. But it could also be used of those who had only one common parent. For instance, Abraham married his sister. Sarah, he said, you tell them that you are my sister. Now, that was a half-truth because she was a half-sister. And it wasn't a very honest statement for her to make. But he said, lest because of your beauty someone kill me and take you for their wife. I ought to be encouraging ladies. She was then seventy years of age. And he was still afraid somebody would steal her away from her. I don't know whether he was an especially good husband or she was an especially good looking wife. But anyway, that was true. And Therefore they were called brothers and sisters, siblings in the same family. The term is used spiritually in the Old Testament as well, but it is only used in the sense that we are the creation of God. God's name as Father was not revealed in the Old Testament. And this necessitates our saying a little bit about the fatherhood of God as well as the brotherhood. of these who are spoken to here. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual. So there are spiritual brothers and sisters, but as unto carnal. So there are carnal brothers and sisters. Now the word spiritual, of course, is very plain. It means characterized by the spirit. Carnal is taken from the Latin, and the word carne is the word for flesh. It can be the word for the flesh as the old nature, or it can be the word for meat to be eaten. The Spanish people eat a lot of chili con carne. If you just order chili, you may get nothing but hot soup. If it's con frujolis, it can be with beans. And if it's chili con carne con frujolis, it can be with meat, with flesh. and with beans. We usually just say chili. The word carnal then means of the flesh. Just the spiritual means of the spirit. Characterized. So all Christians are characterized either by the spirit or by the flesh. I think that went over. That can be a real sleep stopper. It'd be a good thing for all of us to be spoken to by this. In our hymn tonight, I thought Mr. L.L. Pickett was asking a good bit in that hymn when he said, always in tenderest tones. Now, I am sure Brother Pickett meant well, but he was asking too much. The Lord is not always going to speak to you in tenderest tones. Can you make up your mind to that? Sometimes the Lord is going to speak to you to the conscience and not to you to the heart. I've heard lots of people pray that the Lord will speak to our hearts tonight, but I've never heard very many pray that the Lord will speak to our consciences. But you pray that. Next time you go to listen to preaching or you open your Bible, ask the Lord to speak to your conscience. He just might surprise you by doing it. And you get a lot of good out of it. because our consciences need touching. We need to be spoken to as to our consciences. Now, with this term, we need to get one more, and we want to go back to the fourteenth verse of the second chapter, and it says there, well, we read verse thirteen, which things also we speak? That is, the truths that we have that can be understood by those who are more mature. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Now the natural man is one who is just in his natural state. He has never been born again. Natural isn't always good. Some things in their natural state are very wild, very fierce, and very useless. Some things in their natural state are poisonous. And the human being in his natural state is not good. I know that all little babies are sweet. They're not all pretty, but they are all sweet. A man was wondering what he could say about new babies that mothers were showing off to him. He wanted to say something nice and make them happy, but he didn't want to lie about it. And so he hit on this. He said, when we showed him a baby, he said, well, now that is a baby. And he smiled, and all mothers are very pleased. They imagined that that was a compliment. It was merely a statement. When you were born into this world, you were very cute and very sweet and very innocent. She didn't stay like that, did you? She didn't stay like that. No mother wants to believe that her child was born a sinner. Now, don't misunderstand me. I do not believe that children who die are lost. I do not believe that children have to be baptized to get into heaven. God wouldn't be that cruel. And there is nothing in the Bible about that. That is, that is a religion transferred from an ancient church to churches that sprang from it, and it has absolutely no basis in the Word of God. But those babies are born sinners. Now they're not responsible. And the Lord Jesus came to save that which is lost. He said that about children. And he came to seek and to save that which is lost. He said that about Adel. We have to be sought for. Children can be found without seeking for them. In fact, the Lord Jesus said, Suffer the little children. Allow the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. For of such, that is belonging to such, is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs. the little children. That is, they have not rejected the Lord Jesus. They have not rejected the Savior. They have not rejected the King. They have not rejected the Kingdom. And they are safe. But they are not born again. Now we are born again by faith in the Lord Jesus. The natural man, then, is one who has never been born again. He's just been born once. And you know, of course, the people that are born once die twice. And people that are born twice only die once, and maybe not at all. And you and I have been born twice if we have received Christ as our Savior, and we ought to act like it. We are not now natural. Men, we are either spiritual or carnal. Some years ago, I wanted to teach this to young people, and I find that little charts and graphs and things are helpful. And so I drew a kind of a little graph, which I've had printed up. I don't have them with me now, but I've tried to draw this in the form of a graph and to start all at one end just with man. And then those who were not born again go down from the beginning, and they are just the natural men. Then those who grew up are those who were are born again and they are divided into two and these are spiritual and carnal. Now the spiritual and carnal can be divided up too. The spiritual ones can be divided up into those who are mature and those who are young. It says here that your carnal, like I don't can speak to you as to carnal even as under babes in Christ. That doesn't mean that all babes in Christ are carnal, but it means that these people who ought not to be babies still were, and therefore they were called carnal. They were characterized by the flesh. Now those who are carnal can be divided into two classes, too, and it's easy to remember these because the Corinthians were worldly, and the Galatians were legal. Both were carnal. The Galatians were just as carnal as the Corinthians. It's true that the Corinthians were mixed up in a lot of sinfulness, of a worldly nature. It's true that the Galatians were very careful about their behavior, but they did it in a legal way. They did it because they had to. Many years ago, my wife and I were together in a little town in Colorado. I was having some tent meetings there. And we went to visit just a little town, and there were only two ministers in the town. We went to visit them just in hopes of getting acquainted with them, maybe finding someone who knew the Lord and could be helped a little bit. One man didn't even have any time to talk with us. The other one invited us to come over to his house. And we went over and we found out why. His wife was a miserable piece. She was a very unhappy woman. Her husband had gone into the ministry, as he called it, after he had married her, and she was beset with all of these problems that go with being a preacher's wife. So in order to get it out of her system, she had written a little book. Appropriately, it was bound in black. And the title of the book was one word, have to, spelled H-A-F-T-O. And the whole book, was about things that she had to do because she was a preacher's wife. Miserable. And she gave this copy to my wife, and when we got home, my wife read it. Then she gave it to me. She said, read this, see what you think about it. It was a short book, and I went to it very quickly, and I said, burn the miserable thing before anybody else gets hold of it. I would hate to think that anybody in the world did what she did because she had to do it. That's legality. That's carnality. That's Galatian kind of carnality. A while back, a young man said to me, well, of course I go to all the meetings. He said, I'd be afraid the Lord would do something to my family if I didn't. I said, what a miserable way to live. Just think of doing things because you're trying to keep God's from hitting you you know we we brought a little boy into our home many years ago the poor little fella had had his we didn't know that at the time he'd had his skull fractured when his father was drunk he beat the child he was only nine years of age and when he came into the home we did our best to make him feel at home but every time an adult walked behind his chair he went down like this you know he was sure somebody was going to clobber Poor little kid never knew anything about an adult's presence without fear. It was years before we were able to help him, and many more years before we were able to at least reach his semblance of normality because of the growth inside of his skull from the fractures. It was pitiful. Can you imagine someone living in that kind of fear in a family of God? There are those that they do not really understand. Now, I would like to talk a little bit about the fatherhood of God. I do not believe in the universal fatherhood of God, nor do I believe in the universal brotherhood of man, simply because they're not taught in the Bible. The universal fatherhood of God presumes that God is the father of all peoples. and that they lose their place in the father's family by doing something wrong. The truth of the matter is, there is no one who is born into the family of God, naturally. They have to become the children of God. And we see this in Galatians chapter three. Ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now in the Old Testament, there is a hint of something like this. In the sixty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, I think it's verse eight, it tells us this, that God is the father of the whole human race in the sense of being their source. See, the term father is used in a number of places in the Bible. He is called the father of glory. Now, glory, of course, is that which exudes from him as God. So he is the source. That's really the meaning of father, the source. He's called the father of several different graces, several different characteristics. And he is called the father of all of those who are his creatures. He's even called the father of angels in an indirect way. And so this means simply that he is the source, but not in the sense of a relative. Not in the sense that you are related to your human father. He is your father. He is your progenitor. Your father and mother brought you into this world. And you partake of their nature jointly. You partake of the genes that are resident in their system. You inherit the characteristics. And it's remarkable what characteristics a child will inherit from the parent. Also a little disconcerting. Sometimes the child has some very strange habits. And we've noticed this with children who did not live with their parents at all. We have taken very small children into the home. I remember one little family that we took. The oldest child was only four years of age. And the youngest one was hardly two. And every time anything came up that disturbed those children, they pulled their ears. And strangely enough, they didn't sag. Their ears were still normal, but every time their fingers went to their ears to pull them. And I thought, why in the world have those children done that? And I talked to their grandmother, who had really had them ever since they were tiny. Their mother was in a tuberculosis hospital. She said, I don't know. They've been doing that ever since I've had them. Then we went to see the mother and had the joy of leading her to Christ. She died a short while after that, but we believe she really got to know the Lord. When I went to see her, my wife and I went to see her the first time, we began to talk to her about the Lord. She started pulling her ear. She was upset at thinking that she was the sinner, and then her finger went right to her ear. Then I knew why those little tads had that. They never saw their mother do it. They hadn't lived with their mother. The oldest one hardly remembered it, and the other two didn't remember it at all. But you see, all kinds of things are built into you. They're part of your nature. Now, God wants to become our Father. What do you know about the fatherhood of God? What do you know about God being your Father? Don't tell me that he's the Father of all because he isn't. The Lord Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day, in the eighth chapter of John, Ye are of your father the devil. That's an awful thing to say, but it was true. I wouldn't say that to any individual. I don't believe that that's true of everybody. I believe that that's true of those who are actively fighting against God. But whether you believe that or don't believe it, I wouldn't want to label anybody as a child of the devil. But the Lord had a right to do that. See, he knew. The Lord know it then that are here. I don't know. Mr. C.J. Baker, who drew that lovely chart, Two Roads and Two Destinies, used to be in the tent and awning business in Kansas City. People would say to Mr. Baker, well, what do you think about him? Do you think he's really saved? Mr. Baker's answer would always be the same. I don't know, brother. I haven't seen the books. You remember that. You just don't pass judgment on anybody and say, well, he's not saved. Or, sure, she's saved. You just don't know. You have to leave that in God's hands. And I think that's a great mercy. When someone dies, I had a funeral of a neighbor just shortly, just a short while ago, maybe two weeks ago. I've been working with this man for three years. He was retired, younger than I was, but he wasn't very well. And he walked up and down the alley past our house with his dog. And I got acquainted with him about three years ago. And we spent a lot of time talking together. When I was out working around the garage or in the yard, he would come by. And at first he just shied away from me. Then he got to where he was a little more open. And finally he got to where he'd bring up the subject himself. I believe, I really believe, that that man accepted the Lord as his Savior. And I said this at the funeral. I said, now I don't have any private... view of God's books. I can't tell you that this man has gone to heaven, and I certainly am not going to preach him into heaven. But I said, I believe that he trusted the Lord as a Savior, and I told him some of the things that he had said, some of the things that indicated to me that he had really received Christ. He didn't put things well. He didn't say things well, and therefore I wasn't clearly established that he was a true believer. But I thought that he was. I'm glad that I don't have to make that decision. The Lord knoweth them that are His. You know there are two sides to that coin. Having this seal. You know what a seal is. A seal really has an obverse and reverse side to it. The great seal of the United States. We know the one side, the Eagles. But you know the other side? Some bills have it. It's a pyramid. Now that's the obverse. or the reverse side of the great seal of the United States. Every seal has two sides, even though you only use one side. They're supposed to have anyway. And the Lord says, Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Does God know? Yes, he knows them that are his. Do I know only by this? Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Do you want people to believe that you're saved? Do you want people to believe that you're a brother or sister in the family of God? And behave yourself. It's just that simple. Just behave yourself. Obey the Lord. This is how people know. You know, but nobody else knows until they see the results in your life. I look over your life and see if there's anything that would cast aspersions or doubts on the work of the Lord or on your confidence in him. Look it over. The fatherhood of God is a voluntary one. God wanted us for his children. I don't ask me to explain that. There are a lot of things I don't know, but they don't keep me from enjoying it. I don't have the slightest idea how sugar makes me so happy. But having a Dutch mother and she had to have dessert three meals a day, I like sweets. And sugar delights me. And I can think of a hundred excuses to have a little sugar in my diet, even though I'm not supposed to have too much. I like sugar. Do I understand it? Sugar just looks like salt, doesn't it? But what a difference. What a difference. I don't understand sugar. I don't know what it does to the taste buds, but I know it feels good. I know it tastes good. I don't understand electricity. The young man in college went to sleep. They were studying physics. And the professor called him awake, said to him, tell me what electricity is. He said, Woke up, you know, and looked around. He said, Sir, he said, Tell me what electricity is. Well, he said, I knew it, but I forgot it. Oh, he said, Nobody in the world understands electricity, but one man, and he went to sleep and forgot it. He was awake by that time, I'm sure. Nobody understands electricity, but does that keep you from pushing buttons and enjoying it? Turning on motors? Why, you don't have to understand electricity. Nobody understands it. You don't have to understand the fatherhood of God. You don't have to understand the love of God. Our brother Mr. Harper quoted to us that little couplet, How thou canst think so well of me and be the God thou art is darkness to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart. How can God love me? I know there are some people who are so conceited that they wonder how God could resist them, but I've never felt that at all. I have never in the world felt that I am so good and so desirable that God just had to have me for his child. I'm not that stupid. I know that God was very, very gracious when he reached down to me as a sinner. And I'll tell you a little secret. He was the same when he reached down to you. He could have gotten along very well without you. But he loved you. He loved you. He wanted you. Personally, God so loved the world. What a big heart. And what a poor object. During the Second World War, I was working with children quite a little bit. at the children's home and then working children's work around the children's home we had quite a work in the neighborhood number of children from the neighborhood came to know the Lord now turn the tape over the rest of this message is on the other side down to me as a sinner and I'll tell you a little secret he was the same when he reached down to you he could have gotten along very well without you but he loved you he loved you he wanted you personally god so loved the world what a big heart and what a poor object during the second world war i was working with children quite a little bit at the children's home and then working children's work around the children's home. We had quite a work in the neighborhood. A number of children from the neighborhood came to know the Lord. One of the things that little boys, little girls, need to learn is the love of God, but they have a different opinion about it. And I used to play on that. I used to get them to argue with each other, so it impresses on them. I'd say to them, how many of you think that God loves Hitler? Nobody. Absolutely nobody. I never got one single hand in all the time that I asked about it. Little kids then knew about Hitler. And then I said, how many of you think that God loves bad little boys that hit their sisters? And all the little boys' hands went out. And not one girl. Not one. Little girls do not believe that God loves bad boys and hit their sisters. And then it was a real pleasure to fortify the boys' feeling that not that God wants them to hit their sisters. I was very careful to make that plain, but that he does love them in spite of the fact that they're mean. And little girls very grudgingly would admit that boys are in the world, even though they rather that they weren't. They are in the world, and God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever And that's a good word for children to learn. They like big words. Whosoever, you, me, or anybody else. Do you believe that? I know you people practically all profess to be saved. There may be a few here in the room that have not received the Lord, but you practically all profess to be saved. Do you really rejoice in that word whosoever? Do you love that word? Oh, that big word whosoever. The old hymn used to say. Well, God loved you, and he paid the price to win you for himself. Then the Lord Jesus loved you, and he paid the price to win you for himself. The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. God wants all of his children to know that they are loved and wanted. And the Spirit of God sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. That's what it says in Romans five. That means he pours it into our hearts. However big your heart is, however much of the love of God it can take in, Spirit of God is willing to pour that in. That's for you to enjoy. Then it is for you to pass on to others. You can show love for other people. because you have enjoyed the love of God. You can't really love others apart from God's help. I don't think for a minute that Christians can love each other, truly love each other, just because they make an effort to do so. If it's an effort, that shows that you don't. That's toleration. I just abominate that word, don't you? Tolerate? Don't ever use that word in connection with fellow Christians. I've heard people say that. I read an article the other day in one of the leading magazines that says Christians ought to learn to tolerate each other. That's awful. Tolerate means that you hold your nose. You know, you just put up with them. That isn't the way God wants us to do. But I don't believe that you can really love fellow Christians. You can love some that you don't see very often. You can love some that you don't know very well. but to really love all of God's children. This is a mark of a true child of God. Now the Lord has given us a spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father. You don't have to tell any new Christian that he is God's child. Some years ago in Colorado Springs, I was having some special meetings and a young cowboy He was a little older than myself, but probably then, still quite young, came into the meetings, and he stayed behind. And he said, Mr. He said, I'd like to be a Christian. But he said, I don't know anything about it. So I said, well, let's go in this room here, and we'll sit down with the Bible and see how I can help you. So we spent quite a little time in that. He really didn't know anything about the Bible. He didn't know anything about it. being a child of God, but he wanted to know, and he knew he was a sinner. So he was pretty well along in that way. And after we'd read the scriptures together, he says, well, I get it. He says, I'm just supposed to take him for my Savior. I said, now you've got the idea. Well, he said, I'm ready right now. And he stood out of his chair. I guess he thought the thing to do was to get on your knees. And so I said, all right, now I'm going to thank God for the Lord Jesus and I'm going to thank him for dying in my place because I've accepted him if you want to do that if you've accepted him you can do so but I'm not going to put words into your mouth you know I mean it's up to you if you want to take the Lord for your Savior so I thank the Lord very simply when I got through there was a long silence and I looked over and he was he was trying to get his fingers right I want to get him just fixed right he thought supposed to do this you know and he had his eyes squinted tight Finally got his fingers all fixed and he says, Father, when he opened his eyes and looked around, you know, I had mine kind of peeked a little toward him so I could see what he's doing. He looked all around and he shot his eyes again. He says, It sure is good to call you Father. Who told him to say that? Nobody. But the Holy Spirit. We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. You don't have to teach a young believer to call God his Father. That's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Think of all that it means to be in God's family. For one thing, it means that we have his love, unchanging love. For another thing, it means that we have his possessions. If we are children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Have you ever been an heir? Have you ever received an inheritance? I recommend it. It's a real good feeling. I haven't received very much of an inheritance. One time all I got was an old quilt. The lady left me a hundred dollars, but her brother broke the will, and he said, let him keep the quilt. And I felt like saying, let him keep the quilt. I wasn't even married, and all I could do was put it over the radiator of the old Model A that I was driving. But anyway, I accepted the quilt. That was an inheritance. I appreciated it more later on when I began to realize that the old lady had made this by hand and she'd wanted me to have it. She'd put my name on it. Then another time I got an inheritance of four hundred and seventy-five dollars. Those were the only two inheritances that I ever got. But they both made me feel glad. I was glad that somebody put my name in their will. I have my name in God's will. And so have you. And it's not for any quilt. Or a measly four hundred and seventy-five dollars. Do you realize how rich you are, brother and sister? Do you realize how rich you are? Don't ever say you're poor. Don't ever make a poor mouth, as the Scots people say. Don't ever try to make out that you're you you're you don't have very much why we have the best of it the best of two worlds godliness have promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come that's what we have we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ you never think of the Lord Jesus as being poor now do you though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich. Of course he's rich. He's rich now in the glory. And we're told in Ephesians that he has blessed us according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Well, there are many other blessings, and I can't go into this in detail, but I just want to think now for the last ten minutes about what it means to be brothers together in the local church. I think it is wonderful what he says in the second chapter of Hebrews and verse eleven that the Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. Everybody has what they call a shirt-tail relation. If you don't know what that is, you can imagine. Everybody has somebody in his family that he's not too proud about. One man said he was afraid to go very far back in his family tree for fear that he'd find a rope over a limb. And you know, sometimes we can look back into our ancestries and not be too proud about them. And everyone has some relatives that they're just not too proud of. You and I are brothers to all of God's children. Oh, that isn't any startling statement, is it? Well, it's one worth thinking about. because God expects us to love all our brothers. In fact, in First John chapter three and verse fourteen, it says, We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. This is unnatural. Now, I don't believe, I know some people have objected to this, but you think it over anyway before you have me shot at sunrise. I don't believe that God really expects us to like each other. I don't even like me. Don't expect me to like you. There are lots of things about us that are not very likable, but you can love someone without liking them. Now, that's real. That's true. You can love someone without being satisfied with all of their features. Hasn't every girl taken something less than she hoped for? That dashing knight in shining armor come riding up on a white steed, and she gets a broken-down old Ford. Hasn't every girl settled for less than she hoped for? And, incidentally, every fellow, just in case you girls would be conceited. Every person who marries is expected to say for better or for worse. And it may be worse than you think. It may be better than you think. But you take that person for better or for worse. You and I are in the family of God with all other Christians for better or for worse. Do you love every Christian? Is your heart big enough to take in every believer? Let me tell you a little story. Some years ago I wanted to start a work in Pueblo. We have a nice assembly there now. But at the time there was nothing, and I went down there and had some tent meetings, and then I had some meetings in a building, and I had some Bible studies all during the winter, and the next summer we began to remember the Lord together. When I was getting ready to go down there, I said to a lady who lived in our town, I said, you used to live in Pueblo, that's forty-two miles south of Colorado Springs. Yes, she said, My husband and I lived there. He was in coal mining business. And I said, well, now, do you know any Christians in Pueblo? Pueblo was, at that time, eighty thousand people. Well, she said, no, there are only two Christians left in Pueblo, one old man and his wife. Oh, brother, I said, it's time somebody went to Pueblo. Now, what did she mean? Well, she meant people that used to be in their own little fellowship when they lived down there. That's the Christians in Pueblo. Is it? No. When I got down there, I found a lot of Christians in Pueblo. And there are a lot of them I didn't find. Since that time, I've gotten acquainted with a number of others. There are many Christians in Pueblo. There are many Christians in Wichita. How big is your heart? Do you think when you pray for the Christians, you just shut your eyes and you look around over this room, That isn't enough. God wants you to love all the children of God. He would like to see them all together. And so would you. That may never be, but you ought to love them. You remember in John chapter thirteen, the Lord Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another. Have you ever noticed what it says sixty years later in first John, turn with me to that please. First John, Chapter Two. The Lord Jesus said these things when he was here on this earth. John didn't write them down until about the year ninety to ninety-five. And he wrote the Gospel of John, then he wrote the first, second, third epistles, and then the book of the Revelation. That is, the Spirit of God led him to write them. Look at First John chapter two, and this is written now some sixty years, at least, after the Lord Jesus said, A new commandment, I write unto you that you love one another. Verse seven of the second chapter of First John. Brethren, not a nice term. That's our word tonight. We saw that the church is like a building. We saw that the church is like a garden. Now we're seeing that the church is like a brotherhood. The local church of believers. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. That is from the beginning of the Lord's ministry. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you. Now, what new commandment is this? Well, he goes on to say that it is the same commandment as the old commandment. In other words, he is saying, I write the old commandment that you heard from the Lord Jesus. But I write a new commandment because it's new to you. See, these people weren't here when the Lord Jesus was here. John was an old, old man. He remembered seeing the Lord Jesus. But the people to whom he was writing in his first epistle hadn't seen the Lord Jesus, probably none of them had seen him. But this new commandment is very real to them. And so he said, the same thing, which thing is true in him and in you? Is it true in him? Did the Lord really love his own? Yes, he did. John thirteen and one says, Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. It's true in him. Is it true in you? Yes, it's true in you. Why is it true in you? Because the darkness is now passing. That's a revised reading. Because the darkness is now passing. And the true light, that's the Lord Jesus himself, now shines. How is it that you and I love fellow Christians? Because the true light now shines. Not only has the Lord shown into our hearts, Not only has he given this of his Holy Spirit, but he enables us to love our fellow Christians. Now, this is not only a proof of our reality, and with this I'm going to have to close, the love of brother, the realization that we are brothers together in a local assembly of believers precludes, shuts out any mistreatment. of any Christian. If you can mistreat another Christian, you don't really believe that he's your brother. At Corinth, they were going to law against the brother, and Paul said, that's wrong, and you stop it. At Corinth, a man was stealing his father's second wife. And Paul said through the writing of, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that's wrong, and you stop it. They were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper, if you can imagine that. And Paul said, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, that's wrong, and you stop it. They were doing things to each other that ought not to be done to brothers in the same family. I treated my brothers better than any of the kids in school. They thought I treated them badly enough, but I was the oldest. I had some privileges, you know. I did treat my brothers a little rough sometimes, but I didn't let anybody else do it. And that was pretty good. I tried to treat my brothers right because they were my brothers and my only sister. Do you treat your brother and right? You really are brothers in the family of God. It precludes any wrongdoing. It precludes any suspicion. Be pitiful. Be courteous. That's what Peter said to the brothers. Be pitiful. If you were pitiful, you wouldn't take offense. And if you were courteous, you wouldn't give offense. All right? Why do we offend other people? Because we're not very courteous. We're more courteous to strangers than we are to our own family. Men are more courteous to their neighbors than they are to their own wives. Wives are more courteous to visitors than they are to their own husbands. Children are more courteous to kids that they only meet casually in school than they are to their own parents. Now we ought to be courteous and we ought to be pitiful. We ought not to take offense. We ought not to hold grudges. We ought not to have ill feelings toward each other. These things are wrong. Mr. Leonard Sheldrake told us a little story many years ago. He said that there was a man up in Canada who decided to go into the city quite some distance and he had to go up over a mountain and down through a valley and up over another small mountain and then down into the city. And he took a gun with him because it was wild country. It was way back in the frontier. And when he came down this mountain, there was a haze in the valley lying in the valley. And he couldn't see to the bottom of the valley, but he could see a form, something moving in the path over on the mountain opposite, across the haze. He could see it come down, and he strained his eyes to see. Is that a bear? And then he thought, well, I'll get this rifle on the ready. In case I meet him down there in that haze, I better be ready. It looks like a bear. But then when he got down, just as the object was about to disappear into the haze, he realized it wasn't a bear. It was a man. Well, he thought, who can that be? Nobody should be out here coming this way. Mine is the only house out in this direction. It shouldn't be. A man shouldn't be. He's probably someone on the prowl. He's probably coming to rob me, so I'll keep my gun caught. I'll still keep it ready. And then he came down into the valley underneath the haze, and he saw the object coming. He was all ready. And when the object got close enough, he saw it was his brother. How wonderful had God kept him pulling that trigger. If you got close enough to your brother, you would know that he's your brother. If you get close enough to those who are the children of God, you would recognize them as members of the family. If there's any ill feeling in any of our hearts toward any Christian, let's get rid of it. We are brothers. in the family of God. We are brothers in the local church, and this is a great brotherhood. Let's pray. Father, we thank thee that thou, by thy great grace, brought us into thy family. We acknowledge once again that it is a wonderful privilege to be able to call thee Father. Now we ask Father for thy blessing on our brothers and sisters, those who are present, all of those throughout this city and this great state and this nation and throughout the world. We pray our Father for our brothers and sisters that are behind the iron curtain, the bamboo curtains or some other curtains, those who do not have the liberties that we have. We pray for our brothers and sisters who are ill. We pray for our brothers and sisters who are in poverty. We pray our Father for all of that children who are out of touch with thee. We ask that thou give us hearts big enough to take in the whole family of God. Now we ask for thy blessing. Thou has given us a good time together. We thank thee for the truths that have been brought out. Help us, Lord, not to forget them. We ask for thy blessings we separate. Thy care for any who has still to go on their way home. Thy protection and care for each of us. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.